Discipline, No Money, and a Job

So today has been a pretty crazy day for me, but hey I'm used to crazy so what's new right?!  Well today started like every other day, get to school chit chat, go do metal detector duty and head back to the classroom.  

Then we headed to the counselors room to get the names of a few students who need accomodations in the classroom.  Well apparently this lady has a staph infection and when I looked up on my phone what it was and everything about it, I got a little freaked out now and have now become a germ a phobe and I am completely paranoid about contracting this disease here.

So after that freaky little meeting my adviser from Aldine came to meet with my teacher and I about my student teaching experience.

Good News: I know all of the days she will be coming to observe me and know when I should be starting to take over the class and then observe other classes.

Bad News:  I still do not know who my St. Cloud State advisor is or what I need to be doing as far as handing in stuff and reporting to the advisor in which I do not know yet.  Also I was not given the correct amount of evaluation sheets for my teachers and advisors to complete.  Oh and my Aldine advisor gave me the name and e-mail of the only lady she is in contact with from St. Cloud State so I could ask her about all of these problems and guess what?!!  I get an instant e-mail saying she is gone until wednesday... Story of my life.

Well at least after that I was able to eat with the teachers and bs a bit.  But then came the day of classes and man today was a constant disciplining day.  Every class had quite a few students who were disruptive and were constantly having to be talked to in the hall or writing their names in the "Notebook."  I learned a lot about how to handle situations today for sure.  By the time I am done at this place I should be a pro at classroom management for intermediate and elementary school!

The awesome thing though, is that my teacher is a lot like me in wanting to be there for the kids.  She can read their needs just like I can do and knows exactly how to handle them.  She knows how to keep control and discipline in a loving way and all of the kids love her because of it.  I am so blessed to be able to have my student teaching experience with her, with someone who has the same views and values as I do in teaching.  I am so excited to learn from her!

One incident to day that I feel like I should share at least for all of you soon to be teachers is:

This boy kept acting up on class, talking out of turn, playing around with materials when told not too, and throwing things around the classroom.  Well Mrs. Quiroz sent him outside the door and then he continued being disruptive by making faces in the window and goofing off.  After Mrs. Q finished demonstrating the project for the students she went outside and laid into Pedro.

"Is this your classroom?!"
"No"
"No it's not your classroom.  This is my classroom and I can not have people disrupting my classroom while others are trying to participate and learn!"
"Why do you think you can disrupt my classroom?!"
"I don't know?"
"Yes you do. Why do you think you can disrupt my classroom?!"
"I don't know?"
"Are you disruptive in your other classes?"
"No... well just math... social studies... science and art."
"So four out of seven classes your disruptive in, why is that?"
"Because we don't do anything fun."
"Well if we will be doing more fun things but we can't if we get disrupted all of the time.  So tell me what I can do to help you not be disruptive in my class."
"I don't know."
"Do I need to give you a specific job for you to help me with, is that what you need to get the attention that you need?"
"No. I don't know"
"Well i will give you a few minutes to think about what you need so that this behavior can be changed."


And we left for about five minutes and came back.


"So what do we need to do fix this disrupting problem?"
"I don't know."
"Then why are you being disruptive?"
"I don't know... because I'm bad."
"You are not bad at all, you may make bad decisions but you are not bad.  Did someone tell you, you were bad?"


He nods his head


"Well you are not bad.  Do you want to have a job helping me?"
"Ya."
"What would you like to do?  Pick up the colored cards or attendence?"
"Attendance."
"Alright you are hired, even after making some bad decisions I am hiring you because I believe in second chances, but if you can't handle it you will be fired.  Got it?"
"Ya."  (a little smile comes across his face)
"Alright lets get back to class."

After that he was very good the rest of class.  Then after class in the courtyard some kids were not following directions and Mrs. Q yelled at to them to do what they were supposed to be doing.  One of the kids said something about her and guess who stepped in?!  The disruptive kid in Mrs. Q's class : )  He said to the kid "Hey don't say that thats my teacher."  It just shows how some loving discipline is a good thing.  These kids will respect you if you treat them like human beings with a heart, because everyone has a heart.

Even though it was a rowdy day I learned quite a bit and a little girl gave me a book today, because we had talked about how we liked reading on monday : )  Talk about melting my heart : ) I just love these kids so much!

As I was leaving the school another teacher pointed out a helicopter.
"What is it?" I asked my cooperating teacher.
"A police helicopter."
"Ah what are those for?"
"Well either they are looking for someone or for high speed chases, but she said she has heard the helicopter for a while so they are probably looking for someone.  Thats when we usually go in lock down mode and the helicopters will hover over the school."

I am definitely not in Minnesota anymore...

Well after a day like that I could have used some great news, but of course I should expect the least by now I don't know why I would ever think otherwise?!
I saw on the school website that my loans came in and my semester is paid for but I am not receiving as much as I had applied for?!  I am missing a whole entire loan, so now I am $500 short of making my full four months rent not to mention my cell phone bills for the four months that would have been covered, plus about 400 for gas and food.  Great!  So as of right now St. Cloud is on my ticked off list.

Thanks to Stephanie's cousin I was able to find Pier One.  I went there tonight to fill out my transfer paperwork.  I didn't really want to have to work a job since I am already gone from 7-5 everyday, but I know I wouldn't survive without one... Now I don't even know If I will be able to even survive with one...  I guess it will work itself out somehow.  It always does.  I made it this far on my own right?  What's another few bumps in the road?

First Day of Class

So monday was my first day of class, might I remind you that every person I have talked to has given me the oooo and ohhh every time I tell them where I'm going for my student teaching.  So little white girl from the country did not know what to expect.

To start off the day this small town girl parked in the front of the school and went to walk up to the front of the door just to be stopped by a lady
 "Can I help you?"
"Ummm ya today is my first day of student teaching is this not the door I'm supposed to go in to?"
"No usually the teachers park on the side of the building and walk in that way, this is for the walkers and the kids who get dropped off."

Awesome, ha I fail again...

Walking into the school I was instantly outside again, what is this?!  All of the classrooms were in seperate indoor rooms but the "hallways" were outdoor courtyards!!  Crazy!

I finally get to the right spot and a young gentlemen shows me to my room.  My cooperating teacher is from Iowa!  I instantly feel at home.

She introduces me to the other teachers throughout the day and come to find out many of the teachers are from the north and so nice : )  (Stephanie is the only white girl in the school she's at, so I was relieved!  I got home that night to tell her how my day was and how I wasn't the only white person in the school; "What are you kidding me!  I got poo thrown at me today!"  Ha ha oh how I love her)

Then at 8:00 we head down to a different courtyard to send kids through the metal detectors.  5&6th graders need to be sent through metal detectors! Wow this is all so new to me.  The school is run like the military it seemed.  Everyone has to wear uniforms.  They have to walk in single file lines, with their left foot on the black line in the courtyard and against the walls to and from the courtyards.  So every time they leave a classroom this is what goes on.  The flow of traffics always goes counter clockwise so if a kid forgets something they have to go all the way around the courtyard to come back.  And there is absolutely no talking in the courtyard to and from class until you are in the classroom and a teacher gives you permission to talk!!  Ha I would have been in trouble all of the time if I went to this school!!

After twenty minutes of this we head back to the classroom were we sat and chit chatted talked with other teachers, listened to some gossip and ate lunch.  Then at 11:10 is when the real fun began!

There were 6 classes from 11:10-4 and in each one I introduced my self to the kids, all fifth graders but different ages depending on if they were held back or not.

The most common questions they would ask me are:
How long did it take you to get here?  21 hours "Woah thats a long time!"
Is Minnesota cold?  Ha yes it gets to be negative degrees and the snow can sometimes get as high as this table!  "Woah!"
Do you have kids?  Ha ha no
How old are you? 22  "Wow your really young for a teacher."
Do you have a boyfriend?  No
My favorite conversation about this with these two little girls:
"Why not?"
 "Ahhhh because I did and right now I don't want one/haven't found the right one."
"But miss, don't you want to get married?"
"Yes someday but not right now."
"Poor lasito."
Not sure of the spelling but apparently means "I'm sorry."

Ha ha great now I have little kids feeling sorry for me because I'm single, thats just great.

My other favorite question is the kids asking if me and my teacher are sisters, because we are both white they think we are related : )

My favorite thing about the kids is that they always call you miss.  I think it's adorable!  Also they all love the attention and most of them have a great sense of humor. Of course I love them already : )

What saddens me is that many of them come from really bad home situations either it's abusive families, they are in foster care, moving from place to place, involved in gangs (yes apparently at this age they can be involved in gangs new to this small town white girl!) family members in and out of jail, parents selling drugs, parents selling their children's medication, parents getting sent to prison (a girl just today came into school off the bus and said to one of the teachers, "Miss I don't feel too good my mom just went to jail last night.")  Talk about heartbreaking.  And the saddest part is when it all carries over to the kids and its all they know and think that this behavior is normal.  In this 5th & 6th grade school some are involved in gangs, some have been caught for selling drugs, some for doing drugs, and many kids have a problem with stealing.

I feel like this is the place I am supposed to be.  Their is such a need for love and caring in this school, you can see it in the children's eyes.  I know I am only here for 6-7 weeks and the hurt in this place is overwhelming, but hopefully somehow somewhere I can bring a little light to these kids.  I hope I can bring something to them that they will remember when they leave the fifth grade and when life gets rougher to know that they are special and have a chance to be the person that they want to be and that their path isn't self determined.  I hope I can bring something like that to them, make some sort of difference somewhere in these hearts and minds.  I might never know or ever see it, but I hope it's there...

My Rockin' Sunday

Sunday morning I decided to try going to a church service that I looked up around the Houston area. The website said the services started at 9:30 and the next at 10:45.  So I headed to the 9:30 service and again my phone lead me on a wild goose chase!  After actually finding the church I noticed the sign said the service started at 10:45.  Great I fail again...  So instead of going to church I went back home and had an awesome warm delicious egg bake waiting for me to devour : )

Since I failed at attempting to go to church on my own me and Steph headed out with Andrea to her church.  And Oh my goodness was that place huge!!!!  It apparently ended up being the same church that my aunts cousin goes to and also Avalon, Sarah Kelley, and Jimmy Needham.  The music there was great and so was the sermon.  It as about breaking away from being in a hopeless rut.  Breaking away from what "normal" people consider to be "normal" because in all actuality "normal" is not working.  Stop being pinball people, being controlled by the crowd, clobbered by your circumstances, captured by your cravings and conforming to the culture and be someone different.  Because if you don't know what is important in your life, everyone else will decide for you.  Being different/crazy/weird/not normal works.  The crowd doesn't really care about you so why would you want to live like them?

Biggest church I have ever been too!

After church we got ready to head to The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion for a rock concert!

Chad (Steph's cousin) took us out to Stadia Grill, a sports bar and grill, for lunch.  I had an amazing burger with pickles, onions, gaucamole and the sweetest tasting bun ever!  Mmmm Mmmm good stuff!
After Chad took us to this frozen yogurt place that I think is the coolest thing ever created!  It is a frozen yogurt bar, there are like 10-15 different options of frozen yogurt flavors that you choose yourself and then every topping you can imagine to put on it and then you just weigh it at the end and pay for it.  I thought this was so cool and think it would also make Minnesota the coolest place ever if we had these all over!  This would definitely be able to replace my ice cream addiction.

After we were all filled up with some awesome food we headed over to our concert.  The line up:

PAPA ROACH

BUCKCHERRY

PUDDLE OF MUD

P.O.D

RED

CROSSFADE

DRIVE A

The weather couldn't have been more beautiful along with the stadium and grounds, and the music was awesome of course.

Beautiful sun shiny day : )

This little man was rockin out like crazy!  So cute!

The crowd kept growing and growing as the night went on.

Puddle of Mud



We were joking around saying we found the only cloud in Texas, went to take a picture of it and then looked back up....

                                                     and found that it had grown bigger...

                                                       and bigger!!  Ha what is going on?!

But who cares about that I bet you really want to hear some music!

My First Trip to the Ocean

I know what all of you are probably thinking "What you have never been to the ocean before?!"
Well as a matter of fact I haven't till about 12:00 today.  Steph mentioned on thursday that we should go to Galveston for the day on saturday.  This is where everyone has been telling me I should visit and plus I had never been to the ocean so I was all for it!!  

So we woke up this morning packed our bags and coolers and headed to Galveston.  Our drive was nice we drove through down town Houston and the view was beautiful.

                                    But once we got to Galveston it was even more beautiful!!

Then we finally came to a stop at Stuart Beach and I took my first steps into the Gulf of Mexico.  

While me and Steph were swimming all of a sudden something popped out of the water!  

"What was that?!"

"Omg there are fish flying out of the water!"

Steph-"No way, No I don't do fish.  If those things come closer I am out."

Ha I thought the flying fish were hilarious and was really wishing I would see one hit someone while in the water, but I didn't get to see anyone hit by a flying fish unfortunately.

So after swimming around a bit and laying out on the beach we decided to search for some friends.  On our search this is what we saw:

Colorful umbrellas, chairs and people.

                                                                   Some cracks

(While I was taking this picture Stephanie laughs, "Are you taking a picture of that?!"  Me- "Ha ha yup!"  "Ha ha sweet send it to me, I want to send it to my sister.")

And some nasty dead fish with guts hanging out.  Mmmm Yummy!

(A bbq we passed looked like it was cooking something strange we figured it was the other parts of these fish.)

After no luck of finding any friends, once again, we decided to head to the shop.   And guess what we found here?!  Some fun friends called Skim Board and his brother named Boogie Board.

So me and Steph decided to try out our skills with our new friends.  All I got was a few good runs, a big swollen knee and some salt water in my eyes, but man did we have fun doing it!!

Before heading back home we stopped to get some food at the Golden Corral and let me tell you, that place sure is Golden!!   I had never ate their before but Stephanie had.  It's a huge buffet with amazingly good food!  I ate so much that I thought my stomach would literally burst.  I even asked Stephanie if she thought you could die from eating to much, cause I thought I was going too! 

I feel that every Old Country Buffet should be replaced by the Golden Corral and then Minnesota would become that much better.  

So, my first ocean experience was great!   I did get a swollen bruised knee and some new red skin, but at least I didn't get bitten by a shark!!

Steph and Ashley's Search for a Hole in the Wall Hang Out

After Stephanie got home from teaching thursday we decided we wanted to go exploring.  Our mission: to find a hole in the wall kind of place we can go to after work and hang out.  Somewhere where they will know us by name and we will become locals.  Great idea right?!

So we ventured a few blocks down and found Arcos Mexican Restaurant.
Well we didn't really meet anyone because the place was dead and I could not even understand our server because he didn't speak very good English. Thank God Stephanie could understand him!

We had a good time just chatting between ourselves talking about life and how we could find some people to befriend.  Ha do we sound desperate or what?!

Well then we both had to go to the bathroom.  Stephanie comes out laughing and tells me to head in and while peeing this is what I see...

Well, I think we found our hole in the wall kind of place, if only I could understand the workers!

My Thursday Venture

So Thursday I decided to go find the Pier One I was transferring to and check in with everyone.  So I headed out with my I-phone gps confident as ever.   I turned out onto the interstate I came on and headed north to pier one.  Well truth is I never made it...  why?  

Because I pretty much had to back track like 7 exits, go around to crazy loopty loops with five lanes of cars driving ten miles over the speed limit.  Then the road I thought I should stay on I left because my phone told me too and when I did, I passed what it said was my destination even though I never saw the pier one once.  Im assuming it was in the mall I passed but I decided if I have to go through that much of a hassel just to work an average of 4 hrs at a time and get paid $8.00 an hour that it is definitely not worth it!

So this girl ventured around home looking for a serving job which even though sounds simple definitely is not that simple!  I tell ya texans are crazy drivers, so if you want to survive you gotta be crazy too!  I made it to three different restaurants. I filled out an application at the Potatoe Patch, walked into red lobster but they weren't hiring, then lastly I decided to try Chili's and they did interviews from 2-4 that day.  Since I needed to be home for the cable guy I decided I needed to take a break for the day.

As soon as I laid down on the couch I passed out.  Man this city driving is hard work and I'm not even in Down town Houston!!  I can only imagine what that will be like.

Around 3 I headed back to Chili's to fill out an application and guess what?!!

I have an interview with James at 3!
Wish me luck because I really don't want to have to try and find Pier One again!

My family

Breakfast tacos

Right away when I talked to Andrea over the phone about renting a room from her I knew I would be in good hands.   When I finally got to Houston and met her I couldn't have been more right.  She greeted me with a hug (which I absolutely love!) and took me inside to relax and fed me some amazing cilantro pasta with chicken and garlic bread mmmmm Yum!  So far she has made us chili cheese dogs, and amazing breakfast tacos and let me tell you she is a great cook!  I am so lucky to be living here under her roof.

Mike is Andrea's boyfriend who works on installing and fixing automatic doors all over the place.  Just like Andrea he has a heart of gold and is super nice.

April is Andrea's daughter.  She is 21 and goes to a community college for nursing and also works at American Eagle in the mall.

Stephanie is the other student teacher living here and I am so glad she is!  She is from around Toledo, Ohio and her content area is special Ed.  She is very independent, outgoing, very nice and has a great sense of humor!  We hit it off the very first full day of me living here.

Wednesday she decided to show me where all the stores were and we went shopping together.  On our little adventure we found a TJ Max.  I had to go there because one whole side of my purse fell apart.  Just my luck right?  So we are looking around for purses and all of a sudden this lady rushes by with a cart and all of a sudden stephanie is tugged along, purse hooked on the lady's cloth hangers.
"Ah you caught me!"
"Oh sorry."  And the lady rushes off.

So we continue looking for purses and after a long search I finally find one and we head to the line.
All of a sudden a lady comes rushing up right next to me and Steph pretty much plowing us over with her cart.  Looking at Steph I had to turn away cause I was going to bust out laughing.  After about five minutes the lady finally asks are you two in line?
"(Ah no we just thought it would be fun to stand with all of these other people here) Yes."

So we check out and walk to the car and start backing out when a lady cuts us off.
"She is outta control!  First she hooks my purse.."
Me "Ha Ha woah wait that was the same lady all three times?!"
Steph "Ya that lady is outta control!"

And this was the start of our new adventures as friends : )

After our great shopping venture we met up with Steph's cousin, who doesn't live too far from our home,  and he took us to Gringo's for dinner.
This is a great Mexican restaurant by the way!
We both had pollo loco which Mike informed me is pronounced Poyo so that way I didn't look stupid to our waiter ; ) Thanks mike!   And a star spangled rita!  And let me tell you everything in Texas is bigger, browner and stronger.  Keep that in mind if you ever come down this way.

So all in all my first day was awesome!

My New Home

Front Yard

I bet all of you are just dying to see where I'm living!  So I didn't really know what to expect before I came down here.  It's not like looking for apartments online or anything where you can see pictures of the place and rooms etc.  Well when I got here I got more than I could have imagined!  It is so beautiful and cozy and I love it!








                            

Kitchen

Living Room/Loft

Stairs

Living Room

My Bathroom

My Bathroom

My Room

The Backyard

Backyard

Back of House

Willis

So before I tell you about my new home and family I had to do a little blerb about my nickname Willis, since it seems to follow me every where I travel.  

You are probably wondering how in the world did I get nicknamed Willis?  Well sit back and relax and I'll fill you in on the story...

So, I used to work at Mongo's grill, until I headed down to Houston.  There was another girl that worked at  mongos at the time named Ashley too, go figure more than one Ashley in the same area, I know right so unusual!! ha

So Ashley and this other girl Meggie were talking about what they should nickname me so nobody would get mixed up.
Ashley pipes up, "Willis!'
"Ah, why Willis?" Meggie replied.
"Because thats her last name!"
Meggie busts out laughing, "Her last name is Wilson."

Ha and since they thought it was funny they decided to knight me with the name Willis.  This name has stuck ever since, even my managers and one of my managers kids calls me Willis.

So why am I talking about this now?  Well when we went to the madeline islands earlier this summer we drove by a Willis road which I thought was hilarious! So on the way back I made my parents stop so I could take a picture with the sign.  Well when I was almost to Houston last night guess what happened?!

                                                        I drove through a Willis, Texas!

And that my friends is the story of my name and why I needed to share this little tidbit.

Off to Houston

At 8:20 this morning this small town girl left for the big city of Houston, Texas.  Only an eight hour drive this time, but little did she know what was in store for her in Texas...

Before leaving the Hotel she walked down to grab some breakfast before heading out on her second part of the journey.  She was happily greeted by some phone line repair workers, "Good Morning!"
They chatted for a while just to find that they were all from Houston the big city she was headed to!

"So what brings you down this way", one of them asked.  She replied with, "For my student teaching."
Because she grew up in a small town and wanted to get some of the experience of the inner city while she was with someone that way wherever else she went it would be easier on her own.

They asked what area and when she told them "Aldine" and all she heard was an Ooooo.
"Ha ya I know it's kind of a rough place."
"Well are you teaching elementary or high school?" they asked.
"I will be teaching 5 grade first and then High school."

Another round of Ooooo's  (Awesome! ha)

"Well some schools aren't that bad."
"I will be teaching at McArthur high school."

Last round of Ooooo's ha ha and a comment "Well you can only go up from there."  (Ha Ha perfect)

"Well you should probably get some mase and even a taser.  Actually ha they probably give you a whole kit like that when you walk in (chuckles)."

"Ha we should probably stop talking now.  No you will do fine they'll like you."  (ha I sure hope so!!)

Before leaving she asked if they had any advise for her before she left.
"Ya, be safe."
"Take some self defense classes."
"Don't let them give you shit."

And then off she went.

On her drive down to Houston this is what she experienced:

Interesting Sights:
*An airport entrance made out of white metal wheel spokes
*A whole entire yard covered in lawn mowers, so much you couldn't see the grass!
*Cowboys rounding up cows in the middle of the city!!  Ha it was actually statues but it totally got me at first.
* She drove by Eisenhower's birth place in Denison, Texas and saw a giant statue of his face

Some self observations: Pretty much every church is baptist and there are plenty of "Good" Junk yards everywhere you go.

Poorest town she drove through:  Boynton
Its so sad to see all of the houses and stores built out of scrap wood and metal...

Favorite state to drive through:  Oklahoma

This state had such beautiful hills/mountains, trees and water.  It was so interesting to look at while driving through it!

Most beautiful town she drove through:  Mcalester
This town was so clean.  It had such beautiful big houses, hills/mountains, and greenery.

Coolest town name she drove through: Tushka





       Then driving through Texas it happened!!

The a/c went out...
Great what to do now?
So she opened her window, only to find it was way worse opening the window than keeping it closed.
But then came a smell.  Was it the smell of Texas or her car?  Who knows, so she kept on driving.  But the smell stayed with her and she decided to stop for some gas.  She popped the hood to check out what was going on and one of the pullies on her belt was smoking...Awesome.

So now she is wasting three hours at Mcdonalds in Van Alstyne, Texas waiting for her a/c compressor, that seized up, to be replaced and a/c charged before continuing her journey to her new home in Houston.  Just eating some food, surfing the internet and watching this cute grandpa play with his grandson
 : ) Adorable!

Quote from my auto man Troy:  "You are sure handling this well."
Me: "Ha ha I'm so used to this sort of thing all I can do is laugh about it lol."

Ha ha what and adventure this is turning out to be.

The Start of a New Journey

At 8:00 this morning this small town girl started the drive to the big city of Houston, Texas.  Her first destination was the Sleep Inn in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  After 11 hours of driving she finally made it. This is what she experienced on her drive:

States she drove through: Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma.

Music she listened too: Kid Kudi, Adele (which does not have an unlikeable song on it), Christina Perri, Jackie Jacob's awesome uplifting music mix, the Soul Surfer sound track (which is great by the way),a random mix of music (mine of course), and Alabama and Johnny Cash whom I love dearly! Plus a mix of country on my I-pod (fitting of course.

Interesting Encounters:  Starting out right away in the morning while stopped at the light in Rogers Ashley feels her car jerk.  She looks up thinking she some how killed her car (since it's a manual) only to find that it wasn't that but the lady behind her tapped her rear bumper! Awesome. But she didn't really want to deal with it so she stayed in her car and went about her journey.  Shhhh don't tell her dad she did that!  

Then while getting gas somewhere in oklahoma she met an old oklahoma man.  He asked about Minnesota and told her about how his dad, his brothers and him would go on fishing trips to Minnesota and he actually knew where St. Cloud was!!  He told her not to pick up any hitch hikers and then noticed she had no space in her car anyway, so he wished her good luck and safe travels and on her way she went.  What a nice man!

Interesting sights:  

*A barn casino in Iowa

*A vast field of oil pumps in Oklahoma (I have never ever seen this in real life before!)

*This bridge in Kansas

Favorite State she drove through: Missouri!  Gorgeous rolling hills, and fields and so many beautiful green trees!

Coolest Town name she drove through: Talala

Dinner she ate after getting to the hotel: Chicken alfredo and a salad with honey mustard dressing from Mazzios Italian Eatery.  Mmmmm yummy!!












Hotel: Sleep Inn in Tulsa Oklahoma