A mountain and pug pot luck

James and I have been lucky that we've been able to do some sight seeing in the area.  This past weekend we went to Mount Charleston.  It is about forty-five minutes away from Las Vegas and about twenty degrees cooler.  Not having any real plan in mind we just drove up there to see what it was about.  When we pulled onto the road that leads you into Mount Charleston it says "No gas on mountain".  We were on just below half a tank of gas so we knew we couldn't do to much exploring.  We rode there with the top down and it was so beautiful.  When we started out at our place it was 104 degrees and when we got Mount Charleston it was about 78 degrees!  There was not really that much to get into since we didn't know where we were going and didn't want to run out of gas, but it was so beautiful!  Here are some pics from our trip.

This one looks like fall!

We had a great time taking the mini trip up the mountain!  That evening James found a pug club that is located in the Las Vegas area.  They just so happened to be having a pug party on Sunday.  So after I went into school for a little bit to get set up for the week we headed to a pug party. There were so many pugs there it was great fun to see them all together!  They kept trying to get a count on the pugs the best they could do was about 36.  Thirty-six pugs snorting, panting, and trotting around was funny to experience.  One pug named Elvis looked so much like Snots.  In the car on the way home I asked James....we did bring the right pug home, right?

 

Here are a few pics from the pug party!  These don't even

The yard had a fire hydrant, tunnels and two little pools for the pups to play in.

A few friends in the kitchen.

A few in the living room.  This doesn't even do the event justice, there were so many pugs there to play with!

A little swim.

Elvis and Evita

This guys name was Butters.  He made me miss my buddy Cooper back in Tennessee.

We weren't biased Frenchies could come to the party too!

Just a few pugs.

This was Snots' look alike Elvis

Elvis hiding!

Snots near the pool.  He wouldn't go in it he would just drink from it.  I put him into the other pool.  He stood there frozen with his paws spread out like "What the heck is this!?!?!"

We had so much fun!

These were pics of Snots 10 minutes after we got home!

 

He was worn out!  Have a great week everyone!

 

Love J + K

 

Red Rock Hiking

August turned out to be a fun filled and work packed month.  Setting up my classroom in one week and starting back to school was so exciting but made going to bed at seven o'clock a necessity.  After my first week working at my brand new school I had made many new friends!  There are some people that you meet and you instantly click with.  Melissa was this person for me.  She was a fresh and friendly face in Nevada that made this strange new place feel a little more like home.  She took me hiking at Red Rock National Park the first weekend we met.  Now I am not what you would call the avid hiker.  I sometimes tend to be a little clumsy.  Melissa was so patient with me and she was a wealth of knowledge about our surroundings. 

Kim (also a fellow teacher) and her three daughters came along.  They kept me safe the whole time because if they saw a living "thing" they would chase after it to catch it.  This would usually make it go away from me, I was very happy!

This is the water bed. When it rains in Las Vegas the ground is so hard that the water doesn't get absorbed.  This area turns into a little river when the rains come.  They also have channels throughout the city that do the same thing.  This however doesn't stop all the flooding that can occur. 

  Just turn around....don't drown.

The Indians who originally went through this area used the rocks as shelter.

You can see some of their drawings on this wall.  A few years ago some teenagers came through the park and vandalized some of the petroglyphs.  They ended up doing jail time.

A huge bug spider thing.  This was on ultra zoom because I wouldn't get close to it!

A few days before we went hiking there was a huge rainstorm on our side of town. The rain lasted almost the whole day which from what I observed was very rare.  Our hike took us up to a waterfall area.  Normally the area would only have a little trickle coming down but the rain made a small pool of water and a nice waterfall.  It felt so good going into the water!

We played in the pool of water for a good half an hour.  There were tadpoles and frogs in the water. 

Kim and I

We went behind the waterfall.

Self pic at waterfall.

So the area we went hiking in is actually a place that teachers can take field trips.  I am not sure I would be brave enough...Here are a few neat things Melissa taught me about the area.

This tiny creek houses an itty bitty little snail.  It only lives in a few places in the world and Red Rock National Park is one. 

This tree smells like butterscotch.  No joke!  I smelled it!

Our fearless leader at the butterscotch tree.

This rock is sick....that's what the dots are.  The ironization that is occurring in the rocks (that is why they are red) makes these marble like bubbles.  The Indian children would use them like marbles when they were going through here. 

There are two types of stone in the park, sandstone and limestone.  A thrust occurred long long ago causing the mixing of the two different types.

This was our view at the end!  It was an amazing trip and I cannot wait to go on more journeys with Melissa!!

 

 

A Brand New Classroom

Every year I spend about three weeks in my classroom before the students arrive to create my masterpiece.  This year...not so much.  I've spent the past two weeks trying to get all the papers that were required for me to be hired....there had to be close to 600 different steps in order for them to hire me. Well,  I went in on Monday afternoon to finally sign my contract.  The county herded almost sixty new hires into a room where we filled out a million page packet so that we could be shuffled down the hallway to get our new ID's taken! 

I am so proud of my ID.....can't tell can you?

 

Once I was officially hired I was allowed to get into my classroom.  Since it was almost 5 by the time I got done signing my papers and to my school, I only had time to get my keys Monday.

 

Tuesday came and went.  I worked in my classroom all morning and then had to go to a very exciting event for all the new hires.  My brain was filled with everything I needed to get done!

 

 

This how I left my room on Tuesday afternoon.  I pretty much spent the entire morning wandering around my room and moving things around.  I didn't get a lot accomplished.

 

Wednesday I had meetings all morning with the other teachers in the school.  It was so exciting to get to meet the other teachers!  I mean James and I don't know anyone here so it was nice to get to see other people.  Wednesday afternoon we got classroom time.  I need to mention that it rained the entire day.  I am not talking about a little sprinkle.....I mean it RAINED!!  The news said that it rained more Wednesday than it had in the last 13 months combined!  So all this rained cause some flash flooding and power outages.  The power outages included our school but I kept on working through it (by the way, no air in August in Las Vegas stinks!)  Here is how I left my classroom on Wednesday.  James went with me to pick up some material for my bulletin boards and some other things I needed. 

Oh goodness it was a mess in the dark!!

 

I found these in my room!  Who needs this much tape? I also found three staplers!

This is what it looked like when I left!

Dying clothespins for my room (and my bucket list)

Pink dye.

 

I will post more pictures when my room is all done!  I cannot wait to hang up the new material I got for my bulletin board! 

 

Love,

J + K

 

 

Red Solo Cup

So this post has taken me a little while to post.  I have been super busy over the past week getting my TB test and signing and acquiring a million papers so that I could sign my contract.  James and I live really close to Red Rock Casino so everyday as we were driving around we saw that none other than Toby Keith would be performing at their outdoor amphitheater.  So we decided that we should get tickets, even though we never went to a single country music concert together while we were living in Nashville.  The night of the concert started out so wonderful...it was only about 106 degrees.  There were two opening shows before Toby but we only made it through the first before the rain came in.  Yes I said rain in Las Vegas. 

 

On the tickets it said rain or shine so I was very disappointed when they started to cover up all the stage when it started to sprinkle.  They made the entire arena evacuate once it started to lightning.  So all the concert goers moved inside and waited for them to announce that the show would go on.

As you can see I was very very sad!

 

Well almost two hours later they started the concert!  It was amazing and I was so glad James was willing to wait it out with me!

 

Love,
J + K