English Field Trip

This week we took the high school English students on a field trip to our downtown auditorium. We saw a theatre company present five short stories which included:

"The Fall of the House of Usher"

"The Ransom of Red Chief"

"The Open Window"

"The Dangerous Game"

"The Lady or the Tiger"

We have studied most of these stories in English class and so it was so much fun for the students to see the stories come alive on stage. I was so pleased when even some of the guys in my class who consider themselves "Red Necks" came up to me and said, "that was pretty cool, Mrs. Walker." I'm trying to bring culture and appreciate for classical literature into their lives!! Maybe we made some headway this week!!

After the play we went to their favorite restaurant -- Burger King!!!

What fun to do something different from the ordinary day of school.

These are several of my "drama girls" who loved the plays!!

Several of the guys who weren't quite sure they wanted to go see a play!!

It wasn't as bad as they thought after all. As you can tell, they are dramatic as well!!

More Pictures From Last Weekend

We went out for my early birthday dinner on Saturday night!!

Wow!! What a cute couple!! What fun we had shopping and dining!

Double date dinner at "The Food Works"!! Yummy food!! Classy atmosphere!!

Then we wrapped up the evening at Remembrandts, our favorite

coffee shop in the Bluff View Art District.

Here are Pop and I having a memorable father-daughter time!!

My Parents Have Arrived!

We were so happy for my parents to arrive this afternoon!! They have had a week of business travels in Texas, Mississippi and Alabama. I'm so thankful their schedule allowed them to spend a few days with us. Of course, we had much to catch up on upon arrival and had the coffee pot brewing immediately. Don't my mom and I look like sisters??:) I love her new hairstyle!

Then, of course, we had to eat dinner. I made another meal!! Get it down in the record books, I haven't cooked such "big" meals since school started. My dad isn't really mad; I don't think he was ready for the camera to flash!!:) We dined on rump roast and all of the fixings. Then we sat and talked forever. So much fun!!

Finally we all ended up in the office, including Essie. I showed them my blog, my Facebook friends, etc. When Pop got on and started to check his sites, Essie was mesmerized. This is where she sits while I do my computer work. I couldn't believe she stayed when he started working. I told Mom she knows they are family. She hides when everyone else comes! Well, we are all off to bed to prepare for our big day of shopping tomorrow!! Good night!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We started our day at Krispy Kreme!! This was Brian's idea. They have delicious hot doughnuts. I have been so faithful to my eating plan all these many months that it was fun to splurge today!! Then we took our doughnuts to Starbucks and read the paper!! Ah, the joys of having the day off!

Our friend Sheila came for lunch around noon. I cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner all by myself!! Everyone said it was really good. We had a lot more food than is shown in the picture. I made turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, seven-layer salad, rolls, coffee and Sheila brought pumpkin and apple pies. Whew!! We had lots left over!!

Then we relaxed in the living room sipping coffee and eating pumpkin pie. Finally we took a long walk and reminisced about past Thanksgivings. God has been so good to us! We have so much for which to be thankful!!

Hope you have had a good day as well!! Happy Thanksgiving from the Walkers!!

I have a new camera!!

Well, I am back for real now. Although things have calmed down the last few weeks, I knew I was getting my camera soon and wanted to wait to get up and publishing again with pictures to illustrate! Sunday Best Buy had a fantastic deal on just the camera I wanted. I dropped everything, drove to the store and bought my camera. Now I'm in business. I am updating my some of my house pictures and will have pictures of Thanksgiving this weekend. My parents are coming on Friday!! They have been in Dallas all week, and it was too much for my mom with her back problems to drive straight through. We are excited to see them on
Friday!!

Here are some pictures from the spring that were stuck on my memory card when I dropped my camera at AACS Nationals at Bob Jones. I guess if there is a time to drop the camera and a break it, it should not be after the first time you win first place!! But, alas, that is what happened!! I'll try to comment about the pictures. Here they are:

Leimu and Kimberly won first place in duet acting and performed "Peter Pan" in the final assembly on Thursday night. It was really a crowning moment. I participated in AACS nationals while in high school; I even won second place in dramatic interp as a senior. While I have taken numerous students throughout the years to compete, this was the first time I have had students win first place. I was so proud of the girls. They were fabulous!

My Reader's Theater group also competed at nationals with a delightful presentation entitled "Three Sideways Stories from Wayside School." They were adorable and wowed the judges and audiences all the way to the final round. I told them they reminded me of the team in "Facing the Giants." Here we were a little school from Tennessee that no one had ever heard of and they held their own and competed with the "Big Dogs." They were great as well. They came in 5th and were beaten by the team from Killian Hill coached by a good friend of mine. I didn't mind losing to such a fantastic act--Riki Tiki Tavi.