Schlitterbahn Galveston

I took Monday and Tuesday off this week. I had planned to take my Girl Scout troop on Monday to Schlitterbahn Galveston, and on Tuesday I had planned to rest. My four day weekend was good.

Sunday night, Corinne and I packed sandwiches, drinks, fruit, etc to take with us to Schlitterbahn. We got the ice chest ready, packed a bag of extra clothes, and I had to pack in my bag things like my medication, the troop's binder (which has their medical forms, permission slips, etc.), and extras like a book and wallet.

Mrs. H (Karen) picked us up. She also went by to pick up another girl in our troop, Stephanie, and she had her daughter, Kierstan. The five of us headed for Galveston. The concern was that the AC was not working right. Karen took her van to the shop, but they wanted a lot for fixing a valve. So, she decided to wait and save up and do it later. What it was doing was the AC would behave fine, then suddenly it would cut out. It did it once during our trip, but it wasn't too bad.

I hadn't been to Galveston since before the hurricane. I think the last time I was in Galveston was in April, 2008 when we camped at Galveston Island State Park. One of the first things I noticed was the new bridge onto Galveston Island. The old bridge was only three narrow lanes, and everytime we went over that bridge, I felt like if a gust of wind would blow at our car, it would knock us over into the water. Right before the hurricane (I think), they finished the new bridge, and blew up the old bridge. The new bridge is wider, and it has four (?) lanes. I actually felt like I could stay on this bridge.

We didn't have any problems finding Schlitterbahn. As many times as I have been to Galveston, I knew where Schlitterbahn was, but had never been to it. I was excited to finally have the chance to go. We found a parking spot and dragged out all of our stuff. We walked across the parking lot and followed the crowd to the front entrance. Across the street from the park was a little building that held the ticket sales. Since we had already purchased our tickets from Girl Scouts, we had tickets in hand. I was going to pass this booth when I noticed a sign over a window that said, "Pre-purchased tickets". There wasn't anyone standing in that line. Everyone was in the other line that said, "Purchase tickets here".

Corinne told me to go to the pre-purchase booth so that we can get wrist bands. So, I went there and immediately the lady gave me five wrist bands. I turned around and suddenly there was a line behind me. Where did all of these people come from??? Are they in the right line? Who cares. We got our wrist bands!

After we put on our wrist bands, we made our way to the line to get in. They searched our coolers, but not our backpacks and bags. What were they looking for? And why didn't they search our bags? I know that their policy is not to bring in any glass or alcohol. Don't they know that someone can still bring that in their bag? Well, I'm not the Schlitterbahn police, so I won't tell them. I'm sure they already know.

We walked in and immediately saw tables under a cover. We picked out a table that was near the edge and not in the sun yet. The sun was on the other side of the shade. I told Karen that we may have to move, but may not be able to because there may not be a table available. People were snatching the tables left and right. We decided to stay put for now.

After getting the girls settled and getting Splashcards, and towels, and bags and coolers placed, and agreements on when to meet, the girls finally left for their adventure. I decided to finally eat my breakfast (I was having tummy problems, and didn't want to be stuck on the road with no bathroom). Karen and I started a long day of conversing with one another and watching our stuff on the table.

Everyone was respecting each other stuff, but we felt that someone needed to stay and watch the bags and coolers. It wasn't necessary, but we ended up doing it anyway because both Karen and I ended up staying there at the table.

The girls checked in every once in awhile, so we knew that they were still alive. I was just content on staying put. I thought before I got there that I wanted to ride the lazy river, but decided that maybe I didn't. Sometime early afternoon, the sun started to peek over our cover. But then it started to rain. Since we were on the edge, we scrambled to push bags under the table and cover them as much as possible from getting wet. Karen was fully dressed, so she tried to keep as dry as possible under an umbrella. Since I was in a bathing suit, I decided to stay in the rain and get wet. It felt good! After a few minutes, I decided to go and sit with Karen after she insisted that I sit with her out of the rain. The rain was getting to me, and I needed to start drying out. Then it quit raining. I went back to the other side and sat with my back to the sun, to dry out. After awhile the sun was starting to cover the table and was starting to get hot, but all I can think of was that my bathing suit was drying out.

A couple of times Karen went to explore the park. During one of these exporations, she found out that the covered area, known as Wasserfest, had tables. When the girls returned for a check in, she had two of the girls go look for a table. One of the girls were to stay with the table while the other came back for us. When she came back, we picked up all of our stuff and trekked toward the new table. We should have done this sooner! The new table was under the cover, so if it rained, we were protected. It was also windy, so the wind felt good under that cover. And because we were under the cover, the sun wasn't beating down on us. Great spot!

During the changing of the table, the girls found out that I wanted to ride the lazy river. They talked me into going on the lazy river. Corinne thought I couldn't fit in one of the tubes, so they suggested that I float. So, I tried to float, but I kept trying to upright myself with my feet, only to find out that the bottom of the "river" was so slippery, I was having trouble keeping myself upright. I finally grabbed onto the end of the tube that Corinne was using. The river was moving faster than I anticipated. Maybe I'm getting old, but that whole ride I felt like I had to hang on for dear life. This "relaxing" ride suddenly became a roller coaster. When we made the round, I let go of the tube and headed out of the river as fast as I can. I'm getting old.

A few hours later we called it a day, and grabbed our stuff and headed out to the van. We stopped at Sonic for dinner, then headed for home. We were all very tired.

On our way out, we noticed the first signs of Hurricane Ike's damage. The trees in a cemetary were leaning way over. I noticed that the leaves on one side of the tree was all gone, while the other side of the tree had leaves. We noticed that several trees were like that all along 61st street. I was amazed that a hurricane can do damage like that. I know that Galveston has been working hard to recover from the hurricane, but sometimes reminders pop up like this. I know that if I were to go to Bolivar or to Galveston Island State Park, I would probably cry at the sight of the destruction that still exists at those places.

As I went to bed, I laid down in bed, and I felt a strange sensation. My back hurt! I realized that my back was sunburned. I had Corinne put some Aloe Vera on my back, then I gingerly went back to my bed. Imagine. Me, a Hispanic, sunburned. Ha! I must be getting old.

Tuesday, all I did was recover. I'm glad I took that day off as well. Even though I didn't play as hard as the girls, I still was tired. I guess I'm getting old...

And now we rest...

Last week we had our final session of Credit by Exam. CBE is a test that one can take to advance to the next grade level. In elementary, they have to pass all of the required subjects with a 90% or better. In middle school, they have to pass both semesters of a subject to advance. For example, if they are taking 6th grade Math, they need to pass Math 6A and Math 6B, and both parts have to average 90% or better. In high school, they just need to pass that subject with a 90% or better. This is what we call Credit by Exam without prior instruction. Not only do they have to pass with a 90%, but they are not supposed to have had prior instruction in that subject.

This is the first time that I have had to handle Credit by Exam. It's a strange animal. You prepare, prepare, prepare. Then it's time to administer the tests. After the tests are administered, you wait for results. Results are sent to the counselor and parents, and if the parents don't find the results favorable, they can appeal the grades. Then an appeal process is started. It seems never ending because we are doing this twice in the summer. All of this is for one session, so while I was in the appeal process of the June session, we were administering the July session. It overlaps each other. So, basically, it takes the whole summer to complete both sessions.

Because of the above, and because I am a 12-month employee, we don't get the summers off like others who work for a school district. I get tickled when someone asks, "So, when do you take your summer vacation?" It's almost August and the office is just now getting quiet. Once school starts, the fun starts all over again, and we don't get a break until next July.

The one thing I will bring away from CBE are the kids. Last year, I was mildly involved in CBE. This year, I had to be the one to go to the school, so I got to meet some of the kids. It was like when I was working at the church. I saw people names, and when I actually met the person, I was so thrilled to put a face to the name. This was the case. When I met one of the kids, I was happy to put a name to one of the hundreds of names that I kept seeing on my lists.

Some of the kids were there for only one subject (middle school and high school), so they came and went. Then there were the kids that were there for the entire week. Those were the kids I started to get to meet. Some would open up to me and tell me a little bit of their life. Some would just be content on sitting on the bench, waiting for their ride.

On Tuesday, it was Math day, and it was our biggest day. Most of the kids came on that day. And it was during this chaos we lost one of the kids. I was in the front, making sure none of the kids leave out of the front door unless their ride was there. We had a line for the phone by the front desk, and Isabel was monitoring the line. After they made their call, or if they had a cell phone, we would ask them to go to the cafeteria to wait for their ride. During all of this, one of the grandparents came up to us and asked us about his granddaughter. We asked him if he looked in the cafeteria. He said yes. He said that his granddaughter called him on her cell, but now the cell is turned off. We started to look in bathrooms, rooms, etc. After about 15 minutes, we did a call out to the classrooms, which prompted any of the administrators who weren't administering a test to look. We locked down the school, and began a thorough search. After another 15 minutes, we told the granddad that we were going to call the district police. In the meantime, parents were notified, and the mother left work to see if she can find the child walking home. The police got there, and just when they were about to do a search, the mother called to say she found her, walking home. (Home was a very long way away). The best thing about the whole thing was that the mom brought the child back to the school to apologize, in which we knew she was honestly apologetic.

The rest of the week went fine. I think we were about ready to have a drink of something. I was just happy to have Coke.

I took two days off, Monday and Tuesday. Monday, I took my Girl Scout troop to Schlitterbahn Galveston. I'll talk about my adventures to Schlitterbahn in another post. It's time for me to go to bed, so I have to go now. But I just wanted to say that I needed to take two days off after going through a heart attack with the missing child. And now we rest...

Never take for granted

Most of my adult life, I have lived in an apartment. Except for the time I was married, I have enjoyed the convenience of having someone take care of things that might break, like AC units not working, toilets overflowing, bathtubs stopped up, dishwashers suddenly not working, etc. Even when I was married and living in the house that we are in now, my ex knew how to take care of these things, and I didn't have to worry about it.

Never take for granted the things that make your life simpler. I found out that the hard way. About a week and a half ago, both bathrooms started backing up. We first noticed it in the bathtubs, then in the toilets. I called my ex (who is in New Mexico at the moment) and he said to look at the clean out in the back yard. This is when I wish he was here, because I have no idea what a "clean out" is, or what it does, nor do I care. Anyway, Corinne and I went to the backyard and looked down this pipe that was sticking out of the ground, of course, after we removed the cover. We were supposed to look for water backing up in the pipe. All we saw were roots, and no water. If we saw the water backing up there, it would mean it was the county MUD's fault. But because we didn't see any backup there, it was backed up under the house somewhere. Great. That means someone will have to unclog it somehow. To see if we can unclog it without using a "snake", he had us put some plumber's lye down the drain. Nope. Didn't work. Next thing, he said we would have to get a 4 in "snake" and run it to get it cleared. That means I would have to rent one of those things and get one of my guy friends to run it for me, or hire a plumber.

The backup created havoc on us. We couldn't wash clothes or run the dishwasher. Corinne's bathroom was unusable, but you could still flush the toilet in mine and take a short 10 minute shower before the water started clogging up. Life wasn't fun for awhile.

Hiring a plumber was too expensive. Corinne called around, and the lowest quote we got was about $130 through almost $200, just to snake the line. Forget it if it involves something else. I guess we'll go with the second option: doing it ourselves (or with the help of friends).

So, now I had the task of finding a snake to rent. How do you find a snake? Well, I had enough sense to know that if you need to rent some kind of equipment, Aztec Rental is the place to go. (I later found out that Home Depot or Lowe's might have it as well). We called and found out that we can rent a 4 inch snake for just under $60 for 4 hours, or if you pick it up after 3 pm and return it by 9 am, you can have it overnight for the same price. The latter is what I would need it for because the guy friends were coming over at night.

Once we determined what day the guys were coming over, I had to make arrangements to go and pick up the snake. Since Aztec closes at 5 pm, I had to leave work a few minutes early just so that I can make sure that I can get there in time. I walked into Aztec and three guys were behind the counter. At first, they all looked at me as I entered the store, and then one of them said, "What can do for you, honey?" Seeing that this was a country man's world, and I was just one of them city women, I went up to the counter and said, "I need to rent a snake. You know, one of them 4 inch snakes?" Now, I was doing it. I didn't intend to sound country. It just popped out. He replied, "Sure thing, honey. We have plenty of those. Let me set you up." He went to work, asked me for my driver's license, asked for the payment, and then asked me to drive around to the side yard to pick up my snake.

I went to the side, and immediately I saw these two hispanic guys waving at me to go down and turn around so that the side door is facing them. As soon as I pulled up, they immediately started to open the side door. I jumped out and helped them unlock the back door. They were so funny. I went from country to talking in Spanish. The hispanic guys were talking fast Spanish, so I was only catching half of what was being said. But they were good. They unlatched the back seat, rolled the seat forward so that the snake can fit, and put the snake in the back of my van. They had it loaded in about 5 minutes.

I went home and waited for the guys. They got there about 7:30 pm. They had to snake the line from the back through the clean out, and through both toilets. The snake broke up the roots, which made it easier for the water to move. But Corinne's bathtub was still full of water, so they used the small snake to unclog it. After that, everything ran great.

I felt really dumb the next day. The next morning I needed to take a shower, and the water started clogging up in my bathtub. I told myself I didn't care, so I continued on with my shower. I was mad because we still had a clog and the guys might have to come back. I wasn't mad at the guys, I was just mad at the clog. I called home later and asked Corinne to look at my tub and see if the water was still there. If it was still there, then I would call the guys back out to see what we can do. Corinne went to the tub and said yes, the water was still there. Then she said, "Mom, the drain is up. Do you want me to release the drain?" Of course I said, and immediately the water went down. The guys must have put the drain up while they were working on the pipe so that water wouldn't go down accidently. I felt stupid! It works now.

The return of the snake was just as memorable. I drove to the side, and two guys immediately came up to my van and unloaded the snake in about two minutes flat. I didn't have to lift a finger. Then they directed me inside to "take care of paperwork". These guys are good!

Never take for granted modern conveniences. I thank God for these things, and for friends who can come out and help me with my problem!