What was I thinking?!

I'm a little embarrassed to tell this story, but it's a pretty good one, so here it goes...

Last weekend, I went to an activity at a gymnastic's center with some of my friends from church. I was really excited about it because it's been so long since I've jumped around on a trampoline, balanced on a balance beam, swung from uneven bars, etc. Anyway, within the first 10 minutes of being there, I tried a backflip on the trampoline (I used to do them all the time) and didn't quite make it all the way around. To avoid landing on the top of my head, I cocked my head back and landed on my face, scraping my lip, chin, and bridge of my nose. I hopped right up, but after about 15-20 min., I had to sit down because my neck hurt so badly. I don't think I'd ever been in so much pain! A few minutes later, this guy who happened to be a paramedic came over and started asking me all these questions. The next thing I knew, I was laying on my back with tears streaming down my face and tons of people surrounding me (one of those situations everyone dreads being in). To make a long story short, I got a blessing, decided I was fine, and had my friend drive me and my car home. By Monday, my neck was still really bothering me, so I made a doctor's appt. for that afternoon. The doctor asked me a bunch of questions, had some x-rays taken, said I was probably fine, and sent me on my way. On Tuesday, I got a call from someone in the office who told me that I had a small fracture in one of my vertabrae and did something to a ligament! He said I needed to make an appointment with a spine specialist and would likely need some physical therapy and to adjust my lifestyle! So, after 29 years of never breaking a bone, I can now literally say that I broke my neck....unbelievable!

I wasn't able to schedule an appt. until Friday, so I spent the rest of the week working and wondering what I had really done to myself. Thankfully, I went in Friday and the doctor said that besides the pain, my strengh and range of motion were good. Apparently, the fracture is not even a crack, just a small chip. So, no physical therapy, no brace (thank goodness...I can't imagine how my students would react!), just heat/cold, pain killers, living my life the way I normally do, and massages (can't complain about that one!)

So, that's my story. I'm still in a lot of pain, but it gets progressively better each day. I am so thankful that it wasn't anything worse and am so glad that I have such good friends looking out for me. I'm so blessed!

Baseball and Bluebonnets

My bad luck streak is over...the Cardinals won the game! Hopefully my friends will now let me go with them!

The proof: final score was 5-3.

Victory shot

At a park near my apt. Texas is known for it's bluebonnets, which only are in bloom in April and May.

Random sculpture in the park

Spring Break Adventures

I know...it's about time I posted more pictures!

At the end of my spring break, my sister Erin (she's the youngest) and I drove down to Houston in my brand new car...a 2008 Hyundai Elantra. We made it safely to my apartment in about 13 1/2 hours. Long day, but pretty uneventful; we had perfect weather the whole day! I need to take some more pics of my car so I can post those, too. I love it!

On Easter Sunday, Erin and I went to my friends' apt. to dye eggs. I think it was the most elaborate and detailed egg-dyeing I've ever done! We then had a highly competitive Easter egg hunt. It was lots of fun and nice to do something in the Easter spirit. Erin and I had a yummy dinner together, but we definitely missed being in St. Louis for our annual family get-together. Here is Erin with "Her Egg-cellency, the Queen" egg, her bomb egg (which had a hole in the top), and a pretty plaid egg.

This is my violin egg, "most traditional egg", and a pretty one that I made using paper towels.

I also had the Monday after Easter off, so Erin and I went down to Galveston to play on the beach (one of my favorite places!) We walked down the beach to find a fisherman who had caught two pretty good size fish.

After the beach, we went to Kemah Boardwalk, which has carnival rides and tons of nice restaurants. A fun place to visit! I love being near the ocean!

I also took Erin to the Galleria, the 4th largest mall in the country. She had to get something "Texan" before she left, so we stopped by the everything Texas store. I don't even have a cowgirl hat yet!

So, there's a little bit of our adventures. It was so much fun to have Erin here...she's the first out of all my friends and family to come visit me (hint, hint)! I also took her to school with me for a day and to eat the best Mexican food I've ever had! I was sad to see her go.

On a side note...to make all of you suffering through long, snowy winters jealous...I am currently typing this while sitting outside by my pool (see below). I'm actually in the lounge chair on the far right! It is a beautiful day! (Now you really want to come visit me, don't you?!) Just wanted to give you a visual image!

New posts on the way....!

Okay, okay, more to come soon! Not to give excuses, but we have lost the internet at my apt, so I haven't spent as much time on the computer (not necessarily a bad thing). But, for all of you who are dying to see my life happenings in the last month or so, I promise I will add more soon. The last month has been fun: 1. flew down to St. Louis during spring break for my friend Amy's wedding then drove back down in a brand new car with my sister Erin! 2. spent several days roaming around Houston with Erin including Galveston, Kemah Boardwalk, the Galleria, and Dave and Buster's 3. spent a relaxing weekend watching conference at my apt. with some friends in the area 4. continuing to teach my wonderful violin students, but counting down the days until a couple months of freedom!

So, the Cardinals are in town for the Astros opening home games and I'm going to a game tonight with one of my co-workers. Cross your fingers for me; I can't remember the last time the Cardinals won a game when I was in attendance and I've been to several games in the last several years! It's the "curse of Beth"! Maybe my luck will change in a different stadium! This streak has got to eventually end!

Birds, Turtles, and Alligators (Oh, My!)

I spent most of today biking through Brazos Bend State Park with some friends. It was amazing...one of the best things I've done here so far! The weather was gorgeous...mid 70's and sunny and there were alligators everywhere! This is especially exciting for me because I usually don't have such good luck with these kinds of things. For example: 1. I've been on a couple whale-watching trips and have never seen a whale even though they were sure we would 2. A couple of summers ago, I went to 11-12 baseball games- major, minor, and little league and all winning teams. EVERY game was lost! I've been to several Cardinal's games since then and they still haven't won when I'm in attendance! 3. I have terrible luck with my bike: it's had countless flat tires, ran into someone, was hit by a car, and was stolen! (fyi...it was miraculously found a few days later!) 4. I don't think I've ever caught a fish and people I'm with rarely do (even though I've been fishing several times). My friend took me fishing once and promised we would catch several because he always did. Did we? NO! Did anyone in our group of about 10? NO! Anyway, I could go on and on, but that's the idea. I am still completely amazed that we saw so many alligators today! This was the first time I've seen them in the wild!

The very first one we saw!

This one's hiding...they're very sneaky!
This one was pretty scary because he was so big and he had his mouth open...he looked artificial.

The alligator couple

Mike, Jordan, and Kristen

You were supposed to stay at least 30 feet away, but that was kind of hard when they were right up there on the trail!
This was as close as I got!


Lots of birds!

Kristen was a lot braver than I was...she touched his tail!
Spanish moss everywhere...definitely in swamp land!
I love turtles! There was also a baby on the log, but it jumped into the water about 2 secs before I took the picture : (Once the sun started going down, it got dark really fast! Jordan and I rode back the way we came, and it was really hard to see any alligators. There were still several up on the trail, and with all of the frogs and splashing noises, it was pretty creepy. Luckily, we made it out safely!

San Antonio Take Two!

So last weekend I was in San Antonio again for TMEA- Texas Music Educators Association Conference. It's for all music educators (k-12, band, orchestra, and choir) and though every state has one, Texas' is the biggest with over 25,000 people (go figure)! It was so nice to get away for a few days...I even got to miss some school! I went to classes, walked around the booths, and attended a couple of concerts. The best part was that I ran into several people that I didn't expect to see- my orchestra director from SIUE, my student teacher advisor from BYU, and a couple people from St. Louis. I also met up with a few friends from church to go country dancing. It was so nice to go somewhere, stay in a nice hotel, eat good food, and not have to pay for any of it! We arrived in San Antonio on Thursday (Valentine's Day) and I had dinner that night with Linda and Kristell (co-workers) on the River Walk. (I find it difficult to call it a river...it's a lot skinnier than I expected!) We're the only single people in the music dept. at our school, so it makes sense that we had dinner together that night!Our restaurant...they all have about half of their seating outside...it's a fun atmosphere.
The next night, Linda and I took the River Cruise...it was so pleasant outside...around 70 or so!
Our boat and a pretty view of the river.
Part of our dancing crew at Cowboy's. It's the biggest dance hall I've ever seen (again, in Texas, so go figure). They even have a rodeo arena attached to it!

The view of the river from our hotel room. Apparently the island is a popular place to get married because it's shaped like a heart and supposedly brings good luck. We saw several newlyweds taking pictures on it since it was close to Valentine's Day.