Foodies on the Road: Atomic Omelette

Foodies on the Road had the chance to visit the Atomic Omelette over Spring Break.

We had heard great things about the Atomic Omelette so this was our chance to check out a little bit of their fare with a relaxed atmosphere. Upon arrival we found that Atomic Omelette is located in a small strip mall which made parking difficult. Once parked we entered the establishment. This was our fist visit so we were a little confused because there was no explanantion on whether to sit down or wait at the registers. Since many were milling about near the registers we took our cue from them. It a good 20 minutes to get waited on and even acknowledged by the staff. The entry area is small so many people had to stand outside. There seemed to be some confusion at the front from the people at the registers so our wait was longer than normal.

      There are a variety of items on the menu for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For breakfast, my friend chose the traditional breakfast while I chose the ham and cheese omelette. Understand this is not your run of the mill omelette place. You can build your omelette in any way you want. My companion and I loved this feature and think the owner is on to something cool. Once we ordered there was no explanation to what we did next.
 I do understand this was a busy restaurant, however, it would have been nice to have a little direction. My dining companion and I did not understand we needed to go up and get out own silverware, and other items. Once seated you choose where you sit. Our meal was brought to us within 15 to 20 minutes. Our food was flavorful, cooked well. Both came with a side of fruit and were plated perfectly.The price was a little high for breakfast, but we assumed this was due to the specialty name of the restaurant.

We had a nice time and enjoyed ourselves there. I will say we only had one visit from our wait staff. Most of the wait staff we noticed were standing around chatting with each other near the kitchen. We had no managers come through as they seemed to be discussing something near the registers. Overall, we were kind of disappointed in our visit. We plan to go back as we think that the problems were temporary.

Food Rating: 4 Stars
Price Range: $$
Go ahead and try it out, but be prepared to wait.
Note: All pictures take from the Atomic Omelette website as we dropped the camera at the beach that day.

Foodies on the Road: Urban Fair Cafe

Foodies on the road! I have to tell you all about Urban Fare Cafe. Urban Fare Cafe combines the nuances of middle eastern cooking with art and music. It's menu runs the gambit from panini's to masala. If you are looking for a place with vegetarian dishs, here it is. If you are looking for a place with flavorful meat and herbs combined, You have found it! If your looking for a place to expand your pallet, this is the one! While the online Menu covers a wide variety of their offerings.

My dining companions enjoyed a Butter chicken rice bowl, the wild alaskan salmon burger, and I chose the coconut thai curry with chicken rice bowl! All dishes came portioned out appropriately. Not this over portioning you get at many restaurants. The food was flavorful allowing for the diner to experience the wide range of spices and herbs within the dish. All food is freshly made while you wait. Urban Fare also has a nice variety of desserts that are not too heavy and just the right size. You can enjoy your dessert with a nice cup of Chai tea. It is not the saccharin sweet affair you get from Starbucks. No this is the real thing! Brew to perfection while you wait! The owner and wait staff were attentive and ready to help.

Friday night music

The cafe is decorate in modern fare with local artists work hanging on the walls.!
Friday and Saturday evenings local musicians play for your entertainment.The menu is reasonably priced and well worth the expense.


Food Rating: 5 Stars
Price Range: $
Highly recommended!
On a Scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the best and 1 the worst.
Price range explanation:
$ = 15.00
$$ = between 15.00 -30.00
$$$ = 30.00 - 45.00
$$$$ = 45.00 and above

I AM A TOY!

This has been a year of firsts. I was voted Most Inspirational 8th grade teacher by the student body for 8th grade. I have now been voted a TOY, Teacher of the Year for my campus. Just click on toy and check it out. I was very surprised. No more like "Are you sure you have the right person?" surprised. Amazing.

STAAR TEST WORRIES

WELL, I am going to try and keep up with this blog. It seems I never have time throughout the year to do so. I am ten days from STAAR testing in History. I am praying that my students are able to pass the test. They have worked hard and seem like they are ready, however, you never know. Especially with this being a new test. One of my favorite sites for my students is Colonial Williamsburg. This gives an interesting overview for the kids and interactive activities. Another is Hippocampus. The hippocampus website has the testbook online and will even read it for you. A few months ago when we were studying Westward Expansion I had the students create Diorama's of a scene from Lewis and Clarks "Corps of Discovery" Journey. Here are a few pictures above of how they turned out. The overall project worked out well. Well that's all for this post! Enjoy Life, it's an adventure.

Summer School, Summer Vacations, and Boredom!

I am done with my first week of summer school and must admit I love working it. I have taught summer school for the last 7 years. Five as a Para, and now two as a Teacher. There are multiple reasons teachers work summer school: interest in students continuing performance, extra summer pay, and find down time a little boring after the second week. I fall in the all of thee above realm. I found out very early in life I have to be doing something most of the time. I am one of the few people that love working. As a single parent it supplements for things I need. Plus, as friends of mine know, I get a little stir crazy after a week of rest. Luckily for me Alice ISD is an awesome district and they take care of my summer well. I get to teach, train, and rest. Not to mention I have awesome friends on the campus and we get together in the summer to just enjoy each others company. This creates team spirit. That leaves me with enough time to rest, read books, read journal articles, magazines, and the multitude of websites, burn on the beach, sun bleach my hair, swim and exercise losing those few pounds, catch up on the TV shows and Movies I want to see that I DO NOT have time to watch during the school year. Then, suddenly, it is over and I am refreshed and excited to meet and greet the new year!
Now, I have no vacations on my Agenda. But I have had several students contact me and tell me they are bored. I understand there are not many things to do in Alice. But, there are more than they realize. Here is a short list I gave a student. I will be adding more to my blog and posting for them.
Summer Boredom preventers:
1) Read your type of books! I cannot stress this enough! Mysteries, Vampires, werewolves, sciencefiction, dramas, etc. The Alice Library is a great place to check out books.
2) Play Lexolus or scrabble online. There are lots of free websites to play
3) Play Suduko online free
4) Draw!! A lot of my students are wonderful artists. Experiment with crayon, colored pencil, pen and ink.
5)Check out the subjects you will study next year! You might find the information interesting.
6)Create a powerpoint or a short movie in movie maker. Youtube has wonderful How to videos on all these.
7) Create your own blog at Blogster.com
8) Check out the free online games: http://www.jspuzzles.com/
9) Learn to cook a New recipe or even how to cook!
These are just a few. I will post more tonight. There is never a reason to be bored. There is always something to do, if you truly want to become active.
Alright I am gonna end this. I have a roast in the oven and biscuits with honey to create!!

Gentle Realizations

Well, I have been a teacher now for 2 years. The nine years I did as Special Education Para prepared me very well. Between the college training and the working as a Para I think I ma doing okay. This last year has been a year of realizations. One of the foremost was that I am a smart person. Not even college taught me that. You would think with a GPA of 3.875 I would have know that, but no. It wasn't until I started interacting with faculty and staff that I truly started to believe it. You see book learning is one thing, but combining the book learning with experience, great advice and common sense is truly what teaching is about. Sprinkle in there a smattering of imagination, creativity, a little craziness, a sense of daring, a tiny bit of risk, a great deal of faith and trust in God, and a lot of courage that about sums up a teacher.
I always saw myself as a follower. I found out I am a leader, and that I am a team player. I also found that as much as I may be realist I am also an optimist. God taught me that. May have the something to do with being saved and not having to worry about the outcome of the war because I know where I am going. I also found out I have a gift with kids. That was a little bit of a shock. So all those years doing Sunday school, Youth group, working in Elementary school as a para and sub, and being a PTO parent had a lot of reasons. I also found out that all those trials I went through, some mistakes and some just life, have made me better able to relate to those around me.
WARNING: IF YOU ASK GOD FOR WISDOM IT REQUIRES TRIALS AND SACRIFICE!
I wouldn't change it for the world. God has made me who I am and given me the path I need for the person I need to become in his eyes. I also learned a very hard truth a few years ago. The person I am to become is in now way similar to the person other people are to become. Yeah, you may say well of course. But there is a deeper truth there. The path I may want my kids to follow, may not be the one GOD wants them to follow. Because he has other plans that have nothing to do with me for them.
So here I am a History teacher in South Texas. I am a mom of three beautiful children. I am a stalwart friend. I am a pain in the butt with caring for my students! But ya know what? I am becoming even more than that, and I can't wait to find out who I will ultimately be and what future plans God has for me.
One other thing, I would really love it if some of ya follow my blog. Why? Well, it's a cool way to get feedback and ideas. Cause I am going to start posting new ideas here. I hope some are new.

Making Room for the Self in School

Making Room for the Self in School

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