Vote Nancy Watten for CFB School Board!!!

Hey all you Farmers Branchians! Early voting for the Carrollton/Farmers Branch school board began TODAY and my granny is running so VOTE VOTE VOTE!!! Please read her credentials below. She is SO PASSIONATE about this and is the perfect candidate! She loves and cares so much for this school district and community and has dedicated much of her life to the betterment of both! Thank you and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me!

Who am I?  I am Nancy Watten and I have filed for reelection to the CFBISD Board of Trustees.  I am a retired kindergarten teacher of 32 years in CFBISD, a parent of 4 children who attended CFBISD schools K-12 and a grandparent of 3 students who are presently attending Janie Stark Elem., Vivian Field M.S. and Turner H.S. My husband of 52 years and I have resided in Farmers Branch for 45 years.

Why do I want to serve on the CFBISD Board of Trustees?  I am passionate about excellence in the education of our children!  I will not be making promises I cannot keep nor will I be promoting my own personal agenda.  However, I am presently serving on task forces that address the problems of teen pregnancy, recognizing and correcting deficiencies in our present Code of Conduct for students, developing strategies and incentives for retaining our employees and promoting our Career/Technology program that provides opportunities for ALL of our students to seek success in trades in the workforce.  I also plan to work with our school nurses to develop a program that addresses the increase in Type 2 diabetes and obesity amongst our students.  I would like to complete my service on these issues! 

Why am I qualified to continue to serve on the Board?  Since my retirement in 2005 I have made every effort to keep updated on the newest developments in curriculum and technology in our District.  I have also surpassed the required number of hours we are required to obtain in Region X and TASB (Texas Association of School Boards) School Board trainings every year.  One cannot be a knowledgeable member of the Board of Trustees without this important information!  

When can all citizens vote?  Early voting begins on April 26^th and ends on May 4^th. The election will be held on May 8^th.  PLEASE recognize how important YOUR vote is as apathy has hurt many capable and deserving candidates!  I’d appreciate it if you would please mark these dates on your calendar today! Early voting will be held at the CFBISD Administration Bldg. on Perry St. in Carrollton, but there will be numerous poll locations on May 8^th. 

Please feel free to contact me at any time if you have questions or concerns. It is important that you DO NOT BELIEVE everything you read in the newspapers or blogs and see on TV “news”.  I would be happy to discuss any of these issues with you!

Thank you for your support!

Nancy Watten

Nancy Watten

2007-2010 Trustee and 2011-2014 candidate

Place 7

Background:

·       B.A., Early Childhood Education, Kent State University; Kent, Ohio; 1958

·       M.A., Early Childhood Education, University of North Texas; Denton, TX; 1976

·       Bilingual certification; Gifted certification

·       Teacher of Kindergarten at Janie Stark Elementary, 32 years; retired in 2005 to have a kidney transplant

·       4 children who attended Stark, Field and Turner grades K-12

·       3 grandchildren presently attending Stark, Field and Turner

Community Activities:

·       Three years service on the CFBISD Board of Trustees, 2007-present

·       Helped to organize the CFB Girls' Softball League 40 years ago and  have served on its Board of Directors as treasurer, Ways and Means Chairman and manager of the Oran Good concessions from  1970 to the present.

·       Member of PTA, 45 years; served on Stark's Board of Directors every year including president 3 times; awarded Texas Life Member  honors at local and state level  (twice)

·       Member of Farmers Branch and Carrollton Women’s' Clubs, Texas Teachers’ Retirement Assoc. and American Association of University Women

·       Woman of the Year, FB: 1997

·       Jimmy Porter Athletic Award, Carrollton: 1996

·       Sports Hall of Fame, Farmers Branch: 2005

Current Issues

·       Budget:  Throughout the four candidate forums we have beaten the budget issue to death! 

Bottom line: We wish more citizens would attend our Board meetings so they could witness firsthand the informative power-point that our capable CEO’s of finance, Mark Hyatt and Bonnie Halsey, have been presenting to us Board members every meeting this year featuring the PROJECTED budget and deficit.  The key word in defining the deficit is PROJECTED.  In fact, our projected deficit for 2009 was $8 million and it is likely that it will total less than that.  Deficits are a casualty of state funding ceilings, federal and state UNFUNDED mandates, decreased property values and rising cost-of-living expenses.  All school districts are feeling this pain!  However, we do not  plan to take the actions of some districts that have eliminated jobs, teacher pay raises, academic programs, fine arts and extra-curricular activities.  Many other districts also charge a major fee for participation in athletics, fine arts and other extra-curricular programs.

·       Clarifications of Teacher Turnover and Surplus of Administrators:  The opposing candidates are emphasizing our teacher turnover .  I always read the list of “reasons for resigning” on every Board agenda we receive prior to our meetings.  The following are such reasons: staying home with new baby or children, retirement, moving to a school closer to my home (many teachers can not afford to live in our District so they reside in Denton, The Colony, Lewisville, Irving, etc.), illness, husband transferred or “no reason”. The latter may refer to instructors whose contracts are not being renewed due to failing the expectations of their evaluations.   At our recent Job Fair there were over 1,000 applicants for teaching jobs in CFBISD with few openings available!

Another claim is that we have too many administrators!  In fact, the CFBISD has 1,754 classroom teachers and 134 administrators!  We actually eliminated assistant principals from five elementary schools in 2009 which presents a safety issue and overload upon the other employees of those buildings.

Let’s remember that if we focus on what we don’t have we often forget to focus on what we do have!

 

Robin's Bachelorette Weekend

Robin, my childhood best friend, roomie and bed mate from college, is getting married on July 4th so we decided to dedicate an entire weekend to her bachelorette festivities at one her bridesmaids' ranch in College Station, TX.

The weekend didn't start out too well for me...I woke up the Thursday before with an excruciating pain in my back like nothing I had ever felt before but didn't have time to see a doctor before we left for College Station. On Thursday morning I took 3 Advil, then a muscle relaxer, then went and got a massage, then took a hydrocodone. When nothing worked I took one more hydrocodone and finally started to feel better and very very sleepy. I survived on hydrocodone the whole weekend and was able to see a chiropractor on Monday. Now I feel MUCH better!

BUT back to the weekend's festivities! Friday mom and I drove down and set up for the party. The trunk of mom's car was a huge mess of pink and black. I wish I had a picture. I do, however have pictures from the weekend...202 pictures to be exact! And Aubrey brought her awesome camera and flash and got some really great pictures as well so I will probably post mostly pictures she took because, well, they're awesome...

The black and pink mess organized.

 You're invited! The Quill Pen made the invitations. Adorable as always.

I got these made at Outta the Oven Bakery (formerly Celebrity Bakery) because they are Robin's favorite cookies. 

Strawberry, Red Velvet and Confetti Cake Balls. I've also heard these referred to as Cake Truffles. I think I will start calling them that because I always get giggles when I call these Cake Balls. Though for this occasion I guess it was appropriate.

 April Showers! Get it?!

And then these two crazies showed up...

You don't want to know.

On Saturday Robin wanted to go to a winery in the area called Messina Hoff so we had brunch and then a wine tasting/tour directly after. For the record, the Champagne Cranberry Salad and Bavarian Smoked Turkey sandwich were TO DIE FOR!

And this is about when Aubrey told the waiter there was something floating in the wine. He was teaching us how to properly test the wine and had just told us to always look to make sure nothing is floating in the wine so when Aubrey said, "What if there is something floating in the wine?" he had to pour it out and start all over. :) 

Baby grapes!

Wine Tasting...

Toast to the bride!

These four (Kim is behind Carol) were incorrigible though highly entertaining. Mom just told our tour guide that she dreamed about him last night. Long story.

Our crazy crew.

 The Ravenettes

 517 College Drive roomies

Diane's new gift to Frank that she now drives. :)

 Please note that the driver of the car is the ONLY ONE not facing forward for the picture.

Get it.

Then we fed the cows...

She was hungry.

I think the cow was as nervous as I was.

Boomer Sooner.

Then Robin opened presents...

 Robin (and me on the left) doing her signature dance move with a wad of gum in her mouth. We asked Casey (her fiance) a bunch of questions about her and she had to try to guess what his answers were. If she got them wrong she had to put a piece of bubblegum in her mouth. She got a lot wrong. :)

 Love you Robin! Can't wait to share your special day with you!!! 

7/4/10 here we come!!!

Don't Judge Us

I was watching an episode of Ellen today and she had played three commercials on her show that I just had to share. I love clever advertising...

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today my dad is 51 and, like all good families should, we pitched in to buy him an iPad! I still remember one year when I was younger I wrote my dad a note asking him what he wanted for his birthday. He replied "hugs and kisses". Well now that I'm older I know better. I have learned after years of observation that dad is a gift person like me. We both LOVE gifts. We also both love to GIVE gifts. My dad has always been so giving. In high school when I would be going out with friends or going to a movie or dinner dad would always try to slip me a $20 bill without me even asking and then hand me a couple more fives "just in case". When Preston asked dad if he could marry me, dad said "Absolutely! Do you need anything? Need any money?"

One of my favorite memories with my dad is the dance we did on my wedding day. I kept trying to get him to practice the week before and we never did until finally, the morning of the wedding, dad came into my room and said "We need to practice!!!" We pulled it off (I actually was the one who forgot the choreography, not him) and it was the most fun I've ever had!

Thanks dad for being such a great sport all the time. I love you and am so proud to have such a wonderful dad in a world where good dads are becoming seldom found.

Easter Weekend

This year we spent Easter weekend with the Rampy family in Austin. Have I ever told you how much I love Austin? Well I really do. Of course, I will always have a place in my heart for Dallas but oh how I love Austin.

Preston's uncle Grant, aunt Karen and their four kiddos came from Abilene, we came from Dallas, Nolan came from Vermont and Hayden, Atosha, the twins and Garrison came from Bryan so we had quite a crew! Unfortunately I was a bad picture taker but Grant shot some great pics and video. He's a journalism grad too so we're on the same page when it comes to documenting memories. Not to mention Atosha had her new snazzy new camera handy all weekend!

On Saturday the girls shopped at the San Marcos outlets all day while the boys and kids challenged each other in a pull-up competition, "cliff" jumping and a bowling tournament. For the record, Preston won the bowling tournament...I'm sure he would want you to know that. On that note, have I ever mentioned that I'm not a huge bowling fan and I have no idea why? It's not just that I don't care for it, I really actually do not like it at all. My best friend Annie mentioned recently that she wasn't a big fan of bowling either so we must have had an unpleasant experience at a bowling alley sometime in our youth. Or maybe I'm just no fun. Either way, I'm glad the boys like bowling together and the girls like shopping together.

Saturday is also when Preston and I discovered we'd left our Easter clothes in Dallas. Oops. I'd been eying a super cute skirt at Anthropologie anyway and since we happened to be headed to the outlets I went ahead and bought Preston a couple outfits too.

Here are a few pictures from our weekend!

Uncle Grant and Garrison at Chuy's

Hadley, Dean Atosha, Garrison and Hayden at Chuy's

Us at Chuy's

So here's the story with this place. Malena, Atosha and I had stopped here once on our way to San Marcos and I fell in love. This is a GAS STATION and coffee shop and let me tell you it is the most beautiful gas station I have ever seen in my life!!! I know, I sound crazy, but I really can't get over this place. You'll see why in this next picture.

Look at that amazing view!!! The coffee shop has a balcony with this incredible view where you can sit and enjoy a breakfast burrito and coffee after you gas up your car. I love it. Not too mention they sell bottles of wine for all you connoisseurs out there.

We stayed at a family friend's house since the Rampy household was packed and this was our view at their house Easter morning...

And then the egg hunt...

And they're off!

I see one!

I didn't really get a whole lot of great "hunting" pictures...at least none of which I'm proud. The older these kids get, the faster they run. :)

Hello

I have a new favorite song. It's from last week's episode of Glee and Preston and I have listened to it about 50 times already this week. I've posted a clip of the song from the episode but if you aren't familiar with the show I wouldn't actually watch the clip...it's a bit cheesy out of context. Just close your eyes and listen...

Hello, originally sung by Lionel Richie, this version sung by Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff

Seaside Tablescape

The store where I work recently encouraged the employees to create a tablescape using the dinnerware from any collection of our choice. I decided to participate considering how much I L-O-V-E "tablescaping". I would have to say that  tablescaping is my favorite hobby...though I may have made that word up. Mom came up to the store one day and helped me look around for fun things to use. It was her idea to use a shower curtain as the tablecloth since I couldn't find any tablecloths in the store that coordinated. Genius huh?!

The lanterns and flowers are mine but everything else is from the store (including the sand and the box...though they are not for sale). The dinnerware is the Lotus Dinnerware Collection with the Tidal Bounty Dessert Plates. The glassware is called Encased Amber and the silverware is the Dandelion Greens Flatware which I personally own and love. I used the Flamenco Shower Curtain as my tablecloth and borrowed the Natural Sponges from the store's bath collection!

This is actually a jewelry/soap holder from the bath collection of the store but I decided to use it to help display my seashell "place card". (I brought the seashell from home.)

If you happen to be planning a beach dinner party any time soon you know where to go to find your decor! 

I would love more than anything to start a blog specifically about tablescapes for all occasions. I'm sure there's one out there somewhere but I haven't found it yet. If you know of one send it my way!

Bishop Arts District

I have made it a personal goal of mine to start appreciating the city of Dallas more. I've lived here my entire life and feel like I'm missing out on a lot of great activities our city has to offer. Just a few weeks ago I was coordinating a wedding at The Magnolia Hotel downtown and while I had a couple hours to relax before "go time" I couldn't help but take notice of how much there was to do in that area. Of course, I wasn't about to wander too far without a body guard (aka Preston) by my side but it inspired me to make a trip downtown and last weekend we did just that!

Preston and I first visited the Dallas Farmers Market, which is something I have done several times and recommend that everyone do. I should have taken pictures but I was too busy comparing prices and attempting to convince Preston that it was worth it to drive all the way downtown to buy our fruits and veggies. I also bought a couple herbs to plant at our house. Unfortunately the cilantro I bought died. Probably because I left it in the bag I bought it in for over 48 hours. The basil is doing great so far though! I should have probably waited to buy them until I knew how to take care of them (and had the time) but they weren't expensive anyway. Eventually I would love to have a whole garden of veggies and herbs but that will have to wait until we are living in a more permanent location.

So after the Farmers Market we headed to the Bishop Arts District and stumbled upon a couple interesting spots. I had heard about a shop in the district called The Soda Gallery where they sell every kind of coke (or soda for you losers out there) you can imagine and was extremely excited to pay a visit.

 Look how cute!

That's a lot of lemon-lime flavors...

The infamous Dublin Dr. Pepper made with real sugar. YUM!

 This was one of the more interesting ones.

As you can see, prices are a bit steep, but it's fun to try all the different flavors. I kind of considered it like going out for a coke instead of ice cream!

We chose these guys and both were great! Mmmm Root Beer.

Another place I loved in the district was Dude, Sweet Chocolate. All the chocolate they sell is made in their store and they let you sample whatever you want before you buy it...which is what Preston and I SHOULD have done. We sampled a couple things but ended up buying a chocolate bar on a whim and I'll tell ya, it wasn't my favorite (Chocolat anyone?). If you're a dark chocolate lover you would have adored it. I'm more of a sweet chocolate person myself.

The outside of the store...so fun huh? But check out the inside...

Rows of chocolate

 I think we tasted this and I think we loved it...I can't remember if this is what we tried or not.

We are certainly going to have to pay a visit to the district again soon because there's a great little restaurant called Tillman's Roadhouse that I have been meaning to visit for a while now. Unfortunately it is closed on Sundays so we weren't able to check it out. According to my dear friend Erin, their desserts are FABULOUS!