Question of the Week.....

Wednesday, August 30, 2006 1 comment
I have a lot going on this weekend, nothing life altering, unless you want details that would put you to sleep about the happenings/meetings/projects of the week, so in the gap of time between here and real posting material, this is a question I've been pondering for awhile:
If you had a theme song for your life, what would it be?
I saw this episode of Ally McBeal (sp?) a million years ago where she had this theme song and she'd be walking along and just need a boost or courage etc and she'd start hearing that in her head. For the last year and a half, mostly in the morning, when someone ask me at work how things are going I usually sing them a stanza of "I'm Still Standing" by Elton John.....we usually chuckle about it. Before that I figured my theme song was "Dancing Queen" by Abba, not because I am that, but because it got me moving, hyped me up etc. Last night I heard "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet"......I thought that was fun. I'm undecided on the question. Now it's your turn, I'd be interesting to know, what would be the theme song for your life, or just this year? This week? Whatever.... Go ahead, be BRAVE!

Thoughts of the Day....

Sunday, August 27, 2006 6 comments
-Holly went back to college this weekend.....I'm excited to hear about your year, Holly, but miss you a lot when you are gone!
-I heard about this book today called Marley and Me, it's supposed to be this amazing, cute, true story about a man and his bad lab, I know in the end the dog passes away, as all dogs do, so I don't know if I can read it, I know it's a part of having a dog, letting them go, but I know too I'm going to have so many connections with 'Max and Me'....who would have thought someone could have written our life story :O).....and so many people could connect with a bad lab story! I sure do love that little large boy, who chewed up ANOTHER pair of my dress shoes while I was at church today.....
-Lastly, I just purchased 4 Nascar tickets for the race in November. Sme of the other people don't even know they are for sure going yet ;o).....though they knew I was supposed to be getting them. It may be my first, and last race, unless someone else is buying, but I wanted to see what my brother loves so much about this sport.....at least once, right? It should be interesting....Nicole, are you guys coming down? You know you are welcome here anytime if you need a place.....though the welcoming committee can be a little overwhelming, in November they should be fine with spending most of the day outside :O).

Weekend Update.....

Saturday, August 26, 2006 No comments
Yesterday I headed to Mr. M's wife's funeral. It was a really nice service, VERY long, which I'm not used to, the pastor gave a full cermon, but listening to it I knew, from what I know about Mr. Middlebrook it was something he needed the most, and we all needed to hear. I've never seen so many people at a funeral, it completely filled a very large church, I can't estimate how many hundreds of people were there, I'd say well over 400. We waited in line for about an hour, but we finally had to leave b/c subs were holding down the fort in our classrooms. Several of us are going by Monday with dinner, so I'll chat with him then. They are both pretty amazing people, his wife started a women's crisis center in the area years before they were even a common word to hear. It's good to know great people.....it gives me a goal and a hero.
Friday afternoon I met a friend of mine for coffee, Angie, who used to work with me. She's working and trying to start a floral business on the side, it looks like she has two weddings lined up for October that I may go help her create bouquets for. I enjoy being around flowers, so I'm always excited when she has a wedding :O).
Tonight I'm headed out to a concert by this local Women's singing group, one of my Mom's friends that I know well is in it and we have been saying we will attend a concert sometime, and tomorrow is church in the morning and lunch out with Mary and Sonia. Life is busy, life is good....

Blogger Junkies....

Wednesday, August 23, 2006 2 comments
This one is for Marie.....just so I don't disappoint the masses (all both of you).....I have committed to Marie to blog a lot more....I've been a little lax b/c I didn't have much to say, but you know....I'm REALLY good at talking about nothing. Actually, I left all my digital cards to have all the digitals developed and so I don't have any new pictures to post, so I haven't posted anything in awhile....but here goes a few things going on in my life: 1. I went by and bought more sprinkles today....stupid dog. 2. Feeling blue for my classroom volunteer, Art, his wife passed away this Monday from leukemia. They are the most AMAZING couple in the world, when I grow up I want to be just like them. She was 74, and led such a full life, but it never seems like enough time unless people as kind and wholesome as they are can be immortal....but then I remember.....they are, it's not the end of her story, her story has a very happy ending indeed. I'm taking by brownies tomorrow and we have arranged dinner every night next week with other gals at work, though I know we will be competing with a whole crowd of well wishers! My kids LOVE him and all wrote the sweetest letters, did I mention how sweet this group was? They just can't do homework worth squat, but we are working on that.....I also really like the new principal, she just 'listens' and I felt like she's there to make my life easier! 3. Have I ever mentioned I love this show called Miami Ink? I would never in a million years get a tattoo (nothing personal to those of you with them, it's just not 'me' as if that shocks you...with a bunch of other issues tied in as well), but for some reason this show, which is all about this tattoo parlor and the stories behind the tattoos these guys are doing on individuals just totally fascinates me, season two has started....don't be surprised if I won't talk to you on Tuesday nights ;o) 4. Guess what September 1 is? My Mom's one year anniversary of being cancer free, yippee!

Puppy for sale.....

Saturday, August 19, 2006 2 comments
Free to a good home....scratch that....free to ANY home other than mine. I'm going to seriously be put into some sort of doggy jail for what I feel like doing to Max. Those of you that know me well (which is all of you, hello, not just ANYBODY got the email with my blog site ;o)) know that it's all the about the details for me. I've been searching for months for the perfect sprinkle to go on this little dessert I'm making for a shower I'm hosting a month from now. I go into this gormet cake shop less than a week ago and low and behold, the perfect sprinkles. I got myself a big ole bottle of sprinkles....think of those little rainbow sprinkle bottles on steroids. It's all good, I can use that puppy for years to come. TODAY WHEN I GOT HOME MAX CHEWED OPEN THE THICK, PLASTIC BOTTLE AND ATE ALL 20,000 OR SO SPRINKLES...in the process he also stained parts of my carpet pink. I guess he couldn't finish them so he left a thousand or so on the carpet. This time, as soon as he comes out of his sugar coma he and I are having it out. On the other hand.....if sprinkles are the worst of my problems this week, I guess you can chalk this one off to a successful week. I think I'm going to go see about selling an organ on ebay to raise funds to get enough gas to drive out and buy MORE SPRINKLES!!!! OK....I think I'm done....yep.....pretty much finished with the story.

A Week in Review.....

In the teaching world they always refer to the first few days as the 'honeymoon'.....I'm planning on letting my honeymoon last until next June. It was nice to get a fresh batch! No drama within the four walls of my classroom, though there is a lot of talk amongst teachers regarding all the change this years. I tried to go out with everyone on Friday evening, but it was too negative, I want to avoid that for awhile, and I feel really bad for the new teachers. In college they always said to avoid the teacher's lounge b/c all you heard was gossip and negativity....that popped into my head Friday night as well. I definitely don't want to be one of those examples!

Five Hundred, Twenty-Five Thousand, Six Hundred Minutes....

Sunday, August 13, 2006 No comments
....how do you measure a year? The song is spinning through my head as I prepared for my 'first day' of school with the students back. It's really cute to see the kiddos on the first day in their new little outfits no matter WHAT age they are, by day two it's all too easy to become immune! I even bought a new outfit for the occasion (a shopping trip with a great discount just happened to coincide with this Monday, so I'm taking advantage of it). I look forward to posting the latest as the year progresses.

Thank you, Jason and Nicole :O)

Saturday, August 12, 2006 4 comments

Thanks to Nicole and Jason, I now have a LIGHT in my closet (and no reason not to attempt to look super cute every day of the week now that I can see the clothes I'm picking out!). Three years ago I was standing on 'something' in my closet....probably very unsafe and unstable knowing my climbing choices and I started to tumble...I grabbed the, oh so sturdy, light pull to catch myself and pulled the whole thing down with me. SO, for three years I've had no light (b/c I unscrewed it) in my closet and a light socket stuck on 'on.' About four months ago I was going to be really handy and repair it myself, anything that inexpensive shouldn't be too hard to fix, right? 4 months later I had opened the box and mentioned to Nicole I had this plan to fix it (people have taken over whole countries with less planning and in a lot less time), and I told her I was contemplating whether or not the electricity needed to be turned off.....she gave me an emphatic 'YES,' and told me the next time they came into town she might could even swing by if I hadn't done it yet.....it's nice to have someone care enough about you not to want to see you electricuted :O). So, today they came into town, and BIG SHOCK, I hadn't done it yet. They agreed to overlook my very neglected, dusty house and dead plants (I've been away for three weekends, and lazy for even longer!), and they repaired my light in about a tenth of the time it would have taken me (Jason did wire duty and Nicole held the flashlight very steady ;o) and gave commentary for my benefit and entertainment and I located my pink tool kit for them to use, hey, a girls gotta do her share of the work, you know?). I have now seen a light socket replaced, and though I hope to not have a need to replace another anytime soon, I now...maybe..could do it. Trust me when I say this is one of the biggest accomplishments this year.....it'll feel good to cross it off the 'to do list'....though technically I didn't 'do much'....other than establish bonds with the right friends :O). It's good to know people, it's even better to know good people! We also hit the ice cream shop (of course) and Muffin appreciated some attention and petting from Nicole and Jason, she appreciates people that appreciate her!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho It's Off To Work I Go....

Sunday, August 06, 2006 No comments

It's my third post today, but I have a lot to say, after a semi drought in blogging! I know this is going to induce a lot of sympathy in you guys (as Marie called to express on Friday with her "HA HA" comment starting out the conversation as she called to rub in the fact that I have to 'return' to work ;oP). Yes, it's true, tomorrow is the first official day back for all the teachers in the district. If it makes you feel any better, I've been back, pretty much full time for over two weeks, and there have only been about two weeks during the summer that I haven't had to present a workshop, or attend a meeting several days....if not all of them, but it was a nice summer and I definitely enjoy this perk of my job! AND I have a REALLY long summer to look forward to next year b/c they just passed a law that school can't start until Labor Day! I'm already planning my vacations! In the meantime, I am looking forward to the school year, so far so good, send up a prayer for my students and I as we begin a journey through a year in the life of 6th graders! AND maybe I can actually return some of those calls you guys have been making since I won't be sleeping late and staying up later....I'm sorry, I'm sorry.....I'm gonna try to call you guys like a bill collector from now on!

A Blue Flower


This is Muffin's Mom, Lindsey, AKA, Holly's cat. No, she doesn't normally wear the blue flower around her neck, but she had a mishap during a daring attempt to nap on a counter in a box...the old saying...."A cat always lands on their feet." didn't apply in this case. She ended up breaking her leg when the box tumbled down with her in it. She's on the mend, but her attempt to help along the process by escaping from the blue collar and licking her stitches raw has caused her to be sentenced to another week in the flower petals!

21!


August 5th, we celebrated Holly's 21rst birthday! We actually began the celebration on the 4th with dinner out and cake....then it carried over into the 5th with a little surprise breakfast before we headed out to Shreveport, LA. It takes over 3 hours to get there, though I didn't time it, it seems closer to 4 in my estimation, but it's worth the trip. We stayed at the Isle of Capri, which has now changed it's name (and soon it's theme) to Diamond Jacks, after a stop at the Cracker Barrel (Holly's favorite) for lunch. We swam in the hotel pool, which was very nice, then put Holly's new age to use in the casinos. We ran some money through the slot machines, and SOME of us were more successful than others, though success=just about breaking even for most, with a few bucks extra for spending)....the experience was what we were going for. We got it....WE also hit up the all you can eat buffet, and ate pretty much "all we could eat." Then we played around in the jacuzzi in the room, which was huge! This morning we got up and went to the pool (the third time in a swimsuit in less than 24 hours)....then drove home via a stop in Tyler for bbq and ice cream (another of Holly's favorites).