Man vs. Woman

Tuesday night, Todd and I were on our way back home from dinner. During our short drive, the conversation went like this:

K: Do you think we should take the pups to the park on Sunday? Maybe we could wear them out before we meet Melissa for our "family" portraits that evening.

T: I don't know. The only thing I'm thinking about is driving home right now.

K: Okay.

. . . silence . . .

K: That was a prime example of men vs. women, huh? You're thinking of one thing - driving us a few miles down the road - and I have a thousand things running through my head right now.

T: Mmhmm.

WE ALREADY VOTED

SO WILL ALL THE POLITICIANS QUIT CALLING OUR HOUSE???????!!!!!

I swear our phone has rung at least ten times tonight. It's making me nuts.

The Challenges of Blogging

Coming to you from our backyard . . . it's our blog!


The weather is GORGEOUS today!!! Rather than sit inside and blog, I decided to take our blog outdoors. However, I am learning that there are some additional challenges to this extreme style of blogging. Here they are in no particular order:


Exhibit A - Pippin




Exhibit B - Wine in the Waterford, combined with the loud and forceful swishes of the huge dog door you see through that clear crystal.




Exhibit C - Pippin & Steve fighting for attention. While practically in my lap. Yeah.



Exhibit D - The peace that comes from a bold mixture of the outdoors, foliage, wine, and a laptop.

You Can Vote However You Like!

From the Ron Clark Academy - "You Can Vote However You Like". Here are the lyrics if you want to sing along.

Ron Clark was a featured speaker at our district convocation last year. He is absolutely dynamic! Ron was Teacher of the Year not too many years ago, and has an AMAZING school that is full of energy and life-applicable teaching. dynamic! A couple of teachers in our building had the privilege of visiting the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta last June.

Wish we didn't have TAKS to deal with, so we could teach like that again!!!

No Sharing

One of Steve's favorite toys - the tennis ball. He doesn't like to share it. He loves to play ball, but won't give anyone the ball so it can be thrown. There is no touching, sharing, or releasing of the tennis ball. Need proof? (Well, even if you don't you're getting it anyway!)

We're taking bets to see how long it takes for Stevie to:

1. Lose the tennis ball,
2. Get the tennis ball filthy beyond recognition, or
3. Murder it so we have to trash it.

What's your guess there, internets?

A Night of Recognition

Tonight my school district held its first Service Award Dinner, and it was much better than I expected. Employees - including teachers, auxiliary personnel, custodians, administrative staff, administration, & more - received $500 per five years of service (for 5, 10, 15 years, etc.). Over $335,000 were distributed to staff members at tonight's dinner. That dollar amount does not include employees who were not in attendance that have been with the district for five years. There was a man who received recognition for being with our district for 35 years. Wow.

One thing I did notice is that with all of the people there (over 250), there were only a couple of former employees from my building. I knew many others there, but they were from my time at another school, people I met in trainings, service personnel, etc. That alone showed me that our staff stays at my school for a reason, and the main reason we ever lose people is because they go on to bigger and better things.

With everything going on in today's economy and DISD, I feel very privileged to work for a district that truly values its employees. Tonight is one example that proved that to be true.

A picture of my assistant principal (in year 16), my principal (in year 15) & me (in year 11). A fun note: I graduated from high school w/ Lance (my principal)!

The only thing that would have made the evening better - wine with dinner. :) Guess goverment dollars don't pay for alcohol unless you're in the political arena!

Blogoversary

Happy 1st Blogoversary to Todd and Kristin's Blog!!!
I started this blog one year ago today. I didn't know what it would become - if anything - but it has evolved into the most elaborate diary I've ever kept in my short (ahem) time here on Earth. I was in hopes that Todd would publish at least one post because he is a wonderful writer, but blogging is not his thing. Maybe that should be a goal for our second year of this her blog. My first post started it all. I have enjoyed blogging, and hope that all of you out there are enjoying reading it all.

A Few Little Stats:
- First post: October 20, 2007
- Over 15,000 visitors received
- Visitors from dozens of countries
- Visitors from almost every state of the US
- 156 posts published
- 21 posts in 2007
- 135 posts (including this one) in 2008
- Month with most posts: July 2008
- Month with fewest posts: February 2008

I love that our blog has received hits from all over the world. Please leave me a comment from wherever you are, so you can enjoy a virtual piece of blogoversary cake!

Todd's Green Thumb

It is AMAZING how much work Todd has done on our landscaping! There is grass throughout the backyard where before there was a huge 12'x6' patch missing (thanks to the dogs). Our backyard is full of lush plants which have grown so much this year that we'll have to dig some up and transplant it elsewhere. We have added three new trees in the past two years. A small garden is ready for some planting. We actually have yards that we can use and enjoy!



I'm so proud of my husband and all of his hard work. He has made our home much more beautiful!

SSshhhhhhh

Don't tell Todd, but I registered us today with the Yellow Pages Go Green website. :) I found a way so we won't be receiving the dozens of tree-killin', space-takin' telephone books that Todd loves so much. (Hello, use the computer honey!) Maybe he'll figure it out when the new books don't show up at our house, and I recycle the old ones when he's not looking. Aaahhhhh - I can't wait!

Sunrise, Sunset

If you're cool like me, you're now singing that song from "Fiddler on the Roof." Uh, anyway . . .

Going home from school last night, I saw this:

Coming back to work this morning, I saw this:

Gorgeous full moon shots, aren't they? Don't know when I'll get to see the light of day again. At least teaching in a windowless classroom for the past 7 years doesn't get me too exposed to the outdoors. ;)

100 North American Foods

Same setup from my food list as I did before. Bold if eaten, Strike out if you'll never eat it, and I added Italics if I didn't know WTH it is!

1. New York pizza (not in NY - does it still count?)
2. Hoppin' John
3. New Mexico green chile
4. Homemade buttermilk biscuits
5. Tasso
6. Whole Maine lobster
7. Calabash-style shrimp and hushpuppies
8. Kansas City barbecue ribs
9. Hot glazed Krispy Kreme
10. San Diego fish tacos
11. Cheese curds
12. Key lime pie
13. Philly cheese steak
14. Memphis pork barbecue sandwich (Texas BBQ is the best, though!)
15. Lowcountry boil
16. Huckleberry pie
17. New England clam chowder
18. Boiled peanuts
19. Buffalo (Bison) burger
20. Eggs Benedict
21. Pastrami on rye
22. Corned beef and cabbage
23. Pancakes with maple syrup
24. Everything bagel with cream cheese and tomato
25. Thin Mints
26. Frito pie
27. Potato knish with mustard
28. Silver Queen corn on the cob
29. Soft pretzel from a street cart
30. Fresh-picked blueberries
31. Sourwood honey
32. State fair funnel cake
33. Chesapeake crab cakes
34. Candied yams
35. Oyster dressing
36. Snow cone or snowball
37. Wild Alaskan salmon
38. Sautéed more
39. Persimmon pudding
40. General Tso's Chicken
41. Frozen custard
42. Italian sausage with peppers and onions on a hoagie bun
43. Chili dogs
44. Buffalo wings with blue cheese (I hate blue cheese - ick)
45. Spam musubi (This is like a sushi made with Spam)
46. Saltwater taffy
47. Fluffernutter sandwich on Wonder Bread
48. Black and white cookie (is it an Oreo?)
49. Frybread
50. BLT with thick-cut applewood bacon
51. Baked beans
52. Pumpkin pie
53. Collards with vinegar and Tabasco
54. Tex-Mex fajitas with skirt steak and sautéed peppers
55. Fried green tomatoes
56. Succotash
57. Shrimp and grits
58. Hot water cornbread
59. Barbecue chicken pizza with red onions
60. Chicken fried steak
61. Carnitas burrito
62. Apple butter
63. Geoduck (pronounced: Gooey-duck)
64. Soft-serve ice cream cone dipped in chocolate shell
65. Pecan pie
66. Catfish supper at a church or fire station
67. Oysters Rockefeller
68. Homemade cranberry sauce
69. Pimento cheese
70. MoonPie washed down with R.C. Cola
71. Pickled watermelon rind
72. Cracker Jacks at the ball game
73. Smithfield ham
74. Meatloaf and mashed potato blue plate special at diner
75. Chicken and waffles
76. Po'Boy with many napkins
77. Green bean casserole with French's fried onions
78. Stuffed sopapillas
79. Turducken
80. Shad roe on toast
81. Sweet potato casserole with or without marshmallows
82. Cioppino
83. New York cheesecake
84. Pan-fried river trout
85. Jambalaya
86. North Carolina pig pickin'
87. California rolls (assuming this is sushi)
88. Burgoo
89. Penuche fudge
90. Fried peanut butter and banana sandwich
91. Scrapple or livermush
92. Elk medallions in red wine reduction
93. Muscadine grapes
94. Cheeseburger at backyard barbecue
95. Open-face turkey sandwich
96. Chicago deep dish pizza
97. Cobb salad
98. Peach pie a la mode
99. Macaroni and cheese
100. Root beer float

What We Shouldn't Be Having for Dinner

But we are. Pot roast.

Easy enough, huh? Lightly brown it, drop it in a crock pot, add some broth or water, later add veggies, and voila dinner! It's simple, easy, delicious, hearty, and filling, right? Right. Unless . . .


. . . the dogs steal it off the counter. And eat it. Raw. Mostly thawed. All 3.5 pounds of it. Damn dogs.


You may wonder the reason we ARE having pot roast tonight. It's called the grocery store. Thank you, Sprouts. Dinner is almost ready, and it's pot roast. Surprisingly it's beef, not dog.

Damn Dogs.

You Give a Dog a __________

You give a puppy a home,
And he destroys a lot of it.
You give the puppy some food,
And he grows to be HUGE.
You give a dog some love,
And he licks you to death.
You give a dog a friend,
And he loves to play.
You give a dog a yard,
And he wants to play in his crate.
You show your dog a camera,
And he gives his mom a show.

Directly from Kristin's crude cell phone video camera, I present to you "Crate Wrestling":




Yes, you probably noticed at the end of the video that Steve sat on Pippin, looked at me with that "You wanna show?" look, and proceeded to begin humping Pippin. End of video.

Lovely.

Very Quick Update

- My mom went back to work yesterday. She's on light duty, but she said it was nice to be back. I hope she doesn't wear herself out!

- Mary is doing okay. She's still on a lot of pain meds through hospice care. She is still very sharp in her mind, but her body is failing her.

- My brother and SIL will most likely both be laid off this next week. I'm not sure what they'll for their family to survive, so it's very scary right now. Both of them work for DISD, and they (like hundreds of others) have been screwed by the ineptitude of a defunct school district that needs to be put down.

- If I didn't have Monday off, I would need to take it off for mental health reasons. I'm so exhausted and overwhelemed lately. I hope I can catch up some this weekend.

The Texas State Fair

We had a GREAT time at the Fair last night with our friends, Lisa and Shaun, and their twin ten-month old daughters. The weather was perfect, not too crowded, and there was plenty of good & greasy food! It was the first time Todd and I had been to the Fair together, and his first time in over a decade. It was well worth it!

Click below to see our photos:

State Fair

What more could you ask for? Friends, fun, food, fair, & gorgeous weather. I got my baby fix - and I think Todd did, too! ;)

RAGWEED

And I do NOT mean the Cross Canadian kind of ragweed that you hear on the radio. It's a quiet, little bastard that looks something like this:

Now keep in mind that I haven't seen any while driving down the road. Or in my classroom. Or while asleep. Or at my mom's house. Or in my car. Or in the shower. Or in our home. I saw ragweed on September 25 (hheellllllloooooo --- ten days ago) and it's still killing me.

I swear that I am going to die from the grips of ragweed. It has been YEARS since I've had fits of sneezing, running nose, itchy & watery eyes, wheezing, swelling & other deadly type stuff. Next year when we have to take the 4th graders to the Outdoor Learning Center, there will be three options: (1) I'm not going, (2) it will need to be schedule after a HUGE winter freeze, or (3) we'll have to go to an INdoor Learning Center.

I'm off to whine some more and scrape the corneas off of my eyes again . . .

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY HERO

Today is my brother's birthday!!! Jeffrey and I are 3.5 years apart - of course I'm older. :)

The best thing about Jeff is that he is my hero. You see, Jeffrey took on a special job from God. When God asked him if he'd be willing to be born into a body and mind that wouldn't work well, Jeffrey graciously accepted with a smile. So my younger brother is living the life that God asked of him - a life of challenges, fears, pain, and suffering. Thankfully, God also gave Jeff a sense of humor, strength, the ability to give and receive love, a special form of communication, patience, kindness, and the ability to bring complete joy and a full heart to all of those around him.

I could go on and on about my brother, Jeff, but I just can't. I'll just say that there is a protected and untouchable part of my heart that is (and always will be) only Jeffrey's. Jeffrey brings out emotions in his big sister than nobody else can and ever will.

So, happy birthday Jeffman. I love you more than you can ever, ever, ever imagine. You are the light of our lives and we all celebrate you today. Thank you for being my hero.

3Bathtime, circa 1978 - Jeff has always loved anything water. My family and I could write novels about lifetime of escapades related to all things water -pool, hose, washtub, bathtub, anything & everything water escapades!)


3 Hugs from my brother.

The first photo shown of us (very top) is from several years ago. Jeff, Mom, and I went to Fly Day, an event sponsored by Challenge Air, and Jeff was laughing and screaming because he knew he was going to fly in a plane. Yeah, he covers HIS ears, but not ours - lol!