How much good inside a day?

New Username!

2007-09-29T18:28:43Z

I changed my username again.

It's the name of a pasta shape.

It means "little ears".

I love pasta and I have little ears. That's pretty much the extent of my thought process.

New car...hopefully.

2007-09-23T23:29:25Z

So, after spending about a month trying to figure out why my car was leaking oil it turns out that it's a bigger issue than anticipated and that it would probably be about a $1000 repair.

Ouch.

Not worth it.

We were hoping to be able to wait at least until the end of this year so that Dan could get his raise but it seems like I need a new car now.

We took a trip to CarMax and test drive several vehicles and I settled on a Honda CR-V EX. We didn't want to buy from CarMax because Dan knew he could get a better deal from a normal dealership where you can haggle out the prices. The man is a GOOD negotiator. He's tenacious about it, too. We were at the VW dealership until 10:30 at night the day he bought his car.

Anyway, we ended up going over to the Honda Carland here in Roswell and found a lovely, dark blue, Honda CR-V EX, 2004, 24,000 miles. Dan didn't want to commit that day simply because we had JUST made the decision to get me a new car.

They weren't open today and Dan is going out of town tomorrow. He's going to try and do the negotiation over the phone from Wisconsin and get a written agreement on a price so that I can take my car in to trade on Monday evening. CarMax appraised my car at $2,000 so I have that paperwork to wave at them if Honda Carland tries for any less. I've got about $1,500 saved and Dan said he would contribute $2,000 since it's essentially going to be our "family vehicle" for traveling and driving the dogs around.

With any luck I will have a new car by tomorrow evening! A pretty nice car, too. My "grown-up car".

Since it's a Honda I can just keep it forever.

I need to call my house and see if my dad can come with me tomorrow to help hash out the details. I am just NOT good at dealing with people in these sorts of situations. I get very flustered and nervous an end up just agreeing to whatever just to get out of there. Not exactly good when you are trying to negotiate such a large purchase.

Dan needs the computer. Or, the printer, really. Either way I have to get off now!

:)

My classroom!

2007-09-10T23:41:01Z

I was finally able to take some pictures of my room. It's a little messy but that's what happens in kindergarten. You get so busy you forget to pick up after yourself until the end of the day. Anyway, here goes!

My Word Wall/Calendar/Morning Message/Classroom Library/Reading Area.

My desk area. Don't mind the mess.

My Guided Reading table/Classroom Jobs chart/Incentive chart (rocket). We haven't started reading groups yet so the table is a "catch all" at the moment.

My Paraprofessional's desk/Television/Traffic Light.

My Mailboxes/Sink/Bathroom area.

One of the walls where I display work/My free play shelf/my Learning Stations buckets (right).

My Loft/Housekeeping area. It's decorated with color words/pictures that the kids painted.

So, that's that. I like my room. It's very colorful!

Also, here are photos of my hallway display. My principal RAVED about it the other day so I am quite pleased with myself.

We have their photos on there, their names, shape books, shape pictures made with glue and rice, paper dolls they made of themselves, and rainbow macaroni/glitter names, and color fish.

Isn't kindergarten fun??

So, I pretty much dropped off the face of the earth...

2007-09-01T14:50:02Z

...but I'm back!

The sinus infection was killer, the antibiotics made me incredibly sick to my stomach, work has been WORK, and...

We got a new dog!

Needless to say, my life has been pretty full.

Anyway, the new baby's name is Louie and he's a Basenji mix. He has cute, pointy ears, white socks, and spots all over his belly. Whatever he is mixed with must have been HUGE because he has feet that look like they belong on a 100+ pound dog and he only weighs 40 pounds. It's pretty comical. He yodels like a Basenji and makes the funniest noises when he's "talking" to Trevor. He has a fairly normal sounding bark, too, but he rarely uses it. I like that both of our dogs are very quiet.

Here are some pictures!

Louie is only about a year or so old so he still acts like a big puppy. He's all muscle and big feet so when he jumps on you it's a little painful. He has also figured out how to steal things off of counters so we have to push everything really far back. He's a sweetie, though, and likes to snuggle with me on the couch. We're going back to the rescue today to finalize the adoption.

:)

MORE PUPPIES!

2007-08-22T01:34:53Z

Dan and I have finished the fence (except for one gate)!

This means ANOTHER DOGGIE!!!

We are going to meet a few dogs this weekend at this rescue organization over in Decatur. I AM SO EXCITED!!

One is a corgi mix, one is a fawn colored doberman mix, and the last one is a black and white sheperd mix. We're leaning towards a particular one BUT since the new dog has to get along with Trevor we are keeping our options open. The one we like best on paper might not be the one he gets along with best.

I will love any dog we get! If I had my way I would own a freakin' zoo of animals.

Anyway, that's the big news right now. I'm still being kind of reclusive at the moment so forgive me.

Worst Week Ever!

2007-08-19T13:11:38Z

Not really. But close.

Let's go back to pre-planning week. I was hot gluing stuff to my wall and I went and burned the absolute PISS out of my right hand while attempting to load a new stick into the hot glue gun. It's a second degree burn. According to the almighty internet I was supposed to get treatment for it since it's on my hand. Oops. It seems to be doing fine but the new, tighter skin hurts if I bend my hand too much.

So, I've been dealing with that mess.

THEN on Sunday night my back, left, upper teeth began to hurt. I've been battling teeth pain off and on for about a year or so now. We can't figure out what the problem is. I am also due for a cleaning so I thought I might have a cavity. I went by the dentist office on Tuesday to make an appointment and the hygenist had a few extra minutes so she took an X-ray of my teeth. She said she couldn't see a problem but that my sinuses appeared to be sitting extremely low, pretty much right on top of my teeth, and that if they were irritated then it could be causing my teeth to hurt. I hadn't been feeling any true sinus symptoms so I kind of just filed that theory away to think about later.

Well, the next day, I woke up and I was extremely mucus-y. I thought it was because of the extreme heat or something. I went about my day and made an appointment with the doctor to get my sinuses checked out just in case. On my way home I started to feel absolutely AWFUL and the left side of the roof of my mouth seemed to be swelling up. I pulled into the CVS near my house becasue they have a Minute Clinic (a nurse practitioner runs an office there and can diagnose and treat common ailments). She took a look down my throat, in my nose, and felt the pressure in my face and said that I had a classic sinus infection. I got some antibiotics and then, since I was having pain in my teeth and my throat, I decided that I wanted a milkshake and fries for dinner. I drove to two different Chick-Fil-A's and one was closed for remodeling and the other had a broken ice cream machine. AAAARRGH! I got really upset and called my mom and begged her to bring me a milkshake and fries. Luckily, being the wonderful mommy she is, she did so right away AND cleaned the kitchen.

This whole thing explains why I had been sleeping literally 12-14 hours a day since Monday. I would wake up, go to work, come home, go to sleep on the couch, and wake up to crawl in bed. The only thing that got me off the couch was when I needed to let the dog out or feed him. Dan was out of town so I didn't have anyone to help me around the house so things got a little gross.

BUT, I'm back. My antibiotics are working, the pain and swelling are going down. I'm starting to feel better.

The one good thing this week has been my kids. They were so awesome this week! I really hope that this trend continues because, so far, I am really impressed with how well they are following directions and listening. They are really neat and clean, too. I haven't even had to do a lesson on how to use glue and we've already done two "glue heavy" projects. Plus, they are all ADORABLE. I want to take them all home! They aren't a super "high" bunch of kids but they all seem to be hard workers and they seem to really want to learn. I haven't noticed any truly lazy ones, yet. They are also very quiet which is definitely a change from last year! I really wish it wasn't totally inappropriate to post pictures of them on here.

Anyway, I'm going to try and get some chores done since I've been neglecting my household duties this week.

Ramblings...

2007-08-01T04:27:06Z

I just need to win these next two Ebay auctions and then I am DONE for a while. I've already won 7 auctions of smaller lots of books by specific authors. Now I'm working on a bunch of Eric Carle books and a big lot of Caldecott award winners. Those auctions don't end until the day after tomorrow so I can take a break from watching the computer for a day. Even if I end up paying my maximum bid for the next two auctions I'll only end up paying about $2 per book when you do the math for ALL the books I've purchased/am going to purchase. Not a bad deal at all considering that a lot of them are brand new/hardly used. If I was paying retail for all these books (brand new) I could easily be paying close to $1000.

I'm going to be getting a lot of packages in the next week or so, haha.

The next step is to find books that fit the kindergarten themes. We have "All About Me" and "Transportation" and "Apples" etc. and it changes every two weeks. I also need some holiday books. I'm thinking that if I target the holiday auctions at least 2 months ahead of time I can avoid too much competition.

Ugh. All this strategizing! I should have bought books last year but, since they were readily available for borrowing, I just didn't bother. It was one less thing I had to spend money on.

I'm starting to gather ideas for my lesson plans for the first three weeks of school. I've already thought of some good things to do and gotten some ideas from the internet. I need my notebook that they gave us last year, though, so I can really get started. I'm going to try and have my lessons done monthly instead of weekly so that I'm not killing myself every week. I need to figure out a good way to type them up. Last year I had trouble because I never liked any of my formats and I tried using Excel but I suck at it. I think I need Dan to give me a tutorial.

That's enough about school. Now that today's auctions have ended it's time for me to go to bed!

Schoooooool Days.

2007-07-29T14:10:34Z

I am going Ebay crazy right now!

I am watching/bidding on 4 different children's book auctions right now. I won one last night for 6 or 7 Dr. Seuss books. I've currently got a group of Eric Carle, a group of Kevin Henkes, and a group of Laura Numeroff books in my sights. I'm also trying really hard to win a HUGE lot of Caldecott award winning picture books. There is another one that I'm watching that I'm not sure I want to bid on. There are a lot of great books in the lot but there are also a lot of random ones, too.

I love Ebay.

Last year I used a lot of my parapro's books since she used to be a kindergarten teacher and still had a bunch of them. I don't have that luxury this year so I am trying to build up a nice sized library fairly quickly.

I can't wait to get my $100 gift card from the state. I already have definite plans for that money. About half of it is going towards area rugs for my read-aloud and calendar areas. Then I'm going to get some PVC pipes to make Phonics Phones for my reading groups. After that I'll still have a little bit to play around with so we'll see what I end up with. I'll probably got to JoAnn's and get some fabric for my walls and to cover up my book cases. I was also thinking about making fabric curtains to hide my housekeeping area when it is not in use but I'll have to see how that one would work.

I got permission so take a bunch of stuff out of other classrooms (classrooms where the previous years teacher isn't returning). I ended up with a kidney shaped table (great for reading groups), a fabulous easel (the previous teacher had to leave it because the school purchased it for the room), and an extra computer table that I can put next to my desk to create more surface area. I'm also looking to get rid of a lot of my housekeeping stuff, like my table and chairs, the extra doll and doll bed I had, and the two rocking chairs that caused nothing but DRAMA last year.

My room has a lot more stuff in it BUT it flows much better and the space is being utilized better. I have more floor space now. I'll definitely take pictures when it's all set up since it will finally be how I want it.

I love Friday!

2007-07-27T16:12:55Z

Another lazy Friday!

I love having summer off. I also love that my summer job is only 4 days a week for 4 hours a day, haha.

I am still procrastinating over sending my paperwork in to the Social Security Office. I have it all filled out I just keep forgetting that I need to buy a big envelope so that I can mail the marriage license and my passport and stuff along with the application.

Let's see...what else is new...

Oh, I need to get Trevor's Heartguard and I need to buy a toilet brush so that I can clean the toilets. Apparently we threw ours out when we moved and I didn't know that until I went to try and find it this week. I also want to take Trevor to the dog park for a while since we are going to be over in Dunwoody anyway.

I spent a few hours yesterday moving furniture around my classroom. They didn't have the air turned on so I was pretty disgusting by the end of the day. Last year I just left things as the previous teacher had arranged them because I didn't have time to fix things up because of all of the stupid MONDO Literacy Design training we had to go to during pre-planning week. I also couldn't get into my room early last summer because of construction. I didn't like the way things were arranged but I just dealt with it. Now I am changing up everything. I just hope the dumb ol' fire marshall doesn't have a cow about the fact that I put my big metal storage cabinets in the bathroom. The bathroom is HUGE and the cabinets don't block anything so I really don't see what the big deal is. I am also going to hang things from the ceiling, put stuff on the wall within 5 feet of my doorways, and cover my big dividing wall with fabric that ISN'T flame retardant (if flame retardant material is too expensive, anyway). MWAHAHAHA.

Seriously, though, if you follow all the stupid rules then your classroom ends up looking barren. Not cool.

I figure the worst thing that can happen is they ask me to change it.

Since I worked the SPARK kindercamp this summer I got to meet 11 of my kids and I LOVE them. I think I ended up with a fairly high group and they were so well behaved for the three days I had them. Almost all of them caught on to things really quickly. I ended up using all of the extra work I had been given for "early finishers". Hopefully they won't throw in any crazy kids before school starts. I don't need anyone messing this up!

What else...

Oh, I've lost 8 pounds! Between moving in with Dan, starting teaching, and planning the wedding I had gained a fair amount of weight over the last year (about 10-15 pounds) and was feeling really gross. I finally started doing something about it after I noticed that I was starting to get a fat pooch above my knees and imagined me as a 300 pound lady whose thighs and upper arms had gotten so big that the fat pooches were covering her elbows and knees. You know what I'm talking about. You've seen it! After that I was like "Oh, hell no. No, no, no. Not me!" So I started cutting back and working out more in the second week in June and I've lost 8 pounds. From 156 to 148 as of this morning. I'm going to try for between 135 and 140. So far so good!

Here's the thing about my weight, though, that's always bugged me. I will fully admit that I am lucky and never gain weight around my middle. No matter how much I've weighed I've always had a flat stomach and a small waist (as evidenced by my size 6 wedding dress!). I gain weight in my butt and thighs where it's less noticeable. Lots of people are shocked when they find out my true weight or pants size because "You're waist is so tiny!". Yeah, well, check out this ass! Haha.

This leads to a lot of "Why are you trying to lose weight?" and "You don't need to lose weight!" and "You can eat this huge piece of cake because you're young and tiny and it doesn't matter!"

The final comment usually comes from someone at work (a lot of middle aged women work in elementary schools). I always feel like I would be insulting them, since they are almost always lamenting about needing to lose weight, if I didn't take the cake and eat it. Like I was saying something like "Oh, no thanks. I don't want to end up like you." or whatever. Plus, if I didn't eat it, they would start in on the "Why are you worrying about your weight? You don't need to!" comments which are just annoying! Don't make me feel bad just because I am concerned about my health and wellbeing.

Luckily, my mom is not one of those women. She was chunky when she was a teenager/young adult and has gone the opposite route of most people and now weighs significantly less than she did when she was younger. She's always told me not to let myself get too big because it just makes you miserable and that it's better to worry about it now than when you're 40 and it's even harder to lose. Thank goodness for her otherwise I might give up on this whole thing and just keep eating that damn cake!

Anyway, that's enough of that. I think that has been brewing in me for a while. Amanda and I were discussing this stuff last night (we have very similar body types) and I guess it finally got to me.

Hrm. Anything else?

I don't think so. I can't wait for pre-planning week! That's my favorite week because I get to decorate and play with school supplies and such all week. I get so geeked out over school supplies! I bought pencil boxes for my kids at Office Depot for $0.19 apiece! They can keep their crayons, pencils, scissors, etc. in them and there will be less disputes over everything because everyone has their own box. That will be nice. The communal thing didn't really work for me last year so I'm going this route. I also got individual dry erase boards for the kids to use (Go to Home Depot and ask for tileboard. $10 for a huge sheet and they will cut it into 12x12 squares for free. I got 24 I think). I am so excited about all my new stuff!

Okay...so there was more. It wasn't important, though. I was just having a moment.

I should do something now.

RANT!

2007-07-25T20:12:50Z

I am so frustrated!

Trevor needs his heartworm medication. We ran out of his year supply last month without realizing it. We need to give it to him this month.

I (apparently stupidly) thought it would be no problem to go to a vet clinic here in Roswell and get it as long as they called his former vet to confirm that he was negative for heartworm back in April when he had his yearly.

This is not so, unfortunately. I am getting frustrated because he is now a few days late with it and I am worried that, since more mosquitoes are out because of the slightly damper weather we've been having, he's going to end up with heartworm. I can't get over to our vet clinic in Dunwoody until Friday so then he will be even LATER on it. GRRRRRR!!!

Plus, I'm not sure how long is too long to go between monthly treatments. If we wait too long he's going to have to get another $40 heartworm test which I really don't want to pay for because he JUST HAD ONE IN APRIL.

That's the end of my rant. Thanks for listening.

Perhaps I will update with happy things later on.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2007-07-22T19:15:11Z

It took me about 11 hours to read the book from beginning to end without skipping anything. I was, essentially, up for over 30 hours straight (5:30 AM Friday morning until 1:30 Saturday afternoon) and it was totally worth it.

I love, love, loved it. Seriously. Everything was just so...fitting.

I liked the fact that Ron, Hermione, and Harry had lots of trouble figuring out the Horcruxes. I know that they spent a lot of time hanging out in a tent in the woods and it wasn't the most exciting stuff in the world but it just wouldn't have worked at all if they were suddenly figuring out stuff left and right.

Dobby's death really got to me when it happened. I really liked Dobby and I was serisously a teensy bit teary when they were burying him and everyone dressed him up in the clothes and Harry dug the grave by hand. I thought that was a very well written scene.

I loved how they showed Dumbledore as being imperfect. It was so great that Harry finally got to see that he wasn't the best person in the world, that he had made mistakes and had regrets and was real instead of this exalted, great wizard.

The scene when the snake came out of Bathilda's body was DISGUSTING. I don't know what they are going to do with that whenever they make the seventh movie. Ick.

Fred, Tonks, Lupin...Oh Lord. I was actually getting through it okay until they said something about Tonks and Lupin looking like they were sleeping under the enchanted ceiling and then when Harry was in the Forbidden forest with all of their "spirits" or whatever you want to call them and he was apologizing because they had just had their baby. It was pretty heartbreaking!

I LOVE NEVILLE in this book. He is SOOO awesome!!! His grandmother was a hoot, too.

Harry being "killed" by Voldemort and then going through the mist and seeing Dumbledore, chatting with him, and then being given the chance to go back (there are so many more details but they are jumbled in my head right now) was just an awesome way to do things. I had an inkling that Harry's death was somehow going to be the secret to killing VOldemort for good (and I'm sure a lot of other people did too) but I didn't want to believe it because I didn't want him to die. Letting him come back and finish the job was PERFECT.

The Snape/Lilly revelation was the BEST. I knew there was more to things than Snape hating him solely because James was a jerk to him in school. I felt so bad for Snape.

THEN, Sarah and I were RIGHT about Dumbledore TELLING Snape that he had to kill him. We both were hanging on to the idea that Snape was really good. Turns out he pretty much had the hardest job of anyone on the Order. Far more than anyone realized. Again, perfect.

Molly Weasly kicks major ass, haha. That whole scene with Bellatrix was just plain awesome!

The epilogue was...sappy. The kind of stuff I would have made up in my head but wouldn't want to actually be seen written down in the book. It was almost too much. Sure, it gave me warm fuzzies and blah, blah, blah but I think I'm with Sarah and would have been fine without an epilogue at all.

Okay...I think that's all I have to say about the book. I'll probably reread it this week so that I can really soak it all in.

Wedding Pictures, Harry Potter, SPARK, New House, etc.

2007-07-16T01:18:34Z

So...I finally am getting around to posting wedding photos for anyone on here who is interested!

Final check before starting pictures.

Me, the bride.

My girls!

My handsome groom.

The boys, including Dan's father (a Colonel in the U.S. Army) as the best man.

The ceremony.

Our officiant was really funny!

The big smooch!

Canoodling after the ceremony.

Riding the golf cart back up to the reception.

A snuggle session in the vineyard.

My grandfather couldn't be at the wedding because he had to have open heart surgery. They got him on speaker phone and basically made me bawl my eyes out. I was doing fine up until that point!

First dance.

Cutting the cake.

Tossing the bouquet. This picture cracks me up because of my face!

The girl who caught it has been my friend since we were both about three years old. Her mom was happy that she was the one that got it, haha.

The DJ told Dan to take take the garter off with his teeth. He actually DID but I guess the photographer didn't get a good shot of it. I was really surprised that he actually did it, hence the expression.

Our beautiful argyle socks in my wedding colors!

My mom and dad dancing.

Dan's mom and aunt dancing.

The wedding train!

Our DJ, Lonn Spencer. He has been friends with my parents since before I was born. He is an EXCELLENT DJ (he was featured in Bride's magazine as being one of the top 100 wedding DJ's in the country or something), but a little on the crazy side.

Our friends gettin' down.

Dancing the final dance in my socks.

On our way out!

The flowers.

The arbor decoration.

The programs.

The cake.

The groom's cake. It came out so well!!

The obligatory "wedding rings in the bridal bouquet" shot.

All images are copyright of Lindsey McIntyre Photography.

We were looking at the photos with my parents today and I started reminisce about the wedding so I thought I would do a little write up on here.

It was a BLAST! I had so much fun!! I think everyone had so much fun! Our photographer was awesome and hardly took any time taking our pictures. Everyone looked GORGEOUS! I was kind of worried about the color of the bridesmaid dresses looking good on everyone but it was beautiful! All the boys looked really good in their tuxes (and Dan's dad in his uniform...which pretty much matched my color scheme, haha). I loooooooved my flowers even though I didn't even know what they were going to look like until I got them that day, haha. My cake was super yummy and MOIST which, I've discovered, is something that a lot of wedding cakes lack. The food was really good, too. The people at Wolf Mountain were so great I didn't worry about anything.

So, suffice to say, it was the best day of my life, so far. I loved every minute of it!

In other news, the seventh Harry Potter book comes out on Friday (or Saturday, I guess) and I am going to a super duper Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Read All Night Party at Sarah's apartment because I am a dork. Dan is a party pooper and has opted out BUT that's okay. He can hang out with the boys that night and get in some quality "male bonding" time. Or something like that. I'll probably be too engrossed in my reading to really care what the heck he does that night.

I can't wait!!! I feel like such a loser for being so excited but I am SO EXCITED!!!

Now I have to figure out in I am going to make Treacle Tarts or Cauldrom Cakes (or both) for the party. I think I will make both because that will just be fun. I found recipes for them online.

On Tuesday I start working at the SPARK kindergarten preparedness camp at school. It should be interesting. I'm glad I'm actually getting to work it since I got voted the "SPARK Coordinator" for next year. It would be nice to know how it actually works! I'm mostly excited about the super fat extra paycheck I'll be getting for it on top of my regular pay. Plus, the kids who are in your SPARK group get placed in your kindergarten class for the year so I will already know half my class. That will be really nice.

Um, other than that stuff I'm still unpacking things around the house. Owning a house is fun, especially now that we're almost completely unpacked. We have so much room to spread out. Hopefully, we'll be able to have people over soon for a get-together. Dan almost has enough points on his corporate card to get us a free wine tasting party for up to 20 people. Whatever company it's through provides the wine and the expert as long as you provide the people and the food. We're thinking about doing that just for shits and giggles.

Anyway, that's about it. THe dog is bugging me so I think he needs to take a potty break. We don't have the yard fenced completely, yet, so I still have to take him out on the leash. Not for much longer, though!

Am I seeing improvement?

2007-06-27T21:44:01Z

My doctor said that it might take a week or two to see a real difference in my thoughts/behaviors once I started taking the meds but I'm on day 2 and I think I can already detect a change.

My day today has gone something like this:

-wake up
-shower
-get ready while watching Saved By The Bell (the infamous "oil spill" episode)
-leave for the closing
-sign a metric ton of paperwork
-come home
-leave for two hours of camp
-come home
-lunch
-take the dog to the park
-work out
-clean the kitchen

Not once did I get distracted and forget what I was doing, not once did I stop for a "break" when I was cleaning, not once did I have to hunt down my keys, cell phone, purse, gate card, etc.

Normally my day would look something like this:

-wake up
-shower
-get ready while watching Saved By The Bell (the infamous "oil spill" episode)
-waste time looking for hairbrush/hairdryer/makeup brush/shirt/shoes etc.
-leave for camp
-forget sunglasses for outside time
-when fetching sunglasses leave water bottle inside
-forget where you stashed the scissors/crayons/supplies from the day before
-realize that you've left your wallet back at the apartment
-come home
-lunch
-take the dog to the park
-lock keys in car and call dad to bring the spare
-come home
-waste time watching TV/playing on the internet
-work out
-come home
-waste more time watching TV/playing on the internet
-clean the kitchen
-take frequent breaks to watch TV/play on the internet

I also feel much, much calmer overall. Not so "on edge".

Maybe it's the placebo effect, who knows, but I like it!

Strattera

2007-06-26T21:06:00Z

So, the doctor took one look at my questionnaire and asked me how I would feel about going on Strattera (http://www.strattera.com/index.jsp). I went for it. We should start seeing the effects in about 2 weeks. Hopefully, things will change for the better. If not, then we'll try something else. She seemed very confident in diagnosing me as having ADD (as a teacher, I'm wary of this particular diagnosis just because of how much I see the term tossed around). We'll see how things go with this. I'm just hoping to be able to remember more stuff, follow through on my ideas/activities, and actually be able to have one cohesive thought in my head at a time instead of 57 bits and pieces rolling around in there.

My mom is all for it as she has been dealing with me and my jumbled brain for 23 1/2 years now. I think the only thing that kept me from being noticed for this in school was that I had parents that stayed on my back about everything and I was pretty smart. It didn't really affect my grades too badly (although, I fully admit that I could have done much better in high school than I did. I came out okay, though). It's just come to a head now that I'm on my own and have to take responsibility for myself. I just started thinking about the house and how I was going to be responsible for everything when Dan was traveling and I am barely able to take care of things in this dumb ol' apartment. Then I started thinking about having kids and how chaotic things were going to be if I didn't figure out a solution to my problem before I had a bunch of little rugrats to chase around and clean up after. Yikes!

This is my first step in making a concerted effort to better myself. I'm married now, I own a house, and might be popping out a kid in the next 3 or 4 years. If I can't take care of myself then how am I going to handle everything else???

Breakfast?

2007-06-26T12:08:51Z

I haven't written anything in here in forever.

I've been pretty busy.

Wedding, honeymoon, packing to move this coming Saturday, working at camp, taking classes, blah blah blah.

I've been waiting for the wedding photos to come in the mail. They should be here any day now!

I taught a bunch of 4-year-olds how to make pinch pots yesterday. Some of them did a really neat job and made theirs nice and smooth. Others got really into the pinching part and made theirs all lumpy and fingerprinty. They are all "organic shapes" I've decided. Today we're painting them and working on self-portraits and still life.

I'm going to the doctor today to go over my ADD questionnaire that I completed yesterday. I've only been meaning to do this for about a year but I haven't made the time. Hopefully I can get some solutions to my constant disorganization, forgetfulness, scatterbrained-ness (I think I made that one up) and lack of focus/poor attention span. Perhaps the insomnia/anxiety, too. Blah. The idea of taking medicine to change my brain chemistry kind of freaks me out. We'll see.

I've been training for a 5K for the past couple of weeks. I don't know which 5K yet but I want to run one sometime in the future. Hopefully there will be one worth doing once I get comfortable with running. Working out is a lot easier when you have a specific goal in mind. I haven't missed a day yet.

Um...I've found a dog that I want. A black and white corgi-lab mix! I've been writing back and forth with his foster mom. Dan wants to wait a couple of months to see where we are financially before we commit to another dog and I understand where he's coming from. I just really like this dog! I've told the woman keeping him that we wouldn't be able to do anything right away but that we were both really interested. He's been at the rescue a long time and the woman stated that she's been really picky about who he goes to because of his past but that we sound like a good match for him. Basically, the poor thing was abandoned and left for dead (along with a bunch of other animals) by a different "rescue organization". He lost all his fur to mange and was covered in fleas and ticks and had multiple infections. She's stated that he's perfectly fine now and shows no signs of trauma from his situation, so that's good. Hopefully she will keep on being picky so that he'll still be available in a couple of months! Trevor would love to have a pal in the house.

That's about it. We move next Saturday. I'm looking forward to the house but I really wish there was some way to skip over the actual moving part. Moving sucks! I have no idea how to organize everything and pack in a sensible manner. Thank goodness Dan is a moving expert. He's been purging like crazy the past few days. It's nice to get rid of stuff. Everything feels so much better!

Am I married yet? I'm ready for the party...

2007-05-24T02:04:17Z

WIth my wedding only...um...4 days away it is almost laughable how incredibly klutzy I've suddenly become.

Let's see...

A few weeks ago I burned my arm and have a fairly gnarly scar.

The other day I scratched my thumb hard enough to draw blood so I now have a nice little scab.

I broke the middle toe nail on my left foot (right through the middle...ouch!).

I cut my elbow on the couch cushion (the zipper part).

I banged my forearm into the door frame and am just waiting for the bruise to appear.

I really trying hard thoroughly injure myself before the wedding. I'm sure all the scratches, cuts, bruises, etc. will look great in the photos.

:)

Oh my goodness. I haven't had a moments peace in the past few days. I really thought that I could coast through until the wedding but my to-do list keeps growing. Tomorrow I have to pick up Dan's dry cleaning and take Trevor to PetSmart to have his nails trimmed. We're also babysitting Jess' dog overnight so that the dog lady can pick him up from our place in the morning. That should be interesting. I had to go out to pick up a gift for my para tonight. Yesterday I spent 2 hours in Kinkos trying to print my wedding programs (and in the middle of doing that I got the call that my grandfather is having double bypass surgery on Tuesday and can't come to the wedding. Nothing like crying in public...). Arrrgh! I have to pack everything up to take with us to Dahlonega, too. I should clean the apartment.

I was hoping to be able to socialize more this week but I've basically been walking around like a zombie, mindlessly completing tasks before falling into bed. Things would be better if I could delegate some of these things to Dan but he's out of town. Bah.

But, on the bright side, he's getting books for me from Simon and Schuster. Their employee bookstore sells nice hardback books for $0.50 each and if the books are new and haven't gone to stores yet he can get them for FREE. He brought me one last week and he's bringing home four this week. Yay! FInally, something good is coming out of working for this stupid company.

Okay, It's time to put my laundry in the dryer, clean up the kitchen, and pick up the bedroom. Then I can sleep.

I am such a sucker!

2007-04-30T21:19:13Z

I've now become one of those people.

I just made the decision to feed Trevor "people food" instead of dog food.

Why?

Basically, we had been feeding him some super high-end organic, human grade canned food which, for a while at least, was untouched by the ginormous pet food recall. Well, they recently discovered that their manufacturer wasn't making the formula to their specifications and so there is a possibility that their food is contaminated as well (they say that is isn't likely, though).

So, I was like "Screw it. If even the food that costs $1.50-$2.00 per can can't keep things straight then why am I wasting my time with them???"

I really like my dog and don't want him to be, you know, dead. I figure the only way to ensure that, at least for now, is to feed him what people eat. So, it's plain chicken breast, whole wheat pasta, and mixed veggies for him all this week.

I watched an Oprah show recently that was all about dogs and her vet was a believer in the "raw meat is best" diet but said that after that cooked meat was good along with complex carbs and veggies. I don't think I could bring myself to raw feed. Too messy and gross. But, I can cook up a mess of chicken and veggies once a week, no problem.

It will be a nice complement to his vegetarian kibble we've been feeding him since we got him (didn't know it was vegetarian when I started buying it, all I knew was that it was guaranteed to have no wheat/corn). He likes that stuff a lot but I've never been one that thought dogs should subsist on kibble alone so I have to mix it with something else. I figure that even dogs want to enjoy the taste of their food.

So, that's that. I'm a crazy dog lady, officially.

Insanity!

2007-04-21T14:59:34Z

I have been so incredibly stressed out this week.

We just finished up testing and I was nervous that I had forgotten something important but I'm pretty sure I'm okay now.

The upper grades are taking the stupid CRCT test which means that my schedule is all out of whack AND the kids have to be quiet all morning. This means that they are bouncing off the walls by the afternoon and since our specials schedule is different I'm stuck with them with no break until buses are called. Arrrgh.

Thursday night was Family Night which meant a 12 hour work day.

I need to put together my score reports for GKAP.

I was so out of whack on Thursday (I had barely slept the night before) that I didn't eat a single thing until about 6 in the evening (anyone who knows me knows that I rarely ever lose my appetite for any reason).

I burned the hell out of my arm baking a cake for Family Night. Hopefully the scar isn't too ugly.

The wedding details are bugging me because I am just not a detail oriented person. I'm trying to be but it's difficult!

I just signed my life over to the mortgage company for our house. That's nervewracking.

I am sooooooo ready for summer. Soooooooo, soooooo ready.

OUR NEW HOUSE!!

2007-04-14T23:26:56Z

YAY!!!

We got the house!! The paperwork is finally going through and it's now listed as "Pending" on FMLS.com so it's really happening!

I am so glad that our realtor's dad was able to talk to the lady trying to sell the house and get us another shot at it. We've been looking for months and nothing ever grabbed us like this one (we like this one more than the one we first put an offer in on, actually). It's not too big, not too small, has great character, has been kept up well but not updated too much so we can still make our own improvements. It's perfect!

Here are some pictures. They aren't very good and definitely don't do the house justice but they are all I've got right now since I don't live there yet.

This is it!

The dining room.

The formal livingroom at the front of the house.

The family room off the kitchen with fireplace #1.

The HUGE kitchen with fireplace #2.

The master bedroom with fireplace #3 (you can't see it in the photo, though).

The brick front porch.

The back deck with the hot tub (not something we were looking for but it's a nice touch!)

So, it's a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath colonial style with a partial, finished basement and a drive under garage. Most of the yard is fenced so we only need to finish up a little bit of that for the dog. The lot isn't very deep but it's wide and level and grassy. The house isn't part of a subdivision so we don't have to pay any homeowner's association fees. We're definitely planning on updating the kitchen and bathrooms and adding some details to the rest of the house but it's perfectly livable for now.

We're moving at the end of June! Bye-bye Mr. Crankypants downstairs neighbor!! Woo-hoo!

The plot thickens...

2007-04-11T11:00:29Z

Soooo...

There has been a fortunate turn of events.

The house I wrote about earlier (the one that was priced too low and then priced too high) is within reach again.

After they increased the price on it they didn't get any offers. Big surprise.

Our realtor's father (who is also a realtor) began talking to the realtor that is trying to sell the house and she basically admitted to him that she really doesn't know how to price the house (the comps for the area are really strange because it's not a subdivision). Our realtor's father told her that his daughter had some clients that were still interested in the house (that would be us) and asked how it could be worked out.

The realtor selling the house said that, at this point, they would entertain any reasonable offers anyone put out because they really aren't sure what the house should cost.

The family selling the house is not trying to make a huge amount of money off of it because they don't need to.

So, we put in an offer last night and we should get a counter offer by late this morning or early this afternoon. They aren't entertaining any other offers at this point so the odds are in our favor.

I'm soooooo nervous.

:)

Real Estate Stinks.

2007-04-08T14:55:33Z

House hunting is NOT as fun as they make it look on TV.

Well, it is at first.

But, when you put offers in on two different houses and stuff goes wrong with both of them you start to feel a little discouraged.

This last house was GREAT. Obviously priced too low so we went for it and gave them what they were asking for. Now, their realtor is like "Oooo, my bad. That price must be too low." and relisted it for $100,000 more. Now, it's overpriced. Whoopie.

The first one was just...gah. We low balled them but they decided to stick it out for more. Oh well. That's how the game works.

So, we're on the hunt again today. There's a nice ranch style house in the same area that sounds very nice. It's "priced to move" according to the realtor and has some updated features, and a fairly large lot. No fence, but with the price being so good we could easily put one in. Plus, it has cedar shingle accents on the outside of the house and I loooooove houses with cedar shingles. I'm crossing my fingers on this one.

I really, really, really, want a house. With a yard. And a kitchen. A big kitchen.

Blah.

I Feel Like I'm on HGTV...

2007-03-05T01:03:22Z

Looking at houses is frustrating. It's also fun, though, because you can really critique other people's decorating style without the fear of them overhearing and being offended, haha.

Since we're not into the whole "new development" thing (who wants to pay $400,000 to wake up to their neighbor's alarm clock?) we are looking at much older homes that are very lived in. Nice, but still older and very lived in. As in, "Holy hell...that's a lot of plaid and floral wall paper!" and "1975 called, they want their avacado green appliances back." We've seen some very interesting houses.

Of course, though, we finally see one that we LOVE from the pictures and looks like it's been updated just enough and seems to have more paint than wallpaper and the lady gets all snippity with our realtor and says that we can't see it today. Um...your house has been on the market for a while and you're not going to sell it any time soon if you don't let anyone in to see it. Duh.

But, it has a privacy fence around a huge, level backyard, stainless steel appliances, a sunroom, a livingroom and a den, 4 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths. PERFECT! The only "downside" is that it's very close to the tennis courts and the little playground by the pool. We didn't really see that as a big deal, though. The backyard has the fence around it and the playground has a fence so it's not like anyone can get into the yard. The dog might like the tennis courts being so close because a stray ball might find it's way into our yard every once in a while!

Soooooo...we are going to go back and see it sometime this week. Maybe if we ask really nicely the "mean lady" will let us in. She better let people in if she wants to sell the house! We're hoping that we can knock a few thousand off the price of the house since it's already been lowered quite a bit. Maybe if she really wants to sell she'll be willing but who knows.

Check it out!

Pretty House!

Entertain yourselves.

2007-03-04T14:43:37Z

I don't post in here in forever and when I finally do it's a stupid quiz. Well, it's entertaining, at least. Go do it. Now.

I'm curently in a very reclusive phase. Forgive me.

Read My Result
Take the Test

Just a heads up...

2007-01-20T04:57:14Z

Just writing to say that I am currently down on Jekyll Island. Dan's grandfather passed away today at about 10:30. I left school early yesterday and we rushed down here. He was admitted with mild pneumonia and they found a large mass in his lung that was blocking his breathing. It just went downhill from there. I'm not sure when we'll be coming back because no funeral arrangements have been made yet.

Right now I am waiting up on Dan and his mom because they've gone to get Dan's dad from the airport in Savannah. He was overseas an tried his hardest to get back but didn't quite make it.

Sarah, I finally got the arrangements for the hotel block finalized if you want to stay in the Holiday Inn Express in Dahlonega. I think that's where Dan and I are going to stay just because it will be simpler. I am just giving you a heads up so that you don't miss out on getting a room!

That's it.

Elusive Sleep...

2007-01-05T22:00:47Z

I need to get my hands on some prescription sleep aids.

I haven't slept well in about a week and it's starting to wear me down just a little bit.

Time to talk with Doc Britton to see what he can give me. Tylenol PM ain't cutting it anymore.

I have to at least stay awake long enough to boil some noodles. Then I can nap while they chill out in the fridge for my pasta salad.