Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Puppy Love

The first day of school is great fun, but always exhausting. I was tired yesterday, but by the time I was ready for bed, I had a mother of a headache, so I got an icepack to put on my head. Sweet, sweet Gracie snuggled up to me and shared my pillow. My hand is strategically placed to keep her from kissing me any more. It is difficult to go to sleep while getting wet puppy kisses.


Monday, August 27, 2012

yard, walls and colors

 I'm sure I've blogged about all of this before, but honestly, if I'm gonna spend all this time admiring my yard and wrapped around the axel thinking about paint colors, why shouldn't I let you be a part of the fun? Seriously, look how good this looks!! Pretty flowers, mulch, it's a good looking back yard.
I love the flowers!!

Love a lawn getting some water. Still could look a little better, but way better than how it looked. 

Still love this back area. 

I can't remember what these flowers are, but I totally love them. 
My goal is still to have the back be a lovely greeting to any visitors, so I'm not there yet, but I'm getting close.  
The metal electricity box offends me. I'm trying to figure out a creative way to hide it. 
I love the plants in the pots by the house. I laid the mulch down between the pots. It looks very good if I do say so myself. 

Ok, so now that I have the backyard looking pretty good I am ready to move on to painting the interior house. It is very stressful. I don't like having to choose.
So this is an insanely bright coral color. My friend Aimee thinks I should paint the living room this color. I'm kinda down with it. What the hell. The dark brown will be the trim and doors. 
Master bedroom colors. I can't decide between the blues. I'm leaning towards the light blue. We'll see. 
So, these are the colors I'm looking at for the house, far left is living room, greenish color is the kitchen, cream is hall, grey is the TV room, cream is the hall, but it doesn't look that bright in the hall, blue for master, browns for the guest bathroom .... I stare at this boards often. Thinking. Contemplating. Stressing. 


Hallway colors. They look dark don't they? I can't decide. grrr. 

First Day of School

Yes, I should have stood up straighter and held my stomach in, but what the heck. This is my first day outfit.

Just to reassure everyone out there, yes, I took my medicine, and the world agrees it makes a world of difference. Although I am totally congested, and I have a bit of a headache. And I have a ton of stuff left to do. So, I have to get my work done.

Kids were good. Day was very busy. Think it's going to be a good year.

Friday, August 24, 2012

My summer TV shame

Yes, I admit it. This summer I have managed to find myself addicted to more terrible shows than you can imagine. I can mock them gleefully, but it is true, I am mocking shows that I am dedicated to watching.  First, of course, there was Hoarders

But it hasn't been on in a while, luckily A&E helped me out with Hoarders: Buried Alive. Sure, sometimes it is shocking how much crap have and how much filth people are capable of living in. Some episodes I just watch in disgust. But other shows, other shows scare me. Because they aren't living in filth. They just have an inordinate amount of STUFF. There but for the grace of God go I. Hoarders helps me clean. And get rid of stuff. 

Hotel Impossible. I have no idea of how I found this show or why I find it so addicting. Never the less,  I can't stop watching. There are some dumb ass shleps owning hotels in America. I mean no sense what so ever. And to be clear, I have no plan to own a hotel or run a hotel, but I will say I know what to look for if I'm trying to determine if a hotel is clean. So, there's that. 

In June I started watching Ice Road Truckers. Again, no idea of why. It is literally watching 5 guys  driving on icy roads. I will say it is very cool when they show the truckers driving on the iced up rivers and lakes. Crazy. There is nothing useful about this show in my life. Maybe it's that crazy tug of death...there's always a chance the one I don't like will crack through the ice... 

Then, I discovered World's Worst Tenants. I love this show. First, the 3 stars crack me up. The guy in the middle used to be in the military, so he's pretty tough. Yet he still acts horrified and shocked by the stupid shit that these tenants pull. Second, the stuff they end up dealing with and the crazy people they meet are unbelievable. I just watch that show open mouthed. People are NUTS. 





And now? I have Mike Rowe Dirty Jobs. It's a show about nothing, yet I can't resist. It pulls me in. I do think he's cute. Anyone know if he's single?

There you have it. My dirty little bad TV secrets. It's terrible. I have no time to be watching TV as we all know, let alone BAD TV.

I think I'm in trouble

So today I made a list.

Things I'm doing right now:
  • Journalism I curriculum
  • Journalism I in HPISD curriculum format ASAP
  • Real Estate Classes 5 classes by Nov 1
  • Reformat The Book to be published by Oct 1
  • The Directories 


Gotta tell you. Looking at it in print makes me want to throw up. And gets my eye twitch starting. And makes me feel like I'm stroking out. First, the Journalism I curriculum. I'm not even teaching the stupid class this year, but I feel an intense obligation to get it all in order and make it neat and organized for the new dude. He strikes me as a bit of a douche canoe. Still working on a nickname. Positive he'll be "earning" himself a good one.

The Journalism I HPISD curriculum format? THAT is a total beating. Every teacher can tell you that no one looks at lesson plans written in this BS format. Yet, I'll be spending an inordinate amount of time turning the work that I've already done (for at least a functional purpose) into a totally nonfunctional purpose just to make some admin in the district happy. Yuck.

The real estate class. Why, oh why did I do this to myself? I desperately want to get the classes done and check that box off. But the taking of the classes is a beating. Hateful, hateful stuff.

Reformatting the real estate book. You'd actually think that this one isn't all that difficult because I did create 240 pages of the book 5 years ago. The problem is that they are adding 10 pages to the book in the first dozen pages of the book...that means all the page numbers are changing, and all the links are going to have to have their page numbers changed. And all the colors are changing. And there are still 2 more spreads to be created plus all of the new advertising to add in and the other miscellaneous pages to add it. It's a lot. Trust me.

And the directories. Oh, the directories. 7 to be exact. Only one is totally done by me, but it's 7 different PTA directory chairs yapping at my heels for the next 5 weeks needing me for one reason or another.

And, before we start what is sure to be a whirlwind of a school year...the Hi-lites picnic. For 2 hours, Sunday afternoon. In the heat. Ug. I shall dread it all weekend.

Oh, and the fabulous drugs I now have a prescription for so that I can keep my act together? I keep forgetting to take them. Oh the irony. I finally got them in my purse tonight so that I can at least have them when I remember that I haven't taken them.

In other news, the dogs are still adorable.


Thursday, August 23, 2012

Catch up

It's been 19 days since my last post. A lot can happen in 19 days. Sadly, for me. Not  in this case. So, I can catch you up fairly easily. 
The yard: My work here is through. Mostly. The front yard still looks like shit, but the back, the back looks pretty stinking good. I need to mow though. 

I love Amazon, and I'm ready to be a shut in. Do you know what this box is? It's groceries. It's groceries that I didn't have to go to the store to buy. They just showed up on my front porch. I love AMAZON. 

Yeah, Gracie is adorable. Sometimes she gets really excited and starts running around. Unfortunately that usually means she's gonna run into something, but she bounces back pretty well. So there is that. 

Part of my summer activities? Cleaning the cabinets in the garage. They were disgusting. I am happy they are now clean. Probably signs of a sick mind, but what the heck. 

The cabinets that used to be between the kitchen and the TV? Gone. And it looks soooo much better 

You can't tell. And obviously if you haven't used the terrible toilet, you can't appreciate how AMAZING this one is, but trust me. It's a new toilet and it totally rocks!!!



 Inservice began Monday. I loath inservice. It is the terrible entrapment of unwilling teachers into a room trapped into awful learning sessions. I am more than ready for it to be over.

Of course I started running again and fell apart again. So, I need to GET BACK ON THAT HORSE. I think it may kill me.

I'm trying not to think too much about the fact this is the year of completing 3 250 page books.

As a side note, if you, my reader (please note that is singular) have a request of subject matter, please let me know. xoxo





Sunday, August 5, 2012

Smooshed boobs, drugs and take-out

I worked like a dog in the yard yesterday. (Well, not my dogs. My dogs loll about and sleep. Other people's dogs. Working dogs. Alaskan working dogs, yeah, that's the ticket.) That resulted in my wanting to die by the afternoon from heat stroke. In addition, I am completely positive that I am allergic to the tree in the front yard.

This morning I got up and put on my running clothes. As a side note, running clothes are fairly comfortable EXCEPT for the bra. The bra is designed to smoosh everything down so that when actually running, the boobs don't bounce around in a most unpleasant fashion. Sometimes to do a job well, it means that there is a certain level of discomfort...ie it's hard to breath.

I was going with the theory that if I was dressed to workout I might ACTUALLY work out. It was a working theory that I can now say didn't pan out. I had a mother of a headache this morning, so I finally caved and took some Benadryl which meant I passed out for a couple of hours this afternoon.

I have been starving all day. I have no food. The irony of this is that I spent $170 at the grocery store a couple of days ago. What can I say, I have lots of fluids and some staples, but I pretty much have already eaten the good stuff. Sigh. So, I have ordered Italian. It should be arriving any minute. That is a very good thing because I'm so hungry I might start gnawing on one of the dogs legs!!

Needless to say, I have accomplished zip today. Nothing. Total loss. The very long list that I have? Yup. Still there. Still long. Let's see if I can do a better job tomorrow on checking things off....

Saturday, August 4, 2012

You never know when you'll hear greatness

"Everyone has their own limitations. You have to accept them to break them," Stacy London.

Yeah, still watching What Not to Wear. Re read that quote. Think about it. Think about the truth in that statement. And it's not just I have fat thighs, so I need to accept that and dress to minimize those suckers.

It's accepting who we are period. Fear of being seen as ignorant or a deep desire to please everyone. We have to admit who we are and what are insecurities are first before we can either work on changing the things we want to change or work within the confines of who we are.

There are things we can change, and there are things we just have to accept. Either way, we really can't be free until we accept who we are.




What NOT to wear



















I adore this show. I have probably posted an easy dozen times on it. I totally believe in the importance of dressing well. I KNOW that what people wear says a lot about who they are. I have met too many people who I think are amazing in part because they dress so well.

The girls seem to fall into 1 of two categories. Either the "I want to disappear into the woodwork because I don't like how I look" or the "I want to be young again so I'm going to dress like a slut all the time." And I totally believe that the idea that we can dress to 'blend in' is total bullshit. It just makes us look fatter, more tired and less put together than we could look otherwise.

Obviously I am more on the "I want to blend in with the walls" side more than the "let me be a slut side." I know I changed my entire appearance losing weight. Without a doubt it is easier to buy clothes now that it was when I was bigger. But what I know is that inside. Still a fat girl. I can still look in a mirror and think I look terrible. I also know, that there were outfits I wore even at my fattest, that I looked good in. And there are clothes I can put on now and look terrible in. So no matter what size I am, I still have a shape, and some clothes look good and some clothes look bad on me.

I love this show because no matter which side a person is on, literally in one week, Stacy and Clinton CHANGE THAT PERSON'S LIFE.  It's incredible. How cool for them that they get to do that? And how many of us could change our lives if we just paid attention and did this for ourselves?

I mean really. Go to the Bobby Brown counter (or Ulta, or Sophoria or WHATEVER) and say, I want a make-over. This is the look I'm after. And learn how to do it.

So no one is giving us a $5000 credit card. Save up money and do it with less. Buy what you can and get rid of one thing for every new piece. Then do that once a month for however long.

If we can watch this show and SEE the difference looking good makes in someone elses life, how is it possible we are unwilling to do this for ourselves?

I feel like I really don't get clothes and I don't know how to put outfits together, but I watch this show and take notes, and I know that what I wear matters and that I need to think before I get dressed.

I think of my friend who totally say she has no style etc but she finds outfits (usually on mannequins) and buys them. It's kind of cheating, but at least she is doing something.

A girl just said she would love to have someone say to her"Oh, you have an awesome outfit." Yeah, or wow you look really nice today. How nice is that? What a great ego boost. Everybody should be able to feel good about themselves. No matter what her shape or size.

Really, if I won the lottery, I would love to take some of my favorite people and make them be on a non televised version of What Not to Wear!!

My precious babies

Buddy and I just brought another member into the family. Between my friend PR who just got a new puppy and my friend D who just adopted a third dog, I have had the fever. I have gone online quite a bit checking out doggies. I knew that it would probably need to be a girl, and I really wanted a dog I could pick up. And quite frankly, it would need to be a dog that would fit on the comfy chair with Buddy and me. The new addition would also have to be sturdy enough to not be smooshed when Buddy decides to back up and sit on him/her for misbehavior. 

I saw a Boston Terrier online that was so cute I couldn't stand it. Her name: Gracie. Her little bio said she was 4 years old. Born blind to a breeder, who bred her 4 times and then dropped her off at the shelter. I know the blind thing is a little worrisome, but I figured what the heck, it would probably make her couch potato like the two of us. 

I met her on a Monday and knew immediately she would be a perfect fit. Buddy did spectacularly well with her. She arrived Wednesday. We have since pretty much been couch potatoes. I mean we are snuggling fools. She sleeps on the bed. So cute. I made a little border of pillows on the right side of the bed just in case she falls, but so far so good. 

I found a box of cinnamon strudel. Yum. I had to run and get some milk to make the strudel. By the time I got home the strudel box was history. I cursed him soundly. But honestly, he has been great. And in the meantime, Gracie has learned how to use the doggie door. She is learning her way around the house (in between naps). I've only left a couple of times, and she is really good about going in the kennel when I'm gone.