Merry Christmas Part III

Soooo, have you ever done something you know you are going to have to confess to, but you really don't want to because you know everyone you talk to is going to tell you that you are an idiot? Maybe you haven't, but I have. A lot. It really stinks cause there you are repeating your little tale to one person after another. But then there was the internet and soon after that the blog. God's gift to the chicken. I can tell you with great amusement Mom is turning pale at this moment trying to figure out what the hell I've done. I'm just sorry I can't get video. ha. ha kidding.

So, at any rate, back to doing foolish things. At this moment, I'm sure the window is wide open. Good grief, what has she done. Welllll, a funny thing happened on the way to Roseanne's the other night. My friend Burgundy called. (That's not the funny part.) She has this half-lab, half-boxer mix named Champ. He is a great dog, but he gets lonely. She found some of these pups that she wanted to go see. I told her no firmly. (Mom is starting to sweat here, I can tell.) Well, I have the same voice control over Burgundy that I do over Eva. Deborah might be thinking to herself I really need to get myself into that boundaries class and learn how to set limits. This is ridiculous.

So, she came by and picked me up to go look at the puppies with her. The good news is that I didn't want a lab/boxer puppy. I wanted a Doberman. The fun part of the evening is that a former Miss USA was the proud owner of the mama of the many pups. I know this because she had a trophy big enough to swim in. Don't you think for Miss USA they could give more delicate gifts?

Back to the story. So, we looked at the puppies and left. Ha. Got you. Silly people you think I walked away with a puppy. Not me, I'm stronger than that.

But, on the other hand, it is totally morbid to be standing around waiting for Eva to die to get a puppy. And my friend Rod's dogs died recently at 18 - that is two more years people. And if I want a dog to being a guard dog, then it is silly to just wait and wait. Eva already pees and poops wherever the hell she wants to, now is the time. And there is a dog park near my house. I could socialize the dog, socialize myself, meet some nice rich doctor with a dog. Really, if I got a dog I would be doing it for Mom. (Ha, didn't see that one coming didcha'?)

Well, Burgundy (hence forth to be known as "that girl" for those searching for someone to blame for this insanity, after all I am an innocent victim.) and I went back to the home of Roxy and the puppies. Burgundy is on the left. She is holding a puppy originally named fight face that kept going to her. They say the best pets are the ones that pick you out, and I certainly wasn't going to let her walk out of there without a puppy. That wouldn't have been right. Especially since I didn't quite manage to make it out of there the second time without a puppy. Somebody, smelling salts for Mom.
Since Burgundy already had Champ, and she wasn't sure of how he would do greeting the newest addition to the family, I said that I would take hers to my house too. So we made introductions all around. Eva did impressively well. She actually tried to play with them for a few minutes. It didn't take long before she was playing follow the leader. Sure, to some of you it may look like she running as if the hounds of hell are on her heels, but she was having a lovely time.
Cat, on the other hand, was not pleased. I have to tell you I was surprised. He always acts like dogs are no big deal. He has spent quite a bit of time staring longingly out the door since the arrival. Did I mention that it has been raining the whole time and quite nasty? Longingly I tell you, longingly.
So when Burgundy's pup, the adventurer and general ring leader headed out to check things out I snapped a few photos. Who am I kidding? I have taken more photos in the last 3 days than I have in my entire life. That includes the trip to Europe. Where I took a freaking lot of pictures. Notice how the frisky monkey walks right under the bed. She's a purse puppy, at least for the next couple of days . . . In the meantime, my two slept like babies. oops. Did I forget to mention that part? Roseanne said it isn't necessary to have dogs the way you have shoes, but I find everything is nicer in pairs. Aren't they adorable? We have had a tough time working on names. We were hoping for triplet names since they are litter mates and they will hopefully get to play together a lot. We finally settled on Eliza, Holly and Sabrina. . . did you get the connection? Just so you know Sabrina is on the left (Burgundy's) and Eliza is to the front and Holly to the back. Ok well, my work here is through. Hope everyone is having a very merry Christmas. I've got to get back to my puppies.

My bad. I almost forgot to add. Yes, I am crazy. No, I don't know what I am doing. Yes, they are keeping me up at night. Ok, we're good here. TaTaForNow

Merry Christmas Part II

Not feeling kind thoughts toward the blogger people. This is becoming a total holiday buzz buster. But, I forge ahead.

Ok, so I drove up to spend Christmas Eve with Tread and Cindy. Weather wise, it was yucky. Rained the whole way up and back. However, the sun set a few minutes after I got there, and as you can see, it was beautiful. Then it rained.

I'm all proud of myself because I manage to make it there without getting lost (a Christmas miracle in and of itself) and I baked a rum cake and brought a fun Christmas decoration that lit up. Seriously, I had done no shopping. I've been a little shut in, but I had found something I thought would be cute at the farm. It, of course, did not light up once I was there. Typical. I wanted to beat it with a sledge hammer. Another holiday buzz buster if you ask me.

Cindy's mom had made enchilada's. They were yummy. Feliz Navidad.

The cast of characters included: Cindy on the far left, Craig(works for them, his family is in Florida so he doesn't always get to go home), Tread, Kaleigh (their oldest), Cindy's mom, and Tiffany (sorry, just the back of her head.) Other characters from left to right are the boar's head sporting the Santa hat, deer head sporting other head gear and the flying duck. (Luckily he only has one room in their main house.) For Christmas to show how much he cares he gave Cindy a machete. Cause nothing says I love you like a sharp blade. So many jokes come to mind here.

Cindy has the biggest heart in the world. She got me several presents so I would have some to open too. It was obvious she put thought into each gift too. It warmed the cockles of my heart. I am a lucky girl. Not so lucky I got a machete for Christmas, but I know someone with one if I ever need to borrow it.

It was a great evening. I'm really glad that I went. It was a holiday buzz and a half : )

Merry Christmas

I tried to post this last night, but I couldn't get the internet anywhere in the house. I am typing as fast as I can in hopes that I can maintain this connection, wretched thou it may be, long enough to get this posted. I'm standing in the back corner of the kitchen, a hot spot a Casa 711. As I look out my window it is fun to note that my neighbors (parents of coco and now parents of a baby born on the 18th) are also up. I know this because I can see the lights on in their bedroom. These are old houses with size size yards from front to back but still mighty close left to right.

I can't remember if I already wrote about the two contractors that came out. I have no idea of how to decide between them. Both seemed capable etc.

Whatever day Terminex came, I spent the night at Roseanne's. The floor with the roaches was just too much. The next day the bed guy came and voila I had a functioning bed again. Choruses of church songs were heard through the land. I'm sure you must have heard them.

Yesterday Pam came by. I finally had the bug level down enough so that I wasn't horrified at the thought of anyone coming over. I had finished shelves in the front closet and done some work in the utility room, so the place was looking pretty good if I do say so myself.

Because any previous socialization is no longer able to hide what a total geek I've become, I took photos of Pam's arrival. Although she is a total bean pole, right now she could eat a horse and not gain weight. Her body is burning approx 3000 calories a day getting her back into tip top shape. Let's give a hoo ra for the hardest working body I know!

Yesterday afternoon I went up to Tread and Cindy's farm. They have 3 lhamas, 2 or 3 horses (including a Clydesdale) and various other critters.

Isn't Christmas Monday?

I'm just curious. I have no chance of actually getting my shopping etc done by then, so I'm choosing to not focus on the little details.

Terminex came by and a lovely man sprayed the snot out of my home, gave a warning about the possibility of American roaches coming out of hiding to die (they can't be like elephants and go off to die alone?!?!), yes, American, much better than German. Who knew?

However, a couple of hours later I am realizing I may have to spend the night elsewhere. The roaches are coming out of the woodwork - literally. THEY ARE EVERYWHERE. I am soooo grossed out. Who is going to pick up all of the dead roaches????? Where is DAD??????

The bed man came. He laid out his plan to take the sideboard and bring it back some time next week, unless I had company coming and might need the bed. I'm quite certain I had a look of horror on my face as I swallowed and very politely mentioned that, in fact, that was the only bed in the house, I'd been sleeping on the floor for 3 weeks, and, golly, it would be swell to have the bed sooner. Ah, the power of guilt. Thanks Mom.

He'll be back tomorrow with the fixed board to put the bed together. Thank heavens!

Yesterday, an architect came to discuss options with the house (I can hear Mom sucking air - no worries just talking, don't freak). I had one contractor come this morning and another should be here in a little bit. I'm sure they will all tell me different things. grrr. But at least I am getting some research done on the process.

I've begun building shelves in the front closet. With any luck, at least this room will be organized before I return to school. Not holding my breath on the rest of the house.

I did go see The Holiday. Very adorable. Everyone should see it. I am reinstituting Monday night movie night. Ann and I were discussing we are very behind on our movie watching (something about not seeing a minimum of 52 movies a year.) Actually considering the beverages of choice for MNMN our livers are probably in better shape than they were last year at this time. ha ha

MaryBeth and I are going to run the Christmas White Rock Marathon next year. Don't ask why, just nod and wish us luck. I'll be lucky not to hawk up a lung before next Christmas.

Mean Girls and Boys

So much for the season of love. Yesterday I left school early to get home and meet the alarm dude and the heating guy. Alarm now functions properly and all neighbors should come running if the sucker goes off.

Heating guy checked things out. He looks in the middle bedroom and asked if anyone sleeps in there. (Good questions considering the mattresses are torn asunder and there is a pallet is on the floor covered in clothes from the armoire I'm trying to organize.) I told him yes, I did. He suggested it might be very cold in there since the REGISTER is closed. AH HA I told you the last explanation was crap. So, he opened the register. He also looked in the attic, took pictures, said the insulation looked fine. The only problem he saw is that there are four ducts leaving the heating unit. The shortest and closest (the living room) is the hottest. The bedrooms are off of one that is long and windy, so he suggested closing the vents on the other side of the house to push the air to the bedrooms. Luckily because the first guy missed the closed register, I didn't have to pay for the second visit. Yea heating guy.

In the meantime, when I call the kids one of my editors says she needs to talk to me. I get back to school and find out one of my staffers was a total jerk to her. Incredibly rude and disrespectful with a room full of staffers around. I called him asked if we could meet Monday morning at 8am (He doesn't have an exam until Monday afternoon) and let him go. I know, I have a mean streak. Within ten minutes he called one of the other editors sounding particularly nervous. He knew his butt was in trouble. Then he called and left a message for the eic that he was mean too. Really is a shame. He's a nice guy, but a repeat offender in the I'll be a total jerk and then apologize sweetly later to make it ok. Sadly for him, he is being horrible to the person that determines if he is on staff next year. Not wise.

Then I find out from a senior editor that she walked in the room as a section editor was making fun of her. GEEEEZZZ people. Can't we stick to making fun of people outside of the yearbook room. Jeepers, there are plenty.

I attended a party last night. Put on some jeans that actually caused pain when zipped. Unable to sit down. Left at about 9pm so I could get home, since my dang dedicated editors decided that they needed to work from 8-2.

Weather has been amazing lately. 70-80 I like it! I may even rake leaves when I get home. Speaking of which, I have finally hit bulk trash pick-up week. I thought it was last week, but a friendly note in my door with the correct week highlighted let me know I was wrong. So Diane helped me drag all my stupid trash back to the drive way and last night I dragged it all back to the front lawn. So, if I get the leaves raked, they will actually be taken away.

Don't know if anyone else is counting down to Christmas, but I'm counting down knowing I haven't gone shopping yet. Eye. . . tick . . . getting . . . worse . . . whole . . . head . . . starting . . .to . . . .twitch!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fran is off from work this week, so ironically I haven't gotten to talk to her at all. Probably why I never get to talk to Monica, she doesn't have a damn job. (Although you are an icon of a girl not getting paid to be busy as hell, at least I get paid.)

Well, the girls have begun to arrive, so off I go. Oh, in case you haven't figured it out. I haven't sent out Christmas cards either. Those will be late too. They could be up to a year late, so don't hold your breath or anything.

What a day I tell you

Although I could have slept in a little bit, I went ahead and got up early this morning. I actually did better than I've done in a while. Of course when I finally got my act together to get on the road, I couldn't find my keys anywhere. After a 15 minute search, I found them.

I headed up to Collin County Community College for a presentation by Victoria Young, the director of something or another with TAKS. The lady presenting Victoria Young was from region X. Her name was Jan Moberly!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Some of you may not realize why this is worthy of so many exclamation points, others, such as MaryBeth will immediately brighten knowing that was our 5th grade teacher!!!!!!!!!!!! How cool is that. I almost fell out of my chair. MB - she told me to tell you hi.

I didn't realize my friend Skip was going to be there. That was nice, since he sat beside me we were able to chat a bit. Our chat included his asking me if I'll chaperone the Europe trip!! Whoopee. Look out Deborah Long Clack: I'm back and I'm bad and looking to sleep with you baby ; ) You say quiet time, I say . . . nothing. : )

I almost forgot about the Leadership Lens (newsletter that I'm responsible for). I ended up calling my first period back at school and getting some kids to go pick up the newsletter from the print shop then running around the district to get copies to all the different schools. Yeah for yearbook students. I am bummed that I missed two of my classes today. So I didn't get to wish them Merry Christmas or anything!

At any rate, after the day of learning (yuck, who wants to do that) I headed home to let Eva out. It was such nice weather that I just tossed her keister right out the back door. Takes a little pressure off of me to be home immediately. That helps since I may run by Diane's (she's making tacos. It's like fast food only home made : )

I'm at school now working with the kids signing off on spreads. They really are amazing and fabulous. It's so much fun this year. I love it. The three silly girls are my editors-in-chief. Georgia, Kristen and Scholle. They are beasts, and I am very proud of how hard they are working. The list on Kristen's shirt is the pages in the batch of proofs that they just finished to be mailed to the plant. I have no doubt the wicked people at the plant will send proofs to us right before we leave for the holidays just to mess with our heads.

I don't have any exams that I am giving tomorrow which is nice, since I have some essays to grade and a bunch of other stuff I have to get done.

The alarm company is coming back to my house tomorrow afternoon because when the alarm goes off at my house, it doesn't actually make noise. I would prefer if someone breaks into my home that a very loud siren signaling trouble for all my neighbors goes off. I'll be looking for some assistance from the homi's in the hood.

A new and different a/c company will be coming out. Hopefully they will come up with a better explanation for what the heck is going on my heating. Otherwise, I'll be stuck paying them $55 for their little visit to confirm the previous stupid diagnosis.

Ok, back to the children. I'm ready to start shooing them out the door!

Losing my mind and other issues

What you see is a hook rug that I must have bought when I was 20 or so. I have carried it around in a big plastic Dillards bag from home to home. For some reason, I became possessed by the "I must finish this bug." I've already doubled what it started as, so I thought it would be fun to keep everyone up to date as I progress. Especially since I have 8 MILLION OTHER THINGS TO DO. What is wrong with me???? I can hardly stop myself from working on it.

Last night, instead of folding the laundry all over the dining room table or working on the rum cakes, I worked on the rug.

Although I can't resist adding, look how pretty it will be when it is done!

This is a house I pass frequently. I finally had to stop and take photos. The cows are there year round. Santa and the gifts are the christmas addition. Is it not the funniest thing? Seriously. Park Cities. Huge wooden cows. Go figure. I do like the way they did the yard though. Lots of flowers.

I finally managed to get my butt to work by 7am (I haven't managed to do that, well, since I started sleeping on the ground.) I have gotten a lot done, but the children are coming, so productivity should end any minute.

It's been a long week

The fact it is only Tuesday doesn't help anything. It's nice that I can forget how horridly busy this time of year is.

I'm still sleeping on the floor. Not having fun. I haven't been waking in a timely fashion lately, so I am running around feeling behind all day. Exams start Thursday. As it turns out, I have to go to an all day conference on TAKS essays Thursday. Ugh. I'd rather be at school.

Yesterday and today I got home and was able to go walking with my neighbor Emily. Luckily the weather has been comfortable enough that we were able to have very nice walks.

I met with the boys today. We had to change the dates on the deadlines. Since we haven't even signed the contracts, and I haven't been given the list of people to even start contacting the odds of getting 1/4 of the book done by Jan 1 are slim.

The house remains a disaster. Yup. That pretty much covers my world. Back to the grindstone.

Why I love my yearbook staff

On our final push to get everything done before Christmas (send all pages from the first four deadlines, return proofs that we have gotten on pages already sent and get ready for second semester), the staff has really done a great job. In fact, yesterday a lot of my 6th period students were at school late working diligently. So, today, my editor-in-chief over 6th period Kristen brought a cookie cake to say thanks! How awesome is that? This is why I make sure I have touchy feely girls at the top. I would have never thought to do this. They did their job, great work, move on. But that's why I'm a crank. (Kristen in in green under the cookie cake.)

The holiday is fast approaching

I have even managed to get my car in the holiday spirit. If you look closely you can see the antlers on each window to go with the very cute button nose.

It is a little difficult to back the car into the driveway because the driveway becomes very narrow where the hows pokes out (apparently making the driveway just move to the left a little was too much). The car is backed up enough for the gate to be able to close.

I haven't gotten to see much of my neighbors lately. The cold has driven everyone inside.

I called the heating company that came out this past Saturday to get them to re-explain why, if the problem is that the heat is leaking into the attic, the front bedroom isn't warmer than the back bedroom. That would make sense right, since the heating system is basically above the front door? The guy tells me that it's because of the steel ducts, but my warranty doesn't cover that. So I call AHS ready to have a hissy. The lady tells me that yes it would be covered. Huh. Then I asked her about getting a second opinion since I believe these guys are idiots. She told me that AHS would pay the service fee for a second company to come out. OK. Things are turning around. However, I am stuck waiting for this company to submit their information to AHS. It'll be interesting to see how long that takes.

Of course what reminds me of that is adding the pictures of the mad scientist Christmas tree. humph. I've added arrows to the close up shot, so that you can see the different types of lights. I don't have any traditional lights. They are bubble lights, snow globes, flicker flame lights and pointy colored lights. A festive tree if I do say so myself.

You probably don't need this many pics of the tree to get the idea, but I was unable to resist.

Not counting today, we have 8 days left of school before break. Hip Hip Horray

I haven't bought a single gift yet. The house is still a disaster. I have a ton of grading to do for my English class, good thing I only have 16 kids!

I think today is the day I'm going to have to break down and grade their TAKS writing they did last week.

Did I mention I'm also in charge of a little thing called the Leadership Lens Newsletter? It's through the district. I've done it for a couple of years. It is only 2 per year. However, last year was totally screwy rabbit, so a spring one wasn't even done. This year I got a call asking me to do it, telling me that I'd actually get paid, but that I'd be in charge of the whole kit and caboodle from writing it to getting it printed. It is hard to get everyone participating in a timely fashion. At any rate, I'm trying to get that sucker out before the holidays.

More later.

So close, and yet, so far

So, I took pictures of the tree and the car (cute decorations if I do say so myself). Both came out horribly. I'm going to have to try again.

The bed is scheduled to be fixed next Friday. In the meantime, I've taken every blanket, comforter etc I could lay my hands on and made a pallet of sorts. Eva and Cat love it. In fact, they love it so much that at night they curl up on it. Mind you it is on the ground. They could sleep on the ground and be very close to me. They could sleep on Eva's little bed. No, no, they sleep on the little pallet bed keeping me from being able to move during the night. What is that about?

My eye tick is back. It started some time last week. It has to be one of the most annoying manifestations of stress ever. I feel like a freak.

Tonight my goal is to get all of the copies made of my medical stuff to be reimbursed before the end of the year. I don't think I've done anything since June. oops.

That's all for now. I do have one picture to show. I just found it on a disk today. It is of the flowers that Ann gave me right after I moved into the house. She did the arrangement herself.

I'm in a funk

I had no internet access all weekend. It is soo annoying. I don't feel very well today. I've been sleeping on the bedroom floor because the loveseat is quite uncomfortable and the bed fell apart again. Turns out there aren't as many people doing antique restoration as I had hoped. I have a call in to someone out of Van alstyne who might come out and help.

At any rate, I am totally congested and I have a headache. Now caffeine would probably help the headache but not the congestion.

I have book club tonight. We are discussing Year of Wonder. It is a great book about a town that quarantined itself during the plague. I've been looking forward to this for a long while.

Say a prayer for Pam C. She had her last chemo last Monday. Horray for Pam.

I finally got the Christmas tree decorated. The man that came to check out my heating told me it was the strangest Christmas tree he'd ever seen.
"Really?" I asked.
"That's good. It just looks like a mad scientist did it." >????? What does that mean? I told him that was the nicest thing anyone had ever said.

Photo to come. I must return to my funk now.

End of another week

Not much time, but I figured better write now before I forget. Tuesday I stayed home from school so that I could have the security system installed in my house. Cost me a pretty penny. I didn't get much done other than that. Wednesday I had a sub because I had to grade TAKS writing at the admin building, poke a needle in my eye that was no fun. Subs were highly suspect. Once again reminding me why it is important to plan ahead and have subs I trust!

Yesterday we had a snow storm of sorts. Lots of fun, the kids were maniacs all day long. They had great hope Wednesday night that there would be no school Thursday and great home Thursday there would be no school Friday. Please note: I'm writing this from work! The glass replacement people did install temporary glass in my bedroom window Wednesday so that the artic North winds couldn't blow straight into my home. They are looking for the right glass to match the rest of the windows in my home.

I have spent quality time analysing the fung shui-ness of my home. Look out world. As soon as I get off my butt and finish unpacking, there is going to be great chi in my home.

OK, so the long and short of it is that nothing exciting has happened this week. I'll see what trouble I can stir up this weekend : )