Zero

I have zero desire to stay at work and accomplish anything.

I just want to take a nap.

It's the Little Things

I have changed one small classroom procedure and it has made a big difference. I love that!

I accomplished quite a bit of my list yesterday. I had totally forgotten that I will be at school late tonight due to Book Fair, so accomplished as much as possible yesterday. There are a few things left to do, but totally manageable.

I'm ready for the rain to stop.

I have spent ZERO excess money this week. I ate at home for every meal. Take that Proverbs 31 woman!

We're having DEAR time in class a lot more often. We always do it for Book-a-Palooza week, but I have continued it through this week. The kids are loving it and I am, too!

I have a funny story from this morning that I can't really share.

My parents have asked for a Christmas list. I'm trying to think of ideas. Any suggestions?

How's that for a random blog post?

Two in one day!?

I have decided that I need a "To Do" list to be able to get anything accomplished. I have things in my head that I know I need to do. I even know the importance of them...and some have specific time tables. For instance, my cousins are coming in town this weekend for a wedding. They're staying with me. Which means I need to clean. My bathtub...well, let's just say it needs it.

I'm taking a meal to Jill and Aaron tonight. Nicole is coming over so we can catch up. I'll cook while we talk.

Melody was going to come over tonight, too. But she needs to work on unpacking boxes and I need to cook and clean.

Tomorrow I will need to do anything that hasn't already been marked off the list! ie: wash sheets, vacumm, do any last minute grocery shopping, dust and finish decorating for Fall.

I've had all these things in my mind for awhile. They've been on my mental list. Today, I've written them down and I can already feel the impatience to get busy buzzing in my blood.

What is it about a list?

Ok, I'm getting paranoid...

The turn on to my street comes from a Right Turn Only lane, so a lot of cars change lanes at the last minute when the drivers realize this.

Last night, I was coming home from the grocery store and it was pretty late. I turned on my street and another car turned behind me. That has happened before, but not often. I had to make another turn, and this car came too. There were several other possible turns, but this car stayed behind me the whole time. I was getting toward the end of the neighborhood, and wasn't comfortable turning into my drive with this car still behind me. It was moving slowly, almost crawling along. Over the years, we've heard how we should not lead someone straight to our home if we feel we're being followed. So, I pulled over and waited. The car turned off and took forever to get far enough away for me to feel comfortable continuing on. The weird part is, it eventually turned on a street that also intersects the first street we both turned off of! Why did it drive through the neighborhood?

It felt weird.

I didn't like it!

Call me paranoid...

Too much Criminal Minds? Is it possible

You know you've watched too much Criminal Minds when...

I was sitting at a red light this morning, about to send a text, when my phone shut itself off. I immediately reached to make sure the doors were locked and looked around for shadowy figures.

Yep, I think I've watched too many crime shows.

But I'm not giving them up!

What a great weekend!

This weekend has been so much fun!

The battery in my camera was dead, and I realized that too late, so I don't have any pictures. :(

Friday night, I met a friend for dinner at Raisin' Canes and ate for free. :)

Saturday morning, I went grocery shopping and felt like I stole the food! I purchased SOOO much and all for less than $90. I love HEB!

I went to a birthday brunch to celebrate a friend's birthday. The hostesses outdid themselves. It was fantastic!

Then I was able to hold Jill's baby! Luke Aaron was born 8:30 Friday night. Yay! He is absolutely adorable! He has a full head of dark hair that is feather soft! The cord was wrapped around his neck, so it ended up being a C-section. Jill and Luke are both fine. So fun!

Hoedown was Saturday, and I think this was the best one yet! Kindall, Jalen, Tracey, Jayme and I rode up together. So much fun! Ryan did an excellent job putting it all together! I danced and danced! It was great! I think my boots have finally been worn in! (After how many years?) My feet didn't hurt, which was wonderful! I think I need to get back out to Wild West a little more often. I'd forgotten how much I love to dance. :) We stopped at DQ on our way back in town for a blizzard. Yummm! Of course, as all road trips require, we had a funny experience. Hehe

I watched several episodes of Criminal Minds last night and slept late this morning.

Today, I've done quite a bit in the kitchen and around the condo. I cooked a turkey. I think this might have been my first time. For some reason, I think I might have done it before...but I just can't remember. It turned out fantastic! So juice and tender. I've frozen most of it and will use it later for casseroles and probably a soup. I also cooked pork tenderloin for the first time. I made it with a mushroom marsala sauce. Yummm! Vegetarian chili was going to be for a gathering tomorrow night that has been rescheduled. Hmmm, now I have a lot of food. I think I'll take some to Jill and Aaron once they arrive home and also to Lindsay and James. Their life has been torn a part lately. My heart hurts for them and taking a meal is something that can be a little bit of help.

Tom came over this afternoon with his shovel. The plan was to dig up the leftover trunk from the tree I chopped down last week. He dug up quite a bit of dirt, and the trunk kept going! He recommended a pick axe to finish the job. My cousin, Jon, is coming in town next weekend and said he can bring one! I'm looking forward to making it look nice and this is one more step in that process!

I'm about to put clean sheets on the bed. Yay for clean sheet night!

See? What a great weekend!

Do you have White Chocolate Moments?

I was reading a book last night (when I should have been grading, but let's not get into that now.) White Chocolate Moments is a modern day fiction story set in Chicago. The main character, Arcineh, has a pretty rough life. She's very wealthy, well her parents and grandfather are, but the author does a great job of portraying how money does not = happiness.

One day, when she's about 11 years old and having a rough moment, she has the opportunity to taste white chocolate for the first time. She loves it. It immediately relaxes her, calms her down and she can look at life a little differently. White chocolate then becomes a theme throughout the book. The story spans many years. She makes some life choices and other life choices are made for her, but when she's having a particularly rough day, she goes looking for some white chocolate.

Do you have something like that? Maybe it's not a food, but something that can relax you immediately?

I've been trying to think and I don't think I do. At least not an immediate. I love chocolate and peanut butter together, but it doesn't relax me. I enjoy spending quality one on one time with friends, but it takes some time for me to unwind. A margarita is great, but I usually have those in a loud setting and loud settings aren't relaxing for me. I enjoy a clean house and sometimes working with my hands helps me breathe a little easier and work away that stress.

I'm rambling now.

What are your thoughts?

One of those needle sticks

Occasionally my co-workers' husbands will bring them lunch. Sometimes my friends know ahead of time, sometimes they don't. Usually I smile and don't think a thing about it.

Today, it's just a reminder that I'm single.

Sigh.

I learned something!

Apparently I'm way more unobservant than I thought.

I've never liked how pictures looked on my blog posts. They're too small and thus hard to see.

Did you know there is an option to select 'small, medium or large' pictures?

Ugh.

Well as you can see from my previous post, I've immediately put my new knowledge to use!

Progress!

I cut down another tree! This one was quite a bit larger than I had originally thought.

This is what was hauled off in today's trash.







This had to wait for Monday's trash pick up. I was all out of cans!


Here's what's left of it!


Dad suggested a bow saw when I described it as 6" in diameter, but I think he asked me it's circumference and I answered with it's diameter. Well 6" of circumference and 6" in diameter are a bit different! However, the bow saw worked great! I felt so independent and also a huge sense of accomplishment! As you can see, I still have a part of the trunk, maybe 18" above the ground. I thought I'd need an ax, but Dad recommended a chainsaw. (Kindall, I may take you up on your offer of an electric saw.) I'll get that trunk!

I want to plant ground cover and some flowers. That tree was providing quite a bit more shade than I had given it credit for, so that opens up my possibilities of what to plant, too!

Before:



Today:



I'm going to Galveston this weekend to sleep, read and walk the beach. I don't plan to do anything else in the garden before next week, but by next weekend I'd like to have things planted!

A day? Does anyone have an extra day?

Does anyone else feel like they could get SOO much accomplished, if they just didn't have their work to do? I know. It's irrational.

But sometimes I feel like, "If I just didn't have students today, I could get so many papers graded."

or

"If I just didn't have a dinner to go to, I could get the house clean."

or

"If I could just have a day, with nothing to do, I could get it all done!"

Because that makes sense, right? uh-huh, yeah.

A wise man I know once said, "I look for busy people to do ministry. They already know how to organize their time well." (my paraphrase)

Anyway, I know I'm being slightly paradoxical, because I just said I wanted a day with no busyness, and the quote doesn't so much go with that...but at the same time, it all makes sense. At least in my head.

On a separate note, that is related...last night, I cut down a tree. It was growing in a beautiful pot. And I was hoping to save the pot. But that didn't happen. The tree had grown so much that the roots had eventually crept through the bottom of the pot. My tugging and pushing and shoving eventually split the pot into four pieces. The whole tree: pot, roots and all is now in much smaller pieces in the trash can. Whoo-hoo!

I started trimming another tree, hoping for it to come down, too. I quickly learned my height and tool limitations. I will attack that tree again after I borrow a ladder and purchase a certain saw, which name is currently eluding me.

I did do some picking up around the house, laundry, dishes, etc. But there's only so much you can do when NCIS is on!

Tonight's agenda: finish every project I began last night.

Planting out of Season

I love Fall. It is most definitely my favorite season of the year.

I love the cold weather. I love the seasonal clothes. I absolutely ADORE fall decorations. I already have my front porch decorated. I don't have my indoor decorations up yet, but plan to fix that shortly. :)

Does anyone else feel the need to clean really well first before decorating? Well, I do. And I haven't had a chance to do that lately. Ok. Yes, I have. But I haven't done it. So that's on the top of my to do list for this week. Pay Bills, pick up condo, and CLEAN!

A week or so ago, I worked out in my garden area. I didn't have gloves or tools. It was more spontaneous than planned, but it needed some help desperately. When I moved in, my landlords said they didn't think anyone had done anything with it in the five years they'd owned it. It's a beautiful space, but is a little overgrown. I filled two trash cans and a big, black trash bag with limbs, leaves, dead plants and the contents of six big pots!

I didn't take any pictures, because in all reality it doesn't look like I've done anything to it yet. But it will get there. And I will take pictures when I'm finished.

I plan to buy a rake and some pruning shears this afternoon and work out there some more. There are beautiful green plants, but no color. After I get it cleaned up, I think I'm going to plant some begonias.

Look for pics soon!

And I'm posting this as some accountability. Now you're (the ambigous 'you' because I really have no idea who (if anyone) reads this, but that's beside the point) expecting pictures, so I'd better get busy!

Idiosyncracies

A friend and I had dinner last night. I love hanging out with her because I can be plain ole me, and she loves me anyway. I really love hanging out with her because she makes me laugh. Real laughs that carry across the parking lot. :) We had fun. I found out a new use for the word herd. Apparently I'm a part of one. And I like it. Crazy, right?

At one point, our idiosyncracies came up. You know. Those little things you only know about someone if you live with them. Or maybe not even then. Yeah, THOSE things. I came up with a TON and all she could give me is she's crazy about a clean kitchen. Yeah, I know. Boring!

There are a few that I'm not willing to tell you. Sorry. Just not going to let some of them slide between these fingers.

Some of them I don't mind sharing. But you can only read further if you promise to leave a comment telling me a revealing idiosyncracy about you.

Promise?


Ok. Here it goes.

When I pluck my eyebrows, my eyes water and I sneeze. Every time.

When I'm in the shower, I shed hair as I wash it. I stick said hair on the wall so it doesn't clog the drain. Then I throw it all in the trash after I get out. (When I lived with a roommate, I forgot a time or two. She was grossed out. Sorry, Danni!)

I absolutely hate vacumming! HATE IT! Hate is a strong word. I know. Don't lecture me. I really do.


There was one sleeping idiosyncracy we both agreed on. But I'm not going to share that here either.


Your turn. What's something that only a roommate would know about the way you live?
Spill the beans!