Tuesday, January 30, 2007

My eye! My EYE!

Tee hee. OK, so yesterday during 1st period my eye started watering -- no need to panic, my eyes water in the mornings (as most of you see on Sunday morning bc I always have a tissue and look like I'm crying). By 2nd period, when I actually have a class, I have a sharp pain in my eye, redness, and burning...so not ok. I called LaRae to see if she could bring me my glasses, but Little Bear had been sick, so that was not going to happen (which was fine but frustrating to be stuck here and unable to do anything about my eye falling out). By the end of 2nd period I couldn't make my eye open, and so I called a support teacher to watch my class while I ran to the nurse to see if it looked like pink eye (shudder!). She said it could be which meant I had to leave, so I hurriedly got my stuff ready for my last two classes and arranged for teachers to take over my classes and left to find an eye doctor. By the way, I missed M & M Monday with my TAKS Math class. That's my baby! I love that activity! Argh. So an hour and a half later I finally find an eye doctor who can see me now, prescribe medicine if it's an infection, and takes my vision insurance. Go figure this was a medical thing (that a medical doctor would not have been able to see), so she didn't take my medical insurance, so I had to pay in full for the office visit. By that point though, she could have asked for my right arm, and I would have willingly given it to her if she could make the pain stop.


A long exam later, she tells me it a central corneal ulcer. (The article I linked you to says "pus"...there is no pus. In fact, I hate that word...) Basically it's a small hole in my cornea. I had already lost some vision (she promised it's temporary) in that eye, and so she gave me some drops and told me to use them every 15 minutes for 1 hour, every hour for the next 5 hours, and then every two hours until I see her again today. Oh yes, you've come to the right conclusion: I had to wake up every 2 hours last night to put in eye drops...I'm sleepy today. Anyways, I should be fine, but no contacts for at least a week. Good thing I got new cute glasses a month or two ago! I am really thankful it's not pink eye, so I could be at work today.


Sprinkles went to the groomer yesterday while I was eye doctor searching. His hair is long enough to have a top knot now. It was a top knot or cut it off bc I wanted to be able to see his eyes. Doesn't he look like a cute little fluffy alien?? (Before and after)














I better go now. Love ya'll! :-)

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Trying to Stay Upbeat


** Heroes spoiler alert! If you haven't watched it yet, don't read the last paragraph (yeah, the one after my tirade about dog class last night)!**
I decided to post a sweet picture from Christmas because I needed something to smile about today. Isn't Little Bear cute with her Princess cape? It's a bit long still, but it's shimmery pink and fun! I picked out the fabric, and Mom sewed it for her dress up kit. (Katelyn's dress up kit...not Mom's!) I'm not down and depressed, but I did feel the great desire to really smile today -- not the fake smile you give people as you pass them in the hall and they ask how you are but a genuinely happy smile that comes from the memory of something sweet. :-)

Last night's dog classes were not so good. Last week I was tired, but we were able to work on and get "heel." (Even after Sprinkles had licked half the coating off of an ibuprofen right before class and scared me to death!) This week it was "sit" and "stay" while by other dogs. He went into class fine and promptly made friends with a new dog, Joey, who is a yellow lab but still smallish because he is young. Joey's a little crazy, but Sprinkles was getting along so well that Chris put us in the ring together to try "staying" by each other. First go round went great. The dogs sat and stayed beside us while Chris tried to distract them -- Sprinkles didn't pay any attention to him. We go out of the ring and stand by Bert, Sprinkles' Rottweiler friend who is massive, and they start sniffing each other. Their leashes got tangled, and Sprinkles lost it (I think he thought Bert had a hold of him), so right after that we have to go back in the ring with Joey, and have them "stay" while we walk away a few steps. He WOULD NOT do it. He wouldn't "stay" at all. I was so embarrassed, and of course my face turned red which I can't control, so I was even more mortified. So as we leave the ring, Chris tells me to work with Sprinkles on "stay" within sight of the other dogs but not too close while we're waiting for our next turn. OF COURSE he would do it then! So we're inching closer to the other dogs, and I put Sprinkles in a "sit" and start to walk off, and Joey jumps on him (playfully but still big dog)! Sprinkles freaks and runs to me, and then we've got to go in the dang ring again. Would not "stay" again. Thankfully Chris let Sprinkles calm down a bit, and he put him in there again but with Yeager who just lies there and doesn't care what's going on around him, but Sprinkles wouldn't "stay" unless we (Chris or I) were standing between him and the other dog. He did stay then... Chris says part of it is Sprinkles remembering being attacked at the dog park one of the first times we went, but he'll get better and get more used to the other dogs in class. He told me not to count on Sprinkles ever really loving the dog park or running around with the big dogs. I can understand that...he knows he's small and it's not fun to get stepped on.

OK, so I'm long winded about class -- it was embarrassing, so I had to get it out. Heroes last night was greatness! I love it that it's back on. Here's my few questions/comments:
1. I LOVE that Claire is getting to redo her friendship with Zack. That was one of the saddest things from earlier.
2. I have no idea what to think about her dad now. Is he evil after all or just looking out for his little girl?
3. The guy who took peoples' memories -- can Greg not hear thoughts around him because he's taking him memory of what people are thinking instantaneously? How does his power work? I NEED TO KNOW MORE!
4. Hiro is my favorite! He's so funny and so sweet. He and Nathan's interactions crack me up. Please keep them together for more scenes.
5. Peter is hot. There's my simplistic girly statement on him. I like to look at him. ;-) His visions are freaking me out.
6. Silar is scary as anything -- I don't care if he's lying there staring at a bug and appears to be docile. I think he's just lying in wait to kill more people. In real life I wouldn't feel this way, but since it's TV I've got to say, I really want them to just kill him off. He freaks me out, and he's unpredictable, and I just keep cringing when he's shown waiting for him to jump up at the window. Also if he is able to somehow "fix" things, so that when he takes brains he has their powers, shouldn't he be able to "fix" himself to be immune to whatever it is they're pumping into him? I still want to know what he does with the brains -- no, scratch that, I don't really want to see it, but I'm too curious for them to never tell us!
7. Finally I just have to say I love this show, but there are a lot of story lines. Sometimes I think it's too many. To keep going around among the different stories it seems to make the show move a little too slow. Now I have noticed the more characters meet up (Nathan, Hiro, Isaac, and Simone) the quicker it goes (DUH!), so I'd like to see more Heroes finding each other and interacting in the near future.

Love ya'll!

Thursday, January 18, 2007

The BIG 5-0

This is my 50th post. Feels like more...I guess that's because I have blogged on Easyjournal and then Xanga since my freshman year of college. Wow, that's a lot of info online.

I was looking at pictures today from back in October and December and stumbled across this little gem. For some odd reason, on that day Little Bear seemed to think she belonged in Sprinkles' cage. Every time we turned around that's where she was, and she even shut the door herself! Of course a month or so ago she thought it was her job to rip his water bottle off the side of his cage every time she saw it hanging there...I'm not sure which is worse. I think I know what her parents think is worse!

I haven't heard back for the 35 year old guy. OK, I asked him some pretty frank questions, so I'm not surprised. If he'd answered, I would have thought maybe God was giving me a sign. Yes, I am looking on this site to meet someone to date, not just on there to make a new friend. I could date people I don't see a future with, but I don't really see the point. It's like being on a diet and cheating with a dessert you don't actually like. I did hear back from a different guy I had emailed, so I emailed him back this morning. That's as far as I've ever gotten (even being cautious not to sound desperate, clingy, and/or like an over talkative freak), so we'll see if he replies again.

Yesterday's snow day was a nice surprise. I was already awake and showered, so I stayed up and cleaned and worked in my apartment. It was really great to get a day to get some little projects done that I'm usually too tired to do in the afternoons and weekends. The kids are greedy about snow days though. They think we'll have another tomorrow, but I'm thinking the predictions are wrong...in fact the snow warning thing just got lifted, so we'll be here tomorrow. Some teachers were actually here yesterday before they got the call from the snow tree. I was going to be here at 7 yesterday and was on track to leave when Julie called and said she saw online that we were off, so I waited on getting ready. We could have come.

I played the role of pain in the rear neighbor. There's a huge white work van that's been sitting in the same parking spot since I moved. Here's what I noticed yesterday:
1. It still has a flat tire.
2. It's stickers are all expired.
3. It's unlocked thus any murderer or rapist could sit in it and wait for an unsuspecting victim.
4. It's taking up a prime parking place.
5. I couldn't find a parking place and it's the van or me!
So I called and told them about it. Now it has a beautiful orange sticker citing the expired stickers and flat tire and saying that it will be towed tomorrow if the issues are not fixed. If it is not towed, I will call weekly. I am sick of this van! It says Ace Cleaners on the side with a number. I'm about to start harassing them too.

Speaking of harassment: the Mary Kay lady who came over in October to give me a free facial left a basketful of products at my house accidentally. She's attempted to come get them about 3 or 4 times and each time called long after she was supposed to be there and said she can't make it. (Forget me not making plans to wait for her!) The last I heard from her was around Thanksgiving. Fast forward to a week ago -- she calls and asks when she can come and then starts to tell me about a sale she's having for people who host parties for her! THE NERVE!!! I cut her off and tell her succinctly that I will not be hostessing a party. Then she has the gall to ask if I have anything I want to order. I again give her a blunt, "No, I will not be ordering from you. When are you coming for your stuff??" She says she'll come Wednesday at 5pm. 3:00 yesterday I try to call (the roads were FINE by then) to ask if she's coming. I had to leave a message. She calls back, and here's our conversation:

Me: Hi I was just wondering if you were going to make it tonight to pick up your stuff.
Her: Oh no. Obviously with the weather I will not be able to make it!
Me: Oh really?
Her: Well yes since I have no experience driving on slick roads. I'll call you some other time.
Me: Oh ok (Holding back my annoyance and wanting to scream!)
Her: Thanks for calling.

THANKS FOR CALLING?!?!? What!? She should have called me! It wasn't a courtesy call on my part. If you are supposed to be somewhere and you can't make it (for whatever fake and outrageous reason), then call the person! I've been polite to her and she's acting like I'm holding her stuff hostage! Argh. So here's my next step. I'm calling her next week for her to come. When she says she'll be there, I'm going to tell her that if she is not there by ___o'clock I will leave her products in a bag on the doorknob, and I will expect them gone by the morning. I will also express that I hope no one else thinks they are freebies. Finally I will tell her that if they are not gone by the morning I will have no choice but to assume she is being generous and that she is considering the basket of goodies to be a free gift to me. I bet she'll make it that time.

I've got to balance my checkbook and go get comics! Love ya'll!

Friday, January 12, 2007

Questions

OK, that picture has nothing to do with my post today. It's a picture of Whitney and I at her rehearsal dinner 2 summers ago. It was a luau, and the groom's mother gave us soaker balls to have a water balloon fight with. Real mature, eh? Don't mess with me!

No I just have a few questions I want ya'lls opinions on. I heard from this guy on the sight. He's good looking and his profile sounds nice BUT 3 things:
1. He's divorced.
2. He's 35.
3. On his profile he checked that's he not really active with his church.

Now I went ahead and asked him if his divorce was scriptural and if he was willing to change his level of activity with the church (he's been baptized since 1985). Those two questions alone may have scared him off, and that's fine...I'll take that as God looking out for me. I guess my questions for you are:
1. If it's scriptural, should him being divorced be a real issue?
2. Is 35 too old? I'm almost 24 now. 11 years is big.
3. Not active in the church. Even if he says he is willing to change that, should I trust it? Even if we dated, and he came while we were dating. How sure could I be that he was for real?

On the other hand, Sprinkles gave me his opinion on my work last night. I woke up and heard him doing something and went ahead and ignored it and went back to sleep. Turns out when I woke up this morning I found 2 still totally intact pieces of pencil lead lying on one of the bins I stacked up for him to get onto the bed. First I thought, "how'd he push the button to get the lead out and not break the lead?!" Then i woke up more and found the mechanical pencil. He had eaten the eraser and let the lead fall out the end of the pencil. I've decided this is his editorial comment on my math skills. One: He thinks I should use pencil, so he left me the lead. Two: He thinks I'm so good I don't make mistakes, so I have no need for the eraser. Three: If only he had opposable thumbs, he could work my Sudoku puzzles when he wakes up at 3 am!

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Bad Dream

I woke up this morning around 6am totally stressed out. For one, the dog was laying on my head. Yeah, how can that be comfortable for him?! I mean for me, it was sort of nice...my head was warm, so he was preventing my body heat from escaping. Thank goodness I wanted to wash my hair today. Anyways, with him being literally on my mind and me going back to sleep after his 1 am urgent "gotta go right now" outdoor trip, it's no wonder he made his way into my dream:


I was at school teaching the courses and kids I am actually teaching right now. For some weird reason I had brought Sprinkles to work with me. In my dream I knew he shouldn't be there bc I had snuck him in. All day I was careful to keep the door closed while I taught, so he was able to run around the room during class without getting out of the room. During class changes I held onto him. I never really left my room, and the kids were loving having him here. Around the 3rd to 4th class change he darted out into the throng of students swarming about in the halls, and I had to run after him. I grab him right as we both run into two teachers here (won't name names) who always find it their main purpose in life to tell people what they're doing wrong, why they shouldn't do it, how horrible they are for doing it, and who promptly go share what you were doing wrong with the whole school. Yep, of course it was two of those people. That's where I woke up...after being cornered in my room and being told off, I woke up stressed. It was weird. No I wouldn't ever consider bringing Sprinkles here to run around in my classes. Do I and others bring our dogs up when we are working in the evenings or on a weekend or two (not on workdays)? Yes. :-) It's fun.

That's my most recent dream -- that's less traumatizing than the one I had about a week and a half ago where I was the star of a bad Lifetime movie. Me and these other women with big 80s hair were painting dishes (like mugs and plates) all the colors of the rainbow...oh and stained glass windows, but we were using thick paint the light wouldn't go through. For some reason we were convinced that by doing this I would be able to leave my physically abusive husband. Oh yeah, while we were being crafty in the driveway and garage, my husband was throwing a party in the backyard. (Real smooth of us, eh?) So anyways, one of my husband's party goers comes to where we are and tries to hit on me, and when I turn him down (oh yeah, he was fat, balding, and in general really gross) he breaks half of our dishes! But we had shelves and shelves of them done, so someone assured me I'd still be able to leave him soon. Then this woman, who incidently we helped to leave her abusive husband last month, drives up in this old pickup and tells me she's going to tell my husband what I'm doing and stop me! We all are in shock bc she of all people should understand my pain! We can't stop her, so she runs and gets my husband. He is so angry (and so abusive) that he throws me into the shelves of the remaining dishes we have worked so hard to paint (not a good day for dishes!) and kills me. Yeah, weird again, huh? Not so bad though bc I think even at the beginning of my dream I knew how it would end. Afterall Lifetime movies are pretty predictable.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Dog Class


Since Sprinkles is not actually in puppy class anymore, I've decided dog class is the better name for it. If you could care less about me bragging about my smart pooch, ignore this post. :-) We had our first dog class last night. First off, it was 2 dogs from our old class (another will be there next week) and a new dog I don't know. For one, all dogs in our class are over 50 pounds, and to make it more interesting the new dog things Sprinkles is a night time snack, so he keeps lunging at my poor baby. (Step back: if you know me at all, you know that I don't really like dogs lunging at me or my dog, nor do I really like large dogs I don't know if they're doing anything but standing still or laying down and very very still!) So, we've got that beside us when we go into class.


Then Chris puts us all down parrallel aisles (sort like parrallel universes...but not) and he has us put the dogs through the series of commands they should know: :sit, down, stay..." In the middle of "sit", the maniac dog comes around the endcap and lunges at Sprinkles AGAIN (his poor high school chica owner is just being drug around).

So now Sprinkles knows quite a few things for such a small dog:

1. That dog is just one aisle over.

2. It can get to him easily.

3. He has no doubt in his little doggy mind that he's next on the menu.

4. He has no intentions to "stay" at one end of the aisle alone while mom walks away.

So "stay" didn't go so well.


We spent the evening working on getting everyone back in shape. Go figure pyscho dog wouldn't or couldn't "stay" to save his life, so Chris (the trainer) spent a lot of time working with him. He actually told me he felt sorry for Bert (the rotweiler who has gotten HUGE) bc he stayed on track and was doing all his commands right. I mentioned to him that Sprinkles knew how to do it all as well until he got put on the menu. He smiled and agreed Sprinkles was nervous and gave us the task of "stay with a distraction." That meant I had him "stay" and went to the end of the aisle and played with a squeaky dog toy while he had to sit there. He did it! Whoo hoo! Of course at one point when I walked away he went around to where Cisco (the now GIANT boxer) was and took his toy and started playing. LOL. I guess I forgot to tell him "leave it" on all toys, not just the white lamb. He's smart like that. Anyways, class went really well, and although we were both really tired by 8:30 when we left, it was really really fun. Monday nights are really going to be fun from now on. :-)

Monday, January 08, 2007

Lovely Weekend

This weekend I just relaxed. Saturday I didn't get out of my pj's and Sunday after church I watched TV and played with the dog all evening. It was so nice to not think about school. Of course here I am back to the grind stone.

Dog lessons tonight. I think Sprinkles is getting sick again...maybe not I dunno. Something's not quite right; I'm hoping it's the change in weather. Seriously, having an outdoor dog growing up really cut down on the worries about him. We weren't standing there everytime he went potty and didn't notice every little oddity about him bc he wasn't right there with us all the time.

Having a relaxing weekend sure makes for a boring blog post. I really don't have much going on, no profound thoughts to share, no funny stories to try to get you to laugh about; although Katelyn continues to be so loving and so "into" her Aunt "Joann-ie." Finally, I'm the cool, fun aunt! Whoo hoo!

OK pictures for today -- this was Mario's birthday cake last year. Some of you have already seen it. I wanted to do something cool that had to do with music for Mario, but I didn't want to do music notes. I don't know if he plays piano, but I thought this would be neat. This was my first attempt with working with chocolate. I actually watched a food network challenge and decided I could do chocolate work, so I melted chocolate (the stuff you would use to make candy) and smoothed it out on a cooled, wax paper covered, cutting board. (Thankfully you can remelt chocolate when you mess up!) Then I cut out the piano keys. The lines on the side of the cake to show the space between keys is piped chocolate. I piped it onto the cutting board and cut it into the right length once it cooled. I realized I couldn't get icing the same color as the chocolate, so the writing on the cake is chocolate was well...hence that part not looking awesome...first time means something suffers a little! (Oh yeah, chocolate cake with whipped icing -- yummiest cake I've made!) This cake got the best reviews of any cake I've made.




Friday, January 05, 2007

...And the flowers croon...

Sorry that title was going off of Keeper's comment. Anyways, today is much better. (Thank goodness!) I've actually had some time to do some planning, and I've had time to organize my desk again. It is sort of nice having 1st period conference bc I get all of this time to get organized and get things together before I have to teach. Really my day doesn't start (with kids in my room) until 10:10! Oh yeah, that's not bad. That means when I get here at 7:30, I have plenty of time to work.

Last night I reorganized a bunch of TAKS Math notebooks and went to the comic book store. I was surprised Sprinkles didn't kill me in my sleep, as I ignored him a lot last night. I was working or reading pretty much all evening. He did poo on the floor... hm, yeah that was my payback. Oh yeah, and I almost got asked out. Paul saw it all; he can vouch for me. Actually about 3 other guys who were in the comic book store who stopped what they were doing and looked up and over and this guy and I could vouch for it too. The worst thing is all I could think was, "oh crap oh crap oh crap." See, I'm a punk. I flirt with this guy at the comic book shop bc it's fun and bc I can and bc I thought it was safe. Last night I got asked if I had a boyfriend...seriously it all sounds lame on here, but I'm thinking it's leading into him asking me on a date soon. Oh yeah, he called me cute -- that was nice. Bottom line in this rambling: I'm not interested. He's nice and all, but he's really got a chip on his shoulder about religion, and he's divorced and has a kid. From what he's said I'm not seeing that the divorce was scriptural. I'd go on a date for fun, but no further with this one. Why can't I get myself to flirt with nice, good looking, single, Christian men? I can flirt with the ones I shouldn't or don't want to date -- when it's someone I'm really interested in though -- totally lose my ability to put together words that sound even remotely like words.

Enough about my singleness. Last night was funny and gave me a good smile after a long day.

Monday starts Sprinkles intermediate doggy classes. He has to pass the puppy class test before we start bc when he was sick, he missed the test. We've been practicing in the evenings a lot, and I feel like he's really ready for the test. He will still sit and lay down on command, and now he really will stay when I tell him to (without his leash being tied to anything). I think he really had fun doing his tricks for me. I'm really looking forward to these classes. It's good, structured quality time with Sprinkles, and it's fun to teach him new stuff. In these classes he'll learn stay and come(better than he has it now), how to properly meet people and other dogs as we're taking walks, how to heel, and a fun trick (which trick will be decided by our class -- I want him to learn how to sit pretty...I think shake is dull, but cute).

Picture for today is me making Whitpoop's wedding cake. Waaaaah! I didn't leave enough room for the topper. Let me pout for a second.


There we go. Now, is it going to fall off? Willow Tree figures are pretty and look nice on the top of a cake, but those things are pretty dang heavy to trust on top of a wedding cake. (Yeah, it fell after I set up the cake at the wedding, but I fixed it.)


Here's a close up of the detail. No I didn't make the flowers. I have started using some fake (and real) flowers since my carpal tunnel surgery to help cut down on the strain on my hands.

Love ya'll!

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Busy Beyond Belief

Here's another picture for your viewing pleasure since the text today wasn't that rich. It's the TIKI cake I did lst year. It followed the "cake of shame" that if you didn't get to see it as you ate it...GOOD! It totally fell apart when I tried to ice it. (And filling in the cracks in the cake with icing only made it worse. Who woulda thunk it?) I ended up baking this cake at 2 am after a 1 am trip to WalMart for new supplies, and I took a 4 hour nap and got back up to decorate it. Thankfully this was before I had Sprinkles, so he wasn't running around further destroying my nerves that night. My poor mother got a call around midnight and all she could hear at first was someone crying and saying, "it fell apart!" I think that whole coversation with her was with me speaking in a voice that sounded like Minnie Mouse. Definitely my worst baking moment ever. :-) Didn't the cake end up cute though?