Caution: Baby Gushing Ahead

Today was my third OB appointment and coincidentally third sonogram photo session. I won't go into details about the 2-1/2-hour wait that I had to sit through (along with Kevin and my mom and stepdad), but the important thing is: I got baby sonogram photos! Winky is sooo cute (that's our official neutral-sounding nickname for baby Lawracy)! I love to watch it moving. We even got a DVD. I received 16-week photos, too, but they are grainy, so I'm only going to post the 20-week ones from today. And you can't tell if it's a boy or a girl, so don't even try to see if you can see anything.









The second photo is from a birds-eye view looking from the top of the head so you can see the hands curled up by the nose pretty well.

Yay!

Jubilant

Reasons why this Christmas kicks last Christmas's ***!

* Kevin is home, not only in the country, but at our house not working (well, for a week)
* I made 4 kinds of new Christmas cookies, 2 of which are delicious (the other 2 are just good)
* My dad made me a custom craft table with storage on wheels with extension wings (photos later)
* Kevin is home
* All presents are bought and wrapped (and were a week ago)
* Kevin put up outside lights for the first time ever
* Kevin is home
* I got Kevin a really cool gift that he'll love
* Winky (the nickname of our unborn Lawracy child) is getting bigger
* Kevin is home
* I got to use my Magic Bullet food machine for the first time to chop nuts fo cookies and it was awesome!
* Kevin's squadron holiday party was a lot of fun (really really genuine fun)
* Kevin is home

Holiday life is good.

Our New Home - Clarification

After reading Julia's comment about where we may live, I did want to clarify something. The bases that Kevin put down aren't necessarily ones that we would have chosen out of all the bases available. They were the ones that had available jobs that Kevin would like. So while New Jersey is certainly not my first choice (or 100th for that matter), it is my first choice to have Kevin be happy in his job.

Besides, I hear the base in New Jersey is an hour away from New York City. Now that's exciting!

Our next home

Ever since we moved into the house we live in now, I continually think about the next house we will live in, simply because I'm not a fan of the set-up of the house we live in now. I keep thinking things like, "I wish the desk would fit in here" and "Why is our bedroom 85 degrees and the office 65 degrees" and "Wow, the crack in that window is getting bigger" and "Why did the architect make the master closet and bathroom the smallest of all the closets and bathrooms in the house" and many other thoughts.

So needless to say, I'm excited to move. The reason I bring this up is because Kevin officially put in for jobs/locations for his next assignment. Everyone keeps asking where we will be. Neither he nor I have any clue, but here is his list (in no particular order):

First Tier: Europe, Europe, Europe, Europe, Europe
Second Tier: McCord in Washington state, McGuire in New Jersey, Dover in Delaware, Wright-Pat in Ohio, Scott in Illinois, and one more that I can't remember.

We will find out some time in January or February. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to continue daydreaming about moving.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

...especially in my house. I don't know why exactly but I've been uber-excited about Christmas and holidays in general lately. We put most of our Christmas decorations up a week before Thanksgiving this year. I just couldn't wait! And I've already wrapped all the presents we've bought so far. I guess I can blame it on two things: 1. Kevin wasn't here last year and I was super-anti-Christmas/joy/good mood/anything happy so now I'm making up for it. 2. Hormones.

Probably the latter.

Anyway, had to post the following photos because they make me smile. You'll see why.



We were trying to take Christmas card photos with Ruby and she wouldn't move for me to scoot in so instead the camera got us after I had given in to laughing rather than posing.



I was trying to be creative and I know it's not a great shot but for some reason, I really like it. Especially with Ruby straining to escape.



My dad came to visit (referenced in a previous "ape" posting) and he was playing with Eerwin, my friend's dog, and I love love love the photos of the two of them.



(Kelsey, I promise my dad is not torturing Eerwin.)

P.S. It only took me about an hour to figure out how to post photos from a URL onto blogger. Sometimes, I really hate technology.

Recipe for Chaos

So I rarely do two posts in one day because I feel each post should have its own spotlight for at least a day. But I forgot that I wanted to update everyone about what's going on at home. Nothing big, but it's crazy.

We have 3 large-ish dogs in our house that are all very energetic. We're still caring for Eerwin, the ball-obsessed lab, and now we're caring for Katie Bell, the timid, but lovey lab-mix. And of course, there's Ruby. So our house is D-O-G central. And this is the first year Kevin and I are hosting Thanksgiving at our house for people we don't know very well, so I'm thinking Thanksgiving will be quite interesting this year. As crazy as 3 dogs plus hosting Thanksgiving may make this Thursday, I'm still looking forward to it. I think it'll be a fun kind of chaos.

Happiest Thanksgiving!!

Life Lesson

If you are lucky like I am, you will get to learn from life lessons the fun way (a.k.a. the hard way).

Case in point: My dad came to visit a week ago. He, Kevin, and I were in the kitchen getting breakfast ready on a leisurely weekend morning. Kevin and I were preparing the food, so my dad was sitting at the counter talking and watching. It was a pleasant, calm start to the day. While getting breakfast ready, my dad picks up my What to Expect When You're Expecting pregnancy journal and browses through some of the pages. Then he begins to laugh. For everyone's enjoyment, he reads aloud: "Do you find yourself thinking about sex, sex, sex? Are you hornier than a college boy?" Then he turns to another passage and reads aloud: "Are you finding hair growth in new places? Feeling like an ape?" (And yes, these are actual passages from the journal. Not my dad's words, but the book's words.) He proceeds to roar with laughter, which in turn, infects Kevin and me. We are all laughing at the descriptions. Then the laughter slowly dies out, and Kevin says, "Great. I'm married to a hungry, horny ape. I'm such a lucky man." And Kevin and Dad get a great laugh out of that.

Lesson: If you are pregnant, never ever leave any pregnancy-related reading material lying around that may be used as fuel for jokes by your father or husband.

Beau

From random web surfing, to which I fall victim time to time, I found a beautiful poem written by Jimmy Stewart (yes, the Jimmy Stewart) about his dog Beau. If you're a dog lover or simply have an appreciation for the simpler things in life, visit this lady's blog, who has a video of Jimmy Stewart himself reading the poem on Johnny Carson. You can read the poem on the website, but watching the video is so much better.

http://maybellinesgarden.blogspot.com/2009/11/what-great-dog.html

Best Birthday Ever

My 27th birthday will go down in my history as one of the best birthdays ever! There are two main reasons why. Both are due to Kevin.
Here they are, not necessarily in order:

#1



Kevin finally agreed that I could get my hair cut and he wouldn't complain or say anything negative. As long as I was happy, he was happy. Hurray! It's so superficial, but I feel so much better.

And #2:



We (well, I) am pregnant! On my birthday Kevin and I went to our first OB appointment. We found out that (last week) I was 12 weeks along (now I'm 13 weeks along). How cool is that!?! I'm due May 20. And no, we will not find out the sex of the baby till the birth day. Look at the photo! It has arms and everything! That thing is in me! How weird.

So there you go, the best birthday ever. New haircut and new human being. Wow!

P.S. I promise I will try not to bore my readers with endless tales of baby related crap. I will have to do one big posting with all the details and more pictures of the sonogram images (with our alien-like baby as the star), but I promise I will try to keep the baby stuff to a minimum. As excited as I am, even I get bored with baby stuff after a certain point.

Things are changing

Fall is here. Well, it is inside my house, evident from all the decorations I have put up. The weather is FINALLY changing (a little). Now it only gets up to maybe 80 degrees each day (have my standards gotten so low that I'm celebrating 80 degrees on Halloween?). At least I don't sweat so much when I go outside.

I was just thinking that along with the (minor) changes in the weather, other changes are taking place as well.

Tomorrow we will have 2 dogs until January (Ruby will be so excited).

Saturday my friend Jen is leaving for D.C. for 5 months with her husband (not a fan of this change).

I changed my mind and gave in to reading the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. Still not a vampire fan, but the plot is addictive.

My blog colors needed a seasonal change.

My hair is (almost) finally long enough to put in a ponytail without using 8,000 pins and barretts.

There's one other change, too...

Where does the time go?

Well, after avoiding getting on the computer for as long as possible, I finally had to give in for bill-paying and other assundry reasons. I decided to update myself on my friends' blogs and after reading theirs I have posting-guilt from not updating my blog in a month. So I'm doing it now.

I feel like I want to write the usual: not much new, blah, blah, blah. But there's new stuff that's happened. It'll just require me to use my brain and dig around to remember. Oh, let's see...

* Kevin's eyes: they are no longer bloodshot from his surgery. The eye doctor said one flap is perfect and one has a few dust particles under it (normal) so he has to put in a lot of eye drops.

* Vegas: Kevin and I went to Vegas for a week for a work conference. It was okay. I can mark it off my "been there, done that" list.

*Victor: We are fostering a dog named Victor for ARC who just got adopted by someone Kevin works with so he'll go to his forever home on Friday. Yay!

*Eerwin: We will be caring for our friends' dog Eerwin for 2 months starting next week so we'll have 2 dogs in the house for a while again. I know Ruby will be soooooo excited to have a playmate.

*Halloween: Nothing special, but I decorated our house for Halloween/fall because Kohl's had a great sale on decorations. I love the fall. Now if only the 80 degree weather would cool down.

That's all I can think of. I'll try to post again before another month goes by.

Job

I got a little job working at the consignment store from which half of my wardrobe comes. This is one of two stores that I shop at in Panama City (the other one is Dillard's - but only the clearance racks). I guess the owner decided that since I'm in there so often (at Lee's Designer Consignments) I may as well be productive for her.

One big problem for me. Every day I'm there, I pretty much feel like a kid in a candy store: really tempted, but I know if I actually got everything I wanted, I would be really sick (well, at least our budget would be). I imagine this is what Kevin would feel like if he worked at a beer store. Or if Kelsey worked at Crate and Barrel. Or if Jennifer worked at a Twilight store. Or if Julia worked at Talbot's. Or if my mom worked at a puppy store. You get the idea.

Visiting and Learning: Part 2

The education never stops.

Parboiling: briefly cooking something but not all the way; cooking something partly before you cook it some more another way

Chiffonade: some cooking thing that means to roll up basil leaves and cut them longways

Lane's: a peach and pecan grower in Georgia that is slightly touristy but has interesting souvenir things like Road Kill spice

Monopoly Deal: a card game where you play Monopoly but with cards (obviously) rather than a dice

Nothing kills sugar ants except time and lack of rain.

It is possible to enjoy Cobb salad equally as much two nights in a row.

Preparing a salad (i.e. assembling ingredients) is not cooking. (This newest fact I've learn is one I don't entirely agree with but if it gets me a homemade Cobb salad twice during a visit, I will concede.)

I love learning.

Visiting and Learning

There is something about being on an educational vacation that fills me to the brim with satisfaction and contentment. It's justification for fun. I'll explain.

Right now I'm at Kelsey's house in Georgia visiting her and keeping her company till her husband Eli comes home from a TDY. I've been here a little over 24 hours and I've already learned what blanching is, how to peel a peach easily (related to the blanching lesson), that there are alternatives to traditional high chairs, that the website the Pioneer Woman is awesome, that Warner Robins AFB is now called Robins AFB, that the Mormon faith condones self-reliance including a 3-month food storage, that grain mills are a fun invention that I would love to use but never would think about it in a million years, that my Real Simple magazine should have arrived already but it has not, that the restaurant Kevin and I visited in Savannah on our honeymoon is one of the 1000 places you should visit before you die, and many other interesting tidbits that are not only useful but intriguing as well.

Educational vacations: priceless.

Monster Hair Plants and New Orleans

Kevin and I did yard work on Sunday and I pulled out the jungle in our backyard. These plants with looooong, green, skinny leaves were taking over. Some of the leaves were longer than I am tall! I was amazed (and annoyed) by them so I took photos of them. Maybe someone out there will know what they are (besides annoying).



And now here are a few photos from our trip to New Orleans. I took a hundred and I'll put them on flickr. Here's a sampling.



Above is Pedestrian Square in the French Quarter.



Above is us in the foyer of the bed and breakfast we stayed in just a couple blocks from the French Quarter.



This is Jared, Kevin's friend from ROTC, and Kevin with a person dressed up funny. She/he had these finger clapper things that got my attention and I just knew this would be a fantastic photo opportunity.

Theme Song

I've decided that my hair has a theme song. Here it goes:

I believe I can fly. I believe I can touch the sky.
I think about it every night and day.
I spread my wings and (try to) fly away.

I believe I can soar. See me running through the open dooooooor!
I believe I can fly. I believe I can fly.
Oh I believe I can flyyyyyyyy.

Hair, I do NOT believe I enjoy you at the moment. And let me state for the record once more that I do not enjoy the wings.

In case you readers are having trouble comprehending the flying and wings of my hair, I've included a picture. Keep in mind, this is after I've washed it and (tried to) style it.



Moral of this story: I hate HATE HATE growing my hair out.

A Limerick

It's raining, it's pouring.
Ruby is snoring.
She fell asleep
On top of my feet
And now it's getting boring.

Post Travels

We survived New Orleans. I gotta say: that is not one of my favorite cities. I am a clean, dainty person (*cough cough*) and I do not love dirt and grunge. And I must say, those are two descriptive words that fit New Orleans. I believe I best described it to my mom: loud, colorful, and dirty. I am only a fan of things that fit the middle adjective, so New Orleans is not for me. I think Kevin had fun, though. Actually I did have fun; it was just more due to who I was with (and what I was eating) rather than where I was. I'll just check New Orleans off my "been there, done that" list.

Now onto real life: I'm going through the application process to volunteer in the NICU/nursery at the local hospital here. I tried doing this before, but then I got hired at Tyndall Elementary, so I never finished. I also may be watching my friend's baby while she goes back to work, so that's something else new. And I'm (finally) organizing our filing cabinet. I consulted my Martha Stewart cleaning/organizing encyclopedia so I feel prepared to tackle the task now.

And now for my most favorite activity: grocery shopping followed by cooking dinner. Man, life doesn't get any better than this.

N'Awlins

We are here in New Orleans. We got here yesterday and met up with a friend of Kevin's from MSU ROTC. We wandered the French Quarter and some unnamed area of New Orleans all afternoon and evening. We had to have walked for miles. And lucky us, we arrived just in time for the Southern Decadence 2009 party, the gay/lesbian extravaganza! It was awesome - made for some fantastic people watching.

We saw the usual N.O. stuff: Bourbon street (a once-in-a-lifetime and never-again experience), Magazine Street, Canal Street, bars, naked ladies, half-naked gay men, the Mississippi River, Cafe du Monde, big ass beers (aptly named), Tropical Isle grenades (disgusting Midori-type concoctions that give one a horrendous hangover the next day [something I chose not to experience]), and more.

Today we ate breakfast at Surrey's, a place on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives (on the Food Network). Awesome breakfast!! Of course, I was the only one who really enjoyed mine, as Kevin and Jared were feeling a bit "grenade-ed" if you know what I mean.

After bidding Jared a sad farewell (what a fun guy), we headed to the 1870 Banana Courtyard B&B. The only way to describe this place is through a series of oxymoronic phrases: huge but claustrophobic, musty but clean, old but modern, bright but dank, nice but mildly dingy, overwhelming but understated, colorful but brown. Our room is the Canopy Room. Nice-ish. The owners are very nice, very knowledgeable. Right now we are waiting to actually unpack our car and take our stuff to our room. It's POURING outside and the only way to get into our room is to go outside and up some stairs. Not a good time to lug 4 bags with you up 2 flights of metal stairs.

So we're just chillin'. More later.

A Case of the Happies

When the eye doctor told Kevin a list of all the side effects of having Lasik, he did not specify that Kevin would experience the Happies. This is a rare side effect associated with very few surgeries in which the patient is extremely excited and happy before, during, and after the surgical procedure (unrelated to any drug intake whatsoever). Similar symptoms of giddiness, pure joy, and optimism may also occur. Warning: these are contagious to individuals not associated with the surgery. The Happies can negatively affect these other individuals and cause irritation, annoyance, and at worst cases, extreme panic from worry associated with the patient being too happy and careless with his eyeballs. Warning: even nagging has no negative effect on the Happies. This may cause additional panic in the non-surgery individual, but try not to get hysterical. Based on past experiments, nagging is a powerful tool. Never give up.

Surgery = accomplished! Cake = it's debateable.

Kevin got his Lasik eye surgery this morning. He was as excited as a man in a brewery without a brew master. It lasted about an hour (including pre-op and post-op stuff) and now he's upstairs snoozing away, enjoying the last effects of his Valium. He kept stopping me on the walk out of the hospital and up to our room to say "Hey, I can read that!" The doctor said the recovery time should be short and easy. Hopefully it'll actually be that way. He has to have eye drops every hour for the first 24 hours then every 4 hours every day for a week. Because I'm anal, I set up alarm reminders on my phone to help me remember to wake him up and give him eye drops. Which reminds me, his eyes have ink in them. When I first saw them, I thought it was blood and I was horrified, but then when the doc said it was ink, I was less horrified. Still slightly disgusted, but oh well. As long as Kevin is happy and sleeping and pain-free, I'm good.

On the topic of my Splenda pound cake, I'd judge the results as falling somewhere in the middle of disaster and success. It tastes and looks like pound cake, but it's dry. My standards are much higher because of this cake that somebody brought to a training I went to: it was so moist and delightfully decadent, that no pound cake will ever taste good unless it tastes exactly like the one I ate at the training. I simply have to track down the recipe.

That's all. Keep Kevin in your prayers that his recovery goes well.

I've been commissioned

While Kevin's been off gallivanting with doctors about getting Lasik (which, by the way, he found out he's getting the Lasik surgery, not the one that uses blades), I've been hanging out at the Fisher House with the manager guy, Larry, and the housekeeper, Mary. Both are colorful people who are making the visit much more enjoyable than it otherwise might not have been. So Larry and I were chatting over breakfast and somehow I got commissioned to bake a cake for another guest's birthday. Easy peezy, no problem, I said. Then Mary decided that since I must be a great baker (this assessment of my ability was based on one observation of me making a Betty Crocker boxed mix cake, but whatever), so she commissioned me to make a pound cake. With Splenda (since she's diabetic). Great, I said. I've never made a pound cake, let alone with Splenda, but what the hey? I'll give it a try. Now, I am not a baking master, but I am aware that making a good pound cake is difficult. This little experiment will either yield a royal mess and much wasted time, ingredients and energy, or either you will see a photo of my creation proudly displayed on my blog. Stay tuned.

Avoiding Biloxi, Reveling at the Fisher House

I'm writing from Biloxi, Mississippi. There is nothing notable here except several casinos and Keesler AFB. I have to admit that I like Keesler a lot (of course, I've found that I like most AF bases that I visit except Edwards (sorry, Heather)). The place we are staying at is called the Fisher House and it's actually pretty neat. It's a non-profit bed and breakfast/hotel that is for Air Force families to stay in while someone is in medical recovery. Since Kevin is getting corrective eye surgery, we qualify to stay here. It is exactly like staying at some one's house: there's a huge kitchen for guest use, washer and drier, Internet, even popcorn (my fave!). The guy in charge cooks dinner sometimes, so tonight we're having spaghetti (if we don't decide to go somewhere else). And the best part: it's alllllll free. Completely free. Free rooms, free food, free internet, free laundry, free popcorn. It still amazes me. They welcome donations, but you don't have to donate anything (but don't worry, we will). It's amazing. Really. So despite my disappointment in Biloxi, I am impressed by Keesler and by the Fisher House. This set-up follows the general rule that AF bases are nice, but the towns surrounding AF bases are crappy. Biloxi and Keesler are no different. So now I'm going to return to my lazy Monday afternoon happily surrendering to my inability to do anything productive.

Just moseying right along

Well, it may not be raining jobs in my neck of the woods, but it is raining travel opportunities. So when opportunity knocks, I like to swing open the door in welcome! Kevin and I are going to Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Mississippi so that he can have corrective eye surgery (something similar to Lasik). The surgery process will occur over Labor Day weekend so we decided to take a jaunt to New Orleans while we're over there. Then in October Kevin's going to a work conference in Las Vegas that'll last a week so I'm going with him then, too. And in between I'm going to visit my friend Kelsey in Georgia while her husband is on TDY. The traveling apparently is not ending with summer. But that's okay. Oh, and we also got a new desk for our office. As soon as I'm done arranging the stuff around it, I'll post a picture. It's pretty nice and according to Kevin, we got a great deal!

The spiders are out to get me.

Okay. Anyone who knows me knows I'm afraid of spiders. Really really really really afraid of spiders. I know they are only the size of my finger tip (shudder), but in my world they take up half of the room that the two of us (i.e. me and the spider) are in. It's like they have a force field around them that saps any kind of intrepid attempt I may make to try and squash them.

And lately it seems that they have all conspired to come and terrorize me. It has rained a lot (which I'm sure has nothing whatsoever to do with this) lately and so all the spiders have decided that our house is their life raft. So do they think to politely stay hidden in corners and under things so that I can remain blissfully unaware of their existence? No. They have all decided that the safest place to stay away from the rain is on the floor on my side of the bed. There are more than 1000 square feet of great hideouts all over this house and for 3 - count them, THREE - mornings now I wake up and find myself stranded in my own bed without a spider-slaying prince to come and save me. So I've had to take my own safety and sanity into my own hands. After praying fervently that the spider doesn't move - because you know it's worse when you've seen one and then it's not there anymore and you don't know where it went - I gallop to the closest can of spider killer, spray a nice puddle onto the carpet (screw the fibers, I'm saving my life here), then watch in horror and joy as the thing twitches to death. Then I let it crustify for a few hours, then vacuum it up.

But it doesn't end there. I was mowing the backyard today and I saw the hugest brown spider EVER. Then I saw like 5 more. They are the size of baby frogs. That's big. BIG. So now I'm afraid to cut the grass or even go in our backyard.

So that's my story. The spiders are out to get me.

Travel photos

Here are the links to my photos from California
and from South Carolina, North Carolina, and Michigan
and from the wedding I was in (Heather and Bryan Snyder's).

Warning: In the set from SC, NC, and MI, someone got a hold of my camera while we were in a bar and took random photos that have some weird things going on that I can't explain. Just wanted to prepare you. Oh, but don't worry. There's no nakey-ness.

Just venting...

Why do I keep hearing about all these people getting teaching job interviews and then getting hired and I haven't had one interview??

Some of these people don't even like teaching! Sorry, but it's true.

Life is unfair. This is where I now try really really hard to hone into the faith that I'm supposed to have that everything will work out in the end. My head knows it will. But my heart doesn't. My head and my heart need to reconcile.

We're baaack!

Okay, Kevin and I are finally settled back into regular-ish life again. He went back to work officially yesterday. So now he's the assistant to the group commander of the maintenance group. His hours should be pretty decent compared to working in the AMU. He thinks he'll be working from 8:00 till 6:00 which is much better than 6:00 till 6:00. I, on the other hand, am not working so I'm trying to motivate myself to do stuff around the house. So far it's proving harder than I thought.

Anyway, Kevin and I returned from California and we had a blast hanging out with our friends out there. I totally have a crush on California. I want to plan another trip out there already. When we got back I got sick so we didn't end up going to Clearwater to see my friend (very sad about that), but hopefully we'll get to see her another time soon. My mom and I are still scheduled to go on the 600-mile yard sale trip from Aug 6-10. She's coming to visit Aug 3. I'm looking forward to that trip. It should be a lot of fun.

Among other news, Kevin bought a motorcycle. Don't ask me what type. All I know is that it's blue and white and has two wheels and handlebars. He's very excited. We got our helmets in the mail the other day. I thought I'd rather be safe than not, so despite Florida's stupid no-helmet-required law, we're wearing helmets! Kevin takes his motorcycle class this weekend and after that he'll have his endorsement and he'll be able to ride around.

In other news, we will be dog-sitting for two weeks for Katie Bell and Little Ruby so hopefully they will wear out our Ruby and she'll stop giving in to her incredibly annoying urge to dig holes that I swear go all the way to China. She's been in a distructive mood lately.

Okay, that's the life of Kevin and Cameron right now. I'll post photos of our CA trip soon...ish.

Hi ho, hi ho...

...It's off to California we go! We'll be back on July 8. Then I'll post some photos of all my travel adventures since I left in the beginning of June.

Tootles!

KEVVY'S HOME!

KEVVY'S HOME!!

KEVVY'S HOME!!

KEVVY'S HOME!!

Life is finally right again.

Summer plans

I thought I'd write a post about all the places I'm going this summer. They are all in order, except for the first one.

KEVIN COMES HOME!! (Okay, this is not in order, but it's certainly the most important event.) He should be arriving in Panama City any time after June 16.

June 3: Leaving for South Carolina tomorrow morning to visit my parents till Kevin comes home.
June 6/7: Mom and I are going to Myrtle Beach to stay in her beach cottage for a while.
June 11: Going to Michigan for a friend's wedding till June 16.

After that, I'm going to stay in SC till Kevin tells me his Panama City arrival date. Then I'll drive back home to welcome him back!

June 30: Kevin and I are flying to California to visit some friends who live near L.A. We're coming back on July 8.

Some time in the second half of July we're going to Clearwater to visit a friend down there.

July 30: My mom and I are going with a friend from work on a 450-mile yard sale trip for a few days.

And I'm sure Kevin and I will have more adventures in between all those things. Summer should zoom by with all that's going. And I am so looking forward to it all. :)

Why moving sucks...

Okay, didn't mean to scare anyone. We're not PCSing yet. The moving I'm referring to is moving all the junk out of my classroom and into my house. Kevin and I are now minus one guest room. That room has now magically been transformed into a storage closet for all my teaching supplies. And, man, do I have a lot!! It irks me to see all the stuff sitting in there, so I keep the door closed. I hate clutter, especially when I can't do anything with it. Yuck. Oh well. I just try not to go in there too much.

And to explain why my teaching stuff is at home and not in a classroom anymore: I found out Tuesday that I was not renewed to Tyndall for some reason other than budget cuts. I don't know what the reasons are, and more than likely I'll never find out for sure. I'm choosing to interpret this turn of events as the next step in God's plan for me, and I'm just along for the ride, waiting to see where I'm supposed to be next. So stay tuned for the next chapter in the story of my teaching career.

Back to my guest room/teacher storage area, I feel that people will not fully comprehend the massive quantities of stuff that I have so I will convey this with before and after photos. Warning: be afraid. Be very afraid.

Before: Nice and neat and organized.


After: Look away!

Moving sucks.

Nuff said.

More later.

Whatcha think...

...of my newly remodeled blog? I played around in Photoshop to create the header. It took me back to my high school journalism class, sitting at the computer experimenting with filters.

Ah, memories.

Twilight

I finally gave in to the Twilight mania. I haven't been really excited to read those Stephanie Meyer books because I am definitely not a vampire kind of reader. However, when books get this much hype, my curiosity usually will get the better of me.

I got the perfect initiation into Twilight. My friend Jen is obsessed (self-proclaimed) with the series and she owns the movie, too. So she and I watched the movie yesterday and here's the best part: she let me ask a zillion questions and compared the movie to the book while the movie was playing. For me, this was a perfect movie experience. Anyone who has gone to a movie with me knows that I'm that girl that asks "Who was that? What just happened? Why is he doing that?" and I know it gets very annoying. So yesterday I got to ask all my questions and get them answered.

The result: I've been infected with Twilight mania.

NOT AGAIN!

My damn dog got into the dog food again!! This time it was NOT my fault. She pried her piggy self into the container and ate it till I could see half of the bottom of the bag!! Now she's urping and burping and panting and pacing because she's too full. Stupid $!@# !@#!@# *^ !#$%$%^!@#$ !#$%%^$#% dog!!!

ARGH!!!!

Hairwell

I'm growing my hair out because Kevin asked me to. It's one of my "welcome home" presents to him because otherwise I'd chop it all off. It's driving me crazy.

It's funny to me who notices my hair. The lunch room ladies at school always comment on how long it's getting. Now, I truly love the lunch room ladies but I don't know their names. How do they notice my hair growth? And today, a parent volunteer noticed and told me it looks nice. I don't even know whose parent she is (but I have seen her around school at least).

I was just pondering this today. You just never know who is paying attention to you. I've also found that the opposite proves true as well: sometimes those whom you think are or should be paying attention to you turn out not to be. As my friend Jen would say: Innnteresting.

Just somethin' I was thinkin' about.

WEEE HOOOO!!

I just looked at my time ticker for Kevin coming home and noticed it converted into days rather than months because it's less than 1 month till Kevin comes home!

WOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

On another related-but-not-by-much note, growing my hair out is driving me crazy. My bangs are always in my face and I have a duck tail at the back of my head (where the bottom portion flips out while the rest of my hair stays flat). Oh, the things I'll do to make Kevin happy.

I'm so lucky...

...to have a dog as talented as Ruby.

Did you know her new favorite thing to do first thing in the morning is to lick her butt juice (which apparently leaks out and smells HORRIFICALLY GAG-ORRIFIC) and then LICK MY FACE!?!

Joy.

At least if Kevin were here, my face would only get licked with a poo juice-covered tongue half the time. Only one of the many reasons I miss Kevin.

something good!

My dad came to visit this past weekend to help me take care of some things around the house (read: fix everything while I watch and pretend to remember how he does it). Now pardon me while I digress for a second. There's a swampy area next to our house that provides for much entertainment if you like frog croaking and bird watching. I've seen many people go stomping around over there but I've never had the courage to go myself until I saw an older couple go over there, stare at the ground, bend over, pick something and put it in their mouths...repeatedly. While my dad was visiting, my curiosity got the best of me and I asked him if he'd accompany me over there so we could go exploring. Lo and behold this is what we found: BLACKBERRIES! A whole heap of blackberries! So we had ourselves a little blackberry pickin' and then we ate those suckers after a good rinse, and let me tell you they were delicious! So living next to the creepy swamp has a silver lining after all (or a sweet one, at least).

You ever have one of those weeks...

...when nothing was going well and all you wanted to do was stay under your covers with a large gooey brownie and a really awesome book and your dog next to you hogging most of your enormous king-size bed?

Yeah, me, too.

Obsessions...and Not So Much

It's time for a list posting:

Current Obsessions
* Gray's Anatomy (Netflix is wonderful)
* avacados
* staring at my hair, willing it to grow out faster
* Ruby
* Applebee's Parmesan Shrimp and Sirloin dinner via Car Side To Go

Current Trying-Not-To-Let-These-Become-Obsessions
* chocolate cake (it's amazing how quickly one person can consume a whole one)
* afternoon naps from which I wake up at 9pm only to realize it's time to go to bed
* Lee's Designer Consignment store (greatest store in Panama City, good-bye money)
* worrying about having a job next school year

On a slightly sad note, I did receive a letter from the district saying they are not asking me back for next year (apparently due to budget cuts). However, I have faith I'll still get a teaching job next year. I'm trying to remain positive and upbeat.

It's hard.

Tornadoes, Winds, and Flooding! Oh my!

So I was conked out this morning, I hear the phone ring, and it's my friend Jen saying "Are you awake? If you aren't, go get in your bathroom because there are tornadoes on the way." Well, good morning to me. I hate bad weather! So I stumbled around, getting stuff to put in the bathroom (candles, blankets, dog water bowl,etc.). Then I look out the window, and the street is flooding. My backyard had already flooded, as in I couldn't see grass, just water. So I ran around getting towels to stuff in the doors just in case the water decided to creep up to our house.

That was this morning. There are still warnings for floods, tornadoes, high winds, and severe thunderstorms (including hail) going on. The tornado watch is in effect until 9 pm.

I love living here. Cough.

Tax prep prayer

I haven't posted in a while and I felt like I needed to make some kind of update, if for no other reason then to inspire my fellow blogging buddies to update their own blogs (hint! hint!).
I did our taxes this past weekend. I always feel like after I submit them, I need to include a letter that says something like "Dear IRS, Please don't send me to jail. I tried my very best to navigate the jungle that is tax-paying. If I owe you money, I swear I'll pay it. Just tell me the amount. But please don't send me to jail for any mistakes I made. They weren't on purpose. Love, your very loyal law-abiding, tax-paying citizen"
Does that sound too pitiful? I hope so. I send that message each year via ESP hoping whoever receives it will take pity on me and accept my taxes and not audit me. So far, it seems to have worked. So I'll just keep sending the no-jail-time vibes their way in hopes of remaining jail-time-free.

Ya ever feel like me?

My friend, Julie, who's teaching her first year, wrote the following on her blog:

"My student teaching is getting totally out of control. I'm so frustrated. I think that's all I work on, think about, dream about etc. etc...Although teaching is not really the type of field where comparing serves you well," - so very very true, Julie - "it would just be nice to know that others are in the same boat as me."

After thinking about her thoughts for a few moments, this was my comment to her:

"I AM TOTALLY IN YOUR EXACT SAME BOAT. It feels like I'm in a sinking dingy in the middle of a hurricane with every kind of sea predator there is lurking in the water while I'm feverishly trying to save the 20 10-year-olds on board from drowning. That's what teaching feels like to me. And the crazy thing is, I still like it (not the sinking feeling but the teaching part). I may have to post this..."

...if for no other reason then to prove that I am, indeed, crazy. Does this mean that I'm a masochist (at least my professional life)?

Hm.

Our new old high school

This video is mainly for Kevin to see. But this is where we went to high school. Only it isn't. They've renovated it so much that it looks absolutely nothing like where we actually physically went to classes. It's crazy.

I HATE my dog.

And today she got into ant poison and ate some. Damn dog has never eaten poison or chemicals in her whole life and today she does.

Poison control and the vet said they think she'll be okay because she didn't eat very much, but to keep an eye on her and to call back if she starts trembling or shaking uncontrollably. How fun for me.


I HATE my dog.

I love/hate my dog.

That sentence pretty much sums up my feelings last night and this afternoon.
Let me start from the beginning...
I ran out of dog food, so I bought a new huge bag of it. It wouldn't fit in Ruby's food container so I rigged it so most of it fit, but it still stuck out the top. I figured, nah, Ruby won't mess with it. Then, I go to work.
I come home last night after a lovely evening with a friend (I had another friend let Ruby out at 5ish so please don't think I left her inside for 15 hours without food or a potty break) to find poo and pee all over the bathroom. This is very weird because Ruby has an excellent hold-it-till-Mommy-gets-home bladder. So I think, "I'll go change into yucky clothes to clean this up." So I walk into my bedroom, notice the bed sheets are all messed up, do a double take, and what did I find? Barf. Everywhere. All over my bed. This made Bobo look like an amateur. Anyway, upon closer inspection, I find that the sheets are shredded and the barf is on my mattress. Through my shock, I walk into my closet to find my clothes all messed up. Then I walk back through the living room to retrieve cleaning supplies and I find barf on the couch.
Ruby got into the janked up dog food container (which was definitely my fault completely) and ate, in modest estimate, about a gallon of food. In one sitting. That's about 8x the normal amount.
So I spent 5 hours cleaning then 3 hours listening to her whimper and bark.
I got no sleep last night.
Side note - I had parents call me names today and I missed a doctor's appointment this morning due to lack of preparation for school from lack of sleep, so I earned a "no show" on Kevin's medical record.
Needless to say, it wasn't a great day.
If only it ended there.
Then when I got home today, the day light illuminated the many other spots of pee and barf that I missed last night because it was too dark to see them. So I cleaned barf off of: the carpet in about 10 spots, the closet, the bed skirt, my jacket, my sleeping pants, 3 blankets, the wall, electrical cords, the side of a trash can, a door, bricks (fireplace), 2 rugs, a dog bed, and a couch pillow.
I love Ruby. And I genuinely have hope that one day I will see the humor in this, but right now I hate my dog.

It's a jungle out there...literally

So I never go out into my backyard. It's L-shaped and the back door leads to the side yard. To see the back part, I would have to go outside and peak around the corner of my house. But what reason do I have to do that? Well, I got one this weekend.
Our backyard serves one sole purpose: Ruby's toilet. So last week, when I let her out, I noticed she started going in the side yard and I didn't want to have to go on Poo Patrol in that area, too. So I poked my head around the corner of the yard to see why she stopped going back there.
Behold! A literal jungle of weeds. Weeds that were in full bloom. There was no flat area to step anywhere. If you wanted to walk back there, your feet would have disappeared. There were weeds that came up past my stomach. Now that's a tall weed.
Apparently Ruby decided that it was undesirable to use a potty that had morphed into a jungle. So I conceded and cut the grass - I mean, weeds - this weekend. Ugh. The poor mower was groaning at me.
In my feeble defense, yard upkeep is Kevin's job. So it's not my fault that our backyard (and slowly, unfortunately, our front yard as well) no longer looks like people live in the house. When the yard man and chef are gone, the household residents make do with as little effort as possible.

A do-able New Year's Resolution

After much chagrin, I have finally identified a New Year's resolution that, so far, I have been able to keep. So, without further ado...

(ahem)....

I resolve to start and finish grading papers and record them in my gradebook the day my students complete the assignment.

No more staring at piles of papers to grade wondering if they would perhaps look better in the nearest trash can...

So far, I'm 2 for 2! I feel so proud. :)~