Have you ever wanted to update, but you have so much to say that you just don't post? That's what I've been feeling like for the past week or so. I'll just tell you a few random things that have been going on. :)

Happy Independence Day!


I have taken steps to get a new career. I'm going back to school, but it's not what you think. I'm going to go to Tech school to learn stenography. I want to do closed captioning. Since I have a degree in Education I think I might like to go into captioning deaf or hearing-impaired students.

Last Sunday, our friend R had a party to celebrate his last round of chemotherapy. I could have sworn that I posted about it but I'm not always consistent with tags, and I can not find the entry. Anyway, he was diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease back in October and he's been through lots of chemotherapy, and now he's all done! Hooray! So we went canoeing on the Wekiva River. I like canoeing but it's hard work, and Aa is scared of falling in so he yells at everyone the whole time, so I don't like being in his boat. We had 3 boats. Aa was in a different one, and his was the only one that didn't tip. :) Of course, right? At one point, R and his boyfriend had pulled off to the side to wait for my boat and Aa's boat, and my canoe was headed right for them, so I thought they'd scoot back a smidge so we didn't hit them. Since people bump canoes all the time, I didn't think anything bad was going to happen. I shouted, "Ramming speed!" and about 2 seconds later, we really did ram their canoe and they flipped right on over! I felt guilty so I jumped in and helped them gather up all their belongings so they could tip the water out.

The second part of the party was Sunday evening when we went to Ruth's Chris Steak House. It's Aa's favorite restaurant, and R loved the steak, and most other people love it too, but I don't like steak so much, so I don't really like eating there. It's very expensive. But I will admit that the waiters treat you right when you go there, so it's nice to get great service. The best part of the meal was definitely the desserts. Aa got creme brulee and I had some, and I split the apple tart with our friend M, and it was like having a small apple pie with ice cream. Gah, so yummy!

Ellie's doing well with potty training! In the past few days she's had more successes than accidents. Go Ellie!

Now she's being very energetic and we have to go to Aa's parents' house for the 4th, so I'll check my FL later. Hope everyone has a great day!

Yes, I have bizarre dreams. Last night's was so strange that I have to post it right away so I have the details fresh in my mind:

Aa was going to hang out with a new batch of friends last night. I was slightly jealous because I suspected that all the friends were gay, but Aa assured me that he is straight so it doesn't matter. So they went and hung out and I was straightening up the house (which was a mobile home) while he was gone; they came back to the house to hang out in the bedroom. The funny thing was that they were all nude! I pulled him aside to point this out, and he said, "Never mind that. Just make us some chicken parmesan for dinner."

So I quickly whipped up some chicken parmesan and Aa, the naked guys, and I ate it super-fast. Then we were in a hurry because they naked guys all had to go to a school dance, which was coincidentally at my niece's school. We drove them to the dance and went in to chaperone.

At the dance, the guys started running around the crowded gym. Aa said, "We have to keep track of them!" I said, "I don't even remember what they look like because they have clothes on now. How am I supposed to find them?" Aa told me to do my best. So I went around looking for the guys, but there were so many teenagers that it was difficult. I did notice a lot of people were dressed up kind of vampirey. Then suddenly, a girl with a tiara got on the stage and they shone a spotlight on her, and she said into a microphone, "OK, everybody! It's exactly 150 days until Twilight comes out! 10 seconds to go..." and then the crowd started counting down. When we got to zero, confetti dropped all over the gym and people started chanting a creed-like saying that went something like "I believe that Edward Cullen is the chosen vampire and that Bella is meant to be with him. I will faithfully read the stories of their love..." I dropped to my knees with the realization that I have read these books and that they are actually a cult!!!

Ha ha ha, so that is my dream. The funny thing about Aa is that last night, he went to bowl with a group of his friends, and they are gay. He will actually join a league with them in the fall, and they are bowling on a summer league now, which is what Aa went to last night. It's a men's league, and I figured that maybe R's team just happens to be a team of homosexuals in an all-men's league, but Aa told me that he observed last night that the whole league is made up of gay men. I laughed and told him that he needs to just fess up and come out to me, and he laughed right back and said he's extremely confident in his heterosexuality, and he's comfortable enough with himself that he's not going to NOT join just because they're gay. He admitted that it is a little odd being a minority, though.

And as for Twilight, well... I'm probably more upset with the chant predicting that Bella will wind up with Edward rather than Jacob. I read that one of Stephenie Meyer's brothers is named Jacob. That's creepy IMO.

I feel like such an idiot - definitely my klutziest accident in a long time. I was playing in the backyard with Ellie, laughing and swinging and singing and having fun, when somehow I lost my grip on the swing chains and fell face-down on the ground behind the swing. I think it even sounded like when Charlie Brown doesn't kick the football: WHUMP! My left leg was at a weird angle and I think I pulled a muscle, and I scraped my right knee. It knocked the wind out of me and it took me about 10 seconds to get my bearings. Poor Ellie was sitting on her lower swing trying to look at me and asking, "You OK Mommy? You OK?" I managed to get up and herd the dogs and Ellie inside, where I washed my scrape and applied a band-aid. I'm on the couch now with a Hello Kitty ice pack against my left thigh, with Backyardigans on the TV and Ellie running around with her echo microphone, while the dogs chase her and bark.

Yeah. Aa's on his way home. I just tried to get up and walk around. Ellie's in the other room with my cell phone (I had to pluck her out of her sink, where she was standing) talking to Gramma. Aaron needs to get home soon before Ellie gets injured too!

This morning when Elles woke up, I told her to sit on the potty. Usually she tells me "No potty" but today she said, "Potty!" and ran in there, sat on the pot, and peed! Then just now, while I was playing online instead of doing my motherly duties, she ran past me with a teddy bear shouting, "Diaper! Diaper" At first I thought she just wanted to diaper her bear, but then she got the wipes, lay down on her changing pad, and said, "Stinky poopy. Stinky." Then she plugged her nose.

After getting her cleaned up, I went into her playroom expecting to see an accident, but lo and behold she had pooped in her potty seat, which was in the playroom! I am so happy. No accidents today so far! Cross your fingers for us that she keeps up the successes all day! I didn't let her get a pull-up on (we have no more diapers) and I told her it's either panties or nothing. I have an errand to run so I'm really conflicted about whether to let her wear a pull-up out, which we've been doing, or to let her go in panties and shorts. I'm so nervous to do that because I HATE cleaning the car seat.

I took Grandma out to lunch today and then I went to Borders to buy Fearless Fourteen. :) Plummy goodness!

My advance apologies to coffee lovers out there for my anti-coffee ways, but I can't stand the stuff. It smells horrible to me, and ingesting anything that has a remote trace of that pungent flavor sends me into a tongue-scraping, drooling, spitting, infantile fervor. So you can understand why I never enter Starbucks. Oh wait, I did enter one once about a year ago to buy some milk for my daughter when the restaurant next door to the Starbucks didn't sell milk. I cringed and held my breath the whole time, and for hours afterwards I could still smell it in my hair. Blargh.

It probably seems wonderous to you all that I knew nothing of their baked goods. Yesterday, my neighbor took his son to summer day camp and stopped at Starbucks on his way home. He was kind enough to pick me and Ellie up a berry-packed muffin, some Madeleines, and black-and-white cookies. Oh. My. Gosh. They were so tasty. I have been on somewhat of a diet, and those tasty treats were the perfect diet busters. Ellie and I split the muffin yesterday for her snack. Zowie! It was amazing. Today after a lunch of whole wheat pasta and vegetables, I broke out the plastic-wrapped black-and-whites, and once again split my wares with Elles. Holy cow, I've never had a more perfect cookie! Perfect texture, both with the cookie and the frosting. Perfect crispness of the white side, luscious creaminess on the black side.

Heaven help me.

Aa had a terrific birthday. It was the least amount of work I have ever had to do for a birthday. Down the road from Hooters is a Super Target, where I got the cake, which is next door to a Party City, where I got the balloons and other decorations. All in all I spent about 45 minutes planning and buying, so I'm pleased that everyone had a good time. Enjoy lots of pictures!
( Lots of Hooters pictures )

Today is the students' last day. We're having a faculty vs. 5th grade kickball game and I'm playing! cincan19, I hope I do you proud!

I only have 3 days left at work. Tomorrow is the students' last day. I CAN DO THIS. Without confrontation. There's still a paper I'm supposed to go over with el Principal. He's met with everyone else about their said papers. I can only assume two things: 1) he's putting it off and we'll go over it together within the next few days, or 2) since he laid me off we don't have to go over it. When I was laid off back in 2001, this form was not procedure, and I probably wouldn't remember back that far anyway, to know if I went over it with the principal or not.

As a special treat for classes who earned the most stars on my classes' behavior chart (I know it stinks to punish or reward as a group, but the students honestly competed to be the best) we dissected squids! The students were soooooo interested and excited. I used this lesson plan and let the students work in pairs. They got to take out the ink sacs and write with them! The squids were actually quite inexpensive at Lombardi's Seafood Market. Geez, I'm going to miss teaching science so much. :(

I made this myself because I've been enjoying the show "The Big Bang Theory" lately. I'm really not good at making icons, though. When you (of my FL, that is) snag an icon from someone else who IS good at making them, what's the protocol? Is there a list of rules or etiquette anywhere about that?

Tonight I'm going to a friend's house to watch the American Idol finale.

Tomorrow night Aaron and I are going to see Kids in the Hall Live! Yeah! I'm so excited. I loved that show.

Friday night I'm going out with some other moms for a Moms' Night Out. Olive Garden, meh. Company of other women, pretty cool.

Since I've had so many depressing posts lately, I thought I'd share the amusing event that happened on Tuesday.

The fifth graders had their puberty talk on Tuesday, so for the rest of the day they were all a bit antsy and chatty. I teach a 5th grade lab after lunch so they came to me saying inappropriate things and laughing a lot. Our experiment was for them to see whether a popper would bounce higher from the carpet or a tile. As I circulated amongst the students, I walked past one pair of boys who had simply set up their popper next to their meter stick, and their popper bounced up higher than the stick and landed squarely in my cleavage! I was so embarrassed I just stood there for a moment, staring at the little half-sphere that fit snugly between my boobs. I plucked it out of my shirt and set it on the tabletop and just kept walking. They laughed heartily at my retreating figure. I'm sure many boys will hear that story.

I take a break from this regularly-scheduled holiday to rant:

Why is "healthy" bread an irregular shape, so that I can't fit my sandwich into a regular-sized sandwich baggie? Why is it wrapped in a second plastic wrapper? It actually goes bad before my loaf of whitewheat does. I was all excited because tonight I actually made my sandwich for lunch tomorrow ahead of time, and when I pulled out the loaf of Pepperidge Farm Oatmeal Bread, there was a big splotch of mold growing over about 3 pieces. >:-( So I threw the whole loaf in the trash, grumbling about how I don't have a worm composting setup so that the irregular loaf in the double wrapper is going to sit in some landfill instead of fertilizing my lawn, or some such nonsense. And then I took the baggie of mini-vegetable-bread muffins I made for Ellie, and wouldn't you know they had mold too! What is going on?

So I ask you guys: if you find mold on a piece of bread, do you throw the whole loaf out? Do you eat irregularly-shaped bread, and if so, do you know why it is wider than white bread? Do you like white bread? I am a wierdo; I like wheat, pumpernickel, and rye bread better than white bread. In fact, I don't like any bread all that much. Half the time when I eat a sandwich or hamburger I'll get halfway through and decide I just want what's on the inside. Same with pizza; I'll eat the toppings off the crust and throw the rest away.

On a separate-but-still grainy positive note: I made steel-cut oats for my breakfast this morning and it was the BEST oatmeal I have ever had.

I hereby proclaim today The Day of Change. I have an appointment to talk with El Principal at 8 am. I'm carrying with me any positive energy you guys throw my way, even if it's retroactive. I have on my lucky pink shirt and a winning smile! :)

Also today, after school, I have a doctor's appointment. There's a mole on my face above my eyebrow that I'm getting removed. It has mildly bothered me for years. When I say mildly, I mean that on a scale of 1-10, it's about a 5. It's taken me a long time to remember to ask, and now that I have it's going to be such a quick and easy procedure that there's no reason not to.

Aaron just told me that he will work from home today and keep Ellie at home. She has the croup and he has a cold, so hopefully she won't be too hard to manage while he works. Nice thing about computer jobs is that he has that option every once in a while.

I'm taking a day off today. Ellie and I will meet up with some other local online moms at the Florida Waffle Shop. I love it - it's a mental health day!

I haven't been around this weekend because we bought a trampoline! Yay! Trampolines are fun. We bounced a lot. We had some friends over to bounce, and I think this video is sooooo cute. Aaron says he's never going without a shirt again after seeing this, tee hee.



So, when are you coming over to jump, dear FL?

I'm gonna do it! I'm going to ride my bike to work tomorrow. I have no idea why I didn't think of it before. I only live 3.3 miles away. There's no reason to waste any more gas or mileage on my commute. I figure if I can do it twice a week I will save a few dollars, get some exercise, and save the planet all in one go. I went to Target today and bought myself a bike lock and a helmet. I know I will be terribly stinky all day, and I have warned people not to get to close to me tomorrow. But they're used to it, as I am the science teacher. I've done several outdoor lessons lately and have stunk anyway. :)

So wish me luck for tomorrow that I don't get hit by a car or fall over or something. I hope I enjoy it and can repeat the process.