Monday, October 29, 2007

7 Random Things

I've been tagged by Catherine to tell seven random things about me. I have a hard time with this because I already feel like everyone knows everything about me, but I'm giving it my best.

1. I cannot stand open kitchen cabinets. I think it's because my grandma used to leave hers standing open most of the time. Not all of them at once, just random ones always seemed to be standing open whenever I'd stop by. It bothered me, I've never been able to figure out why, and now it really annoys me in my own house. Just shut the doors, please.

2. I hold my breath when I walk past another person or they walk by me. I'm not sure if I'm phobic about breathing their scent or what, it's just something I've done since I was a little girl.

3. I complain about how much time my husband spends watching the History Channel, but when I have control of the remote and no one else is home, I often find myself watching it without him because I enjoy it, too. In my defense, though, I never ever watch anything to do with Nazis without him there. I still have my standards.

4. I used to be mortified when teenagers would call me ma'am. Now I wish more would.

5. I color my hair to keep the gray at bay, but I look forward to the day I let it go natural. I'm waiting until it's all a lovely shade of silver, like my mother's. Sadly, I don't think it will take as long as I hope.

6. I am seriously rethinking my college major, but it might be too late!

7. Sometimes I feel guilty with the amount of trees my scrapbook paper has killed. Then I pull out my scrap supplies and get over it surprisingly easy.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Life rolls on

I've just about given up blogging. It seems like it, anyway. Time just isn't my friend lately. At least I'm past mid-terms, but the second half of the semester seems to be flying by faster than the first. Right after Thanksgiving I start cramming for finals, and life will be interesting then. I'm looking forward to the week after next when I have a three day school week. I am going to luxuriate in my days home with no husband and no kids. Just me and the dogs and my scrap room. I want to get something accomplished because I haven't seriously scrapped anything but my assigned kits in months.
Tonight we had parent/teacher conferences, where Katy was mortified to discover she has a B in two classes. It's just the end of her world. She is a straight A student and doesn't want to be known for anything less. Her teachers had wonderful comments about her, too, as they always do. She's definitely my studious one. Shona had mostly B's and a couple of A's. The funny thing is, the subjects Katy is struggling with are the ones Shona is doing well in. Shona is my science and math whiz, Katy is my English and Social Studies brainiac. How two children reared in the same household can be such polar opposities in every conceivable way just floors me and reminds me that sometimes nature wins out over nurture!
As for my schooling, I have to register for my next semester in a couple of weeks and I am stressing out over what to take when. Looks like I'll be stuck taking Biology. John thinks it's hilarious I am going to have to take a class similar to what he teaches, because he knows my strong suit is NOT science. I informed him that he will be recruited as my hostile tutor for the duration of next semester and I'm blaming whatever grade I end up with on him!
Wow, I just realized next week is Halloween. Now THAT is what's scary. Wasn't it Easter just last week? It seems that way....

Sunday, October 14, 2007

October Already?

I feel like I have all but dropped off the face of the Earth lately. All I do is eat, sleep, study, do laundry, walk and keep up with the kids' lives. On the rare occasion I get to scrap, it's for assignments, which is great since at least it nudges me to do that much, but I want more time for me. I knew it would be this way once school started, but the reality of it can be a downer. I just got through mid term exams this week, and it's a huge relief to be past that point. The good news is that when December rolls around, I will have a full month off school and everyone else in the house only gets two weeks. That leaves me with two weeks of ME time to do what I want. I am turning off the phone and computer and I am scrapping myself silly!
Let's see...since last I wrote, Shona has quit karate because it wasn't social enough for her (typical girl), Katy is doing practically nothing but marching with the band. Every weekend this month and most of next is taken up with competition. That's all part of the high school band experience, though, and I know she's enoying it somewhere under all that exhaustion. I feel bad for her when she gets home at 2 a.m. like she did this morning. I'm also reminded at those times how wonderful cell phones are.
The biggest news, though, is that we wound up adopting another dog. One of the paraprofessionals at the school John works at had a dog she couldn't keep. Her apartment is just too small and they were both miserable. He was being crated about 20 hours a day/night, which I just find cruel. Poor thing. I never would have even agreed to it except that one day in my stupidity I told the girls that IF we were ever to be given a jack russell terrier, we'd take it because that's their favorite type of dog. I felt completely safe in telling them this since no one gives away a purebred dog. No one. Ha. Wrong. I was afraid he wouldn't get along with Bailey and I knew that breed tended to be hyper, so it was with great trepidation that we took him on. For a while we thought we were in the clear when two other people expressed an interest in the pooch, but in the end it was us or the pound, and I just couldn't let him go there. It took a week, but now Pedey and Bailey are buddies. We did have to have him neutered, so there's no such thing as free, but it was a lot cheaper than having Bailey fixed. Pedey now is a sweet little wiggleworm who loves to snuggle with us. True, he's a little high strung, but he fits in well with our household and he keeps Bailey very happy as a playmate, so overall it was a stroke of great luck to add this little guy to our family. And I have learned my lesson when it comes to saying those "what ifs" out loud.