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.

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....

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.

Rise and Fall of a Burro

I'm Edmond. Up until yesterday, I was living high in the rafters of the local Wal Mart store. It was an OK life, a bit crowded next to the Spongebob pinata and all the party balloons, but I had a great view and lots of attention. Then yesterday a wonderful person came along, took me down from my perch and showered me with attention. First, she filled me with sweet, delicious candy from the tips of my hooves to the top of my back. Then she dressed me in a lovely hat and let me stay in her warm, toasty room for the night. She even gave me my name, which I have to say sounds very macho. Then came today.
I was unceremoniously smooshed into the back of a minivan, carted off to a lovely park and once again hoisted into the air. What a beautiful view! I wasn't sure why the children all stood around with sticks and a gleam in their eye, but I wasn't worried. I was too high to be alarmed and I could see the entire park from in that tree. Then the mean man dropped me low and the beatings began. Oh, the agony! Those evil people took turns thwacking my hide until I couldn't take the torture anymore and exploded onto the ground. The sweet candy I'd devoured just the night before went crashing to the ground and those hordes of people ignored my dismembered state to snatch up the goods.
As if I hadn't been humiliated enough, they saw fit to take my disembodied head and prance around as if I were a hat. Oh, the shame. At least the two centers of attention seemed to be enjoying themselves, carving up a cake and serving it, and opening many gifts. Many friends were in attendance, making for happy times. I can hardly believe two friends would have their birthdays so close together and Sweet 16 is quite a day to celebrate. I just hope they remember me sometimes, their dear, sweet Edmond, who gave his life for their celebration.

Just another weekend

Come on, fall. I am ready for the big cool down and it just isn't happening yet. It still feels like summer. We had a lazy weekend, although I did manage to catch up on laundry. I decided after the four tests and paper from last week, I deserved a mental vacation, and I took one yesterday. I did a little bit of scrapping, played some games with Shona and just vegged out as much as I could. Today it was back to reading assignments, but it wasn't so bad. That one day helped immensely.
I finally broke down and bought one of those little bags of candy corn pumpkins today. I'm rationing them, though. They go into the freezer and I will only thaw one at a time. If I don't, I'll make myself completely ill on them in a week. I just have no willpower when it comes to those darn pumpkins.
Onward to the next school day. How many more days until the end of the semester?

Grump

This week in school is all about tests. I have one in all but one class this week, and in that one I had to write a paper. I think they are trying to kill me. The one that irritated me most was the one I studied the hardest for, only to find out 75% of the questions on the test weren't on the material we were told to study. That was a rude shock. He said not to worry about it because we could throw out our lowest test score, but really...is that even fair to test over material we aren't even supposed to have read yet? The joke was on him, though, because I was an incredibly lucky guesser and I wound up with an A anyway. So HA on him! I have my backup A and I can save it in case I screw up another test down the road.
Overall I'm enjoying classes. They are a lot of work, which they are supposed to be, but I think I'm adjusting. Some of it I even like, but don't tell.
Off to study. Hopefully tomorrow we'll be testing on things we actually covered.

Life

Yeah, I know, I've been a bad blogger. Life got in the way and wouldn't budge there for a while. The drama of summer is over and the house is back to a routine. I love that. The kids are enjoying themselves. Katy is taking Spanish and likes it so far, but then she has only learned a couple of phrases. Wait until test time. Shona loves her new teacher, which is a relief. As star struck as she was with the last one, I was afraid she wouldn't ever get over it and move on to like another teacher. She already claims to love this teacher more than last year's. Poor Mrs. Carter. Such is life.
John's classes are going well so far and he seems to have settled right in with his new classes. He's teaching Honors Biology this year, which is very different from last year, and he's happy about that. He's also happy not to have to share his classroom with another teacher this year. No two hour lunch breaks where he has to leave the building. At least he thought he was happy about that until he realized no more big chunks of free time during the day. Tradeoffs!
As for me, I'm still adjusting to my new career as a college student. I'm old enough to be a mom to most of my classmates, but I'm enjoying being back in a classroom. I always did love school. Some of my classes are pretty dull and I'm surprised at which ones. I went in figuring some I'd hate and they've turned out to be my favorites so far. I never thought I'd enjoy Political Science, but the teacher has a way of making it interesting and so relevant to my life that I look forward to being there. English Composition II I thought I'd love and it is the most dry, dull, boring class I've ever had so far. Hopefully it gets better because I do like the teacher.
Shona still loves karate, Katy is still in band and loving marching season. I got to see their first performance last night at the first football game of the year. They were fantastic, but then I'm a wee bit prejudiced.
And in other news, I'm 1.5 pounds from my goal weight. I can't believe it, either. I haven't quite got my head wrapped around that fact, but it'll hit me one day. Katy was thrilled to double her wardrobe when I hit her size, but now I'm actually wearing smaller pants than her and it has freaked her out. *sigh* Always drama somewhere, but hey, I've worked hard to get where I am and I make no apologies, child. Enjoy that glorious figure while it is easy to and while it is still all in the right places!
That's about it for my catch up post. Maybe I'll get better at keeping up, but with a 15 hour course load, I make no promises.