FRESH START MONDAY

[Elizabeth]

Hi everyone! I tried to upload a resume and can't remember my password for the site. I know exactly where I wrote it down though. It is at home and I am still at unpaid payroll. I really hope my interview goes well Thursday. I have got to start getting a paycheck again. After payroll, I need to go to the grocery store then return some library books. I had to start a new crochet project because I fouled up the sweater i am working on. Followed the directions, but it did not turn out. I have reserved The Happy Hooker at the library for my next project. (This is a book on crochet, get your mind out of the gutter!) I am going to do a sweater called Cupcake from it. Should be much easier than what I have been working on. I think my swamp cooler is dead again. I have cleared out a lot of emails from my hotmail account. Tonight I hope to have time to balance the checkbook. Eventually I need to make a CD of pictures from my Baltic cruise, I have not even taken the pictures off the camera yet.

[Twins' Mom]

I've been on the run today - work, then hair cut and highlights at lunch, back to work, home again to let ddogs out after work, to Lowes, to old house and home again. I still need to take ddogs out to walk, may be for only two laps 'cause I am t-i-r-e-d.

Old house is going on the market - realtor already has sign up in the yard. I'm torn about "things I didn't get done" and I can never remember when I'm going there that I need a normal 60 watt bulb for the kitchen and need to take an old milk jug or something so I can water the big ferns on the front porch.

Even working from a written list that with me all the time I'm feeling pretty scatterbrained. Tomorrow my mom has a dr appt in the a.m. and I forgot to check in with her to remind her today. I hope she hasn't forgotten....

Off to take ddogs for a little exercise.

[DeeClutter]

Made out papers today for dh's new passport. Will go to the post office on Wednesday for his photo and get it mailed. Expires Sept 10th but we shouldn't need it for a while, if this year at all. If we were sure we would only be going to Canada (which is only an hour away) we'd only need to get the enhanced card which is only $30. but a regular passport is $110, plus the photo I'm sure.

We went to a VIP event at C amping W orld tonight (they're only 8 miles from us). They were to have refreshments, etc. Figured it would be cookies & drink, but it was a full meal! Chicken tenders, wraps, small subs, cheeses, fruits, cookies, on and on. Was pleasantly surprised. Then they were having drawings. Also figured that would be 'nothing'. Boy, was I wrong! Friends were there and ended up with $700 and we won $200, plus because we'd been married long enough we ended up with Platinum Roadside Assistance for 3 years. That's another savings of about $160 a year -so I'd say we did well. DH was going to go to Fire meeting at 7 but it was 8 by the time we left. A good night and made us feel good. Some people ended up with $1,000's either in coupons or toward a new camper. One who was buying a MH (trading actually) was given $2,500 but if they ended up buying the MH they were getting $7,000. Someone else made a deal to buy a new Z inger camper for $8,000. Way below the cost! The CEO from G ood S am's Club was there and made no beans about giving away lots and lots. A lot of people just named what they wanted (generators, new satellite dishes, etc and got what they asked for. I couldn't think of anything that we really needed/wanted. I could have gotten a new appliance -anything.

[Twins' Mom]

Short walk with ddogs, I am heading toward bed. Tomorrow a.m. dh and I need to go over the real estate disclosure stmt, I need to clean out my car, and be out of here just before 9 a.m. Already stressing.

Forgot to say that this morning I went by vet to p/u meds for Macs before work, and then came back by home because I had forgotten to take my meds. When I got here the alarm for the invisible fence was going off in the garage because one of the landscape guys for our builder had accidently cut through the invisible fence. I had to leave the garage door open so invisible fence guy could come fix it, and then dh was alerted that the garage door was open by a neighbor and dh drove home 'cause he thought something was wrong and was mad because I didn't call to tell him.

I guess it's been a Monday, huh?

This is just a stressful week in general. We're supposed to leave on Friday for vacation and have dinner with friends Friday night in ATL. Work is a weird schedule because they are having a full day of CPE on Wednesday, and dmom has a dr appt and I have a dr appt this week. I also have two meetings tomorrow. I'm trying to figure out when I can have dog sitter over to meet the dogs, and when I can clean up dd's bedroom enough for dog sitter to sleep there.

[mamapiano]

Just a note to say I may not get here at all tomorrow. I have an appointment with the retina specialist in SLC at 8 a.m. THAT is not my idea - ds goes for "as early as possible" for doctor appointments. And since he takes me, and I have no other way to get there (I no longer drive due to vision problems) I feel it is better to bow to his wishes. Then when something really important to me comes along I won't feel bad to take a stand. The treatment I will have on my good eye renders me unable to see much out of that eye for a time, and I have no central vision in the other eye. Which means reading or computering is out of the question for quite a few hours. I'm going to take a quick scan through today's posts to see if there are any reports from Harmony or Sunny. Their part of Florida often gets really whacked by these storms.

Dee Clutter, I don't remember Camping world doing anything like that back in the years we were RV'ing. How absolutely fantastic. Congratulations on your winnings. Certainly worth your dh missing the meeting.

Twins, that sounds like just too many things piled together for you this week. I'm glad you have a vacation to look forward to.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Twins: Go put a normal 60 watt bulb and an old milk jug in the car right now. Then you won't have to remember another day.

(Dh's guitar case is riding around in the back seat of the car right now to remind us to get a handle for it tomorrow.)

[mamapiano]

Harriet, true it is a busy household but only three adults actually live here. The children all go home with their parents at night. Sometimes earlier. The three( 2nd, 4th and 6th) had just gotten started on their homework when their dad showed up. Meanwhile ddil thought they would be here for dinner and made a huge pot of goulash - I think there is enough left for another meal. And was it ever good! The other 2, high school senior and kindergartner, are siblings. Their dads are ds's sons. So it's all in the family!

[Twins' Mom]

But Kathryn, I'm already in bed now! (said in a whinny, nasally voice)

Okay, I'm doing it.

[mamapiano]

Elizabeth, you mentioned your swamp cooler. Do you mind saying where you live? Not precise location but maybe the state. Reason being we have one of those things too and I never saw one anywhere but in this area.

[lucylee]

Wow -- 5 pages!
Sooo glad to see dd had such a great day, Harriet!
(((BIG HUGS))) for (((LO))) and (((OKay))). Maybe Monday just got to him... you know, the idea that, oh... we're going to do this EVERY week... * sigh *

Harriet & Helia, I really appreciate your kind words & confidence in me. Right now I am feeling sooo disorganized at school. I am teaching a class I've never taught before, w/out benefit of a textbook, and I am sorta at loose ends. It is a remedial reading class w/24 students, grades 10-12. The 11th & 12th graders are in it b/c they have not passed the reading portion of the state mandated graduation exam. The 10th graders will no longer be required to take this test, but have scored low on system-wide reading tests, so they were placed in this class also.
This is obviously too many students to do much individualized instruction and it is largely a male group. I think I have 7 girls in the bunch. The guys want to do anything except read and talk about anything except reading, LOL. It is going to be a challenge.
Luckily, it is 2nd period so it's over early in the day!
Even with my regular English classes, I'm not "settled" into my routine yet, and I just feel like my "to-do" list is a million items long and growing every day.
I know it will all fall in place, but I'm kinda overwhelmed right now, although I am really enjoying my classes and I come home each day thinking, "This has really been a good day and I just feel... happy."
OTOH... it seems like EVERY DAY, something happens (unrelated to student behavior, if you get my drift!) that makes my dfriend and I just look at each other and grin gleefully, almost giggling as we say, "This is our last year to put up with this!" I'm feeling pretty good.

Oh -- and guess what I did this afternoon?
After dh & I got back home from our Wmart trip, my ddad called on the phone and asked if I wanted to ride over to the farm with him. He was just down the road from our house when he called, so I didn't have to think about it long, you know, and I could tell he'd like to have some company, so I just said, "Sure, come on by and get me."
The farm -- really just a pasture, where my late dgdaddy used to have cows -- is only a few miles from my house also, but y'all know how I am -- so I was kinda proud of myself.
I know that sounds stupid -- but I think y'all understand where I'm coming from.
Anyway, ddad has a guy building a fence over there, and another guy digging a pond and clearing out overgrown brush, and he (ddad) is just sooo excited. It really does look nice, too. I have a lot of wonderful memories of Sunday afternoons spent riding around "checking the cows" w/my granddaddy, and I'm sure ddad realizes that, too.
BUT... before y'all think this was all sentimental or something... naah... while we were on the way out there, the phone rang and it was ddad's friend. Ddad says, "Hey, ____... yeah, I called you. I'm headed out to the farm and thought you might ride out there with me... but Lucy's with me..."
LOL. Guess I'm still on the B-team.