Another food discovery

As if I needed one more food addiction...my latest contribution to the world is this: RUN, go get yourself a box of White Cheddar Cheez-its. I'm not even kidding.

And remember how I said that everytime I go grocery shopping I was going to buy something I'd never heard of or tried before? Well the other day I had just pushed my cart into a checkout lane and realized I hadn't picked up anything new, so I hurried to an aisle and grabbed a can of German Potato Salad (yes, a can). Threw it in the basket, and when I got home I noticed a recipe on the back for "BBQ German Potato Salad" where you combine sliced cooked bratwurst, BBQ sauce, and the potato salad. Meat, potatoes, and BBQ sauce. It's gotta be good.

And still on the subject of food, I'm taking the "Special-K" challenge where you eat a bowl for breakfast and lunch and magically lose 6 pounds in two weeks. Not getting my hopes up on that one, especially since I start snacking as soon as I get home. And then there's that other part of the plan where you're probably supposed to exercise. Okay.

Much ado about nothing

It feels lonely in the blogging world lately. I'm not even sure why. Just does.

So I'm enjoying the teaching, even the challenges of obnoxious parents, if you can believe it. Challenging parents are sometimes fun, especially when you can refer to them as whores and bitches and assholes behind their back with the other teachers. And that's just what they say about parents, nevermind what's said about some of the kids. Who'd have thought teachers could be so foul-mouthed and tactless about their own students? It's great fun.

Alan's been slumming it in Houston at the Renaissance for a couple of days and returns tonight, so I'm expecting a dinner out tomorrow to make up for eating leftovers and cereal by myself.

Reality

We survived the winds yesterday, and as the meteorologists like to present it, "Good news! The winds are dying down to only 15-25 and 20-30 the next two days!" I love recess duty, by the way.

Do you ever find yourself not wanting to post anything because in reality there are depressing things going on and if you put some happy-go-lucky post out there you feel like you're being sort of disrespectful to the situation(s)? I'm guilty of that a lot. I posted very little about the situation with Addison, yet it consumed my thoughts and days for quite a while. I wrote several posts about it and then either deleted them or left them unpublished.

What's looming over us this week is that the girls' dad and stepmother are getting a divorce, and it's just more upheaval and change. It's not an ugly situation, but it still makes you feel sad for everyone involved, especially when you see one of the kids upset. It'll possibly mean even less time that the girls will live together, which is one thing their dad and I vowed to avoid at all costs when we got our divorce.

But, life happens and everyone moves on. I'm sure it'll be fine once things are settled and new routines are established. But I'm getting tired of things being gloomy. Bring on happy thoughts. Perhaps I should post some Junior pics. :-)

Ho-hum

Friday through Saturday we're expected to have wind gusts up to 45-50 mph. I can't understand why thousands of people aren't flocking to live in West Texas.

I must report that although I didn't get my Krispy Kreme fix in Ft. Worth, we did get a free jar of La Madeleine's tomato basil soup (which they sell for $8.99 for the SMALL jar). They screwed up Alan's order, meaning they forgot to cook him anything, so Alan asked for the freebie. The fact that they charge that much in the restaurant makes me question whether the La Madeleine soup you get in some grocery stores is the same recipe, since it is much cheaper in the stores.

And although this post is extremely captivating, I must close and get ready for my day with twenty 9-year olds.

Back from Cowtown

Got back Sunday around midnight from Ft. Worth and had to get up bright and early yesterday morning. I'm really not sure where Bailey's team ended up in the standings, and honestly it's best not to know. Bailey totally lost her serve this weekend, but otherwise played fine. We go to Lubbock in less than two weeks, so hopefully she'll have it back by then. Other than the matches, the weekend was fun hanging out with the other girls and parents.

Yesterday I started my long-term sub assignment, so I'm the real thing for a few weeks. I think I received a great initiation on my first day when a student vomited on the carpet in class, and a parent got pretty confrontational with me after school. Nice way to start! And today we administered the state academic test, which meant no sitting down for the teachers except the 20 minutes or so at lunch. I'm looking over at the couch right now and thinking of bon-bons and a nice nap. It won't happen.

Okay, here are some photos for now:

Find happiness where you can

Meringue cookies - where have you BEEN all my life? It still amazes Alan the foods I don't know about or were never exposed to in my upbringing. So this new discovery has me thinking that from now on when we make our big grocery runs, I'm throwing something new in the cart to try. I have been trying the last few years to make a concerted effort to try new recipes, new spices, whatever - just to make sure I don't get stuck in my (or my family's?) ways.

"Stadium Arcadium" - Alan got me the new Chili Peppers CD set for Valentine's Day! I can't wait to listen today, plus we'll listen to it on the way to Ft. Worth tomorrow. I rarely buy music - it's just one of those things I tell myself I will splurge on someday.

Nelly Furtado's "Say it Right" - I am fascinated with her, the video, the song, the lyrics, and Justin Timberlake's dancing ain't too shabby either. Wow-wee.

Beauty and The Geek - If you didn't follow this show, you really missed out. It is very well done, so sweet, and so classy compared to some of the other reality/contest type shows. I fixed a big Valentine's dinner for Alan last night, but we made sure to be finished and camped out in front of the TV by 7:00 for the finale. It was great!

Volleyball Tourney - We're heading to Ft. Worth this weekend for another tourney. They're lots of fun, and of course being in Ft. Worth means two other very important things: Krispy Kreme doughnuts and La Madeleine! Oh yeah.

Happy Valentine's Day

I saw this last week and thought it was the coolest. It was on my home page, so you've probably seen it, too. The fossils are 3,000 to 5,000 years old. I can't wait to hear what more is discovered about them, but they do know they were a young couple and are truly embracing.

More changes

Bailey was tired of these lime yellow walls:

So she picked out a nice blue, which is more Bailey's style. She believes you can be a girl without being too "girly":

But I left the lime yellow on one wall next to her more "girly" things:

Neighbors

We don't live in an affluent neighborhood, but it's sure not the slums either. However, here's the accumulation of crap on our neighbor's front porch that we get to see outside our living room window on any given day: a broom, a car seat, a bottle of spray cleaner, a soda can, a cardboard box that might be acting as a trashcan, and today I think I can see a pack of cigarettes. And since I've been up to their front door, I also know that their flower bed is filled with cigarette butts - a couple hundred or so. We're not perfect, but at least we keep our crap on the back porch.

Spring Cleaning?

I've been in the mood to change things up a bit around here, because even the slightest changes or improvements will provide a little lift. We decided to move the armoire into the bedroom to free up some space in the living room. For such a medium-sized piece, you can't imagine what a pain in the ass it is to move. I could write a full essay on what measures we have to take to move it from room to room, not to mention from home to home. I got the armoire from Dale (actually I've been "borrowing" it for the past 16 years), and it belonged to his grandmother or great aunt maybe? Anyway...it's very pretty, quite old I'm guessing, but perhaps built by a third grader. That means that every time we move it, there is sure to be profanity, sweating, splinters, and sore muscles to follow. Still, I like the end result of both rooms:

February Shmebuary

If you visited my blog today in the afternoon, maybe you noticed it was 75 amazing degrees! Love it. It's gorgeous. Yesterday was the same, so I swept the leaves and sprayed the bird poop off the back porch. Our porch became a huddling spot for the birds to keep warm during that long cold spell, and the treasures they left behind were just gross.

Spring is awesome. I know it's not technically Spring, but a girl can dream. Even Junior felt the change and started exploring out on the porch as if he hasn't been there a million times before. (Check out his cute toes in the last picture. And I realize my lens was badly smudged when I took these.)



I wonder if Spring has a positive effect on wayward teenagers? Again, a girl (and a mother) can dream.

Football and Volleyball

Alan looks less than amused that I was taking our picture last night. Just had to capture the excitement of our super bowl party - the party of two, I mean. I was happy that the Colts won, but it seemed sort of anti-climactic at the end. The Colts/Patriots game was way more exciting.

Well I'm off to make Bailey's lunch. Speaking of Bailey, here's the video that Google finally "processed." It's nothing phenomenal, but I wanted to film Bailey serving at practice since I didn't get any good videos from the tournament. Her serve has been known to pull teams out of close wins, and it's funny to hear the murmurings of anticipation from other parents when it's Bailey's turn to serve. This is just from my digital camera, so the quality isn't superb:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4587142754464025832&hl=en

Goodnight

We are feeling much better, thank you. I guess going to the doctor wasn't so bad after all. I subbed yesterday and today and maybe have a job for Monday. My long term assignment starts in about two weeks unless the teacher has her baby early.

I've been trying to post a video from Bailey's v-ball practice, but Google's video upload is being a pill. Maybe tomorrow.

I just took my Tylenol nighttime and am waiting for it to kick in.