Once upon a time...

...there lived an ottoman that grew a leg.



I suppose if I cared anything about this furniture I would not be happy that our abnormally large cat has found a way to climb up inside the lining and make it his hammock. Thankfully, I don't care.

Today

Kindergarten. Tired. Grouchy. Tired of my own voice. Sandblasted from the 30-40 mph winds at recess and after school. Glad I'm not working tomorrow.

de ja vu

Ever post something and then reread it and think, wait a minute...did I already post something just like this? So I checked and yep, I've already mentioned the Sunday night thing. I hate when that happens.

The swing of things

Here it is Sunday night, which once upon a time meant I suffered from the Sunday night blues, i.e. the end of the weekend blues. When I worked for the Almighty Chevron, I so dreaded work Monday morning. And then some time later, Sunday night meant that Alan was heading back to Levelland for the week. But tonight I'm not experiencing those bluesy feelings. Part of it, I think, is that I'm starting to get used to being in a new class and setting every other day. (Remind me of this when I someday blog about a horrible class and vow to never take anything but requests again.) But perhaps the biggest reason I'm not dreading tomorrow is that I get to be at a school around people I actually know, actually like, and consider to be really good friends. That's rare when you're subbing. There's something to be said for the comfort of familiarity and routine.

Even the Cowboys' loss can't get me down, but it sure would have been sweet if they won.

Turn away now if you're bored with books...

So I go to Barnes & Noble today to spend the gift card DeeBee got me for my birthday, and while I'm at the register the clerk tells me that her mother who has taught kindergarten for years had NEVER HEARD of Frog and Toad until just the other day. Woman. You teach elementary school and have never heard of Frog and Toad? You need to march your legs down the hall to your school's library, check out a copy provided to you free of charge, and go read it to your students pronto! I can't wait to read it to mine, no matter their age.

And then I've had my eye on this illustrated book of Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on Snowy Evening" for months, and so today with gift card in hand, I couldn't resist. (Bailey just so happens to be doing a project on Frost, so it's good timing.) I have to say though that during my last semester at UTPB, our instructor played an audio recording of Frost himself reading this poem, and whoa. That's how he heard his poetry? It was horrible!

So anyway, I'll be adding these books to my closet of teaching stuff. It's sort of sad looking right now...shelves of this and that just waiting to be moved to its new home in some campus classroom. It's exciting to think about though.

Dig it

I wish everyone could experience a varsity girls volleyball game like the ones around here, just once. I think you'd be a volleyball fan after the experience. The crowd is wild, the noise is deafening beyond belief, and the action non-stop. There's also a huge following of teenagers that show up, some complete with painted bodies and costumes, and they keep things going as well. But the real entertainment is how amazing these girls play. If you live in West Texas, you're crazy if you don't attend at least one Tuesday night game.

Between the excitement of the Cowboys game Monday night and the volleyball game last night, I'm not even missing the Braves right now.

If you hate the Cowboys

Sucks to be you. ha!

Fall blooming

When Alan is suffering from allergies, you'll know it from the explosive sneezes that can vibrate a room. I, on the other hand, have more subtle symptoms. I have this itchy nose and this nagging sore throat that doesn't really feel like a normal sore throat, but more like I swallowed a piece of glass that scraped just one little spot on the right as it went down. So I know it won't really solve anything, but I felt better today after attacking as much dust around the house as I had the energy to attack. Really amazing to me where all cat hair can sneak to and gather in thin strands and balls. And the white, feathery, cottony stuff from the pampas grass in the corner of the backyard? I swept it up from our garage and vacuumed it from our hallway inside the house. Weird.

But I'm not just cleaning for health reasons. My mother-in-law is coming for the weekend. She doesn't know I know, but I know! It's supposed to be a surprise for my birthday, but Alan's not that good at keeping secrets and I'm hard to keep secrets from. Anyway, she's coming for the weekend and I'm excited to see her.

Seventeen Years

Favorite Memories: Meeting you for the first time, our nightly singing in my bed, "Tell me about your day," always being a dog, using big words, playing store, playing with Reba, how sweet and funny you were in the hospital when Bailey was born, helping me decorate the Christmas tree, the emergency room when you cut your chin, "The Ballin," "Did I eat it?" (the balloon), all the stories you wrote, "Why is that man BLUE?", baking pumpkin pies at Thanksgiving, every recital, every band performance, watching you march in the parade, tubing the "scary" rapids in New Braunfels, watching you experience your first time seeing the ocean, making homecoming mums together, getting your braces off, your 16th birthday, and watching you drive by yourself for the first time.

Some I remember so vividly, others have faded with time. But I'm looking forward to many more wonderful memories in the future. Happy 17th Birthday, Addison!

Love you always, Mom

A week later

So it appears I've really sucked at blogging lately. A whole week with nothing to say? Actually I've been really busy subbing, and it's just a job that can take a lot out of you. And then sometimes....the things that are on your mind are not things you can blog about!

I'm a little under the weather and so today have simple goals:

• Shower
• Get back in pajamas
• Watch the episodes I've missed of "Beauty & the Geek" online. Somehow I need to make Alan watch it with me, but with all the football and baseball today...it'll be tough.

And there are girls out in the guest house that I need to wake up in a while for church. I'm not sure how many are here, but I think three. I need another cup of coffee.

Gee, thanks

Bailey played great in the volleyball game against Abilene High yesterday. Played the whole match, did a little hitting, some setting, had an awesome kill. Or so we're told. We didn't actually get to SEE the game because no one managed to tell us that the time on the printed schedule was incorrect. So we drove the 2 hours to Abilene, grabbed some lunch before heading to the high school, and got there just in time to see her team walking off the court. We weren't the only parents who showed up and missed it, and I think the coaches may have gotten the message that they better make an effort next time to inform the parents directly, not leave it up to the girls to pass on important information that like.

The Epidemic

If you live in this house, you will lose a toenail. That's the conclusion I've come to. Within a span of a couple months, the three of us have all had a toenail come off. GROSS! We're the House of Funky Feet. Alan lost a teeny nail from one of the nonessential toes, but Bailey and I - oh yeah, we lost the major one. The Big One. I have four boxes of bandaids, because I've been wearing them for the past month and don't see this toe being public-ready for probably another month. So bring on all the cutesy, colorful, animal print, whatever bandaids I can find. I'll be damned if I don't get to wear my $3 Old Navy flip-flops for the rest of the season.

1st Grade Boys

I guess Alan better be on his best behavior. Apparently I have admirers.

One perk to living in West Texas....

...is Friday night football. It's homecoming for the Midland Lee Rebels, so that's where we'll be tonight.

Phenomenon

Usually it's common for items like socks to disappear in one's laundry. We lose hangers. Big, white plastic hangers that vanish on a weekly basis. I know my house inside and out, because nothing in my own home is off limits to me. That means I look through everyone's closets, drawers, etc. on a regular basis. And Alan and I have a system: when you take an item of clothing out of the closet, the hanger comes with it and gets placed in the garage on the hanging rod by the washer and dryer. It's a good system, but WHERE ARE ALL THE FRIGGIN HANGERS? I used to think it was because the girls were going back and forth between their dad's house and ours, therefore carting their hanging clothes, but that hasn't been happening for months now. I end up buying a new pack of hangers about once a month, which is no big deal money-wise because they were $.99 at Wal-Mart yesterday. But tell me this happens to someone else. Anyone.

For real

Maybe I'm into "The Hills" too much, but today while subbing I kept calling this third grade boy "Brody." His name was actually Brock, but Brody is my new favorite person on The Hills and I couldn't seem to get that name out of my mind. (Michelle will understand that the real reason this happened was because I was having to say this boy's name ALL DAY LONG as it was, and I was being driven crazy by his ADHD tendencies.) Anyway...

It was a little strange being back at this particular school today. On one hand it was like going back to a comfortable, familiar place since I spent most of the previous school year there. How nice to see so many friendly faces. On the other hand it was awkward and humbling, because every faculty member and even some former students understood that I wasn't a "real teacher" yet, that I haven't succeeded yet in getting a position. Those words are in quotes because one student from last year asked, "Mrs. Schaeffer, are you going to be a real teacher some day?"

Yes, I am. And I just have to assume that the next few months of subbing are going to prove useful for when I do get to put "real" in front of my title.

Dinner time and I'm hungry

Is there a job that pays you to cook, and then eat the food you cooked? Cause that's the job for me. I'd give up teaching in a second for that job.

I think I could live on pasta and sauce.

Alan vs. The New Mexico Marathon

It's difficult to describe how amazing this feat is, especially if you weren't the one training and then actually running it. So all I can say is, WOW to all of you out there who have run a marathon. And way to go, Alan! An elevation of 6,000 feet and 8 miles of incline at the beginning didn't make things any easier, particularly since Alan has only trained in the flat lands of West Texas. It's just impressive.

We're back home in Midland, and although Alan is walking around like Fred Sanford this morning, he is pleased to be able to check this off his list. For a while. :-)

Alan has various stories about the run, and I think he should post his account of the whole ordeal (hint, hint).

Bailey's volleyball team pic

http://www.ladyrebelsvolleyball.com/freshman.htm

She's the one on the right holding the ball.

In Albuquerque

It was an easy drive to Albuquerque yesterday, about 6.5 hours. We were expecting a little over 7 hours, so it was a pleasant surprise. However....we're changing hotels today. We have a smoking room, which was already giving Alan a headache last night, and our a/c stopped working around 3:00 a.m.! It was working again a couple hours later, but that's not going to cut it. I went down and had my little discussion with the front desk this morning who assured us things would get taken care of, but we decided not to chance it. By the way, it's really hard to play the firm and demanding customer role when the front desk person is whispering the whole time. Anyway, it makes things a little inconvenient logistics-wise since we were in walking distance of the finish line, but better to get a good night's sleep and just drive to the shuttle, finish line, etc.

Today we're going to chill and maybe see a movie, and then tonight there's supposed to be a big pasta dinner for the runners.

I wonder how many rolls of toilet paper Junior has chewed since we've been gone.