About me

I'm working on a list, like the one Aya has added to her blog under her About Me section. The list is going well, though the linking is creating some problems :/

Friends, Lists & Changes

Our English writer friend went back home last Friday - it was a good week, though both she and Aya were exhausted by the end.

Saturday afternoon I received a call from two of my friendly ra fellows who were here for a visit. Had lunch and dinner with them and they stayed over for fireworks, smores, and fun. Love those two :) I already miss them so much.

Danger... New Hobby!
For graduation Aya bought me a scrapbooking kit... uh huh... addiction! I started on it yesterday and OMG it is so much fun. I love organizing and making things pretty - add to it the fact that I get to do both these things with stuff that means a lot to me and DING DING DING! We have a winner. I could really get into this. You can bet there will be multiple scrapbooks after my Fall 2004 adventures!

I have less than two weeks left in beautiful MN. Beautiful MN... there's something I would never have said five years ago, prior to my first visit here. I love everything up here, the trees, the lake, the weather, the people, the school... For the first time in my life I fit in... in every aspect; school, work, friends... I've had one or two of these at a time, but never all three. Now I'm spoiled. I want this to continue in my life and of course there are no guarantees of this. I hope that makes sense... Basically I've enjoyed my three years here immensely and I'm very sad to be leaving.

Happily I have much to look forward to in the near future - hopefully that will ease my separation anxiety!

PS: trying something new with the link/title options... hope it works!

Meet the Puppy & Ode to Paperwork

Meet Kodiak, aka Kodi. (SEE LINK OF THE DAY)
He's a three month old Belguim Groenendael Shepard, aka Belgium Sheepdog. Isn't he adorable!!!
/loves puppies
I can't wait to go home and meet him!

I just need to keep reminding myself that I am excited about my trip. It seems like every piece of paper I turn in results in another one or two.. hehe they're multiplying! I really shouldn't complain though because people who are going to Australia for their student teaching have a lot more work than I do! Speaking of... I need to see exactly what it takes for me to get a visitors visa/pass thingy to get into Australia since I'm going there for two weeks. Hmmmm.

Our guest is still with us, she's staying all this week as Aya participates in this writer's conference at school. I've been doing paperwork, reading, sorting through my stuff, cooking and cleaning, taking the dogs for walks, etc... trying to keep myself entertained all week while they are gone. I've been doing a pretty good job of staying busy :)
I had this HUGE list of things to do and I'm slowly, but surely weeding it down to nonexistence!
Mwahahaha no list is safe with me :)

And this weekend I have a couple of friends coming up from the cities, very exciting. It's the last chance I'll have to see them until next January or so... when I come back to MN to finish the Praxis II test... Speaking of... ish... I don't want to know the scores of my tests I took a couple of weeks ago /sigh

Oooooh! Some more exciting news. I have it on good authority that I am pretty much guaranteed a job when I go home. If nothing else I can find a substitute or possibly interum position. It's just too bad that MN doesn't need teachers as badly as TX, because I would MUCH rather live up here in MN!

The countdown has begun...

I'm testing a few changes I made to my blog, adding a title and link part to my blog - the link is to Aya's new Master's thesis blog.

I received my new laptop yesterday! Woohooo! It's what I'm using now and it's a nice-a computer!

I've decided to start the countdown to New Zealand today! I leave in 1 month and 3 weeks, give or take a few days. In any event, that's less than TWO months! I can hardly control my excitement.
On the downside that leaves me only 1 and 1/2 weeks left til my dear mommy comes to bring me back to Texas. Those mixed feelings are overwhelming sometimes. I'm excited but nervous, happy but sad, etc. It'll be an adventure though!

Hope your summer is treating you well.

Blog ya later!

Dude! I'm getting a Dell.
I ordered a laptop for my big trip! Weeeeeee!

Oh, and OUCH ! ! !
1 hour outside on a cloudy day + neon-white chicky = BIG sunburn.
/whimper
I know better than that :(
Thank God for Aloe Vera!

Yesterday the local telephone/internet/cable provider put on a big to-do; free dinner, door prizes, guest gifts, entertainment. There was a band, bagpipers, cello group, balloon animals, hair beading, face-painting, magician, Clifford the big red dog, and Mr. McFeely from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood! I got his autograph and my picture taken with him :) I remember watching that show as a child - one of my favorties.

The dreaded test is tomorrow morning and UGH! is all I can say about that.

Aya's mom and grandparents left on a trip to see the Rockies this morning, leaving Aya and I to take care of the house and assorted pets. I'm looking forward to next week, it should be nice and quiet around here. Maybe I'll steal the dogs away to the state park!

Time to go take some pain medicine and pack on the Aloe :/

Have a good weekend all!

In, Out, Up, Down, All Around...

I've been a bit busy lately:

*Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban

*The Day After Tomorrow

(Both well worth my $4.50 :)

*More cleaning and rearranging - going through my things and deciding what goes to storage and what goes with me.

*Enjoying the outdoors, sunning myself and wishing I could move back up here instead of Texas.

*Hanging out with friends and thinking about how I'll miss them and wishing I could move back up here instead of Texas.

*Playing some PS2.

*READING! Finally finishing two books I had started this Spring semester and starting on a few others I've been wanting to read for a while now.

*Studying for the dreaded Praxis II tests which are THIS Saturday - trying not to have a panic attack about them.

*Pricing my trip to Australia, New Zealand, & Hawaii. There is absolutely no way I could do this without the money I received from the accident in which my grandmother was killed. I've known for years that it was coming but never knew what I'd do with it. Now, I have no doubt that my grandmother would have wanted me to use it for this trip. She loved to travel herself and of all the things to use it on, finishing my degree and enjoying an amazing trip have got to be worth it. Though I know this, it still makes me a little sad.


The vet had to do exploratory surgery on Lux to find out what exactly was going on with him. Apparently he got into something toxic or ate a pill off the ground... something. His liver is all icky and they're having to force-feed him and praying it stays down. If he makes it through this and they can get his liver settled down he'll be ok... but he has a 50/50 chance of making it through this.... Poor baby :( /sigh


This 8am - 6pm shift with no break is turning out to suck more than I thought. The first six hours flew by as I kept busy cleaning and such. But even I can only spend a few hours staring a a computer screen before I start seeing dots. Add to that the fact that this room, with 40+ running computres, on the 4th floor, doesn't seem to have a working air conditioner.

Yup... all updated now.

Ups and Downs

I've said it before and I'll say it again; Life is a rollercoaster.

I'm so excited about New Zealand, I really don't have words to express how happy I am and how much I am looking forward to this amazing opportunity. I received an email today from my principal and I'll be in a class of 4th-5th graders (by American standards). He gave me an email address for my cooperating teacher so I can beging talking with her and he also provided information about housing.

While talking to my parents yesterday they told me that one of our kitty cats, Luxor, is very sick so that's a big downer. There are other things, but I won't bring it all up now. I'm going to focus on the happy stuff so the other things don't bring me down.

Here is a picture of Lux :)