Living next to a deaf man...

... or if he's not deaf now, he soon will be.

Seriously.

Could he crank his bass any louder?

Probably.

*shudders at the thought*

Quiet at last

Most talkative Cable Guy ever...

Seriously... he should come with a remote and a MUTE button...

Explaining

So I applied for a three year, initial Colorado teacher's license. When I received my license in the mail, four months later I thought, life was good. However, as I learned last Friday, I received a one year interim license instead.

It expires next week.

Woops.

One massive panic attack, one emergency trip to Denver, one big stack of forms filled out and $60 later I have re-applied for a one-time-only renewal of my one-year license...

Now I have to register, pay and take ANOTHER test.

Ugh.

But... I get to keep my job.

Drool Time

You (yeah you... all of you) should check out the quilt Sharon MADE and is selling on her Etsy store.

It's gorgeous!

Baby otw!

No. Not mine.

Aya's preggers! She's got a bun in the oven.

And I'm going to be Auntie Aspen!

CSAP

Time for the state-mandated tests...

Last week I was told I would just be monitoring a small class, 3 students, who needed extra time.

I came in today and was told I would be a scribe (writing all the answers) for a student who recently broke her arm. I told the principal I didn't think I'd be able to do that because of my wrist problems.

This afternoon I was switched to a classroom with four students - where I will have to read the ENTIRE test to them.

I started out in a good place... what happened?

Better bring a LOT of water... maybe some hot tea...

Clothes

Got some cute new work clothes...

Kaylee handled the day-trip quite well.

Long day though... good to be home.

Close call...

It took a while for me to get to sleep last night and then Sheba, lovely kitty that she is, woke me up at 2am and continued to bug me constantly until I literally kicked her out of the room at 6am. Then I slept... I vaguely remember my first alarm going off and I hit snooze... but I never heard it go off again... never heard my 2nd alarm... woke up at 8am. I am supposed to be at work at 7:30am and ran into my classroom at 8:09 (3 mins before classes start). CLOSE CALL.

Going to try moving Sheba's food bowl into the bedroom - I'm pretty sure that's what she's crying about. I used to leave the bedroom door open, but I have to keep Kaylee locked in my room with me or she eats everything. Sheba cries at the door if she is locked OUT... and when she is locked IN she head-butts me, walks on me, cries/squawks at me and pretty much makes it impossible to sleep.

I've got to find a compromise. Can NOT have a repeat of this morning - that was like one of my worst nightmares come to life!

Twitterless!

Twitter is broken/temporarily down!
Tragic.

Two roads diverged in a wood..

And I took the one most traveled by because I don't have snowshoes and I didn't want to suddenly sink 3-4 feet down in the snow... twist my ankle... face-plant in the snow...

Kaylee and I ran some errands, went to work for a little while, inquired about a summer job, then went for a walk in the woods. It was a bit tricky... there's a good 3.5-4 feet of snow and I don't have snowshoes, but we managed.


On the way back I stopped to look at this canine:


While another canine was in the car checking me out:

She found THE dress

As I twittered yesterday she found the perfect dress... it looks vintage/old, which is a good thing. It's simple, yet elegant and she looks amazing in it.

Snowy-blowy trip on the way over. Saw about 10 Rocky Mountain Goats all huddled together, walking along the side of the road. Not where I could stop and take pics though... of course.

Busy week

*EDIT* At the beginning of the week I filled out my Form of Intent - telling the school district that I fully intend to return next year in the same position. I didn't even think about it before filling it out. I need another year here. I'm not ready to move again.

Wednesday night went to trivia - got 2nd place again and won a round so we got more bar coins. Also got a line on some possible summer jobs.

Thursday night went to book club. Saw my first Colorado - Bald Eagle on the way there (thank goodness for missed turns!). Just four of us made it, three girls had to miss. Didn't talk much about my book pick - Sabriel - I don't think they really liked it. Guess I'll never get to have an in-depth conversation with someone who has read it. Our next book is one I wanted to read too though: The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. I think it might turn out to be a tear-jerker... bitter sweet?

Went to Denver today to help a friend shop for a wedding dress. She's from New York and is new this year so she doesn't have a lot of friends either. I was really excited when she asked me to join her on a big day! We had fun and managed to narrow it down to a few possibilities (one I really like). Interpreted (fairly well) for a very nice woman named Elaine who was shopping for a dress for a wedding she is going to be in this summer (3 semesters of sign language - and a life-time obsession - were put to good use today!). We had lunch at Ruby Tuesday, watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and went to Target and Borders. On the way back we saw 2 foxes. Best of all, doggie survived 12 hours in her kennel and didn't even have an accident. I'm so proud and glad I don't have to clean anything up.

May go to a Silpada Jewelry party tomorrow afternoon. Not that I have any money to buy anything, but it's always nice to hang out with adult-type people (and I'm on a roll). I don't usually get much of that during the week as I'm surrounded by 11-14 year olds all day.

Got the bill for my little trip to the emergency room (when I had strep). Anyone have $870 lying around that needs a good home? Cuz that's what the hospital wants and my insurance won't pay.

Time for a change

I really want to change up my blog template. I have an awesome pic for the header that will liven things up a bit.

I just need to remember how to do it... and get my old computer that has Dreamweaver up and running again - that's the hard part.

Hmmmmmm....

Return of the Devil Dog

Kaylee has been doing much better. She's coming to terms with having to go into her kennel - I think the doggie treat I throw in helps.

I've been balancing Sheba's loathing of being locked up with Kaylees need to be with me at ALL times when she's not in the kennel.

Last night Kaylee got through the barricade - I heard nothing - and devoured a bunch of stuff (including the back of a picture frame).

I'm not sure what to do.

I'm going to call the lady I got her from and see if she has any ideas...

I could still give her up. I'm still not madly in love with her. A lot of the time she still feels like the wrong dog - not figuring in the damage she's doing - just her.

*sigh*

Happy Friday the 13th

Friday the thirteenths are usually normal to lucky for me... so I actually look forward to them. There's another one next month = sweet.

Not sure what to do with myself this weekend as I actually have 3 days off.

*ponder*

Need to go shopping, grade papers and plan for next week...

But it's Friday! I want to do something fun.

I could go see a movie, but there's not really anything out that I desperately want to see.

Dilemma.

I should probably finish this dinky book that it's taken me weeks to plod through... due to time issues.

hmmmmmmmm......

Festival

Had a lot of fun. The team I was rooting for lost the first race, won the next three and then lost the finals. They placed second. These are my trivia friends and it was fun to have somebody to cheer for!





Kaylee was a little nervous entering the crowds at first, but soon overcame her fear as more and more people came over to pet her. There were two Burnese Mountain Dogs there and their owners were nice enough to let them pose with Kaylee. She's got her coat on because it was cold, otherwise you'd see how her coloring is pretty much exactly the same as theirs.

Papers and Races

I spent 8.5 yesterday (including a working lunch) grading JUST 36 papers. The district administered a writing assessment to every kid K-12 in preparation for the CSAP (state mandated test). As a result, somebody has to grade them. The papers must be graded by the NLC rubric which takes about 15-10 mins for each Middle Schoo/High School paper, which is what I was grading. It was exhausting and by about 2pm EVERYBODY'S eyes were wigging out on them. However, the 29 of us (volunteers) got quite a bit done. We made a good dent, but there's still a lot left to do. They have another day scheduled of that, but I am NOT volunteering for that again. Once a year is enough, thank you very much.

On the brighter side, I'm going to a Winter Festival today held in a small town a ways from here. I've been making some new friends and they're participating in a race, so I'm going to take Kaylee out there to watch the race - and see how she does with big crowds.

I'll try to post some pictures, if I take any worth sharing.

Night Owl

The kids made up for their good day with a challenging day yesterday.
I was in bed by 8:30pm and asleep by 9pm.
*boggle*

I used to be a night owl.
Honest.

Hoot hoot baby.

A Good Day

The kids were good.

I came home and the dog had been good.

Separation Anxiety?

Ok... so I had a couple of ladies over tonight and one brought her two dogs (a boxer and a lab). We let all three dogs out and they ran around and played like crazy. We came back inside for 45 mins or so, then the ladies left. I walked out with them, was gone maybe 3 minutes and came back to find that Kaylee had gotten into all sorts of mischief.

It's like the second I walk out the door she goes ballistic. I'm thinking it's not just an energy issue. I'm thinking it's separation anxiety - she freaks when I leave her.

Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?

I'm reading Cesar Millan's book: Cesar's Way, but I haven't gotten to the "good stuff" yet.