Day to Day with T&A

Playing with another blog

2010-08-23T21:42:00.001-05:00

Check it out:
http://amberme.tumblr.com/

You should be able to add it to your list just like this one. I don't know if the new one will stick or not. But it's fun for the meantime. :-)

A blog about everything you aren't supposed to talk about

2010-08-02T16:15:00.003-05:00

Long time no post! Things are good. Summer is HOT. I could regale you with 100s of vacation pictures, but maybe another time.

I have been thinking a lot lately about how little I feel about stuff. I rarely get worked up, I have the patience of Job, and I can rationalize away almost anything that would have made a normal person angry. I haven't decided if this is a positive or negative personality trait, but as with everything, I'm sure it's both.

One thing I miss about being a teenager was being able to turn on the radio and feel like every song was about me. It was so cathartic! You know, you could have a break up and rewind Brian Adams' "Please Forgive Me" over and over and still feel each and every word. I miss that. I hear songs on the radio sometimes and think, wow I would've LOVED this song when I was younger. This is a great party song, or a great graduation song, or a great new-love song. I don't know about you, but I find much fewer songs apply to me these days than used to. The nice thing about this is realizing the theme of the songs that DO apply lately. They're the happy songs! So, while I miss how it good it felt to commiserate with every emotional song on the radio, I'm glad that my life is in a stable, happy place where I can't relate with most music anymore.

But I find with most aspects of life, I'm neutral. This realization that I don't feel songs like I used to made me think about how I don't feel a heck of a whole of anything, at least compared to other people I know. It's not that I don't feel anything, but I just choose not to care or get worked up over stuff unless it's important to me. I see the Democrats' point of view as well as the Republicans'. I can't despise anyone for holding a particular set of beliefs (not just political). If I despise someone who is very liberal, doesn't that mean I align myself with conservatives? I don't know enough to know what's right, and frankly, that makes the people who act like this stuff is a no-brainer sort of scary. It's like Twilight. I like the books and movies. (Just a fair disclaimer). But I always joke that the only thing scarier than Twilight fans are the people who so vehemently HATE Twilight. I mean, talk about hating something just for the sake of hating it, with no real reason. But people are like that. They don't like something, so they hate it. Me? I only get worked up about things I truly care about, and I only argue if I feel confident that I'm right, which is probably less than 1% of the time. I just soak up everyone's viewpoints until I feel like I have enough information to form my own opinion.

One area in which my "neutrality" has been a big concern for me in the past few years is faith and spirituality. I can live without having strong beliefs in the area of politics, but what kind of person is just like, "eh" with regard to their faith?? I'm not at all OK with this. The problem is, I have yet to perfectly reconcile the things I believe with a church. Several things have had this on the forefront of my mind lately, but I'll focus on Anne Rice's recent denunciation of Christianity. Now, when I read the headline "Anne Rice Leaves Christianity", I thought "what is that crazy lady up to now??" I definitely identify as a Christian, and I know next to nothing about Anne Rice. When I read that headline, I thought, "Oh great, more fuel for non-believers..." Because some non-believers hate Christianity just as fiercely as some non-Twilight fans hate Twilight. Why does it even matter to them? I don't hate non-believers, and I can understand all different viewpoints. Except for the viewpoint that says it's OK to spout venom with your words. There is no need for that no matter who you are. Keep your hate to yourself.

Anyway, so I clicked on the article just like I do every other ridiculous thing in CNN's entertainment section (yes, today I learned that James van der Beek got married, and I realized how enormous his forehead is!), and much to my surprise, I pretty much share her beliefs. Here is part of what she said, although being a neutral sort, I would never be so absolute.

"As I said below, I quit being a Christian. I'm out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen."

So, on the surface she probably sounds like a maniac to a lot of people, but she expresses the stuff I have had the most difficulty with. I have visited a few churches in the last year, and my grandma says I'm being too picky, but I haven't gotten the "love everyone" vibe I'm seeking in a fellowship. It makes me wonder if I'm just too neutral to go to church. I love everyone, and I have loads of tolerance. I've heard tolerance referred to as fear of standing up for Jesus. To me, it's a special thing to be able to see people wholly and love them no matter what. Not everyone can do that (or maybe they just choose not to.) I want to be part of a group that is concerned with loving and serving others.

This is why my grandma (someone I consider a spiritual model) says I'm being too picky. I didn't go back to one church because he made fun of skinny, pale vegetarians. I get it, it was meant to be a joke. And I'm sure it was funny. But all I could think was, I love vegetarians! LOL I wish I could BE a vegetarian! And something about his remarks rubbed me the wrong way, and I didn't go back. Like, in my last church (which is really far from my house), my friends introduced me to hummus. In this church, they probably make fun of people who eat hummus! This sounds really ridiculous, I know, but I did not get the impression that this was a church full of diversity loving open minds. LOL Now, I can't really blame anyone but myself for my absence from church because the last place I visited was perfectly fine, and its lobby practically screamed "opportunities for service!" I have been lazy about going back... But, that's not the point of this post.

Now read this. These posts are from Anne Rice's Facebook page, by the way.

"My faith in Christ is central to my life. My conversion from a pessimistic atheist lost in a world I didn't understand, to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me. But following Christ does not mean following His followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been, or might become."

Are you talking to ME!? This is exactly how I feel.

I can't be one of these renegade Christians who study and serve alone because the church is so corrupt, though. Because guess what, I love Christians too, and I know there is no perfect church family because there isn't a perfect human being on the face of the planet.

Don't worry, this isn't going to be a post about the accident. But these are the parts of my faith that I feel confident in. I believe Tom nearly died last year and the fact that he recovered fully with no "hitches in his giddy-up" can be attributed in some part to prayer and divine intervention. I believe someone hears me when I pray, and I remember when it used to be a two-way conversation. I know that in my darkest hours, I desperately want to have that spiritual connection I used to have much more strongly.

But, when my Hindu friend tells me she pulls out an idol and prays before she drives (clarifying that she doesn't believe the idol is God, just a token), I don't see the difference between that faith and my own. I think that will always be my biggest struggle as a believer. And it's certainly not something I can work out in a blog post!

I'm not sure where my place is as a "neutral" Christian, but that shouldn't stop me from trying to find it. I think I will come to understand my spirituality more readily than my political beliefs...LOL.

Politics...check! Religion...check! Sex...oh, that's lacking. Sex sex sex sex sex. Now everyone can be fully uncomfortable since I have covered all the non-socially-acceptable topics of discussion. :-) Have a great week, friends.

168 Hours - Day 1

2010-06-14T20:21:00.003-05:00

So, this probably isn’t the blog you are waiting for, the big vacation blog. I don’t know when I’ll get around to that! But soon, I promise. Actually, I’m leaving Thursday to go to Colorado with my parents, so I’m just going to be even more buried in pictures when I get home. Hopefully I’ll make time for it this week.

I've been reading a time management book called 168 Hours, written by Laura Vanderkam who also writes a gifted blog I follow (Gifted Exchange). I really like it so far. She also has a blog for this book you can find in my blog list to the right. One thing she encourages is to spend a week (168 hours) keeping track of everything you do during the day, and this week, her blog followers are all doing this. I’m glad, because I’ve tried keeping track and kinda let it go by the wayside, so now I feel motivated to follow through and actually record what I do in a week. So, here is my day today, for better or worse:

7:00am – hit snooze

8:15am – wake up, watch the news

8:25am – get a coke, go to computer room, unproductive online time (facebook, personal email, etc)

8:45am – shower/dress for work

9:30am – Leave for work, run through whataburger for coffee I didn’t make time to drink

10:00am – arrive at a middle school to pick up data for work. Finally find office at other side of campus, trapse back to car with a heavy box. Was so hot and sweaty by the time this was done I couldn’t bear to drink my coffee.

10:30am – arrive at university, illegally park so I can carry the box upstairs, repark super far away, and walk to my friend’s office

11:00am – return something to my friend, chat with old advisor for a bit, get suckered into tutoring statistics for the rest of the summer, and leave to walk to my office.

11:45am – emails (probably with a little facebook and chatting with co-workers mixed in)

12:30pm – finalize article revisions (my first journal article was accepted with revisions last week!), with co-worker chatting, facebook, and an unrelated work crisis sprinkled in.

4:00pm – submitted new article draft, emailed to co-authors.

4:20pm – played on internet – facebook and blog catching up. Found this blog and started logging my time for the day.

4:45pm – walked to car and drove home

5:10pm – say hi to Tom, get my rubbermaid tub out of the attic so I can pack it for my camping trip next week.

5:20pm – eat a snack and relax for a bit

5:50pm – put away the mountains of clean clothes we’ve had piled up in the bedroom for longer than I care to admit.

6:30pm – did a few dishes and got out the leftovers for us to eat, eat dinner, watch a Buffy episode on Netflix.

7:30pm – put away one more load of clothes from the dryer.

7:50pm – a little more internet time, now I’m updating this time log and posting it in a blog.

8:30pm – about to curl up on the couch with a book and some water. I’ll probably read til 10:30 or 11, then go to bed. But if not, I’ll come back and tell the truth tomorrow. :-)

11pm update - stopped reading at 10:30, and I just took some time to make a to do list for tomorrow, realizing my vacation is sneaking up on me, and I need to get on the ball. Night night.

Somewhat productive day with lots of time wasted, and not necessarily in the name of rest and relaxation. Will be interesting to see how the rest of the week pans out.

Promise to update eventually...

2010-06-07T14:44:00.001-05:00

Been so busy! Not just work, but lots of fun, too. I promise to update with our vacation and other interesting things SOON.

Everything blog

2010-04-23T17:18:00.001-05:00

I guess it’s only been 3-4 weeks since my last post, but it’s been cram packed with good times and hard work. Commencing categorization of updates.

Classes

I have 3 classes this semester, 2 online and 1 face-to-face. They are going well, but I’m not a big fan of the online classes. I’d rather be taking them in person. My face-to-face class is statistics, and it’s pretty easy but I’m relearning a lot that I’ve forgotten since I first took a stats class. The exams in the online classes are 3-4 hours long each, a mix of essay (I mean, full length essay) and multiple choice questions. They’re brutal! I’m doing OK in them. I should pull out A’s in all my classes. I have the 2 online finals the weekend of May 8th, which is two weeks from now, and my stats class final is a write-up, so I can turn that in anytime and not have to take any exams during finals week. Which is good, because….

Florida road trip!!

Tom and I are driving to Kennedy Space Center as soon as he is done with finals May 11th or 12th to fulfill a lifelong dream of ours to see a shuttle launch. If you don’t keep up with this sort of thing, there are only 3 launches left before the shuttle program is retired. I’m sure it will come back one day, but who knows when, so many people are treating these launches are their “last chance”. For many, like us, viewing a shuttle launch is a bucket list thing. I have been interested in this stuff ever since we studied it and visited NASA in Houston with my GT class in 4th grade. Tom is way more into it than me. I’m thrilled that we get to go! We have tickets through a tour company to view the launch from the causeway, which is the closest unobstructed view of the launch a layperson can get. We are still hoping to get tickets directly from Kennedy Space Center, which go on sale Monday and are half the price as our “private tour” tickets. But, they sell out within a few minutes, so I’m glad we have the other tickets as a backup plan.

The launch is scheduled for the 14th, but we will wait around on it if it’s delayed. Other things on our Florida agenda are touring Kennedy Space Center (duh) and spending some time on the beach. We will stop in New Orleans for a few days on our way home. I am REALLY looking forward to the trip!!

San Diego Pictures

I went to the SITE conference at the end of March and had a good time. Here are a few pics from there, although I didn’t get out that much.

The hotel was next to a marina, and the views were great.

I still dream of this seafood cobb salad I had at the hotel. I could eat it daily.

I did go with my coworker Okyoung on a tour for a few hours on our last day there. Here I am in front of the famous Hotel del Coronado, and Okyoung and I on the same beach in front of the ocean.

I’d love to return to San Diego for more pleasure than business sometime, and especially with Tom. I think he would love it there. :-)

Garden

Here’s what we have sprouting this year.

Topsy Turvy tomato. It might look OK in this pic, but I won’t lie, the leaves look like crap! I don’t know if it has some kind of disease or pest? We are going to do some research about it, but our other tomatoes look far healthier than this one. :-O

Herbs. Left to right: basil, parsley, cilantro, and oregano. On the bottom shelf, I’m experimenting with some garlic. Only 2 of the cloves I planted are sprouting.

Left to right: cherry tomato, bush tomato, blackberry vine, and lime tree. The lime tree is Tom’s pet, and we don’t have a clue what we’re doing. We’ll get to the blackberries later…

Can you see our first tomato? Sorry the pic is blurry, I was using my new cheap camera, not my lovely Canon. It’s almost dead center in the photo, but a little to the upper right. Yay!!

In my beds, I have bell, jalapeno, and banana pepper growing, but something is munching on them and I’m gonna have to get some pesticide of some kind. I also went crazy and planted about 100 onion…LOL. Red onions in the bottom bed and yellow on top. :-)

This was going to be a trellised cucumber, but Sasha dug it up 15 minutes after I planted it. I was appalled. I think I’m going to try to trellis that blackberry vine here instead.

Other Misc. Fun

Tomorrow, we are going to GermanFest in Muenster. Somehow we got an “in” to judge in their BBQ contest. Hilarious! We are judging sausage at 12:30 and ribs at 3:30. LOL The best part is that Mark Chestnutt is playing there at 10pm tomorrow night. Isn’t that great?! Should be a good time.

And in keeping with the cultural diversity theme of 2010, we will follow up March’s Irish Festival and April’s German Fest with the Scottish Festival and Highland Games in June.

Did I blog yet that I’m going with my parents camping in Colorado in June as well? Tom can’t go because the class he needs to take this summer is only offered during the trip. But I’m looking forward to it! I have never been to Colorado with a digital camera – I’m gonna go crazy clicking away! It’s the season of Colorado trips – I’m leaving Friday for a conference in Denver, then there is another conference in Denver at the end of June that I am probably attending.

Hope everyone is well! :-)

They've been workin' on the raaaaail roooooad

2010-03-29T06:12:00.002-05:00

People have been working on the train behind the house everyday for a few months now. I think they figure the more noisy they are now, the less we will care about a commuter train coming through. I've made peace with the situation but we are still concerned about property values. In addition to the train, they are extending Corinth Parkway out behind our house to make it a full loop that connects to 35 on both ends. And they're putting a new industrial area on the other side of the train. Lots of changes coming!

I've been getting into a more productive groove, as far as school goes. The house suffers, but I think that's a lower priority right now. Nothing is worse than being as behind as I was in work last week!

I'm headed to San Diego tomorrow for the SITE conference. I'll be there til Friday night. I'm definitely looking forward to it, but I'm not sure how much extra time I'll have. This conference has activities in the evening, so my schedule will be pretty packed. But, hopefully we will find a little bit of sight seeing time! I've never been to California. I'd like to find a beach. We'll be on the water, but it's not a beach, it's rocks. I also need to find a good shopping area. I know they have a trolley tour. Need a cheap way to see a lot in a short amount of time. I think my coworker and I will take some time Friday to get out before our flight home. Even if I don't get out much, this is a fun conference. Heck, they have a cash bar set up at the poster sessions. LOL

Today is our 1 year TBI anniversary. We're not making a big thing of it but I can't totally ignore it either. It's been a long, important year. Lately we've been so consumed with school and work, planning vacations, figuring out how to manage my schedule, always thinking ahead about starting a family - I feel like the TBI situation defines us less and less. I am thinking one day it will barely be a blip on the radar of our lives, which is a refreshing thought.

So there ya have it. I hope everyone is doing well! :-)

A lengendary update 2 weeks in the making

2010-03-21T17:06:00.003-05:00

Wow, I gotta admit, spring break was almost entirely a bust for me! I'm not complaining, it just wasn't anything like I expected.

We were supposed to go camping the first weekend of spring break, but the camper was all screwy, so we bailed. We're taking it to the shop this week.

I was supposed to get a lot of work done this week (you know, like work I get paid money for), but instead, I worked in the garden a few days. Luckily, I did not plant my veggies on Friday as planned so they aren't frozen right now. I think I'll wait til April...

We planned to take the boat out Thursday since we didn't get to go camping, but no, the trailer lights weren't working, the truck battery needs to be replaced, and the fuel pump on the mustang isn't working right. :-O It just wasn't meant to be.

I wanted to get a lot of school work done, too, but no. We watched Dexter and Weeds on Netflix and drank wine the whole week. Aside from the garden, this has been the single most unproductive 9 days in history.

And I don't even have a menu plan for this week. gasp!

Don't worry, I'm going to a Time Management workshop on Wednesday. Wish it would've been the week before spring break! Part 1 of my time management workshop? Don't buy box wine!

Menu Plan Monday

2010-03-01T08:36:00.005-06:00

Menu Plan Monday @ Orgjunkie!

What we're eating this week:

Breakfast - eggs with salsa

Lunch and snacks - I have a few things on the menu for this week. Mexican Red Lentil Stew (Update! I just made that lentil stew and it is DELICIOUS! Definitely recommend) for a few days. Roasted red pepper hummus with veggie dippers (rough recipe here). Avocados. Roasted brussels sprouts, my new favorite snack.

Dinners -

Monday: Roasted whole chicken with roasted cauliflower. Leftover from last week - we ended up having pizza last night!

Tuesday: Ham and Cabbage soup with Red Bell Pepper. Still working on that ham from a couple weeks ago. This will finish it off, and we should have some leftovers for lunch.

Wednesday: Creole seasoned pork chops with tomato red bell pepper salsa. With roasted broccoli and salad.

Thursday: Leftovers with salad.

Friday: Taco Salad - taco seasoned ground turkey with spinach, red leaf lettuce, avocado, salsa, cheese, olives, and green onion.

Saturday: Grilled chicken breasts with roasted vegetables (zucchini, onion, red bell pepper, maybe broccoli)

Sunday: ?? Leftovers?

New Orleans

2010-02-21T18:39:00.001-06:00

I headed to New Orleans early Thursday morning for a conference. I spent all day at the conference on Thursday. Thursday evening, I had the pleasure having dinner with a friend who lives in New Orleans, followed by an impromptu tour led by her. It was great! I saw Brad and Angelina’s house (although there was nothing really special about it) and also saw a movie being filmed. Sweet. Friday morning was more conference festivities, then that afternoon, I had a few hours before my flight, so I strolled around the French Quarter and took the following pictures.

First, I headed to Jackson Square to see the St. Louis Cathedral. Here is a view from the fence just outside Jackson square. There were lots of street vendors here with misc. artwork and horse and donkey drawn carriages available to rent.

You can’t get to the cathedral without passing by this famous statue of Andrew Jackson (right) or this fountain right in front (left)

From inside the cathedral. If you know me, you know I’m obsessed with pipe organs (left). To the right is a view from the back of the church.

I left the church and found these creepy babies in a shop in the square.

Then, I headed to the famous Cafe du Monde for famous beignets and famous cafe au lait. Mmmmm! First, I thought I should knock some of the sugar off those, but I learned that you really ought to try to keep every bit of sugar on those things.

I found the homeless people hanging out by the river enjoying a song by some other people who may or may not be homeless, but decidedly could NOT sing well. I finished my coffee, waited for a train to pass, and continued my stroll.

I came across the State Supreme Court building (left) and thought, like many other court houses across the country, it was OK to go in and take a look. I was met with an airport-style security setup, and they said it was OK for me to come in, so I went through and let Big Brother document my visit with a picture (right).

Once inside, it wasn’t all that thrilling. I got yelled at by a security guard for trying to open a closed door, and I did briefly view the actual Supreme Court room for a minute or two before leaving. Pros: got to use the restroom and got a cool official looking visitor badge that the security guard let me keep.

I was pretty pooped at that point, and my feet were KILLING me in my dress shoes, so I headed slowly back to the hotel for the airport shuttle to pick me up. I browsed through some antique shops on the way. The flight home was uneventful, but the Cruzan rum bar at the airport was pretty alright. ;-)

Coming soon, one day, I will blog with our snow pics! Maybe I should save them for a hot summer day.

You know how I do it...

2010-02-21T15:48:00.003-06:00

In my constant quest to balance my love of cooking and my love of eating with my desire to be SMALLER, as you probably know from reading here, I'm kind of on a "whole foods" kick courtesy of famous people such as Jillian Michaels and Michael Pollan. Credit is also due to non-famous people (at least by my standards) like Paul Prichford, whose book Healing With Whole Foods, I must admit, is where this really all started for me. Not counting whatever life experiences led me to purchase that book in the first place.

Two mottos have stuck with me. Jillian's, "If it didn't come from the ground or have a mother, don't eat it," is one. Michael Pollan has inspired a new way for Tom and I to categorize food - food and nonfood. Where my fake powdered coffee creamer is "nonfood" and my creamer is food. Food? Spinach, oranges, beans, chicken, rice, oatmeal. Nonfood that has graced my pantry regularly? Meal-replacement bar of the moment, splenda, white bread/tortillas, Frosted Shredded Mini Wheats, Blue Bell ice cream, Diet DP, most salad dressings (including Miracle Whip). Just to name a few.

Tom and I have crossed into overweight BMI range in the last couple of months. This all happened very slowly. I went to New Orleans for a conference this week, and sort of like the week after Christmas, I feel like this week will go right as far as eating right. So, with all that build-up, I'd like to present our meal plan for the week. Not much emphasis on dieting, just eating real food.

BTW, this is my first week to link this to Menu Plan Monday at Org Junkie's blog, something I have wanted to do for quite a while!

For breakfast everyday, Oatmeal Breakfast bars and fruit (oranges or bananas).

For lunch, we have some ham leftover from last week (which probably falls closer to the nonfood category, but alas, it's lean and it's in the fridge), some tuna salad (with real mayo, onion, and celery), or some homemade peanut butter (and banana, optional) sandwiches, on whole wheat bread I'm making today.

Snacks: oranges, bananas, cashews, carrots and celery. Might make some hummus today (a can of drained, rinsed chickpeas, a tbsp of tahini paste, a clove of garlic, a splash of lemon juice, some salt and cumin, and a roasted red bell pepper, processed til smooth in the food processor.)

Dinners:
Sunday - a "scramble" with a roasted diced potato, a little onion, some diced ham, and some eggs. Really excited to have received some fresh eggs from my mother-in-law's chickens yesterday! We must have about 25 small eggs, equivalent to a dozen. Woo hoo!

Monday - Salsa roast from Kalyn's Kitchen (except I've started making it in the dutch oven on the stove and only cooking it for a few hours), with roasted brussels sprouts

Tuesday - leftover roast with salad.

Wednesday - Smoked ribs ala Tom (rubbed with this rub from Alton Brown) with roasted potato wedges and some kind of green, maybe broccoli

Thursday - whole roasted chicken and roasted cauliflower (I'm a little obsessed with roasting at the moment)

Friday - Vegetable soup

Saturday - leftover vegetable soup

Countdown time!

2010-02-16T20:53:00.003-06:00

I don't know if anyone likes reading the countdowns, but this blog is really all about me anyway, and I LOVE countdowns!

1 day til my sister's 15th wedding anniversary. Dang!
1.5 days til I'm in New Orleans (but only for one night)
4 days til the McNair conference where I'm moderating in the morning. Awesome breakfast and lunch included. Woo hoo! Got MIL's birthday dinner that night.
5 days til I recover from jetsetting. I'm such a wuss.
8 days til my friend's dissertation defense. Big deal for her!
10 days til a poster presentation at UNT. Kinda nervous about having my project out on display for people I actually have to see everyday.
14 days til a fun happy hour with friends.
23 days til our spring break camping trip
26 days until the time changes and we get an extra hour of daylight. Thank goodness!
27 days til we come home from our camping trip and still have SIX whole days left in spring break
32 days til the day before I go back to school after spring break and realize that I should've accomplished a lot more over the break.
39 days til HBO starts showing True Blood season 2 again (in preparation for the new season starting in the summer)
72 days til I leave for the AERA conference in Denver, where I get to stay 3 nights. Woot!
76 days til the 10th Sookie Stackhouse novel is released (Southern Vampire Mysteries that True Blood is based on)
82 days til finals week. Seriously.

Then it's summer! OMG I can't wait to get some sun!!

Another Focus Challenge - Reading

2010-02-15T11:43:00.003-06:00

Well, I managed to write for one hour undistracted a couple weeks ago, and now I'm moving on to reading. Can I sit and read a textbook for one hour without doing anything else? I've probably picked a terrible day to do this because my allergies are awful, but oh well, there is never a GOOD time to sit and read for one hour. Much like with writing, I need to up my game in grad school, and reading is part of that. I rarely had to crack a textbook as an undergrad, just going to class and taking notes works for most courses.

I'm going to get a glass of water, some kleenex, and start the reading frenzy at noon. I will report back with my success or failure later.

Edit: I succeeded. 45 pages read in 1 hour. I read carefully but didn't take notes or highlight, just read like a novel. So, at that rate, it should take me about 15 hours to read the 678 page book. Probably longer since the content becomes more complicated as I go. That's not bad...

Valentine's Day Menu

2010-02-13T13:10:00.003-06:00

Well, I am making our own Valentine's Day dinner tonight instead of going out. Because it's cheaper, just as delicious if not better, and I don't have to wear a bra.

We're having:

2 grilled ribeyes, with this rub. $8

2 grilled lobster tails. $10

Potatoes au gratin. I don't know, maybe $5 total for a bag of cheese, a few potatoes, some heavy cream, and an onion?

Roasted brussels sprouts. $5

Chocolate fondue with pears, strawberries, cheesecake, and poundcake to dip in. Let's see - $1 +$2+$4+$1+$2 = $10

1 bottle red wine = $10

1 bottle pink champagne = $6

$54 for an awesome Valentine's Day dinner for two complete with booze and ridiculous dessert. And, add $8 more and we got two extra steaks, so we'll have Valentine's Day dinner for two, two days in the row.

I see lots of salads in my future next week.

Whether you're staying in or going out, I hope everyone enjoys celebrating or not celebrating. Whatever you want! It IS kind of a silly holiday. I mean, anytime the grocery stores set up special valentine's day tents outside so shopping is quick and convenient, that takes the fun and thoughtfulness out of it. I love the way we're celebrating this year.

I'll post snow pics later. :-)

I'm that girl who...

2010-02-05T14:49:00.002-06:00

Stolen from Jessica!

I'm that girl who...

Still catches General Hospital when possible, since I watched it with my mom starting in 5th grade.

Takes things way too seriously but seriously can't help it.

Is drinking a mini bottle of champagne as I type. ;-)

Naively expects that everyone has good intentions and doesn't bounce back easily when proved wrong.

Has a guilty conscience!

LOVES food and cooking.

Is always surprised when people describe me as sweet because I would describe myself as kinda depressing and weird. ;-)

Is never surprised if people don't like me because I know I wasn't blessed with a talkative, fun loving personality, but that just makes me all the more grateful for the people who love me for who I am, for whatever reason they do!

Really hates shaving.

Wants my future baby's room decorated with a sky of airplanes and a landscape of dinosaurs, regardless of gender.

Is ridiculously introspective, and majoring in psychology just made it worse.

Will shallowly consider myself successful when I have an awesome pool and can afford someone to clean it.

Has a husband with a sincerely good heart, which is the bottom line for me despite the challenging year we have had.

Is not-so-patiently waiting for her cats to croak so we can get new furniture. Seriously.

Can justify making a spreadsheet for any situation.

Keeps forgetting to ask Jessica how much they put down on their cruise to book it.

Hopes to one day be an expert in SOMETHING.

Doesn't expect that "something" to be life.

Hopes that my other girlfriends will post this. :-) What kind of girl are you?

Food and garden talk

2010-01-31T14:15:00.005-06:00

We've been cooking like crazy lately and haven't eaten much at all that we didn't make ourselves. It's sort of a goal of mine. I say sort of because I know it isn't realistic to do that 100% of the time. With my lazy schedule this semester, I do have plenty of time through the week to do stuff like make bread or peanut butter. How can you not feel good about having a piece of homemade bread with homemade peanut butter as a snack? I've felt really good about our diet the last few weeks, just by virtue of eating better food.

Speaking of cooking, I am IN LOVE with my new cookbook, All About Braising by Molly Stevens. Please get this book and be as happy as me! It is beautiful. There are plenty of recipes with everyday ingredients, and some with special ingredients if you want to try something new. Here is a sampling of recipes from the book that I found online.

This is a boneless leg of lamb I'm probably making for Valentine's Day:
http://www.cookstr.com/recipes/herb-stuffed-leg-of-lamb-braised-in-...

Creamy Braised Brussels Sprouts:
http://cafefernando.com/creamy-braised-brussels-sprouts/

Vietnamese Braised Scallops:
http://www.cookstr.com/recipes/vietnamese-braised-scallops

Whole chicken braised with pears and rosemary
http://www.cooklocal.com/?p=449

Short Ribs braised in porter ale with maple rosemary glaze:
http://www.slowtrav.com/blog/palma/2009/02/i_had_heard_about_a.html

Heather, this goes out to you: have I been doing any gardening lately? Not really! My last garden was LAST winter, when we did cabbages, brussels sprouts, and broccoli. It was pretty late yielding, and we didn't start eating much of it until March. Then, Tom's accident happened, and I hadn't touched the beds at all until earlier this month. We finally got out there and cleaned out the beds, uprooting the old fall veggies from last year. The word "cabbage patch" only begins to describe what we experienced. That stuff was so overgrown and intertwined. But now the beds are cleaned, and in March, we'll replace the weed barrier and plant some spring veggies. This year, we are sticking with what we know we can grow easily: peppers (bells and jalapenos), tomatoes (will grow them in 5 gallon buckets), and okra. Maybe some garlic and onions.

Next fall, I want some blueberries!

One more book recommendation for the road: In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. I just started it this weekend, and I also have The Omnivore's Dilemma waiting for me, but so far I like it. So far, it's about how most of what is marketed as "food" really isn't food. Interesting read.

How long can you focus on one thing??

2010-01-30T12:34:00.005-06:00

I have a hard time writing research papers. Not really for class - those are normally pretty easy, you can follow a formula and go for it. But, I started working on a research project about 1.5 years ago. I guess you could call it a few semesters of "pilot" testing, since now that I've been working with the data for quite a while, we have brainstormed some changes to the research design, and we're rolling it out for summer and fall and hoping to publish it.

At this point in the research process, I should be able to write the introduction and methods section of the paper. Heck, I should be able to write the whole dang thing about the 4 semesters of pilot work, including results/discussion. The whole shebang. I run hot and cold with this project. I love it and hate it. I hate running the not-really-an-experiment experiment. I hate writing about it. But anytime I'm forced by deadline to make a presentation or write about the study, I am always reenergized when I realize that people are actually interested in what I'm doing!

Once I FINALLY sat down last week and wrote up the changes I want to make to the research design, now I am ready to cash in on my excitement and start writing this puppy up! Enter: new deadline. Got an email about a deadline extension for graduate students to submit papers about their research for some kind of award at a conference. Decided not to do it because conference attendance (in New Orleans in 3 weeks) is mandatory. Was talked into doing it anyway and figured out a way to keep the trip fairly inexpensive. So, now I have a deadline (Tuesday) for writing this stuff up.

But for some reason, it is so hard for me to sit and write a paper like this! I wish it didn't take a real deadline to motivate me, because the quality would probably be better if I would just meet my own deadlines. So anyway, I am about to open this paper again and try to write UNDISTRACTED for one hour. The second I have any brief writer's block, I'll have to fight the urge to click on Facebook, Words with Friends, my phone, etc.

How do people like me ever finish dissertations? I guess they don't! I'll have to figure out how to be like someone else once the time comes for me. :-)

UPDATE: I did it! 1 hour undistracted. And I typed my butt off the whole time!

TRYING to end on a positive note...LOL

2010-01-19T21:35:00.002-06:00

OK I guess I won't try to end on a positive note...I'll end on a positive note!

There was a bit of a job switcheroo last week, when I was given an assistantship. Typically, when grad students are given an assistantship, it means they work with professors in their program and get some kind of compensation, usually money, health insurance, and tuition. Which I should be really excited about, but honestly, it happened so fast that it's left me reeling in shock. And I didn't love the way it happened either. For example, my boss, the woman who took me in for no good reason and gave me a great job, supported me through what was the hardest year of my life last year, was told I accepted the assistantship before I even knew it was on the table. I don't know if it was some kind of misunderstanding, but it felt kinda wrong to me, like there was a lot more going on than I know about.

Ideally, the offer would've been on the table last month, giving me, and my boss for that matter, time to consider our options. One thing that kinda chokes me up (and I so hope I'm not mistaken) is that even with all this hooey, she seems to be looking out for me. I know I'm a good employee - I don't mean to sound like this is all a one way street, but I also know I have a good thing at school. So, what IF the offer had been on the table earlier? I guess there are two options. My boss would find a way to match it. Or, we'd all have time to mull it over, and even if it was decided that the assistantship really was the best offer, I'd take it but be able to feel good about the way it went down.

Instead, I feel pretty uncomfortable about leaving my old, comfy job and starting a new one. My old boss said, and I really hope she meant it, that I made the right choice taking the job. Apparently, the wrong here wasn't in my actions but in the way this all went down. But tell that to my guilty conscience. This kinda thing eats me up.

One more gloomy paragraph. This morning, I got a headache in my class and couldn't shake it all day. I took Tylenol and everything. What the heck kind of headache doesn't go away when you take medicine? Ugh! But it wasn't a terrible headache, so I toughed it out and went to the gym after I left the office. When I got home at almost 6, I was totally miserable. My head hurt so bad! It was maybe the worst, most stubborn headache of my life. Tom was precious, bringing me ibuprofen, water, and peanut butter on whole wheat bread. I laid down til 7 and did feel a little better, but my head is hurting again. How much drugs can I really take in a day?? I will take another dose of ibuprofen real quick before bed. This is for the birds. On one hand, I hope it's stress related so I'm not getting sick or something. On the other hand, I don't want to be stressed out enough to get a headache like this. :-S

I need to focus on some positives and quit worrying about things I can't change (anymore).

I really am excited about getting to work with other professors, it's just buried under the hooey. I have a task to do for one of them tomorrow (I was assigned to 2, 10 hours/week each), and I'm looking forward to working on something different than I'm used to.

I got up early today even though I had an extra 45 minutes to sleep if I wanted.

I cleaned off my desk at the office. :-)

I got to catch up with my friend Twila and schedule a happy hour.

My husband was really sweet about my headache. And he put together our salad for dinner.

I worked my butt off at the gym today. Plan to tomorrow also.

I rented a new locker at the gym and asked for one in the back because last semester, I was right by the door, and it was like, "Hello and welcome to the locker room, from me and my boobs." Apparently, the girls in the back of the locker room like to walk around completely naked, which is kinda awkward for prudish me. But hey, at least I can change in relative privacy without going into a bathroom stall. *thumbs up*

On the radar for tomorrow:
1) Make my lunch.
2) Work in the office
3) Possibly meet 2nd new boss who I haven't met yet?? Guess I better brush my hair...
4) Gym
5) This for dinner.

Good night! I feel better having written some stuff out...

Cheesy inspirational quote

2010-01-18T20:33:00.003-06:00

"Today I'm not going to try, I'm going to do!" LOL

I do quite a bit, but this goes out to all the stuff I try to do every day. So, tomorrow:

I'm not going to try to eat breakfast at home...

I'm not going to try to fix my hair right and wear makeup...

I'm not going to try to make my lunch before I leave...

I'm not going to try to make it to the gym...

I'm not going to try to throw my bike in the back of the pickup...

I'm going to do it!

As for tonight, I'm not going to try to put away the laundry...sigh, I better get after it.

Yes!!! Moment of GLORY

2010-01-07T17:56:00.003-06:00

On New Year's Day, you may remember my quest to make it to the end of Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism. I was determined to see the end of the DVD no matter how many breaks I needed to take. And I did.

Every day since, I did Level 1 on the 30 day Shred (which continues to kick my butt no matter how many times I do it). I took a break on Tuesday to rest my poor sore muscles. So, today I figured I'd try BFBM again, hoping to make it through 4 of the 7 circuits before taking a break. But I did the whole thing this time with no stopping! It probably helps that I am not suffering from too much sangria, cheese, and ice cream syndrome like on NYD, but who cares how, I am just so glad I made it through. This workout is 40 minutes long, compared to the Shred's 20 minutes. I still have plenty to work toward though: 1) Doing the advanced versions of all the exercises - I can only do about 1/3 of them all the way, if I want to make it though and not hurt myself, and 2) Alternating this every other day with the shred, instead of just occasionally.

Since I'm off work, you know we've been eating some tasty food, so here are a few new recipes we've tried:

Quinoa and Pistachio Salad with Moroccan Pesto - finally, a quinoa recipe that Tom liked! Or at least, said he liked and ate it anyway. This could handle more veggies easily. I would definitely dice some cucumber and throw it in next time. And cooking the quinoa with chicken stock and orange juice was delicious alone, without ever mixing it with the pesto. I loved the OJ in there! Next time I want just a plain grainy type of side dish, I'll make quinoa with OJ and chicken stock.

Cider Braised Pork Shoulder

Creamy Veggie Fondue (new year's eve fare, not 2010 fare)

Braised Short Ribs - AMAZING, worth every second spent preparing it. Used my new dutch oven to make it. If you missed it on Facebook, isn't it beautiful? Thanks to my parents' giving me a graduation gift card, I was able to pick up this beauty! And short ribs are sort of the quintessential dutch oven recipe, so I had to try it out right away.

Which reminds me, I haven't blogged about this exciting adventure, making no knead bread in the dutch oven. Check out this video to see how I did it. And this is how it turned out. Gorgeous huh?

It was crusty and perfect. The only thing is, it called for a dusting of wheat germ, cornmeal, or flour, and I used flour since I didn't have the others. The flour end up with a burned taste and smell cooking in the dutch oven, so I would definitely opt for the wheat germ or cornmeal next time. I did get a bread machine for Christmas not long after trying this recipe, but while I know I'll get a ton of use from the bread machine, I can't make something this pretty in there.

I will say, it wasn't QUITE as easy as they show in the video. I couldn't keep the dough from sticking to me no matter what I did, and I feel like I probably lost 25% of the dough along the way! But this was my first homemade bread (other than quick bread), ever - I'm sure there is a learning curve even for the easiest recipe.

Simple Whole Roasted Chicken - still love this recipe even though it makes my kitchen smell smoky. Do cover it once you put it on 425 for the last 30 minutes. I'm finally going to make my own chicken stock from the bones. Will do that tomorrow and use it Friday to make chicken noodle soup.

The breads I've made in the bread machine are Apple Pecan Cinnamon bread, which was supposed to be a sweet bread, but it just had the tiniest touch of sugar. We ate it for breakfast for a few days, then toasted it for the fondue on NYE, and it was REALLY awesome with the cheese. I made a cheddar beer bread, which wasn't out of this world because it didn't have much cheddar or beer flavor in it. And, I made a whole wheat loaf which is pretty tasty, but my quest for 2010 will be to find the best whole wheat/whole grain bread machine recipe. So, we'll be going through a lot of bread in the coming months! I'll have to get creative for using the leftovers without just stuffing our faces with bread constantly.

And with that, I am really hungry so I'm outta here. 6 more days til I go back to work. Boo!!

Banish fat, boost metabolism

2010-01-01T13:20:00.004-06:00

This DVD is hard!! I could make it through the 30 day shred in one piece today, but no, I had to pick this one. I have only tried it once before, and I only made it about halfway through. Of course, a difficult cardio workout is probably not the best idea when you had too much sangria last night and have only had coffee, deadly cream cheese bars, and a little water so far today.

There are 7 brief circuits, which is nice because you won't ever be doing any one thing for too long. I just made it through 2 circuits and nearly died of nausea and sharp pains in my side. I have never seen the end of this DVD. So, I'm taking a break, gonna start it again in a few minutes and make it through another few circuits, take a break again if I need to, and FINISH it. I have to set a good precedent for the year. But doing 180 squats is a bit much. I won't lie...I was doing 90 degree squat jumps and I still nearly died. LOL

OK, back to it!

Update: made it through the next 3 circuits. Just two more left after this break. WHEW. :-)

Update: Finished! Need a shower. Wonder how long it will take before I can do the whole thing in one shot. Think I'll do the Shred tomorrow and alternate between the two.

Adios 2009!

2009-12-31T15:07:00.002-06:00

It was the best of years, it was the worst of years, but I am glad to see it go!

Since I last blogged, my niece came to visit and I really enjoyed it. The coolest thing we did was go to the Ice exhibit at the Gaylord in Grapevine. I do recommend it, but try to go in a non-peak time, I'd say midday on a weekday, NOT the week of Christmas like we did. It was so crowded! And we waited in like a 20 minute line just to go down the ice slide once. I thought it was a lot of fun though, and I think Miranda enjoyed it.

Today, we're snacking on stuffed jalapenos, cheese fondue, chips, salsa, and guacamole, and sangria. I'm making cream cheese squares, which are just the worst thing you can possibly eat if you want to avoid junk, but they are AMAZING. It's essentially this recipe, although this isn't where I got it originally. The difference is, the original recipe I used called for a stick of melted butter to be poured over the top before sprinkling it with cinnamon and sugar and baking it. It. is. so. good.

Greg is coming over tonight, and we'll crack open a bottle of bubbly for midnight. Greg's year was even worse than ours - not only did he have to deal with Tom's accident, but his dad in Florida suffered a terrible stroke Father's Day weekend and wasn't found for a couple of days. He went to Florida to help him out and is in the process now of fighting for his dad's Medicare, which was declined for some reason (I don't know all the details), so he can move him to a facility in Texas. Unfortunately, it looks like he will need 24/7 care for the rest of his life. So, I know Greg's ready for a new year as well and I'm glad he's coming over. :-(

It was like rush hour traffic at noon today when I went out for groceries, so I'm glad to be staying in tonight. I would like to do that Big D NYE thing at Victory Park someday, but not until I can get a night at the W hotel, which was $500 for NYE when I checked. Another year!

My New Year's resolution is to keep a journal. This blog is great but it doesn't really provide much in the way of self-reflection. I am careful about how much of my guts I spill. I used to journal ALL the time, up until a few years ago. So I picked up a spiral notebook yesterday and I'm going to try again. Of course, eating better and exercising more are always on my mind, so I won't really call it new. :-)

I hope everyone has a safe, happy new year's eve!!!

Whew it's over!

2009-12-20T10:02:00.006-06:00

My parents came in Friday night. We put Goku in our bedroom so he wouldn't harass my dad on the pull-out sofa. That stinkin' cat kept us up all night. Tom flung him off the bed at 4:30am and he landed on Sasha, and Sasha yelped. That was the end of sleeping for me! I got up, turned on the coffee pot, and played on the PC for a bit until my dad finally woke up.

We left at 7:30 so I could be there by 8am. It was a long hour before the 9am ceremony started. Once we all lined up, we just stood around waiting. Bleh.

And here are the pictures. This one would've been great if it weren't fuzzy! This is me getting my flower - apparently they don't want to shake hands during flu season.

I am really focused on NOT falling. LOL

Me and Jessica - finally done!!

Me and Danyelle

Me and Jessica again!

Tom taking a picture of us while my mom is taking a picture.

Me and my parents.

So, after graduation, we put my enchiladas in the oven and had a delicious tex-mex lunch before exchanging some Christmas gifts. My mom brought me a graduation cake and a beautiful dozen red roses. :-) I'll post more pictures when I get them!

It was a good time! I slept like a baby last night, and now my niece and I are off to spend a little of my graduation and Christmas gift cards.

Oh the places you’ll go

2009-12-13T20:19:00.003-06:00

Oh wow, I haven't read this since high school, but I just looked it up. Isn't it great?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh,_the_Places_You%27ll_Go!

Got a wonderful week lined up.

Tomorrow: Work and study. Tom starts school again taking a wintermester class at NCTC. I need to wrap SOME presents and get my Christmas cards ready to be sent.

Tuesday: 1st final exam. Work on a final report for another class, and buy groceries

Wednesday: Work and study.

Thursday: 2nd and final final exam. Turn in report for the other classes. Get my hair cut, and finish cleaning!

Friday: Cook in preparation for family’s early Christmas party on Saturday. Parents coming to spend the night.

Saturday: Graduation. Lunch and Christmas shindig with my immediate family.

Miranda is staying with us starting Saturday thru Christmas eve. I am so excited about graduation, having my family over for a reason that has nothing to do with hospitals and surgeries, and having my niece visit without me having to go to work! That’s right, I’m off starting Thursday and not going back til January 13th. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??

We have been cleaning like maniacs, even wiping down the baseboards, steam cleaning the couch, and scrubbing the blades on the blinds, stuff that never makes it into our typical “vacuum and do the dishes” housecleaning routine. I had planned to do a deep cleaning on the house during my time off work, but since we decided to do our Christmas shindig at our house since everyone will already be at my house anyway, the cleaning will be done early and I will be free to tackle some serious organization projects. The early cleaning would not have been possible without Tom, who has spent at least part of every weekday since Thanksgiving scrubbing on something. You should see our guest bathroom. I thought it looked good already, but Tom made it sparkle. I am going to take a huge load of books to donate, or to Half Price Books and be free of them. I also need to reorganize our pantry and kitchen cabinets. I haven’t had this much (voluntary) time off since I can’t remember, and I can’t wait!

I was accepted this week into the Educational Research doctoral program at UNT starting next spring, which is sweet. One weird example of why it’s awesome that may only make sense to me: I can FINALLY tell people I’m working on my Ph.D. This is so much simpler than telling people I am applying for this or that, or waiting to hear, or wanting to get my Ph.D. but may be getting into a masters degree program first, or whatever. There aren’t any ifs, ands, or buts about this. I AM a grad student. That is a big relief! It is officially much easier to answer that question I always get when people find out I’m graduating, “What are you going to do now?” Well, I’m going to grad school! LOL

So, I hope everyone enjoys their THIRD week in December. I’m sure I’ll make time to post graduation pictures soon. If not, please enjoy your Christmas as best as you can!!

Trying out Windows Live Writer

2009-11-22T21:34:00.001-06:00

Upgraded to Windows 7 today, and haven’t noticed a whole lot new except for this neato program, Live Writer. Supposedly, I can use this program to compose blogs that will publish to my existing blog site. If it works, it will be awesome! Already, I notice that adding a picture is much easier. This is a picture from a tour bus in Valencia.

So, I’ll tell you what we’ve done this weekend using some of the features I see on Live Writer. Here is where live. Weird, huh? I just clicked on “add a map”, and there you have it.

I rearranged my classroom observation hours so I could have Friday off. It was a good time to take off because we had a grant due Thursday. I stayed up late finishing up some grading Wednesday, got up early to work on grant stuff Thursday, then went to the Stars game Thursday night. And since it’s so easy to add a picture, here is a picture! The picture links to an article. Neato.

It was good to have Friday off because we undertook a little renovation project this weekend. We decided to merge our offices so we’d have an extra bedroom to put the old bedroom furniture that has been in our dining room for (seriously) since last January. So, Friday, we slept in a bit since we were out late for the Stars game, went to wal-mart to get supplies and groceries, then moved all the furniture out of Tom’s office and prepped the room for painting (tape, newspaper, dropcloth, etc).

Saturday morning, we primed the room with Kilz. OK, that stuff is serious! Tom was laughing saying, “I’m starting to get high!” and I thought he was just being silly until the room started spinning for me (who had been with the Kilz for 45 minutes longer than Tom) and I started stumbling backwards. I decided it was time for a break! We had the window open and the fan running, but it wasn’t enough. We decided to stop and eat for a minute, enjoyed our 30 minutes worth of giggles (Tom walked in when Ina Garten said “doughball” on TV, and he thought it was hilarious), then got back to work.

Long story short about Kilz – it gets on your skin, and it stays on your skin until your skin comes off. For real. I had it all over my hands from trying to clean off our equipment, and I had to scrape my skin raw to get it off. Whew.

Use Kilz, get stoned and end up with super soft exfoliated skin!

Painted the room a warm, darkish beige called Gaucho. Then, we left for Danyelle and Reade’s house to watch the UFC fights. What a great set of fights! Each one was exciting. I made Pioneer Woman’s chicken enchiladas, and they were to-die-for.

Today, we slept in since we didn’t get home til 1am, then we discovered that we really needed to touch up our paint job (unexpectedly), so out came the rollers again. It was worth the extra hour’s worth of work, though. Here are some pics of the finished product. It’s hard to get a good picture since the room is teeny tiny, but you can get the idea. And if you have seen this room BEFORE, prepare to be shocked. It’s nothing special, but a tremendous accomplishment based on how it was!

Look past the computer chair, and it’s my glider (minus the ottoman, which I’ve been using at my desk…LOL) and my bookcase.

Here is my desk corner, complete with tools of the day. We put our robots on a shelf…love it!

Tom’s computer desk with the TV. Anyway, nothing special, but if only you knew what an improvement. I love the wall color, all warm instead of the cold stark WHITE that was in here before (and still lurks all throughout the house.)

And now we are relaxing, celebrating our accomplishment with some Shiner Holiday Cheer.

Got a busy few weeks ahead. We are going to see Christmas Carol in 3D tomorrow night (finally!), then to see the One O’Clock Jazz band Tuesday night, then of course lots of baking in preparation for Thanksgiving on Thursday, then a little light Black Friday shopping (Tom wants a toolbox from Sears, and there is a comforter there I will pick up, but nothing crazy like years past!) Saturday, I’ll put up the Christmas tree. The following Thursday and Friday, I have a conference in Houston to attend. Then I gotta grade the rest of the weekend, then it’s the last week of classes. Officially less than 1 month from graduation!

And now, I’ll try to submit this blog. If you are reading this, it has worked, and I call it a glowing success.

Sunday morning blog

2009-11-15T10:44:00.004-06:00

Well, I have been fighting this allergy stuff for a couple of weeks and it has been NO fun. Finally, I I resigned myself to my snotty, eye running fate, and I have been feeling better all week! I attributed it to my new antihistamine eye drops, my 24 hour zyrtec, and good ol' time. Yesterday, my throat started hurting a little but got much worse REALLY fast, like by the time I got home from watching the fights at Danyelle's house, I was achy and pretty sure I was dying. Took some ibuprofen, slept pretty good, feel awful this morning. Fever and sore throat with occasional coughing attack. And naturally, it's the worst timing ever. My niece and nephew have their joint birthday party today, next week is a big week at work with a grant due on Thursday, and I have a TON of grading to do (which I will try to tackle today from bed!)

But alas, I'm going to the doctor tomorrow, and I guess I'll try a new family doctor. I haven't picked one out - been going to the health center at school when I'm sick ever since I've been at UNT, but I want to pick one of the family doctors here in Corinth or Lake Dallas. Plus, I'm a little leery of the health center ever since they diagnosed me with flu last March and gave me antibiotics.

We went to St. Louis last weekend for the NAGC Conference. I had a wonderful time! I enjoyed the conference, my presentation Saturday morning was really good, and Tom and I got to see some of the sights and eat some really good barbecue. Here are a few of the highlights:

From outside our hotel, we had a good view of the courthouse and the Arch.

We went to the St. Louis zoo one evening - here are the tigers.

Here's a big ol' grizzly bear.

To get to the top of the arch, you have to get into this little pod elevator that supposedly holds 5 people.

One view from the arch, overlooking the park below. :-)

My favorite thing about St. Louis was Forest Park. I guess it was like NYC's Central Park, although I have never been! Forest Park had a free art museum, history museum, science center, and zoo, among several other things. We got to peek inside the history museum and spend a little time at the zoo, but we could've spent a few days just exploring the museums. I think St. Louis would be a great place for a family vacation. We used their rail system to get around town with no problem.

Coming up after I get better is THANKSGIVING next week! I can't believe it. Then, another conference the following week, this time in Houston. We're doing some work around the house this week and next weekend, too. Everyone, have a great week!

I smell a new blog header coming...

2009-11-01T15:26:00.007-06:00

Things are calming down a bit over here. I have a good handle on my to-do list (or so I think!)

Last Friday, I surprised Tom with tickets to see Star Wars in Concert at the new Cowboys Stadium. We also went with my SIL Amanda. My car broke down on the way to pick her up, which kinda put a damper on the evening, but we still had a good time!

OK, this picture will not upload correctly. So pick up your monitor and lay it on its side.

Sunday, my friend Jessica and I went to have some "graduation pictures" done around campus. It was a lot of fun! Funny story of the day, though. I got what I thought was some pretty lip gloss at the store, a little brighter than what I normally wear, and put it on. Turns out it was like super stick never go away lipstick, so when I wasn't really comfortable with the BRIGHTNESS, I tried to wipe it off, and nothing. I tried scrubbing it with soap and water, and nothing! I was stuck with my ruby red lips all day. And it turned out OK even though NOT in my comfort zone...LOL! It took using my eye makeup remover at home before it finally came off!

Oh what am I going to do without Jessica? I mean, I know I'll still see her here and there. We don't have any classes together this semester, but I still see her every couple of weeks or more. I hope she ends up back at UNT for grad school! That would be convenient for me, and it's all about me, you know.

Then Tuesday, we had our "family" pictures taken. Oh yeah, all of them are by Jessica's husband at sixfourteenphotography.com. :-) There are more pictures there, but I'll post all my favs once I get the DVD!

Made it through the week, even took Friday off and got a TON done at the house. Cleaned out the closet and did a ton of laundry. I have been fighting allergies all week. :-(

Yesterday was Halloween at Amanda's house. We relocated the shenanigans this year thinking there would be more trick or treaters. And there were, but they weren't as fun as our trick or treaters. Some of them wouldn't even say trick or treat! :-(

Amanda's scrubbed in to finish the chili pie.

He doesn't believe a word I'm saying.

Emma and Alex...LOL

I'd like to see YOU get 3 costumed kids to stand still for a picture. Emma tried. Thanks Emma!

The Ellisons. Did my in-laws take the cake with costumes or what? Emma can't even tear her eyes away from Don. LOL

It was a good time. And now it's November and time for it to get dark at 5pm! :-( We're headed to St. Louis next weekend, but not before I tackle 2 exams. Should be a good week, and the weather is looking awesome!! Hope everyone's enjoying this gorgeous fall weekend!

A year ago today

2009-10-23T10:49:00.002-05:00

http://teamtna.blogspot.com/2008/10/easy-like-sunday-morning-or-is-that.html

I should bring back Clutter...Exposed! LOL

Contemplating busyness

2009-10-20T06:37:00.002-05:00

I struggle a bit wondering if my investment in school will be worth it. It's a BIG investment. It's short term (i.e., being super busy) and long term (i.e., takes several more years). This semester has been the worst yet, and I will have to figure out a way to NOT repeat this for another 5 years. Maybe once every few semesters, but not EVERY single one.

I do feel like I'm "working my life away" sometimes. I know there is more to life than school even if there isn't much more to MY life lately than school. The things that keep me trucking are, in no particular order:

I think it will be cool to have a Ph.D. someday, even if it's only my family who is impressed.

In an ideal situation, being a professor is a pretty cool job. The flexibility is good. On the other hand, I read a quote last week, "Yes, it's flexible, you can work any 80 hours a week you want." LOL But the investment in having a cool professor job goes so long beyond graduate school into the first several years of your assistant professor job. That's if you can get a tenure-track position to begin with. I definitely won't get one at UNT since I'm getting all my degrees there. Plenty of universities around to work for. A one-year post-doc appointment somewhere would probably help, too.

But even with all that uncertainty, the degree I'm aiming for is based in statistics and measurement, not educational theory, and I think there is sufficient "real world" opportunity available should I not go right into a university, whether or not by choice. And would it really be the end of the world if I finished school and taught K-12 or community college? Point is, there are options. The options are fewer without the Ph.D., though.

Wouldn't Tom love it if I came home one day and said, "Hey, I don't have homework anymore, so I won't have to work on the weekends!" Sure. But not at the expense of me leaving school. It's as much an investment in me as in our future. He knows that. He doesn't give me a hard time, but I know he'd love more leisurely Amber time. I have HARDLY been leisurely all semester.

The gray hair makes me look distinguished. LOL

I'm a little bummed because after the conference in Saint Louis November 5-8, I was hoping for some calm. But we had a meeting yesterday, and my boss asked me to help her rewrite a chapter - authorship on a chapter is worth a few more weeks of crazy, I think. It's due December 1st, so it can't last forever. Something new will come up by then, though. *sigh*

But how do you eat a big pie? One bite at a time.

(Note to self: work on SITE conference proposals and grading this morning, then on paper due Thursday this afternoon, then put together NAGC presentation Wednesday, finish paper Wednesday night into Thursday, turn it in Thursday, upload NAGC presentation Friday, and enjoy the Alliance Airshow on Saturday. You can do it!)

Nothing bad to say

2009-10-18T15:32:00.002-05:00

About this weekend! The weather is beautiful. My house smells like clean laundry and fresh air. Friday, we went bowling with people from school and had a great time. Yesterday, I got my hair cut and went shopping. Today, Amanda dropped by for an unexpected visit, and that was nice. Haven't seen her in forever, it seems like. Tom is out helping Clint move into his new place. I'm about to head to the store for a few groceries and laundry detergent before I do a bit more cleaning, make some tea, and finish grading papers. This week will be pretty hectic, but I'm ready for it after a weekend like this!

This month, I bought groceries for the whole month, so we only need perishables every week. I know what we're having every day. It is awesome! And it's not nearly as hard as I thought. It's not like I came up with 30 different dinner ideas. It's pretty much 2 weeks worth of meals x 2, and about 10-12 of those days are "throw something on the grill" days. It's working really well. I might take the next step and start doing some prep work once a month. I have that "Once a month mom" blog in my blog list, and they make freezer meals every month. I don't think I'm ready for that, plus their meals aren't quite the same kind of healthy I'm after lately, but some of tips for what you can do in advance are pretty cool, like browning meat and throwing it in the freezer. Made meatballs a couple of weeks ago, threw half of those in the freezer, and now we're having them again this week. I can't jump into something like that and stick to it, but I can handle small changes here and there.

Coming soon...

2009-10-16T10:51:00.002-05:00

In 10 minutes - I do something productive.
In 7 hours - Tom and I go out to eat, then bowling with McNair people.
In 1 day - I get my hair cut and spend the day shopping.
In 2 days - I finish this latest batch of grading and work around the house.
In 3 days - I work, work, work!
In 5 days - I finish a presentation 2 weeks early, and turn in a proposal for another conference.
In 6 days - I have a paper due.
In 8 days - we go to the Alliance Air Show
In 9 days - Pictures
In 10 days - Amanda's birthday
In 11 days - more pictures
In 15 days - Halloween
In 20 days - Leave for St. Louis conference fun
In 24 days - Calmness comes to town.

Most importantly, 64 days til graduation!

Hanging out in Central Park.

2009-10-11T10:06:00.005-05:00

In Frisco, of course!

Well, Team TnA are having some new portraits done at the end of the month with my friend Jessica's husband, Colton @ http://www.sixfourteenphotography.com/. He started getting serious about his photography this year, and it didn't take him long to book up every weekend for the rest of the year. He does a great job. Jessica and I are getting some graduation pictures done later this month, too, and that should be a lot of fun! Tom and I are going to take Sasha (and a lot of doggie treats) with us on our shoot and hopefully get a good "family" shot.

So, we scouted out two possible locations yesterday in Frisco. First one was the Commons park. It was kinda cool. All the structures seemed whatasized, but the trees were new and miniature. Eh.

This dead tarantula should have been our first sign that this wasn't the place for us.

They do have this little pond with fountains.

This is an armed forces memorial.

Hi Tom!

I did like the greenery here. But, this park felt so new and McMansiony. Nice but not for us.

So we headed to Central Park, which is very close to Stonebriar mall. Tom is all serious about reading the history.

Here are a couple of fountains and some bronze art stuff that depicts cattle drives.

But that's not all - here are a ton of bronze statues. LOL

Bustin' out! Longhorns gone wild! hahaha

That's a nice park bench area. I hope the trees look more like fall by the time we do this. I like the light poles, too.

Stairs...

Waterfall thingie.

But this is what sold me. Pretty willow trees.

Cute bridge.

So, Central Park it is!

Also went to half price books - the Frisco location is really nice! I found four books, but not the one I went in there for, of course. It's almost not worth it, driving around in Frisco. Everything is so dense, and the traffic stinks. Trying to find stores there is a nightmare. You'll see the sign, but have to drive really far into the shopping area before you see the store. I guess you could get used to it, but we don't go often enough. Bleh!

Madness!

2009-10-06T08:00:00.004-05:00

This semester is out of control!!

First of all, we have this flu situation. I feel like I'm tiptoeing around landmines. I know so many people who have had some kind of flu. I have been feeling great, but what am I going to do if I get knocked out for a week? It will be terrible! I feel for everyone who's been dealing with it. Two babies in my family and my uncle have H1N1, and I am a bit worried about them. :-( They're in the "at risk" groups for either type of flu. Odds are in their favor, but still, our good friend Murphy's Law seems to have a hold of 2009.

I'm taking 2 independent study classes and 2 difficult psychology classes this semester. The 2 psych classes are kicking my butt! Well, let me explain...

We went to Sharkathon last weekend. Left early Thursday, got back late Sunday. This is not the first mid-semester weekend trip I've gone on, but it's the first one that got me so behind. I do NOT have 4 days to give up. In fact, I've learned that I do not have 1 day to give up!

But it truly was a wonderful 4 days - I read 3 non-textbooks, and enjoyed wonderful weather and lots of wildlife. Here are some pics.

Our camp. Note the two tent-cots on the left, John's and Clint's. Cool huh??

Sunrises and sunsets were a treat the whole weekend. (Sunset here)

I have never seen prettier dunes, or whatever they're called.

Sunrise. It was so cool seeing that deer hanging out in the surf. He was right in front of our camp! When I got closer, I realized he was badly injured. I felt guilty for taking pictures, then I had this whole scenario playing out in my head where this poor deer had been traveling miles up the beach, stopping at every campsite along the way, waiting for someone to help him. I was so sad. :-( Then I thought, even if I could call the national park office (no cell signal), what would they do? We are all too eager to keep ourselves alive, and here I am trying to help this deer avoid the inevitability of the circle of life. Once I made peace with the fact that the deer succumbs to the coyote, by design, I started feeling better and just wished the deer a peaceful death. I'm glad he went back to the other side of the sand dunes though - I don't think I could've beared to see him lie down. I know it's kind of depressing, and if I were a different sort of person, I might have just left it at, "Look! Deer in the surf! SWEET!!" That would be a disservice to you, "deer" readers.

More wildlife. Clint in the sunrise.

So, that's just a few, but the rest are here if you're interested: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=326524&id=785100462&l=ad635f24ea

Then, I got back and had to take an exam on Tuesday. PRETTY sure that's a C. It was in psychophysiology, and I barely studied for it because of the trip. And thus began the downward spiral. I can't be flying by the seat of my pants in these classes!

We had a grant due Thursday, which I worked a little bit on, mostly on the reference list (a worthy contribution). I really hope it gets funded because it's a cool project, definitely worthwhile. It addresses science education for students with special needs.

But where I seriously messed up this semester is in my grading job. I am in a graduate class this time, where I've been grading in undergraduate classes before. IT IS SO MUCH MORE WORK. And that's one thing if I'd been prepared for it, but it hit me like a ton of bricks. It's 27 students who submit 20ish assignments each 4 times in the semester. That. is. a. lot. If I spend 2 minutes on each one, it's about 18-20 hours. Well, I will NOT put that off this time. I finished grading the first batch yesterday, and the next batch is due Saturday. I am not complaining - I am so grateful to have the extra job, but I will have to manage my time better.

We had a presentation at the Council for Learning Disabilities conference on Saturday. I thought it went really well. I was having an "on" day. Here we are looking all professional. I miss Rebekah (to my left). She took a teaching job at Aledo ISD while she finishes her dissertation. Her proposal is Monday, and I'm excited to go check it out. Getting to see all the dissertation steps along the way will be interesting.

Then I worked on grading all day Sunday.

After being asked if I was pregnant about a month ago, we have decided to start the South Beach diet again. We started last Wednesday or Thursday - can't remember. I really do love this diet. I spent some time Sunday doing some menu planning, and with that investment of time, it will be pretty easy to stick to the diet.

This week, I'm getting ready for another difficult exam on Thursday, then I need to finish compiling the materials for my grad school application. My personal statement needs to be pruned to 2 pages, I need to write a critical response to an article, and I need to pick out some "scholarly writing" samples. My letters of recommendation are in, so that's all that's left. I need to finish that this weekend, along with grading that 2nd batch of assignments.

And then, it's a mad dash to the NAGC conference in November. I need to analyze this semester's data, and I need to get my presentation ready before the 23rd (when they want it uploaded to their system). This is a big one, and since the project is sort of "mine", at least more than other things I work on, it is me on the line!

I foresee a window of calm coming in November, and I am seriously looking forward to it!

For Tammy

2009-09-23T23:15:00.002-05:00

I should be blogging about my volunteer position, but since it got rained out Tuesday morning, I'll have to wait another week. What a tantalizing little clue! What could it be!? Feel free to guess. I've only told one person (a classmate) other than Tom. It is something I have never done before.

You have been in my thoughts a lot the last few weeks. I'm so glad Connor's surgery went OK Monday and that y'all are back home. Thank you for being there for me this spring even with so much on your own plate. I admire you in a lot of ways.

I'm off to the beach in 5 hours! The guys have already started driving me crazy. Can I say "zip it!" every time someone tries to talk to me this weekend, or would that totally cement my crotchety old lady status? I am still looking forward to plowing through some books. I can put my earphones in and if I ignore anyone, they'll assume I just couldn't hear them. Right?

I will try to tweet, but who knows if I'll have a cell phone signal. I'm guessing I'll lose it outside of Corpus Christi. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Tough times...

2009-09-18T21:18:00.002-05:00

Blogging is kinda hard these days. Things are tough, and the "What should I blog about?" question doesn't always yield a topic that meets my "personal benefit outweighs depressing my readers" condition. I feel good overall, but this week it's like every day has been a week in itself. Everything changes so fast! I struggle to keep up. This week, I realized that my current schedule isn't cutting it, and I need to put in more hours over the weekend. Seriously, I'm doing a MILLION times better with productivity than I was this summer, but it's not quite enough for this semester. I'm going to the office tomorrow to get some work done. I need to make a to-do list for every little thing I have going on right now, from various work projects, to grad school applications, to class, to LIFE. That (and formatting a big fat data file) is what I hope to accomplish at the office tomorrow.

Why not a countdown? That requires minimal effort!

1 day til we grill steaks.
4 days til I try out a new volunteer position (you won't believe it...but it will make an interesting blog, so I'll save it!)
6 days til we leave for Sharkathon.

Intermission: Sharkathon is a fishing tournament at Padre Island National Seashore. We are tent camping the whole time. I am entered in the trout division, which is less of an investment than the shark division. This is my first year to attend. I plan to listen to my MP3 player and plow through some more of the Sookie Stackhouse novels (I'm on book 3). I am seriously looking forward to it even though I'll be deserted with a bunch of smelly boys for 4 days (Tom, Clint, Reade, and John).

11 days til my first exam of the semester!
15 days til my next conference presentation - this one's in Dallas, which is kinda nice.
About a month and a half until we lose an hour (daylight savings time) and the clock in the truck is finally in sync again. It's been off by an hour, but why change it? We're so close to having daylight savings time do the work for us! This is the same date that my grad school app is due...

And with that, I'll close. I sincerely hope everyone has a great weekend!

New food

2009-09-12T14:40:00.002-05:00

I cooked a lot this week that I'd never done before.

Grilled eggplant. It was good. Tom loved it. I'd just as soon eat zucchini.

Quinoa. I made this recipe. I loved it, Tom could live without it but said he wouldn't cry if I made it again.

Lentils. I made this salad. Not much to look at but tasty. It was a good lunch.

Hummus. I used this recipe. Really good. Used it as a dip for carrot slices.

And now, I'm going to quit washing my hair and get dredlocks, quit wearing deodorant, and stop shaving.

Just kidding.

Feeling normal

2009-08-31T14:56:00.002-05:00

I could get used to this. After everything that's happened this year, I was unsure whether my stomach would ever settle. But this post isn't about how I've felt in the past, it's about how I feel lately.

Productive - sure my poster is late, but it's finished, and I'm just waiting for the final approval before I send it to print. I packed my lunch today, I got to campus by 8:15, I have work out clothes in my bag, and I'm going to use them today. I generally sleep well at night these days (or these nights?), and even though I didn't last night, I still got outta bed this morning.

In control - as much as a person can be. Putting others before yourself is all fine, well, and good when things are going well, but when things are tough, you need to be able to look to yourself to make changes. That's impossible to do when you've put your feelings on the backburner for so long because "the only thing you can really change is your attitude". Well, thanks, but I've tried to change my attitude about things, and really, it's just my attitude about my feelings that needed to change. Why are everyone else's feelings so much more important than mine? They aren't... I'm taking back control of any reasonable factor in my life that can be improved. If anyone has feelings about that, they can express THEIR feelings and compromises can be made. For real.

Hopeful - goes hand in hand with control. I finally feel like I can do something to make things better, instead of feeling like my feet are glued to the ground in some dark, cold cave where the only comfort is under a warm blanket. (Although I can't deny that crawling into bed is very tempting right now, especially because the office here is FRIGID!)

It all adds up to happy. And happy can be increased exponentially by the grilling of steak and cabbage for dinner. Did you know you can grill cabbage? Whether I can do it successfully remains to be seen, but I'm trying it tonight. Supposedly, you just cut it into wedges, season it, and grill it in foil packets. Hmmm.

How I make pasta sauce lately

2009-08-28T13:55:00.002-05:00

Dang, it's good. The essentials:

1 can tomatoes - whatever kind, stewed, diced, crushed, doesn't matter.
1 can tomato sauce

The optionals:
Ground turkey - I like to eat a few vegetarian meals a week (why do we think we have to have meat at every meal??), and this one is perfect. Tom still looks at me funny when I make something that doesn't have meat, though, so normally I do throw in half a lb or a lb of ground turkey. I like making a pizza with ground turkey, mushrooms, roasted garlic, and fresh tomatoes, so sometimes I have a half lb. already browned sitting around leftover from when I made that pizza, so in the pot it goes!

1 whole bell pepper, any color, diced up.

1 whole onion, diced

Carrots, diced or shredded. Prefer shredded, it's the same size as spaghetti noodles, so I think it looks cool.

Mushrooms - will normally only add mushrooms if I'm not using turkey.

Garlic - I love lots (3-4 cloves) of fresh garlic in this, had to use garlic powder last night and it wasn't the best. Oh well.

Whatever italian sounding herbs I have - last night was garlic salt, parsley, oregeno, and thyme. Salt and pepper, of course. It can handle a good bit of salt, so don't be shy. (Usually add these once all the veggies are in the skillet)

Zucchini - a whole, medium-large sized zucchini chopped up - I never leave out zucchini, but I could if I didn't have one handy.

Fresh tomato - if I have some tomatoes on their deathbeds, they get chopped and added as well. Could also use fresh tomato pureed and chopped in place of your canned tomatoes, if you have them sitting around.

Fresh spinach - don't add til you add the pasta to the sauce (I won't use frozen, but you can if you want. Not a fan of the frozen spinach, and Tom LOATHES it.)

Red wine - however much I have sitting around, if it's just a quarter cup, that's what goes in. If I have a whole cup, that goes in (yes, sometimes we do have leftover red wine. I know you're surprised) Makes a huge huge difference.

I like to brown the meat or mushrooms separately from everything else - the meat slows down the veggies, and the mushrooms put out too much water. I'll get some olive oil heating up in my big ol' skillet, and throw the veggies in as I chop them. Cook em til they're becoming pretty tender (the carrots take the longest, so add earliest, add garlic last so it doesn't burn), then pour your wine in, watch it steam up and cook it down a bit on a high. Add your meat and mushrooms here if you haven't already. I add the tomatoes and sauce to my veggies/meat when I add the pasta (a lb of whatever I have - whole wheat spaghetti or rotini are my favs) to the boiling water. Once the pasta is almost done, it gets drained (or use a big slotted spoon) and added to the sauce. Throw in your spinach here if you have some. Cook for a couple minutes making sure everything is mixed together well. Eat it. Put up the leftovers and eat them the next day. It's enough for two people to eat two very substantial meals.

It's one of my favorite ways to use up a bunch of veggies I have sitting around.

I'm alive

2009-08-16T15:17:00.002-05:00

Not a whole lot of excitement to share, though!

Having a lazy weekend. Been fighting a sinus headache off and on.

Saw District 9 Friday, and it was good.

Saw Julie and Julia last Friday, and I liked it.

Leaving for Beavers Bend Thursday, coming back Sunday.

Need to make a super long to-do list. Have a lot that needs to get done but I keep putting it all off!

School starts next Thursday. :-O

Sharkathon is looming. It's over a month away, but I know it'll be here before I know it. I entered the trout division. Contemplating adding redfish, but will probably just keep it simple and stick with the trout.

Speaking of trout, how good does trout sound?? Mmmmm....I'm hungry.

Speaking of hungry, these are on the menu for tonight.

Addicted to dehydrated "okra chips" and Hawaiian Grog coffee from Central Market.

Miss bread from Spain.

Stuck on food - I'm going to get something to eat!

If I had lots of money...

2009-08-05T10:39:00.002-05:00

I'd be going to cooking classes all the time. I went to my first one last night at Central Market in Plano. It was Spanish cooking basics. We made paella with chicken, chorizo, shrimp, and mussels. I cleaned and debearded my first mussels ever, which was awesome. It's one of those things I would never try without help, because seafood is not something you want to mess up. They were delicious!! The paella was easier than I expected. Having eaten a ton of it in Spain, I have been scared to make it because I knew it wouldn't be the same. What we made last night wasn't as spicy as what I had in Spain, but I know what to change, so I'm going for it Friday and finally making my own paella!

We also made a garlicky shrimp with smoked Spanish paprika - man, it was awesome. We made gazpacho, which I didn't care for. They added too much bread - the other group's gazpacho was spilled because the blender fell apart, so I think they compensated by adding too much bread to ours to make it go further. My favorite dish of the night was the bacalao with roasted potatoes and peppers. Bacalao is salt cod, cod that has been preserved in salt. You have to soak it for several hours to rehydrate it, changing the water three times. Wow, I was so impressed with how tasty it was! We roasted it with potatoes, peppers, onions, and some other stuff, then they roughly mashed it together, I mean like one or two mashes, not like mashed potatoes or anything. It. was. so. good. I bought some salt cod last night, so I'll be making this tomorrow.

Heading into the office this afternoon. Wish me productivity!

She blogs

2009-07-31T14:23:00.002-05:00

I have not felt like blogging since I got back from Spain. To blog about Spain would be pretty time consuming. There are only two ways to answer "how was your trip?" One: "Awesome! Really awesome!" The other is to launch into a 2 hour long powerpoint presentation full of pictures and reactions. To do any less would be an injustice to the awesomeness of the trip. So, for now, let's stick with "awesome". You can see some pictures on Facebook, but not the Valencia ones yet, and I'll have an album of pics you can flip through in person should you so desire.

A person wiser than me explained that my recent depression may be caused or intensified by having just returned from Spain. I thought she was only talking about something she had experienced herself, but turns out post-vacation blues are not at all uncommon. I don't think I'd be so susceptible to it, or that it'd be this bad, if I weren't already cliff-hanging on Mount Depression before the trip. I know that life won't or can't continue like this forever, but since that fact doesn't change anything, I know I need to be patient and trudge through.

Just because I FEEL like I've been lying in bed for days on end, I haven't. Here is the rundown of interesting or exciting things in my life lately:

Ate at Cristinas with Tom after I got home. We saw Harry Potter the next day.
Bought Spanish cookbooks and began planning my wonderful Spanish food themed graduation party in my head (or I may just get a few buckets of KFC - plans aren't so easy to execute after a week of finals.)
Went to dinner with my sister and attended Heather's first Mary Kay event the next day.
Ate at Taco Diner and saw/LOVED 500 Days of Summer at the Angelika in Plano with Brenda and Co.
Made this and this (not together though), which were delicious.
Got a big fat data file formatted properly at work.
Jessica invited me along on her senior portrait extravaganza with her hubbie/photographer (this is probably at the top of the list.)
Going to see Funny People tonight with Brenda and Co.
Got our bills/medical stuff reorganized (a huge accomplishment)
Going to make homemade mayo this weekend.

What I haven't done:

Put up my suitcases
Clean my house
Put away my laundry

But that's on the agenda for this weekend. It's my first free weekend since I've been back, and my last one for a while. We are headed to Beavers Bend with the family August 20th. School starts the following week. Seriously.

Next semester, I'm taking psychological measurement, psychophysiology, and two special problems (independent study) courses about math instruction and inclusion/co-teaching. I'll be actively seeking my alternative certification to teach math, and I'll be applying to grad school. This is a much bigger task for most of my McNair peers - I am only applying to UNT for a master's degree, so it should be pretty simple and I can't imagine being denied acceptance. Most importantly, next semester, I'm graduating! And full-time income is my light at the end of the tunnel.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.

2009-07-10T00:51:00.002-05:00

There are no words to describe how awesome it is here! So I'll use pictures.

View of the castle from our friend's hotel. We met 4 other UNT students who are helping with this conference at the airport, and their view is even better than ours!

Our hotel from their hotel.

Marina next to our hotel.

The flight was long, but I slept for at least a few hours. The first flight was delayed, naturally, and we only made our connection because we ran. Our bags didn't arrive in Alicante with us, though. We went to lunch (paella and sangria), walked around some shops downtown scoping out other restaurants. You wouldn't believe the SHOPPING here. We spent some of yesterday (Thursday) figuring out when/if our bags had arrived, and heading back to the airport to pick them up. We headed out for tapas at about 9:00pm. We had green olives, fried potatoes, calamari, tuna salad, & croquettes (and sangria, of course. I liked this batch better than what we had at lunch.) It was so relaxed - eat at a slow pace, sip the sangria, and talk. Everyone seems like they're on vacation here. Another thing that struck me was all the KIDS out! I love that "going out" doesn't mean finding a babysitter.

Me & Natalie (one of the UNT students from the other group) after tapas/sangria.

Then, we went shopping at an outdoor market where I'll pick up a few souvenirs before we go. Our last stop was a coffee shop, where I got a cafe bombon, which is espresso to which you add that packet of sweetened condensed milk. It was delicious.

Then I found PROFITEROLES on the menu! It's a property on the Monopoly dessert board, and I didn't know what it was, but I always love to say it. So, I had to order it. It was like fried vanilla ice cream balls sitting in chocolate sauce with whipped cream. Wonderful!

Then we picked up some bottled water at the supermercado and Brenda and I headed back to our hotel. There is a casino right here, we may go in one night.

The castle at night!

Today, we are planning to visit the castle, relax at the beach, and have a siesta before another fun night out!

The castle

2009-07-05T11:16:00.003-05:00

If you've known me for a reeeeally long time, you probably know that seeing a castle is going to be one of, if not THE highlight of my trip. I can't wait to go to Germany someday and check out their castles. I have a thing for castles.

Check out the castle in Alicante. Isn't it SWEET? I want to go the first full day we're there. I don't want to put it off and end up not going!
http://www.alicante-spotlight.com/alicante/castles.htm

2009-07-04T17:41:00.001-05:00

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Q&A

2009-07-04T15:43:00.003-05:00

1. From Tammy: You didn't hit Target???? That day doesn't sound complete without a stop at Target too!

Ha! I did go to Target the day before. It was successful. I got a really cute turquoise wrap dress with cap sleeves for $25.

2. From Heather: The only thing I can think of is whether or not Spain has the same power outlet plugs as us for electronics.

Luckily, my roomie just got back from Turkey/Greece in May, and she offered to share her converter, so we'll be rotating our devices out. :-) Those converters can cost $50 for a good one.

3. From Adam: "Pack light on the clothes, you can wash them at your hotel. By packing 3 or 4 days worth of clothes you free up enough space for everything else you need!what do you do? what conference are you attending?"

See, I thought about packing lighter, but I can't find anything that mentions laundry in this hotel. I'm sure they have a laundry service since it's a resort-type hotel, and who knows how much that costs? I think I'll opt for packing enough - I can usually rewear dresses & shorts if I need to! I'll grab some Shout wipes or something and just make what I have work.

I'm attending the International Association of Special Education conference. I work as a research assistant at UNT. And my boss loves to travel! :-) I have had a great job there not counting travel, so the travel is like icing on the cake. The conference is every two years, and in 2011, it'll be in Iceland. How SWEET would that be?? I don't know if I'll be working there then - I eventually have to work full time as a teacher for 3 years, but I'm definitely going to try to stay involved if possible.

4. From Tammy: You'd think I had figured out a way to sneak in your suitcase without my 2 monkeys screaming "Mommy!"

Everyone keeps talking about sneaking into my suitcase, and I wish someone would figure out how to do it! I would love to have someone else go. I just don't know anyone who weighs less than 100 lbs! Except Miranda....

I can feel the tropical breeze....

2009-07-04T15:34:00.001-05:00

Only in my imagination, though. It is STIFFLING here.

But check out the 10-day Spain forecast.

http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/tenday/SPXX0008?from=36hr_topnav_business

Mmmmmm!

The 1st of July

2009-07-01T21:10:00.003-05:00

Today was nutty.

Found out yesterday the Star Telegram was coming to work to talk about this research project we're doing. My boss wants us there at 10am today, looking snazzy. The interview thing was OK, but the hilarious thing is when the photographer showed up, they stuck me in front of a computer and he took a ton of pictures of me working on the computer. Shouldn't we have stood in a row in front of a UNT logo looking professional and intelligent?! There is NO way I have any kind of normal looking face in those pictures. I didn't see any of the pictures, but I guarantee that I look like I'm thinking, "OMG, how should I look? Deep in thought? Perplexed? Smiling? Should I look at the camera or pretend he isn't here??" I know the result will be a silly looking trying-not-to-burst-out-laughing look. I'll get a laugh out of it, anyway. Hopefully it's only funny looking to me and those who know me well!

So, after surviving what was one of the most uncomfortable hours of my life, I did something that comes totally natural to me: ate enchiladas. I met Jessica for lunch at Cristina's in Frisco. I haven't been to Frisco since they put the 121 tollway in - well, once with Tom driving at night at Christmas time. I can't believe what a difference that road makes in the Preston Rd @ 121 intersection. You can't see the mall anymore after you exit! I can't wait til the new Lewisville Toll Bridge opens.

I went to Old Navy looking for the $9 capris advertised, but remembered that the sale starts tomorrow. If I were smart, I would've tried some on so I can just run in and grab them tomorrow. Hit Ross, JCPenney, and strolled around the mall. Didn't buy a whole lot, still I really enjoyed fartin' around with no time frame. I feel old at the mall, especially during summertime. I couldn't make myself go into Charlotte Russe, which used to be one of my favorite stores in high school. I have found a few things there that I don't feel totally silly wearing as an adult. Too many teeny boppers were in there today, and I couldn't make myself go in and try to figure out what size I wear in juniors sizes...ew.

Hot Topic...well, I never "fit in" at that store, but it's getting worse with every passing year. I never go in unless I'm looking for a gift for someone else, but I always window shop, and today, the window was full of Twilight paraphernalia. Haha! Man, do I ever miss the days when I would've been totally fanatical about Twilight! I'm kinda embarassed to read/buy the Twilight books, but I read em anyway, thanks to Twila who brought me the first book when Tom was in the hospital. They are a guilty pleasure. But when I was 14? I would've been daydreaming about sexy dark misunderstood vampires all the freakin' time. That's if I could've smuggled the books into my house at all - parents weren't too keen on the preternatural.

But I can't be shopping at the Dress Barn! I ended up buying a dress at Penneys and some stuff at Bath & Body Works. LOL

So, in my car on the way home, I turn onto 35 in Lewisville and notice that my air conditioner in my car isn't cooling. I'm on my way to Wal-Mart to pick up some contacts. How sweaty can 1 person get in a 10 minute drive? Soaked the bone. Literally, the back half of my dress was soaked, and I am not a big sweater. Eeewwwww! How embarassing! I did run into the vision center trying to keep my back from everyone, but I didn't get any food. It didn't work again on the way home, but naturally, it worked fine when Tom tested it. *sigh*

The evening has been uneventful. I am trying to get to sleep early tonight. Thrilling!

Time flies when you're having fun...

2009-06-30T21:22:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow: Work in the morning, turn in timesheet, pick up travel insurance card, meeting Jessica for lunch, doing some Spain shopping in Frisco.
Thursday: Work
Friday: Parents coming to visit
Saturday: Lake Dallas 4th of July festival thing (and I have a harebrained scheme for that day, but I'm not going to talk about it until it's over...LOL)
Sunday: The day o' rest (and maybe more shopping!)
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday: Leaving

Ahhh, I am getting kinda wound up about this trip, starting to feel nervous about having everything I need and (most importantly), remembering to bring it. What do I REALLY need though? Underwear, deodorant, hairbrush, makeup, and toothbrush. My glasses. Clothes for the conference, clothes for the rest of the time, a ball cap, a swim suit, and a beach towel. Speaking of the beach, I need to bring a razor. A book or two. A small notepad & a pen. My flash drive. My passport, my debit card, a credit card. Electronics: straightening iron, laptop, camera, cell phone, and chargers. If I have those essentials, I'll be fine. What is the big deal???? I think I'm worried that I won't have enough stuff for 10 days. That's ridiculous... I'll feel better if I get my bag out and start throwing stuff in it. Poor Rebekah - I foresee more than 1 phone call next week along the lines of, "WHAT am I forgetting???" But she won't mind, because we're rooming together and if I forget something, she'll be the first person I whine to. LOL

Non-essentials: an extra bag for souveniers. Protein bars - I have never regretted packing protein bars. A water bottle? Vitamins. Hair thingies. My own soap/shampoo/hair goo. A neck pillow for the plane. Electronics: my MP3 player, but that's an extra charger, ear phones, everything. Eh... See THIS is the stuff I stress over, not the essentials.

Whoa, I am forgetting to share big news here! Tom's last day of speech therapy is Thursday. :-) He will still go to physical therapy, but isn't that GREAT?? It's kinda like graduating. Go Tom!

Random

2009-06-26T23:35:00.003-05:00

Been craving chips and dips so much that I don't care if I blow up like a balloon. So I made this dip tonight and had it for dinner. It was delicious!

I also made my salsa, and it was one of the best batches I've made in a while. Mmmmm. It had just the right amount of cilantro, onion, and fresh jalepeno heat. That is the salsa trinity that has to be perfect, and the unpredictability of fresh jalepenos makes it difficult to get it right. But tonight....mmmmm...I can't wait to eat more! I'll have to make a salsa roast this week before we eat it all up. There is something kinda salty and rich about that roast that I can't eat a lot of, but Tom looooves it and we do have a roast in the freezer.

Yep, I have been craving food like crazy lately. I'm drooling right now thinking about tonights chip and dip extravaganza. And embarassed that I'm excited about that frozen mound of pot roast sitting in the freezer.

Spain is 12 days away, and no, I haven't made a checklist for it yet. But don't worry, making the checklist is on my checklist for this weekend. :-)

My sunburn from Saturday is peeling and I look like I have leprosy.

Tomorrow I'm cleaning the house like a madwoman. Tom is planning to mow.

Am I done needing 8 hours of sleep a night? Supposedly you need less and less as time goes on. Maybe I should quit trying to go to bed early out of habit. I haven't actually fallen asleep on time in a while.

Tom is all addicted to that Farm Town application on Facebook. Bwahahahaha. I can hear the cheesy music every time he goes in there to harvest his crops. I cannot get addicted to those applications! I just hit ignore anytime I get one that looks high maintenance. It's cute, though. He named his farm "TBI Terrafarming". LOL

My parents are coming on the 3rd to go to Grapevine for some wine tasting. I can't believe they are actually coming this way! I have been trying to get them to visit for a long time (not counting hospital/post-hospital visits). It will be fun!

Good night! Only one more minute that I can say that before it's Good Morning!

Long awaited pictures

2009-06-24T10:42:00.009-05:00

It's been FOREVER since I posted pictures. And these are just from this weekend. I still have spring break stuff. Oh well!

Saturday, we woke up and headed to the Denton Airshow. It was pretty awesome. I can't wait to go to the big one at Alliance, now. :-)

The Coast Guard showed off their helicopter.

Neat spiraly smoke from an aerobatic plane.

Cool old planes.

Tom's favorite one.

Tom watching - what are we going to do with that fuzzy head? I am not sure whether to keep growing it out or cut it shorter!

More old planes.

Another spiraly smoke thing.

The FA-18 - that thing was loud and SWEET!

I got the worst sunburn I've had since 6th grade at that airshow. It's on my shoulders. Ugh!! Oh well, better to get it over with here than in Spain.

At home, we played Xbox and I got a rare good picture of Puddin'.

Sunday, we went to my parents' house for father's day. We all pitched in and got him an RC plane. I hope he likes flying it!

My niece Miranda. I brought her home with us that day, and we're taking her back home this afternoon. Look how sweet she is! She's 10, I know that any day now she'll switch from kid to teenager, and I'm trying to get in all the "sweet" time I can.

We got up the next morning and drove to Oklahoma to visit Arbuckle Wilderness. Look at this sweet llama or alpaca or whatever!

The emus were HILARIOUS. They would come right up to the window, and it was scary thinking they could snap your finger off.

Ha! I love birds!

This deer/cow mix was more interested in chewing cud than coming up to the truck.

Look at the sweet innocent camels.

NOT! They were the pushiest animals out there! They were not content to sit by your window waiting for food. They would get IN the truck and take whatever they could get. So, we put up the windows.

The look on her face is priceless.

He kept following the truck even after we drove off!

These kids are hanging out the truck approaching the camels. We were shaking our heads at how dumb that was. Then they got closer to the camels and started screaming, got back in the truck and rolled up the windows. Haha!

Awwww, cute mini donkeys!

Not so cute begging for food, huh??

I thought this animal was really pretty.

Tom loved the buffalo. Made him hungry.

Aaaahhh, the emu returns!

ZEBRAS!

GIRAFFES!

One of those giraffes was drooling so much we rolled up the window. Ew.

Strange animals we saw at Arbuckle wilderness.

And that was that! It was stinkin' hot, and we made it home by 2:30pm. I thought it was a lot of fun. Today, we are going swimming before we take Miranda home. :-)

Preeesentation over

2009-06-20T10:02:00.002-05:00

As suspected, my presentation was only attended by one other person, a nice young special ed teacher who came because she knows my co-presenter, who was listed but didn't come to the conference. So, I still got to do the presentation, but it was more casual. I think she got something from it. She wanted me to send the handout to her principal, too, which makes me happy. And it lasted right up to 45 minutes. I have another 45 minute (or is it an hour??) presentation in November, and it's nice to know I don't have any trouble rambling on for that long.

The rest of the conference is good. One thing I love about education is that even the professors are still teachers at heart, and they always seem extra interested in students. You can tell some of them make a point to seek out students, talk to and encourage them. I don't know if it's like that in other fields. I've had a great experience so far with people wanting to be helpful.

After it was over, I got to sit in rush hour traffic in Irving. Yay! The TomTom had me going some strange direction, and once I realized it was wrong, I had it "recalculate" the route, and it made me turnaround. I was right by the airport, and this turning around and driving 2 miles the other way added 30 minutes to my trip. I have a little traffic driving to and from school and work, but I DON'T miss sitting in bad traffic everyday. It's funny how my tolerance has diminished. I'm spoiled by my 7 mile commute.

When I got home, Tom and I met up with Twila and her daughter Becca to see The Hangover at the Movie Tavern. If you like tacky movies, this was hilarious! I seriously needed the laugh. It made me want to go to Vegas. It looks so fun. We would like to go see the UFC fights live in Vegas sometime, but it's SO expensive. Actually, I just checked and it's not as bad as it used to be. For these fights, albeit not in Vegas, cheap seats are $50. Hmmmm.... I wonder how good the view is. Maybe we'll have to buy some cheap seats one day and go for it. Check out that fight card, though! The Dean of Mean!!! Yay. I hope he wins. And Hammil vs. Vera, nice! And those aren't even the main events. Maybe we can go out to watch that one. I like watching them at people's houses, but sometimes it's fun to be at Buffalo Wild Wings feeding off the crowd.

Today...I need to:

Clean up the house a bit
Buy groceries
Wrap my dad's present for tomorrow

I started typing this blog at 10am or so this morning, and while I wrote my list of stuff to do, I remembered that Tom and I wanted to go to the Denton Airshow today! So I checked the schedule, saw that we weren't too late, and we headed out. It was so cool! I got some sun, which I really wanted to do before Spain. Will post pics soon. Everything else I needed to do can wait. We are about to eat dinner and watch "Taken". :-)

Bang bang!

2009-06-17T15:49:00.002-05:00

I got bangs again. The overall length is a little shorter because my hair was in desperate need of a good trim. I kinda wish I'd gone shorter, but I can always cut more later. I'm always on the fence about bangs. I don't get my hair cut often enough to keep them out of my eyes. But I really like having them. So, I got em. I might go back before my trip and have her thin out the layers a little more. We'll see how it goes. I look like crap today and if I were wearing something cuter, I might like my hair better.

I also found some tennis shoes I liked today in Lewisville. I'll try working out in them later. They need some serious breaking in! I almost just wrote about my dad's gift, but I can't know for sure whether he'll read this before Sunday, so I better zip it.

I have an eye exam at 4:30 I'm not looking forward to. I'm getting contacts again. I'll be able to buy cheap sunglasses again! Yay! I just hate going because they charge $20 extra if I have an astigmatism, but she doesn't do anything different. ??? And why do prescriptions expire after a year? I've had these glasses for 2 years now, and yes, maybe my prescription will be a little different this time, but I wish it were up to ME when I get a new prescription. Do people REALLY pay to have their lenses replaced every year for a change of only .25??? Ridiculous. I just hope it goes quickly. The exam won't take long, and hopefully I can get my contacts and run!

This is turning into an expensive day, but it's all crap I can't put off anymore. I want my contacts before the Spain trip, and that is quickly approaching. What other crap do I need to buy before that trip? Maybe just some clothes. Tammy, if you read this (or if you don't), the conference that's Friday is not the same one that's in Spain. Friday's presentation is in Irving. I hope they feed me! Last year lunch was good. I half want to just show up for my presentation and leave, but that's kinda tacky for someone in my position - someone who didn't pay for her own registration and someone who still has a lot to learn from the conference. I had a nice time last year, but no one else I know is going this time. I guess I'll have to be sociable and "network". NOT my strong suit. LOL It's a small conference and I should go support the other presenters. (Sorry, I had to reconvince myself that going for the whole day is my only option.)

Tom is going to his friend's house Friday, and I can't figure out why I'm irritated about it. Normally I would be happy to get him out of the house so I could have all the wine for myself, wear a big ugly sleep shirt, and watch some girly movie. :-) Anyway I made plans to go the Movie Tavern so I won't sit around and pout about the fact that I don't know why I'm pouting. I don't know what my problem is! Well, I sort of know, but it's not rational, so my only option is to get over it.

If you love me...

2009-06-16T10:34:00.001-05:00

You'll try to answer my poll by tomorrow.

Lots going on

2009-06-15T21:13:00.003-05:00

Friday, McNair summer class started, and it was nice to see a lot of people, but there were a couple people missing that made things not feel McNairy. I guess the move from Highland Hall to Wooten doesn't help, either. The class isn't required if you took it last summer, which explains the missing people - I am taking it for the extra upper level hours, plus they change the schedule up. I'm sad because one of the new additions is a grant finding/writing class, but it's during my Spain trip. At least I'll be in town for the class over imposter syndrome.

Friday after class, I won a very important battle in my marriage. TWO battles, in fact. Tom wears these cheap skater shoes instead of real tennis shoes, and they are no good for working out. Oh, how I hated those Vans!! The latest pair was filthy and had holes in them. At the ER when they were getting him ready for CareFlite, they had to cut his clothes off. They said, "Well, the clothes are ruined, but do you want these shoes?" I thought, "This is my big chance!" I could've made the Vans disappear and blamed it on the hospital. Of course, I didn't have the heart.

These shoes have not been working for him in physical therapy, so we went to Academy Friday to pick out some new ones. He is the proud owner of a new pair of New Balance shoes, but that isn't all. I got him some low-cut socks, and HE IS ACTUALLY WEARING THEM. Yes, my husband has ditched his signature shorts/tube socks combo. YES! I win! I could throw away the tube socks just for insurance, but he'll probably want them for jeans. I can't stand wearing low cut socks with jeans. It's weird.

Saturday, we went to his sister Amanda's new house for dinner with his family, and went to my sister's house to watch the UFC fights that night. I was glad she invited us for the fights because we weren't planning to go out and watch them. I'm going to miss UFC 100 July 11th because of the Spain trip. Of all fight nights to miss! It will have three main events. Turns out, Tom won't be able to watch them either, so maybe we can order them on PPV when I get home. Hopefully I won't see the results on the internet in the meantime.

I'm a little less stressed about Friday's conference presentation after talking about it at work today. They are right. Friday afternoon, no one will be there anymore. Kinda like last year when I presented at this conference at 8am on Friday. :-) That won't change how I prepare or how seriously I take it, but it will help me chill out this week.

Felt nice to be at work today. Heading back tomorrow. Everyone is going out of town by Wednesday, so I may or may not go into the office. Tom is doing well - has done a great job this week on his exercises. :-) His hair officially covers up his scar. Here is a picture of us at the aquarium last week. Hey, it's been a LONG time since I posted pictures! I still have spring break pictures hiding out on my memory card.

One giant boring leap for me

2009-06-10T08:12:00.002-05:00

Today is sort of a milestone. It's the first day I have gotten up early and come to work. My job is flexible and I've been working at home since the accident, but you just can't beat the office for getting stuff done. And it's tough because I am still having trouble sleeping at night, so I want to sleep away the day, and I seriously had to fight it this morning. I knew I would just feel guilty if I slept late and didn't go to work right away, so I got up at 6:45 and made it to work by 8. Yay. Hopefully I'll go straight to sleep tonight. It may not seem like much, but I am happy that I made it here early. :-)

Another day, another diet

2009-06-07T18:39:00.004-05:00

The impending trip to Spain really got me motivated on these extra 10 lbs. I was doing great by working out until I hurt my knee one day a couple weeks ago. Hurt isn't the right word - it didn't really hurt. But I did something to it that made it feel wrong to use. I guess I strained it or popped it or something. It is still goofy feeling but I think I can work out again this week, although I might have to stick with upper body stuff.

Anyway, thanks again to Heather who is constantly, inadvertently putting ideas in my head via blog, I started the "Special K Diet" last Wednesday, and I have to say, I am very happy with it so far. I have cereal for breakfast, a snack bar or some fruit at 10 (if I think about it), and a meal bar for lunch. I was mostly worried about the meal bar for lunch, but so far, it hasn't been an issue. We haven't had dinner much later than 6pm since I started since I'm so hungry by dinnertime, and that's a good thing since you aren't supposed to eat right before bed anyway.

Another thing I know helps is staying hydrated. I like buying big bottles of water because I will drink more water that way, but I hated buying bottles of water because we have really good tap water here. I found a 2.2 L jug at Walmart that I have been using daily for a couple weeks. I drink 2ish a day, which is about right considering the coffee I drink in the mornings (have to compensate). I like it! It's so easy to drink enough water this way.

So the thing with Special K is, you eat so little (500-600 calories) during the day that you don't have to worry much about what you're eating at night as long as you don't seriously overeat. I've been eating right at 1200 calories each day since I started, even with some wine the last couple of days.

I think this will be a quick way to drop a few more pounds before the trip. And the best part is, it requires next to 0 effort and it's inexpensive.

Nice Sunday planned

2009-06-07T10:18:00.002-05:00

But we'll see if it actually turns out that way!

We're going to try me driving a stick shift again today. Last time we tried this was almost 6 years ago right after we started dating. It was in the old white Mustang, and it was nearly impossible. We joke saying Tom smoked 5 packs of cigarettes in that hour. I don't know what he'll do now that he doesn't smoke. I found out later that it was an exceptionally difficult clutch, so I'm hoping it's easier in the 2005 Mustang. When I was first learning how to drive, it was in the 1970 Belair, the Banana Boat, and I had such a hard time with it. I thought there was something wrong with me and I'd never get my license. One day, my sister let me drive her car, a newer, smaller Grand Am from Edgewood to Terrell and it was SO easy! PLEASE let that happen today. I need to learn how to drive this thing. Sometimes driving a cool car can make your day just a little nicer. I'm going to need some cool sunglasses, though.

I am wearing shorts today, and I think I'm the whitest I've ever been. I'm going for it anyway. Right now it looks like I'm wearing thigh-high white socks, I need to get to a believable skin tone before the Spain trip, which is one month away as of tomorrow.

After we try the Mustang, we're headed to Grapevine to pick out a local bottle of wine for a friend who is coming into town tomorrow. We also need to hit the grocery store, and I'm really wanting to go to Jo Ann's. Hopefully Tom feels like dealing with my shenanigans. I figure he'll be content as long as he has his beloved Mustang and a Diet DP. And I don't have enough money to spend TOO much time in Jo Ann's. Heather, this is all your fault, I want to start mistreating my windows this week. :-) (Click at your own risk.) BTW, this will be Tom's first time driving the Mustang since the accident. I know he'll be really happy. He'd marry a car if he could.

Tomorrow, we're planning to go to the Dallas World Aquarium with my friend, but I'm thinking we may need a Plan B in case she gets into town later than expected. They close at 5. I need to find a good non-chain place to take her to dinner, too. I'm pretty pumped, I think it'll be a nice day. But I hope I can come up with a good Plan B...I'm thinking the Nasher or the DMA or both, but it would be nice to come up with something closer to home, too.

Hope everyone else has a nice Sunday. I need to post some pictures soon. I have some from spring break and Amanda's new house.

Went to Fort Worth again today

2009-06-05T15:51:00.002-05:00

Disclaimer: This is another post about the accident. It's probably about how lucky we are and how I'm having a hard time dealing anyway. If you're tired of reading this depressing hooey, here is your ticket out. (Really, I understand, I probably won't even read through it myself before posting!)

Man I am worn out.

Last time we went for a follow-up with the neurosurgeon, it felt like a waste of time and cash. See, Dr. Smith was Tom's surgeon that day, and he was on call the weekend of the accident. Dr. Cho was the neurosurgeon assigned to Tom. Dr. Smith and his nurses were in the OR. Dr. Cho and his nurses were there starting the next day. A month ago, we saw Dr. Cho's nurse. She came in, took a quick look at the incision, asked us if everything was going OK, and that was it. She wasn't really invested in this situation.

Today, we saw an OR nurse who was actually there. When she saw that Tom was coming in, she wanted to be the one who saw him. I was thrilled she was there. The surgeon and the other OR staff are sort of mythical to me since I didn't get to know them but I owe them so much. It's like being in the same room with your favorite celebrity. You act like an idiot (like me looking at her with my mouth open in disbelief that SHE'S ACTUALLY HERE, trying to remember her with her surgical cap on). She told us the other nurses didn't understand why she was so adament about being the one to see him, since he's "no big deal" (I guess because he is doing so well), but she told them, "No, you don't understand, he should be dead right now, it IS a big deal."

She came in because she wanted to tell Tom how close he was to dying, and how lucky he is. None of their staff expected him to make it during those first 7 days when he was out. :-( She said she knew it was bad when she got the call that she needed to "get there immediately", apparently that rarely happens. He was extremely unstable before and during the operation. Something about his brain not bouncing back in the days following the surgery, a positive sign they look for, made them not think he was going to live. She told us there were 5 anesthesia people in the OR, which she had never seen happen before (granted, I don't know how many surgeries she's been in, but hey, that explains the extra charge for "anesthesia complicated" on the bill.) They were yelling and frantic, telling the surgeon that they needed to get into his head right away. She is responsible for his haircut, for those of you privileged enough to see it. :-)

It just wasn't his time, she said.

I'm shell shocked today because this really happened. The part of me that automatically tries to see things from the outside says, "Yeah, yeah, OK, OK, it happened, we know it happened because you won't shut up about it." Time and progress tricked me into forgetting how bad things were at first. I almost convinced myself that we had been given worst-case scenarios from day one to make us feel good when things would go right. Today, I don't have that "I didn't really nearly lose him" feeling. It's obvious from the OR nurse's account that I did nearly lose him.

I'm not sure what the significance is in confronting his nearness to death. Why does it matter NOW when he is almost totally back? Somehow it does matter. Today, I feel shocked and sad - why shocked, though?? Because I let myself forget how it really happened, convinced myself that it happened differently than I remembered. Is this something I need to work through, or is it OK to forget for most of the time and be upset only when it's thrown into my face? Heck if I know. I know I can't run around upset everyday because "He nearly DIED!" I can't even spend everyday thilled because "He nearly died, but he's ALIVE!" I have to work. LOL But I'm tempted to do either all the time.

There is a difference between seeing how lucky you are compared to other people and how lucky you are compared only to yourself. The latter is a bit more unsettling. Anyone can find someone worse off than themselves and see that they are lucky. There is a lot of value in that, for sure. But being able to see how lucky you are compared on your own lows, man that is something. (Note: That may only make sense in my head, don't spend too much time on it. :-))

Anyway, I doubt you made it this far, but maybe you did. When you are having a high "spousal appreciation awareness" day, you may find the movie Up! to be pretty sad. It was a great movie, but I cried through half of it. How embarassing. It was worse than when I saw Armageddon but not as bad as when I saw the Notebook. For those who have seen it, it was mostly the concept of "Stuff I am going to do" that killed me. Everytime I recovered from crying, they got me again. It was relentless. But what a sweet, funny, thoughtful movie. And the 3D didn't give me a headache.

Our deep freeze door was left cracked a few days ago, thawing my prized stock pile of "things I got for a good deal and bought up like a madwoman." I think those days are over. I cooked up the food because it was still cold and you can refreeze it when it's cooked, but I know we will still end up losing about half of it.

I'm tired. I'd like a margarita but I don't want the calories. I should go get some red wine.

Mavericky!!!

2009-05-26T21:25:00.003-05:00

We started using the phrase "mavericky" courtesy of Sarah Palin and John McCain, and I guess mostly because of Tina Fey making fun of Sarah Palin. Particulary this sketch, where she really goes after the "maverick" term, talking about, "We'll look at every problem and think 'What would a maverick do?' and do that." That's not a direct quote. Oh it was hilarious though. This is the one: http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/vp-debate-open-palin-biden/727421/

That is some funny stuff. And I guess that's the time the word maverick entered our daily vocabulary. And thank goodness, because I don't know how else to describe today.

I let Tom drive the first time today. Did you know a lot of people with TBI don't drive for SEVERAL months post-accident? Or closer to a year? Or NEVER? A lot of doctors will revoke licenses of TBI patients, but Tom's wasn't revoked, so it's really up to us when he drives. My BIL Reade (according to Tom) looked it up, and there is so much paperwork and rigamoro (there can't be a proper spelling of that word) involved with having someone's license revoked, that doctors don't do it as much as they probably should.

So, one of our big bills is the marina boat slip, which holds the boat that Tom bought during his single days so he could go fish out in the ocean. Well, since we started kayaking, we hardly use the boat, even in the ocean, and our medical bills are extra incentive to FINALLY sell the boat and lose the boat slip. I am SO excited. I hate having stuff we don't need or use.

So, Tom's friend John came today to help us trailer the boat. We are keeping it in a cheaper, non-boat-slip storage while we try to sell it. I knew Tom would be driving the boat onto the trailer.

So, I decided to get all mavericky and let Tom drive us to the marina. Not before driving us around the block first, of course. He did fine. We went to Oreillys for some mechanical thingie, hit Sonic at literally 3:59pm, barely in time for happy hour for a couple of Diet DP's (it was time for my daily headache, and I needed something to wash down the drugs), then went to the marina.

He did great!! I didn't know what to expect because there was so much taboo about brain injured patients driving (for good reason, of course!), but he did really well. And he understands that doesn't mean he can pick up the keys and go get us some ice cream. He went a little faster than I would've liked, but I would've liked him to go about 15 MPH...LOL. Luckily, at 4pm, it was school zone central in our neighborhood, so he couldn't speed off too quickly. It went well, and I'll continue to let him cruise around locally.

We are so freakin' lucky, you know? Life is hard, but it could've been so much worse. A lot of people only see the lucky side and some (even me) think we should just feel lucky and happy with our best-case-scenario, but I hope people (even me) can understand that with the "best-case-scenario", there is still grieving involved with a traumic event like this.

We were in the waiting area at outpatient rehab last week with another couple. They were close to 60, and the man in the wheelchair wore a NAVY hat, so he was probably in the service in the past. He spoke, but we couldn't understand him. His wife had to translate. It seemed to me like she really loved him, and how lucky he is to have a wife, a caretaker, someone who cared enough to learn his "language". How lucky WE are to not have to learn a "new language". It was really touching to me to listen to the man "ramble" on, not understand a word he was saying, but hear his wife respond like normal. Wow. Anyway, Zach, the rehab coordinator dude, a youngish guy who is very friendly, came by and started chatting us up about Tom's incision, which I was really worried about last time we saw him. That incision was kinda mavericky lookin' - we weren't sure if it was just going through this weird gross healing stage or if I was somehow killing him via incision infection. It was the former. Zach said it was looking good, and the NAVY guy said clearly, "Hey, I've got one too!" He pointed to a big incision scar on his head. It was totally healed up like a normal scar, and it made me wonder how long he and his wife have been on this road.

We are SO lucky.

Anyway, more mavericky. Tom hopped on the boat and drove it like a pro to the trailer that John had backed into the boat ramp. Not a single moment of "OMG you're going to run into something!" He did SO WELL. I mean, I'm not clearing him to drive cross country or anything (although he could if he wanted), but what a big step!!!

Then, after dropping it off in a new storage facility, we headed to the new Red Lobster. If cheddar bay biscuits aren't mavericky, I don't know what is. It was good. We even had dessert. And it was SO nice to have dinner with John & Kimberlee. I really enjoyed it.

And now we're sitting at home, Tom' watching Deadliest Catch, and I'm wrapping up this blog so I can go to bed. Bed at 10pm, THAT is mavericky.

When real life attacks

2009-05-13T20:52:00.003-05:00

Did you know that billions of people were out living their lives while Tom was in the hospital? Believe it or not, even time passed. It feels like we should've reentered the real world on the date of March 30, the day after the accident. Heck, when Greg and I took him to the ER, we thought they'd give him a couple of stitches and send him home with me on a concussion watch, waking him up every couple of hours or so. And life would've resumed fairly normally the following week.

But today I found myself writing May 13, 2009 on my final exams, and it hit me. I now have less than TWO months before my trip to Spain. Right? This isn't one of my "brain injury by proxy" moments, is it? June is after May, July is after June, and I leave July 8th. :-)

And there are plenty of things to do in the meantime, including figuring out what Tom will do while I'm gone and one conference presentation in June. Oh, and my boss finally started emailing me work to do. It feels really good. A lot of being a research assistant is self-directed getting stuff done, but I am so lost, and it's good to have an inbox full of things to do so I can get back in the groove.

I have one more final Friday morning, then I'm finally done with finals.

Tom is doing pretty good. My parents lent us an exercise bike and a Total Gym that we picked up on Sunday, and Tom is all over that bike. Total Gym is still hard for him. But he's done 30 minutes on the bike everyday since we've had it. He is really motivated to get stronger so he can walk normally again...I'd even say he's more motivated physically than cognitively right now. Oh well, he's not off the hook on retraining his brain, too. :-) I made him a schedule because my big worry has been that he wouldn't accomplish much when I start working more because I guide him through a lot right now. But the schedule includes everything he is supposed to be doing everyday, and it's not at all overwhelming, so I'm optimistic.

TOO normal sometimes

2009-05-09T09:55:00.003-05:00

Every now and then it's apparent that we aren't quite back to normal. I need someone to screen Grey's Anatomy for trauma/ER content. I can deal with cancer, freakish rare medical problems, most surgeries, and all the associated drama, but trauma is too close to home. I watched Thursday's episode online last night, and it was VERY hard to watch. Times like that, I feel like I can never be the same as I was because of what we've been through.

These moments are even harder to deal with is because Tom's quick recovery has made it pretty easy to pretend that nothing has happened. Even though things are going great, our lives can never be the same again. It can be alarming to remember that we've been through something terrible, and to have to confront the accompanying emotions again. Then to have to feel guilty because I'm upset even though things are going great, and the constant questioning, even now that he's awake and coherent, of the decisions I've made along the way. The absolute worst is realizing that it may be far more important to me that he's alive than it is to him. On the flip side, I guess it's a lot easier for me to selfishly ask him to go through stuff that sucks just because I don't want to deal with life without him than it is for him to think about fighting for life.

I think maybe it's like that for most couples, though. Would you rather die than lose your spouse? Is it harder to watch your spouse go through something than it is for your spouse to go through it? I do NOT know the answers to those questions. I guess it all depends on personalities and relationships, and the nature of the injury. I know when we talk about life support, etc, I have made it clear that I WANT TO LIVE. Hook me up and keep me going if there is a halfway decent chance that I'll live. Talking about living wills, Tom is a bit more hesitant to want to be kept alive. (Hearing that can be real hard to swallow when 6 weeks' worth of your emotional energy has been devoted to hoping he'll live, being happy he's alive, and being sad to think about how close he was to dying.) I think I may be in the minority though - it seems to me a lot of people say they don't want to be resusitated or kept alive artificially. I want every chance I can get...our tax payer dollars haven't been funding medical research for so many years just so I can be cavalier and say, "Do not resucitate! Let me die naturally!" But I am sure my opinion will change the older I get. And yes, Tom is 9 years older than me, but I think when I'm 33, I'll still want to be kept alive. I don't think it will change for me until I'm nearing the natural end of my life.

Oh, the things I never wanted to have deep thoughts about...I highly recommend getting your death paperwork in order, if you haven't, even if you're newly married and have no kids. Living wills, regular wills, and details about funerals. We'll need to do this once Tom's recovered a bit more.

Day to Day

2009-05-05T17:42:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, I went to school, came home at noon, then went back at 1 for a massage. It was great. Then I worked out at home and made myself sore, so I guess that was kinda stupid. I hated leaving Tom alone, though. It was the first time. I'm not concerned for his safety, just his mood. Sitting around alone bored isn't what I think he needs right now. I may skip class tomorrow. I haven't decided...since Clint got his new job, he's off weekends, and Amanda moved to Forney this week, so she isn't so closeby. Otherwise, I'd just ask her to come up tomorrow...

Today, I slept til about 8:30, had yogurt and coffee, and got to work. I had a lot of grading to do for work. It took all day, and it is the first time I have worked an entire day since the accident. It feels like a big milestone to me, because it's hard to concentrate right now.

Tom spent a lot of time doing homework today. He went to visit with our neighbor for about 2 hours who had a TBI about 20 years ago. He enjoyed getting out of the house. We did some physical therapy when he got home. While he was gone, I started a load of laundry, dishes, and mopped the kitchen floor. I also started cooking this chicken. It smells pretty good. Gonna have mashed potatoes and a chopped salad with it.

Tom used the internet thesaurus for some of his homework today, then he started surfing the web for a bit on his favorite websites. He said, "I just don't have any use for the internet anymore!" Wow! Wonder when/if the addiction will come back.

Now we're watching a little TV getting ready for the Biggest Loser to start at 7. :-) Not a bad day for sure.

How it's going

2009-05-03T09:48:00.002-05:00

Well Tammy, there isn't much new. Tom is getting better all the time. We are trying to do our "homework" everyday, which includes a mixture of physical, occupational, and speech therapy. Something people don't understand is that speech therapy isn't so much about the act of speaking, it's about cognition. An example of speech homework is he'll have a list of words, and he has to write antonyms. It's much more difficult to write synonyms. So, for synonyms, he'll two words he has to unscramble that are synonyms, and the first letter of each word is underlined. For example imeslp and ayes (why can't I underline? oh well, it's bold instead). So if you can figure out one word, it's easier to figure out the second scrambled synonym. The answer there is simple and easy. If he can't figure out synonyms, he is supposed to use the internet for the thesaurus.

Another "speech therapy" thing is drawing the next item in a pattern (like one big square, one little square, one big circle, then you'd draw a little circle, except the detail is actually more complex than that), and drawing mirror images of stuff. He is pretty good at this stuff. The left side of the brain (which you probably know) is more about "verbal functions, language, thought, and memory involving words" (according to the Mayo clinic handout I have), and the right hemisphere is for "nonverbal functions, inculding recognizing differences in visual patterns and designs, reading maps and enjoying music, expression and understanding of emotions." So it makes sense that he is good at that drawing stuff. I don't know about y'all, but I am pretty happy it was a left injury instead of a right. I'd much rather be working on word finding than emotional recognition. Yes sir.

We also work in Brain Age on the Nintendo DS. Video games are good for him, especially those that make him work fast. Like, when we play Monopoly on xbox, that's probably not a big brain workout because there isn't any timing involved. But there are "mini games" in Monopoly that are races, and he is steadily getting better at that. He tried to play Left4Dead today (a zombie shoot-em-up game), and it was a little too intense. Now he knows how I feel about those shooter games. :-)

Tom saw the CT of his injury Friday. Whew. Even with everything we've told him, he was still surprised how bad it was. I was surprised, too. I had seen it, but I thought maybe over time I had imagined it worse than it really was. Nope, it was a big ol' brain-smashed-over-to-the-side bleed. Ugh.

We went to Sams today and stocked up on meat, trash bags, laundry detergent, and paper plates. It was a successful venture. Tom pushed the cart. We ran into my boss, so she got to see the progress first hand. She came to visit me while he was still in ICU, so I'm sure she was pretty surprised to see him pushing a cart even though I've told her how good he's doing! She did my conference presentation in Nashville for me Friday morning, and apparently has a t-shirt for me. She was joking that she'd be bringing us all Dolly Parton t-shirts, so I wonder if that's really what I got. LOL :-)

And that is how it's going.

Adenonia

2009-04-29T13:31:00.002-05:00

I can't make myself do ANYTHING productive! It's making me crazy. I am going to work out today, so hopefully that will kick start my dopamine or seratonin or whatever the heck needs to start pumping through my brain again.

I did work for a little bit yesterday, and I have a whole bunch more to do tomorrow. I need to make a list so I don't lose focus while I'm working.

Right now, I know the difference between me having a B-maybe-A and a solid A in one class is writing 4 article reviews worth 5 points each. Enough to make the 75 I made on that last exam a 95. I found and printed the articles today, but I can't make myself read them and summarize them. I think my boss made the right call setting aside a grading position for me during MayMester, because my brain just runs in circles and probably isn't much good for research right now.

The day of the accident, I bought an exercise mat, and I am dying to use it with my 30 day shred DVD. OK, I WAS dying to use it, now Tom and I used it for some physical therapy exercises yesterday, but it isn't making me want to pop that DVD in one little bit. And I was doing so well with it before. Maybe today's elliptical (or maybe bike) half-hour will jump start my exercise again.

So anyway, back to real life. I'm gonna change and hit the gym!

Rockin' the casbah

2009-04-27T20:02:00.003-05:00

Things at home are a lot better than I expected. I was really nervous about it. Turns out, I take pretty good care of Tom even when he doesn't have a brain injury, so there hasn't been that much extra to do. We took it easy this weekend. We ate, had visitors, had coffee in the mornings, he takes a cat nap at about 5pm everyday, then he sleeps at night. We played Monopoly on the Xbox, and mainly watched a lot of TV.

I had orders to follow him around and help him walk with the walker. So I did. I have been scared to death that he'd fall in the house. The dizziness he had in the hospital seems to be gone, but his balance is still off because of the weakness in his left leg. A few times, especially when he had either just woken up or was tuckered out at the end of the day, he'd stumble and catch himself on some conveniently located furniture like the couch or the bed. I could tell you what those stumbles (and everything from the last month) did to my nerves, but let it suffice to say that I plucked my first gray eyebrow hair today. Ugh!

Yesterday, Tom was doing so well, and the walker just seemed more harm than help, so I let Tom walk around without it, with me closeby or holding his arm. He did so good. I even "let him" put away the silverware from the dishwasher. Then, we went for a physical therapy evaluation today, and he aced it. His balance (brain wise) is great, it's just that weak leg that trips him up. Today he walked all over that gym without a walker, walked up and down a flight of stairs, and even did some jumping. He was cleared as a "low fall risk" and doesn't need to use his walker in "controlled" situations.

Tonight, he got up to fix his plate, came back to the couch to eat, then got up, dumped his bones into the trash, rinsed his plate, put it in the dishwasher, shut the cabinet I left open, turned off the oven I left on, walked to the bathroom, let Sasha inside on his way back, and safely sat back on the couch. Meanwhile, I sat on the couch watching and I didn't have a panic attack. We are inching closer to normal.

Tomorrow, we have a speech therapy evaluation, and afterward I'll have a clearer picture of what his outpatient therapy will look like.

My dad called Tom a walking miracle, and Tom said to me, "If that were true, I'd be on TV!" I explained to him that he'd only be on TV if we sent the story into a news station, and I asked him what he'd say. He said, "That I'm a walking miracle!" I said, "Is that all?" And he said, "And that you left the oven on." LOL Sorry Tom, your inspirational story of recovery will just stay in our circle. ;-)

I can't thank everyone enough for their prayers and well wishes. He is doing so great. :-)

Home sweet home

2009-04-24T00:17:00.002-05:00

I get to know again tomorrow what it means to be HOME. I'm at home right now, but Tom comes home tomorrow, and we'll be one step closer to normal (for us, anyway).

Tom is doing well but so ready to come home. I think yesterday sealed the deal, when they made him do group exercise with a bunch of old people. I can see how that would be sort of depressing, it made him feel like an invalid. For him, rehab is about getting back to 100%, for a lot of those older folks, it's about being able to do enough to get by. He doesn't have anything against old people (in fact, Tom loves old people, and they love him) but he had a hard time having a good attitude having to do that twice yesterday!

He still loses his balance a lot, which gives me a new gray hair every time I see it. I am scared about him having a fall. It's amazing to make it through one brain injury, and you just don't get two. I gotta let it go. We gotta do our best to be careful, but I also need to let it go. I might go get some help from the doctor to "let it go" next week. I have some anxiety meds for night time, but I need something during the day for now. I'm normally wound up pretty tight, but my current state isn't going to cut it.

I did a lot of cleaning tonight, not nearly enough, but it's good enough for tomorrow! It will look like a palace compared to Tom's digs the last four weeks. Got the essentials done, like laundry and dishes. I'm pretty tired, gotta get up in the morning to buy groceries then head back to rehab to get him checked out of there. We're getting evaluated for an outpatient rehab program Monday, so he'll get the whole weekend off. I'm making chicken noodle soup tomorrow and really looking forward to it.

Anyway, I wore myself out with a long day and a lot of work, so I'm crashing in preparation for the big day tomorrow, miracle man's homecoming. :-)

It's OK to be excited...

2009-04-15T20:31:00.001-05:00

Because these are very exciting times. With excitement and progress comes a lot of work for me. If that sounds like a terrible thing for me to say, maybe it is, but even with the MIRACULOUS (nothing short of miraculous) recovery Tom has made, it doesn't necessarily mean it's smooth sailing from here on out, either.

Ugh, I can't even say that without feeling guilty. In the middle of typing that paragraph, I noticed a pink-orange light filtering into the room and looked out the window to see a beautiful sunset. There is still a thick cloud cover that kept me from having to pull down the shades this afternoon, since our window is to the west, but there was just enough break in the cloud cover to give me a gorgeous sunset.

This is the second time in a week this has happened, too. I don't remember what day it was...I think Saturday. My MIL arrived to spend the night, and she asked me what the weather was going to do. I said it was supposed to rain the next day, but I didn't realize why she'd asked until I went outside, and I saw that it looked dark and stormy toward Denton. I drove the 45 minutes home watching the ominous clouds and lightening, wondering if I would get caught in some bad weather, and feeling a little thankful that the atmosphere had finally provided some situationally appropriate weather. A storm. But I didn't get a storm, just some winds and the occassional spurt of fat raindrops that never really broke out into a rain shower.

But I had to go to walmart to get some tasty food to puree for Tom, who could only eat pureed foods at that point. I exited off 35, turned right, and instantly, there was the sun. I can't describe it, and I didn't have a camera, plus it didn't last long, but it looked like this:
http://www.kmrt.org.uk/Images/photos_2006/Aug06/Sun%20Breaking%20Through%20Clouds%20(400).jpg

Could there BE a more obvious metaphor than the sun breaking through the thickest and darkest clouds?? And then to get it TWICE? That's just miraculous.

There is so much to be grateful for, but there are a lot of clouds around that make it hard for me to see the sun. Maybe not HARD to see, I mean, it's obvious. My husband, terrible brain trauma, exceptional emergency care, and MIRACULOUSLY quick progress despite a few discouraging setbacks. I see it. Maybe it's more like it's hard to see the beauty of the sun for the clouds...so many doubts and uncertainties remain, I wish I could go back to that time when I could feel the purest form of happiness just from seeing him open his eyes and tell me he loves me. The everyday specifics and decision making "clouds" some of that up.

Keep us in your thoughts...we're still getting through the storm but the little reminders of the sun make it easier to keep going.

A really really really good day!

2009-04-13T18:34:00.001-05:00

Not ALL good but the good outweighs the bad for sure!

I had to start the morning by going to school. Bleh. And it was kinda a waste of time. I wanted back my exam from Friday, but he won't have it til Wednesday. I got my review for a Wednesday exam though, so it wasn't a total waste. Eh.

Went to Jason's Deli for salad bar to go. If you haven't tried this, you have to. It's $7.57 (with tax) and you get a big plastic container to fill up, as well as a small tub for dressing, and a bigger tub for whatever else you want (I usually do dessert, you could get pasta salad or whatever). It is more than enough for 2 meals, so I knew it would get me through the night.

Tom was up eating lunch with Reade when I got to the hospital. I heard that they were planning to take the catheter out today, and they also put him on a calorie count, so they have to measure everything he leaves on his plate and see how close to 2000 calories he gets. He is NOT a big eater, so for him to eat 2000 is a big challenge!

I sat with Tom and we flipped through our wedding album. He had been a little fuzzy on the specifics, but he remembered it as soon as he saw it. We might look through our honeymoon pics tonight if he's up to it. But I expect that he'll be pretty tired, as I'm about to explain.

This afternoon, they removed the catheter (sorry for TMI, but it's a nice sign of progress!) and physical and occupational therapy came by. They sat him up on the bed, helped him stand, and helped him walk over to the chair. He sat in that chair for about an hour, working with those therapists. Then he accepted our challenge to eat one cup of Ensure pudding and one Ensure shake, and he was successful! I couldn't believe him holding the pudding cup and scraping every last bit out. Then he chugged down that shake. Altogether it was a good 500-ish calories, so between breakfast, lunch, and Ensure, he was up to about 1100.

Still in the chair and eating pudding, the speech therapist came by to evaluate his swallow and speech. She did something I think will make a world of difference - cleared him for chopped up foods instead of pureed, and regular liquids instead of thickened! She quizzed him a bit trying to assess his cognitive level - he is a bit slow to find the words he wants a lot. For example, he was saying he was 53 instead of 33, then when we asked what year it was, it was 1953. He just had 53 on the brain. He eventually answered these questions correctly, though. He said we had 2 dogs and 3 cats (instead of 1 dog and 2 cats), but was able to name all three. Things like that are common, and he will need more therapy to sharpen up his thinking.

Then, they brought his dinner and it was actually edible! Chopped up roast beef, potatoes, and peas. He ate it all except 2 bites. He also ate a piece of bread with butter and drank some water and sweet tea. We put the tray in front of him and he ate it all on his own. It was freakin' cool.

The only bad thing other than school is I really wanted to meet with the case worker about rehab placement today, but I am sure she got busy since I didn't page her til about 1 or 2. Will get started on that ASAP tomorrow morning. :-) He is doing so good, rehab will just cement his progress and get him more ready for home (and give me a chance to clean the house). :-)

Questions Round 2!

2009-04-10T15:00:00.001-05:00

1. Is Tom not able to do anything, really? Even talking is hard, I surmise from your posts. I am so curious as to what happens to a person's brain with an injury that makes them not able to move and such. Does he always remember why he is there or does he forget?

Tom is getting better - he brushed his teeth and washed his face today. From what I understand, he also sat on the side of his bed today. Getting him out of bed will be a benchmark coming up. He has always been able to move for the most part, some limbs more than others. When people don't move at all, or movement is limited, it's best explained like a computer reboot. When you piss off your brain like that, it takes a while before it will allow itself to work again. I was a little disturbed when I found out he was "asleep" because of the injury, not sedation. He knows where he is most of the time, but he forgets other things at times. Sometimes he is fuzzy, sometimes he is 100% lucid.

2. What will rehab include? Does he remember all words? Is it a matter of retraining his muscles?

We don't know about his vocab yet. Speech is a big part of the area that was injured. He seems OK now, but rehab will include extensive speech therapy. He is struggling with speech, I can tell because he tries to answer questions but can't quite get the words out. The words are probably still in there, just need help to come out. His muscles will need some serious retraining. You lose 1/3 of your muscle mass after 3 weeks in bed, and he's at 2. He will need help walking again, and a ton of other finer motor skills. I am thinking about bring his Nintendo DS up here in a few days to see what he thinks.

3. Does Tom understand what's going on? I really hope so...I know you mentioned before you got to tell him why he was there (when he first woke up) - what did he say? Does he remember the accident?

We remind him where he is and what happened. I haven't told him the full extent of the surgery (probably not ready to hear "you have 40 staples in your head because they removed a part of your skull the size of a softball and cleaned out some clots in there!") When we (including the docs) think he is ready, I'll show him a pic of what his incision looks like and maybe his CT scans.

4. How is Greg doing? (The driver...if I didn't remember his name right) I hope he isn't taking it too hard. Has he been in to see Tom since he was awake?

Greg's OK, and yes he has been in to see Tom.

5. Did he have any other injuries? Broken bones or anything?
A little road rash on his back and shoulder that are essentially healed. Nothing else that we know of. Neck seems fine.

7. Is Tom job giving him support to get better and come back to work?
Tom is self-employed, and his boss is extremely pissed that he's in the hospital and wants him home ASAP.

8. What's the dealio with rehab? How long will he be in the hospital? Then he'll be moved to a rehab-center-type place? Man, what a trooper. Tell him we send our biggest and best get well soon vibes.

That's the question no one knows the answer to yet. You have the right idea, more hospital followed by rehab (probably in-patient, but possibly out-patient if he progresses quickly). No one knows how long and how extensive care will need to be. I am encouraged by his progress the last few days but also aware that we may still have a long road ahead.

Mashed potatoes and fox news

2009-04-10T13:37:00.001-05:00

I went to school today to take an exam. It was BAD. I probably got a C, but hopefully the curve will bump it to a B. I am going to stick with my classes for now...in fact, when I am done with this, it's time for a little studying.

They moved Tom to a regular room last night! It's NICE too. Visitors are still limited to family. He is essentially starting rehab now, and he has a lot of work and relearning to do. It's not like he's laying bored all day. :) It's nice being able to ask him what he wants, too, from food to visitors to TV. I've been making guesses the best I can, balancing between what's best for his recovery and what I think he'd want, but to hear him pipe up with an opinion about stuff is one of the coolest things he's done, in my opinion!

I figured out how to work the TV in here. Could work it in ICU but the remote didnt work, so I had to control it from the TV. Today, the remote was working, but the volume wouldn't come up. Turned out I was incompetent, and his nurse showed me how to do it. They brought him lunch, so I woke him up from a good nap to eat a little bit. He lasted through about 10 bites before he was tired again.

I think this must be the same exact size of room, because these floors all have the same layout, but without the huge columns in there that power the ICU equipment are gone, so it seems much larger in here. I LOVE IT. It could've been a lot worse. There was a possibility that we'd end up in a shared room in the 70-yr-old building. I was a little spoiled by our ICU room and wasn't sure how I'd like the shared one. I kept thinking surely they wouldn't put a TBI patient in a shared room, especially when they still have their fuzzy moments! That could be so scary waking up with strangers around.

Anyway, we're having a great day over here. My dad will come crash overnight to make sure he's taken good care of. :)

Questions Round 1!

2009-04-09T17:32:00.001-05:00

1. Did the docs give Tom any Ritalin?
Yes! Yesterday and today.

2. Was he more awake today?
Yes! He has been awake more than asleep (at least since I got here at 11). He is in a great mood, too. Laughing, making jokes. Right now we are trying to get him good at using the nurse call button (a prerequisite for moving to a regular room), and one nurse was joking that before long, they'll regret having given it to him. I said, yeah, especially if he gets a cute nurse. His (cute) male nurse said, "What, are you saying I'm not cute?" and Tom said plain as day, "EXACTLY!" LOL!

3. How are YOU? Eating, sleeping and drinking enough water???
Eating, yes. Sleeping, yes. Thanks to my doctor's appointment 2 days ago. Drinking enough water? No! Ugh. I am so dehydrated. I need to drink more. I'll load up tonight when I go home. The tap water here is pretty gross.

4. Ya'll still in ICU this afternoon?
Yes. They are talking about moving him tonight or tomorrow. That would be pretty cool, although I am very happy here with the staff and facilities in ICU. There is a chance they'll move us to the old hospital for the regular room. It will be shared and much older. Either way, it's a good step!

5. Has he had any physical therapy? Is he moving about - wiggling fingers & toes okay?
Yes, he had a good round today, and the occupational therapist came by, too. He is moving around quite a bit, still struggling with that nurse call button (finding the remote, picking it up, finding the button, and pushing it hard enough.) He's been wiggling limbs like a pro for the last 5 days. :-)

Any questions?

2009-04-09T08:06:00.002-05:00

Do you have any questions about what's going on? Just post in a comment!

OK, finally I can update the blog!

2009-04-08T12:10:00.001-05:00

The hospital won't let me edit my blog here, so thanks to Kim who logged in and set this up for me, now I can just send an email and it will post to my blog!

OK, let me further explain the twitter thing. Twitter is for cool people with active social lives so they can let their peeps know where they are every second of every day so their peeps can hit them up on their cellies and meet up or whatever. I have been a little embarassed for Pete Delkus on channel 8 ever since he set up a twitter account called "Pete's Tweets". What grown man is comfortable with tweeting?! Tweeting is for birds! Anyway, the function of twitter and tweeting is fantastic and without it, I don't know HOW I would keep people updated. But, the cutesy tweeting stuff makes me uncomfortable. LOL I may use twitter but I will never be a tweeter. ;-)

No REAL news. They extubated him Sunday, so now he can wake up and talk, etc. He is very lethargic and sleeps about 22 hours a day. He wears out very quickly. I think we will probably be in ICU through the week. If not, it will be a happy surprise, kinda like getting the tube out as quickly as they did!

The next benchmark is getting him awake and alert more. Right now, it is very difficult to wake him from a deep sleep. Another benchmark will be putting the hospital bed into a chair position to get him ready for sitting up. Neuropsych tried to do an eval on him earlier this morning, but he just wouldn't wake up for them! They are going to come back this afternoon.

I got motivated for real life activities yesterday. I got our bills organized, which is normally something Tom handles. And, I answered/wrote some work emails. I need to do more still....but it was a good step. I am sleeping at home tonight and tomorrow, planning to stay at the Riley center again this weekend.

Testing blog via email

2009-04-08T11:55:00.001-05:00

testing testing 1 2 3

Tweeting is embarassing

2009-04-06T22:11:00.002-05:00

I was never meant to tweet, or have people following my tweets, or anything. But twitter.com/teamtna is still the best place for updates. Tom is doing great, no more ventilator, he is able to talk, and sleeps like a baby when medical staff isn't poking him. That's the short version of a loooong exciting completely exhausting 3 days. I am home tonight, spending the night again tomorrow in the room. Thanks for everyone's well wishes. I am OUT!

Something else to think about...

2009-04-04T06:03:00.002-05:00

I'm gonna need some kind of help, via books or something, on coaching Tom through recovery. I would imagine he'll get super frustrated if he has a lot of work to do at rehab and possibly depressed. There has to be some good resources for caretakers about what to say, what not to say, what's helpful to a patient, etc.

The long road

2009-04-03T22:09:00.003-05:00

Random news from today, some good, some "eh".

Doc said his injury looks more like a serious concussion instead of traumatic brain injury. This means the tissue damage might not be as bad as with TBI. Won't know til he's up! Time to get up, dude! I want to get excited about this news, but you need to get UP first!

Lungs were looking better, but he still has pneumonia. Still running a low grade fever, slightly higher than yesterday (closer to 101 than 100).

Got the results of his cultures they took Tuesday night before his fever spiked. He has a very rare bacteria. I have the name, I'm gonna google it. Weird huh? They are treating him with antibiotic for that.

Then the news that sucks...they expect that we will be in ICU for another 2-3 weeks. He just isn't progressing quickly. And that's OK with me, he can take all the time he needs to get better. I want him back whether it's tomorrow or May. I just need him back.

It's very difficult being the gatekeeper for who goes in to see him.

Met with the case manager who will help us find a rehabilitation facility for him once he's ready, and make sure home care is going well later down the road. It was encouraging to start thinking ahead. I hate to say this, but from her perspective, it is almost a good thing that he will likely not be ready for another few weeks, because it gives her more time to find the best place.

To be clear though, he still has one more stop before rehab - he'll start in a regular room with some therapy, then when he's ready to leave the hospital, then it's rehab time. What kind and level of intensity of rehab he will need is uncertain until he starts waking up.

My dad is with him tonight. I am staying again tomorrow.

Understanding what happened

2009-04-03T09:50:00.003-05:00

This is the big concern - he had a significant midline shift. His bleed was not IN the brain, it was in the layers of "skin" (there has to be a fancy word for brain skin...) surrounding the brain. So, as the bleed grows, the rest of the brain gets smooshed over to the other side.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midline_shift

The picture in that article differs from Tom's original CT in that his is more centered on the left side of the head and doesn't reach quite so far around the front of the head (which is at the top of the pic).

What happened??

Tom and Greg had fixed the go cart (Tom's first welding project since he got the welder for Christmas), and they took it to the elementary school a block away to play with it. Greg was driving, Tom was riding, and they took a left turn really fast (which they do all the time because it's more fun that way). When Tom felt the wheels coming off the ground, he tried to stand up and get out of the cart, fell backwards onto his shoulder and left side. They got him a towel for his head, Greg loaded up, they came to get me (luckily I was dressed and hanging out in the kitchen when I found out, just needed to grab my purse), and we headed to Denton Regional. Tom was cognizant enough to say we should go in Greg's car instead of the truck so no one would steal the go cart out of the back of the truck at the hospital...LOL. So we did.

At the ER, they got him back there, did the CT, afterward Tom was in bad shape, and that's when I started calling family. I had to leave him to go outside because there was no signal in the ER. UGH! I came back in to find out that they were going to careflight him to JPS in Fort Worth, our new home. The short version of that is - we arrived, they did an emergency craniotomy, and the doc came to talk to us at 7pm, post-op (time frame: accident was about 2:45, got to ER at 3, so four hours for all that, I find impressively quick). "We got the two clots out within 6 minutes of beginning surgery, but we have no way of knowing what damage has been done in the meantime, he may not wake up, he may die, yes this is the same thing that happened to Natasha Richardson." I don't mind his bluntness. This is not a situation that needs to be sugar coated.

And the rest is "my new normal". The biggest deviation from that was Tuesday night, when his fever spiked to 106 and stayed for a few hours overnight. The doc was in surgery so the nurses couldn't get an antibiotic approved. The nurses tried a ton of different things to help him. Eventually, they packed him with ice and stuck a fan on him as well as two cooling blankets, and his fever slowly went down. By morning it was 100 again ("his new normal"...) It was seriously the scariest night of my life.

So, now the View is on, and that's my cue to hop in the shower and head out.

My new normal

2009-04-02T23:44:00.003-05:00

I thought about titling this post "The ICU Diet" since so many of my posts lately have been fitness/nutrition related. Basically, the ICU diet is not having time to get hungry, and not having much appetite when you do eat. I'm eating, but it's not something I enjoy...which you know is unusual for me!

My new normal sucks. It's being in Fort Worth everyday in the ICU or the waiting room, spending the night in the room rationalizing every beep I hear (have I heard that one before? what does it mean? does a nurse need to come? IS a nurse coming?), having to be around lots of people when I just want to be alone. Mostly, it's a bunch of uncertainty. When will Tom wake up, what damage has already been done, and how long will it take for him to recover?

No one has answers like that right now. People say, "He'll be OK" or "He'll wake up" or whatever. And I know that is very likely and I think about it all the time and can't wait til I get to feel that overwhelming joy instead of this. I can't even describe what "this" is. But I don't get any comfort from hearing that he squeezed someone's hand or moved his head, etc. I am comforted that he is having reactions like that, it's good that he's moving, but the docs told me what's important is that he opens his eyes and answers a command. THAT'S what I want to see. I can't cling to uncertainties, and it doesn't give me hope to give a lot of meaning to something I can't be sure about.

What does give me comfort and hope is knowing that these injuries take a long time to heal. His brain went through a lot, and he's in there, but he doesn't know how to be awake yet. Even if he could wake up, the rest of his body/brain may not be ready to keep up with the stress waking up would bring. That things aren't getting worse is a certainty, something I can say with confidence, and that's comforting. He needs time.

Of course, I feel a little guilty that my hopes don't soar every time he does something...sometimes my heart will skip a beat, but it's followed quickly by a rationalization. For example, Tuesday, he opened an eye, and it was so amazing. But. He never closed it. He didn't do that on purpose. It was some kind of reflex. Tom has enough ups and downs, I can't handle the emotional ups and downs that come with thinking I'm seeing a "good sign" when there is no way I can know for sure until he is awake.

There is a very long road ahead of us. The doctor told me yesterday to start thinking about being here 1-2 months. Not necessarily in ICU...they are trying to get him out of there. But eventually he'll go to a regular room, then some kind of rehabilitation facility so whatever he ends up needing help with (if anything), he can rebuild skills.

Medically speaking, here are a few updates. They took the drain tube out of his brain, because it wasn't draining much anymore, which is a good thing. He has a little pneumonia. This is very common for patients like him. They want to shave the rest of his head tomorrow. He still has a low grade fever, around 100, but I will take anything but that 106 degree spike he had two nights ago. It was horrifying and exhausting. Today was more calm. But then, everything looks better when I'm rested. I slept last night, and I have two more nights off. His uncle is with him tonight, and my dad is coming tomorrow night.

Let me talk about some positive things for a minute. In fact, here is my funny ER story. At this point, he was in a stretcher, and they were preparing him for the first CT. He was struggling to speak - when he spoke, it was very strained and slow, usually only one word answers. They were asking me if he was allergic to any medications, and I said no, not that we were aware of. He said, "Oatmeal..." in his slow strained voice. LOL We had been talking about his oatmeal allergy just a few days before. OK Tom, we won't give you any oatmeal. :-)

I am really happy with where I am staying tonight. I didn't want the Texas Motor Speedway traffic to slow me down this weekend, so I was trying to find a hotel, and my friend/co-worker Rebekah looked into some rooms at a conference center on the campus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. It's safe and comfortable. The room is in a woman's dorm, and there is something comforting about being on a college campus, especially with the fate of my coursework this semester is uncertain. The area around the hospital is scary, and I was worried I would have to spend a lot more to stay in a safe(ish) place. This is an excellent price, and it's nice to not have to worry about where I am. I don't know of a safer place than a women's dorm at a seminary. It won't even let me watch Sex & the City. ;-)

If you made it this far, here is something I could use help with. If you have time to research any of the following, let me know what you find.

Complications related to epidural hematoma? He had an arterial clot and a veinus clot.

Specifics about epidural hematomas on his part of the brain? Looking at this picture: http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/images/brainpic.jpg The injury is in the area there around hearing, memory for speech and sight, etc.
What's up with his left arm and right leg moving a ton more than his right arm and left leg? The injury is on the left side.
Any grant-funded, research-type rehab programs for post-op head injuries?

Thanks everyone.

Supplementing

2009-03-28T10:24:00.004-05:00

WHY can't I get paragraphs on this post?! Is it because I changed my layout?? What's going on?! I'm sorry if it's hard to read...

This is from my sparkpeople nutritin tracker from the week, starting with Tuesday. I saw on TV the other day that when you eat the right foods, you need less of them. I think that sums up my week. See, when I have used Sparkpeople before to track my nutrition, I was stuck on Lean Cuisines, instant oatmeal, wine, etc. That's not to say I don't love my wine still, but my food diet has changed a great deal, I think from doing the South Beach Diet. I have always cooked, but I had to focus on whole foods, not relying on potatoes to fill up, and eating a ton of veggies instead.

So now that I am doing more of a "phase 3" diet (really just a traditional balanced diet), incorporating fruits and whole grains daily, I need to watch my portions more, which is why I am back on Sparkpeople. On phase 1, you can eat all you want, but on phase 3, I notice more poundage. The freedom of being on phase 3 is harder to manage - it didn't help that I ate blue bell ice cream everyday for about a week. LOL But overall, tracking my calories this week seems a lot easier than in the past. I still get to eat quite a bit of food because I've learned the right foods to eat.

Tuesday, I ate a McSkillet burrito combo meal, so even though I wasn't absurdly over my calorie count (I was too full, so I skipped lunch), check out that fat. 78 grams!!! For TWO meals. And I was on the low end of the protein spectrum. Point taken.

Wednesday was the only day I got enough calcium. I actually went over! It is because I had a cup of milk with breakfast, and a latte during my night class. I can't be using up all my calories on milk, though. So I am thinking about starting a multi-vitamin or something to get more calcium. I was over my calorie count that day by a bit. I usually eat four meals on Wednesdays - breakfast, something at noon before my workout, something at 4-5 before class, and something at 9 when I get home. Tom made manwich with ground turkey instead of beef (half the calories), and I ate it one whole wheat bread instead of the white buns (almost half the calories). Mmmmm.

Yesterday was a cool day. I had my yogurt and coffee for breakfast, a chicken fajita for lunch (leftover from the night before), and pot roast with mashed potatoes & cabbage for dinner, with a sprite zero with 2 oz. rum for dessert. You can see through the week how my calorie and carb count got progressively lower, which is good. I really like being able to eat potatoes with my pot roast again!

Speaking of cabbage, it was the cabbage from my garden, and this is what I did with it. It was great! Per one of the comments, I also added some sliced banana peppers. Good stuff. I'd like to add more bacon next time...I had the calories to spare on that meal.

Off to be productive!

Gardening with Team T&A

2009-03-26T21:19:00.005-05:00

Well, we halfway had a fall garden this year, with some cabbage, broccoli, and brussel sprouts. The sprouts and broccoli have pests, but we picked a cabbage today, finally. Look how beautiful it is! We're going to eat it tomorrow.

So, we got to thinking about our onions. These onions have been around for 3 years. They were my very first thing to buy and plant. We grew them in containers, and since we didn't use them all that year, we transplanted them to the ground the next year so they could get bigger. We moved them again when we made the raised beds last year, and there they sit. Remember last year when I planted these? Here, I'll paste it from my myspace blog:

"You've been warned. It's gross.

Well, I started my veggie garden today. Tom built me a tiered garden around our storm shelter mound. We put down weed barrier, and I began cutting out places for my plants and stickin' em in, one by one.

Making room for a nice little onion bulb, the dirt I was moving kept falling back into the hole, so I stuck my gloveless, happy-to-play-in-the-dirt hand in there to hold the dirt back, and pulled out something solid I thought must have been a clump old plant roots.

Until I saw the legs. I sat there in shock for a minute, then ran inside and yelled, "TOM! I just pulled a dead animal out of the garden!!!" Then I ran into the bathroom, whimpering in disgust, and scrubbed my hands.

Went back outside, and my laughing hero was chunking the intruder over the back fence. I asked if it was a mouse, and he said it was a MOLE. They must have killed it when they were tilling the soil with the garden claw a few days ago.

It was slimy. And on my HAND."

I had forgotten all about that until today. UGH. Anyway, those are the onions in question. So we figured they would be huge softball sized beautiful sweet and yellow, and we decided to pull the tallest, thickest one today. Tom prepares to do the honors.

Whaaaat?

It's a GIANT green onion!!!

Look how thick this thing is.

We're gonna rinse it anyway and we'll eat it tomorrow.

In the meantime...

I have so many pictures to catch up on - maybe I'll get some time on my big PC this weekend to upload them. This tiny laptop isn't great for working with photos. But anyway, there is our fall yield. LOL...

So you're saying I had a chance??

2009-03-24T10:49:00.000-05:00

http://perezhilton.com/2009-03-23-new-couple-alert-31

Ugh. I sing better than her! I can't believe she's living my dream.

What's more exciting than finding free photoshop actions? The answer in here!

2009-03-23T20:25:00.001-05:00

Finding over 300 meal plans updated weekly.

http://orgjunkie.com/2009/03/menu-plan-monday-march-23rd.html

Better than CHRISTMAS!! Can this really be happening to me?!? I am GIDDY!

30-day shred, for real

2009-03-22T17:31:00.002-05:00

I've had the 30 day shred for about 40 days now, and I've done it about half of those days. The big things that messed me up were my SC trip, and getting sick last week followed by a camping trip. Tomorrow, I'll start it again for the 3rd time. So I'll be sore again, for the 3rd time. *sigh* But I looked at my calendar, and there is no reason I can't do this everyday for 30 days. No Wednesdays of course (at school 9-9), but I work out at the gym those days. No trips in the next 30 days, some assignments and exams, but no big work deadlines. I can do this 30 days. So there!

All in a spring break

2009-03-22T15:20:00.003-05:00

I am pretty worn out! We got back from an uneventful Tawakoni trip a few hours ago. I am mostly better, still congested, but no aches or fevers. I'll take it.

We arrived Wednesday afternoon, set up, took a walk, and I laid around while Tom went fishing for a little over an hour. The fishing stunk all week. We didn't try really hard, but we didn't want to have to. Oh well! We got to watch Lost, then that night the congestion train came to town and I thought I was dying. DYING. I woke up about 2am and could hardly breathe, so I moved to the living room (where the ceiling is higher and there is better airflow) and watched TV while feeling sorry for myself and trying to keep a hot towel on my face til about 5. The pain from behind my cheeks was intense, it felt like my face was about to explode.

But when Thursday morning came, I was feeling better. I know most people do feel worse at night than during the day when they're sick. I was happy for that. Tom and I went fishing a bit that morning. My antibiotic (which the doc prescribed as a sort of catch-all fix, even though she thought I had the flu?) made me sensitive to the sun, so my hands got burned even though I was wearing long sleeves. LOL, only me. We couldn't buy a bite, but we saw fish swimming by. *sigh* We gave up and took a trip to town. I was NOT going to spend another night without Nyquil. My parents came for a visit that evening and stayed for about an hour. It was my mom's birthday. Then we watched Hell's Kitchen, the news, and I went to bed in the living room. I slept like a baby and felt a lot better Friday morning. I don't know whether the antibiotic, Nyquil, or just good ol' time finally kicked it (whatever IT was), but I didn't want to waste time with one or the other.

Reade, Miranda, & Danyelle came Friday afternoon. We didn't do a whole lot waiting for them - Tom went to visit his parents, I laid around and watched a Lifetime movie (The Texas Cheerleader Scandal...LOL) and General Hospital, then we played Yahtzee til they arrived. Tom broke two model airplanes that day - one before he even flew it, and one he crashed while trying to land it. We played a little ladder ball. Then we watched the frakkin' series finale of Battlestar Galactica, and Tom and Reade stayed up late talking outside while me and Danyelle gave up at about 11:30pm.

My parents came Saturday afternoon for a visit - we had smoked brisket and pork loin, potatoes, corn, and beans. It was pretty awesome. I made my mom a birthday cake and everyone seemed to like it. It was the smoothest camping meal we have ever had - didn't forget anything, set off any alarms, overcook anything, etc.

We really didn't do anything different than we would've if we'd stayed home, but it was nice to get away, and it's nice to be back. I still don't feel like school has started this semester. It's half over, though! I'll be glad to get back to normal this week.

You're invited

2009-03-15T19:27:00.002-05:00

To my pity party! Somehow I got sick. I have a fever. WTF?! I can't remember last time I had a fever. My whole body hurts. Tom is taking good care of me, though. Except I asked him to go get me more juice earlier and he still hasn't. I'll probably go myself tomorrow. Tomorrow I have GOT to get something done. I need to see if I can be up and moving around or if I still need to lay in bed. I've only been awake for 5 hours today. It was definitely not an "up and moving around" day. But I am going camping later this week, and I need to be better, pronto!

So my goal for tomorrow is: go to the store for more juice and sprite, and inventory the camper to see what we need to stock in there (for example, I know I stole the shampoo out of there and need to replace it.) Would love to keep some laundry going, too. And, tonight or tomorrow I need to make a list of stuff to pack. I really need to clean in there, but it'll have to wait probably til the last minute. I need to make my mom a birthday cake, probably Wednesday. I need to get her a birthday present but I'll probably order it online.

I was going to post some pics, but I'm giving up on this typing/thinking business! PLEASE pray that I get better very quickly. I want to go camping. :-(

Status: Ticketed

2009-03-14T09:32:00.001-05:00

Yay!

AMERICAN AIRLINES
36
DFW Dallas/ Fort Worth
Jul 08, 200905:30 PM
MAD Madrid
Jul 09, 200909:55 AM
Economy

AMERICAN AIRLINES
OPERATED BY IBERIA
6205
MAD Madrid
Jul 09, 200911:50 AM
ALC Alicante
Jul 09, 200912:50 PM
Economy

AMERICAN AIRLINES
OPERATED BY IBERIA
6231
ALC Alicante
Jul 18, 200909:45 AM
MAD Madrid
Jul 18, 200910:45 AM

AMERICAN AIRLINES
37
MAD Madrid
Jul 18, 200901:10 PM
DFW Dallas/ Fort Worth
Jul 18, 200904:45 PM
Economy

Yep yep

2009-03-12T11:04:00.006-05:00

I have a headache I think is caused by a toothache. I just noticed it all of a sudden but I don't have drugs with me and don't feel like walking to my car. That's what it's going to come to though...

I want to do another countdown.

1 hour before I get off my butt to get some excedrin out of my car.
1 day until my last class day before spring break.
2-4 days before I finally post Charleston and Irish Festival pictures up here. Here, settle for this. I did it in class last night.

6 days before our Tawakoni camping trip
21 days til my next conference presentation
22 days til the conference presentation right after that one
22 days until an education career fair at school where I hope to dazzle some school districts who may in turn hire poor uncertified me to teach math. LOL
29 days until I find out whether my proposal was accepted for the conference that I'm really interested in (I get to do a lot of research and get cool experiences with my mentor, mostly in special ed, but this is the one that REALLY means something to me. national association for gifted children)
48 days until I leave for Nashville for another conference
49 days til Danyelle joins me in Nashville to tear it up!

71 days til we leave for Colorado. Our longest, furthest away camping trip. The ultimate test of marital strength. *evil laugh*
98 days til a June conference presentation
105 days til Grandparents University
118 days til I leave for Spain, assuming they purchase my ticket soon!
127 days til I turn 25 in Spain
128 days til I return home to my loving husband as an official member of the "I've been to Europe and I'm 25" club.

Full disclosure

2009-03-06T05:41:00.003-06:00

I just paid $6 to access the internet from my laptop here at the Charleston airport. My flight leaves in an hour...I assume they'll start boarding in 20 minutes or so. But I will probably wait til closer to take off to board. So it's the perfect timing for a blog-on-the-go.

My trip has been great. I am worn out! I will post pics eventually, but who knows when. I have meetings at school today, and tomorrow is the Irish Festival followed by the UFC fights. The Dean of Mean vs. Rampage! I am rooting for the Dean of course (Keith Jardine), but I hope he doesn't get demolished. He got knocked out a couple fights ago, and it was pretty heartbreaking. I just love that guy. I don't know why. He is a badass. Then I have homework and studying to do Sunday.

So anyway, full disclosure. My flight was delayed when I came to Charleston. They told us the flight attendant was late, they updated us later that they were trying to find her replacement, they found someone to take her place, then announced another delay because they needed to verify the pilot's ID. LOL! I'm thinking, do we REALLY need to know all this?!? I am one of those that isn't that concerned about the government keeping secrets from us because I am pretty happy in my bubble. But anyway, there was another flight that came in Wednesday with a bunch of people I knew/met at the conference. Their flight was delayed because they had to make repairs on the planes (rubber seals), and when they boarded, the plane was nose heavy, so they moved someone from front to back. We are on those tiny tincan American Eagle planes with 1 seat on the left, and 2 on the right. And they knew the girl who was moved and said she was tiny. So 100 lbs really makes a big difference?! You better offer me a stiff drink with my new seat if I'm moved because the plane is nose heavy.

Edit: They just changed our gate from B1 to "emergency exit stairs next to B2". Hahahaha!

So let this be the ironic post everyone refers to if my plane goes down today. And the cherry on the irony sundae can be that I'm studying for my death & dying exam on the plane. ;-) Love y'all and see you soon!

Goku's new do

2009-03-01T16:44:00.002-06:00

Poor kitty. I swear we brush him, but it never fails, he goes outside and gets some horrible mat that just grows and grows out of control. We can't hardly get a pet brush through his thick mane, so I think I need to get him a human hair brush. We had him shaved again today to get his mats out. We can tell he feels so much better! This time, they gave him a bandana!

Have a good week!

Not for the faint of heart

2009-02-27T20:31:00.002-06:00

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,166,141184-243196,00.html

Un. Be. Lieve. Able. Well worth the consequences of eating cake every day since Tuesday. *drool*

I am in the mood for a countdown.

2 days until the Golden Girls marathon on the Hallmark Channel

3 days until I leave for Charleston (where it's supposed to be snowing when I arrive. Grrrr.)

3 days until I know whether my proposal got accepted for the Nashville conference.

10 days until I have a paper and an exam.

14 days until the last class day before spring break

19 days until we leave for our Tawakoni camping trip

2 months until Nashville, if it happens.

2.5 months until finals.

3 months until our Colorado trip, if it pans out.

And finally, 10 months until I graduate. Did you forget I was in school for a reason??? I know I do...

Will probably post again before I leave. Have a great weekend everyone!

Truckin'

2009-02-19T20:23:00.002-06:00

Yesterday since I was at school all day, I did 30 minutes on the elliptical. This time, I did a program instead of just going at one level the whole time. It was tough! We had to study for an exam, so we didn't do anything other than the elliptical. But still, check us out! Not skipping a workout just because we had a test. Woot.

Today I was feeling a little overwhelmed by my to-do list when I got home, but I still pulled it together to do the 30-day shred. Pushups are getting easier every time, and today, lunges were easier. I couldn't believe it because that's been the hardest part so far. I was going down pretty low on the forward lunges but still not as low as possible on the side lunges. But it's not that the workout is getting easier, it's just that I can work harder. Today I felt like I got the best workout so far because I was able to put more into it. I'm bringing the DVD to Jessica tomorrow since I have that conference all weekend, so hopefully she'll be able to burn it and I'll have a 30-day shred buddy. I feel good. I probably shouldn't weigh myself anymore because it's discouraging - I'm building muscle, losing gut, wearing my "skinny" jeans, but sitting right at 155. UGH.

I am pretty excited about the conference. I won't be doing that great on my diet, but I get fed all weekend. No cooking, no buying groceries. Tomorrow we'll probably have fajitas and BBQ - they do Texas food since a lot of people come in from out of state. Breakfast Saturday and Sunday are ridiculous - eggs, bacon, sausage, fresh fruits, pastries, pretty much everything you can think of except an omelet bar. Then, Saturday night, another nice dinner, this time it's banquet style with full service. I love being waited on. Last year's speakers were great, so I don't have high expectations for this year because no way it will be as good. In fact, if they are HALF as good, I'll be super impressed.

I am not excited about how unprepared I am for my presentation. Oh well, I'm going to make some notecards and flip through them all weekend. My presentation is the last one in the afternoon, so probably no one will be there. But I have to be prepared because I invited both my mentors and have no idea if they are coming. They are the ones I have to worry about.

So anyway, I should be out of pocket this weekend, but I hope it's good for everyone.

Another day

2009-02-16T17:38:00.005-06:00

Today was my 3rd day on the 30 day shred. Technically, I started Thursday, then again yesterday since I visited my grandma this weekend. But anyway. It is so fast! Seriously, anyone can do it.

It was harder today in some ways. I noticed I could do more pushups. Modified pushups, mind you (you know, from the knee instead of the toe), but I got a lot more done today than yesterday. Had a hard time with all the lunges, though. My legs are jelly. They have been sore, especially my calves. The first day, it was all these weird muscles around my knee I didn't know I had and couldn't figure out how to stretch. At least I know how to stretch a calf muscle.

(Edit 1 hour later: my calves hurt BAD. OMG. Edit Tuesday morning: I spent every spare moment last night stretching my poor legs, and they feel better today. A little stiff but no pain)

I made my own peanut butter today. 2 cups unsalted roasted peanuts, 1 tbsp peanut oil, and 1/4 tsp salt (or to taste, or use salted peanuts) all in the food processor for 2-3 minutes. It's yummy.

I got done with a lot of my list today. The big items are still there, but the small ones are done. Life will be easier with that nitpicky stuff out of the way. Tonight we are having whole wheat spaghetti. Yummo.

Have a good night!

Working the system

2009-02-15T21:47:00.003-06:00

Twice this semester (that's going into its 4th week this week), I have gotten 2 bottles of water out of a particular vending machine even though I only paid for one. The first time, it wasn't a big deal. I figured I might have accidentally hit the button twice. They take debit/credit cards, so it would be pretty easily for me to hit the button more than once and they just charge me $2.50. But since it happened again this week, I decided to check my account, and nope, I only paid $1.25. Cool huh?

I made a to-do list for tomorrow. I have mucho going on. But tomorrow is just one day, and here is what I need to accomplish - it doesn't look nearly as intimidating on paper as it feels in my head, so it helps to write it down:

Wake up 5:30, get dressed, have coffee and oatmeal, head to school (Monday morning edit: sleep til 6 since the coffee won't come on til 5:30, realize it's cold, so have coffee and oatmeal in bed til 7, then get ready. Hey, I aim high so I don't end up behind.)
Work on AmHighEd paper
Finish McNair conference powerpoint
Print 3640 and 4610 notes
Work on 3640 study guide
Work on 4610 study guide
Price GPS units for grant
Turn in timesheet
Meet with Twila
Meet Shaneka after 5pm to workout
Help cook spaghetti, eat, and study

Also, I need to go shoe shopping this week. I am still on my neverending quest for black dress shoes that don't hurt my feet. I want to get some before Friday, which is when the McNair conference starts. I am really looking forward to it - last year's was so nice, a lot of work, but a great conference.

I need to remember my favorite advice I was given last year. Put out the hottest fire first. The hottest fires are those exams on Wednesday. But still, I have been sitting around stressing over that stupid AmHighEd paper. In reality, I need to tackle those tests first, then I won't feel like crying because I am working on a paper when I need to study for tests. Same goes with McNair. AmHighEd is a bigger deal, but it's not due til AFTER McNair stuff. So I need to reorder my priorities if I am going to get anything done. Hottest fires first. It works.

My weekend

2009-02-15T11:56:00.002-06:00

Friday after class, I headed to my Grandma's house for a visit. This seemed to be the last weekend that would really work out because I have a lot coming up. We had a great visit. We went to Bealls, then Wal-Mart later. I met that guy that's been trying to get with her for a couple years Buzz. He is fishy...he was nice enough and I'm glad he comes to visit her, but no means no, and he needs to quit trying to get her to live with him or marry him. He wants to meet family members so we can try to convince her that he is OK. I think it's rude for him to keep trying to chip away at her resolve.

I came home, took a shower, and waited a few minutes on Tom. He brought me red roses and a card. I did more than usual since he bought me that awesome camera a couple weeks ago. He got a book about physics (I would explain more if I understood...but it is over my head), John McCain's "Faith of my Fathers", the book about his time as a POW, and the Xbox 360 game Left4Dead, with zombies. I don't like zombies, but I knew he really wanted that game, so I got it. My grandma got him funny boxers - one with Homer Simpson and with Batman. LOL! He loved them. I guess she is officially his grandma now that she bought him underwear. She seems to really like Tom (everyone does) and I am really grateful that he gets along well with my favorite family members.

We went to Alfornos in Flower Mound and it was pretty good. We had a bottle of chianti, crab cakes for an appetizer, and a salad. I got the osso bucco, and still have a lot of leftovers for lunch. I can't wait. It was a veal shank, basically like a roasted veal butt, really tender, cooked up with a great sauce with carrots, onions, celery, etc, served over pasta with sauteed broccoli and asparagus on the side. Tom got a seafood pasta dish and asked me to remind him not to order seafood in the future unless he's on the coast. He was pretty jealous of mine. LOL We got dessert to go, 2 orders of tiramisu, stopped at Tom Thumb for champagne, picked up some Valentine's treats for the pets, and watched The Princess Bride. We had a nice time.

Today we slept in til 9, he made coffee (really, the ultimate luxury to me is having someone else make coffee), and now a couple of his friends are over to play the new video game. I wanted a shower, but figured I should do the 30 Day Shred video beforehand. Again, it was a great workout but totally easy to make it through because of the way it's set up. I think it will be easy for me to set aside 20 minutes to do this regularly. I felt fine, but now that I am out of the shower, I wonder if working out with a stomach full of coffee the day after after sharing a bottle of wine and champagne was a good idea. I am not feeling so hot now. Oh well. Gotta sweat it out. LOL

So, now it's time to get some school work done. Got steaks out thawing, need to make a grocery list for tomorrow, but mostly, I am just going to sit here in bed or my office and get stuff done! I have 2 tests this week.

TGIF

2009-02-12T19:27:00.002-06:00

I am so glad tomorrow is Friday. I was in a bad mood most of this week, but it's ending well.

Survivor has started tonight, woot!! I love it. Brazil looks gorgeous.

I am stressed...but it will be OK. I just have a lot of catching up to do on Sunday. About 1 hour of work, and a few tests to study for. Two are next week, one is probably the following week. That's not so bad when you see it written, right? A little work, a lot of studying, but nothing a pitcher of tea and a husband to go grocery shopping can't fix.

I am thinking about taking something herbal for mood/stress/anxiety. I figure it can't hurt. I have been really high strung lately. For those of you who know me well, I mean more high strung than usual. Anyway, just a random side note. It can't hurt, even if it's just a placebo effect.

I worked out last Wednesday and this Wednesday. I got the 30 day Shred DVD in the mail today. I was going to wait til Sunday or Monday, but I was thinking about all the crap I am going to eat this weekend, and I figured I would carpe diem. I really liked it. Seriously. It's a 20 minute circuit workout. 3 minutes of strength, 2 cardio, and 1 abs X 3, with a quick warmup and cool down. 20 minutes. I can do anything for 20 minutes. Well, almost. I couldn't quite keep up, but I saw it through to the end. Every part of my body got a workout. I am definitely going to be sore tomorrow. Heck, I am sore already! In a good way. I think I can commit to 20 minutes here and there. I have Jessica to workout with me Wednesdays, and next week another friend is coming on Monday and Thursday evening.

I am going to visit my grandma tomorrow. I was a little worried at first because she was in a bad mood when I called her, and she basically thinks our family is going to hell, but the last couple of days, she seems excited that I am coming over. I am looking forward to it, too.

Finally, Valentine's Day. We made a reservation at Alfornos, an Italian restaurant in Flower Mound. I am so ready to eat some bread.

And speaking of that, I am doing Phase 2 of South Beach starting next week. Whole grains and occasional fruit can come back into the diet. I am really craving some blueberries and oatmeal. And whole grain spaghetti will make my life easier. I can always use some easy.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Where should we eat for valentines day?

2009-02-08T16:30:00.002-06:00

Well, since Clint is back for a few months, I don't think Tom and I are gonna sit around the house naked eating fondue, as was our original plan for Valentines Day. OK, we weren't really planning to be naked, but we were going to recreate our traditional fondue night out at home this year, and there is a good chance that we'd end up naked at some point. TMI? I'm sorry.

Anyway, we are planning to go out now, and I think we really need a nice night out. I don't want expensive. I want normal priced food (like, we spend way less than $100 including wine and tip). But I have mastered the enchilada, the salsa, and the margarita, so it isn't as fun to go to Cristina's as it used to be. That was our go-to date.

Sushi is too fast... and not romantic where we normally go. But super tasty. But not what I am thinking...

WHERE?!? Keep in mind we will probably eat dinner at 5pm or maybe Friday because VD is a Saturday and I hate crowds. We need a no-reservations kinda place. What do you think??? What sounds good to you right now? Where would you go to dinner to get exactly what you are craving? Please offer multiple suggestions. Thank you. Or what would be fun? Should I make him take me to the Magic Time Machine? What do we DO?!

Playing with Coffee Shop Actions

2009-02-07T19:54:00.005-06:00

If you couldn't tell, I was pretty excited to figure out about "actions" in photoshop after seeing Pioneer Woman's actions (that aren't compatible with Elements), and finding the Coffee Shop actions I posted in my last blog that ARE compatible with Photoshp Elements. Now, I don't have to LEARN anything. I just have to CLICK a button. Love it. I am tired of learning all the freakin' time.

Original from the wedding spectacular.

With the vintage attic action. (Edit: I keep coming back to look at this one. It is definitely my favorite. I didn't like this picture before because we look funny because they had fed us 2 bottles of champagne, but now we are vintage drunk, and that's OK. It reminds me of an old Coca-Cola ad. Hey, maybe I should photoshop a coke bottle into our hands!)

With the regular vintage action

Original

Muted colors

Muted colors with vignette

Original

With 50% opacity vanilla glaze

Glazed with vignette

Original

With color pop decaf

And with color pop regular.

Easy enough for me! I am sure free actions exist elsewhere, but this is plenty to keep me busy for a while. It's my new favorite blog.

A big fat OMG

2009-02-07T17:43:00.002-06:00

http://coffeeteaphotography.blogspot.com/

Check THAT blog out. The actions work with Photoshop Elements, too. Yay.

I am past my point of productivity on this paper, and this is the motivation I needed to GO HOME. And play with actions.

To whom it may concern

2009-02-06T14:45:00.004-06:00

i.e., Tammy & Heather.

Sorry Tammy, you'll have to wait til I croak! :-) I am not really thrilled about the fact that ANYONE is reading it, even a stinky TA I may or may not know.

Heather...that is exactly what I would like to write about, right about now. I don't feel like going outside to take more pics in the wind, but pretty much what you saw in this picture is what you get.

Cabbage up top, broccoli in the middle, and brussel sprouts far right. The broccoli is doing great and tastes amazing. The cabbage and brussel sprouts are a little slow - I may need to water more. Hopefully we will get some rain this weekend. But they are all healthy. I have plenty of brussel sprouts, they just aren't very big yet.

And SPRING. I have a lot of ideas but who knows if I will have time...

One almost-for-sure thing is, I want Tom to make me some shepherd's hooks so I can hang some upside-down cherry or grape tomatoes. I am not dealing with tomato plants in the ground this year. They didn't even put out last year, and it was a huge pain the butt.

I want my okra to go somewhere other than my tiered bed. They were like trees and ended up shading my smaller plants.

I want to find a spot where I can grow flowers (wildflowers?) for cutting. I don't know where yet. But it may be here....(damn, OK, I'll go take a picture.)

To the left - that is our back porch. I think I could put 2 raised beds. See that stepping stone walkway? (It is hard to see...it starts by the waterhose.) That is the middle of our back porch. The walkway is centered on the porch, not between those posts. I would like the beds placed based on the porch, not the posts. If that makes sense. I think it would be an easy day project...well, easy in that it would only take a day, but probably a big pain.

Then I spotted this spot in the yard I haven't messed up yet. I may or may not do raised beds here, but I could definitely try some long pots mounted under those windows. Hmmmm.

I don't know what to do in my tiered beds...probably the usual, bell and jalepeno peppers, some herbs, whatever looks good at the time. I have shade issues in that bed, so I need to do some research. I might grow garlic, too...

BUT - I have the busiest semester of my life, so we shall see how it goes. :-S

Today was a good one

2009-02-04T22:32:00.002-06:00

It was a long, full, productive, good day. Here is a peek:

8-9am: drove to school, stopped at McDonalds for a $3 south beach friendly breakfast and coffee, and enjoyed it in the parking lot.

9-10am: Psych of Death and Dying class. This is becoming one of my favorite classes because the professor is extremely knowledgable. Our first assignment is a lengthy reflection on death, including our obituary, funeral details, will, eulogy, and a picture representing death. :-S It is good to think about this stuff, but it was harder than I thought it would be. I think of myself as pretty desensitized when it comes to dying, but writing in my obituary (I was 101 when I died) that I was preceded in death by my husband and sister was sobering. UGH. I am not ready to lose any of these folks.

10-11am: History and Systems of Psych. Professor went over the same thing he went over last time. Oh well. I had him last semester and he did the same thing. As a result, we were always behind and our tests were always easy. I'll take it.

11am-12pm: MY LEAST FAVORITE CLASS. Adult Development & Aging. OMG. $900 for a class so I can sit and have a powerpoint read to me by a grad student. I try to have a good attitude toward grad students because I hope to be there someday, but damn. Don't read slides to me. PLEASE.

12-2pm: Worked while Jessica was in class. Ate almonds and a cheese stick. Met an instructor of one of my boss' online classes I hadn't met before, which was nice.

2:30-3:30pm: Jessica and I worked out. 30 minutes on the elliptical while I watched the end of General Hospital, which was hilarious today, followed by stretching, ab exercises, and rowing. Good times.

3:30-5:15pm: Farted around in my office, didn't feel like working, didn't have to, so I didn't. Ate the salad I brought for lunch. Couldn't find a fork so I ate it lettuce-wrap style.

5:15-6:00pm: walked to class. Slowly. We weren't doing much very quickly after the workout.

Class til 9...UGH. And with that, my battery is about to die on this sucker, so I am out of here. I am tired but had a great day. I have to write a conference paper this weekend, but I am sure I'll need a break from it this weekend, so I'll come whine about it later. LOL