I survived the first semester, and we have about 15 weeks left.  It can’t go fast enough.  This has been such a rough year.  I can’t say exactly why, but I’ll be ready for this year to be behind me.

The house is going great…I love owning a home! But it has certainly come with some costs.  I had to replace some stuff, most costly the insulation in my attic. I’m glad I did it, because it will really pay off in the long run, but it was such a painful expense!  I tried taking on a second job to help out with some of the expenses, but I have discovered that I am not a two job kind of person anymore.  It worked out okay in grad school when the jobs were super easy, but when teaching is the first job, forget it.  I worked at PetSmart in the pet hotel for about a week.  I LOVED working there, but it is a super physical job, and I just don’t have the energy for that and teaching.  Luckily, they totally understood, and they kept me as a seasonal worker, so that I can go back this summer.  I think that will work out.

While I was working there, though, I did receive my first pet injury.  A stupid cat bit the crap out of my hand.  I had to leave work early and go to CareNow, the cat was quarentined, etc., etc. It was a huge mess.  But my hand is all better, which is very good for me and the cat.  If I turned out to get sick from the bite, they would have to put the cat down, and I really don’t want that!

And yesterday I went out to the Dallas World Aquarium.  I’ve been there plenty of times, but I still like going.  I went out with Paul, I guy I met a few weeks ago, and had a really good time.  But since I also had to work Saturday school ysterday morning, it made for a very busy day! So glad I got to sleep in this morning.

But I thought that THIS was at least worth mentioning.  I’m not sure if anyone reads this anymore, but if you DO, I’d like for you know that that I’ve been hired on to write at the website examiner.com.

I’m the North Dallas pet examiner.  Basically I get to write articles on cool pet stuff that happens up here.  So I’m pretty excited!

Please go visit my examiner page and check out my articles!

I took a couple of trips, too.  The first trip was to Galveston with Sherry, Amy, and Lori.  Man that trip was so much fun!  I loved going to the beach and I really didn’t want to leave.  I think I could totally live on the beach and be happy.   Maybe not on that beach, though.  I liked Galveston, but if I’m going to live on the beach, I want it to be on a little bit more clearer of a beach.  The other trip was a weekend trip toobing with Sherry and April. That was a much fast trip, but also a lot of fun.  April and Sherry had never been before, so that was fun to do with them.

And at the end of September Sherry and I are flying out to California to go visit Lori. I am TOTALLY excited about that! I’ve never been to California before, so this will be fun for me!  Lori lives in Pasadena, so we’ll be flying into Los Angeles.  I’m a little nervous since that is apparantly a crazy airport, and I’m not a huge fan of flying in the first place, but I’m sure it’ll all be okay.

Tomorrow is offically my last weekday of the summer.  I have to report back to work on Monday, and the kids come back the following Monday.  I have mixed feelings about it.  I’m nervous and excited and ready to go back, but I also want just a couple more weeks.  Not sure what I’d do in that couple of more weeks, but they sure would be nice to have.

Also, it looks like I may have a third dog for a while.  A friend from work had to give up her 10 year old mini schnauzer, so I told her I’d take the dog in while we found a new home for it.  I’ve contacted a schnauzer rescue organization, but I haven’t heard back from them yet.  I like the dog, but I can’t have three dogs running around!  The two I have are quite enough!

I have more next week, and I expect it to be just as bad as this week.  But after that, I’m done for the summer!  Hopefully I’ll be going off to Galveston in July for a short vacation with Sherry, Lori, and Amy.  We’re just waiting on when Amy can go.  I’m really looking foward to doing that!

Right now the big project is fixing the fence.  Dad and Sherry are coming out tomorrow to help finish it.  Hopefully we can get it all done tomorrow.  It’ll be so nice when it is all said and done!  I’m playing softball tonight, so hopefully that won’t wear me out too much for tomorrow…

Ugh…I need to do so many chores right now, but I totally don’t want to!  I need a robot maid to come in and take care of all this for me!

And holy crap….I’ve got Jay Leno on tv right now because I just haven’t turned the tv off yet.  Damn, he is NOT funny.

First and foremost, Jon and Penny had their baby!  They named her Lora Violet, and she was born last Thursday.  It was a pretty quick labor, all things considered.  I think when it was said and done it was just around 10 hours.  And that was their first.

Secondly, I bought a house.  Closed on it the last week in February.  It’s been nearly a month now, but it doesn’t seem that long.  I’ve still got lots of boxes everywhere, and they never seem to completely disappear.  It doesn’t help that I’m usually to tired on the weekdays to unpack, I spend most of my Sundays lately hanging out with Tyler, so that really just leaves Saturday.  My dad has come out a couple of weekends to help me get stuff done, like install a new door, trim some hedges, fix up the garage.  I’m really enjoying being a homeowner! I was a little worried before I did all of this if I’d even be able to swing it.  But I made my first house payment yesterday, and it wasn’t bad at all.  I’m totally going to be able to do this.  Hope so anyway, because I bet foreclosure sucks.

I also have taken in a new doggie, Moira.  Rob’s mom initally adopted her, but then was fed up with the hassle after one night.  So rather than take her to a shelter, I told her I would take her.  I’ve had her since the last week in the apartment, and I’m really glad I did!  She is a total sweet heart.  And she and Maggie get along great!  It’s alot of work (again), and potty training has been a little bit more difficult, but she’s going to be a good doggie.

And tonight I’m off to Dawn’s for some dinner! Speaking of which, I should go and get ready for that…

And speaking of packing, I close on my house Feb. 23. Woot!  I am so freaking excited about this, words can’t even describe it (although, I guess they just did).  It will be so nice to have a place of my own, and Maggie will have her own back yard.  I’ve been trying to get her pumped about the whole idea, but she’s been rather cynical about the whole ordeal.  I think she’s waiting for it to actually happen for it to be real.  Me too, in a way.

And I have had a really great week, actually.  We started our Holocuast unit/lecture series on  Monday, and I always enjoy teaching that.  We had a snow day on Wednesday (which is good for this week, not so good when we lose that three day weekend at the end of the semester).  I saw The Wrestler with my friend Tyler on Sunday.  That was a pretty good movie.  It’s one of those movies that are really well made, but sort of leave you feeling like you’ve been stopmed on.  I don’t really need to see it again.  I’m glad I got to see it with Tyler.  I knew him from high school, and just recently been hanging out with him, and that’s been alot of fun.

Maggie has had me kind of worried lately.  Her lumpy head situation has not gotten any better.  The vet said that it is probably just mild head trauma (like her bumping her head accidently over and over again).  But I’m still worried.

And finally, just to kill some time, I’ve been reading over some old posts.  I have to admit that I am ashamed of some of the things I wrote.  I didn’t make any thing up or post anything bad, but when I looked at the date of some of the posts, and then read into the mood of the post, I know for a fact that what I was feeling in reality did NOT match up to the positive vibe I was trying to convey in my writing.  I’m definitely never never going to do that to my writing again.

On Monday we start our Holocaust unit, and I’m pretty stoked about that.  This is my favorite until to teach.  It’s pretty depressing, but the kids get alot out of it.  Next week is the history lecture series, so my voice should be pretty shot by 4pm Friday.

I’ll have to make sure and be plenty rested up by Sunday so I can yell for the Steelers!  Totally stoked about that game! I get to make a Steeler cake again!

And the house process is going really good.  I’m pretty much done with everything that I need to do on my end, I think.  I still have a few more things to work out with the appraisal and price and all that junk, but I am starting to see light at the end of the tunnel.  In just about one month, I’ll be in my new home! So excited about that!  I’ll just be glad to have this process behind me.  Definitely an eye opening experience.  But I’m so much smarter for it!  Go Brains!

I’ve got a few New Years Resolutions for the year, so I hope I can stick to them.  One is going to the gym more often.  Ever since school started in August, I’ve been really bad about going.  I guess check that…ever since I got Maggie, I’ve been bad about going.  I totally blame her.  My second resolution is to update the site more.  It’s not that I don’t have anything to post, but I’m usually just so tired.  And then when I do, everything is either outdated or I wind up with a 40-page long post.  Who wants to read that (not that I’ve got many readers in the first place).  My third resolution is to take Maggie out more.   It’s kind of hard in the winter time, so I’ll give myself some credit there.  But in the spring (and warm winter days) I’ll have no excuse. Luckily there is a new dog park near me that is AWESOME…she really likes going there.  We both like that better than going for a doggie walk.

And speaking of doggies…Maggie had a near great escape yesterday.  I was on my way to school and I stopped by at Sonic for a drink.  I had her window rolled down (a child-safety window, I might add) so that she could enjoy fresh air.  Well, she saw a bird hopping around and went nuts.  I didn’t think too much of it, but then out of now where she manages to climb out the window and jumps to the ground.  She then proceeds to run around Sonic like a loony.  I freak out, run out of my car, and proceed to chance my dog around Sonic like a loony.  I’m not sure how appreciative the Sonic workers were.  But I did get her back in the car, and promptly rolled up her window.  At least I wasn’t driving when she saw the bird.

Last night I did my Christmas with Rob, April, and Colin.  I think Colin might have been a little disappointed that I didn’t get him a toy for Christmas, but he’ll be pretty happy when he goes to the Stars game I bought him tickets for.  I hope he likes going!

I’m still trying to decide if I want to get a house or not. My apartment lease is up in February, so I probably need to make a decision soon so that I can start looking for a place to live.  I’m just not sure I can afford it, but I’m really tired of apartment living.  So is Maggie.