What a Day! (And some other ramblings)

I started my day with a 7:15 am meeting that was well worth my time. I love days that I feel like I learned something!
My kids were super great today, the day flew by, and we accomplished all of our learning goals today! whew!
I came home and ate a yummy hot dog and headed to the gym. I love Mondays because we have a really fun teacher, and it is Kick Boxing. Right in the middle of a High, low, middle, knee, crunch, kick, push; you could hear was a whole bunch of screaming! You can only imagine what it was. Thankfully, I didn't see it, but I know it was there.
What amazes me is that these highly dedicated work out people didn't see this as an excuse to leave early. So, we all stayed and continued to punch and kick with or eye on the corner of the room. After class a staff member went over and scooped it up in a trash can to release it back into the wild to probably follow me home.
Oddly, knowing that the mice are bothering local businesses, and my neighbors comforts me. At least it isn't just me.
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DEAL OR DUD?
Here are 2 new products I have tried this month and my opinions for whatever they are worth:
A new product I have tried is the Debbie Meyer Green Bags. My grocery bill keeps increasing, and the amount of items I am taking home is decreasing. I am a sucker for info-mercials! I love watching them, and by the end, always feel like I NEED that product by the end of the commercial. I have heard the claims of the green bags and saw them at the grocery store. I couldn't resist just to see if it actually could extend the life of my produce. After 4 weeks, I have decided that it is a deal! I bought my bags in a package of 20 for $10. The bags are all reusable and pretty durable. I would suggest finding a friend to spilt the cost and the bags unless you have tons and tons of fruits and veggies.

Another product is the Ball Park All White Meat Turkey Franks. I couldn't find a picture, but here is something similar. I am not a huge fan of the hot dog, but occasionally I will make one. I am on a turkey kick this month, so I couldn't pass up the new Turkey hot dog. 45 calories, and 0 grams of fat. Paired with Turkey chili, it was delish!

Saturday

Today was great-ness! Well, until about 4pm. I stayed up way too late with friends, then reading my book into the wee hours! I love that! I slept in this morning, and got up, gave Copper a bath, did some laundry, and other things I had been putting off.
I started to vacuum, and then it died. I did all the girly things you do when something stops working. Kick it, push the on and off switch over and over and over and over, check the plug, and turn it over and stare at all those parts. I didn't know what else to do, so I did the closest thing to me. I laid down to take a nap of course! When I woke up the thing magically worked, but I am not sure for how long. I am going to start looking for a sale on a new vacuum this week.
After the nap, I decided to go get my car inspected, only to find that they close early on Saturday.
When I got home, I thought I would clean out the garage. Now, if you read my blog, you know about the little mouse situation in the garage. My garage doesn't have too much in it, because I am a girl and some what of a neat freak. (Side note- I am really big on keeping my garage clean because that is the one thing that all of your neighbors can see. ) I began sweeping up all the little critter mess that I could see. Then I got the bright idea to move my cute shelves so I could clean under them. Well, you can guess where this is going. YES! There was a dead mouse under the shelves. EWWWWWWWWWW!!!!! I put on my big girl panties, and took care of the stupid problem. That's when I saw it. Something else was under the shelves. After freaking out I decided I was being silly and was just going to go and move the shelves back. Duh-duh-duhhhhhh. I heard a small noise, and then saw a little streak of blood. I KILLED THE MOUSE. Knowing how much I hate the little critters, you would think this would excite me. All I can think about is that I killed an innocent stupid mouse. Actually, I saw the tail still moving, so either there is more than one under there or I hurt it, and it will be dead tomorrow. So sad!
I decided I had had enough and just left everything all spread out, pulled in my car and hopefully can have a brave friend come over to help tomorrow. Whew. I am done for the day!

ME!

This weekend is going to be ALL ABOUT ME! (Well, I guess I will work on some school stuff Sunday night). Do you remember that funny country song? It goes something like, I want to talk about me, wanna talk I wanna, talk about number 1 oh my me my...... I could go on, but I will spare you. Just picture me singing my heart out to this song! I am going to do everything I want to do this weekend that I have been putting off because of school, or work. I am going to have a weekend free of work and school! YEA!

Tonight, I went to a birthday party for one of my best friends, Julia. We met as a little kids in the church nursery, but became good friends in the 5th grade, so that translates to over 18 years of fabulous fun! It was neat seeing friends from elementary and high school that I haven't seen in about 10 years at her birthday tonight! HAPPY BIRTHDAY Julia-goolia!

Tomorrow, I get to sleep in as late as I want, I am also meeting some friends for a pedicure and dinner. Sunday I have plans with church friends! I am defiantly ready for 2 days of "me time!" :)

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Last weekend I went to the store and of course had to buy the cute little trick or treaters Halloween yummies. And OF COURSE I had to put it in my "new" (New as in purchased last year for $1.50) pumpkin candy holder a full 2 1/2 weeks before Halloween. For

accountablility purposes I am posting a picture of an overflowing candy bowl. I will take another picture of it before Halloween so we can see if I bought it for me or for the sweet little munchkins in costumes!

I cheated.

I ended a relationship today. Although it was a difficult thing to do, the time had come. It will really be best for all parties involved. Yes, after 3 years, I have ended the relationship with my hairstylist. No break-up CD's or Oreo's for me! I have moved on and found a new hairstylist that works just 3 short minutes from my house. The long-distance thing just wasn't working out. It would take me 40 minutes to get there, an hour for the haircut, and 40 minutes home. That is 2 hours and 10 minutes for one haircut.
I think this new relationship will be a lasting one. I must admit that I did take a HUGE leap of faith. I don't know anyone at this salon, or any customers, so I was pretty nervous. The entire time I was at the new salon I felt like I was cheating. The new hairstylist did a fantastic job, so I am pretty sure that this was a good decision.

Venting and some positives

I need to vent. My great friend Margo ( shout out to Margo!) told me about this incredible product called tinted moisturizer. I love it because it has a great product name, it is light weight and Laura Mercier offers my perfect shade, which is so challenging to find. I was running low on my tube, and needed my "winter shade" so I trotted along to Nordstrom's. Side note - I HATE the mall! I love it when I have lots of moo-lah, and time to kill, but that is pretty much never so I try to avoid it at all costs. I was going to brave the crowded mall and run in to Nordstrom's and get what I needed and run out. I was greeted by a nice sales lady. I told her my shade and that I needed a shade lighter but that I wasn't sure which one. She confidently recommended my moisturizer in sand. Usually they offer to let you try it but today they didn't and I didn't ask to do so. BIG MISTAKE! First thing Monday morning, I was so excited to put on my brand new makeup, only to discover Sand is WAY darker than my summer shade. So, I had 2 choices. I could wear it and look silly, or go without and look silly. I chose the latter. Now I have to make time to go back to the mall, take back the makeup I already opened and try to find my receipt.

On to my next thing to my next vent. I have another STUPID mouse hanging out in my garage. Do I
a. leave the garage door open and let the mouse run away and home that no others run in
b. put lots and lots of stuff in the garage so I can't see it run along the wall.
c. hire someone to install shelves on the wall so I can get rid of my cute shelving units.
d. get an outdoor kitty.
e. pay the bug man extra to come out every time I see one.

ALSO! I noticed that the weather striping thingy on the bottom of my door that leads from the garage to the laundry room is missing in some places thanks to my lovely dog. UH OH! Can a mouse squeeze under my door? OH NO!!!!!! Yes - I realize that this fear of mice is completly irrational, and it is just a tiny little critter. But EW!

Hmmmmm what to do, what to do!

Also, my Aa key is not working very well. Do you know how many times you use the Aa key? I just have to push it 3 times to get one letter a.

On a positive..... My kids were SOOOOOOOOOO super great today! It was one of those days that they were just super sweet to each other, and were willing to work hard!

Also, I had no class today, so I was able to go to the gym tonight!

Lessons to learn from my blog entry:
1. ALWAYS have the makeup people check the shade on you to make sure it matches your skin.
2. Don't buy a new house that backs up to an empty field.
3. Don't use the letter Aa.

Save the Best For Last????

I love reading. The best part of my weekday, is after recess when we come in and read from a chapter book. My kids think they are so big because it is a chapter book. This is the time of day that they are all listening intently and just giggling in the funny parts of the book. They are learning so many new vocabulary words and phrases in our books.

Unfortunately I don't make time to read for myself everyday. I am excited because I have simple weekend plans, and I have made time to start at least one of the books I purchased earlier this week. However, when I read books, I always read about 25% of the book, and then skip ahead to the last 25% of the book so that I know how the book will end. Then I go back and read the book from the first quarter to the end. I love knowing the end because then you can truly see how the characters play a part in the main storyline. I HIGHLY recommend that you try this method at least once!
I also love knowing how movies will end. I am the nerd who will wait a week or two until after a movie has been released so I can look up movie spoilers and then go and see the movie!
I Love my TiVo, because I can also do this with my favorite TV shows. Last night i didn't get home from work (McDonald's Night) until 8:40ish. It was perfect timing to catch the end of Grey's Anatomy, and then go back to the TiVo and watch it from beginning to end!!!!
Am I the only one who does this?
************************************************* This is my new book that I am super excited about reading! I will let you know how it ends. OOPS! I mean, I will let you know if it is any good!Another book that I just finished is: Shadow Life: Aportrait of Anne Frank and Her Family.

No Catchy Title Today

My creativity is gone today. So, you don't get a catchy title. :)

Yesterday, I needed to head to work super early for a parent conference. When I opened the door into my pitch black garage, I see that I left my lights on in my car. Thankfully I have an incredible car battery and Lil'Slow Poke started right up. As I backed out of the driveway, I saw a small stupid gray mouse dead in the drive way. EW!
By 6:40 I was in the school parking lot ready to conquer the day. Of course, my conference didn't show, but I was able to use the time to tackle the growing piles in my classroom.
The day was going well, until one of my students had a medical emergency. "My" kiddo is doing well now. But, it sure puts all your priorities back in line to have a scare like this. Suddenly the only thing that mattered at that moment was that child. All the "other" stuff had no value at all.
My friend Laura and I got to visit my little one today after work, and she was so cute with her black Mary-Jane's, hair fixed and Pajamas.
While traveling in the car on the way back from the hospital I heard Laura say some REALLY funny things.
1. "I hate ACU".
2. When I told her that she was a GREAT teacher, she replied, " Ya, I have told our principal that!"
Here is where you get to laugh with me! Of course, all the comments were taken out of context, and I love it!

Anyways, back to yesterday...... Yesterday, I had class after work and I was already pretty frazzled by the days events, and when I got to my school, the door was locked! In my mind I was going over my calendar lesson to make sure it WAS Tuesday. Soon the Secretary walked by and let me in. Whew! that was a full 30 seconds of thinking I was going crazy. I walked down the hall to my classroom, and walked in on a completely different class. Now, I really thought I was going crazy! Turns out my class was meeting at a restaurant near by to celebrate our last class, and because the University had made a scheduling error.

After my presentation, I celebrated my last class and the end of a difficult day by buying a new fun book from Borders! I can't wait for the weekend so I can get lost in the pages of my new book!