Thank you Easter Bunny!!!

Today the Easter Bunny came to my house!!!

Hank wasn't forgotten either:

That Easter Bunny had to be really tricky and really fast because I only slept 2 1/2 hours last night.  He must have been scoping out my house all night waiting for me to fall asleep so he could work his bunny magic.  Thank you Easter Bunny!

Hoarding

So, now that I have regular channels on my TV and a DVR, it's a whole new world for me.  I get to watch all kinds of stuff now.  I share my sattelite access with my landlord.  They get to be the boss of what channel package they want to have.  Previously they chose the family package.  Translation:  500 channels of Disney and Nickeloden and not much else except for local channels.  So for the past 22 months, I've spent a lot of time watching the Food Network and National Geographic channels.  They happen to come with the family package.  There were also several days when the sattelite didn't work at all and so I had nothing.  While it may not seem like crappy and/or no TV isn't the end of the world, it really kind of is.  I live alone and if it's super-quiet I feel lonely and I get depressed.  Then I start to get anxious and basically go bonkers.  I've tried the radio but it isn't the same.  TV makes me feel like someone is home besides me.  Radio doesn't because nobody goes around singing all the time unless they happen to be in a musical.  I would really like it if we were in a musical all the time.

That was a very long explaination to get to the point of my blog.  The point is that there are a lot of shows I didn't even know existed before.  One of those said shows is called "Hoarders."  It's about people who, well, hoard.  Only not just a little bit.  Sometimes after it is all cleaned out the floors have rotted out, leaving a hole, and a condemed house.  I am absolutely fascinated by this whole thing.  Even though it makes me anxious to see it, I can't look away.  It's like trying not to look at a train wreck as you drive by.  Impossible.  So to add to my current psycho depression and anxiety, I've got hoarding to worry about.  How whacked out is it to be anxious about getting an anxiety disorder? 

Yesterday I was looking in my closet and decided that it was getting way too squishy.  I hardly ever wear a bunch of those clothes.  Plus, I bet I have 20 pairs of shoes I need to be done with.  Why am I keeping them around?  Then I thought about "Hoarders."  I bet they only started with something like clothes they couldn't say good bye to.  Then it moved on to this:

After that thought it only took me about two seconds to decide to start tossing stuff.  I plan on going home after school and start chucking stuff in other rooms.  I figure that for my sanity it is better to take the risk that I'll toss something I may need later, than to develop hoarding disease.  Which, by the way, is a real illness.  They make therapists come on the show and everything so that the hoarding people don't freak out.  Plus, also, even when I have thrown things away that I wanted later, while a minor inconvenience, I'm pretty sure I survived without it.

Here's all the stuff I decided that I could live without:

Only maybe not the slippers or Hank.  He just likes that chair.  This is only the D.I. crap.  There was much more that I just chucked.  While it doesn't look too much like that other scary photo, I feel better just knowing that I've not started down that slippery hoarding disease slope.

I went through every cubbard, drawer, closet, and storage box in my house.  One of the hugie boxes I has was full of photos from the past 20 years.  You know, the box that you always say that you will go through all the photos and only keep the ones you really want?  I actually went through that box.  What I discovered is that the amount of photos I actually need and want is this:

The amount of photos that I don't need is this:

The end.

Holiday Curmudgeon

Not to be too much of a party pooper, but April Fool's day is one of my 3 least favorite holidays. Mostly because I'm a teacher. The holidays I hate most (in no particular order) are: April Fool's day because how many times can you hear kids say stupid stuff and then yell, "April Fool's!" (in the middle of class, mind you) and not want to kill them? The answer is not very many. St. Patrick's day because they all run around looking for people to pinch and insist on pinching even the ones that are wearing green. (Also in the middle of class.)  Finally, Halloween. Only when the day after Halloween is a school day, however. The kids stay up way too late and come to school sleep-deprived and hopped up on sugar.

P.S. For those of you that don't know what a curmudgeon is:
cur·mudg·eon (kr-mjn) n. An ill-tempered person full of resentment and stubborn notions.

Beer, Cigarrete's and Teenage Nudity

It's Girl Scout cookie time. One of the only bright spots of March in my opinion. I just grabbed a couple of Tag-a-Longs to eat with the Diet Coke I'm forced to have before I go to bed to get rid of my headache. The fact that I have to have a Diet Coke to get rid of my caffeine-deprived body, and the fact that I think I need a couple of cookies to go along with it is a whole other story.


Back to Girl Scouts. As I grabbed my cookies it brought be back to my own Girl Scout days. I grew up in the mountains of North Carolina. That place is practically the opposite of Utah in every way. Not necessarily in a bad way, but it's sure different. I remember when I was about 12 our Girl Scout leader decided to take us on a field trip to Winston Salem. I don't remember exactly how far away that was but maybe two, two and a half hours. It is only now after 16 years of living in the Utah culture that I see how whack that trip really was for a bunch of Girl Scouts.

The first stop on our field trip was Stroh's Beer brewery which was apparently, "the king of beers" before Budweiser was even around. Free beer flowed from the taps for all those that visited the brewery. I learned all about the beer making business. Something that comes in handy for any 12 year old girl. The beer was help yourself as you were leaving the brewery. I remember the leaders keeping a close eye on us to make sure that we only helped ourselves to the Coke products that were also on tap. I think I'll blame my Diet Coke dependency on that day. It sure beats me being responsible for it.

Next stop was the RJ Reynolds tobacco company. Since most of you didn't take NC history in school, I'll tell you that tobacco has been the number one cash crop of NC since NC began. That is a long time since the first colony in the New World was in NC. That's actually probably a well known fact from U.S. History too.  I'm guessing that most of you have seen the Camel cigarette icon:

I'm a little proud to say that at the RJ Reynold's headquarters they have a huge statue of that very same camel made from actual tobacco and I had the honor to see it and its tobacco-y goodness. Forrest Gump and his adventures can't top seeing that. So, after learning all about how to make beer, I then learned all about how to make cigarettes, chew, snuff, etc. What better place to learn it than from the largest tobacco company in the world. Incase you were wondering, they didn't have free cigarettes there for us to take on the way out. Only too bad for me and my dreams to become addicted to nicotine.

While those are both very interesting choices of places to take a bunch of 12 year olds, the best is yet to come. We were staying at our leader's sister's house I think. We just pitched a tent in the yard and slept outside. We didn't go to sleep, however, before watching a movie. I think what they picked was the obvious choice--The Blue Lagoon. There's nothing like teenage sex and nudity to top off a day of beer and cigarettes. I hope you can appreciate how I am less redneck than I have any right to be.

Tender Mercies of the Largest Kind

Yes, I have risen from the dead. I dare say it's a bigger miracle than Lazarus. Maybe that's a little blasphemous, so maybe let it be written that it's just a miracle.

Before I launch into my actual post, on an unrelated side note, maybe Hillyerie shouldn't make fun of me for doing this blog at 6:00 a.m. AT SCHOOL no less, because after all, only crazy people do that.

As another side note, Lynne, I happen to be writing something. Happy, Dear? I don't want to hear another word about it.

I digress. I experienced one of the greatest tender mercies of my life yesterday, and I think it's something I want to share. It's about to get real right here, so hold on to your seats. Actually, this may not be news to most of you that read my blog, as mostly the people I love best are the ones to read it and have knowledge of it on some level.

I've gone to therapy for lo, many years. The reason is because 1. I'm prolly a little bit crazy. (Though I dare say no crazier than pretty much anybody I know.) Mostly it's number 2. I suffer from severe depression. Severe enough that I've been hospitalized for it a few times and have had electroshock therapy. ( I told you that it was about to get real.) Fortunately, for the past couple of years I've been blessed with a period of happiness with no more than some blue days that we all experience from time to time. However, for the past several months, slowly but surely I've been slipping back into that not-so-happy place. Without going into too much detail (because I think that might be a little too real) the reason for my depression is because as a child I experience many years of abuse from more than one person. That tends to jack a child up and literally rewires their brain and the chemicals in it. As a result, anyone with intense trauma of really most any kind suffers from depression and many other issues that come with it on some level. I did my best to pretend that I wasn't slipping and berating myself for not being able to just deal with it and push through until it passed. I consider myself a pretty smart and definitely functioning member of society, so why can't I figure this one out? Only too bad for me, the brain doesn't really care what you want sometimes. It only cares about what needs to happen for it to heal and feel better.

This brings me to the tender mercy part. Probably 5 or 6 years ago I wasn't so functioning. I found myself in the hospital for I believe the 2nd time in as many years. The tricky thing about being in the hospital for depression is that even if you stabilize and begin to feel better, they won't let you out unless you have a therapist lined up to go see when you get out. I didn't have one, and I was more than ready to get out of that place. They gave me a list of possible places to go and a telephone and told me to go to work. I didn't know where to begin. However, my KT friend was friends with a therapist that she loved very much. Since I didn't have any better ideas, I called his office. The receptionist told me that he wasn't accepting new clients, however, they had a wonderful lady named, Erin that was new to their facility and could see me. I told her I'd take what I could get and we set up an appointment. I guess that was really the 1st tender mercy that led to the one I experienced yesterday. Heavenly Father sent me straight to Erin because she was the one who could take me on the painful journey I needed to take in order to heal and move on in my life. She was an angel in my life. I spent the next year and a half doing the most painful, gut-wrenching, but healing work of my life. On the first day that I walked into her office she knew exactly what I needed and didn't waste any time. She also didn't put up with any of my crap because I'd become pretty proficient at avoiding and telling people what I thought they wanted to hear. I loved and trusted her so much and felt so safe and so grateful for her, I would have gone to the ends of the Earth and back if she asked me to. (She never did ask me to go to the ends of the Earth, but she did ask me to go to places that I'd chosen the Earth over any day.) I truly believe that Erin saved me. I don't think I could have stayed here much longer with that kind of pain and hopelessness. Then one day I showed up to her office and she told me that she'd be leaving. My world flipped upside down and inside out. I was devastated. She said she would be gone in a couple of weeks. She needed to take a break from being a therapist for her own reasons. She told me that she didn't know how long that would be. Maybe a year or two. She just didn’t know. I felt the ultimate abandonment and cried pretty much for about 3 weeks after that. Honest and truly there are very few days still that I don't think of her and feel grateful for her. I'd give most anything to see her again and just hug her neck.

Fast forward to a few months ago. I finally realized that it was time for me to go back to therapy and do more work. I'm in a different, much better place now than I was when I met Erin, but the funny thing about trauma is that it keeps cycling back over and over. Each time is less painful and more hopeful because you know that you are getting closer to the time that you will have made your peace with it enough that it doesn't affect your life. I went back to the Family Support and Treatment Center where I'd seen Erin about 4 years ago. They got me in to see Nevin, which was great, but probably not the person I needed. After a couple of months of seeing him I realized that I should probably break up with him and try another therapist that I was more comfortable. Only another tender mercy because he told me that he was leaving and I'd need to get a new therapist. I was a little butt-hurt because I'm not a fan of being abandoned and he was the second one. He even had Erin's old office. I got over that pretty quickly, though. He referred me to a girl named Jessica. She is fantastic. Only you're not going to believe this because on my first meeting with her she told me that she was only going to be there until sometime in April and then she was leaving to go back to Canada. Are you freaking kidding me?! Now I had a huge decision to make. Did I go ahead and see her for the time she was here and have the faith that I could find someone else when she was gone? The catch with this one is that I only have 20 visits a year with my insurance and I'd used most of them on Nevin. I only have about 8 left so when she's gone I'm all tapped out. So that required more faith that the funds would come. Choice number two was to not see her for this time and save my visits for the new person. The flaw with this choice is that I'm pretty sure I'm not okay enough to go that long without someone. Seems like there was a third choice, but it wasn't a very good one and I've forgotten it now. I decided to take the leap of faith and continue to see Jessica although I was scared to death to really get to know and trust her and to pray the funds would show up. So, here's the really good part: Yesterday I showed up to see Jessica and she was fairly shaking with excitement. She said she'd been counting down the minutes until she saw me. I thought that was a little intense, but whatever. She said that she had news for me. (I think you probably know where this is going.) Apparently, Family Support and Treatment Center was rehiring ERIN to replace Jessica and Nevin! Shut Up! Are you even kidding me? I'm pretty sure I squealed in delight and so did Jessica. Heavenly Father loves me so much that he sent the one person back into my life when I needed her most. Can I tell you how glad I am that I took the leap of faith route and decided to stick with Jessica and pray it would all work out? I am absolutely beside myself with joy and feel the most hope I've felt in months. I'm also deeply humbled and grateful for the blessing and tender mercy Heavenly Father saw fit to give to me.  I think he must love me best.

Certain Death Averted

For Christmas this year that Hillyerie girl got me a teeny tiny flat iron.  It's name is the Baby Bliss Pro.  I needed a teeny tiny flat iron because I have pretty short hair and the flat iron I have is bigger than my hair is long so I keep burning my fingers.  That Hillyerie has a nick for gift giving because she pays very close attention all the time to people's ramblings and then gets them the very thing they said in passing they'd like to have.  I'm pretty sure that's what happened with me and the flat iron.  I took a photo of it to show you just how baby it is in comparison to my regular one:

Something you may or may not know about me is that I'm a "read the instructions" kind of girl.  If I don't read them thoroughly, I at least peruse them to make sure I don't miss anything important.  So, last night I was washing my face, brushing my teeth, and such in preperation for bed.  My Baby Bliss Pro instrucion manual was on the counter and I thought that maybe I'd give it a look see to make sure I knew everything I needed to know about it.  I started with the "IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS" because they are important after all.  Boy am I glad I did because apparently I've been taking my life in my own hands by not following these instructions.  I've taken the liberty of highlighting a few of the ones that I was the most worried about:

#2.  Do not use while bathing or in shower--Now how am I supposed to multi-task to get to school on time if I can't use it while I'm showering, I ask you?
#3.  This appliance should not be used by, on, or near children or individuals with certain disabilities--I think I need a clarification on that one.  What exact disabilities are they worried about?  Siezures, baldness, maybe persons that have had their brain shocked?  If I don't know how do I know if I can really use it?
#7.  Never use while sleeping--This one is my favorite.  I don't think I need to make a snarky comment as it is plenty dumb all by itself.
#9.  Do not use outdoors or operate where aerosol (spray) products are being used or where oxygen is being administered--This one causes many problems.  First of all, I just had electrical outlets installed in my tent for camping trips where I may need to flat iron.  Since I can't use it outside, that was a total waste.  Secondly, I'm worried about all of the hairstylist in the world that have to take their clients outside to flat iron their hair because they cannot have it anywhere that has aerosol spray.  Only guess what...they can't use it outside either, so they are just plain screwed.  And finally, if it cannot be used where oxygen is being used, then all of the poor, catatonic people in the hospitals cannot have cute, flat ironed hair. 
#11.  This appliance is hot when in use.  Do not let eyes or bare skin touch heated surfaces--Only too bad for me because now I can't use it to curl my eyelashes!  What the heck am I supposed to do now since my other heated eyelash curler is about to bite the dust?

As you can see, I just averted certain death by reading these "Important Saftey Instructions."  I hope this public service announcement goes on to save many lives.

Parson Brown

I was listening to the radio as I was getting ready for school this morning and they played this jazzy version of "Winter Wonderland." Only maybe I shouldn't admit this because I don't come off looking so smart. Who am I kidding?  I'm no intellectual giant anyway. Anyway, they sang the part that says:
In the meadow we can build a snow man. 
Then pretend that he is Parson Brown.
He'll say, "Are you married?"
We'll say, "No man, but you can do the job while your in town."
For all of my 34 years I could never figure out what color parson brown was and what that has to do with getting married.  Only just this morning did I realized that Parson Brown was not a color but maybe a preacher.  In which case him being all nosey about marriage makes all kinds of sense!

Survey

So, Mary Kay has come out with these new eye kits.  It's basically eye shadow for dummies.  Depending on your eye color there is a kit with eye colors that are supposed to make your eyes pop.  The kit also shows you how to best apply it.  I'm not exactly an eye shadow dummy.  I know what colors look good and how to apply them.  However, I've never really been able to decide what my eye color really is.  Sometimes I think maybe they are more blue, but then there are days that they look greenish.  Not to mention the days that I'm pretty sure they look hazel.  So, I decided to do an experiment.  I did the look for each of these colors of eyes and took pictures so that I could see which one looked the very best.  I still don't know.  They all look similarly great which makes me think that maybe I do have cameleon eyes.  Since I'm apparently useless at this I decided I'd put it to a vote.  Look at all three and tell me the one you like the very best.  I know that there are a few of you that look at my blog but don't comment.  Today you must comment because taking a vote doesn't do much good if no one votes.

Look #1

Look #2

Look #3

Christmas Photo of the Day

The jury is still out on whether he has been too naughty for Santa to actually come to visit him.  I think he's buttering the fat man up.  Maybe I should start doing a little bit of that myself.

Mouse Babies

I woke up the other morning and when I opened my bedroom door I found this outside of it:

Hank lined up all of his mouse babies like a choo choo for me.  It made me giggle even though it was like 6:00 a.m.  Living with Hank is a little bit like living with a 2 year old.  Only more convenient because I can leave him for a couple of days with a bowl of food and water and a litter box.

-5 Degrees! ...I'm Just Sayin'.

Chick's

On Friday I took a personal day from school.  What wonderful event was happening that I'd take a whole day off of school, you ask?  Chick's, that's what.  My Auntie Kaye sent me an official invitation in the mail asking me if I wanted to go to Chick's and to Midway for a Chistamas boutique.  Really, she had me at Chick's.  The boutique was just a bonus.

See how cute my anutie and I are?  Plus, also, if you ever need to go to Chick's for breakfast (and I highly recommend that you do) this is what it looks like:

 

Plus it's address is something on Main Street in Heber.  You should probably know what kind of an establishment it is too.  I think that there are about 8 booths in the whole place and that's all.  This is their typical clientele:

That is real life manure on his boots with real life spurs.  That's because they are all real life cowboys.  And what kind of food do real life cowboys like to eat?

Incase you didn't notice it is DELICIOUS!!!  That pancake is buckwheat, those hashbrowns are crunchy, and the bacon is pretty much a whole pigs worth.  They have lots of other stuff that I'm sure is equally as wonderful, only I've never tasted it because I love this so much I don't dare mess with it.

Plus, also, on the way to Heber it was about -100 degrees.  It was so cold that the reservoir was warmer than the air so steam came up off of the water.  It was so beautiful that I took several photos:

Plus, also, we went to the boutique, but it was only just a boutique and not Chick's.  If any of you feel like you should maybe go to Chick's you are correct, only you cannot go without me.

Best Thanksgiving Ever

I've been needing to blog for a long time.  Only guess what?  I've not had one tiny minute to do so.  I should be going to bed right now, but I'm going to see how much I can get done speedy quick.  Also, this blog is a little longish, but most of it is photos so you should probably read it anyway.

Let's begin way back on November 22nd.  That is the best day ever because it is my birthday.  You may have noticed since I made Hillyerie blog about me.  I had a most wonderful birthday.  My most favorite part was everone telling me that they loved me.  My almost as favorite part was the fantastic presents I got:

I already showed off my Wicked calendar that Kesk got me, but it is so wonderful, I thought I should put it on again.  I also got Bette Midler CDs from Aunt Kaye because she knows I LOVE Bette Midler.  Hillyerie and Lynne got me the most fantastic red shoes.  I actually got them last month, and I wear them so much I'm about to wear them right out already.  For Christmas I'm going to take them back to their houses and have them fill them with homemade caramels.  Plus, also, that Hillyerie, because she can't help herself, got me the slippers what that I LOVE and the ball.  If you think that ball is a weird gift for a 34 year old, you may be correct, only I've wanted one for over a year.  It is filled with a glittery liquid that is so hypnotizing.  I used to take them away from my students and then sit and then play with them.  Hank likes that present quite a bit too.  We have to fight over it sometimes.  Plus, also, I got a crock pot from my Amy friend.  It was such a thoughtful gift because she knew I needed one.  When I first moved into my current house, I didn't have an oven.  I had to have some way of cooking, so I borrowed Amy's crock pot.  I kept it for a very long time.  Only don't feel too bad for Amy because I always brought what I made to lunch the next day for both of us.  So, that Amy friend knew that I needed one and that I'd love one.  Plus, also for my birthday, Hillyerie had me to her house for dinner.  She made me birthday cheesecake as Ruby is so proudly showing off:

That brings us to Thanksgiving.  I think I quite possibly had the best Thanksgiving ever.  I went to St. George to have it with the Ences.  You may remember them from the blog I did in October about Dad Ence when he passed away.  I have actually spent many a Thanksgiving with the Ences, but it's been a few years.  I caught a lot of guff for it from them, but I blame Inkey:

She went and got married and moved to St. George.  It was hard for me to go down with her when she was already there and I didn't much want to invite myself.  Now I know better and I will not make that mistake again.  I think Inkey will be okay with me blaming her since she knows it's a pretty weak excuse and I'm grasping at straws here.  So, anyway, I went to St. George and it was like coming home again.  St. George has a special place in my heart.  I decided that is probably because every time I go it is to be with the Ences.  I don't have a care in the world because I leave all of that back in Utah County.  I go and eat yummy food, play with Mom Ence, Inkey, and all of her sisters, shop, watch movies, eat more yummy food...I think you get the picture.

After Thanksgiving we drug out the Christmas decorations and got busy decorating:

I love this photo of Inkey's little Aidan.  He looks so tiny next to that monster tree.  These are some photo of Inkey's husband, Phil, helping Holly's littles decorate the tree. 

Plus, also, I took some photos of little Maddux, only I'm not sure what happened to them.  He is such a cutie that I stole a photo of him from Inkey's blog:

I think it's an oldish photo, but he was still exactly this cute last week.  I also told Inkey that after spending time with Maddux and Aidan that I was going to have to expand my list of kids that I love best by two.

On Black Friday no one was too interested in getting up at the crack of dawn to fight people for good deals.  However, around 10:00 a.m. Inkey, Mom Ence, and I did wander down to Krumpet's.  That store has the most wonderful of everything decorating-ish.  Really, I could hardly stand it.  I wanted pretty much everything.  I limited myself to just a few things.  All of them well under $10 and all of them Christmas decorations:

The snowflake and not the stocking is the decoration I got at Krumpet's.  The stocking is one that Aunt Kaye made last Christmas.  It's pretty cute too.

I've decided that the biggest problem I have with going to St. George is that I don't ever want to come back.  Only too bad for me.

Finger Lickin' Good

My house doesn't have an oven.  Actually, that's not quite true.  I have a very spendy Thermador double oven, only I can't use it.  It has no oven racks and nobody can find any to fit.  I know that sounds impossible, but it's true.  I've lived here for a year and a half and still no oven.  It is really and truly the only thing I can think of about this place that I don't love.  My house is practically perfect in every way.  Only good thing for me that my Auntie Kaye loves me and for my Birthday or Christmas or some such winter holiday last year she gave me the money to buy a convection oven.  (On a very important side note my afore mentioned birthday is this Sunday, November 22, beginnig at 4:20 a.m.  Not that I expect gifts and/or doting on, on that day.  I'm just sayin'.)  So, when Auntie gave me the money I did a lot of research and got the perfect one for me.  It's much bigger than any other one I could find on the market.  It bakes, convections, and rotisseries.  It's actually perfect and I've not missed my oven one bit except if I want to cook something in a 9x13 pan.  Which again, I usually don't because I only cook for me and I don't need a 9x13 pan of anything, except for maybe brownies or cake or cream cheese chicken.  One of my favorite things to cook in my oven is rotisserie chicken.  I'd been hankering for one, so last night I made one.  It's turned out to be a fun activity for Hank:

He sat and watched that Chicken rotate forever.  If I were a cat, I'd think I'd want to keep my eye on a moving chicken too just incase it decided to rotate into my mouth.  However, after a while he got tired:

Note that he didn't quit watching, he just decided that he could watch it just as carefully while lying down.  He's pretty much my favorite. 

Plus, also, since this is a story about chicken, I should probably show you how scrum-diddly-umptious it turned out:

And that's all.  The end.

A Pretty Much Perfect Day

Dear "Hurbilly" Anonamous Commentor, This blog is maybe a bit "long winded" for you, so you may want to not read it if you think it will be too taxing to look up all the big words in the dictionary as you read.  I'm just sayin'. 

I feel like I want to blog today, but I'm not sure what to blog about.  I just had one of those days where at the end you feel content and like you accomplished what you wanted to.  Those days seem to be rare because I always want to get a lot more done than I ususally do.  Maybe you should just have a play-by-play of my day and then you'll know about how productive I really was.

6:00 a.m.--This doesn't sound like a pleasant hour at all, but it was because I got up to be on conference call with Julianne, my Mary Kay National Director.  Incase you think she's crazy for having everyone call at 6:00 a.m. or I'm crazy for doing it, she also has a 7:00 p.m. on Sunday night one for those of us that are morningly challenged.  I could have gotten on that one last night but a couple of people I know were yacking my ears off and I missed it.  (You know who you are.)  Good thing I love their guts :)  You probably remember Julianne because it was her good thing idea for me to go to New York and see Wicked.  I love that lady because she has good ideas.  She's always so excited and before you know it you are excited too.  You don't necessarily know why, but it doesn't matter because excited is always a good thing.

7:30 a.m.--I went to school.  I had not been there since last Tuesday because of the death illness that didn't quite kill me but left me mostly dead for about 4 days.  I was somewhat behind, needless to say, but I got caught up lickety split and the kids missed me sorely.  Having a sub for a few days will do that to them.  Sometimes I'm tempted to stay home just so they will love me more when I get back. 

8:00 a.m.--I taught my first period and we did a fun thing that they enjoyed.  They got to work in groups so they hardly noticed at all that they were learning hard stuff that they hate.  It's easier to be happy at school when all the littles are happy too.  Plus, it's nice when you have those days were you feel like you are a good teacher because you came up with an awesome activity.

9:50--I was eavesdropping on my 3rd period class as they worked in their groups.  I am very good at working at my desk while listening to 4 or 5 conversations at once.  It never occurs to them that I'm listening to what they are saying.  A group of 3 boys was having a conversation that involved "that time of the month."  What do 13 and 14 year old boys know about "that time of the month," I ask you?  And furthermore, why would they talk about it?  I don't have an answer because I missed the beginning of the conversation.  I decided that it was a good thing that they didn't know I was listening because them I'm off the hook for having to ask them why they were talking about that.

11:45--Lunch.  Yummy tomato soup in the quietness of my room.

12:15--Lots more teaching until...

3:00--I got a phone call from one very small Roxie that was missing me and wanted me to come and see her.  I'm pretty sure she is my biggest fan.  At least in the under 4 year old category.  It broke my heart a tiny bit.

3:10--I left school and went to see my new Nevin friend. I had a HUGE bee in my bonnet and he was very helpful in how to handle that very pesky bee.

5:15--Hillyerie did not answer her phone even though she knew it was Monday after 5:00, and I was going to tell her about how the bee conversation turned out.

6:00--Delivered some Mary Kay product in Highland.  I wandered around a bit looking for the place, but when I got there I was rewarded with $50.

6:20--Delivered some more Mary Kay product in American Fork.  This time I was rewarded with $70.

6:35--Went to Walmart.  Found a filter for my humidifier and a fun Christmas thing.

7:10--Panda Express orange chicken dinner--Yummy!

7:30--I went to Roxie's house to see her and the other zoo animals that live there.  I was not rewarded with money but with something even better--lots of snuggles and loves from all three animals.  Plus, I managed to hear Family Home Evening AND get my birthday present.  Best idea I had all day was to go there.  This is what my present was:

It is the biggest, most wonderful Wicked calendar ever.  The photos are huge and the actual calendar is small, as it should be.

8:30--Came home, changed in to my warm jammies, and loved on Hank a bit.

9:15--Blogged.

See how full and productive and fun that whole day was?  Now to top it all off, I'm going to snuggle into bed and have a sleep.  Yey me.  I hope you all had a day that was equally as great.