Moses's Attempted Carjacking

I'm feeling all mushy and sentimental right now.  I need to stop listening to pretty music and go to bed, but I'm still waiting to feel tired.  This could take awhile.

This week has been busy!  Monday night we had small group at Matt and Alana's, which was a lot of fun, although our focus for our discussion that evening was pretty heavy and left me feeling a little disturbed.  It was leaning toward the whole "Where you go when you die" issue, and even as a Christian, I just don't enjoy 'going there'.  But we ended the night on a high note by staying for an hour after small group had ended, chatting with Matt and Alana while enjoying some hot tea.  Wednesday night Mike and Angie came over for dinner and a movie.  Clint made enchiladas and we watched "Date Night," which turned out to be pretty cute.  The kids played in Trin's room the entire time, so ironically the whole evening did wind up feeling like a double-date of sorts.  It was very relaxing and fun.

Friday I conquered our new evil gradebook program, turned my first quarter grades in ahead of schedule, and have been enjoying the three day weekend ever since...although we did have a little incident with Moses.  Friday night Clint went to take the dogs for a quick Jeep-ride around the block (long story) while I waited in the yard. When he turned back onto our street about a block from our home, Moses jumped out of the Jeep.  It was pitch black, so the poor dog just sort of disappeared into the dark.  While Clint situated the Jeep into the backyard, the kids and I stood out on the street, yelling for Moses to come.  I finally could see him in the distance, turning the corner and running toward home.  But suddenly a red car passed, and my heart sank a little because I knew that the driver probably wouldn't be able to see our dog.  I started running like a crazy person, hollering for Moses to get out of the street, which really made no sense because the stupid dog doesn't understand a word I'm saying, but it felt right at the moment.  Luckily the driver came screeching to a stop in the nick of time...maybe she saw the crazy person in her rear-view mirror.  When she opened her door to check on Moses, he immediately jumped into her car and into the backseat, where her teenage son was texting and apparently oblivious to the fact that a 140lbs. dog was now drooling on him.  I managed to drag Moses out of her vehicle and about twenty feet down the road, but then he got loose, tore straight for the woman's car, and jumped into her backseat again.  At this point the woman announced that she worked for animal control (no, the irony here doesn't escape me) and pulled out a big leash.  I started to tell her that our dog was licensed and all that stuff, but then I realized she just wanted to help me get him home.  So we clipped the leash on him and managed to drag him back to the house.  When we walked up the driveway (my bare feet now scraped raw from asphalt), Clint casually sauntered out of the backyard.  I'm pretty sure that my hands were on my hips and my voice was full of mock-attitude as I asked him, "Where the hell have you been?"

Finally starting to feel tired-yay!  Apparently giving a play-by-play of my week is enough to bore me into tiredness.  But before I go to bed, here's the culprit:

Fireworks and Earthquakes

I've been so busy planning for my grandpa's 80th birthday party (and being obsessed with the soul-sucking internet) that I haven't had time to write a decent post. I had a fun, memorable 4th of July, in which my sister describes in more detail than I have the patience to give at the moment. The highlights for me were the beautiful fireworks at Lake Arrowhead, great conversations with blogging friend Damien, the terrible "B"-type volcano disaster flick we watched that night, the delicious breakfast that greeted us the next morning, and the end-of-the-world plan my sister and I sat and concocted on her patio while our hubbies exchanged meaningful glances conveying messages such as "How'd we wind up marrying these lunatics?"

One other memorable incident from the 4th ocurred as a result of bringing Moses with us to Shannon's house. He was *supposed* to be in the yard with Shan's dog and pig (yes, my sister has a pig. In the mountains. Her name is Charlotte. As in "Charlotte's Web," even though Charlotte was actually the spider. They keep calling their pig a dog though. Not sure what else to say about that...). Anyhow, I woke up quite suddenly that morning to Moses sniffing all around me. I couldn't wrap my mind around this fact so early in the morning, but Moses was mysteriously in the house. We learned later that he had pushed his way through two unsecured doors, busted into the house, woke me...who in turn prodded Clint awake with an exclamation of "What the hell is Moses doing in my sister's house?!" That was right before Shannon's two year-old came and collapsed on me with her cup of crackers because she thought I was her mom. So between a 140 lb dog and a toddler suffering from mommy-twin-confusion, I had my hands full that morning. I think Independence Day is slowly evolving into one of my favorite holidays.

The only other thing worth mentioning (and if you live in California, I apologize, because this is getting really old) is we had an earthquake today. It was a very pleasant 5.4. Just big enough to get the chandeliers swinging, but not big enough to cause alarm. I had called my grandma to ask her a few questions concerning my grandpa's upcoming birthday, and I was just leaving her a message when the quake rolled in. I interrupted my message to her with "Uh...Grandma, we're having an earthquake right now..." and, without realizing it, sort of "narrated" the quake for her over her machine as it was happening. She called me back later this evening, laughing at the fact that, even though they couldn't feel the earthquake in Camarillo, she was still able to experience it through my message. Hey, I'm here to serve...and apparently to leave weird messages on people's machines when nature strikes.

My Foofy Mongrel & Other Stuff

I know I already posted today, but I feel like after that last boring, housecleaning-type entry, I need a nice regular one.

Today was a gorgeous day! It was sunny and somewhere in the low 80's. This morning I jumped into my swimsuit and sunbathed for about 45 minutes while the kids played in "Club Trinity and Elijah," which is actually an ugly, bushy tree with a bunch of weird junk tucked in the branches. After sunbathing and lunch, I took the kids skating. It was fun except for the fact that I did more skating than my lazy, technology-saturated children. They kept taking long breaks, and I had to keep warning them that if they didn't spend more time skating, we'd leave. It was a bluff though, because I really wanted the exercise, plus I wanted to practice backward skating more.

After skating, I went to this little hole-in-the-wall fashion shop to look for shorts. I have NO shorts for summer. It's really hard to find decent ones, because everything for the last few seasons has been either too long, or too hoochy-mama. Nothing in between. As luck would have it, I wound up buying three pairs that fit perfectly. The lady in the store helped me a LOT. I've sort of become a regular there, so now when I walk in, she asks me exactly what I am looking for and actually picks out items for me to try on. Nine times out of ten, I end up purchasing whatever she picks out. It's kind of cool; I feel like I have my own personal shopper every time I walk into her store. And the prices are amazingly reasonable.

After shopping, Clint and I went to Starbucks. We took our goodies home and enjoyed them in front of the pond. Now that the weather is warmer, the fish have come out of hibernation, and I just love watching them. Often they get so close to the surface that you can literally just pluck them out of the water. Hopefully the neighborhood cats and birds don't figure out that nifty little trick anytime soon.

Later in the evening, I took Moses for a walk, and then played with my blog. Clint shaved Moses recently to get him ready for summer, and he looks SO funny. He is shaved down to almost his skin, with the exception of his head, feet, and tip of his tail, so now he looks like an enormous poodle. Despite his foofy mongrel-looking appearance, I'm so glad we decided to shave him. He has been acting so much more spry since losing all of that heavy fur (which filled up an entire large trash bag).

Time for me to go...I'm going to try to talk Clint into putting highlights into my hair before he leaves for work. Either that or make me chocolate-chip pancakes. Whichever one he's most willing to do. I'm sort of leaning toward the pancakes.

Update: Clint's making me pancakes! But I'm pretty sure there are some strings attached. ;-)

2010 Slumber Party

I had such an amazing New Year's that words can't even describe how fun it was.  I'm still coming down from my New Year's high.

We spent New Year's Eve at a small get-together in the mountains at my sister's house.  We all agreed in advanced to stay the night, that way we didn't have to worry about driving off a mountain in the dark and possibly (eh-hem--probably) intoxicated.  The people there included: Shannon and Jeremy, Julie and Ryan (long-enduring friends from high school), "Little Shannon" (as we called her as kids because she's three years younger than us; our moms bartended together when we were young), Sarah, my dad, and of course me and Clint.  Shan's father-in-law, Frank, joined us this morning for some breakfast and Wii support, for lack of a better explanation.

When we first got to Shannon's house, we all hung out for awhile, eating yummy food and drinking these delicious lemon drop shots that my sister kept incorrectly making.  Soon after, about half of us started a game of Texas Hold em', which lasted for a few hours and was a terribly silly game because 90% of us were already feeling pretty loopy.  After poker, the kids had put together a karyoke concert for the adults, and given that they had created tickets for us and everything, we had to attend their concert.  At the end of the third number, we realized we only had fifty-some seconds left before the new year.  We all ran upstairs to the outdoor balcony in this blurry, chaotic frenzy, shoving pans and banging utensils into the kids' hands.  That was one of the most memorable moments for me; The count down.  I remember shouting "10!...9!...8!...." while feeling mesmerorized by the beautiful pine trees surrounding us, their tall statures illuminated by the bright blue moon (which, by the way, looked like an ordinary moon and wasn't even remotely "blue," but apparently it was special). 

After the countdown, we came in and started up a game of Cranium.  The molding clay was dried out and unusable, but luckily we were able to use my neice Samantha's "Floam" for our sculpting needs.  During Cranium, Shannon and Julie were partners, Little Shannon and Ryan, and me and Sarah.  With the exception of Julie, no one seemed to be taking the game very seriously, although we were really trying.  I learned that Little Shannon is an excellent sculpter, but Ryan is a terrible guesser.  At one point she had to sculpt "Humpty Dumpty," and you couldn't have asked for a better model egg sitting on a wall.  But he couldn't figure it out.  In the end, Julie and Shannon won the game, and me and Sarah were a very close second.  They were tough competitors.

After Cranium, a few people decided to go to bed (it was already 2:30 a.m.), while the rest of us stayed up to watch Hangover.  The movie has many raunchy scenes, which I don't normally care for in movies, but it was hysterically funny and I am already eager to watch it again.  I was laughing so hard that my sides were literally beginning to hurt.

We eventually went to bed and "sort of" slept.  I slept on the floor of the downstairs media room, which was surprisingly comfortable (the carpet is thick and soft).  I think I would have slept pretty good, except for Samantha had a tooth-ache and kept waking me up.  Also, Shannon's psychotic, overly dependent cat who happens to have attachment issues was staring at me in the middle of the night, and at one point was pawing my head. 

This morning I woke up to good smells wafting through the house.  Shannon and Jeremy had made everyone eggs, sausage, hashbrowns, and coffee for breakfast.  You would think that I would've walked upstairs to a group of bleary-eyed, hungover people, but everyone was talkative and in good spirits.  After breakfast we started playing Wii.  I don't remember much about this except for Frank kept shouting "Bubble!  Bubble!!" over and over.  After Wii, we plugged in Trin's karyoke machine to the upstairs T.V. and everyone enjoyed some "sober karyoke" (smashing your hands over your ears counts as "enjoying," right?).  For some crazy reason, even though we were all in our jammies and completely sleep-deprived, running on coffee fumes, this morning was just as fun as last night.  I didn't want to go home today.  I would have been perfectly content staying at Shan's house all day.

But of course, going home was an inevitability.  When we got home, we discovered that Moses was fenced in at our neighbor's house.  Our neighbors have eight kids, and four of them were outside playing with our dog.  It was quite the scene.  Our front yard was torn apart; our peppermint candy decorations were knocked over, our solar lights were torn out, and there were giant bear prints (okay, dog prints, but same diff with this dog!) going into our pond.  We found out right away from a different neighbor that Moses had busted out of the yard this morning and waited for hours in our front yard for Clint and I to come home.  This neighbor said that he thought that Moses was on a chain, because he was like a statue in the front yard, sitting there, refusing to budge.  He said that he had never seen anything quite like it and was very impressed by how disciplined our dog was, not to take off.  Of course, this was before Moses finally gave up on us and wreaked havoc in our yard.  All in all, there were three different sets of neighbors who played a role in trying to get our dog under control before the kids across the street finally housed him in their yard until we got home.  Alexis, the oldest, was so sweet.  She told me "We knew we had to keep Moses safe until you got home, because we know how much you love that dog."  Ever since Moses' antics, I have been showering him with affection.  He's asleep at my feet now, content that his family is home.  I guess next time I decide to leave for two days, I'll either have to take him with or get him a dog-sitter.

I guess I had better end this very long and rambly entry now.  Happy 2010!

Costume Drill

It is such a gorgeous day! Even though it's evening, it's about 72 degrees outside and sunny. I love the in-between seasons in the desert...the weather is just perfect (when it's not windy).

I just got back from taking Moses on a walk and he did so good. He's getting better and better each time we go out, which I guess is what is supposed to happen. I'm not used to actually investing time to train a dog. It's one of those idealistic things that I always say I'm going to do, but never wind up doing. But for some reason, with Moses, I've actually been sticking with it. I think there might be two reasons why I feel more committed to the "Get this Damn Dog Trained" Project: First, his size...I have this near-panicky urge to get him under control before he outweighs me. In my mind it's becoming this race against time. Secondly, Christmas is at my house this year, and I want to present my big beautiful behaved dog to my family, because where it stands right now, he's pretty much going to pummel the kids and bull-doze poor Grandma to the ground. But at the moment I feel really excited about Moses' progress, especially on the leash. Today a pit-bull got away from his owner while we were on our walk, and Moses handled it very well. He showed a little interest, but didn't try to drag me. He kept right on walking, so he gets an "A" for citizenship for today. The pit bull started to come toward us, but changed his mind at the last second and ran down the street.

Today was entertaining. It was Halloween Dress-Up Day at my work, so I went ahead and dressed up as a cheetah...or it may have been a leopard. Some sort of spotted cat. I don't care to dress up, but the kids love it when I do, so I try to be a good sport. I'm not exactly crazy about Halloween, but I have to say that the costumes this year were pretty adorable and harmless. The girls were dressed up mostly as fairy tale characters, fairies, and lady bugs. The most popular boy costume this year was a banana...there were a lot of bananas running around (did Wal-Mart have these on sale this year or something?). It was refreshing to see students veering away from the morbid, gory costumes. I especially expected to see a ton of vampire costumes due to the popularity of "Twilight," but there were hardly any.

The most humorous part of the day occurred in the middle of 6th period when suddenly the fire alarm went off. I was immediately surprised; a reaction any teacher experiences when there is an "unscheduled" drill. So we all had to file outside and march to the outer fields, costumes and all. It was like a costume parade, but the participants were much more confused (and let's face it, happy to get out of 6th period). The poor 8th graders were supposed to be at lunch, but they were required to go out into the field as well, so they wound up having to eat their lunch during 7th period and it seriously messed up the rest of the day. We found out later that the fire alarm was pulled because of a dry ice experiment that went awry in one of the labs.  I'm sure I'll get the whole story on Monday.

After school let out, I stayed after to chaperon for the Halloween Dance. It was fun and the D.J played great music, but it wasn't as fun as the last one because I didn't have Trin and Elijah with me. When they're with me, I have an excuse to dance and get crazy. Without them, I'm actually limited to strictly chaperoning, or otherwise I'm just the weird teacher shaking it by myself...and not even well since, really, I am a terrible dancer.

Bad Exercise & Good Hearts

Everyone around me is sick. Clint has had a nasty cold for a week now, Teri and Carey cancelled out on tonight's dinner because they're sick, our brother-in-law is sick, Elijah has a cold...I feel like I'm the "last [wo]man standing." Although it was weird, because I have felt great all weekend, so I decided to take Moses for a jog this evening. But by the time I got home, I felt really awful. My lungs were burning and I couldn't stop coughing. This was odd, because the route wasn't new to me--it's right under a mile and I've jogged it several times before. But you would've thought this was my first time, the way I reacted. Now, three hours later, the burning-in-my-chest feeling is gone, but I am still coughing and my lower back aches. Isn't exercise supposed to make you feel good and energetic, not crappy and yucky?

Today was sort of boring, but also sort of pleasant. We went to church this morning, and then ate lunch at Daikoku. It's just like Maan Fu, where the chefs cook your food on a hibachi grill fixed right at your table. We aren't normally in the habit of eating Japanese cuisine (usually we just go to BK, or we may get some cheap Chinese food), but Clint had a coupon that was getting ready to expire. It was fun because the kids were with us this time, and I loved seeing their reaction to all the Chef's fanfare in presenting our food. They especially loved the onion "volcano," although Elijah dove under the table when fire started spewing out of it. I took a picture of the volcano and will have to post it later...it's pretty impressive. After lunch we came home and I graded until about five. Following this I went for the above-mentioned jog in which I just about hacked up a lung.

I am getting more excited for the NaNoWriMo competition, although I still feel about 99% sure that I won't complete my 50,000 words. I hate to be so fatalistic about it, but I just don't have the support available that I think a task like this will require. I'm not upset about this--it's just a fact. Despite my pessimism with the whole thing, I do think that NaNo is going to be a great thing for me. If I don't make the word count, at least this challenge will get some of those creative juices flowing. My novel right now is listed as "youth/young adult," but I'm pretty sure I'm going to be changing that soon. Although I plan to feature some younger characters, I really want the story to be more about the teacher (and no, she is NOT me--she's going to be much more quirky in a lovable sort of way). Several of the other characters are mapped out in my head, and I just love them. Well, some of them I dislike, but they're the type you "love to hate." I've also mapped out the setting, which was pretty easy, because I just modeled it after George Elementary School, located on the old George Air Force Base. It has that perfect, run-down, dilapidated atmosphere that I'm going for. But I have no idea how the story is going to begin, and worse, I have no idea how it's going to end. This is a major problem for me, because I don't know if I can even begin to write a story if I have no sense of direction. I'm just hoping that between now and November 1st, I get some kind of "a-ha!" moment and figure it all out.

Shannon stole my thunder by mentioning it on her blog, but I just wanted to write briefly that Kristyn and I are tentatively broaching some kind of truce. It began with her adding me to her "writing buddy" list for nanowrimo, and then she addressed my sister and I publicly on her blog in a way that really warmed me. Actually, I'm not sure what order those events occurred in, that was just the order I discovered them in. Anyway, Kristyn also stated that she has read every word of my blog, which again, warmed me in a way I can't really describe and don't really understand. Clint can't even read my blog with any kind of regularity (I think he's read three entries), so for someone (who I happened to hurt and offend, mind you) to not only take the time to read it, but to refer to it as beautifully written--that was just the most thoughtful thing she could have done. The situation between me and Kristyn has left me feeling inspired by the human capacity for maturity and forgiveness. Of course, now I have to stop making third-person references about her, because it's just weird, now that I know she's reading this (Hi Kristyn, by the way).

Teaching in Jammies

Remember that post a couple of days ago where I mentioned that Clint and I were going to turn off all technology and spend time "connecting" with eachother? Well, Operation "Spend More Quality Time Together" went pretty well. Here's a transcript of our conversation:

--"So babe...how was your day?"
--"Pretty good! How was yours?"
--"Good!" (long pause) So...." (longer pause) "What do you want to talk about?"
--(shrug) "I don't know..." (long pause) "So..." (painfully awkward pause) "Are we allowed to
get on our laptops now?"
--(laughing) "Whatever woman."

So we lasted about forty seconds, but it's baby steps, you know? I'm sure for our next attempt we'll get to a full minute, but I don't want to be too optimistic.

Moses is getting so big. The bigger he gets, the more irresistible he is to me...I just love giant dogs. When we were in Lake Arrowhead on Sunday, I got to see an almost full-sized Newfoundland, which is rare...you don't see a lot of newfs in CA. This one was adorable; he was chocolate brown, which was the original color I wanted (I wanted a furry brown one so I could name him Chewbaca). He was a beast of a dog, but his feet were the cutest things of all. At that size you could really see his webbed toes, and it almost looked like he had flippers instead of feet. I don't think Moses will wind up with those giant flipper-feet, but he is going to be a huge mass of a dog when he reaches his full size. Thank goodness he's finally doing better on a leash. I took him for a nice long walk yesterday and he only drug me for about a block. After that I actually got to lead, which was cool. Except for he has this habit of lurching forward every time a car passes, and I need to break him of this soon before I wind up flat on my face, eating asphalt.

Halloween is getting closer, much to my chagrin. I hate Halloween. We are supposed to go to an overnight Halloween party tomorrow at the dojo, but I keep going back and forth as to whether I want to go. I have an adorable leopard costume that my friend from work is letting me borrow, but I always feel awkward and a bit silly when I'm wearing a costume. I feel like a kid playing "pretend" or "dress up"...a kid who is just a touch too old for such games. Costumes, in general, make me feel uneasy. So do the decorations...every part of the holiday leaves me feeling unsettled. At the same time, a lot of our really good kickboxing buddies are going, and I know it's going to be a fun crowd. If we don't go then we're probably missing out on a really great time, not to mention missing out on a chance to build some fun memories with the people in our class.

Speaking of dressing up, today was "Pajama Day" at my work. I love wearing jammies to work because they are so comfy, but the downfall is that it actually makes me feel more sluggish. Weird psychological thing, I guess. Plus, it's really hard to discipline adolescents on such days...apparently trampeding around with froggy slippers on your feet makes you less threatening of an entity.

Insomnia

Day two of still appreciating my life and my work. Imagine that. The effects of that novel are lasting longer than I expected...of course, I'm still in the process of reading it.

Because of the bad economy, Clinton has been stuck working the graveyard shift for the last several months. I don't mind so much, because it pretty much feels the same as him working the day shift: he sleeps while I'm at work, and he's up and ready to go by the time I get home. Plus, both he and I are just so incredibly blessed that we still have our jobs. My school district laid off 181-and-a-half teachers at the end of the 08/09 school year (yeah, I don't get the "half" either), and I still remember that feeling of holding my breath, wondering if I was going to receive one of those dreaded pink slips. I remember all of us teachers running to our boxes the day they were issued. I remember the feeling of joy when my box was empty, followed shortly after with a sinking feeling of dismay when I realized two of my really good friends at work received a pink slip. All of us teachers wore pink that Friday to express our support for all the teachers who were laid off (my school site had eight total), and we even marched during a "Pink Rally" to try to raise public awareness of the budget crisis in California's education.

Clint's work, likewise, has also had many cuts. Luckily he doesn't work the type of job where strong attachments to fellow employees form (at the railroad they pretty much work with different people every day), but the many lay-offs have resulted in a shrinking bubble around him, and has left him with the lousy graveyard shift.

Again, I'm just grateful that he still has a job, but the problem is that I'm discovering that I can not sleep at night without Clint being home. I don't have an independent bone in my body and I am SO paranoid. Every little noise makes me jump...the fridge can't even come on without me going into defense mode. I've tried everything to sleep better. I sleep with a 9 mm every night, and that definitely helps. I don't keep it under my pillow, because it creates a hard uncomfortable lump, and plus I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea of an explosive device right under my head. So I keep it under Clint's pillow, next to me, with the strap of the holster left unbuttoned for quick access. But the problem is that the kids sleep on the opposite end of the house, and I'm constantly worried about them. I mean, that's great that I'm armed, but what if some predator broke into my house and went to their side of the house? So I've tried moving the kids into my room (yes, I realize I'm sucking them into my unhealthy paranoia), but let's face it--it's impossible to get even ten minutes of sleep with a nine-year-old and a five-year-old. That strategy only lasted a few days. Next I tried sleeping with my giant dog. This actually works pretty well except for Moses is still technically a puppy, so by 2 or 3 a.m. he has to go potty. And his way of letting me know is by slapping his huge paw on my bed over and over again and growling (a cute frustrated growl, not a mean growl). It just doesn't make for a very restful night. I could use sleeping pills, but I won't for two reasons: 1. I don't like to take anything that my body risks becoming dependent on, and 2. I refuse to knock myself out when I am soley responsible for the kids.

So I don't know what to do. I'm hoping Moses' bladder grows bigger soon so he can stay in the house longer, but I have a feeling that even when he can sleep in the house full-time, I will still find reasons to be paranoid.

Moses & Spiders

I feel so happy right now and for no logical reason! I cuddled with my big dopey dog earlier which is impossible to do and not feel happy. Moses is the most unconditionally loving creature on the planet. He wraps his furry arms around me and hugs me like a person. He is so big though and growing so fast that he doesn't know how to keep up with his own size. He clumsily lumbers around, plowing into things, tripping over his own legs and hitting his head and tail on the furniture. He has absolutely no concept of personal space or boundaries. The main reason we chose Moses was because I wanted a large breed dog, but both Clint and I wanted to make sure that we didn't choose a dog that was too hyper and energetic. We don't do very well with bouncy dogs, especially big ones. So we researched the various large breeds, and according to the Dog Encyclopedia, Newfoundlands have an energy level of two out of five (one being the lowest). But they have an affection level of five out of five, get along great with kids, etc. So we thought, this dog is perfect for us! Little did we know how challenging he would be. He's one giant fur ball, so every time I let him in the house he's a big muddy mess. He LOVES water and will find ways to use even the smallest water dish (not to mention toilets) as a personal swimming pool. He's a sloppy drinker, he sheds a ton, he eats a mountain of food a day, he sneaks into your shower, he steals packs of gum, there's nothing he can't reach, and that energy level of two? My ass! This dog is hyper ALL the time. But he is absolutely irresistible so I put up with all of his nuances just to have him look at me with those adorable, lovable, eager-to-please puppy brown eyes.

I cleaned the house tonight and it was so exhilarating, but only because I listened to my i-Pod while cleaning. It's been so long since I have had good music to listen to (long, boring story), so I sort of forgot how much music lifts my spirits. Ever since I finished cleaning tonight, I have been in such a good mood.

My classroom was full of baby spiders two days ago. Not just a few...hundreds. Apparently a nest of them hatched in my room. They were so tiny (and I have to say it, kinda cute), it was like junior arachnophobia. So campus assistants took care of them while I took my class to the library. Later I thought the problem had been resolved when suddenly one of my students got upset because there were baby spiders on the pencil sharpener. So now those ones are gone too, other than an occasional straggler. On the same day a dying roach also appeared next to my desk. It was upside down wriggling its legs. This left me frozen in place because for some reason I'm freakishly scared of cockroaches (I'll take spiders any day of the week, but keep the roaches), so one of my students had to save the day and discard the roach in a trash can located practically in Siberia. Then later that same day a bee flew into my room. I never find this to be a big deal except for the fact that there is always at least one kid who is allergic. But this isn't the first time I've had a bee fly into my classroom and I'm really fast at catching them now. So I just caught him really quick in a sugar jar and had my T.A take the bee away from nearby classrooms. Only problem was the bee didn't want to leave the jar because, come on, it was full of sugar.

I stayed after school today for the school dance. Trinity and Elijah were with me the last hour, and we had so much fun dancing. Elijah was the life of the party. I don't know when that kid decided to emerge from his shell, but he went crazy dancing for nearly an hour. He was the center of attention and the junior-highers kept surrounding him and clapping and cheering him on. He was so darn cute.

Second wind officially just left and I'm exhausted. Off to bed!