A Contest

I don't usually post about contests... but I entered this one a couple of days ago and it is just too tempting to get another entry! So... if you'd like to win baby stuff for yourself or someone you know, check it out at His Boys Can Swim! And while you're there, you might want to read some of their entries. It is a husband and wife who were not planning on getting pregnant... but they did and they're now chronicling their pregnancy (and unfortunately the difficulties of having a baby while not having insurance as they are self-employed and would have had to buy maternity insurance prior to getting pregnant... which doesn't work if you weren't planning on getting pregnant). Just today, there is an entry called "35 Shocking Facts 18 weeks of pregnany have taught this pregnant girl"... not going to lie, number 18 and 19 made me laugh out loud!

I was asking for it...

Friday I stopped in at Walgreen's and as I walked in I saw the sign for flu shots. I smugly though to myself, "Ha! I didn't get one and I'm fine."

Yesterday evening I wasn't really hungry for dinner (but I ate it anyway... no one can say I'm not a trooper). By the time I climbed in bed I told Reid that my tummy wasn't happy. And by one this morning I was puking in the bathroom. I "was ill" a few more times throughout the night. I called in sick to work (which I never do!) and have been sleeping on and off all day. I did leave the house once to go to the pharmacy and picked up Pedialyte (one of the only things that I can keep down when I'm sick and the only things that taste good). And to make it even worse, Reid is working late today.

That will teach me to stick it to karma.

The Good with the Bad...

This morning everything was going quite nicely. I took a nice slow shower, prepped the house for the dogs being left alone and was feeling pretty nice about how I looked.

I climbed in my car, headed to work... and apparently rolled a stop sign on my way (though in my defense I was clearly NOT going to cause an accident... but I digress).

Unluckily for me there was a state trooper nearby just waiting for me or some other person who was also running a little late and thereby doing something wrong... so I got pulled over.

Luckily for me he just gave me a warning about the stop sign.

Unluckily for me, I seem to have not put my most recent insurance card in the glove box where it belongs. So... I now get to appear in court to prove that I am not a degenerate on the ninth day of April.

Luckily for me if I bring the proof that I have insurance coverage (which is in my house somewhere but obviously not in my car) I can get the whole thing dismissed. What a big pain!

On a side note, as he went back to his car to write up the citation I (of course) frantically tore my car apart hoping to find the stupid card shoved under a seat where it had fallen out of the glove box or some other place. He finally walked back to give it to me (and by the way the amount of paperwork they must have to fill out is incredible... that or they are also banking on the public humiliation you feel having to sit by the side of the road as helping to deter future negative acts and hence take a LONG time to bring you back your stuff). I noticed that his partner got out and walked up to the other side of my car. In that moment I realized that they had to have thought that I was possibly rummaging through my car to find a gun or something else to inflict trouble on the officer... and that, my friends, is why I would never want to be a cop.

The good news... when I got to school there was a letter from the president's office waiting for me... I've been retained for another year! Hooray!

Happiness is...

Flowers waiting for you when you get home....

A good hiding place from your brothers...

A warm spot on the sofa...

A treat....

Or two...

A respirator....

Hey, it's what he wanted!

From our family to yours, happy Valentine's Day!

You Never Can Tell

Yesterday...
was a rough day.
Student problems piled up.
Tears were shed.
People were kicked out of my office.
Worry festered.
And worst of all , problems didn't get resolved.

Today...
I expected the worst.
And was pleasantly surprised.
No major drama.
Problems resolved with no hurt feelings or raised voices.
Work getting done ahead of schedule.

Just shows you... you never can tell what the day is going to bring.

And I'm back...

And tired... Tuesday through Sunday with 30 theatre students... from 8am to 10pm... makes for a teacher who is worn out! I did meet some interesting people, some perspective students and we saw some great theatre and attended some great workshops. But saying that I'm glad to be home is an understatement!

Winston went to the vet today to get neutered and his eye worked on. He apparently came out of surgery very well but they keep all surgery candidates in over-night just to make sure that he is fully recovered. He is really going to hate mommy, as I was away for a week and came home yesterday only to drop him off at the vet today! But then again I'll be the one who picks him up tomorrow so hopefully he'll forgive me because I'm coming to rescue him!

Tater was glued to my side all last night, happy to have his mommy back. Our girls (the cats) didn't seem to care one way or another. That's cats for you! Oh... and I think Reid was happy to see me too!

And I'm Off...

Well, actually I don't leave until tomorrow. But this evening will be filled with packing and spending a little bit of time with my boys (all three of them now) and my girls (just two of those... the genders are now in balance in our home, for the first time since we've been married).

I'm headed to the Rocky Mountain Theatre Festival in Durango, CO tomorrow and will be there until Sunday. It is a festival of colleges in the Rocky Mountain region, which includes Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming. Many of our students are competing in acting competitions, auditioning/interviewing for summer work and we are producing Rabbit Hole while there. It should be a good time (I went last year when it was hosted in Denver and thoroughly enjoyed myself). And this year I have a laptop which means I can keep up with e-mail, other people's blogs... oh yeah, and school work as well!

In a completely unrelated post... we think we might have misnamed the newest member of our family. He might better be named Harry... as in Harry Houdini, since on Friday Reid came home to not one but two beagle faces greeting him at the door. This was despite our sequestering Winston into the guest bathroom with not one but two baby gates stacked on top of one another. The baby gates were still in place. He had gone up and over both of them. So... today he is out in the house with Tater. After debating it for a very brief amount of time ("Do you think we should?" "Yeah, I do."), we decided it was better to come home to a potential mess than a dog with a broken leg 'cause he got it caught in the baby gate! Otherwise he is settling in really well. The last two nights we have had two adults and two beagles in one queen size bed... I'm really thinking that a king size bed is moving up on our birthday list!

And the Winner is...

Using random.org, it selected amyd29 who wrote:

"usually we curl up and watch spongebob with the kids"

I contacted Amy, got her mailing address and will be sending out the hot chocolate gift box soon! Thank you to all who participated (211 comments! Wow!). And now back to my normal ten readers!