Confession Time

I've been watching Australian footy.  To be specific I have watched the highlights of the Grand Final between the Sydney Swans and the Hawthorn Hawks. I think this may be their equivalent to the Super Bowl.  (Pictures from google)



Why I am watching this, I really have no clue.  But I now know more about footy than I ever thought I'd know -which probably still isn't much.  

But here are my general observations:

- The whistle seems to blow a lot - it's blowing almost constantly in fact, but most of the time, the players continue to play.  Why?  How do they know when to continue playing through a whistle and when to stop play?  

- There seem to be no rules as far as roughness goes.  They are allowed to tackle, scratch, claw, trip, push, etc...and all without a bit of protective gear on.  To me, it appears to be a cross between American football and hockey but there are no helmets, no pads, nothing.  It's incredible that there are not eight broken bones in each game.  Although I did see three guys walking around with blood dripping down their faces.  



- From what I can determine from my hour of watching, the "goal" of the game seems to be to kick the football through the goalpost which results in 6 points.  

- It appears as if you can kick, toss, push, or pretty much advance the ball in any manner to your teammates.  You can also push, tackle, trip, or try any maneuver to prevent your opponent from advancing the ball. Pretty rough and barbaric.  

- I did not see any penalties called.  Maybe they have penalties but just didn't show them in the highlights?  Honestly, some of the things I saw would have been flagged in the NFL for unnecessary roughness!  True!

- You seem to be able to attempt kicking a goal from any distance contested.  However, I think if you kick the ball to your teammate and they catch it cleanly inside this certain arc, then you are awarded a free kick...which they seem to always make.

Who won?
The Hawthorn Hawks (The brown and yellow team) And I'll probably never watch footy again.  

Oh My

***This post is mostly for C.J.***

Just Looky what we found at Target!

Auntie Ann's...straight from your local mall to Target

I was skeptical at first...I mean how often do companies sell their products in stores and they taste nothing like the original?

But these are pretty, PRETTY, dang CLOSE to the real thing.

comes with its own bag of pretzel butter and salt

We are hooked here.  

Yum

Renovations

The apartment complex I am living in is undergoing some extensive renovations.  New concrete has been poured on the walkways and steps and the parking lot has been resurfaced.  

They are also completely renovating and updating the apartments as people move out.  I was fortunate enough to get one of the very first renovated apartments.

Apartment Two in my building was vacated a few weeks ago and I've been watching as they tore the carpets and flooring out and disposed of old appliances and brought in new ones.


And then there was this:

On the front lawn.  It stayed there for a couple days.

More Squirrel Watching

I've always loved dogs.  According to my mom, I would crawl into the living room when I would hear the Lassie theme song on the television.    

So I guess it's kind of surprising that Ollie is only the second dog I've owned.  

I got my first dog when I was about 11.  He was a Sheltie...a great family dog,  and a herding dog at heart (since Sheltie is short for Shetland Sheepdog).

Ollie is completely different...he is a great family dog too....but he is a terrier - a hunter at heart. He sniffs the ground and picks up scents and he hones in on moving little critters and stalks his prey. If we are outside or on a walk, that means sneaking up on his intended victims and then taking off after them in a full out sprint. Don't worry, he never catches them.

 But if he is inside, he can only watch from afar and dream of the hunt.  

He becomes so focused on his targets and starts shaking and breathing heavily.  Yesterday morning he hit the jackpot when three squirrels were frolicking outside our kitchen window.

Squirrel Watching

Fall is in the Air

Football season means fall... or maybe fall means football season.  

But whatever...I'm trying to boycott the NFL right now because of all the illegal activity that exists within the league.  And my college team of choice is once again showing that they have no respect for their coach by continuing in their undisciplined and sloppy play.  So...not so much fun this year.

The leaves are just starting to change color.  Too bad the beauty of fall is eventually replaced by the ugly barren wasteland of winter.  

Haven't been able to locate my fall decorations since moving and because this is an interim move, I don't feel like going through a million boxes to find them so...Dollar Tree to the rescue
A few dollar decorations and I am fine.  

That's all I really have room for anyway right now.

A few pumpkin scented candles, some pumpkin spice coffee creamer, and some hot apple cider complete the fall feeling mood.

New Shoes

I'm not the only one who got new shoes (and socks) last week 

Sound Check

Disclaimer
***although this story took place this morning, something similar happens on a nearly daily basis.***

When I taught 4th grade I was a stickler for students listening to my directions.  I did not allow them to hold pencils while I was talking, insisted their eyes were on me (or on the area of the assignment we were discussing), I would ask if there were any questions, and if not, they could start working on their assignments. 

Anyway...middle schoolers are WAAAY different.  They have perfected the art of looking right at you and completely ignoring the fact that words are coming out of your mouth.  

Which brings me to the story:

Setting: Computer room this morning about 9:15
Class: 8th Graders
Assignment:  Type out two Bible verses and edit them using shortcuts in Microsoft Word.

Before beginning I made a point to stress that copy and paste was not allowed!!!  My words exactly were, " I do not want any copying and pasting.  In 8th grade we go from keyboarding practice once a week to four times a year so consider this typing practice."

A couple minutes later I am walking around the room and notice two girls are almost finished with their editing.  I have some fast typers in the class but not fast enough to type two Bible verses in two minutes....one of the verses was about 10 sentences long.

The following conversation ensued:

Me:  "I know you could not have typed those in such a short time...did you copy and paste those into your document?"  

One of them:  "yes...were we not supposed to?"  

Que the 1 minute talk where we discuss what the directions I gave were - which they obviously did not listen to at all!!!

I then walked about 6 feet away and came upon two boys who were....what else...copying and pasting.

Me: "Are you copying and pasting those Bible verses into your document?"

One of them: "Yes...why we can't?"

The other one: Looks at the first boy as he erases what he has copied "I told you we probably couldn't do that."  

Me: "Well... what were the directions?"

The both look absolutely clueless.  

A boy sitting nearby "Dude, she said we don't keyboard much in 8th grade so we should consider this typing practice."

Sheesh, at least someone listened.

My Favorite Shoes

Remember a couple years ago when I found these shoes?

Here is a picture for those too lazy to open the link




They now look like this:

Over the summer I noticed the lacing was starting to rip on the left shoe.  I was heartbroken because I love these shoes.

It was time for some new shoes so I went to the local shoe store where I had purchased them to look for new shoes.  I saw a few possibilities but nothing that screamed, "I have to have those!!!!" 

So I kept on looking.  I walked down the aisles of shoes on sale...not really expecting to find anything.  I fully expected to waste time looking around and then return to pick up the shoes that were "acceptable."  

And then I saw them!!! The shoes!!!  On sale!!! I knew it was meant to be.  A match made in heaven.

Tramadol Update

Next week will mark one year taking Tramadol...it will also mark one year since I have been to see a doctor of any kind (besides the ER when I had the flu).

This is incredible when you consider that the previous two years I went to three different specialists, had two different procedures, and visited the doctor on a monthly basis.

I am still 99% pain free.  The only rough spot I have had was at the beginning of June when I had consistent increased nerve pain in my right leg.  I began taking five pills a day instead of the four I had been taking and that has worked wonderfully.

Sometimes the pain seems like it was so long ago and then sometimes, I'll get a twinge of pain and remember the constant, throbbing pain like it was just yesterday.  When that happens I think to myself, "how did I live with that much pain?"  I guess there was no other way to do it...I just carried on day to day and tried to enjoy it as best I could.

Now, I will catch myself marveling over the fact that I don't have any pain!!! I still sometimes can't believe it.  I have lost 15 pounds this year just from being able move and exercise again.  

I have not been to a doctor in a year but I do have a yearly physical scheduled for beginning of October.  I see no reason why the doctor would want to switch medicines at this point.  

Fibromyalgia was no match for Tramadol.

School for Zack - Finally

Well...sort of.  

The dvds finally arrived yesterday 

and I had fully intended on having him start today.

BUT

the discs are pretty confusing and most of the files open with programs that are not installed on his laptop and need to be downloaded (and each download has been taking 15 minutes).

He was able to open a word document and write a one page summary of his testimony for Christian Living class.  And tomorrow I will have him do research for a report he needs to write for Science.

But I have set a more realistic starting date of Monday which will give us the weekend to examine just how this curriculum works.

September This and That

It's September and it seems like the weather just got the memo a couple weeks ago that it's summer.  Of course, this coincided perfectly with the start of school.  Even with new computers, my room at school is as hot as ever! So that makes things fun.  

The apartment complex I currently live in decided it would be a great time to remove and replace all the cement - the sidewalks, path, and steps.  Not a huge deal except in the process they dug up all the surrounding grass leaving nothing but dirt...which, of course, turns into mud when it rains.  Which, of course, it has been doing lately.  Muddy dog paws and footprints on my new carpet makes one unhappy mama.  I bought some carpet cleaner on Friday evening and it's half gone already.  

Zack and I had big plans to order a pizza and watch the Gator game on Saturday night.  I even took measures to order extra channels from a cable package.  When I arrived home with the pizza at game starting time, I discovered the game was delayed because of lightning in the area.  Zack and I checked on weather.com and noticed the only bad weather was directly over Gainseville and wasn't really moving anywhere anytime soon.  Finally two hours later, even though it was still raining pretty hard, the lightning stopped and they decided to start the game.  Idaho kicked off to Florida who returned it 75 yards to the 10 yard line and that was it...more lightning in the area and the game was cancelled.  Seriously disappointing.  

Zack has yet to start school and he won't be starting yet tomorrow because his classroom DVD's haven't arrived yet - despite paying an extra $8.00 for 2 day delivery so they would be here by tomorrow.  After ordering and paying for the curriculum I discovered because he was in high school he needed to be in their accredited program or he would only be eligible to receive a GED and not a high school diploma.  So needless to say the accredited program required different dvd's which we are still sitting here waiting for.  He will have lessons, homework, and teachers he will need to submit his work to for grading.  All of his teachers have already contacted him via e-mail.  

I am missing my boys every day.  Something about being so close to being near them makes every day seem longer.  Maybe that doesn't make sense but it's the best way I can explain it.  

So that's what is going on lately...we are boring, boring, boring people!