Category Archives: House

Dec23

Christmas Preparations

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Christmas Preparations

Truly, this is the most wonderful time of the year. (Except summer, of course. But two weeks off from school is pretty awesome, too.)

My house actually looks relatively clean. First time in awhile I’ve had time to rest AND do stuff.

Amazing!

Today I battled the yard for a little bit. I trimmed vines and branches of hibernating plants, creating a pile taller than me. Despite the enormous pile, I’m not even half done. Then, as I was working, Bonnie attempted a jailbreak. While chasing Bonnie during aforementioned jailbreak, I stepped on a dead branch that went through the bottom of my shoe into my foot. Ouch. Hence the “half done” part of the yard.

Yard= 1. Me = 0.

Well played, yard, well played…

Along with adventuring the yardwork, I also made some of my favorite Christmastime treats. Particularly today, I managed to make a traditional French treat: Buche de Noel. Pretty awesome.

Buche 1

Buche 2

Might make a few small adjustments, but after a couple of hours, I’m feeling pretty good about this. Sponge cake, Meringue Mushrooms, homemade frostings. 🙂

Good way to end a slightly crazy day. Can’t wait for Christmas!!!!

May17

I do like teaching, you know…*edit*

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I do like teaching, you know…*edit*

Though, I will be honest that I never grew up saying “My dream job is to be a seventh grade language arts teacher! WATCH OUT, WORLD!”

I kind of fell into teaching. Looking back, I think that part of me knew it a long, long time ago, probably when I started high school. I really saved so much of my English stuff- you know, that stuff you’ll NEVER SEE AGAIN but for whatever reason you can’t let it go?

Hey, look- there’s my project of a travel brochure for 8th grade that I made of southern France  for my French class- 8th grade! Throw it away? No, never? Why not?! BECAUSE IT MIGHT BE NEEDED SOMEDAY! Don’t try to argue with the logic of a packrat.

So, by process of elimination, I kind of realized that teaching was something that just felt… right.

It’s not easy. It’s not, heaven forbid, always fun.

But as things have happened, I have enjoyed teaching seventh grade immensely more than I thought could be possible. It truly is one of the most difficult times of our society, and I’d like to think I help kids make it through this trying period of their lives (I hope, at least… I’m sure some of them would disagree!).

To be honest, I would be thrilled to be in a high school. That’s what I’ve truly wanted since I decided to be a teacher. I’m one of those nuts that gets excited about Shakespeare and mythology. I love the ageless messages and questions about humanity posed by Shakespeare’s works, like Hamlet, Othello, The Tempest. I love how much of our society has founded itself based on the mythology of a culture nearly 3000 years ago, and how you can understand more about marketing and products, about themes and history, if you know your Greek/Roman/Norse/miscellaneous mythology. The Western Civilization culture is fascinating.

But I know that I am where I am for a reason. I’m going to the new school for a reason. It’s not always what I want, but it’s amazing to see how things like this, which originally feel like you are being held back from what you desire, end up being a good thing in the end.

I’ve learned a lot about the Texas education system. I’ve learned a lot about writing and the insane state testing here. I’ve learned more of the expectations for students this way that I would have missed before. I’ve met some neat and wonderful people because of this walk of life.

So it’s not always easy. I do get upset and frustrated. Students can be complete and utter morons sometimes. They can do stupid things that hurt us as teachers. But they can also be amazingly sweet, and impress you that somebody of that age is capable of that sort of maturity.

I may not get the positions I want any time soon. But all I can do is continue to do the best job humanly possible and hope that it proves my talents and capabilities.

***Edit: This is supposed to be a metaphor of my previous thoughts. I was informed how random it seemed, but it made sense in my head. Basically, life seems to give us the ugly cacti… but good things can come from seemingly worthless ones.***

The landscape in Texas can be ugly at times. I hate cactus (pural, cacti?). I think they are ugly, odd, and painful little plants. But even the ugliest things can become beautiful…

cacti     cacti Rose

Apr21

Bad results?

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Bad results?

So, I just had the second nerve-block shot for my head yesterday.

My experience between the two shots has been terrible.

Last week,  a day after my first shot, my head was tender to touch and overall, more painful than before the shot. This and persistent nausea persisted for about 4 days.

Last night, I couldn’t sleep because I was freezing- but every time I woke up, I was covered with sweat. Sorry for the not-so-pretty image. Don’t dwell on it. It’s just like my body lost its ability to maintain temperature control.

Same sort of head pain and nausea, plus just overall exhausted by the lack of sleep.

I am very worried that I am not going in the right direction. One thing that people have hinted at is a potential thyroid problem.

Shout out to my blood relatives- any of you know of someone in the family with migraine or thyroid issues?

On a happier note, I found a snake in the house this morning. I think he’s an Eastern Worm Snake, but generally they are found in Southern Carolina. Apparently, NOT ANY MORE!!  This is the third one I have come across (the others were outside, thankfully) which I think helped me NOT flip out as I saw it slither it’s 5 inch body across my tile floor.

Snake

Kinda cute, for a snake. Apparently they only grow up to 15 inches long and are harmless to humans.

I think he’s growing on me. Maybe Jared will let me keep him and call him Pinky. 😉

Apr13

The head, the yard, and Misc…

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The head, the yard, and Misc…

1) The Head:

I finally went to see a specialist yesterday for my headache issues. I figured since I had been to three previous doctors and still had the problem, it was time.

It was okay, except for the part where after consultation, I had to get a shot. IN MY HEAD.

Basically, I think he told me that I have some version of occipital neuralgia (according to Wikipedia: Occipital neuralgia is a medical condition characterized by chronic pain in the upper neck, back of the head and behind the eyes. These areas correspond to the locations of the lesser and greater occipital nerves.) He’s guessing that this is causing most of the every day issues- except for the occasional TRUE migraines. And the best treatment? Nerve blocker shots.

Here’s a diagram, because I know you’d love it.

Nerve Block pic

Oh! Did you NOT notice that needle thing before you clicked on the picture? Sorry… Anyways, he added a little local anesthetic that lasted a whopping 45 minutes, and the whole right side of my head been hurting WORSE ever since! Is that what should happen? I didn’t think so…

If it’s still bothering me tomorrow morning, I’ll be giving them a phone call. Hopefully though it’s a little pain now, a lot less pain in the future!

2) The yard.

Jared and I are finally tackling our yard. I have some pics I took with my cell phone- they aren’t perfect, but they aren’t too bad either. I am really happy with how things are progressing, especially due to the condition the yard was in when we FIRST got the house.

I’m not complaining… the yard being less than great knocked a good $10,000 or so off the overall price of the house, helping us GET the house. It wasn’t like a messy yard was going to intimidate US though.

So, here’s some small things that I’ve been doing to whip the yard into shape. And we have had a lot of rain too. Good teamwork is happening between Jared, the rain, and I. 🙂

The front:

Front Flowers     Front Flowers 2

All of that was dead. Except the bushes. So all the pretty colorful stuff was either 1) non-existent or 2) died from the lack of water last year. Those bushes are prolific growers though… I have to trim them every couple of weeks! The little tree in the front will be really pretty soon- crepe myrtle is amazing when it blooms!

Then the backyard:

Autumn Sage     Roses

The first picture there is autumn sage and our little fountain. It’s really gorgeous right now. The second pic is of a rosebush and these pretty purple flowers (Irises?) that just popped up. Didn’t plant them, but we’re glad they’re there anyway!

The biggest thing in waging our battle against the chaos of the yard are The Oak Trees. Live Oak trees. And their pollen, which is causing KILLER allergies. If they aren’t shedding leaves, they are blanketing the ground with yellow little pods that cover cars and anything else outside with a fine yellow dusting.

The weather people say it should only go on to May. Only. Not like we’ve been dealing with it since the beginning of March or anything. Though, for all you Utahns and cold weather people are probably WISHING for the weather that tempts the Oaks into spreading their pollenific joy with the world!

Got to count the blessings, I guess.

 3) The Miscellaneous

A)  I get to teach The Lightning Thief and mythology in the final weeks of school! I mean, I am getting around to it this year, and my dream job would be to teach mythology classes at a high school year around! 🙂 I am stoked, and a lot of the kids love the book, so it should be kinda a “Fun” way to end the year.

Which leads us to

B) I’m on the home stretch for year TWO! I am SO loving life right now when I think that I made it this far. I know that part of me is panicking that I ONLY have seven more weeks with these kids… but then I think… SEVEN MORE WEEKS TIL SUMMER!

C) I hate filing taxes. Why would anyone even want that kind of job, where you deal with other people’s finances all the time? Yuck.

D) I can’t wait for summer so I can do more yard and house projects. I don’t know if that just reflects on how pitiful my life is that I am excited to have a break from work to work on my house and yard?

Anyways, that’s what’s up with my life in a nutshell. Gets more exciting, but I won’t bore you with the details.

Told you it was the miscellaneous section, right?

Nov18

Almost to Thanksgiving!

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Almost to Thanksgiving!

Well, it’s been a wild ride this school year.

I am sick (again) today, but bad enough that I am staying home. Left work early yesterday, too. So that does give me temporary free time to write a post.

It’s been beautiful weather here lately. We have so many amazing butterflies in our backyard. They love the flowers that are back there, and I never am back there without at least 15 butterflies to watch. It’s actually “cold” outside- in the 60s. haha. We will be visiting our families back in Utah this time next week, and it’s already snowed there. So far, the 10 day forecast doesn’t go over 50 degrees there! EEK! I think I might just die!  I definitely fit in with the warmer Texas weather. Other than that though, it will be wonderful to visit the family and not be responsible for all the cooking for a week. 🙂

There have been some interesting challenges in my life lately. I really have been enjoying teaching much more this year than I did last year. These kids are much more willing to work and be on top of everything from last year, and I am understanding the system that we are using so much better. But of course, every class has it’s quirks and trying to work around that can be interesting. The challenges this year are very different than the ones I faced last year. But I don’t think I would EVER go back to my first year of teaching!

The only true negative is my health. I am starting to slip back to the bad again, and I am just fighting to keep being happy and healthy. Still investigating ways to prevent the downward kamikaze spiral that seems to happen with my depressive moments!