Category Archives: just here

Spring Break…

Spring Break…

…couldn’t have come at a better time. I am feeling incredibly burned out. I know I took on too much this year, and with my various roles-teacher, StuCo, mentor, AVID, etc- it’s really hurting me. On top of it all is the stress about the public education system and budget cuts throughout Texas. Rumors are flying, and each one just goes from bad to worse. So I know if I am still in the same place next year, I will need to be cutting back significantly for my own sanity. Even if my kids are as great as most of them are this year. 🙂

Saturday and Monday I did a lot of yardwork. We have two enormous live oak trees that apparently like to shed their leaves in the spring, not fall. Awesome. Allergies are going to start soon because now the new buds are coming out and with them, a fine dusting of pollen. Everywhere.

I had the opportunity to learn how to start a quilt this week. One of my co-workers has tried to get me to sew with her for over a year now. So, Tuesday, I finally took her up on her offer and spent the day starting a quilt. To all you out there who have done this several times… wow. I bow down to you. The process can be intimidating! Picking fabrics, cutting them so precisely, sewing them together just as precisely… it’s scary. But I’m excited. I think the overall quilt will look great.

Quilt Overall

This is how it will look basically overall… Essentially 8×10 squares

Quilt pt 1       Quilt Pt 2        Quilt pt 3

And here are some of the smaller parts- close-ups.

My “Theme” fabric that I used to tie in the remaining colors with was the one with the white-ish background and colorful circle/abstract flowers on it. All the colors are supposed to tie it with that.

Overall, I have really been enjoying the process.  At this point, I’ve managed to sew all the smaller squares into the foursomes, and the first 5 rows have been sewed into their strips. Eeek! I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how much I’ve liked it and how well it’s been going!!!

Yesterday was probably the worst day of the break. Stevie had his first dental. Italian Greyhounds tend to have peridental disease due to the shape of their mouth, and to help with it, we’ve taken to brushing the pup’s teeth around 1x a week. However, we’re not always as good as we should be, so Stevie’s mouth wasn’t looking that great. I knew that we needed to get his teeth cleaned, but it was a disaster.

We were told to bring him in at 7:00-7:30am, and he should be good to go by 4:00. So I brought him in at the appointed time, but then the vets didn’t get to him until 2:00 or 3:00 pm! What is the point of that? Really? Anyway, so I was on edge all day and didn’t even get an update call until they put him under and started the work around 3:30pm. I was furious. They ended up pulling three of his cute little teeth in the front. 🙁

I called them at 5:30 PM, because they still hadn’t called me to let me know if he was ready for pickup. They closed at 6:00, so they said I probably should come in. So I come in, get instructions on care for him and medications, etc, and I pay the expensive bill. Finally, I see my poor, pathetic Stevie, groggy still from the medication and smelling of the anesthetic. I start to carry him out the door to the car, and he starts to bleed profusely all over my hand. Apparently they hadn’t thought to bandage the arm that they stuck the IV in, and so once he started moving a little, he was bleeding. I had to take him back in and ask for them to help clean him up and take care of his poor arm.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, anybody?

I didn’t sleep very well last night; any time Stevie moved, I woke up to make sure he was okay. He’s still not himself today, but at least he’s eating and looking a little better.

Now that my week is almost over, I just wish it could have gone on a little longer. There is always so much I want to do, ad never enough time to get done with everything! I haven’t even looked at anything work related. (Should I really admit that?) I just couldn’t bear the thought. I guess I should do some of it over the weekend before school starts again!

Farewell, Spring Break. Our parting comes all too soon.

Mockingjay

Mockingjay

On a slightly unrelated side note to the last post, this week also was when the final installation to The Hunger Games series came out.

I was blown away by The Hunger Games, and even though I felt Catching Fire was not maybe as clear and well written as it’s predecessor, I have been eagerly awaiting Mockingjay (not mistaken for Mockingbird– as those familiar with the series know) pretty much since I finished Catching Fire.

Of course, a cruel twist of fate made it so that Mockingjay was released my first week of teaching this year, and so I wasn’t able to do my “all-nighter” sort of thing to go get it, then read it til my heart desired to stop. But then again, once I did finish it Thursday, maybe that was all right after all.

Because, even after a couple of days, I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about the end. I’m not saying “HORRIBLE!” I’m also not saying “GREAT!” I’m not even saying “Neutral” because the emotions left in me are NOT anything that could be shrugged off.

I need some of my fellow book nerds to talk this out so I don’t ruin anything for those of you who are planning on reading it!

Writing and the ego boost

Writing and the ego boost

Hey y’all.

First off, EIGHT comments on how cute my hair was? I have to tell you, that completely made my weekend.  Seriously. THANK YOU FOR THE EGO BOOST! We all need that, every once in a while. The validation made the price of getting the hair cut worth it… mostly!

I have spent the past two weeks  in a district writing program. All LA/English teachers are required to take this in the first 3-4 summers of their time in the district, so I just wanted to get it over with.

It was pretty good. I got some good ideas –not TWO WEEKS WORTH of ideas, mind you– that I could probably use here or there.

I also wrote a piece for our “anthology”, as we were sometimes playing the role of writing students. I will share pieces of it on here. It’s fairly long, so I’ll have to break it into parts. It is mostly true to life, BUT give me some lee-way, as I was only 8 or 9 when it happened and I wanted to make the flow work out.

Hair!

Hair!

Happy day…

I finally found a good hair person in Austin. 🙂 And I really needed a haircut.

It was time.

Hair!

New haircut + weight loss = an increasingly hotter Elisabeth! 🙂

(haha… yes, I made a funny :-p)