4-16-07

Weekend Wrap up

Friday: Taught every second of the day, as in I was up there talking the ENTIRE day. Picked up Boots (oh, and Ross) from PharrOut offices. Came home and fell deeply in love with Boots. Went to Nic and Kate's for birthday celebration.

Saturday: Watched the Remus. Met my mom's new puppy. Took a long nap. Went to a cookout to see Jeremiah and Emily (from Colorado, now off to Florida) and played Chicken Foot. Came in second place to Jennifer Murphy. Came home. Try to go to bed but couldn't stop watching Walk the Line. Finally got to bed.

Sunday: Went to the gym. Went to Lowe's to buy tomato plants and other various sundries. Got Arby's for lunch. Rode bikes to church. Got cussed out by someone who doesn't seem to understand that bikes are actually supposed to be ridden on the road, but whatever. Enjoyed church, even though there were no babies to take care of. Rode bikes home. Ate some dinner. Now I'm doing some laundry.

Tomorrow is the day of blogger silence in honor of the victims at VT. Hope to hear from all of you on Tuesday!

Cuteness....is.....crippling..........(thump)

More Fun with Photo Booth

I call this one "Conjoined Bliss."

I would show you the rest but I don't want to blow my wad, as some would say.

Very little work is going to get done wit Boots's arrival.

Don't you wanna get with this?

Good News

My school has been recognized as a Distinguished Title I School by the State of Virginia. This is very exciting and the superintendent had really nice things to say. It was a very happy morning, friends.

Boots, I love you.

Boots is here and I love him. He is a him because the kitten would be a him. You know, the kitten I can never get because of Ross's black black heart.

I had been thinking about Boots all day. It was arranged for him to be delivered to Ross's office to ensure his safety. However, all I worried about all day was what Ross was going to do to him.

I arrived at around 4:15 to pick him up and actually met River City Rapids who was there being interviewed with Ross. Even though I know his name is John, I will only ever call him that to his face, I'm sure. Ross and I still call Jorge from This Mudi Life "Hor-hey" rather than how it's actually pronounced like "George" because, well, I'm a jerk and I'll call people what I want.

Anyway, Boots is gorgeous and delicious. He has made realize how much Windows requires you to work against your intuition to get things done. Sometimes it's hard to figure out how to get Boots to do things because he makes TOO MUCH SENSE.

Instead of a crazy cat lady, I'm going to be a crazy MacBook lady.

Just all kinds of wonderful nonsense

I got into a stand-off with a K or 1st grader today. As in the staring contest variety. It's really quite shocking how gutsy some of these little ones are. And how I seem to be able to transform a stubborn child into a mooshy pile of slobbery tears just by looking at him. I kinda feel bad about it. No I don't.

I'm having trouble sleeping because I'm so excited about the arrival of my new, beautiful, delicious computer. I am naming him Boots because that's what I always wanted to name a kitten if I ever got one and I know I'm not getting ever because Ross has a black, black heart. So, the MacBook will have to do. I'll take pictures of Boots and post them as soon as he arrives. It's crazy because I'll *use* Boots to post *pictures* of Boots. It's a crazy, upside-down world we live in.

I got to have burritos tonight. We (meaning me and my awesome friends) call them "byou-reetohs" (as in with a long u) because my friend Matt's wonderful mother calls them that and I think it's effing adorable. I don't know if she realizes that she calls them that, but I love it. I think of her whenever I eat them...which is a lot. I know you're reading this, Nancy Schneider and we love and miss you!

Tomorrow is Friday and that is fabulous beyond compare. Except we have to dress nicely because of some top-secret visitors at our staff meeting. This could be extremely exciting or extremely anti-climactic.

Jane gave me a pattern and some yum yarn to knit this. I seem to have lost all patience for, well, everything really and I've had a hard time starting it. The yarn is so thin I almost can't handle it but it's so nice. Maybe I should double it up. Jane? Help?

Saturday morning is the day of Remus. He will be arriving at my house early for much playing and snuggling. My mother will also be bringing her new puppy over. A baby AND a puppy. Ross will be running for the hills and I will collapse from all of the heaven in my house.

Blah blah Ross is famous

Just kidding, I'm very proud of him for this. Apparently all of the news stations are all up in his grill about interviewing him. He was on channel 6 last night but you probably couldn't see him, what with him wearing an orange T-shirt and sitting in front of an orange wall. I think I've convinced him to actually shave his neck for the next appearance at the end of the week.

Congrats, hubs & co.!!!

Update-o de Life-o

Sooo I didn't get the integrator job. I was upset for all of 2 minutes because I realized it was really a cop-out and the safe route for me to take. If I want to branch out, I need to really branch out.

What was waaaaay harder than I thought was telling my wonderful principal that I'm still not coming back next year even though I didn't get the job. She had such wonderful things to say to me, that she was sorry to see me go but was proud of me and excited for me. It's going to be really hard to leave the people I work with, but it needs to happen. At this point I really want to come back to teaching at some point, but I just need a break.

Thus the frantic job search begins. It seems that none of the people I've applied with are as frantic to hire me as I am to get hired. Oh well, someone will realize how fabulous and smart I am at some point. All I can say is that last week gave me some major perspective on life and this whole situation is in no way a bad one.

Keep your little fingers crossed, Internets!

SO VERY EXCITING.

Ross does not like to spend money. At all. Even on necessities, i.e. milk and bread. He figures there is just something else in the pantry to eat. He doesn't understand that I am from Richmond and if you don't have milk and bread, you might as well throw yourself off the Mayo bridge while yelling "It's Po-white!" and "It's not the heat, it's the humidity!"

However, I came home from working out today (2 hours, friends. 2 hours of the working out.) and Ross said, "Do you want to buy you a new computer tonight?"

Left was right. Up was down. The heavens opened and God shot me double-finger-guns and a wink.

I paused and then calmly, very calmly said, "Ok," being careful to hide any excitement as not to scare him back into his hole where he sits and count his gold bars.

A little back story. I got the blue screen of death on my laptop the other night. This laptop (a graduation gift to ME from my in-laws) has been through much. Specifically ScottPharr and some water, as well as constant jacking-up from Ross who can't just leave things alone. This is not to say that Ross broke the computer. It's just that we've been through much together.

Anyway, I figured that I was screwed and I just wasn't going to get another computer until blah-blah-blah released the new blah-blah-blah in June. I was not happy.

But then I remembered that the thing that needed to be bought was smooth and shiny. How silly of me to think that this would wait! We have needed a new furnace since 2003, but furnaces aren't sleekly designed! This was a *need.* And when you need something, it's a responsibility.

Thus, tonight, we made us a purchase. Actually, we made me a purchase that Ross has promised not to touch even though he was nice enough to initiate the whole thing. Thanks to some extra miserly ways in the past, we are somehow able to afford a lovely, lovely MacBook that will arrive in 5 business days.

I. am. so. excited.

Babytown heaven

There was a baby explosion at church today. We have been talking about starting child care during the services, but it had never been an issue. I am actually the person who is supposed to be coordinating it, but as of last week we had one child at church who was only 3 weeks old so it wasn't a big deal.

However, today we were blessed with several little ones. Lots of people said that hearing babies coo and little kids whispering made it seem more like church. Halfway through the service we made an announcement that child care would be available starting immediately. I got to spend the rest of the service with a sweet and adorable little friend while her mom got to sit with her husband and enjoy the service.

I loved being able to do that for her and I can't wait to see other members of our church serve in that way. But I like being with the little ones for purely selfish reasons. I get so much joy from comforting them or making them laugh. It's seriously addictive and exactly what I needed after this very, very long and rough week. It was wonderful being at church and getting to see all of their little faces. To me, God is never more present than with a child.

Many blessings to those little ones tonight and I hope I get to see them all next week.

Hokie Pride

Ross and I decided at the last minute to go to Blacksburg this weekend. Thanks to the awesomeness of my sister and bonus-brother, the dogs were taken care of and off we could go. I really think this was the best thing we could do. We got to Blacksburg Friday evening and got to spend some time with Nic, Kate, and Kate's wonderful sister Julia ( a student at Tech).

Saturday started as one of the hardest days of my life. We went to campus and saw all of the memorials set up for those we lost. I can't even explain what it was like. Ross took some pictures so I'll be sure to post them. They are so sad and touching at the same time.

We left campus for Narrows, VA to attend the funeral for Jarrett Lane, Alicia's brother. The whole time we were there I just kept shaking my head. I couldn't believe what was happening. However, the service was a beautiful memorial to Jarrett. The turn out was phenomenal and there were so many heartfelt tributes made to him by the small town that raised him so well and loved him so much. It hurts so much to see people you love in such pain. You just want to take it away and you can't. After the funeral we got to spend some time with Alicia and her husband Daniel. It was wonderful to get to see them and hug them. You never really know what to say in those situations, but you just want them to know that you are there and you love them.

We had planned on only staying one night, but ended up staying over Saturday night, too (thanks again to the awesomeness of my family). After getting back to Blacksburg we went to the drillfield for the alumni/student picnic. And by picnic I mean the most awesome, kind thing ever. Ross and I got a chance to meet the VT police chief which was amazing. Very emotional, but amazing.

We ended our evening by spending more time with friends and then finally collapsing and getting some much needed rest.

I'm glad we went. I'm still exhausted and my head hurts and I have a deep wrinkle in my forehead from choking back tears for two days. But we both feel like it was what Ross needed, what we both needed.

Go Hokies

Brilliant

Truly, truly brilliant.

I heart F.T. Rea

Click here to see why.

THE FAT IS BACK!!!

I cannot stop eating. Like at all. Watch out. If you resemble food, I will eat you. Even if you are a mushroom smothered in cilantro you will GET IN MY BELLY.

Kind of normal again?

I didn't have much time to think of the chaos of the last few days because of major drama at school. I won't get into specifics but I will tell you that I spent much of the afternoon furrowing my brow, shaking my fist, yelling, "What's wrong with these kids today??!?!?!?!!?!?" and demanding that if anyone gives birth to a girl they should just put it back so it finishes cooking and comes back out a boy. Sounds like business as usual to me.

Blame

I don't understand why people are choosing to assign blame to VT administration and law enforcement for this tragedy. I cannot stand how people are choosing to play Monday morning quarterback about this. It is so inappropriate and uncalled for. Obviously, VT has taken steps towards an investigation by asking Gov. Kaine to appoint a team to look into what happened. A call needed to be made and they made it. We cannot fault them for that.

The person to blame is dead. No one else is responsible for this. And what really gets me is that it seems the people doing the majority of the finger pointing are not even the ones who have truly suffered.

And it goes on...

Please keep Alicia, Daniel, and all of their loved ones in your prayers.

Yikes Stripes!

I have found out over the last few days that LOTS more people who I know in meatspace actually read this blog! Like LOTS AND LOTS from various (waaaaaaaaay too various) parts of my life. Imagine an obscure part of your life and then think about an obscure person from it and imagine that that person knows everything about you. You don't *mind* that they know it, but you just wish you had knewn that they knew it.

But, I won't be lame and delete stuff that I'm less than proud of. Well. Not *all* of the stuff I'm less than proud of. This is like when Jennifer found out people actually read her blog and realized that she might have been making some HIPPA violations based on what she was posting. Except, I don't think my family can sue me for telling hilarious/touching stories of our dysfunction or expressing frustration with work can be grounds for dismissal. I hope. Hmmmmmmm...

Comments, Internets! Leave comments so I'm not working in the dark here.

What a day...

I'm not even sure what to say. I spent the evening with some of my most favorite Hokies. We cried and prayed for all of the students at Tech, thanking God for what a great place it is. I didn't go to Tech, but I spent many weekends there. It's a very special place to me, and even more special to my friends who went there. I just hope that when the healing starts, we think about the things we love about Tech and not the nightmare of this one day.

Wear your Hokie colors tomorrow to show your support. I know I will.

Wooooo boy

So this has been my first week completely off of Lexapro. I've spent the last few weeks lowering my dosage but last Saturday marked my first time being completely off of it for almost 2 years. Boy howdy am I glad that this week fell during Spring Break and not during a time where I had to, oh I don't know, function in any capacity.

It hasn't been terrible, just odd. The absence of it in my system combined with the antibiotic I was on for bronchitis made me have no appetite whatsoever. I seriously think my stomach shrank. I lost about 6 lbs. in a week. Sure, it's nice to see that on the scale, but it wreaks havoc on your body. It was like all of the systems in my body were freaking out and arguing with each other. Luckily that seems to have balanced out a bit. I actually want to eat and I'm letting myself eat whatever I want at this point so I can feel normal again. I'll worry about eating really well once my brain is balanced back out.

Apparently the best thing for the withdrawal systems is to just sleep. When you're sleeping you're not aware of the craziness going on, and part of the withdrawal is being exhausted, so I guess it works out. I'm a little nervous about having to go back to work tomorrow. I have yet to deal with actual stress without medicinal help in quite a long time. By the grace of God, however, we have a few relatively normal weeks coming up so I can ease back into the chaos.

Prayers for an easy transition would be appreciated. I'm having a hard time with the fact that there is a very real possibility that this won't work and I'll have to go back on it or some variation of it. And by hard time I mean breaking down into tears in line at Wal-Mart with poor Ross having no clue what's going on.

Fr-easter pics

Click here to see pictures from our first annual Fr-easter (Easter with Friends). We are contemplating also having a Fr-anksgiving, Fr-alentine's Day, and Fr-abor Day parties as well. Stay tuned! The pictures are courtesy of Jake Lyell, the best photographer in these parts and, dare I say it, the world. Highlights include Sam's mom (AKA the cutest and nicest woman ever), MattWhite rocking out to Billy Joel, James stealing candy from children while gambling, and several people playing dominoes. We are lame and AWESOME. HE HAS RISEN!

Guess where I went today!!!!

Here's a clue:


Sorry. It's probably a little off color to put a picture of a speculum on my blog. But, considering *I'm* the one that had to spend some time with this God-awful instrument today, I only feel but so bad.

Yes, I saw my good friend Dr. Miller today. I love Dr. Miller, despite the fact that I shudder each time April approaches as I know it's time for that annual exam that only 50% of the population must have. He's a very kind man and he keeps it relatively warm in his examination rooms, which is nice. However, I don't like how I have to spend so much time waiting in his examination rooms. I would much rather wait in the waiting room where clothes are allowed. When you are in the examination room you have to wear a hospital gown. Well, I guess it's a gown. It's more like the suggestion of a gown. The word "gown" implies a garment of much breadth that give you coverage. This gown opens to the back AND front and you have to sit "just so" to keep all of your goods covered. At least I've learned to keep my dignity and keep my socks on during these visits.

Everything went fine. Then of course he asked me when I was going to give him some babies. I thought this was odd. I was under the impression that *I* get the babies. He really should have asked when I was going to give him some more money. Then he told me that things were really "ideal" for me to start "working on that." He even said I looked perfect. I said "Thank you?" I mean, what do you say when some compliments your reproductive health? Rather than compliments, I would prefer a coupon that excuses me from next year's exam.

All of this took 5 minutes. Yes, 5 minutes of examining after 55 minutes of waiting. Waiting in the examining room, not in the waiting room. I guess it's better than him examining me in the waiting room. Oh well, the walls in his new office are so thin that I got to hear all of his conversations with his other patients. I now know that the lady next door is having bladder issues and the girl across the hall will only quit smoking when she gets wrinkles. On a much more exciting note, I got to hear a woman hearing her babies heart beat for the first time. It sounded like WHUH WHUH WHUH WHUH mixed in with her saying, "Oh, wow!" over and over again. I must say, that was very exciting. I imagine it would have been more exciting to have heard it while wearing underwear, though.

This is about as normal as we get...

What I learned from BodyJam*

1. I cannot dance.
2. Most people cannot dance.
3. I do not like dancing.
4. I do not like people looking at me while I can't dance.
5. I will not go back again.**

*BodyJam is a class at Gold's where you dance a lot. Like, you have to follow steps and stuff. And you dance. For an hour. The whole hour.
**Please check the class out for yourself. I had a lot of fun but it's just not for me.

Where were you when...

...Bill O'Reilly went insane-o?

Me? I was in bed watching it live on the television. Take a gander at this. Your mind will be blown so make sure you are wearing a hat to collect the bits-they can be hard to get out of the drapes.

Still hilariously hilarious.

I got this from Dooce who got it from The New Yorker. Enjoy, dear Internets.

Weekend Wrap Up...

Friday: Went to work for our one hour of staff development. Came home and slept a ton. Went to Patient First. Got poked, X-rayed, and diagnosed as having bronchitis AND tiny veins. Came home and went to bed ridiculously early.

Saturday: Slept for infinity. Went to in-laws to celebrate FIL's birthday. Ate some food that I'm sure tasted good but being that I couldn't smell anything, tasting was out of the question. Went upstairs and slept in the guest room while hubs played Wii and dominoes. Went home and went to bed.

Sunday: Slept for more of infinity. Cleaned the house. Saw Phannie for a few minutes. Went to church. Saw FSC's first baby on our first Easter which was very special. Came home. Had many friends over for Easter celebration. Went to bed before everyone left. Realized that I have lost all muscle tone in my body from not being able to work out for a while due to the death.

Today: Woke up *still* feeling like death. Can't sleep until the Verizon guy finishes what he's doing to give us better cable and Internet. Want to go back to bed so bad.

Sick. AGAIN.

Fortunately *this* death held off until Spring break started so I won't have to take time of work. I was doing ok earlier this week-just really bad allergies that actually required me to get eye drops. Stupid Richmond. However, I took a turn for the worst Friday morning. My chest was super congested and I had a 101 fever. I knew those symptoms didn't really come with allergies, so I decided to go to my most favorite place on Earth: Patient First.

I got there at around 6:30 and didn't leave until around 8:30. No, it wasn't because of a long wait-it was because it was apparently time for me to fall apart.

I went into the examination room and after asking 879 times if I was pregnant or nursing and when the last date of my period was, the doctor decided he wanted to do some blood work AND get a chest X-ray to rule out pneumonia. Sounds pretty easy, right? Yeah no.

Apparently I have the tiniest and deepest lying veins in the history of medicine. They stuck me in the right arm, left arm, right hand, left hand, and even my right middle finger before realizing that maybe the whole blood taking thing wasn't going to work out. So, they sent me off to X-ray where they had me stand up and breathe in and out lots and lots of times-not the best thing for someone who is having trouble breathing and who had just been treated like a human pin cushion. BTW, getting stuck in the hand HURTS. A LOT. Especially when they have to do it TWICE.

So, I passed out.

That's right. I keeled right over onto the poor X-ray technician, probably exposing much of my upper half. After sipping some orange juice and resting, I managed to stand up long enough to get my X-rays and waddle back to the examination room.

They had me put on my sweatshirt and a blanket with hopes that warming me up would make my veins more accessible. Didn't work, but luckily they figured out it wasn't worth it before sticking me again.

The doctor came back in and chatted with me for a while. We talked about how Richmond is seriously the worst place in the world when it comes to allergies. He actually said to me, "And I know you know, because you were 'Made in Richmond,' as I saw when you were X-ray." Nice bedside manner. Anyway, it was ruled that I have allergies on top of a nasty case of bronchitis. I was given a decongestant and a packet of antibiotics and sent on my way.

My fever finally broke last night. I realized this when I woke up in a pool of my own sweat actually feeling like I wasn't being roasted from the inside out. My coughs are being quite productive (yum!) and I can kind of take a deep breath without dying. God bless modern medicine.

Spring Break Project

Each time we're on a break from school, I take on some kind of project. Christmas break of 2005, I painted my office. Last summer I did a crappy job of fixing up the downstairs bathroom. This spring break I've decided to spruce up the upstairs balcony that is attached to my office. I figure this is a relatively low-key project and I won't be too depressed if I don't get much accomplished. It's just a nice feature to our house that we never use because it has become yet another crap corral for the Catrow family. It is currently home to the old air conditioning unit that was switched out last summer for the high-tech model-rather than putting it, oh I don't know, INSIDE we decided that we would just take care of it later. That phrase is the kiss of death for us. You'll also find the remains of a beaded curtain (yeah, that's right) that the former owner of this house just left hanging in our weirdo bathroom. All items are thoroughly infested by spiders and other deadly creatures, I'm sure.

I'll be sure to post pictures once it's started/in process/complete.

T-2 days!

Deep in the love

I love my husband more than anything in the whole world. I called him yesterday afternoon and basically told him he needed to make himself scarce so I could have the evening to myself. He did so without question. We reunited later that evening to take care of an unexpected guest (Remus who ended up staying with us until the wee hours of the morning while his mom was at the hospital-no worries, she's fine). My cell phone had died and Remus's parents called Ross to see if we could take care of the little one. Ross had no clue where I was, but was ready and willing to take care of the little buggar on his own if necessary. I was so proud that he was all set to help a friend out, even when it was COMPLETELY out of his comfort zone for an undetermined amount of time. Plus, Remus loves Ross so much and it's nice to see them entertain each other.

Hearts to the hubs!

P.S. Also hearts to the BodyFlow class at Gold's. Times of fun to the maxxxxx.

Weekend Wrap Up...

Friday: Ate pizza and saw TMNT with friends. Fun was had all around. Don't bring up gummi worms around Justin. Ever. Chomp chomp chomp.

Saturday: Fully planned on trying out the BodyFlow class at Gold's but got an unexpected call from Jenni to babysit the Remus while they move into their new house. Called my sister to come over and join Remus and I for lunch. Realized that people will move out of your way if you have a stroller. Tried to get Remus to take a nap. Took him for another walk. He finally fell asleep on my belly, drooled all over me, and caused me to get quite a kink in my neck. I love him but I was very happy to give him back and relish in my life of watching Nip/Tuck, eating Oreos, and chatting with my hubs.

Sunday: Woke up in time to convince the in-laws to take us to lunch. Chowed down at Five Guys. Bought 4 new plates at Target to "try them out" (whatever that means, Ross said it). Went to Lowe's and bought a scabiosa plant because it was one of the flowers I had in my bridal bouquet. Realized that scabiosa is quite an unfortunate name for such a pretty flower. Did some Dr. Oz exercises. Went to church. Only drank water at social time afterward, did not eat extra-large cookies sent directly to our congregation by the Good Lord. Did not get Taco Bell. Went to the gym. Got McDonald's instead of Taco Bell, but opted for the Mighty Kids Meal rather than the adult meal. Chatted and ate with the hubs. Tricked the Internet into thinking I'm pregnant. Will shower and go to bed soon.

T-4 days until SPRING BREAK!!!

New Life

God is so good. He has blessed us with a new life. We just discovered it today and I couldn't wait to share the news with all of you. This was very much wanted and somewhat unexpected, but we are so grateful that is happening to us...










...the radishes have started to sprout in our garden.



HA HA!!!!