Ok I really am trying to get back into blogging. I guess compared to a two month absence a two week break isn't too bad!

Last weekend I went with Casey to get her bridal pictures taken! She looked so pretty and I still can't believe she is getting married in just 2 short months. We also spent all weekend eating really nasty and then doing yoga. My body was actually sore afterwards though.

The weekend before that I took Friday off and Stephanie came into town. We went to Canton on Friday. We saw this man in a motorized wheel chair with a wagon tied to the back and his wife was sitting in a chair in the wagon while he was wheeling them around. It was awesome. Then on Saturday night we went to the fair with our friend Kyle. We saw a pig race, Kyle ate a fried truffle and a fried snickers which we tried (not horrible actually), I rode my first upside down ride and screamed. It was pretty eventful. On Sunday we tried to go to an Eastern Orthodox church for a project Stephanie is doing. When we drove up all the women who were walking inside were either wearing skirts down to the ankle or head coverings or both. So we decided we were inappropriately dressed and left!

To leave ya'll with something funny: One of my student's loves whisper sweet nothings to people. Here is what he said yesterday. Keep in mind this was just in confines of one day and it happens every day.
"Hello Sweetie"
"You're a superstar Ms. Fullerton"
"Hot mama"
"You are my darling little muffin"
"You're hot Ms. Fullerton"
"You look quite lovely"
So to sum things up, if you ever need a good laugh or even a small ego boost you can join me for the day in my class.

I'm back... and tag

Well after I don't even know how long I've decided to post again. Since I last was on school has started and I am now in the 7th week of classes. For those of you who don't know... I have all boys in my class this year. Little Adhd 9 year old boys. All of them. I also moved into a new a house with new roommates. It's been a little crazy! But I'm getting back into the swing of things. So here are some pictures of what we've been up to.

My family went to DC together. Here is a picture of my parents and my little sis standing in line for food during the depression. Don't they look so dorky!



Here is a picture of some of my class at the Grapefest fieldtrip. Don't I look awesome. We had to wear that outfit... visor included so don't judge. If anyone has a fanny pack they can loan me for the next field trip I would be forever grateful.

This past weekend my good friend from back home and college, Josh Edwards, got married in Abilene. It was so fun because all our friends were there and we just got to have a good time. It almost felt like we were all in college again. Here I am with Catie and the two Stephanies.

Now for the tag. About forever ago Jenny tagged me to tell six random things about myself. So here goes.

1)I love winter more than anything! I guess that isn't random since everyone who knows me knows that. But I love everythign about it: the cold air, the fires, the hot chocolate, christmas, christmas music, decorations, family time, everything. I even listen to Christmas music every Friday all day.

2)I hate crickets and roaches! I mean I get so scared when I see one that my hands start shaking and I almost start crying. It is really ridiculous but I can't help it. The other week I had my whole class trying to kill a cricket in the room with me standing behind my desk...

3)I like Abilene, Tx. Even before I went to college there I just liked the town. I could see myself living there in say 10 years and enjoying it. I like the slow paced feel and the relaxation of everything. It only takes you 10 minutes to get across town and I love that when you are there that feels like a big deal to trek across town to go eat.

4)I want to start my own store. I would just sell all my favorite things. And all my friends could make stuff to sell there.

5)I want to move abroad. I don't care where I go and I don't know how long I want to stay. I just want to go and figure it out when I get there. I would like to move around to a lot of different countries so I could have lots of experiences.

6)I think it would be neat to teach at a college one day. Maybe in like 10-15 years after I have some experience and go to grad school then that could be possible.

I tag Catie and Cris!

Finally...

Ok sorry everyone. I know it has been another month in between posts! Now that summer is here really nothing exciting has happened. I sleep in, watch tv, eat meals. That's about it. Living the dream! 

Well I just got back from a mini road trip! Last Thursday I spent the night in Abilene and then I picked up my sis Cara and we drove to Houston for the weekend to see Jenny and Chris. We cooked, watched movies, shopped and just caught up on everything. It was pretty fun but that six hour drive is not fun! When we got back to Abilene I stayed on Sunday night with Casey and then had so much fun that I decided to stay Monday night with Ally. haha I decided I miss the easy lifestyle of Abilene. Really there is nothing to do and no one has money to spend anyways and so you just sit around and hang out with your friends visiting. I love doing stuff like that because you always end up with really good friendships. I also miss all my friends that still live in Abilene but college is over so time to move on from Abilene. I decided that I am just restless in Dallas because I want it to be a temporary thing before I move abroad for awhile and so far there is no end in sight. Oh well at least I am having fun here while it lasts. 

Anyways it looks like moving plans are moving along and the girls have to be out of there house probably by August 12th so tomorrow Kyla and I are off to look at some apartment complexes. I'm so excited to move and have my own place and to finally feel settled. I never really had everything completely organized here because I thought I wouldn't be here this long. This will finally feel a little bit more permanent even if it only lasts a year! I also am starting a new project. I'm taking my bookshelf from my college room and I am painting it green. It is called crushed oregano and is a really pretty shade. Then I am painting the inside (but just the back) a dark brown. Then I am distressing it. I think it will turn out cool. At least I hope so! I bought the paint today and I will start tomorrow morning while it is still cool outside. I also picked up my headboard today. My first piece of brand new furniture that I purchased. Pretty exciting! Plus it was 50% off. Even more exciting!

So there is the update on my life. I will try to blog better and come up with some more interesting stories. I'm sure I have something if I dig deep! 

Update

Man, it's been a while since I last posted! Sorry about that. 2 reasons: busy, and no good stories. I still don't have anything insightful or interesting to say but I'll try. 

I'm about to head out to a wedding in Arkansas with my parents for one of our family friends. My mom took our dogs to the kennel today and we found out that what we thought was going to be a $30 charge each for the weekend was a lie and it is now going to be $65. I was pretty angry because that is expensive for 2 nights. I also got my dress back from the cleaners and it shrunk. Like a lot. It was the dress I wore to Melissa's wedding and I was planning on wearing it in Casey's. I'm going back on Monday to see if they can give me money for it because it wasn't cheap.

Anyways on a lighter note summer school started monday. It is over in 2 weeks so it has gone by pretty fast. I have two 13 year olds in my class. Can you believe it!! The ages go from 9 to 13 in my class. Huge age difference but we're working with it. One of the teens the other day was being annoying when we were reading aloud so I gave him a look like "if you don't stop I'm going to get you but I'm not really mad at you" and then he goes, "Wow Ms. Fullerton you are looking exceptionally good today. Did you do something to your hair?" Such a little suck up but I couldn't help but laugh because that was a good try. 

One of my students (9 year old) cried today because he thought he was in trouble. And he wasn't. He mistook something I said as a punishment and started crying. Whoops. I really don't know how he thought he was in trouble though. Oh well. 

Update on Jovi: Cute still. Peed on me last week. Like literally was laying on me and sat up and peed on my stomach. So nasty. I screamed and spanked her. This is completely unusual for a dog to do and is not a good sign. Though she did make her first break through in potty training. Finally!!! Here is what happened: I leave her in the bathroom during work if I know I will be gone till that evening. Somehow on Tuesday the door must have not gotten shut all day and she got out. She roamed the whole upstairs and somehow found a ball of yarn and dragged it everywhere. But after walking around the entire upstairs for some time I realized that she didn't ever pee up there. She went back to her spot in the bathroom each time. So she is still peeing in the house but at least she realizes there is a certain spot. Anyways she has also learned to sit. Next up: Down and Come. 

CHINA!!

I'm having China withdrawals! I want to go back so bad and this summer it is just not possible. I'm hoping to go next summer but that seems so far away! So I decided to make a post about my China experience.



If anyone read my old China blog then you have probablly already heard this stuff but oh well too bad. Last June Ally and I arrived in China for the best summer of our lives! We ate lots of Chinese food, pastries, and then we walked everywhere. People say you lose weight in China because the food is so nasty. We loved the food. Luckily since we walked all the time at least we didn't gain weight but we definitely didn't lose it since we ate bread and dessert every night for dinner :)


Anyways here are some of my Top Fourteen memories. In no certain order.
1) Every day when we walked to school creepy men would say, "oooo hallooo" to us. Then we would say Ny Hoa and they would giggle. If we were really lucky they would stroke our arms. oo la la. Yummy. They love American woman over there. It really doesn't matter what you look like they think you are beautiful.
2) The day we rode our bikes for the first time. Click here to read the story. It is about 3 paragraphs down on the page.
3) Sun. That was one of my student's names. He was hilarious! And I mean this in the weirdest sense possible. Whenever he had a question he would run up and press his body against mine and yell the question at me. When this first happened I jumped back and almost burst out laughing. Then he would give me the peace sign constantly which was awesome. He also had a habit of scratching his butt. You know I lauged at that alot.
4) One day something smelled horrible in class. And all the kids starting going, "ewww sick who farted. Gross!!" And I mean it really smelled nasty. All of a sudden this little girl just burst out crying. It was kind of funny because she could have played it off and not said anything but now everyone knew it was her.
5) Forbidden City. Worst day of my life. Funny now to think about. Click here if you wish to read it.
6) Pearl Market. Pretty much enough said. I never knew I liked pearls so much until I could buy a real strand for $4. Needless to say we shopped a lot in China.
7) The day our Air Condition went out in our 7th floor apartment. Right after we had walked 30 minutes home and then climbed 7 flights to our apartment. We were dying. Luckily Tim, our boss, fixed it for us.
8) $10/hour massages. They even massaged our butts. And it was good.
9) Chinese men wanting to take pictures with us for no reason. Especially when we were wearing our pointy hats.
10) Talking in Mexican accents with Ally for half the trip. Still not sure why people kept giving us weird looks.
11) The friends we made in the market while bargaining.
12) Dancing to "Beat it" by Michael Jackson while playing the bongo every morning and evening.
13) My kids thinking that Dr. Pepper on our noun worksheet was a person. I kept getting things like, "Dr. Pepper is funny. Dr. Pepper is kind. Dr. Pepper likes to eat." I finally figured it out near the end what they were doing.
14) My kids writing things like, "My blood type is O. Eye: My eye is as deep as the black sea. Height: I am as tall as a cello. Foot: My foot is big as bear's. Hand: My hand is strong like giant. I love myself" on their auto biography's.

7 Random Things

I got tagged by Catie to tell 7 Random Things about myself. I usually don't do these but I thought this one was fun so here goes!

1. I can't sleep with out ALL the covers on. 

This is a very hard thing to deal with I have to say! Even when I'm burning up they all have to be on. This is why I keep only a sheet and a comforter on the bed. No extra blanket. This dates back to when I was very young and scared of EVERYTHING at night. I somehow came up with this idea in my head: If someone comes in to my room to kill me with a knife then I have all my covers on it won't go through them. Very logical you see :) Well now I know that is not the case but I still have to sleep with them all on and if I take one off I get really anxious until it is back on.

2. I hated dogs until about 2 months ago. 

I always thought puppies were cute but I didn't like dogs. They stink and they try to lick you and you have to wash your hands every time you touch them. Then two months ago after living with my parents I decided I like dogs and in fact I want one. I then bought one and I love her. Who would have ever thought that! Needless to say she gets a bath at least once a week, she is learning not to lick me, and my hands are dry and were bleeding on my knuckles from being over washed. 

3. I love diet coke!

I drink one diet coke a day and that is on my way to work. I know that is weird and it just started this year. Every morning I eat breakfast with a glass of water and then on my drive I drink a diet coke. I then drink water the rest of the day but I have to have a diet coke on my drive now.

4. I hate breakfast food. 

I'm hungry in the morning but I hate breakfast food! This has always been a dilemma. Sometimes I eat peanut butter toast or honey on toast but for the past couple of weeks I've been eating an english muffin with hummus. So good. 

5. I'm early to everything! (Catie I'm stealing that from you!)

I absolutely hate being late and in fact it stresses me out in other people too! I like to blame this on being late to everything while growing up and the scars it left on me (plus I try to blame as much as possible on my parents... you know how it goes). Anyways I'm usually about 10 minutes early to everything. Yet still I always think I'm going to be late and then I rush more. In the mornings I get ready so fast that I have about 30 minutes of time just to check my email and do other things. Even if I wake up 20 minutes late I still have 30 minutes because I rush so fast! I'm really trying to work on this because it is annoying  but I can't help it I just like to be on time!!

6. I'm scared of the dark.

You can make fun of me all you want but it's true. I've always gotten scared at night and have always had trouble sleeping! I now think it's probably because I'm scared of the dark. I still sleep with my closet light on. I keep the door closed and it really doesn't do anything but just the thought of it helps. I also will turn on the light and check all around the room about 3 times before I can sleep. Plus I check my closet and under the bed before I get in bed. ha ha I realize this is dumb but hey what can I say. Don't ever try to scare me at night or I will probably cry.

7. I love other cultures more than anything!

I want to move out of the country and teach oversees but this has not worked out yet! I was pursuing it pretty hard last semester but everything kept not working out so I had to take a break for awhile. I still hope to do this and I think I will always regret it if I don't. If I can't live over there then at least I have my summers to go over there. Vacations are just not a long enough amount of time to leave!

I now tag Jenny. I hope this wasn't too boring to read! 

Old Lady

This happened to me last Friday.

The kids were talking about how they can do handstands, flips, cartwheels etc. and so I said, "wow all I can do is a cartwheel and a roundoff." Then one of the kids said this, "Wow now that is pretty impressive for an old lady like you... i mean not that I'm saying your old or anything but you are kind of old". "I'm not old!!" I said. A different kid then says, "Well I mean you could seriously be like grandma, Ms. Fullerton!" 

Ok so people usually think I'm still in high school which is annoying and now people think I'm a grandma! Where did my 20's go!!!

This is what I put up with!

Same kid who said I was an old lady talks non stop in my class. I mean running commentary to everything I say. There is no stopping him from talking so I just try to ride it out and then refocus. Friday we were going to go on a field trip and we had about 15 minutes in the class before we were leaving so we were playing addition/subtraction bingo. This is what I was hearing. I'll type what I was saying in all caps. Oh and this is at the speed of about a mile a minute no joke.

"FOUR PLUS SIX" "4 plus 6! Oh my gosh I don't even know 4 plus 6. I don't even know what comes after four. What comes after four!!! I think it's 5. 5,6,7,8,9,10. I think the answer is 10 is the answer ten Ms. Fullerton. oh ya you can't tell us! oh my gosh I don't have any tens!" I interrupt the ongoing commentary with "THREE PLUS FOUR" "3 plus 4!!! oh my gosh 3 plus 4! I don't even know 3 plus 4!!! I don't even know what comes after 3!!I think it's 4. Is it 4? 4,5,6,7! I think the answer is 7. Is the answer 7? I don't even know. Ah dang it I don't even have a 7."

This goes on and on with the same thing after every question and usually I just interrupt with the problem. None of the other kids even act like this is strange and no one looks at him except me. I'm thinking "What the heck! How can he never stop and how do I handle this for 6 more weeks!!!"

Sorry about the many posts with kids stories! I'll try to make my next  post about something more interesting!

Nell No!

I have a funny story for ya'll. There is this little boy at my school who is so cute and hilarious. He pulls his khaki pants way up high and then tightens his belt as tight as it will go with his short tucked in. His pants needless to say are a little on the short side. Side note story: One day he told his teacher, "Sometimes my pants get stuck around my wazoo!" Well ya that would be because you keep pulling them up. We think he likes it but we won't go there today.

Anyways last week some of the first grade boys were talking about how they wanted to go to one of the boys house to play. Well this boy's mom works at the school and they live way out in Decatur. She was telling them that her house is pretty far and so maybe they could meet in the middle somewhere and go to a movie or something. George decides at this point to say, "If I asked my mom that she would say no. Actually she would say NELL No! That means really really no." hahaha yes he actually said nell. We all had a good laugh at that one because he obviously did not know what he was saying right then. 

Another story for your enjoyment. Two of the fourth graders got in a fight one time. One of these boys is really good and never fights so it was kind of shocking. The teacher had them come inside and sit while she went to talk the principal. When she comes back out this boy has his head down on his desk. She says, "Fred (names have been changed :)) Mrs. Edwards wants to see you in her office" He holds up a finger (as if to say hold on a second.... not the other finger). She waits a few seconds and says again, "Fred, Mrs. Edwards would like to see you right now." He holds up the finger again. Now she is getting irritated. So she says it one more time. He waits a second then stands up and very seriously says, "Sorry, I was praying before I had to go in to see Mrs. Edwards." She had to turn around because she was laughing so hard. He was so serious and scared that it was funny. Oh man kids are so hilarious sometimes!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!

I have a confession. I have been listening to Christmas music in my car non stop since Thursday. Yes this is true. One of my friends introduced me to what she likes to call Christmas Friday two years ago. Basically that means that every Friday you listen to Christmas music in your car. It is joyous. I suggest it to all. Well I took that to heart but soon that just wasn't enough.  I needed Christmas music whenever and wherever I wanted it. So I did just that. Usually a couple of weeks after Christmas I get burnt out of my 50 favorite Christmas songs ( I have more but I have a playlist of about 50 that I like best). Then in about March/April the fun starts up again. This year was a little late.

Thursday morning as I was driving to work I didn't know what to listen to. Usually I listen to peppy music in the morning so that I will be all ready for the day. Ex. Hairspray was on the list for awhile. Well I couldn't decide and I was feeling a little down about it not being Friday and I was tired so of course I threw on some Christmas tunes and boy was that a good decision. All day I was singing and dancing to Christmas music when alone. I did it again on Friday. Then Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and even Tuesday! I just can't get enough! 

You probably all know about my love for the holidays! I love winter time. The cold weather, snow, fires, family, skiing, Christmas music, lights. It's all so fun! I don't know why others don't celebrate for a little longer. Christmas music and lights do not just have to be celebrated during the weeks after Thanksgiving and before New Years. No I say! They should be extended to all cold months! Summer celebrating does not end on July 4th. People go swimming and have back yard get togethers and all things summer even after school starts. It is celebrated till the last hot day. Why can winter not be this way? Christmas music and lights just feel right even in November and February. And even this morning when it was so cold it felt right. Call me crazy. I will continue to celebrate this way until it catches on. Yes I will probably be that weirdo old lady that keeps up her lights into February but who cares at least it will be fun! So put on your favorite Christmas tunes and give a little dance. I'm sure it will make your Wednesday just that much better. I'll be listening to my tunes tomorrow morning. If you need any suggestions just let me know. 

Happy Winter!!

Melanie

School

I forgot I started this post on Wednesday. Just now getting around to finishing it. 

Well I just finished my second week of school! It has been so fun so far and way better than my old job! I don't remember what all I said about it in my last post but I teach Classroom 3, ages 9-11. Basically what that means is that at the beginning of the year we test the kids and then group them into ability level groups and place them in a classroom. The kids call it 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc, but since for example the first grade class has two 7 year olds, a 9 year old, and a 10 year old they just call it classroom 1.

Anyways I have 6 kids. Four of them have Aspergers and two are dyslexic. They are all pretty high functioning except for one but he is smart, you just have to really work one on one with him. They are so hilarious though! I have one kids who is the most enthusiastic kid you have ever met. It is his only emotion. Everything I say he shouts out, "GOOD IDEA MS. FULLERTON!" or "GOOD POINT MS. FULLERTON!" or "GREAT JOB ------- (insert anyone's name here)" It is so funny! Sometimes he will suggest that he puts his paper on my desk and when I say  that is fine e tells me that I had a good idea for him to do that. He is also VERY smart. He makes A's on everything and is super excited to get papers back. He wants to know if everything is going to be graded. On the first day he made all 100s and one 96 and he was disappointed so I told him that an A is still really good. So the next day he happened to make a 76 on something. He looked at the paper then looked at me and screamed, "ALRIGHT PASSING!!!!!" I almost died laughing!

The class also likes to sing A LOT! I tell them that as long as they continue working then they can sing so we play a lot of music in my classroom. The funny thing is though that sometimes when we are working one fo them will all of a sudden stand up and say, "a 1 a 2 a 1,2,3,4" and then somehow they will all break out into the same song. Usually they sing, "bow chica wow wow" from Chipmunks or "the continent song" or "I like to move it move it" from Madagascar. Then they start saying, "What's cracka lackin Ms. Fullerton?" This is like my dream classroom if you can't tell.

So now you know what my classroom is like every day. We usually never get all the work done that I planned but that's just how it is. You just have to see how the kids are doing that day and let them work at their pace. 

Update on Jovi: I have spent the entire day sitting on the couch and getting up every 30 minutes to take the dog out. She is having a nasty case of the runs. I woke up this morning to see that she had gone diarrhea 5 times in her cage last night. Cleaning up diarrhea is not my idea of a fun saturday morning activity. I'm hoping it is just because of the change from her old food. She wouldn't eat since yesterday morning though so I went to find what she used to eat and couldn't find it at PetSmart. They had the brand (Pedigree) and the wet food but not the same one. I still bought it and she ate it but so far the runs are still going strong. I'll keep you posted. I know you were just dying to read something like this on a saturday. yummy. 

New Puppy!!!

I got a new puppy this weekend! No I was not planning on it but she was just so cute! I've actually been thinking about getting one for a couple of months but the plan was that when I move I would get one. However, this weekend my sisters, mom, and I all went to Canton and well I came home with this little thing! 

Isn't she cute! Her name is Jovi. You know off Elf? As you all know I am a Christmas fanatic. Casey Lewis had the great idea that we should name all the pets we ever get after Christmas things. She actually came up with the name Jovi for me and I thought it was so cute. 

She is so tiny! She weighs about a pound and shouldn't get bigger than 3-4 pounds full grown. I went to PetCo yesterday when I got home with her so I could get all the essentials and I found this tiny little shirt. The shirt said "Let it Snow" on it and well since she has a Christmas name I thought she needed the shirt. Plus it was on sale for $3 and I got it in the smallest size and then I realized that it just drowns her out. Maybe one day it will fit her. I will post a picture of that later. 

Everyone is welcome to come see her. Ok she just woke up and is trying to jump around so we're going to go play!!

I have Issues

I've had a few things on my mind lately. One of which is why I am scared of so many stupid things. I'm not talking about real scares like murders...see The Murderer Who Came For Me Last Night (Post 2), no I'm talking about stupid things. In the next couple of posts I plan on telling ya'll things I'm scared of and why.

I'll start with Roaches. I have always been scared of roaches. They are black and they scurry real fast. They creep me out. I'm getting the shivers just thinking about it. I'm not talking like a normal girl scared either. I'm talking like one time when I was home alone (for a whole 5 hours or so) I saw a roach in the study and ran out screaming and shaking and then after watching the door for about 30 minutes finally got the nerve to run and shut the door and stuff towels under the cracks so it couldn't get out and my parents could take care of it when they got home. I have never killed a roach. I'm too afraid that they will be faster than me and when I go to squish it will climb up my foot. 

One time in high school, I believe this was the summer after my sophomore year... maybe junior year our family friends, the Bryan's, oldest daughter was getting married. My mom volunteered to house the grooms family and all the groomsmen for the entire weekend of the wedding. We had never met these people and so my mom was freaking out trying to make the house as clean as possible before anyone arrived. We spent weeks trying to get everything perfect. My mom was in high stress mode and we all know that when this is the case we should just stay out of sight and pray that she doesn't spot us. 

Well it was the day before everyone was to arrive and my mother had ordered us to scrub our bathrooms and do one final room clean. I was in the bathroom, minding my own business, sitting on the side of the tub and scrubbing away. I was wearing shorts and the shower curtain was lightly touching my leg. All of a sudden I felt something drop on my leg. At first I assumed it was the shower curtain and kept on with my business. Then it moved. And to my complete horror when I looked down... there was a big, nasty, disgusting, horrible roach crawling on my leg. I immediately jumped up and started screaming my head off. My mom is downstairs and screams to see what is wrong. I run to the banister and start yelling that a roach is in my bathroom and the water is running and there is no way in H-E-L-L that I am going back in there until she kills that thing. She starts yelling that there is no way she is coming up there and I better take care of it myself. By now my entire body is shaking and I am crying hysterically. Seriously I am. After about 5 minutes of my mom yelling at me to get my butt back in there and turn off the dang water and stop acting like such a baby I get the nerve to go check out the situation. 

And what do I see you ask? Somehow the plug has stopped so that the bath tub is filling up and the roach is SWIMMING in the water. Oh ya right!!! Like I am going to stick my hand in there and unplug the drain. So I return to the banister and cry some more. Hoping my tears will soften her heart to come help her darling second child at the age of 15 to just kill the roach for goodness sake! It didn't work. By now the tub is about to overflow and I am tearfully on the floor begging my little sister to do the job for me. She says no. I beg and beg. It doesn't work. I say I'll pay her 5 dollars to pull the plug and then kill the roach. She says okay. Finally, someone is on my side. She gets the job done and I pay up. I still think about this almost every time I get in the shower. I look up on top of that shelf above my toilet and pray that there are no roaches up there today. Thankfully it hasn't happened since. But I have never done a great job cleaning the tub since then. I just get in and get it done asap. The faster the better.

Next to come: Crickets in my pants and in the car. 

New Job!

My parents left yesterday for New York. That means another weekend home alone. I'm hoping everything goes smoothly this time so I can report back and not sound like a total loser. So far so good. I'll keep you posted though. Yesterday I tried to post a video of my mom and two of her sisters doing the dance to soulja boy but it wouldn't let me post it. This is horrible because you people really need to see this video. And I just want to go ahead and clear up my good name and tell all of you that I do not know this dance and did not teach them this dance. But these are the type of things we do at Christmas time. There are no words for what happens in this house when my mom's side of the family comes over. You just need to experience it first hand. Anyone want to come to Thanksgiving this year? I'll really try to get this video to work because it would be a real tragedy for the whole world not to see it.

On another note, I got a new job today! I will now be teaching third grade at Hill School in Grapevine. It is a private school for kids with learning disabilities. I spent yesterday and the day before that over there all day to get a feel for the school (hence the no posting). I start on Monday! AHHH! Oh ya did I mention that they are moving to a new building this week and so I also have to go set up a room and be ready for the open on house on Sunday afternoon. hahaha! No but seriously I am really excited and I can't wait to start! I will have an assistant teacher until the end of the year too. She has been substituting the past 2 weeks while they haven't had a teacher and she has subbed for them bfore and also has a kid in the 2nd grade there. Since the kids are familiar with her she will stay to help me out till the end of the year. This is great since I'm sure I'll be asking her alot of questions about curriculum. Wish me luck!

Addictions

I need to talk to ya'll about an addiction that I have called puzzles. I love them. I'm not talking like sudoku or crossword or word searches...though I love those too, especially on car rides, I'm talking like real 1000 piece puzzles. Usually this addiction only takes place during Christmas/Thanksgiving as my granddad and one aunt are also puzzle maniacs. Please please hold your laughing judgment. These things can not be helped. Well I have to say that it has gotten worse. You see I have this problem that I have to multi task all the time. I can't do just one thing. It drives me crazy. Mostly this really bothers me when watching TV or movies. I just can not sit still through a TV show. So When I first moved back home and after Christmas was over and everyone went home I still didn't have a job. And I was bored to death!!! So I proceeded to conquer half the movies that we own and doing every puzzle that we have. I had alot of time on my hand.

My usual schedule went something like this: wake up at about 9 and do DDR for an hour... I love that too. What can I say; I'm a girl of many addictions. Then I would go take a shower and get ready for the day, go downstairs, talk to my mom, check my email and facebook, eat lunch and then go back upstairs. This is when I would pop in a movie. Well as you know I just can’t sit there so I decided to see if we had any puzzles. And by golly we did. So this is what I did during the month of January. Then I got a job and it was sad and now I have to work and don't have as much time for puzzles. My life is so hard these days! *sigh* So I had to put my puzzle mania on hold until about 2 weeks ago. I decided that I wanted to watch this TV series that I had so of course I needed a puzzle.

Side Note: I really do have friends here in Dallas. I promise. No really, I promise. And their not so bad either even though most of them went to Harding. They just live far away and so I only hang out with them on the weekend. Seriously I do!!

I just want to show ya’ll a picture of the puzzle yesterday when I got home from work. I started this puzzle on Sunday after church and this is a picture from Monday at 5.



Ok I have another confession to make. I've done this one puzzle about 5 times. Stop laughing. I love this puzzle. Not because of the picture, because frankly I'd rather it be a picture of a diet coke, or maybe a piece of cake or something. I'm hungry right now if you can't tell. Ok so here is why I've done it so much though. All the other puzzles are either too easy or too hard. I know I know you're probablly all thinking, "if she's such a puzzle maniac then whey does she not do the real hard ones?" Well although I do like to multi task that doesn't mean I like to think to hard. And when all the pieces look alike and are the same shape... it's just not that much fun.

Ok now here is a picture of the puzzle later that night. I did eat dinner and even watch a movie downstairs with my parents so let's pretend like I didn't spend two hours upstairs puzzling and will just say I'm really fast.


Almost finished! I think tonight while I watch the Biggest Loser I'll finish it. I love that show. Oh and I really don't puzzle every night. I mean on Wednesday night I watch American Idol with my mom and on Thursday night I watch Lost with my parents. So stop judging me already. If you have any puzzles you were thinking about getting rid of then send them my way. And if you have any advice of how to overcome my many addictions then please let me know.

Wrecks

So yesterday my little sister Cara and her friend Melani came home for Easter. I know I know… a bff with the same name as her sister? No e though. Sorry Jenny…I guess I’m the favorite sis. Anyways they left after church yesterday to drive back to Abilene and they got in a big wreck. Their car flipped five times and flew across the median all the way on the other side of oncoming traffic. Thank goodness they were ok. Onlookers said that at one point their car went 25 feet up in the air. They were taken to the hospital in Eastland. Cara had some cuts on her knee and her hand and then she has a big contusion on her shoulder. Melani had some glass in her arm. Other than that they were fine. They were pretty shaken up though and her car is totaled. The people who received the car said they thought for sure someone would have died based on how bad it looked. Anyways just thought I would let ya’ll know what happened. Cara was embarrassed because they sent out an ACU email to the entire school about what happened haha and that means they will probably pray for them in chapel too.

This reminded me of another wreck we had one time. About 6 years ago we were in Breckenridge for Spring Break. We were supposed to leave on Friday morning but there was a big snow storm coming in so we decided to come in early on Thursday and leave that afternoon since my dad needed to catch a flight back on Friday afternoon. We got in the car and started heading out. Thank goodness we left when we did because the storm started and only got worse that weekend. If you know me and Jenny at all you know that we are both freaking out!! I mean I don’t like driving in the mountains even when it isn’t snowing; all that winding makes me nervous.

So we’re in are old suburban with one of those big things on the top to pack all your suitcases and skis in. Jenny and Cara are in the middle bucket seats and I’m in the back in the middle seat. Well my dad is probably going about 10… maybe 15 mph. Though still we kept seeing cards skidding and sliding off the road. Me and Jenny are saying “slow down dad, slow down!!!” about ever 15 seconds. It’s just what we do ok. I’m in the back and I’m thinking well if we get in a wreck then I’m going to be the one to die since I don’t have a shoulder strap. Ok so I’m a little dramatic but I can’t help it. So all of a sudden our car starts to skid. My mom, very calmly, says, “Don’t scream girls but we’re going to flip.” Of course Jenny immediately starts screaming and I immediately start yelling, “SHUT UP JENNY SHUT UP!!!” I don’t think this really helped at all. So then our car is spinning in circles on the road and we start to slide off the road. Oh ya did I mention we are on the side of a mountain? So we start sliding off the side of the mountain. And then we stop.

We all scramble to get out of the car ASAP in case it starts sliding more. Now guess what two cars were behind us? A triple A truck and a police car. So this teeny little truck attaches the wire from his car to our car and attempts to pull us up. Our car is so heavy that his car starts to slide even with the cement blocks against the tire. Ok long story short is about 30 minutes later we finally got pulled out. He told us if we had gone even 5 more feet we would have flipped down the entire mountain. Then we had to all squeeze into an eighteen wheeler that towed us to a car station… all we had was 2 flat tires. Of course they stuck me right next to the driver with no seatbelt… middle children really have it hard. We were pretty lucky.

All this to say… I think Cara handled herself much better in a way scarier situation than me and Jenny could have. Sorry Jenny… we may be older but I think we are the more dramatic ones of the family.

Drag Queens

Well I’ve been out of town this past week in Ft. Lauderdale with some friends and quite a few interesting things happened. I want to tell you about one in particular. Since I don’t have my pictures up yet I’ll have to describe in detail until I can give ya’ll a picture to look at. Don’t worry it will be coming soon hopefully!

So on Saturday afternoon three of my friends and I all flew to Ft. Lauderdale for a much needed vacation *note: I have only been working for a month and a half but I don’t care I wanted a vacation. Anyways the first day we were there we were looking through and little booklet that the hotel gave us of activities to do in Ft. Lauderdale and we came across a restaurant called Lips. I kid you not the name of this place was Lips. And you’ll never guess what kind of restaurant it was… a drag queen restaurant. And so of course we thought, “um we HAVE to go there!!” So on Tuesday night we took ourselves out for a nice night at Lips.

Well Stephanie didn’t come with us that night. She wasn’t feeling so good so she stayed in and Kyla, Leah, and I went out for what would soon become the best night of our lives. We got to the restaurant, which was all neon with huge lipstick containers as the pillars, and got our table. We were sitting in great viewing pleasure of the stage. Our waiter/waitress?... we’ll just say “waitress” and “she” to make it easier, came out to take our order. Now this diva/queen was a sight for sore eyes. She had great dark lipstick on and eyes all done up in a metallic silver dress. Her name you ask? Martina Sky!! She took our order and we were just all smiles and excitement to be there. Well then Porscha, the head diva, came out and she sang us some songs. She was pretty good too… had a real good impersonation of a ladies voice and was hilarious. She then announced each Diva… one of which had better legs than all three of us… so not fair and they lip sang to their favorite songs. Well Martina of course sang “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”. Well obviously we were probably the loudest and happiest people in the place. Just dancing in our booth and singing along. How can you not be joyful in a place like this I ask you?

So about this time was when our new best friends walked in and sat down in the booth right by us. Paul and Ken have been together for 25 years and married for 5 and yes they are gay. Well of course we just HAD to talk to them. I mean hello they looked fabulous! So after we met Paul… Ken didn’t really talk to us, Porscha got the mic and said “who in here is a heterosexual???” Of course we cheered loud and danced around… one of about 3 tables in the house. Then our friend Paul looked at us like he was real disappointed and said, “oh really? That’s too bad” Well whatever Paul. So we were just living it up talking to Paul, taking him and his man’s picture on his camera phone and having him take our picture.

So then after the performance and dinner it was karaoke time baby!! Well so sorry to tell ya’ll this but I DO NOT sing karaoke. I don’t care that everyone in that place was drunk and I would never see them again because after some real bad acts of other girl groups I was not about to get up there. Well we find out Porscha is from Midland and so of course we call her over to tell her we are from Texas and Leah is in fact from Midland, also we just wanted to meet the Queen Diva. Paul was disappointed in our Texas background too but we made up for it by being awesome. So then Porscha wants us to sing Dixie Chicks, “Earl Had to Die” So Leah and Kyla prepare to go up there. Well it starts off with Leah saying the following in a complete hick accent, “We’re here to do everything we can to make all ya’lls Texas stereotypes come true”. Then she inserted a few “yeehaw’s” every now in then during the song just to top things off. *Video to come later*. Paul then leans over to me to say, “Oh gracious I hope she doesn’t remember this in the morning!” I reply with, “oh totally… and that right there is why I did not go on stage.”

So then Paul and I start talking about Dolly Parton. Now Paul just LOVES Dolly Parton. So I mention that one time in New York I saw her at a Broadway musical. His reply was, “OH… MY… GOD was she just GORGEOUS?” I reply with, “OF COURSE!!! When is Dolly Parton NOT gorgeous?” Then he says, “You are telling me? She is just absolutely fabulous!!” “Fabulous and breathtaking” I mention (P.S. I do not believe any of this to be true of Dolly Parton…. I’m just playing into the night) so then he wants to know who she was with etc etc. Oh Paul and I were just having a grand ole time. Man what a night.

Oh did I mention that Martina Sky thought she was HOT STUFF? Every time she passed a mirror, (which were on EVERY wall in the place) she primped her hair and made a kissy face at herself. When she sang her song she changed into a super short tight pink with black dots dress and pink tulle around the bottom with fishnet shirt that ended just below the boobs. Of course when she came back to our table we announced to her, “how FABULOUS and AMAZING she looked in that outfit” Her response was that she is, “going for the Cindy Lauper look” Leah then told her that she should try some “red in her hair” She said “of course, I would LOVE that”. Oh we were just chatting it up. She is our best friend now.

So anyways that was our night out at Lips. If only this could happen again. It was the best part of our vacation. That and the 19 yr old guy who sang us a song he wrote… I’ll save that for a later post.

Annoying

Why do people feel the need to talk while one person is standing right in front of your desk and the other is standing right behind your chair? It sure makes it awkward for the person in the middle. What do you do? Listen and look back and forth? Stare at your blank computer screen like you are contemplating on the background? Or get up and walk away? I mean it's just weird. That just happened to me for a full 4 minutes. I know because I was watching the clock and thinking, "please just step one foot to the side so I am not positioned in between ya'll and the situation would be solved. Alas, they did not step to the side.

Optimism

I want to start out with telling ya’ll a story about how my optimism affects me. Now I would say that I’m a generally happy and optimistic person. I tend to think that everything is going to work out great and even when it doesn’t I jut make a new greater plan. This usually doesn’t work out either but will get into that later.

So about a year and a half ago I decided that I would get a gym membership with my friend Casey in Abilene. Now I’m sure every female can relate to what I’m about to say. About once a month I make a new plan about how I’m going to lose a ton of weight for this upcoming thing and man will I look good. It never happens. So last year when we got these memberships we were doing really well about going every day and working out. In fact we were doing so good that we decided we were actually going to train for a mini triathlon and eventually do a whole triathlon. Now those of you who know me well will laugh in my face about this and if you don’t know me well then you should laugh too.

So here is what are training consisted of: we would do a few miles on the elliptical each day (you see because I just don’t like the treadmill or running… oh wait you mean you have to run in a triathlon? Dang it!) And then maybe 20-30 minutes on the bike every now in then. In fact I even had to teach Casey to ride a bike. Sure she used to ride as a kid but couldn’t remember how. So after buying a bike at Wal-Mart… a little boy’s bike at that… I’m short, get over it, and those are the cheap ones, we embarked on our adventure. After hitting a few parked cars and some trash cans we were on our way to accomplishing our mini triathlon. Did I mention that one time someone talked me into trying to pop a curb on my bike and it was the most painful thing I ever did? Let’s just say it didn’t work out. Don’t listen to your friends when they tell you to do stupid things. Now Casey also decided to start swimming because as you all know swimming is part of a triathlon. Well to tell the truth I really just don’t like to swim so I decided to ignore that part because when the time came the love for swimming would enter my body as well as the stamina to go the whole way. At least that is what I thought. So now from what you can see the only thing I’m actually doing that will benefit the triathlon is the bike and to be honest we only did that about once a week. But boy were we excited. Every day when we worked out we talked about our mini triathlon and we told our friends about it (they probably laughed behind are back). We are both so optimistic that we never thought for a minute that this might not happen. In fact eventually it faded out and I never thought about it again until today when she brought it back to my memory. I guess I was suppressing those negative thoughts of not completing my goal. Oh ya I forgot to tell ya’ll that this training, though it sounds like we kept it up for quite sometime, actually only lasted about 3 weeks. That’s when we started playing basketball at the gym. And when I say playing I mean we would talk about running lines but then we would just shoot free throws. We were pretty good if anyone wants to challenge us to a two on two match. At least we had good intentions. I really think that we should lose weight by having good intentions and not just by working out.

I have one last story for ya’ll and this story is about the time I decided not to be optimistic anymore. So last semester I began my search for the perfect teaching job. In fact I found one at Dallas isd. It wasn’t too far from home and it was Kindergarten. I love kindergarten because they learn so much and say the funniest things ever. Plus if you need an ego boost just go into a kindergarten room. They are obsessed with you and think you are the prettiest person that ever lived. It’s awesome. So I began the process of the online application. Now this took me about a week… I sometimes “feel” like I’m busy and can’t get things done but really I’m just “busy” hanging out with people. So during this week I began to picture my dream job. I imagined the lessons I would do and how much the kids would love me and how the parents would love me so much that I would get teacher of the year my first year and just exactly how I would decorate my perfect little room… in fact I even drew a diagram of that (don’t judge me). So I was in such a state of happiness I didn’t even think about the fact that I still had to apply, call for an interview, ace the interview, and get hired. Well I finally called the school and to my dismay the job had ALREADY BEEN FILLED!!!! Why God??? Why did you let me get so excited just to dash my dreams! Nothing will ever be the same again!! These were the thoughts running through my head.

Oh wait the next day I found a 1st grade job online. Ok so it’s not kindergarten but wow will first grade be so totally awesome and everyone will want my advice even the veteran teachers because I will have such innovative ideas. Man will I be good. Ok that job was already filled to. This happened about 2 more times before I decided to forget optimism. It was just too hard having my dreams dashed each time. So I finally landed an interview for a 2nd grade job. Ok forget it I just can’t help being optimistic because obviously this is my new perfect position. And since I got the interview then they were going to LOVE me and nothing was stopping me now. Ok so I didn’t get that job. Then a school contacted ME I mean I didn’t call them they called ME! Man I must have done something good and that surely meant I had it in the bag or they wouldn’t have even called me right? Nope didn’t get that one. Ok this happened one more time before I decided to forget teaching for the semester it was just to hard to get a job. I know I know I only went on 3 interviews but I’m not used to being rejected, after all in my mind I’m apparently the perfect teacher that everyone wants at their school. They probably didn’t hire me so the other teachers wouldn’t be jealous.

So I’m trying not to dream so much. Well it’s not working yet but I’m trying not to get my hopes up too much. That’s not working either. Oh well I guess I’m confined to a life of optimism. I hope you don’t have problems like me!

The Murderer Who Came For Me Last Night!!

Subtitle: The longest blog in history! But trust me it is worth the read!

Ok so you might be thinking, “What prompted Melanie to finally start this blog?” Actually it was something that happened last night and I would like to share with ya’ll the ridiculousness that is my imagination.

To start things off I would like to say that after graduating from college in December I have been living with my parents. This is not at all a bad set up, free food, free rent, people who have to listen to me talk, I mean it’s really quite nice but just to be honest I’m ready to leave. So I met some girls in Dallas through a friend and they “asked” me to live with them one day when they move out of their current house… if ya’ll are reading this I still plan on taking ya’ll up on that offer… hopefully it was real offer and not one of those fake invites! But if they do not move out I have considered moving in to a one bedroom apartment for a small period of time. My plans have completely changed after last night.

Yesterday my parents left for California before I even woke up. Now as many of you know when I have the house to myself I do not automatically think “freedom baby!!” I think “ahhh this is scary. Be brave. You can do it. No you can’t. Get out now!” Well awhile back they went to Honduras and I braved two of the nights alone at my house and it went quite well. I’m still sleeping downstairs when I’m alone but it’s a huge step especially considering I actually fell asleep at a normal hour. Hold your applause please. So when they told me they were going to California I now thought, “all right this is good, I need to get used to this.”

So yesterday I arrived home from work at about 5:15 and promptly set the alarm as I wasn’t planning on going out for the rest of the night, I mean hello American Idol comes on at 8 and I have a puzzle going on upstairs that I’ve been working on. What more could a girl in her early 20’s ask for… exciting I know!! So my night was going great. I was puzzling and watching TV, and then at 9:45 the dog decided she had to go to the bathroom. So I went to let her out. When I opened the door I heard a faint bell like sound in the distance. “What is that?” I wondered, “Oh well” I thought and shut the door. About 60 seconds later I thought, “Oh shoot that was the alarm!!!” So I ran to turn it off. I then rummaged around looking for the alarm code key to give the alarm company when they called. They never called. So I went up stairs, turned on some good tunes, and proceeded to dance around while I packed for my trip on Saturday… Now everyone here knows I’m a good dancer so don’t even think about judging me just beacuse I often go to my room and dance around when I’m bored/in the morning when I get ready/every Saturday when I clean. I then proceeded to change into my nastiest of nasty pajamas. I’m talking pants that are 2 sizes to large and the crotch literally comes down to my knees and a shirt that is also 2 sizes to large. Don’t judge. You know you have them too and they are dang comfy if I do say so and who’s going to see me anyways. So I dance my way downstairs (this time to the music in my head) and get on the computer for my nightly email check before I turn in. It is now 10:30 fyi.

Sorry this is getting so long but I like to get the details right. I want ya’ll to feel what I was feeling. So all of a sudden someone is knocking on the door!!!!! Logically I think, “Oh my gosh a murderer has come to kill me while I’m home alone!!!!” This is no joke I’m actually thinking this. Then the dog starts growling. And usually she just barks at the door so I then think, “Oh gosh!! Dog’s KNOW when a murderer is at the door and she is trying to protect me” So now I’m crouched in the study and I grab the house phone to call my parents. The phone doesn’t ring. So I hang up and call the neighbor. The phone doesn’t ring. They have obviously cut the power lines to come and get me so I can’t call 911. This is straight from a movie. *NOTE: Actual thought process. Oh wait!!! I have a cell phone in my other hand! Thank the Lord for technology. I call my parents. They don’t answer!! They hate me and want me to die! I call the neighbor. She doesn’t answer. Why does everyone want me dead!! I’m about to dial 911. In fact I have it dialed and my finger is on the talk button just in case. I know all you girls have been there. Don’t try to deny it. Just accept.

All of a sudden they are in the garage and trying to open the door into the house!!! Oh my gosh how the H-E-DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS did they get into the garage! I shut the garage door for goodness sake! Then they are at the back door that leads into the backyard trying to open that. Then they are at my parent’s back door trying to get in. I promptly drop to the ground and army crawl/run *it was awkward I know* to the dining room so I can peek out the window. By now my whole body is literally shaking and my heart is about to pound out of my body. What do I see you ask? A man in all black with a chainsaw? Someone in an army tank trying to take over my house? Hillary Clinton trying to kill me so I won’t vote against her? No I say to you, there were two police cars in the front of my house!

All this freaking out for nothing!!!!!! I then run to the back door to open the door for these nice men who have come to check on me and to find out what the heck is going on that they would show up at my house at 10:30 on a work night. So when I open the door of course what is running through my head is, “are they going to pull their guns on me?” Don’t worry, they didn’t. But what IS happening is my alarm is going off and they have come to check it out. Here is what comes out of my mouth when I open the door, “oh my… scared, home…. alone and um the alarm and um I had the call to card and card to call alarm... company... card... i'm freaking out" What I meant to say was, “Wow ya’ll had me nervous, I’m home alone and the alarm went off when I let the dog out but the alarm company never called me and I forgot about it because it was 45 minutes ago.” What I wish I had wanted to say was this, “Hey guys what’s up? Ya’ll doing ok? Ya I’m just hanging out at my house and I was having this rad party upstairs and didn’t hear you knock. Sorry about that. Can I get you a cup of coffee or a diet coke?” I think they got the gist though. So I show them my id and they are on there way.

My neighbor calls back and 15 minutes later after I’ve finally recounted the whole story I’m starting to calm down. Then what do you know the doorbell rings. The police are back. The alarm went off again. Oh ya Melanie that would be because you opened to door for the police the first time and didn’t turn the alarm off. Oh wait you are doing the same thing right now. So they come in and chat with me awhile, my neighbor comes over to check it out as they give me the up down look probably thinking “she is a fashion nightmare thank goodness we came… now she will have the sense to not wear such nasty pajamas even if she is home alone.”

So that’s my story. I blame it on the dog. I mean she was the one who had to pee. I usually thank God for my active imagination but last night as I was cursing the dog I sent curses upon God as well for that imagination of mine. This is what I said, "I curse you god, you mighty spiter, you laugh upon my scardy catness and I curse this dog too for having to pee and setting off the alarm" Ok I didn’t really curse God but I did think things like “that stupid butt head dog. I dislike her”… just trying to keep it PG 13 here. She must have heard the curses because this morning as I showered she decided to leave me a little gift right outside the game room and as I went to walk down stairs I stepped in a big puddle of pee. As it oozed between my toes and my new perfectly manicured toes that I did last night I cursed her again.

That’s all friends. Sorry the first post is so long but when something like this happens I just feel the need to share it with everyone. My deep down gut feeling tells me ya’ll really don’t care, but I ignore that and I believe ya’ll are on pins and needles just dying to know what happened to me last night. Thanks for caring guys! I’ll try to keep my future posts smaller and incorporate some pictures. Thanks for reading.

Side Note: I forgot to tell ya'll what happened with the phones. Earlier that evening I had been talking on the phone to my grandad. Now the idiot that I am instead of pressing end when the conversation was over I pressed mute. So that is why the phones weren't working. I blame this on my lack of home phone use in the past 5 years. 

My New Blog!!

So I’ve been thinking about creating a new blog since sometime last semester when these hilarious things kept happening to me while student teaching. I’ve finally decided to start it! I know you are all jumping for joy right now as you have most likely been checking my old china blog every day/hour/minute to see if I have updated it. Unfortunately I decided that was a blog only for China and I now need one for every day life.

I plan on just writing about the things that happen in my strange life as well as the even stranger things that go on in my head. I hope you all will enjoy this… When I say “you all” it really probably means Jenny and my mom... okay actually just my mom since Jenny is in grad school. Ok Ok I know I'm a loser but well you have to start somewhere and maybe someday my blog will grow so large that my fans will demand that I put my blog into book format and I will have written the autobiography that I plan on writing one day and everyone will want me to speak at conference's and want my autograph and I will be able to buy all the cool shoes I've ever wanted… but first I have to have a cool life though. Still working on that one. It's going to happen. Believe it.