Sing to Me, Rita
TO cheer me up, Pete took me out to Shady Grove and to two Shady Things (their delicious version of the margarita). Hooray Petey!
Limey,lovely deliciousness!
Anyway, the night was fun and made up for a day of duldrums.
Tomorrow we go biking.
Incidentally I discovered the show Ghost Hunters today . . . a little creepy.
Must go snuggle Clemmy.

Menk
We are at day 10 of the trip, and it's taking a toll. I was dressed today, but I've degenerated inot pjs. Perhaps it has something to do with the rain, the gray skies and general ickiness of the day.
We had someone come to see the house who stayed all of about 3-4 minutes which I guess meant she hated it. Meanwhile for her 4 minute stay I drove all over the city in the pouring rain with Toby as my companion which was enough to give me a headache and add to the cranky factor.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel--I think Eric might come home late Friday instead of Sunday. Of course he'll probably sleep all weekend, but at least he'd be here.
Incidentally his company is so cheesy--how do you thank someone for almost 4 years of hard work? You send them a crappy floating space pen without a note or anything. No gesture would really have been better in my opinion. Then again, those are the Maryland people, not the ones he actually works with, maybe they will do something nice for him. I hope so, he deserves it.
I need to come up with a plan for tomorrow--if it's nice maybe I can convince Pete to go to the Velaway or something. No more sitting around the house!
Think nice thoughts. Think contract on the house.

Colbert Says No
Had a great time this weekend up in the Big D with my family. Jay took me to see a lot of houses, and my favorite was on Bearhaven--Stephen Colbert would definately not approve. I am getting really excited about the prospect of buying a house, I just wish ours would move sooner rather than later--I don't want to miss my chance with some of the housese up there. We've had a lot of traffic on the hosue, so I'm hoping it moves quickly. I am really getting a bit obsessive about the whole thing.
Besides house hunting Dallas was pretty fun. On Friday I hooked up with Jen and Jay to see Lisa Lampanelli who was rude, crude, socially unacceptable and really frickin' hilarious. I also saw a play with the rents on Saturday. Very amusing.

As an added bonus to a cool weekend, Toby was stung by a scorpion. He stuck his nose right in the scoprion's nest and has been a little subdued since.
(update--the Bearhaven home seems to have sold since yesterday. sigh)

Pathetic
We're on day 4 of the trip, and I am really pathetic. The house is so empty and lonely. I was just watching the awesome 2 hour finale of Lost, and I kept trying to call out comments to Eric. Sad.
Today was also the last day of classes, so that was emotional and a little sad too. I cried a little. I have to go in briefly tomorrow, but then I will take off to Dallas for the weekend. I think maybe that when I look at houses things will start to seem real.
Eric got his official offer from EFW, and it's pretty good--about 7 thousand more than he makes now. The good thing about the company is that I think they are going places, so he might get the chance to really advance and be a part of something cool. Plus the company closes at noon every Friday--very cool. He will start in mid-June. Our lives are a bit up in the air at the moment since we have no idea what we are doing. I suppose it is a learning experience. I hate learning experiences!
I did get some nice feedback on the house today--apparently someone is considering making an offer. Send good vibes.
School's out for the summer. School's out forever.

Brownie Batter Goodness
How's this for a piece of irony: we had two house showings tonight. During the first one I took Toby on a long walk, and on the second I went to Dairy Queen for a Brownie Batter Blizzard. So good!!! I keep hoping we'll hear something soon about the house. I've never been tremendously patient.
I have found a number of cool looking houses in the Dallas area, and Jay is taking me around sometime this weekend. My inlaws are kind enough to keep Toby for the weekend because I did not want him tethered in the yard for 4 days. I may not like him, but I am not cruel.
Tomorrow is the last day of school. I am getting sad and rather pathetic, of course Eric's absence is not helping at all! He is coming back in 10 days, yay!
I must lie down and digest.

No Love
Our realtor has a ervice for getting feedback on the house from the realtors that show the property. So far only one agent has responded, and she did not like the house at all. It was a little blunt and pretty mean, I thought, yet it gave absolutely no constructive feedback on how we can make the house more attractive to buyers. Sigh. Depressing. I hope the next responder is a little more positive. I mean there are four choices when it asks if they buyer liked the property--no, somewhat, yes, very much, and this person clicked no. I know it isn't personal, but it felt like a slap in the face. They also said our exterior maintence was only average--I work my butt off on that stupid yard!! Whatever.
Eric is currenlty flying over the Atlantic. I am already feeling the crankiness set in!

Sound of Silence
When I am stressed I can't stop talking, but when I am actually worried about something I suddenly find myself incapable to talking. It's been pretty silent here the last few days. Our plans are becoming a reality. I'm amazingly excited and mind numbingly terrified. I just wish the hosue would sell and we had a clear mandate to go.
I thought it was a good sign that we have gotten about 2 people a day since its been on the market, but someone today told me it's just because we're the new kids on the block and that it's going to be really hard to sell. I hope she was wrong. I am not certain what else to do to the house right now to make it more sellable. I'm already obsessing. I even buried a statue of St. Joseph in the back yard because I heard that would help. Heck, I'd bury Jimmy Hoffa in the yard if I thought it would help.

Other than my general insanity, it was an interesting weekend. Saw two movies: DaVinci Code and Over the Hedge. I enjoyed the latter more. DaVinci was a little slow and not as good as the book, but it was still a prety interesting movie. Over the Hedge was just plain amusing. It was also Gwen and Rose's Baptism today--they looked very cute in their dresses.

This is my last week at St. Mary's. Perhaps that could account for my sudden silence too. I will miss the school. I wonder if my new school will have kids I like as much. I wonder if I will be able to make friends on the staff there. I wonder if I will be a good teacher. This is why it is hard to break out of a rut.

Eric is leaving for Germany tomorrow. He's going to be gone 10 days. I will officially be cranky and generally unpleasant. Consider yourself warned. I might get a cane just so I can beat people with it. That's just how cranky I am going to be.

Tempest G Force
Wow. I had a great day yesterday at Fiesta Texas. Despite a few negative parents that can kiss my patootie it was a wonderful day. I rode everything and have found how freeing zooming around at 70 miles an hour upside down can be. One of the fathers and I rode the Tempest which is this giant propeller that swirls you 150 feet in the air at some crazy maximum velocity. I dont know when I have had more fun--it's been awhile.
We stopped in San Marcos for dinner at Fazoli's, and the kids called me over to thank me for being their teacher and to tell me how much they appreciated me. It was so sweet and from the heart--made me cry. That makes up for the rest of the crap of the job. I don't know anything better. No one becomes a teacher for money--they do it for love.
On the way back our car got completely lost on these back country roads. We didn't get back till 11 p.m., but we laughed the whole way. Very fun.
I wasn't the only one who had a good day. Eric was offered a job at EFW, so now he has a decision to make. Unfortunatley he is leaving for Germany which will complicate things, but I am so happy that we have this decision.
Things on the house market seem to be going ok--we've had about 4 or 5 people come and look at the house. Haven't heard anything, but I'm hopeful. I'm sure something will happen--hopefully soon.
This morning we've been doing yard work. I ended up mowing 3 yards. I'm a vigilante with a 4 horse power mower. There are some houses that look like crap, so I mowed and trimmed their hedges and trees. I think I've become a complete lunatic. Some might see it as insane meddling, but I prefer to look at it as an act of kindness. That's my story.

Success
Two good things have happened today:
1)Eric got a job offer from L3 Communications. It is a pretty good pay package, a $5000 signing bonus, complete relocation costs, and they have a shuttle from work. It's not really the job he wants because it is another long drive and not that much more than he is making now, but it's really nice to have a plan B in place in case the other interviews don't work out. All in all, good news. He has another interview on Friday so cross all body parts for him.
2) The house is officially on the market. We have a sign on the lawn and everything. I just hope the timing works out reasonably well. Things are like dominoes right now.

Now the best thing will happen--we're going on a nice bike ride.

Rant, Rant, Rant. . .Hoorah!
Today's entry was going to be about how amazingly stressful my day at work was (and it was), but this afternoon's good news has mellowed out my righteous indignation (which is never healthy anyway).
At work we have decided that everything is my fault. In fact, they even suggested that it be my fault next year, and after that they would split up the fault amongst everyone else. I have parent issues surrounding graduation. THere is a huge busybody who has seen fit to create maximum chaos and send the stress level through the roof. In addition last year the graduation mass was planned by a teacher, and this year she did not do it and then got mad because it wasn't done, I guess implying that it was my job to set up the mass. I'm unclear on this point. As I said, it's all my fault apparently. I am ready for my public wet noodle flogging. Anyway, I was in meetings about this all afternoon. Luckily I love the new principal. That makes a big difference. And I did get the recipe for pretzel salad so the day was not a complete waste.
But after coming home in a huff I met with the realtor. She was so pleased with the house and went on and on about how good it looked and how hard we must have worked to fix it up. It was a nice validation of all of our efforts over the last few months. Anyway, the paper work has been signed and the sign goes up in the yard tomorrow. If you know anyone who wants a very well cared for house in Pflugerville, let me know.
Tonight we go out to celebrate Don and Maria finishing the payments on their house. Alane is organizing the party. I'm in it for Cool River loveliness. Ironically a steak house has the best veggie plate in town. I can also really use a glass of wine just to kill the rants.

YouTube - Evolution of Dance
This is so funny. It's actually particularly amusing because I think I did all of these dances at the jr. high dance I chaperoned on Friday.
Here's to Fridays and the Chicken Dance.

Happy Mom's Day
Happy Mother's Day to all moms, especially mine.
Toby and Clementine did not get me anything. Actually after the bird Clem had yesterday, I am extremely grateful for nothing at all.
Yesterday was a day of crazy hard work. We cleaned out the garage, finished all the paint touch ups in the house, did yard work, and ran a ton of errands. Last night all I wanted to do was hang out, drink wine, and watch tv. The house is really close--in fact the realtor is coming on Monday to finalize plans. Just one final push today.
I told my students that I was leaving on Friday--I wrote them all a letter explaining why. They were really cute. A few of them even cried. I will miss them very much, and it's nice to know that I have had an effect on them. They have definatley affected me. I supervised the dance on Friday, and people kept coming up and saying nice things. The 7th grade boys even asked me to dance. Cute.
This is exam week and my final week with my 8th graders. Friday we go to Six Flags Fiesta Texas to celebrate their graduation. After that just half a week and my time at St. Mary's will be at an end. As excited as I am to be moving on, I keep getting the sniffles at strange times.
This afternoon we visit E's family for some Bocchi (?) Ball and BBQ. Hopefully I don't hit the poodle with an errant ball.

Mr. Clean
Yesterday I cleaned for 4 hours. Today I tackle the garage. Luckily I am current on my tetnus boosters becase you never know what kind of junk you'll find in there. I called the realtor yesterday to get the process started, but I never heard back from her. I hope she calls tomorrow because I stuff I need to do.
Eric had another interview today, but this one was not really something he is interested in. I guess we'll see how it pans out.
I was falling asleep on my way home from work, so I might try to grab a quick nap before the scouring continues.

Destructo-Cat!
If Clem was a super hero, that's what she would be. She just knocked several bottles off of the bar. My quest for a super clean show house is not going so well. It seems I just cannot keep the place the level of clean I want it to be for more than a few days. This whole actually working and having a life thing rreally does get in the way of the spotless house. I need to do something about that.
Anyway, I am hoping that if I devote tonight to putting the house together we will be able to list it by the weekend and begin the process of getting on with the rest of our lives.
Eric's job stuff went well yesterday. One interview was awesome, but he'd have another at least hour drive if he took it, and that's not fair to him. He also have another 3 interviews set up. I know the perfect opportunity will arise. It's just neat to be wanted I think. Anyway, my guess is that in another two weeks or so all will become clear to us. (hope, hope, hope)
Last night's exam went pretty well--I got the question I wanted, and I think I wrote a pretty good essay. We'll see what Dr. Thompson thinks. I guess his opinion is more important than mine in this matter. I'm just glad to have it out of the way. I should be able to transfer my credits to a program at the UNiversity of Dallas, but I think I need some time off. I"m suffering from major burn out at the moment. Still it's nice to end this program on a positive note.
My 8th graders turned in truly crappy papers today. I am trying to remember that they have major 8th grade-itus and not to take it as a sign of my crappy teaching, but I was pretty disappointed. I want them to succeed, and I take it personally when they do not. I probably need to lose that attitude if I want to be a healthy teacher.

Larry Hagman and All
Just got back from Dallas where I had a rather long but pretty pleasant day. I had to go up to meet with people at my new job. They all seemed pretty nice, but I was a little offput by the attention to this high school entry test they give. If I wanted to teach to a test, I would work in a public school. Still, I think I will be able to make this work. Ir eally love the principal, and that is a huge thing right there. Everyone was really nice to me, and I think I am going to enjoy teaching there at least for the next few years. I also looked at houses a little in a few different neighborhoods.
Eric and I actually met in Waco for dinner because he is on the way up to Dallas. He has a few interviews and a job fair tomorrow. When I got home there was a message on the machine calling him about getting another interview. Good things will happen for such an amazing boy. I think the EFW people are pretty serious about him. If not there are many other possibilities.
I came home to a pleasant surprise--the contractor had finished everything today! Woo! Now I just have to put everything back together, clean it all up and we can list this baby! THe bathroom floor and dinign room look great. I'm not convinced about the new door color, but we'll see. It's fairly innocent. If it really bothers someone, they can always buy a new door. In any case, I"m glad we are finally done with this endless process.
I have my exam tomorrow and I still remain unable to really concentrate on it. I just hope i do not make a complete fool of myself. If I calm down and focus I will do just fine. Otherwise I guess I'm leaving the program anyway. Wish me oodles of luck--I'll need it.
Send good vibes to my baby too. . .

Toto
We were almost blown to OZ last night--yet another storm came by. While we remained firmly in Texas, big chunks of our roof did not. Eric spent half of the day putting shingles back on the roof. He actually got pretty good at the whole thing. Ah the joys of home ownership. . . I guess it's always something. We were up for over an hour in the middle of the night, afraid we would be blown away. We put the pillows and blankets in the hallway and kept the tv on the radar images and waited for the worst. So sleepy today.
Went to one of my student's Quincinera this afternoon. The mass was lovely, but the reception bored me silly, so we cut out as soon as was reasonably polite. Now we are settling down for a night of wine, movies, and icecream. As Martha Stewart would say "It's a good thing."

Rockin' the Casbah
Eric kicked bootie at his job fair. There are two very interested parties! We will know more shortly. I am so excited. I am starting to think that this will happen! Woo!
Also got to ride with Petey which took the edge off a very tense few days. Wherever we move must have riding trails. Cheaper than therapy.
I'm upset because a student si now beating me with AR points, so I must go read now. Pathetic but true.

Fireflies
The school talent show is coming up on Thursday, and since I am the Student Council advisor, it was determined that I had to participate. Since I had no clue what I could do, my student Tanner and I decided at the last minute to read a poem for two voices called "Fireflies" IT is quite possible the dorkiest thing ever. Today at rehearsal I decided that the only way this will work is if we take the dorkiness factor up a notch and actually dress up as fireflies. Then at least it will be an ironic joke. Yes, I am really that lame. Now I have to go to the storage unit and dig out the battery powered Christmas lights and my wings.
This morning I had to run to Walmart to purchase bulk swords. Ah, the life of a teacher.
Thank goodness I do not work at a bank.

Anxiety Zoo
Lately I've been plagued with wicked crazy anxiety. I guess it's all of the changes and the unknowns that have been driving me nuts. I'm having trouble sleeping and tummy aches, ect. I know it's silly, but that's where I am.
I'm going to see if Eric will make me some herbal tea so I"m not up until two again tonight. I am looking for certainty in places where it is rare. Hopefully we will know something from Eric's job fair on Wednesday.
I just watched 24--that show gives me goosebumps. That's the good kind of tension I guess.
Now for Tension Tamer. Thank God for Celestial Seasonings.