Experiment

Today, Will conducted an experiment with the German Shepherd, Clover, who is still a puppy, but in a GIANT body. More on that in a sec.

I was sitting in a seventh grade classroom today, got all excited about something, and put my pen in my lap in order to use my hands and my favorite sharpie pen bled all over my khakis. Today was a 13 hour work day. We had a school event tonight, so I was planning on wearing those khakis at work all day, in a meeting after school, then all night at the school event. The ink situation led to a bit of a panic. After googling my options, I tried rubbing alcohol from the nurse and a Tide pen from the secretary. Let's just say it got worse rather than better.

I had an 11:00 meeting, which gave me 30 minutes to jump in my car, zoom home, do a pants change, and rush back to work.

When I walked in the door, Lily the border collie tried to quickly exit through the opened door. I thought that was a bit odd. I stepped in the house and could immediately tell that something wasn't right. Clover's pen was empty, and I saw her giant head peek around the wall from the kitchen. Then, she ran upstairs. Hmmm... Then, I noticed some books that had been knocked on the floor and thought, "REALLY!? He left her out?" As I walked through the house, I found that all the doors to the rooms were open. Normally, when we leave her out, we close everything so she can't ruin the house. He even opened the living room doors which are always closed because I try my best to keep at least one room in the house clean just in case someone stops by. I always think that if I have one clean room, I'll just keep whoever stops by (no one ever stops by, but that's not the point) in that room, and they won't think that I lack house-keeping skills. I was in a rush so I couldn't fully investigate the whole situation, but as I was ironing new pants, I did ask Clover why she was out and she looked at me with a face that said, "I have no idea what he was thinking!" Before I left, I put her in her pen and order was restored.

On the drive back to school, I called Will. Here's what that conversation was like:

Will: Hi.

Me: Hi.

Will: Why are you calling me at 10 something?

Me: Were you and Clover doing an experiment today?

Will: Ummm.

Me: She told me you were.

Will: Yea.

Me: Why?

Will: I was trying to see if she'd grown up. She was supposed to be a good girl.

Me: Why did you open all the doors?

Will: She was supposed to just sit on the bed and look out the window.

Me: She didn't. She told me she wanted to be back in her pen.

Will: Oh.

Me: She knocked books down and probably other stuff I didn't find yet.

Will: Oh.

Me: Why did you open the living room doors?

Will: I didn't. Clover did.

Me: Hmmm. You were just going to have it all cleaned up by the time I got home?

Will: Yea.


Interesting day. Kind of glad I had a ink and pants situation. Turns out she also pulled Will's binoculars off the table and ate his favorite hat. Now the question is, "Why does Clover pull all the things out when we aren't here?"

Bag Blues

I've been having troubles with my work bag, purse, class bag, gym bag, lunch bag. I have SO many bags that I use on a daily basis, and I can't figure out how to make them all squash into one bag. Perhaps I should start carrying a 5 gallon bucket because at least then it would all fit, but still probably not. How do you manage all your bags and all your stuff?

What is important to me in a bag is roominess and a hobo/satchel look. I know that hobo/satchel is essentially two different bag types, but it has to be something like that. I don't care that much about it having a laptop sleeve, but if it did and still was roomy, I'd be okay with that too. One little glitch is that I will absolutely not spend more than $200 on the perfect bag. My heart skips a beat saying I'd spend $200 which seems absolutely ridiculous ridiculous ridiculous to me. I don't like to spend tons of money on a single thing; I'd rather have LOTS of things, like 200 things. 1 dollar per thing. But I'm at a point of bag-chaos, that if I could find the perfect one, I'd make the investment. It would be a move in support of my sanity and my arms/shoulders.

So I've been on a hunt, and these are some bags I'm looking at daily on the internet.

I need input. What do you think? Which one seems best? OR do you know of an amazing bag I haven't discovered that would solve all of my problems? The goal is to not carry 5 bags in a single day. This is a time when I wish I had more than 3 female readers, but whatever. Maybe one of you three will have a good idea!

Bag 1

Bag 2

Bag 3

Bag 4

Big Ole Hair

Last week I was in a seventh grade class observing and witnessed the funniest moment of the year. There's this boy who has to get up a good bit during class and walk around. Fortunately for him, his teacher is cool and is okay with this. As he was wandering around, I noticed him pulling at something on his ear. From where I sat, it looked like he was pulling a string, so I assumed maybe he had some stitches. He pulled at the "stitches" and walked over to the teacher and said, "I think I need some scissors." She pointed at a little bin where there were scissors. He walked over and found a pair of scissors, not the safety scissors, but real deal scissors. Then, he reached up and started snipping around his ear. As he was doing this, I caught his eye and he smiled. I asked him, "Do you have stitches?" The response was priceless, as his head was cocked sideways as he snipped away. He said, "Nah, it's just some big ole hair." He finished cutting his hair and walked back to his desk. Before he made it, he turned around and said, "I wonder if there's some more on the other side." Sure enough, there was another chunk of big ole hair over there too. From the front of the room, he explained to me that his dad must have missed it, and he went back for the scissors again.

Everytime I've seen this kid since last week, I crack up and think about his big ole hair. These are the moments that make working in a school worth it!

You Know You're a Nerd When...

stacking books into categories for an upcoming literature review makes you feel happy, like all is right with the world.

Renovation Update

This weekend I finally moved the last box of random junk out of the den and took these pictures of the finished product. The picture quality stinks because I used my phone. One more reminder that I really need to get a decent camera.






Normally everything is covered in sheets or this lovely couch protector from Orvis because at this point un-training the dogs in their habits of lazing about on all the furniture would be impossible. Also, notice the pellet gun propped behind the chair in the corner. That's an interesting story for another time.

Members Only

Today, Will signed me up to be a member of the Southern Pride Rabbit and Cavy Club. So glad I can strike that off of my bucket list. It apparently only cost $8 for us to both join. I just hope this doesn't mean I have to actually participate in the club. I don't have anything to say about rabbits other than the fact that they are cute and make a lot of poop. I also just learned that cavy means guinea pig. Good to know information. Perhaps I will just make cupcakes for club meetings. I hope I get a t-shirt out of this.

I stole this line from Rachel Wilkerson's post today:

"Some days I feel like I belong, and other days I feel like a bull in a china shop."

I'd have to say I agree. She was talking about a new gym/workout class she's been attending. I just know that in general, that pretty much sums my life up in one neat, little sentence. Now I get to have one more place to half-fit-in/half-be-awkward--rabbit and guinea pig club. Hooray!

Coffee Trials

I think I discovered something that millions of other people already knew. It has to do with coffee. I require coffee every morning. If I can't get coffee, it's bad. There have been times when I'm stranded somewhere like a scary hotel or camping in the woods and the coffee options are lacking (though I've come to embrace gritty camp coffee). In these situations, I try to make do with diet coke or hot tea. It just doesn't do it for me though.

So the deal with coffee is that I used to drink Coffeemate Fat Free Hazelnut Creamer in my coffee. (Not the powdery kinds...that's just gross.) It's all my dad's fault. He got me hooked on it when I was in high school. It was simply the way coffee was handled in my house, and I knew nothing else. For a couple years of college, I continued with the flavored creamer. Then I met this guy who was a coffee snob. How could I EVER put that non-dairy stuff in my coffee? I fell for it. I started using sugar and plain creamer. Then, I realized that guy was kind of an idiot and went back to hazelnut creamer because have you tasted it??? It's GOOD! Just like my dad taught me. A few years ago, I got hooked on reading labels. If something has partially hydrogenated anything in it, I began to freak out and not consume it anymore. Hazelnut creamer definitely does have partially hydrogenated soybean oil. Also around this time, I also decided to go caffeine free and quit drinking coffee all together for like a year and a half. Then I regained all clarity and am back to needing coffee in order to function. What was I thinking? So, to avoid the gross chemicals that will cause heart disease (or at least so I think), I started trying other stuff and eventually settled on Splenda and Land O Lakes fat free half and half. Yum. This was it. Then, just a few weeks ago, in three or four different instances I overheard different people carrying on about how terrible Splenda was because of the chemicals. Ahhh! So, for a week I used sugar instead of Splenda. Every time I brought the spoon of sugar to my coffee cup I pictured those diagrams that show how many tablespoons of sugar are in some terrible food or drink. You know, the spoons that have a heap of sugar all stacked up to scare you away. So, I gave the sugar heaps up and found International Delight creamer which is safe-ish. After two days, I decided that was gross too. At this point I thought that coffee was just going to become one more lack luster functional thing rather than something I love and look forward to. Then, it hit me. SOY MILK! Last weekend, I picked up some Silk Very Vanilla Soymilk. That's the answer. I know I've overheard thousands of people at Starbucks order stuff with soymilk. I've never wanted to do that because I like regular milk, but vanilla soymilk is sweet AND it has some heart-healthy benefits. Plus a half gallon lasts a while when you only use a little. So, problem solved. Whew...I was getting worried!

By the way, I'm very aware that I could just drink my coffee black, but really? Where's the fun in that!?