Summer break, what the heck is that?

I am supposed to be on summer break right? 

Right.

That's why I got up at 5:30 this morning and went to class at 7:00 am to listen again about the joys of the digestive system (at least I don't have to take the tests) and then spent the rest of the day alternating between reading "Christianity: A Social and Cultural History" and writing a sweet little 600 word (i.e. three page) essay for Philosophy on Herrera v Collins or "The guy who shot two policemen, confessed and then 8 years later decided he was really innocent and wanted a new trial so they wouldn't put him to death".  I had one whole day to prepare for writing about that for which I had to read Plato's Crito, MLK's Birmingham Jail Letter and one other thing I never actually got to. And the best part? I have to post it for EVERYONE TO READ. *horrors*  Oh and I was supposed to read my professors "lecture".  Yeah.  Right.  And I still have to do all of my religion homework for tomorrow.  Oh but I still have 5 chapters to read in my religion book before tomorrow.  Oh yes and I still have to read about the Perpetua whatevertheheckthatis.  And write a essay about that by this weekend.  And do some post thingy for both classes on Blackboard.  Still don't get that whole thing.

Summer break? 

Not a chance.

Another one bites the dust.

Ah last day in Philosophy 201.  Final paper is written (for what it's worth.)  I read it back to myself and even I didn't understand half of what I said, lol.  Perfect for philosophy no?  So now I get a whole two days off and it's on to Philosophy 301.  Gail, in case you missed my answer to your question a few posts back, the Catholic Jesuit college I attend believes that in order to gain a well rounded Bachelor of Arts degree you must have received instruction in Logic, Philosophy of Human Nature, Ethics...and for me, Ethics, lol.  The fourth is supposed to be an elective philosophy class but I get to take healthcare ethics so WOO HOO.   I will be very ethical.  I also get to take three, count them THREE religion classes.   After that I will be deemed ready for the real world.  Uh huh.

In other news, my head is killing me this morning and making me type crazy words.  I am having to back space every other word to make sure I am saying the right thing.  Hate that.

We have had exactly 1 couple look at our house. Twice.  They are trying to figure out how to turn our office into a formal dining room (because my giant dining room isn't big enough?) They really want another house evidently but it is a short sale that is about to go back to the bank and they cannot make an offer on it.(not our house, the house they REALLY want, *sigh*)  So I am not hopeful but I am prayerful.  So those of you who pray.  PLEASE PRAY. 

It's Hoopfest weekend here in my town which means madness down town as thousands of basketball players compete in teams of three on three all weekend throughout the streets of downtown.  It's pretty cool to watch but it makes a mess of things.  We have some out of town friends staying with us while their kids play in the tourney.  Should be fun :)

Ok, I'm in need of a refill on my cup o' joe even though it's decaf.  Happy Friday everyone!!!

Today is my son's 21'st birthday

I spent my 21st birthday at Baskin and Robbins with a five day old baby boy who grew up to be this amazing young man who today turned 21.  So it was fitting that we spend his 21st together, although we did not go to Baskin and Robbins, we went to Red Robin :)

We had a quiet day at home and then went out to dinner just The Boy and The Husband and I .  Later we met some friends at a local watering hole. It was lots of fun. He was his usual funny but reserved self as we joked with our mutual friends and had a drink. The waitress carded him even before he put on his "I'm 21" pin so he felt official.

All day I waited for his phone to ring. It did several times. I asked him who had called. My sister, my dad, my mom when I was talking to her. But I was waiting for the call from his dad. He hadn't called yet but it was only 6:00. There was still time.

At around 8:30 while Chris and I were playing pool he said quite out of the blue, "I wonder why Dad hasn't called yet? Of all the people who might call me, he is the one person I would have expectations of. I am disappointed that he hasn't called."


My heart broke. 

He never called.  I have tried to protect my son from the realities of who his dad is.  I don't think after this I will be able to anymore.

One year ago today...

I made the best decision of my life.  I was living by myself, in a tiny apartment, moving towards divorce.  But something happened in me, in my husband and that day/night we were able to pick up the pieces of our badly damaged marriage and put them back together again and for that I am forever grateful to the loving God we worship. He is amazing and He had a plan and it was not for us to be apart forever, only long enough so that He could shake out the bad and replace it with the good.

On June 19, 2009 I went for a run and ended up hearing this song and breaking down and realizing that all I needed, all I wanted was to be with you forever. One phone call later, the rest was history.

Allen I love you, you are my Everything.  Thank you for letting go of your need to control and for letting God see us through this thing called Life.

4 AM

This is what time the puppy decided she needed to go potty this morning.  Just as it was beginning to get light out. 

She stretched and greeted me with a wiggly stub of a tail.  I glared and said "go".  She obliged and then tried to greet me again.  I harumphed and put her back to bed where she promptly fell back asleep.

I, on the other hand, have been awake ever since.

It's now 5:55.

*sigh*  Welcome to Saturday.

Rain Rain Go Away

It supposed to be summer. Well, in 3 days anyway. So why is it that yesterday's high temperature was a record low for the day?  Yes, you read that right, the high set a record for being the lowest "high" temperature on record for the day in the last 100 years.   It was only in the low 50's.  Brrrrrrrrr.  And raining.  Hard.  Where is my glorious sunshine?  We get such a short summer here I neeeeeeed every little bit of it to get me through the doldrums of winter.  And spring?  Pfft.  Fuggetaboutit.   In Spokane we like to joke that there are two seasons.  Winter, and road construction season.  Guess which we are in now.  >:(  I DON'T KNOW.  lol  Sort of a messy combination of both.  

The worst part?  Olympia is having better weather than we are.  Olympia is supposed to get the rain.  I live in the desert. Something is wrong here.

Ok, gripe session over.  Back to your regularly scheduled programs.  I'm going to keep praying for some HOT weather.  I may need to move to Phoenix if this doesn't let up :-/

Don't ever believe those boys...

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

I'm sunburned...

And I like it :)

BRING ON THE SUN!!!!!

 Dolce and I before the Parade of Paws walk.

At the top of Mount St. Michael where the Priest blessed the puppies.

Dolce relaxing in the grass before the long hike back down the hill.  It was hot!!

Paying for my poor choice of sunscreen, but it will be tan before tomorrow!!  :D

For Lisa, because she asked and I am that way.  A picture of this innocent looking face.  Under this innocent face lurks the heart of a two year old.  Or maybe a teenager.  I haven't decided yet. 

All I know is that most of the time this face makes up for whatever naughtiness she has wrought.  Even with a little dog snot thrown in on the nose for good measure.  :) 

My dog has lost her mind.

You may recall a few blogs back here I discussed a phenomena whereby the puppy would bring me the last mouthful of her food and "share" it with me. This got to be really annoying so I decided since the weather is nicer that I would move the dog's dish outside under the cover of the porch so that they could not make such a mess in my kitchen.

Now you have to have a little background on my older dog, Sydney. Since she was a puppy, Sydney has suffered severe separation anxiety. She has gotten better over the years but there was a time when we had to give her medication to be able to kennel her, and by kennel I mean put her in a doggie kennel and leave the house.  She would freak out.   She was good with being left alone in the house after a while, but only if all the interior doors were open.  We have moved past that now to where I can close the bedroom doors and she is chill, but there is one barrier I have not been able to breach.  The sliding glass door.  If she is not in the mood, Sydney WILL NOT go outside by herself if the sliding glass door closes.  She will go outside and lay on the porch or in the yard...just don't close that door or a full on freak out will happen. We have worked on this over the past few years to the point where she will now go out and lay in the sun for a while but when she is done, SHE IS DONE. The only exception to this rule has been when she needs to go to the bathroom she is ok with the door shutting.  But then she comes right back and wants in NOW.

So this brings me to the food dish.  Which is outside the sliding glass door.  This poses a conundrum for my food loving dog.  On the one hand, she really wants that food.  On the other hand she knows I am going to shut that door because of the escape kitty who cannot be outside.  So she goes out.  And then immediately asks to come in.  And then she goes out. Inoutinoutinoutinoutinoutinoutinoutinout.  Unless I stand at the door while she paces back and forth in front of her food dish until she starts to eat, she won't eat.  Once she starts to eat, I can sit down by the door in plain sight and read a book or play on my computer until she is done and she will finish, with one eye on me the entire time.  But if I get up and walk away, she will drop her food, half chewed, and knock on the door to come in. 

It's driving me batty.  She is losing weight.  She needs to get over it.  She is 10 years old.  I am kidding myself. It's never going to happen. 

Meanwhile the puppy is only too happy to finish off all of the uneaten food.  She is going to look like the goodyear blimp here shortly if I don't watch her, lol. 


I must love this dog.  I have put up with her psychosis for 10 years now.  Oy.

Eight days

That's how long it took to get our house into what we consider "selling ready". What does that mean anyway? For us it means that basically it looks like a model home. It looks like nobody lives here. We moved stuff out, bought new stuff, changed out bedding, painted walls, planted plants, cleaned like nobodies business, serviced all the appliances, put a ton of stuff in storage, and basically worked ourselves into utter exhaustion. But I guess the upside is when we are ready to move, 95% of the work is already done, all we have to do is pack up what is left. Now, we wait. We wait for the plethora of home buyers (can you hear the sarcasm in my voice?) And I turn into a raging monster about cleanliness.

In the midst of this I have done exactly nothing for my philosophy class. The upshot is I have learned that I really do not need to do anything for my philosophy class because the prof basically lectures for 2 hours straight about nothing even close to what he says he was going to lecture on. So the fact that I have not read the text is not a problem. Let's hope that continues today. And lets hope that the fact that I have not showered is not offensive to my fellow classmates.

Here's to hope.