Just call us "Bug Bite Central"

My poor kids. Last week Ari had a bite on the corner of her eye. I didn't think much of it when I first saw it, but the next day it was incredibly red and much bigger. I decided to just keep an eye on it. The following day it was less red, but it was swollen on her eyelid and under her eye. Her eye was almost swollen shut. I called the doctor and Michael took her in. They tell us to put Neosporin on it. Now on Monday she got about 10 or so mosquito bites all over her. Someone please tell me how she can be outside for 3 solid days and nights and not have a single bite, but we come home and take a 15 minute walk and she is covered with them!! Crazy! She has 2 bites behind her knee and yesterday they were hard, red, knots. Today they look like bruises. I'm guessing that my sweet little girl has allergic reactions to mosquitoes. That's just great!

Not to be outdone, yesterday Joshua wakes up and comes to my room and says, "Mommy, my arm hurts." I look at it and see a small red place around his elbow that I figure is a mosquito bite so I give him some Benadryl and forget about it. We get up today and it is no longer a small place. It is HUGE!! His arm is swollen almost all the way around. It has little blisters in the center and it is hot to the touch. Now I figure it's a spider bite. I call the doctor and take him in. She says it's either a spider bite, but thankfully not a brown recluse, or the beginnings of an abscess. Ummm, okay. Now what? So, we have antibiotics and I'm supposed to watch it to make sure it doesn't get bigger or he doesn't run a fever. If those things happen I have to take him back to the doctor.

I'm sure our new doctor is thinking that I am one of those moms who takes her kids in at the slightest little thing. I swear I'm not one of those moms, but I've had both my kids in her office in the past 2 weeks for bug bites for crying out loud!! LOL I hope we are done for awhile.

New look,. Whatcha think?

So, I decided to upgrade my blog with beta. I couldn't resist the ability to customize my blog colors. The red and black represents my love for the Georgia Bulldogs. You never would have guessed that, huh?

The Crocodile Hunter gone.

It really hurt my heart when I heard about Steve Irwin's death. I remember the first time I saw him on Animal Planet. I sat with my mouth hanging open at his antics with those ferocious animals he so loved. I was hooked immediately. I watched at every opportunity. I loved his enthusiasm and his devotion to wildlife. He helped me to understand a little more about those animals that are feared by so many. He taught me things I would have never known otherwise. I will miss his unique approach to teaching. He loved all animals and it showed with everything that he did.

My heart goes out to his family. My prayers go out to Terri, Bindi, and Bob. As we go back to our lives, theirs' are forever changed.

Rest in peace dear Steve. You will be sorely missed.

Ahhh, it was good to be back in Athens!

Christian and I were able to go to the UGA v. Western Kentucky game on Saturday. We scalped the tickets. It was his first UGA game. We won 48-12. Christian is ready to go to another game already. We really did have a great time.

Joshua wanted to go with us. He kept saying that he wanted to go to the football game. I don't think I'm ready to take him yet though. Most of the games fall right in the middle of naptime and I'm scared he will get bored and want to go. I may take him next year, but more likely the year after. He would be five then and I think more able to stay focused on the game.

Athens here we come!!

Okay, actually we are going to a family reunion in Commerce, but since the reunion happens to fall on UGA's first game weekend and it is only about half an hour from Athens we are going to the game. No, I don't have tickets. We are going to try to get scalped ones. I don't want to pay too much so we may have to wait until after kick off. Doesn't matter though. At least I will be in Sanford Stadium on game day!! I'm so excited. This will be Christian's first UGA game. I can't wait for him to experience game day in Athens. It really is an amazing experience. I will never forget my first game. I had to wait until I was a freshman at UGA and I remember how excited I was. I couldn't sit still. I had to stand the entire game because of the adreneline and I was afraid I was going to fall off of the bleachers I was shaking so much. I couldn't stop. My mom swears I was watching UGA football when I was 3 year old and I've been watching ever since. One of my dreams was to go to a game and my excitement was imeasureable for my first game. I still get chills when the Dawgs run onto the field. Now I get to share that with Christian. I just hope he enjoys it as much as I do.

I found my new favorite song today!!

It is called "I Loved Her First" by Heartland. It had me in tears this morning on the way to work. Here are the lyrics..............

Look at the two of you dancing that way
Lost in the moment and each others face
So much in love your alone in this place
Like there's nobody else in the world
I was enough for her not long ago
I was her number one
She told me so
And she still means the world to me
Just so you know
So be careful when you hold my girl
Time changes everything
Life must go on
And I'm not gonna stand in your way

But I loved her first and I held her first
And a place in my heart will always be hers
From the first breath she breathed
When she first smiled at me
I knew the love of a father runs deep
And I prayed that she'd find you someday
But it still hard to give her away
I loved her first

How could that beautiful women with you
Be the same freckle face kid that I knew
The one that I read all those fairy tales to
And tucked into bed all those nights
And I knew the first time I saw you with her
It was only a matter of time

But I loved her first and I held her first
And a place in my heart will always be hers
From the first breath she breathed
When she first smiled at me
I knew the love of a father runs deep
And I prayed that she'd find you someday
But its still hard to give her away
I loved her first

From the first breath she breathed
When she first smiled at me
I knew the love of a father runs deep
Someday you might know what I'm going through
When a miracle smiles up at you
I loved her first

Well, that came out of left field!

Who would have thought that the Titans would go out in search of another quarterback just 2 weeks before the start of the season? I sure didn't. They brought in Kerry Collins. Ummm, what about Billy? What about Vince? Okay, so they say that Vince will be #2, but that leaves Billy. I think I'm in shock. I never dreamed that we would have a quarterback controversy. I figured that fans would be calling for Vince to start, but I really never thought the organization would bring in another quarterback. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

One happy dog!

We have been such bad pet owners recently. Well, for a long time really. Our very social bulldog hasn't been able to do much socializing. When she was a puppy we would take her to the Bark Park in Franklin quite often. Once we had children we didn't get to go as often. Eventually we stopped going all together. This weekend we decided it was time to become good pet owners again. We packed up the kids and Georgia and went to the Dog Park at Shelby Park. It was well worth it. Georgia had so much fun. She had other dogs to play with and lots of people who gave out free scratches. She was in doggy heaven!!

Our day at the lake

No, he's not fishing. LOL I think he found every stick on the bank of Percy Priest Lake and threw them in the lake. He was having way too much fun!!


My baby girl was having fun too. She was so hot. I wish we would have been able to go for a swim. Maybe next time.

Things you wish you could say!

1. You are a selfish, egotistical, cheating, fat ass bitch. I always knew you were a bitch, but now you are proving it to the rest of the world. You don't give a damn about those kids. The only person you ever think about is yourself. Well, guess what bitch...............you will not win. Eventually you will do something so stupid that even the judges you "think" you have on your side will see you for what you really are.

Apparently I wasn't finished. Edited to say:

I forgot to add lying and manipulative. You know the so called "trailer trash" you were so fond of talking about? Well, honey, not only did you join their ranks, but you have become their queen. You know that thing called Karma? Oh wait, I forgot who I was talking to. Let me give you an overview.............

[Karma is] a sort of luck associated with virtue: if one does good or spiritually valuable acts, one deserves and can expect good luck; conversely, if one does harmful things, one can expect bad luck or unfortunate happenings. In this conception, karma is affiliated with the Neopagan law of return or Threefold Law, the idea that the beneficial or harmful effects one has on the world will return to oneself.

What this is basically saying dumbass is that what goes around comes around. You WILL get yours. I just hope that I'm around to see it so I can laugh my ass off and you better believe that I will be laughing.


2. Just go to bed already. You are not going to win this fight. We go through it every night with the same results.................you in bed sleeping.

3. Stop lying to us. We know you lie. We talk about it later. We deserve for you to be honest with us. It doesn't make you look like a better person when we know it's a lie. Give us some credit.

With the 5th anniversary of 9/11 coming up......

I've been thinking about that horrible day. I've been thinking about the innocent people who lost their lives. I've been thinking about the heroes who went into those buildings to help and never made it out. I've found a way to pay tribute to these people by honoring their lives. I have signed up at 2,996: A Tribute to the Victims of 9/11. The idea behind this site is.................

We will honor them by remembering their lives,
and not by remembering their murderers.

They are in need of more people to sign up so please visit the site and help us to remember those who lost their lives and changed ours forever.

I'd like to thank BusyMom for the link.

Teacher Rant

Okay, I understand that you think that your child is the center of the universe. Really, I understand that. I'm glad that you are so involved with his or her education. I am happy to talk to you about it at anytime..................during the day. I have to ask, though, that you do not ask me to call you in the evenings. I have a life and a family outside of my classroom. I have a planning time everyday and I usually stay at least an hour after school. If it is so important that you just have to talk to me about it please try to arrange for one of those times. I understand that you may work and it is hard to schedule things like this, but really this is your child and that should take precedence. If you don't work, I don't think there can be an excuse as to why you can't make a meeting or phone call during the day. I don't even mind if you bring younger siblings.

Oh, and when you ask me to call at a certain time please have the courtesy to not be on the phone!! I hate a busy signal!

Rant over.

Pluto not a planet?

I'm not sure how I feel about scientists now saying that Pluto is not a planet. As a teacher it really messes things up! LOL I have to teach a Space unit to my first graders and everything that I have in my unit about the planets includes Pluto....................every book, every activity, every poster, every model of the Solar System..................EVERYTHING!! It could be very expensive to get new stuff for this unit. I don't even have the time to do it slowly this year. Where we usually do our Space unit in the Spring and then take the kids on a field trip to the Adventure Science Center's Planeterium, we have to do it in the Fall this year because they are closing the Planeterium for renovations after Christmas. This means that I start teaching about Space next week!! Anyone want to donate to a good cause?

The 80s are back?

I just have one question........................Didn't these people learn ANYTHING from our fashion mistakes? While out grocery shopping today I saw a couple teenagers wearing short denim skirts with leggings. It was like stepping back in time and not pretty! What next? Leg warmers and off the shoulder shirts? Parachute pants? Looking back at some of the things we used to wear as teenagers I have to wonder what the heck we were thinking! Now the music was good, but the clothing fads were scary!!

The papers are signed!!

Finally!!! We signed the papers today at 3pm. The house is no longer ours. Now maybe the stress I've been living with for the past few months will go away. I'll be able to concentrate on my kids, both my 2 wonderful babies and my 1st graders. This has been a horrible experience that I hope I never have to endure again.

We didn't make as much as we thought we would on the house. And, when all was said and done we paid the damn real estate agents (ours and theirs) $2000 more than we actually made on the house. How screwed up is that? I'm thinking about changing jobs if I can make that kind of money on one house. If we had the extra money to keep paying rent and mortgage we would have told them to forget it and put it back on the market. Unfortunately, we didn't have that luxury. We were pretty much forced by financial circumstances to accept it. Oh well, lessons learned.

I'm just really glad that it's over.

Never again!!

I will never ever sell another house!! It is a very frustrating ordeal. We've been told that it isn't always this hard, but this has been one of the worst experiences of my life!! Two contracts have fallen through at the last minute...........like the day of closing. Today we found out that the appraisal came in $5000 less than what we are asking. Now a month ago the appraisal was at least what we were asking, if not more. The new lender wouldn't take that appraisal though. They wanted their own appraiser to do it. I swear that an appraisal is not really based on anything but the appraiser's opinion. How else would you explain such a big difference in numbers in just a month? It's all very frustrating. I'm almost to the point of never even buying another house.

*YAWN*

Going back to work is tiring. I've been back for pretty much 3 weeks with only 5 days with kids and I am completely exhausted. I guess my summertime naps did more harm than good. LOL Friday can't get here fast enough. Michael told me today that I could sleep in on Saturday. I can't wait!

As for my class....................I have a pretty good class this year. We had Parent Night last night and it went well. I have a lot of parent volunteers which is always nice. I had about 6 people sign up to be Room Mother. I guess it can't hurt to have a Room Mother Committee. LOL That should make things easier for me and for them. I'm hoping for a great year.

Should I or shouldn't I?

I've been bouncing around whether or not I should join this whole fantasy football thing. I love the game and I stay pretty informed about the players and their stats. I'm just afraid that worrying about my players' stats will take away from my enjoyment of the game as a whole. I'm also very loyal to my favorite players and would have a hard time picking others for my team. LOL I know that my favorites aren't always the best, but I would still feel disloyal if I didn't choose them. It is a dilemma. If you have any thoughts or experiences please feel free to share.

YES!!!

I can now get a different prospective about Titans games from people who know a lot more than I do!! The Titans have gotten several people to blog about the games. I will definitely be checking out what Eddie George, Drew Bennett, and Mike Keith have to say. There are others I'm sure I will check out as well, but those 3 will be weekly visits. I'm sure I will learn some very interesting things about the game.

It's football time!!!

Can you believe that football season is almost here? I'm so excited! The Titans first preseason game is one week from today!! Only 27 more days until Georgia's first game of the season!! I can't wait!!