Melting away....

The snow/sleet/ice is slowly melting away today. We still have a lot on the ground and on the street in front of my house, but, I'm hoping/praying we get to go back to school tomorrow. Yep, that's right folks, I actually WANT to go back!!!! Staying at home all day for NINE days straight does not suit me. The first two or three days were nice, cozy, and very productive. I was really getting into the cleaning/organizational mode. At this point, however, I'm just plain desperate to get out of this house.

My students probably won't remember me, it's been so long since I've seen them!!!! Oh, no, I just remembered all the paperwork I've got to do when I get back to school....uck....second thought, I kinda like it here in my humble abode..... :) Nah, seriously, I'm ready to get back to my routine. It will take at least a good week to get my little Autistic students back to their routine. They will be very out of sorts that their routines were disrupted. Ay-yi-yi-yi!!! But, I miss them, they're like my own. I should be getting about three new students, so therein lies all the paperwork headed my way. Joy, joy, joy!!!

Later....

Alaska or Oklahoma?!?!

I'm beginning to wonder if I'm in the wrong state!!! We are supposed to get more of the 'ol "s" word------SNOW!!!! One t.v. station says 6-12 inches, another one says 8-15 inches!!!! We still have ice from the precipitation dumped on us last Friday!!! We've missed five days of school with this storm, 2 or 3 from the last storm, a few weeks ago. Holy Moly!!! We'll be going to school until July!!!!

I hope our Izzy (the pig) is alright!!! The ag instructor told us he would check on her everyday if we couldn't get there, but, I'm really starting to feel guilty that we haven't been over there in seven days!!! But, the roads in town are still horrible. The trash trucks are not even running, because the roads are so bad.

Our animals here--the four dogs, one cat, and one horse are doing fine. We give them fresh water & feed two or three times a day. They all have nice warm barns to stay in. Izzy is inside a barn, as well, we just can't get to her...poor little piglet (she weighs about 170 now). She probably thinks we've deserted her.

Again, my heart and prayers go out to friends and family in Southeastern Oklahoma. They have been without electricity for the last seven days and counting. Some of them are regaining electricity sporadically, then, it goes off for several hours, then, it might come back on for awhile, etc. I just pray that this next front doesn't set them back again. It would be really nice if it would just bypass them altogether.

Love and prayers....

FOUR DAYS AND COUNTING...

We've now missed four days of school, and I was just notified we would be out tomorrow, as well. Our state superintendent has stated that those days missed during the ice storm will probably not be excused. Bummer! Wah! There, I've done my whining! May 18th would have been our last day of school. I would gladly give up Spring Break to make up five of those days!!

Oh, well, that's life....At least I have been able to get some things accomplished around the house!! I have been cleaning and organizing like a mad woman!! Woo-hoo!! :)

Well, gotta go for now!! Got to get ready for more snow!!!

Just got the phone call...no school tomorrow. Bummer...I really didn't want to miss any more days, (no, I don't have fever) even though I love snow days. We have used up all of the snow days that were built into our schedule for this school year, so we will have to make up any we miss from here on out. According to all the weather reports, that may be the next three or four days, at least.

We have yet another icy winter blast! Trying to stay warm, keep the ice chopped for the animals, etc. Hoping to keep my wonderful electricity. So many people in the state are without electricity. My thoughts and prayers go out to them. We did have to leave school early Friday because of the sleet and ice accumulation. Parents were picking up their kiddos left & right. Monday, the kids are out on holiday, but, the teachers were going to have to go back for inservice. My guess is that I will get a telephone call this evening cancelling our workshop. Darn, hate it!! The temp is not supposed to get above 20 until Thursday, so we will probably miss at least three or four days of school this week.

Update on Izzy Ella Bella, the piglet.... Actually, she is no longer a cute, little piglet, she's a huge, honkin' 163 pounds of bacon!!! (my daughter's FFA show pig) We can't get to her (at the ag barn) to check on her because of the roads. We went over Thursday before the storm hit and filled up her water tank and feed trough. The ag teacher, God Bless his soul, told us not to try to drive over there to check on her. He said he has to go over there everyday, so he will check on her for us. God love him. I guess Morgy & I will have to bake him some cookies or brownies to repay his kindness.

Morgy has once again deserted me to go play in the snow and ice with some family friends. This has become a tradition --if if snows, sleets, ices over, etc., they make a trip to town to pick her up, then, she spends a few days with them to go sledding, ride the 4 -wheeler, etc. Before she left yesterday, she went out to check on Charlie (the horse) and the dogs---feeding them and chopping ice, etc. She was gone for quite awhile, so I looked out to check on her and there she was lying on top of the thick layer of frozen sleet, face down, with the two biggest dogs, Cujer and Goldie, trying to roll her over. It alarmed me at first, I thought she had passed out or something, then, I realized she was playing with them. Goofy kid!! :) Those two big dogs love this snowy, sleety weather!! Cujer is so huge, he looks like a polar bear!! The other two dogs, Patches and Biscuit, were in their nice warm barn curled up in the hay, with the cat. Yeah, we have a zoo around here.

Well, I had better get back to work. I am taking this opportunity (being stuck inside) to work on one of those resolutions --getting organized. Translation--get rid of all the extra junk in the spare bedroom, so I actually have a spare bedroom, not a junk room!! I'm doing pretty good, I'm on a roll, so I'd better get back to it while I'm in the mood!

Here it is...New Year's Eve. Wow! Another year has flown by. So many changes, some good, some bad, and some ugly(my waistline!), but, mostly good. A lot has happened during the past year. I'm looking forward to the new year, a new beginning, a new resolve to make some positive changes in my life: of course, the usual resolution to lose weight and become more healthy, to become more organized, my second most popular resolution, and last, but, not least to finish that novel that I've always wanted to write and actually did start a couple of months ago!!! :) Three goals, I think that's a good number of goals or resolutions. Some people don't believe in "resolutions", but, I just look at them as goals. Without goals and dreams, we are without hope. So, I believe it is important to always have something to strive toward. God wants us to have dreams, and He even said, "Without dreams, man will perish." So, there, we all need hopes, dreams, goals, and yes, maybe even a resolution or two. Here's hoping and praying that you have the courage to dream, and even more importantly, make your dreams come true, with a lot of help from God, of course! Have a very happy and blessed New Year!

I enjoyed my little mini vacation--two snow days, then the weekend. Now, they've called and said we have another snow day tomorrow!(Monday) I just knew we'd go back to school tomorrow, but, the side roads and country roads are still icy, so I suppose they're trying to play it safe. I Love my snow days and was very thankful to have them, but, now I'm ready to go back to work, because I know we'll have to make them up at the end of the school year. Bummer. Besides, breaking ice twice a day for the horse and dogs is getting old really fast. I'm ready for this to melt off, so we can get back to our normal routine. I worked out in the snow several hours Saturday making trails from the house to the horse barn, from the house to the dog barn, etc., with no boots, just wet tennis shoes and dry socks every couple of hours. Now I know why people have heart attacks when they are shoveling snow. That's VERY hard work. Every muscle is sore, and my cold has, of course, worsened. So, I guess I should be thankful for the extra day off to nurse my cruddy cold. Lots of chicken noodle soup & rest tomorrow, hopefully. Hope everyone is doing well & staying warm.

Yay!! Two snow days in a row!!! Did I say, I LOVE snowdays?!?!?!?! We had lots of ice, maybe two inches, then, several inches of snow on top of that!!! I think we got, at least, a foot of snow, maybe a little more.

Yesterday my daughter & I put up our Christmas tree, so now with that done and all the snow on the ground, I'm starting to get in the Christmas mood. Actually, I'm starting to panic because I've done very little shopping. I'm a terrible procrastinator, but, this is really bad, even for me. I think I'm done with my daughters presents and maybe two or three other people, but, sadly, that's it. I just don't know what to get anyone. At this point, I'm seriously considering just getting everybody gift cards so they can pick out exactly what they want. That would be so much easier and save a lot of time and frustration fighting the crowds at the malls, not to mention gas money.

My daughter just left a few hours ago to go spend the night with some friends so they can play in the snow- sledding & four-wheeling. So that means I get to sleep in tomorrow morning!!! I normally get up around 6:30 or 7:00 to fix her breakfast & give her her heart meds. on the weekends. Then, I try to go back to sleep, but, rarely do. Once I'm up, I'm usually awake and thinking of all the things I need to be doing. But, I'm going to sleep in tomorrow for sure. Of course, since she's gone, I won't sleep in real late (8:00 or 9:00 is late for me) because I'll have to get up & go chop the ice in Charlie's (the horse) water, then, do the same for the dogs. Man, that just plain sucks, I don't know how ranchers who have all these animals do it in the winter. You have to do it more than once a day when it's this cold. Plus, our dog barn roof is about to fall in from the weight of the ice & snow. So, I'm hoping that doesn't happen before we can get it fixed. We wedged 3 big wooden poles where we could so it will hopefully hold until tomorrow, when we can work on it more. It was late in the evening when we discovered what had happened. Hoping that the dogs don't get squished!!

I'm getting ready for a big, huge bunch of snow!!!! I'm so excited!!! I love snow days!!! (Remember, I'm a teacher.) A lot of teachers don't like them, but, then, there are those of us who pray for them so much we can just taste the snowflakes on the tips of our tongues!!! Several of us wore our good luck charms for snow today. I wore your typical "teacher-y" sweater, with mittens and snowflakes all over. Other friends of mine at school wore snowmen or snowflake pins on their clothes. We didn't get together and plan this, it's just a teacher thing. I'm worse than a kid. This morning as I was getting ready for school the weatherman was predicting 2-4 inches of snow. I was pretty excited about that. By the time I got home this evening, they were calling for 10-15 inches, maybe even more where I'm at!!!!! So, you can imagine how excited I got about the latest prediction! YES!!! Love it! Love it!! Love it!! As long as our electricity doesn't go out, I'll be a happy camper!! Must close now and go put an extra blanket on the bed and dig out my trusty flannel jammies!!! I will go to sleep early in hopes that I will be awakened by a phone call to let me know there will be NO SCHOOL on Thursday!!! (and if we're real lucky, on Friday, as well!!)

I haven't been posting lately because I'm participating in the Nanowrimo writing challenge!!! I started on November 4, 2006, four days late!!! But, I'm plugging along. I have a little over 13,000 words so far. The goal of the challenge is to write a novel of at least 50,000 words in thirty days, the month of November, specifically. I'm pretty excited about it. This is something I have always wanted to do - write books. This will be my first!!! I am having a blast! So, with that said, I had better end this post and get back to my novel. If anyone is interested and you have time to catch up, the web site is: www.nanowrimo.org or click on the link at the very bottom of my blog. Check it out! Happy blogging! :)