Happy Easter Everybunny!!

I can't believe it is Easter already! Seems like the school year just started (I sub) and now we are at Easter break. It's been eleven months since our train trip to the northeast for our 30th anniversary?? We are approaching 31??? How can that be? How can time, which drags so slowly when it's just a yucky or ordinary day, be so devious as to slip by so quickly. Must happen in your sleep...but then again, I don't really sleep that well or that much so....??

What has been happening in my life? Maybe if I can catalog some things that have happened in the last year I will realize that time isn't really dashing by...it's just being filled up. Let's see...

June: Trenton's birthday. That was significant. Okay, well, that's June.

July: July 4th. We had a pool and game party at the house. Oh yeah, that started the marathon garage sales every week for four weeks at my dad's house. Thought that would never end. Fourteen to sixteen hour days Friday, Saturday and Sunday for three weeks in weather that was just ridiculously hot. Had to put up a canopy to stay out of the sun and keep a fan blowing on us to keep from overheating. That's also the time in which Kristin and her family decided to share their virus with us and I ended up tossing my cookies all over the restroom in my dad's attorney's office. Fun.

August: Daddy moved his trailer in and began living with us. School started.

September: Daddy in the hospital. Ronnie, Richard, and Ryan had a birthday and we had a party at the house. I worked nearly every day. A blur.

October: Ronnie was in the midst of football season and I worked nearly every day. Daddy was in the hospital for a broken arm he earned during a drunken fall in his trailer. I was in training for "the walk." I also worked nearly every day.

November: I walked in the Breast Cancer 60 mile three day walk event and broke my foot. Daddy was in rehab. Thanksgiving came and went. I missed Carter's birthday party because of the walk.::sad face:: My walking came to an abrupt end...hard to do on crutches and in a fracture boot. But I kept working.

December: A blur because of Christmas, decorating, shopping, cooking, working, etc.

January: Scott's birthday. Can't think of much else...Oh, yea. I worked every day.

February: Valentine's "no big deal" day. Didn't get each other anything. Kept Carter for six days because Trenton was very sick with strep among other things. It snowed...boy did it snow. Made snow ice cream for the first time in ___ years. Can't remember how long. Met with my girlfriends for a long weekend. Hadn't seen them in three years. Worked every day except the snow holidays.

March: Spring Break. I broke out the annual bout with poison ivy. It's tradition apparently. Got together with the girlfriends again. This time I hosted it. Continued to work almost full time at Quest. Battling still with the broken foot which has not healed and now taking "drugs" for the poison ivy. NOT taking allergy shots because of the poison ivy. Can't breathe. Kristin's birthday which we still haven't celebrated with her because we gave Scott and Kristin their gifts (money toward a new kitchen floor) in February...halfway between their respective big days.

April: Here we are in April. I continue to work every available work day. I am still battling the gimpy foot. And,::insert dramatic pause music::, I have begun taking a steriod dose pack. The PI isn't going away...chills and then reasserts itself. Seems I am one of those lucky few that it gets in my blood stream. As long as it is suppressed it seems that it's getting better, but when the meds taper off the PI comes screaming back at me. Along with that is the ridiculous hunger where I would eat wallpaper if I could get it off the wall, I tackle ambitious projects like the bunny cake below (usually in the middle of the night because I can't sleep), and I spend a buttload of money! Yep, it's that time of year again. Well, I have a t-shirt that needs to be painted and a painting (a suprise for Ryan's and Richard's home unless they read it on the blog first) that I have to get started on. Then there is the top of the cedar chest that needs to be sanded and revarnished and then my BIL's child-sized rolltop desk that I am stripping and refinishing. Gotta get those things out of the middle of the garage floor so that I can park my car in there again. After all, the rainy season approaches. Then there's the middle bedroom/office closet that needs to be cleaned out and donations set aside and....Better get started before I use up the steroid dose pack and am left with "things to do and no energy with which to do them."

Seems like the only recurring theme I found is that I am working nearly every day. Can't help it. I am enjoying my job...basically working one-on-one with seniors in an alternative education setting helping them get finished with coursework so that they can graduate in May. Feel like I am making a difference and that makes it fun. Still, with all that, I have concurred that time is devilishly slipping by at an alarming rate and it's not all in my imagination.

That said,...

Happy Easter to all and to all a good night!

It's Gonna Take an Ocean....of Calamine Lotion....

The lyrics to a 1970's song..."Poison Ivy." If I had known then what I know NOW...well, suffice it to say that I would NEVER have sang that song! Yes'm...I still have poison ivy. I went in last Saturday for a decadron shot. Decadron is a steroid. For some reason I can take that shot without any adverse affects whereas the prednisone pills turn me into the Incredible Hulk...a VERY ANGRY Incredible Hulk. I define 'roid rage when I am on prednisone. In addition to the uncontrollable anger, my blood pressure shoots off the scale and I no longer need the lowly human condition of sleep. My heart rate sets new staccato beats and I am literally beside myself.

Anywho...I went in for the shot and immediately began to feel better. Saturday and Sunday I was itch-free and my arms cleared up. My legs didn't itch and the pills for itching were doing their thing! Yea!! Then Sunday afternoon reared an ugly head and the itching began again...on the legs. By Monday, it was worse. By Tuesday I had a full blown re-emergence of PI on the legs. They itch like crazy. They burn. The pills no longer work and I claw like a crab trying to get back to the water. My stomach hurts from the pills I am taking and I have pretty much had a constant high, or at least dizziness, since the shot on Saturday morning. I called my doctor's office today and at this point...five hours later....I am waiting for a return call. Call me crazy if you will, but I am ready to take the stinkin' prednisone even with all the crazy side effects!

Consider this a warning. I may take those pills. You might want to steer clear of me for a while. I can already feel myself morphing into Ziva David...trained Moussad assassin! Don't know what it's gonna take, but I am going to eradicate and eliminate this Poison Ivy...even if it kills me..or you. Pray for us all.

Before and After...

You know you're a grown up when you get more joy spending your money on home decor than on things for yourself personally. Rather than new clothes, or jewelry, or fragrances or whatever...I am thrilled to change out my bedroom. I get such a sense of joy just walking through the room and taking in the changes. Really, it's mostly just a change in color scheme...but it's soothing and I am joyful!

Witness for yourself the transformation...

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After:


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Random after shots:





From burgandy and tan to chocolate and teal. Who knew what a difference it could make?

Group Therapy

Nothing like a little "Group Therapy" to make things right in your world. "Group Therapy" is the name that my girlfriends and I have dubbed our group. We came together in crisis and formed a friendship that supersedes time, distance and events. We met in Lancaster as we all worked for the school district there. Three of us became new principals at the same time and we stumbled our way through our first year with many phone calls, emails and after hours dinners and drinks. One member was our special programs director and we would not have made it without her constant vigilance and help. The fifth member of our party joined us a bit later in the role of public relations director or some such nonsense that didn't even begin to explain her duties or her importance to us. If the musketeers could have five instead of three...that would be us.

When I say that our relationship stretches beyond the boundaries that would eradicate normal relationships I am not exaggerating. We have, through the years, supported each other through the deaths of parents and siblings, the diagnoses of cancer for two of our children, the marriages and divorces and remarriages of some of our children, the births of our grandchildren, the changes of jobs and relocation for some of our members, the retirements of two of us and the marriage of one of us. We have shared such times of joy and heartache, in equal doses it seems, that we are forged together. When one has joy we all celebrate. When one hurts, we all cry and pray. That is who we are. That is why we dubbed our group...Group Therapy.

The hectic pace of our individual lives caused us to allow time to slip away and before we knew it, we had not gotten together as a group for almost three years. During that time various ones of us would see each other and we continued to email but we didn't MAKE TIME for each other or for ourselves. No more!! We have decided as a group that we WILL get together quarterly and we will wallow in our time together and relish each precious moment. Four of us were able to get together in February and at that time we rather ambitiously decided that we would get together monthly. We have rethought that. We will, however, get together quarterly with each person in turn playing hostess and planning the therapy session.

I took my turn this weekend! What fun we had!! To begin with, I made reservations for the five of us at the Hyatt Garland on George Bush. We come from all different cities (Rockwall, Odessa, Lancaster, Ennis and Frisco)so this seemed like a good location and central to the activities I had planned. The hotel was very nice and the personnel were very accommodating. Since we had a full afternoon and evening planned we arrived at the hotel at noon, three hours before check-in, and the staff didn't bat an eyelash at securing our luggage and finding a refrigerator for our snacks! After dropping of our belongs we headed out for lunch...Pei Wei at Firewheel Center. Yummy!



Carol, JoDell, Jeanne, Prissy and Delia


After our delicious lunch we headed to D'Vine Wine so that I could purchase my favorite cranberry shiraz to share with the girls later. We also wanted to look at their painted wine glasses because that was the project for the evening once we returned to the hotel.


Next we headed out to stroll through the Dallas Arboretum. Dallas Blooms was going on and even though we had a recent incident with snow in late March, the dogwoods, the forsythia, the tulips...it was all incredibly beautiful. While there we had our picture made together for a future therapy session. We are going to a winery to make our own wine with our personalized label!

The Girls at the Arboretum







After the Arboretum we made our way to Mockingbird Station and had dinner at Margarita Ranch. This is, without a doubt, my FAVORITE Mexican food place. It has a kitchy little bar feel and their spinach and mushroom enchiladas with green sauce are to die for! When you put your "favorite" out there for people you can lead to some pretty high expectations and possible disappointment. I wanted my friends to love MR as much as I do. I'm pretty sure they did. We were there for three and a half hours. Appetizers, dinner and margaritas by the pitcher! Maybe the three pitchers of margaritas influenced their decision, but I don't think so.


After MR, as if we hadn't stuffed ourselves enough, we went to Stone Cold Creamery for some delicious ice cream. While there some young man in a convertible kept driving by, honking and yelling to us. I'm sure that he had never seen such a bevy of beauties and just didn't know how to contain himself. Probably thought, "Let me give the old broads a thrill to talk about for months!" Little did he know we are tech savvy and he would merit a place in a blog!!

Ice cream finished we headed back to the hotel where we took up our project and painted glasses. Two painted wine glasses, two painted martini glasses and one painted a water glass/vase. We giggled, made fun of our own efforts, one of us (okay, me) splattered painted all over her new jammies and face. Don't ask how. We had a great time. About midnight we headed off to bed.

You know you are true friends when you don't complain about your sleeping mates ridiculous snoring and fidgeting (okay, me again). We slept the night away and awoke to a beautiful, if somewhat brisk, Sunday morning.

Breakfast at IHOP and our therapy session was done...until June. I can hardly wait to see what Jeanne has in store for us.


Prissy, I love you. What can I say. Thanks for putting up with my fidgeting and snoring. Thanks for sleeping with me...in a good way. Thanks for always being there for me when I can't manage to pull it together. You are my sister at heart.

Jo, I always come away from our get-togethers amazed by your strength of character and how you are so involved in your own health and don't just rock along with whatever the doctor says. You are an amazing woman and I am certain that someone of the male persuasion is going to recognize that in you. They have no idea what they are missing!

Jeanne, I am so impressed with your dedication to making education beneficial for all the stakeholders...even though you "retired." You are still in there trying to help administrators help their teachers and their students. Bless you, my friend.

Delia, I can't go three years between get-togethers with you. I miss you, my sister. You are such a skilled and beautiful person that my prayer is that towards the end of Tommy's working career you will both find yourselves back in this area where we can have our "De time," too.

A Rose by Any Other Name.....

Or, should I say, "A vine by any other name...is still poison ivy." Read my last post about yard work. Suffice it to say, I am now reaping the rewards of my energetic attack on the hackberry trees. Yesterday the little bubbly blisters surfaced on my arms. Today, they are on my legs and tummy. I swear that I didn't see ANYTHING that even vaguely resembled poison ivy. I didn't SEE it, but apparently I TOUCHED it! My last battle with P.I. was ugly!!! I missed 11 days of work and the doctor threatened to put me in the hospital on a steroid drip. Yep, I took prednisone and every time they tried to lower the dose I freaked out. My blood pressure skyrocketed, my heart rate went to over 200 beats per minute and my poison ivy would resurface somewhere. I had a massive case of "roid rage" and slept for something like 7 minutes a night and was NEVER tired.

In an effort to head off this attack, I took a Zyrtek tablet last night. My allergist gave me this for an unspecific rash that sometimes breaks out on my neck..looks like a burn and itches like crazy. But I digress. Took the Zyrtek last night and it royally kicked my butt. I slept 13 hours last night, got up at 10 this morning to run some errands. Back home by noon. Lunch and then was soooo exhausted I lay down for a "short" nap. Slept another four hours!! Got up groggy and foggy headed. Oh, and the poison ivy is still spreading. Can't even take my weekly allergy shot because poison ivy is already an allergic reaction so to add another allergen to the mix is apparently not a smart thing to do. Only option is to make an appointment with Dr. Sandknop and get a decadron shot...or tough it out. Right now I am going for the "tough" route but by Monday I may be singing a totally different song!

What Was I Thinking?

In my last post did I really say, "Woohoo for Spring Break?" I must seriously reconsider my position on that. Today...Monday...the first day of Spring Break! Went to the dentist and left with squeaky clean teeth that look shades lighter just from cleaning!! So far...so good. Then I got the brilliant idea that it was a beautiful day so we should do some yard work. Operative word being "some." Ronnie had trimmed all the trees around the house on Sunday and just left the branches where they fell. So, in my infinite wisdom, I decided that we needed to drag all that down to the burn pile. Not ridiculously difficult, but no, I couldn't stop there. We have had some trees down at the back of our property line that I have always been scared of. They are seriously overgrown and once they start blooming you can't see what is in there. I am certain it is a haven for snakes. Ronnie has actually seen a snake about 5 feet long down there. But until they start blooming, they are just a bunch a scraggly branches with giant thorns on them (Hackberry trees). I took the pole lopper and began work thinning them out. When I got tired, I got the reciprocal saw and continued. I got almost 1/3 of the area cleared out. Ronnie came to help after he couldn't get the burn pile to light. We worked until the battery ran out on the reciprocal saw. It felt really good to get that much accomplished...until I sat down to rest. I immediately fell asleep on the sofa for over two hours and woke up to pains in my shoulders, my elbows and my hips. After a hot bath, I am still soooo tired and ready for bed. Not sure that I can pull that off at 7:30 though.

Tomorrow and Wednesday should be easier. Tomorrow I'm going with Kristin and the boys to take pictures at the Arboretum. Wednesday we are taking a day trip to Shreveport to play a little on the slot machines. Then Thursday and Friday...I know I'm just begging for punishment, but I will probably go back down there and tackle those trees again. I am so encouraged by how good the area I got done looks. But there is still sooooooo much more to do! What the heck, I can rest after Spring Break!

Yea for Spring Break...

Spring Break is here!! Woohoo!! It's not that I have anything special planned, it's that I don't have to work! While I am forced to admit that I do enjoy my job, it's nice to be able to step away from that for a few days. To be able to sleep in, eat when I want, take a nap, read a book....it's leisure to me. My "big" plans for the week include a trip to the dentist for cleaning and x-rays, a trip to Plano to help corral the kids while Kristin takes their spring pictures, and a day trip to Shreveport to play the slots. Not earth shattering plans by any stretch of the imagination but just the kind of low-keyed break that I need. So, no wild Padre parties, no green beer down on lower Greenville, no wild and crazy "stuff." Just hanging and chillin'. What more could I ask for?