Will You Be My Friend?

Do you ever feel like you’re stuck in a perpetual first day of school? You know the feeling, when you walk into a classroom and know no one in there and can feel everyone staring at you, judging you and you just don't know what to do, say. Yeah that's about how I'm feeling right now. I want to start a walking/jogging program kinda thing, but I don't want to do it by myself. Both for safety reasons and 'cause it's more fun if you have someone to work-out with. I could bring one of the puppies, but they're dachshunds and looking like they are going to be the miniature variety. So yea a short walk is fine but most likely I would end up carrying them and getting licked to death half the time. Another thing is ...have you ever seen a dachshund walk? They're short little legs they don't really move that fast, fast enough for them but if I wanted to jog/run they would have trouble keeping up for long. One more thing, they're small and don't bark much, if someone was to threaten me they would provide little or no protection. They would most likely run and hide, lol. Well, no Casper would great the person. Cheyenne is more shy but not for long.
Another dilemma I have is; I'm shy. Less so then I was a few years ago, but still enough I do not like to go up and introduce myself to people. Well, no, I like to meet people, it’s the walking up to them and saying hi and doing the small talk thing. It's easier with people I work with or have a class with because you'll see them again or at least have one thing in common. Take my neighbors for an instance; I met one of the ones on the right, the husband. He came over and introduced himself one day when the kids and I were outside. His wife I assume is home all day or most of the day. I assume this because I see their 6 year old daughter playing outside once and a while. They also have a teenage son and a teenage daughter with disabilities. He seemed nice enough but I've still yet to introduce myself to his wife. I'm hoping when the weather gets warmer and stays warmer they'll be outside more and I'll meet her then. The other neighbors I have yet to meet, but the one neighbor said they won't come out and introduce themselves unless they need something.
Two of my kids don't have this problem, my dd and my middle son. Dd has already gotten phone numbers of two other girls who live on the same street as us. My middle son has introduced himself to the teenage son of the neighbor on the left. My oldest and youngest aren't exactly shy but cautious. My youngest will tell someone his name and age and then until he meets the person again that'll be about all he says. My oldest will talk to someone new if he's been around him/her for a few minutes. The only time Hubby seems shy is when we are at a school function, lol. Maybe it has something to do with teachers and PTA moms I don't know.
Anyway one of my goals this spring is to meet new people that I don't work with. Not saying the ladies I work with aren't great, it's I'm trying to get out of my comfort zones. This means forcing myself to meet people. Acquainting myself with coworkers is an easy way out.

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary....

Well I'm not Mary, I may be quite contrary...I can't wait to see my garden grow. I've got a case of spring fever, bad. I'm so tired of dreary gray skies, gray landscapes and brown grass. I want to see some green and lots of color. The daffodils should be blooming pretty much any day now, I'm hoping we have a few in our yard. I've already wintersown a few pumpkin seeds, french radish (okay that's not the exact name it's just what I wrote down in my gardening notebook) seeds, broccoli, beefsteak tomatos, asparagus, Juanne Flamme tomatos, marville lettuce (again not quite the right name), and morning glory seeds. Of these my lettuce, my broccoli and the radishes have sprouted.
I'm waiting for my Valentine's day present my hubby said he was going to get me...a tiller, lol. Yep no need to buy me flowers just get me the tools to grow them myself. I've already have my veggie garden planned out in my head...it's going to be about 20'x20' or so( big enough but not so big that I feel overwhelmed by it). It's going to have about two rows of corn, about 4 zucchini plants, a couple cucumbers, lots of tomatos, a row of lettuce, a row of broccoli, a few green bean plants, peppers of all sorts of varieties and a row of carrots. Then some where I'm going to have a melon patch for cantaloupe and watermelon and a small herb garden for my chamomile, peppermint, valerian, basil, garlic, sunflowers, dill and whatever else I decide to put in it.
I've not quite figured out how I'm going to put my flower beds. I want to put like semi-dry creek where the run off ditch is. It has water in it so it's not going to be a dry bed. I'll either need to make a trip to Mo and find some big rocks or bite the bullet and buy some. We don't have rocks here...at least none that, were not brought in, that are bigger then a pebble. Makes gardening interesting...and a lot different from where I grew up.
Where I grew up you couldn't hardly dig more then a few inches in the ground with all the rocks. You won't hit many rocks here, but if you try to dig in the middle of summer when we are in our dry season have fun...this clay dirt gets so hard and compacted it's nearly impossible. Everywhere has it's difficulties though, one of my sisters lives on the east coast...about all she has is sand. With 2 kids, 3 dogs and a husband I'm sure she wants to tie vaccuum cleaners to their bottoms once they step inside the house.
Well I think this enough for a day, I need to check on my seedlings. Oh and plant these strawberry and tomato started kit things we saw and bought at Wal-mart yesterday. With any luck and Mother Nature willing I'll begin to have fresh veggies in May. Maybe sooner.

I'm Back!!!

It's been such a very, very long time. We finally got the landline in and now I'm on dial-up. Sucks really but it's basically all we got here, aren't small towns great. Anyway we're moved in and settling in slowly but surely. I'm liking my new job so far, lots of training classes but that's okay. I'll post more later and I'll be reading everyone's blogs trying to catch up.

My last post for a short while...

Well I'm not going to be able to post for a couple of weeks. This weekend we're busy packing, moving and cleaning. Next week I've got to: get the kids enrolled in school, go to an interview/fill out papers/ do the piss-n-a-cup for my new job, clean the rental house we are moving out of, move everything that we didn't move over the weekend (this should be minimal to none after tomorrow). Plus it'll be a couple of weeks before I get a phone line hooked up to the house (do to the phone company requiring a ridiculously high deposit) then I get to find a dial up isp that is local. I'll probably be starting work next week as well.
So life will be extra crazy for the next week or so, but that's all right. A little craziness is good for ya.

Yesterday

All right, now with the typing of that title I have the song from the Beatles in my head.


Yesterday afternoon was busy. On the way to the lawyer's office I got a phone call from a place I had faxed my resume to. So I may of got a job and a house in the same day. Today sometime I have to go to the shop and get the application they faxed there. All eleven pages of it, I swear when you work in the healthcare business they need,or want, to know your entire life history plus some. It's perfectly fine, I understand you only want to hire the best, most reliable people. It's just crazy how many papers you have to fill out. Then they do a background check, a driving record check, a drug test, they check the registries to make sure your not listed as having abused anybody. By the end of it all the company knows more about you then you do. It's okay though, I'm sure I'll love the job. I'm going to be taking care of special needs people this time. It'll only be about a 15 minute drive from the house, compared to the 45 minute drive it would of been to the place of my prior employment. I try my absolute best to work as close as possible to where the kids will be during the day. Beginning in the next week or so they'll be at the elementary school. Staying home is not going to be an option, not with the mortgage payment we have now. We could make it on Hubby's salary, but it would be so tight we would squeak when we walked. We just don't want to live that way, and then if something bad happens we would drown. I want to avoid that as well.
It'll be great, new home, new job, new school for the kids. When we start a new chapter in the book of our life we go all out. Everyone seems to be in a lighter mood today, except for Hubby who is still trying to choke down the amount of the mortgage payment and our less-then-great interest rate. He'll be okay once we get our budget all figured out and everything. We've never paid so much a month for a place to live. It'll take a big adjustment, but it'll work out. It kinda has to now.
Oh I also got an Eastern Redbud tree in the mail yesterday from the Arbor day foundation. My yard is going to be so pretty, in a few years.

Home Sweet Home

It's official...we now own all this; 1500 sq ft. 1.2acres, 3 bedroom, 2 bath, a kitchen, a dining room, a living room and a den. Now the fun begins.

Getting my ducks in a row and such...

Trying to figure out what all I'm going to need to do once we get moved. I'm going to be putting the kids in the elementary school there. Fun thing is going to be since technically they are coming from a private school(we are with an umbrella school, I'm technically a teacher of the school and our home is a satellite campus according all to Tn state law, but it's homeschooling anyway you look at it) they'll have to be tested for grade placement. I think my oldest son may test lower then what he is because of his math problems. I pretty much know that my youngest son will test lower because most likely he'll refuse to answer the questions. He did this for pre-school and kindergarten, if he doesn't know the person he will not talk to them (or at least not where they can understand him). He will not do what they ask him, he'll sit there giving them a blank stare for the most part. If they test him after he's been around them a few weeks he'll test at where he's suppose to be at for the most part. He did this every other time, lol. He refused to do things I knew he knew how to do or he would act goofy and do it totally wrong. Bad thing is, is the teachers knew he was acting up but graded him on what he did. I hate that, I think kids/students ought to be graded on homework and classroom skills not given standardized test or silly jump on one foot type tests (what kid is going to take an adult seriously when they are telling them to "jump like this" " or can you stick this thread through this whole" my son looked at them like "this is stupid" and just sat there or did it the way he wanted to, which of course was wrong). There are a lot of members of my family who have test anxiety and do awful on end-of-the year tests. They got good grades up until then, and are very bright people. But the test knows all and that's all that counts or at least in this country it is.
Well, I'm not looking forward to it, my two that I'm worried about not passing the school's test are okay with having to go back to their previous grade (my youngest wants to go back to kindergarten, can't say I blame him, lol ;). My daughter I worry that she may have an attitude the day of her test and throw a fit and fail. I hope not and I know she doesn't do other people like she does me but that worry is there. My middle son, I think, will do just fine on it. It's a bit nerve-wracking but it'll be okay in the end, I know it will.



On a final note... My youngest son came into the living room carrying his backpack and his shoes:
y.s :"I'm ready to move now."
me: "You have your clothes, toys and everything."
y.s.: "I have a blanket and a pillow and my lions."

Yep, just the essentials, that's all ya need.