snowy saturday

What's a girl to do? It's just another lazy Saturday morning, me and Lola on our own while Matt brings home the bacon. On Saturdays when Matt works, I find myself with hours of nothing-to-do-ness. I wake up at the same time he does, to give us some time together + with Jesus and to fix him breakfast. By the time he leaves, I've been up for over an hour and am too awake to go back to bed. So it's like 8:00am, rainy outside, and there's nothing to do but spend a few quality hours slothing on the couch, listening to Jason Upton and catching up on some serious blog-stalking. It's 'stalking' because by and large it's people I don't know. You see, most of my real-life friends (or even semi-real-life friends, or blogs I regularly stalk) I keep up with all week long. There's no need to spend a few quality hours catching up on their lives. Saturday mornings are ideal for finding a new blog and reading months worth of entries. You know, catching up, bringing myself up to date! I assume everyone does this...if not, ignore me and please don't tell me how lame I am. I already have a pretty good idea.

Anyway, while I'm wasting the day away on the sofa, what's a lonely Lab to do? Poor baby, stuck inside due to the backyard being a muddy swamp. Remember the new toy I mentioned yesterday that we just got her? The new super-durable (I mean, I bought it at Academy. That has to mean something) toy? Right.

I look up from my laptop. Huh? Did it snow...in my living room? Oh, no. That would be the entrails of Coleman, the new toy. Poor thing didn't last a day.

This is actually a frequently occuring phenomenon in our house. Lola really likes to murder her toys. She pulls all the stuffing out of them, spreads it all over the house, and more or less frolics in it. Apparently she's re-living her memories of the snow day. Matt and I gather up all the "snow" and toss it, but don't worry-- she will still enjoy carrying around the toy carcass for months. We have at least 4 empty toys (essentially scraps of fabric) still in her toy basket, and they get frequent play. So, whatever.

What she hasn't figured out is that every time she goes beserk on a toy and spreads cotton batting all over the house it causes something Very Bad to happen: I vacuum. And if there's anything scarier (to Lola) than the vacuum...well, never mind, she's never found anything scarier. Empty paper bags are about the only thing that come close (why????), but that's another story for another day. As for me, I need to go vacuum, and while I'm at it I think I'll dust, organize, and do some other general cleaning as well. I need to catch up on my housewifely duties!

(P.S. When I went to upload the pics of Lola's destruction, I noticed I'd never uploaded our 4 pictures from Gatlinburg a few weekends ago. Here's Matt and I goofing off in a tacky gift shop.)

(Another new post below, keep scrolling!)

survivor (and a history lesson)

I have officially survived this week. That may not seem like much of an accomplishment, but it really is. Someone should make me a t-shirt or something. I Survived March 23-27, 2009. Health and energy-wise, it's been a rough two weeks. Although I ended up going back to work on Tuesday (and the rest of the week), I have had absolutely NO energy. I can't figure out why. I had some hopeful suspicions, but alas I was wrong. So now I still don't know why. My sinus infection/allergies/asthma are all gone or back under control though, so hopefully the energy will come back soon, too. In addition to not feeling well, I had two days of "professional learning" at work this week...which means 5 hours (per day) of sitting in meetings. In toddler-sized chairs. Writing on toddler-height tables. Ow. Come to think of it, maybe I just need a serious visit to a chiropractor and masseuse!!

Have I ever described to you where exactly I work? I'm not talking about what I do, I'm just talking about the physical school building I work in. Let me paint a picture for you.

The year is 1953. Athens is an up-and-coming, progressive-type town, so they decide to build a high school for the "colored" students. (Hey, I'm painting a picture...a historically accurate one. I read this in the paper a few weeks ago.) Wasn't that nice? (Heavy on the sarcasm here) So they built Athens High School. In 1953. Using the finest of materials and workmanship, I'm sure, because we all know that separate-but-equal was just that. Fast forward to integration...at some point they stop using the building as a high school and Burney-Harris-Lyons Middle School was housed in the building. People I know that are in their mid-thirties now attended middle school in the building. After they decided that the building was too run down to be used as a middle school anymore, BHL got a new building. And the county decided not to put any more schools in the building because it was just. plain. old. And they'd just rather build new schools than fix the old ones. So for the next however many years they simply used the building to house various offices and departments, and it still does. The Office of Early Learning (whom I work for), the Technology Department (except they got the heck out of there a few weeks ago and moved to a new building), the Head Start offices, etc....they just converted the classrooms to offices and voila-- a great (free) place to keep a bunch of people. A few years ago, though, the county needed a place to stick the Bad Kids...you know, the S.O.A.R. Academy-- the punitive alternative school. The place where the kids too young to drop out bide their time until they drop out. Last chance to learn how to read. Well, no one was using the upstairs of Athens High/BHL Middle/H.T. Edwards...they can have it. So the bad kids move in upstairs. Around the same time, the state starts funding pre-k programs (yay!). Now the county has lots of money to start pre-k classes, but there is very little classroom space in the schools...they built enough classrooms to house their K-5 populations, and didn't plan on suddenly opening up a new grade. What are we going to do with all these pre-k classes, the county wondered? Oh, I know!! H.T. Edwards!! That's still around! Stick them there!! All those empty (save the roaches, rats, and bats) classrooms are wasting away...put the four year olds there!

And so you have it. The building I work in has been "too old and run down" to house students for like 20 years...but it has been given new life. Not physically, mind you. Au contraire. We're still chillin' with the asbestos, lead paint, holey roof...the whole nine yards. As an added bonus, we're teaching the students how to commune with nature. They get lots of opportunities what with the rampant mold, the roaches that freely roam the building, and our most recent, most adorable infestation of bats. Oh, bats. Aren't they precious? Sure...but have you ever smelled their droppings? For 8 hours a day? No wonder I'm sick all the time. Don't bats carry rabies?

Anyway...the good news is, the county finally voted to spend like $50 billion or so on renovating (read: demolishing and rebuilding) ol' H.T. and it will start this summer. Those of us who work in the building enjoy looking at the floor plans and "artists' renderings" of what the building will look like, and we drool. It should be pretty sweet (whenever they finish it in like 2 years). In the meantime, I guess I'll do my best to protect my students from the environmental hazard that is their school. I've seriously considered buying about a million of those face masks construction workers and doctors and stuff wear. I think it would be a good investment.

But I'm home now, and happy about it. It should be rainy all weekend, which is bad if you're Lola, and also bad if you're her mom and dad...because a cooped-up Lola is a crazy Lola. We did get her a new toy yesterday, though, and she seems to love it, so maybe that will distract her a bit. We're going to look at another house tomorrow afternoon, but that's about our only plan so far. Matt's birthday is next weekend, so I need to be a good wife and start thinking about that. Any ideas?

Happy Friday!

gone crazy...

I can't even think of words to describe how exhausted I feel. And I'm a wordy person. They don't usually escape me. But I guess I'm not usually this tired. I went to bed at 9:20 last night and slept until 6:50 this morning. I slept WELL. And I've been so tired I can barely move all day. Throw in a super runny/sneezy nose, a headache, an earache, and a constantly tickle-y throat, and you have my day. It was just incredible. But I survived, and here I am sitting on the couch, doing anything I can to not fall asleep...because if I nap, I fear I won't be able to sleep tonight, and tonight I have every intention of sleeping for about 15 hours. I may just keep on sleeping til Monday morning at 6:30, actually. Then maybe I'll feel rested.

But on an unrelated note (or perhaps it is related)...I just went over to the sink to rinse out my cereal bowl. Our house is up on a hill, so I can see the tops of our cars from the kitchen window. I happened to glance out the window, as I do probably 50 times a day, and notice my Pathfinder, parked exactly where it is always parked. Only this time I noticed something strange on the roof. Luggage rack-- that's normal. Duct tape permanently adhered to luggage rack-- normal since my brother decorated the car at my wedding. Brownie pan-- wait, why is there a metal brownie pan (without brownies, sadly) on my roof?? That doesn't belong there...

And then I remember a few weeks ago...when it snowed. Matt and I wanted to "sled" down our hill and took out a bunch of different sled options to try out. I seem to recall the brownie pan being one of those options...and I guess when we were done (since it actually didn't slide very well) Matt just stuck it up there. And now I know what that strange sound has been in my car. I've heard what sounded like something sliding on my roof for a few weeks now, but completely dismissed the idea, because what could possibly be on my roof sliding? It would fall off, right?? Well, apparently not. That brownie pan had a will to survive, I tell ya. And I have clearly gone crazy since I never a) bothered looking to see what the strange noise was, and b) never noticed it just by walking by or looking out the window.

And please don't judge me now, but I am really not going down there to fetch it. I'm too tired. I plan on calling Matt when he gets off and asking him to bring it up when he gets home. I would absolutely die if I had to go all the way down there right now. And it's been there for 20 days...a few more hours won't hurt anything, right?!

sick-o

Bleh. The Bates family is experiencing an all-too-familiar bout of sickness. I swear, we've gotten sick more this year than in our whole lives...combined. Apparently the AJC wasn't lying a few months ago when they listed "pre-k teachers" and "bankers" as the #1 and #2 (respectively) germiest jobs. We spend our days marinating in germs, then come home and spread the love. Ew. Matt has the flu this time. I was doing good, but have felt really tired and headachey all afternoon. I fell asleep as soon as I got home from work (probably could have fallen asleep AT work if it hadn't been SUCKING so much today)...when I woke up, I didn't feel any less tired, but I did go to the bathroom to notice that my EYE IS BRIGHT RED. Can I even count how many times I've had pink eye this year? No, I cannot, because the number is TOO HIGH. It is beyond my ability to count. I bet my doctors really love me though. The Bates family is personally responsible for ensuring that no one at Athens Associates and Family Practice feels the hurt of the recession. They can treat themselves to new Beamers every month with the amount of money we lavish on them!

So we opted to skip out on home group tonight, which is sad because I miss my friends. However, I also love my friends, which is why we will not go and contaminate them with our diseases. Actually now that I think about it, among our little 3-couple group of people we hang out with the most, I can see that none of our careers support the group remaining healthy. 6 people: 3 bankers, 2 pre-k teachers, and a vet. No wonder we are never all healthy at the same time!

We did have a good time last weekend in the mountains. I think I took a total of 2 pictures, neither of which have been uploaded yet. It seems like way too much effort at this point. But we had a good time eating, playing dominoes, and dodging raindrops. Also, Lola picked up a tick somewhere (could have been there, could have been at home) that we found on Monday night (and removed). Actually, when Matt woke up Tuesday morning burning up with a fever, I was convinced he had contracted Lymes disease from the tick. I made him ask the doctor about it. The doctor told us he couldn't have contracted it in 9 hours from only touching a tick. So that made me feel better. But I really am a first-class hypochondriac and compulsive WebMD diagnoser.

This post is so pointless, but I am just sitting here on the couch not waching Iron Man with Matt, but not really having anything else to do. I can now check "create some kind of ticker-thingy" off my to-do list...I get jealous of seeing everyone's little pregnancy countdown thingies on the top of their blogs...and then I noticed people making them for all kinds of other events! So I thought my blog needed one, too, and celebrating days of marriage is as good a reason as any. Added bonus: maybe tons of people will send me anniversary cards this year. Ha.