Hello, Internet.

(For the two of you who were worried, the mail lady battle continued, but I persevered. The mail box has now been relocated to the other side of the porch, and the "tree" is no longer Public Enemy #1. I just roll my eyes at the mail lady.)

Questions on Sunday afternoon:
1) Why do I get six or seven bug bites every time I am outside for longer than 10 minutes? Note that this is not pregnancy-related; it has happened for years.

2) Why did a bunch of yellow jackets decide to build their nest inside our bedroom window frame? Operation Yellow Jacket Removal is in progress, which means I have to sleep in the other bedroom. I do not like change.

3) Is the destruction of Yellow Jackets any indication of the result of the UGA/Tech game come Thanksgiving weekend? At that point I will be 9.5 months pregnant, so I doubt I will care.

4) Why is growling suddenly the preferred method of communication for my Sunday School class? I do not like having to say things like, "Speak, don't growl," repeatedly.

5) Why are vanilla malts not considered part of a balanced diet? There has to be a way to put vitamins in them, so that they are like broccoli, only yummy.

That is all for now.

Note to the mail "lady"

1) Delevry is not a word.  It is spelled d-e-l-i-v-e-r-y, which I would think you should know, given your line of work.

2) The "tree" in question is a hibiscus plant.  It's not currently blooming, so I'll give you an exemption for not being able to identify it from its leaves alone, but by no means does it look like a "tree."

3) It is not in your way. At all. And yes, I am going to cut it back, as requested by your stupid note, because otherwise you won't deliver my mail, and I'm not in the mood for that. But know that I am VERY underwhelmed with you.  Just as I was underwhelmed with you LAST summer for demanding that I trim this very same plant WHILE IT WAS BLOOMING.  You claimed the bees were going to "get you." Newsflash - bees will leave you alone if you leave them alone. I swear, I must not have taught your flailing around crazy self in second grade, because if I taught my students anything, it was to LEAVE BEES ALONE.  I digress.

4) You should be grateful that I am working on patience, because you almost got attacked by a crazy pregnant lady, had I not taken a deep breath and counted to 1293837423847438748.

The end.

Coming Soon:

December 1, 2009 (ish)

I am embarrased to admit I like anything that this closely resembles High School Musical.

Nonetheless, I do.

Watch it, and tell me I'm not crazy.

Then, stay tuned for real news later in the weekend.

So sometimes I don't blog for a month and half.

And it appears that the world continues to move on without me. WHO KNEW??

Regardless, absolutely none of you wanted to hear the "I hate my job" that has become my everyday for the last couple of months. Now that I see the light at the end of the tunnel, I can ignore the idiocy that I deal with every. single. day.

See last we talked, I have torn up our house with the goal of doing some massive rearranging. Then, I lost any desire to actually DO that rearranging, so now we just have a torn-up house. I'm thinking I'll overcome this soon - the question is HOW soon. We are going to give away a bunch of stuff. This has already begun, and I know it will make our lives easier. I'm even being harsh with the classroom stuff. I GAVE AWAY AN ENTIRE BOX OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS, PEOPLE!!! Some of you will have to pick yourselves up off the floor right now, so I'll wait.

******************************whistles to self**************************************

Now that we've all recovered, I will tell you about my new favorite thing: www.pearbudget.com. It is fantastic. We've always been good about living within our means, but aside from tracking things sporadically, I've never been super sure where all the money went. Now, I know, for sure, that we're only really blowing money in a couple of areas. (Namely, food.) This is much easier to use than Microsoft Money (what I used in college, when I really had to know where all the money was going - only back then, the categories were a bit different, but I digress). It also makes you input everything yourself, so you feel the burn. My BFF Dave would be proud. Further news: Lindsey has quoted Dave's radio show to me THREE times in the last week, which is pretty funny.

The farmers' market opened this week, but we weren't there, because we were here seeing a preview of Ken Burns's newest documentary on the National Parks. Oh my heavens - it is spectacularly gorgeous (of course), and tear-jerking! I think I cried three times. He's done an amazing job of making it almost an inclusive history of our country, too. Did you know that a Japanese immigrant was instrumental in getting support for the Great Smoky Mountains national park? I didn't! Very cool stuff - it'll be on PBS in September, and I know that I am the only one dorky enough to dedicate 12 hours of my life to it, so you don't have to lie and tell me you're going to watch it. That's okay. I'll just tell you about it. :)

And I know it's dreadful to post this much text without a picture, but I'm on the work computer (SHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!) and there are no pictures on here. I should give you some pretty waterfall to look at soon, but that might be July. Ha.

Oh yes.

Courtesy of my brother - a little Macon love for all of you. Though this does prove that Jack McBrayer is more than a bit older than I am, because gym uniforms were happily forgotten before I started high school. Kenneth is on tonight, of course, along with the rest of the 30Rock gang...

Merit pay has been the hot topic for those of the teacher ilk here lately - our state legislature just approved extra pay for people who teach *some* subjects - what a crock. Anyway, I loved what this blogger had to say about merit pay in general (quit rolling your eyes, Petey).

And because y'all know I have some mad Mr. Rogers love, and because I forgot to remind you about his birthday this year, I thought you should know that you too can own your own trolley:

I know. I want one, too.

All is right with the world...

The windows are open.
Our neighbor is babysitting his granddaughter - she's making mudpies.
The daffodils are blooming.
The snow in our front yard has finally melted.

Hard to believe that cute picture below was just less than a week ago!

Days like today always make me wish I was with my college roommates "studying" in Audubon Park in New Orleans - we'd take our books & a blanket & fall asleep within the hour - it was great.

Happy weekend...

Happy March!

It never snows in Georgia when it "should," and usually it doesn't even count, but this is fantastic. It started during church, and by the time I drove home, the houses, cars, and the park were covered.

It's like movie snow - you can actually see the great big flakes!!!

(I know I'm entertaining all of you who see this stuff as a nuisance - some of us still think it's pretty cool.)