Disgruntled gifs.

1. Scott has been working until 9-10pm every night. It's not going to get better any time soon.

I'm semi-hating everything these days but I don't have as much of a reason to as Scott does.

He's been watching t.v. and falling asleep on the couch and he said that Scout woke him up the other night, very angrily, because he didn't have any water in his dish. Scout has been known to do this. I swear I fill that jug up every day.

2. The dogs bounce and pounce out of bed to greet Scott when he comes home, but then come back to the bed to sleep with me immediately because there's no way they'll downgrade themselves from a king-sized bed to a couch. They also don't like to be awoken in the middle of a sleep.

3. This article on positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement only works if there are consequences. You need to know what TO do in order to be reinforced. That parent's "question" makes me want to throw up.

4. And then this one...comparing teachers to doctors...if a student performs poorly it's the teacher's fault. Just like if a patient dies, it's the doctor's fault, right?

5. And, in more disgruntled teacher news, my former college professor is a Dean of Education now and he runs a podcast called Busted Pencils. He gives the honest answers and truths about education. He did that at Penn State and it's truly part of the reason why I believe things I do about education. I STILL use the model for teaching Social Studies that he taught us. That doctorate in Social Studies Education that he has is pretty much my dream degree.

Anyway. It's Friday. Good thoughts appreciated as we trek through the next few weeks of constant work and such. 

Stuff and Things I've Seen Lately

I didn't say anything about Veterans Day yesterday and I feel bad about that, but I don't know what there is to say that hasn't already been said.  Obviously I'm grateful for everything the members of the military have ever done for me. Scott has been away for a giant chunk of our marriage. My brother has been deployed several times. My grandfather spent 2 years of his life in Germany during WWII. My other grandfather trained soldiers during WWII. I had uncles in Vietnam. When I think of veterans, I think of how they sacrifice time away, living years of their lives in places no one wants to go, and being willing to give their lives for their country.  It's hard to really put all of that into words when you, as a military spouse, see the reality of it. 

My connection to Veterans Day is that I always have professional development at school (whatever school I happen to be at) while Scott enjoys time away to hunt or fish for the weekend (because, hey, it's his holiday) but he's in the field now so I'm guessing it's not the most awesome Veterans Day from his point-of-view. 
However, we wrote our letters to veterans on Tuesday at school and I told the kids they could write to "Mr. Darhower" if they had no one else to write to.  There should be some gems.  

-----------------------------------------------------------

Seen on the internet lately...

I think I might decorate this weekend.  Is that too early? I mean, I probably won't put up my tree until Thanksgiving break...

-------------------------------------------------

I dare someone to make this and report back. If you live to tell about it. 

---------------------------------------------------

People who don't know what they're talking about bother me. 

This is something a "health coach" posted. And I put that in quotations because I think it's a self-proclaimed title. I had a candida infection once and it is indeed yeast, not bacteria.  Bacteria is what fights it.  I ate nothing but yogurt and raw cranberries and drank nothing but water for weeks.  It was awful. I'm also pretty sure that plain greek yogurt would do the trick. I remember the doctor telling me that yogurt is yogurt, unless you're looking at calories. But that was 2010, before the rise of the self-proclaimed "coaches", so who knows. Also (again), I'm pretty sure if candida was a bacteria, a doctor could give you an antibiotic and it would be gone and there would be no need for expensive yogurt. 

------------------------------------------------

This was Saturday.  I'm terrible at responding to text messages anyway so, when I get a wrong number, I ignore it in hopes that it'll go away.  This one didn't. My responses are the green.

She seemed so sure of herself.  I wanted to know more: Who's Cheryl? How does this person know Rob? What happened to pappy's door?

But the mystery texter figured it out before I could continue the conversation. 

-------------------------------------------------------------

I was near infuriated on Sunday.  I was watching the Steelers game and they cut out right before overtime to go to the Broncos game.  I hate the Broncos.  I didn't hate them before I moved here but now I do because I can't stand the blue and orange everywhere. (I'm a terrible person.)

So I was forced to go to espn.com and watched the final minutes like this.

At least it ended well.

<!-- end InLinkz script —>

Stuff and Things: Kitchen Update

I saw these at a store. Didn't buy them, but I had to take a picture.

REALLY FUNNY STORY: The neighbor started talking to me the other day.  I mentioned that there just wasn't enough time for Scott to finish all the projects we have going on and something about how we essentially "gutted most of the house last summer and it's just slowly getting put back together".

He said, "I didn't realize anything in that house needed to be updated."

I didn't know what to say to that.  I suppose I could've said that the living room carpet and the unicorn mural were my favorite parts...

When I mentioned this to Scott, he told me to be nice and that not everyone has the same ambition as me when it comes to paint color and countertops. Different things important to different people, etc.  

I was polite to this neighbor (even those he's otherwise a know-it-all busybody) because I know he's friends with the family who lived here.  However, I kind of take it as a personal insult that people think I just moved into this house and...left a unicorn on the wall.  I would like to invite all the neighbors over so they can see what we've done.

Anyway, I'm being mean. And snobby.

Moving on.

The kitchen isn't finished.  But it's been more or less "done" for the last 6 months.  I haven't posted anything because, well, I'm lazy.  I took some pictures here or there and I just dug them out of my memory card so I can share them with you.  I was inspired to do this only because last year, on the 4th of July weekend, we were painting cabinets. Things have come a long, long way.

So, first, the before pictures:

#neverforget

And an array of after pictures, taken between January and July of this year:

Again, not done. But not bad.

Stuff and things

-Scott went on a hunting trip last week. When Scott's away, I will eat a quesadilla for dinner every night.  4 nights in a row.  I don't ever want to see one again.  Until maybe next week.

-I will also go to the gym every night.  Without a husband or puppy, it's just me, myself, and my computer I.  Might as well do something useful.

-This is so random, but just a few weeks ago, I realized that "North West" is Kimye's baby's full name.  I thought they named her "Northwest", because that's how low Kanye flies on my radar.  I hadn't connected that "West" was his last name.

-I'm a little too chicken to watch American Horror Story by myself.  Even during the day, that witch stuff is too freaky.  As is the "sewing-body-parts-back-on".

-I about lost my cool last week.  Someone posted on Facebook that they were PCS-ing to Alaska soon and "what should I bring?".  They mentioned that they had enough clothes to last their growing children for a couple of years.  Um.  Hello? It may be a horror story, weather-wise, and there may be no Marshall's or Homegoods, but dang..  I lived 2 miles from Target (in case you've forgotten...I'm telling you again).  Do you need warm clothes?  Heck yes.  Can you buy them when you get there?  Uh, yeah.  Weirdo.  It's not a vacation.  You're moving there.  You'll have that magical thing called an "address" that websites like "Amazon.com" can "ship" to.

Too sarcastic?  Maybe.

I don't know if I'll ever completely readjust to being a lower-48-er. I'm coming to terms with this.

-I found this picture on my computer and almost started to cry.  What has happened to my baby?

Dare I even show you this next one?

...that makes me want another one.  Don't tell Scott.  

He's not-so-patiently waiting for me to give him permission.

But then again, there is nothing better than a house-trained dog.  Nothing.

Even if he does sit like a person.