Tis the Season!

I absolutely love Christmas, not necessarily the commercialized part but the lights, festivities and the reason for Christmas. Today Rob and I got our Christmas tree. It's earlier than I usually get a tree but we will be in Mississippi for Christmas and I wanted our first tree at our house. So, after getting it home and set up (which was a lot faster than when my parents put up a tree!) I started decorating it. After that I wrapped the Christmas presents we have so far so I could put them under the tree. After finishing the decoration tomorrow, our house will look festive. It is so much fun driving home and seeing lights up everywhere already. I enjoy listening to my Christmas CDs. It's fun buying gifts for loved ones, something that brings me much joy. I just love everything about the Christmas holiday!!

Thanksgiving Blessings

Rob found out that he was going to be on pager duty over Thanksgiving so we weren't going to be able to go out of town for Thanksgiving. Although we had some invites from friends, my parents decided to come up so we could have a family dinner. They arrived Wednesday night and are leaving this morning. We have had so much fun with them, starting with them getting stuck off the side of our driveway when they first arrived continuing to getting the ice maker to work using a blow dryer and crochet hook. I made my first Thanksgiving feast, with the help of everyone. Rob deep-fried the turkey, mom made the sweet potato casserole and stuffing and dad journaled it all by taking pictures. After eating and taking long naps, mom, dad and I took a walk around the property with Roxy happily tagging along. Last night we relaxed and watched the family movie, "Flicka". Now, we are off to partake in the Black Friday sales. Let the fun continue!

Busy Beyond Belief

It feels like forever since I've blogged, even though I know I just did it on Thursday. Before that I was without a computer for over a week, but it seemed like longer! It's amazing how society has become so dependent on technology. I am fortunate that I am able to have almost all internet access at work so I wasn't completely out of the loop but most days I was too busy to check anything other than my work email.
As I stated in my last blog, Rob got back on Thursday afternoon. Thursday night began the whirlwind weekend of Rob's bull riding school. About 10 teenage boys signed up and we were fortunate enough (I am not being sarcastic) to put them up at our house. What a great group of boys! I got to cook for them, which was a lot of fun. Rob taught them the basics of bull riding, with the help of his friend Scott. Much to our dismay, the weekend went by way too fast and the school is over for the year. Now, as I sit here, the house seems so quiet. No playing keep away from Roxy, wrestling til 3 am, or having mousetrap wars (don't ask!). I hope that we are able to do another school in the future because Rob and I really enjoyed our time with the boys and their families. Now I'm off to clean the house to get ready for my parent's Thanksgiving visit and do schoolwork..... then to enjoy the first amount of quality alone time I've had with Rob in almost 2 weeks!

Lonely Days

So, Rob has been gone for 8 days!!!! (He got back today) Then my computer crashed 2 days after he left so I feel like my world had turned upside down for a week or so. I was doing my usual "chores" around the house as well as Rob's. It was hard work holding up both ends plus working full time. I had some comical moments trying to feed Dixie and am very glad that Rob is back to take over again. I did get to use the weekend to visit friends I hadn't seen for awhile in Sacto as well as visit my parents. That was fun to catch up with everyone! But, it's even more fun having Rob back home. Now we are getting ready to house a bunch of teenage boys for the weekend for a bull riding camp Rob is putting on with Scott Mendes. More fun times ahead!

Lots O' Things.....

So last week ended, but much like it had started. I met a great girl from Texas at a math conference I went to on Thursday. We decided to get together after I got off work on Friday. After I picked her up I called Rob to ask if he wanted to join us. He couldn't because Dixie had cut up her legs pretty good when she had busted down the corral and Rob was worried about her. So a vet came to the house to check her out. Luckily, she got a clean bill of health.
Then, on Sunday, Rob called to tell me that Roxy had climbed on his recliner and had left him quite a wet spot. She has had a hard time adjusting to Dixie so she has been letting Rob know that she isn't happy to be sharing his attention by going to the bathroom on his side of the bed and on the recliner. I no longer trust her and keep her locked in the bathroom when I cannot closely supervise her. She better get over this soon because I won't put up with it when Rob brings his dog home and we have kids....one day (no I am not prego!).
This morning Rob left before the sun came up to go out of town for an 8 day project. At first I was excited because it meant eating sushi, not making the bed, and watching what I wanted on TV (or not having the TV on at all). But, I've done all three and it hasn't been as exciting as I thought it'd be. Now I am sitting in a quiet house, eating licorice, and contemplating whether to go to bed early or to correct reading contracts. Ah, the exciting life of a "single" girl....

Weird Week

Do you ever have one of those weeks where you just want it to end because disturbing things keep happening? That's how it's been for me this week. I'm not one to really share my political views because I don't care to debate. You have your views, I have mine. Let's just respect them. But, since this is my blog I am free to say that I was extremely disappointed with Tuesday's elections. I felt like my vote didn't count because McCain lost, as did our friend that was running for the Storey School Board. Then, an initiative that would've given more money to the school district I work for through a slight tax increase failed as well. (That actually shocked a lot of people!)
Yesterday Rob and I got to sleep in a little (6am versus 4:30 for Rob). When we got up, Rob went to check on Dixie. To his horror, the corral fence was broken to pieces in one section and Dixie was gone. We both went into "panic mode". I threw on sweats and we came up with a game plan to scan the area. Just as I was pulling out of the garage, he came running over, waving his arms. Apparently Rob takes really good care of Dixie and she had no real desire to escape because she was hanging out with the neighbor's horse next door. Rob mended the corral to the best of his ability, lacking supplies and time. His project each night this week and this weekend is to completely repair the corral so Dixie is safe again. We don't know what spooked her, but I got to see firsthand how powerfully strong horses can be!
Well, I am off to a math conference so I hope nothing else out of the ordinary occurs.

Severe Storm

We get a lot of snow up here in the Winter and the occasional thunder storm in the Summer but we had the mother of all storms last night. It came with high winds, lightning, A LOT of rain and a power outage. At one point I told Rob that I felt like one of the 3 little pigs, waiting for our house to blow over. The wind became unbearably loud so I used a lighter to try to find my ear plugs. Rob got candles and helped me to no avail. Finally, I gave up and knew I'd have to do my best to tune it out. Rob told me to lay on his chest and his heartbeat is what I focused on to lull me to sleep. Once I fell asleep, I slept great, which surprised me because the wind sure was loud. We thought we'd wake up to snow, but apparently it never got cold enough. Although the power was back on when we woke up, there was no snow on the ground. There will be plenty of time for that though!

Halloween and Hunkerin' Down

Yesterday we celebrated Nevada Day and Halloween all rolled into one. My Halloween started on Thursday, when my class had a party. This is one of my most favorite classes I've taught so I had a lot of fun watching the kids dress up and get so excited. My student that has autism was so excited to be Batman that I couldn't stop smiling at him. I'm not a big fan of putting kids' pictures on the internet but I had to post this picture because this student has one of the best costumes I've seen! (I blocked part of his face for privacy)I laughed so hard when he walked in the room because this costume matches his personality perfectly. I got the day off yesterday(of course Rob didn't) for Nevada Day and we had a neighborhood Halloween party. It was a fairly small group, but one lady said she'd like to have this every year at our house. It was fun to see the costumes and watch the kids so excited about Halloween.
This morning we woke up to strong winds and spritzing rain. It's supposed to snow tonight and tomorrow so I am looking forward to making a crockpot of vegetable beef soup, getting a fire going and hunkering down with a good book and movie. I love being social, but there are also times I like that we don't have plans and can just relax. We have such a great, balanced life together.