Friday

Happy Birthday, J!!!!
Also, happy birthday to my sister-in-law, N!!!!!

We are, as they say, "hunkered down." Well, actually, R and the girls just went for a walk. About an hour ago, three blocks from our house, some people were cutting down a tree, and it hit a boy. Ambulance came and got him; the boy died. He was ten years old. There was a Houston Chronicle photographer there. R & the girls just came back from there. Very sad.

Our lantern broke, and Lowes doesn't have any more. :o( So we whipped out some more candles. I am making a pot of chili tonight, and I suppose we will watch movies again while we still have electricity.

The news reporter just said that 40% of the Galveston population stayed. What are people thinking? We will probably get blocked in for awhile. About a mile and a half down the road, there is a dip in the road by the creek. That will probably flood over. That is our only way out. Sometimes our lake overflows, but they have been working on the drainage this summer, so we will see.

As I read your blogs today, it seems so funny that y'all are talking about school, work, etc. LOL All of our stores closed a couple of hours ago. Also, want to tell Marmy -- good going on the car contest! I wish you would have won! You were a good sport about it. For those of you who don't know Marmy, she called in a radio station and was the correct caller. They gave out 93 keys, one of which fit a new car. The 25th person to try won the car.

The eye is predicted to go down I-45, which means we won't be on the dirty side of the storm. Yea! Everyone stay safe!

Stupid Hurricane Quote:

"You know, Tim, that's one of the things that will be debated." –New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, after being asked by NBC's Tim Russert why he didn't use buses to evacuate residents in accordance with the city's evacuation plan.

Another Stupid Hurricane Quote I Just Heard:

"They are not going to close the Galveston causeway. If your car is swaying, don't get on the causeway."

Take a Hike, Ike

We are about 75 miles from Galveston, so we will stay here. Chick Fil A hasn't decided to close yet. Don't know if we will let K18 drive to work tomorrow.

My brother is in League City, staying in a nearby bunker. He does not have a reporter with him. Guess he will shoot press conferences from the storm center there. His wife is going to her sister's to stay.

The girls' Biology class was cancelled today, and K15's theater class was cancelled tonight. K18 did go to her compass class, and both girls met their math teacher at the library for a lesson.

I am going to take advantage of our electricity tonight and stay up and watch movies. Trying to get a friend to come over and watch movies and eat snacks! LOL My cell phone has been acting goofy today. The reporter on Channel 13 said that his family evacuated to the Tomball area and that their cell phones weren't working very well.

Everyone please pray that the tree leaning towards our pool doesn't come down in the storm. That is really our only worry about this storm, I think. Tomorrow we will put the trampoline upside down and move all the deck and pool furniture inside. Only once have we not been able to get out of our neighborhood. We are not going to board up the windows this time. Church has been cancelled for Sunday because our worship center tends to flood.

Suddenly I have a craving for ice cream, and I don't even like ice cream! Guess it's time for a trip to Sonic!

Stay safe, everyone!

Correction!

I have been corrected and slapped in the face with a wet noodle. L & L poured 60 BAGS of concrete, not 60 lbs. In total, they poured 2400 lbs. of concrete! Good work, ladies!

It Was a God Thing

Last night God really helped me!
1:55 a.m. this morning: I am in the middle of a terrible, horrible nightmare, in a deep sleep. I hear my phone vibrate two times. (My phone vibrating NEVER wakes me up!) I have two text messages from a friend who is replying to a text I had sent about 10 hrs. before! How did she know to text, not once, but twice, at that particular time? Had to be God. I texted her back and said, "You woke me up from a nightmare! Thank you!" She asked me what it was about and then told me to pinch myself and go back to sleep. I tried to pinch my leg above the knee but couldn't get any skin! Woohoo! Well, that was one good thing.

2:30 a.m. K15 turns on the light. I am assuming someone is sick. She informs me that she is coming in to sleep with me because a roach dropped from her ceiling into her bed. She lies down but keeps the light on. I say, "Why is the light still on?" She informs me that she has one more chapter to read in her book. I am too tired to argue with her.

2:45 a.m. K15 turns off the light.

That was my night.

Wordless Wednesday

Stupid Sign Day

UGH!

This afternoon has been lousy. Please pray for my attitude. I can't say much because someone may be lurking here, but can say that it involves school. We have a decision to make in the next two weeks or so, maybe sooner. It is fixable, but, ugh, I just was not expecting this! Just was hoping that this year would go smoothly. I may need transportation for K15 to get to Word in Season at TBC on Tuesdays at 12:30. I will pay for gas and a fee, too, if you are coming out of your way.

Just want to say to L and L who are busy pouring about 60 lbs of concrete right now -- YOU GO, GIRLS! Too bad the guys at Lowe's didn't follow you home. I cannot imagine doing something like that! I am worthless when it comes to manual labor ha ha. Remember, you promised I can come over when the gazebo is up! L, thanks for letting me whine today. I guess I'm going to have to start calling y'all L1 and L2!! Thanks for telling me about R's car accident. I will have to get her something to cheer her up. I'll come by the store and drop it off. She is really sweet, and I'm sorry she went through that yesterday. Hope she has wheels again soon! I was home Friday without wheels and I hated it.

If anyone wants to join us, L and I are boycotting the Sonic on 2920 by Target! LOL!

Off to teach Spanish!

Sunday

Well, the Steelers are winning 28-3. Time for me to turn it off. I was mainly watching today to see if I could spot my brother in the end zone. Football is losing its appeal. And I don't feel all that well.

My grandmother is going to have to have surgery again. I wish I could go to Florida and help, but there is no way. Her surgery is the 23rd, so Mom and Dad will be gone during their anniversary and Mom's birthday again. My uncle will be going back to Vietnam about that time to see his wife, so prayer for him would be appreciated. He usually comes back sick.

If we can get this Spanish done today, I'm going to see about going to a movie or something. I just want to get out of the house. I have been on the WTM board all morning, but I am tired of reading arguments about Palin's supposed banned book list, P.E. credits, and cleavage. It's just plain boring on there today. And people are being mean to one another.

If you haven't already, take a look at the video below. Kind of cheesy, but I love the footage of Challenger as a baby.

Much thanks to the B's who donated seven jars to the girls for a Biology experiment! I KNEW you would have them!

Well, I think the DVD player is fixed, so we are going to finish watching Fiddler. Hope everyone has a restful Sunday.

I didn't know Jar Jar died. :o(
Sith Apprentice (2005)

The Emperor: Jar-Jar...

JarJar Binks: Me-sa fired?

The Emperor: No. You-sa fried. [the Emperor shoots electricity out of his hand and vaporizes Jar-Jar]

Challenger

It really is awe inspiring. Should any of you> happen to go to the Great Smoky Mountians, you will pass through the town of Pigeon> Forge ( if you go down route 81) Tennessee. In that town is a place called Dollywood owned and operated by, surprise surprise, Dolly Parton. There she has a huge enclosed area for non realeasable eagles. You can view them and their huge nests. She is prominent among rescuers of Bald eagles and she has a license to do so. The rest of the park is nice too. This is an awesome music video...featuring a special free-flying Bald Eagle named 'Challenger' (in honor of the lost space shuttle crew. K15 was named after one of their crew) cared for by the non-profit American Eagle Foundation (AEF). He's a 'human socialized' bird accidentally raised by the people who rescued him - after being blown from a wild Louisiana nest in a storm as a baby in the late 1980s. Declared 'non-releasable' by federal and state wildlife authorities, he was trained by the AEF to perform educational free-flight demonstrations at high profile public events. He's the first Bald Eagle in U.S. history that learned to free-fly into stadiums, arenas and ballrooms during the singing of the Star Spangled Banner.The celebrity eagle has appeared at numerous major sporting events...like the World Series, Pro-Bowl, All-Star game, BCS National Championship, Fiesta Bowl and Men's Final Four, etc. Challenger has also flown before 4 U.S. Presidents! His life story is told in a children's storybook titled 'Challenger, America's> Favorite Eagle.'

Dusti Update

A couple of hundreds of dollars later, Dusti is fine. Vet said she wasn't bleeding at all; it was some sort of dye. She was very puzzled - new blanket? No. new toy? No. did she get into something in the yard? No. Finally, K15 called and said that Dusti had eaten a lipstick! Yea! Mystery solved. Good thing the carpets haven't been cleaned yet. I would be really upset! What cost us so much was she was due for her shots and tests and they will not test an animal unless they've had an exam, of course, so we had to pay for an exam, nail clipping, shots, and tests.

K15 quit her Saturday shift today so K18 will take her place (reluctantly, I'm sure).

I'm sitting here eating blue corn chips and guacamole dip and waiting for my lasagna to be done. I am STARVING! R will be going over to E's house to install a window unit. K18 is at a church workday, so I guess K15 and I get the lasagna and garlic bread all to ourselves!

Here are menu plans for the week in no particular order: lasagna, grilled hamburgers, pancakes tilapia, baked chicken, spaghetti, chili, barbeque. We already had five of the entree ingredients at home SOOOOO.....

Did well at the grocery store today again - $105, including a People magazine and four $5 DVDs. I got West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, and Legally Blonde 1 & 2. I really want to watch Akeela and the Bee tonight, but we have to do Spanish, and K15 has major research to do on Florence, Italy in the Renaissance time period. Luckily, she only has to have an outline by Tuesday. Well, I am going to go watch a movie with K15 while dinner is cooking and heating up my house. I hate using the oven when it is so hot but I have run out of creative ideas that don't involve the oven. I can't wait for "crockpot weather!" And let me just say for the record, "I absolutely LOVE mashed potatoes! I have figured out lately that it is one of my comfort foods." I have started making them once a week, and we used to never have them. I will put my Glorified Mashed Potatoes recipe on here someday. You HAVE to try them! R was coming over for dinner tonight and to get the washer/dryer, but she has to clean the church for E since she has to be home helping with the air conditioner.

I would like to go to a movie or something tomorrow, but the girls have to study. Maybe someone will go with me????

Have a nice night.

TGIF

TGIF! I'm sitting here watching Little House on the Prairie and waiting for R to get home from work. Dusti's front paws are bleeding. We let her nails get too long because we are no longer taking her to grooming. She has blood on her face too. :o( The van is in the shop, but it is ready, so he is going to take me to get the van and then I will take her to the vet. I just hope they have time to clip her nails.

K15 slept until 1:30 today. She has been so congested and run down lately. I'm glad she has a day to sleep. K18's day is Saturday.

I love Little House, but the old women are always (aka Mrs. Whipple) portrayed as stupid. Usually the show ends happily but not today. I love happy endings. Some of my favorite chick flicks are Blue Lagoon, 27 Dresses, 50 First Dates, Ever After (I always watch this when I'm sick), Kate and Leopold, French Kiss, You've Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, Return to Me, Serendiptiy, Trouble with Angels (not a chick flick but I cry EVERY time), Pride & Prejudice (the six-hour A & E version). I also LOVE Medicine Man, Pillow Talk, That Touch of Mink, and so many more.

Now I'm watching another episode. There is a tornado, and Pa tells everyone to get into the sod house. I have never heard mention of the sod house in the series before, but the girls and I saw it in 2001. It was basically caved in. The sod house was very close
to the "little house." An amazing sight when we went to the Ingalls' homestead was the slough. I remember in one of her books, Laura recalls when baby Carrie was lost in the slough. Let me tell you, it would be very difficult to find a small tot in there. It was tall and thick.

We received a bill from a vendor that we were not expecting. Have to look up the records. Please pray that it has already been paid. Also, received a huge electric bill. Have to go see Mr. Klein about that and see if he is running electricity. Sure appears that way. Guess we should have paid the huge disconnect fee. A job would be good about now. I have an interview next Friday.

Anti-Wordless Wednesday

This is going to be my new T-shirt.

For all of you Wordless Wednesday fanatics, you know me, I am never "wordless." You know what I don't understand? Why, when I'm washing my hair, I have to completely rinse the shampoo off my hands before I rinse the shampoo out of my hair. Pretty stupid, huh?

The subject today is roaches. I was reminded today how once when I was in high school I was outside the front door and was told there was a roach by me. I opened the front door "hard." Parents had the security chain on the door. I ripped the chain and the door frame completely off!

This whole roach paranoia started when I was a young girl. Me and a friend were up in a fig tree in my backyard. We had children's scissors, cutting patterns in leaves, like you do paper snowflakes. I dropped my scissors. I didn't know that what I had dropped the scissors on was the top of a compost pile. I jumped down onto the compost pile, leaving my friend in the tree. Hundreds, and I mean HUNDREDS of brown, flying, tree roaches rose up out of the compost pile, all over me and scurrying frantically up the tree. I ran into the grass, and all I could think of was the old fire slogan, "Stop, drop, and roll." So I rolled in the grass, crunching some of the roaches.

About ten years ago, I was working in my office downstairs. There was a roach sitting on my computer tower. It flew TOWARDS me. This was at three o'clock in the morning. I ran into another room, screaming, and it continued to fly towards me. I found out later that, yes, there are some types of roaches that are labeled "aggressive."

I could talk all day about roaches, I have so many unpleasant encounters with them. We know a family who raises hissing cockroaches; I can't even imagine.

I am running L's store today. So far no catastrophes, although I owe her $12 for selling three key chains at the wrong price. :o( One customer cracked me up. He wanted me to order The Picture Bible. I wrote down "Picture Bible." He kept saying, "THE. Put THE in front of it." Then he ordered something else and I left the "THE" off again. That's the way we look up books. And he said again very loudly, "Put THE in front of that. " I would like to see the differences between Picture Book and The Picture Book by the same author. Ha ha. He made sure I took the extra "L" out of his name, too.

From A Bug's Life:
Flik: Here, pretend - pretend that that's a seed.

Dot: It's a rock.

Flik: Oh, I know it's a rock, I know. But let's just pretend for a minute that it's a seed, alright? We'll just use our imaginations. Now, now do you see our tree? Everything that made that giant tree is already contained inside this tiny little seed. All it needs is some time, a little bit of sunshine and rain, and voilá!

Dot: This rock will be a tree?

Flik: Seed to tree. You've gotta work with me, here. Alright? Okay. Now, y-you might not feel like you can do much now, but that's just because, well, you're not a tree yet. You just have to give yourself some time. You're still a seed.

Dot: But it's a rock.

Flik: [shouting] I know it's a rock! Don't you think I know a rock when I see a rock? I've spent a lot of time around rocks!

Dot: You're weird, but I like you.

Hi Everyone

Well, hello everyone. I have had several people ask where I am. Hmmm, why don't you comment on my blog? LOL I am guilty of that, as well. What's new around here? We closed the store on July 31st. There were a few tears, but not many. Since then I have not done much to be proud of. Resting a lot more than I should. I need to go back and have my thyroid checked - I'm a few weeks overdue. I really think if we could get that regulated I would have more energy. I have reorganized the school room. Each girl has their own shelf that houses their current school books, and there are many! Went through the supply shelf and chunked old pens, etc. Am currently separating personal books to sell on the internet. We have stacks of boxes and tubs in our "activity room" that came from the store. We have several boxes and rolling bins full of software that we have no idea where we are going to store. I never thought I would say this but "we are out of room." LOL I also brought some kitchen items home from my grandmothers that I don't want to part with but have little space for, even in a large kitchen. We found a bag of about 15 tiny stuffed bears that no one claims. Who left them at our house and why? I understand leaving beach towels and glasses here, but a bag of bears????

The girls have school Tuesdays and Thursdays and Monday a.m. from 9-10. K15 is working at the tea room Mon, Wed. and Sat. Her boss is very strict but fair. K14 is having a bit of trouble with the strict part. K18 works at Chick Fil A Mondays and Fridays and at the tea room on Wednesdays. I like having her home at night now.

We had a very nice time at the H's yesterday. Their new home is lovely. The girls were the first to swim in their new pool! It was especially great to see J there and hold her beautiful babies that she is trying to adopt. I am so impressed with her maternal skills at such a young age. How she gets them in and out of the car is still a mystery to me. I had enough trouble when mine were three years apart! Hers are three months apart! J is not going to London this week! Bible study starts back up next week but we are now called a "Life Group." Huh? We will be studying Luke this fall.

I am still job hunting. Got several rejection e-mails today but we are okay for now.

We have been hanging out by the fireplace lately watching a tiny screen because our cable is out in our den AGAIN! AND our phone voice mail stopped working AGAIN! I am so tired of Comcast! I don't call because we are not home long enough for the repairman to come.

This weekend we will probably go out to storage and measure and take more pictures as it seems all that info has been erased. Then I guess it's back to Craigslist for us. Would love to downsize the storage room soon!

Kim, I just want to say that you are missed at Teaching Mom! Where are you? I am sorry that I did not get back to you about the IEW. Your email got buried, and by the time I found it (last week) I assumed you had gotten it somewhere else. I am SURE, knowing you, that you have started it by now. I just pray that you did not pay full price for it. I would feel really bad about that. B-mail me, and I'll give you my phone number in case something like that happens again. I think we exchanged phone numbers before a storm once, but maybe you don't have mine anymore. I miss seeing you at the store. Maybe we could do lunch? I read your family blog quite often, as your personal one has not been updated in awhile. PRAISE GOD!

We did really well at the grocery store on Saturday even though I didn't bring a list. Just a little over $100 and that included a People magazine. Did have to go back today for cereal and juice. We have been eating much better since the store has closed (Mom, you would be proud.) You know I don't fry anything! We haven't been to a restaurant as a family in weeks. Maybe we will do that Friday night before NHSC parent meeting.

Want to wish my friend E a happy birthday. I won't announce your age here, but let's just say that you will always been waaaay older than me!

I will try to write more often. Minkydo, hope you're still reading. Thanks for all of your supportive advice at TM! I will update there as soon as I have more info.

Hey, I just figured out that if I add an image, my double space works. Ha ha!

Goodnite, all.

OCD Thoughts

Lately, my OCD has been in full-swing. However, I am blessed. When I think back to two years ago, I have come so far. I had more rituals than I thought I had, but most of them are gone. I still have a problem with handrails, but I forced myself to use them when I went upstairs to my dr. last week. Uncomfortable to be sure, but, hey, nothing drastic happened. I still have a problem with people that I love going up in airplanes. I believe that this is due to the fact that 1) I am petrified of being on one myself, and 2) I have had dreams (three times) about an airplane accident, and then the next morning when I turned on the news there had actually been one. One was the plane in NY that Pamela Lynch from Justice for All was on, and I believed that I somehow contributed to her death by not saying something to the authorities ahead of time. Dumb, I know. You will never convince me that that crash was not terrorist related. How am I going to do when K18 gets on a plane in two weeks to Honduras? I am going to have to go somewhere and do something to get my mind off of it - kind of like when we put Lucky to sleep. One thing I HATE about Cognitive Behaviour Therapy -- and I hope my counselor is reading this -- is that you are supposed to allow the thoughts to wash over you, not try to keep them away. So, technically, I am supposed to think about K18 being on the plane, thousands of feet above the earth and allow the negative thoughts to come. This is the scary part. If I do it, it usually works, but it is the DOING it that is sometimes impossible. I want to skydive just once in my life, but the thought of actually DOING it -- going up in a plane and jumping -- is petrifying to me. Someone WILL HAVE TO push me out the door, there is no denying that.

Back to handrails -- I noticed this last summer when we were at the Riverwalk. You probably think it is about germs. No. It is about balance. If I can grab onto handrails from both sides, like on an escalator, I am fine. But give me a wide stairwell where I cannot reach both sides, or people coming down the other side, blocking my reach like in San Antonio, I cannot use one handrail. I will topple and look stupid.

Same with horizontal cracks and color/pattern changes on the ground. I don't step over them because I'm afraid something bad is going to happen. I do it because it sends me off balance if I step on them. I feel like an idiot in the grocery store trying to avoid them, but at least I don't fall down. LOL Actually, this ritual is the reverse of a ritual. E and I were at the college going in to play raquetball (I LOVE that game!), and she mentioned to me, "Why do you step on every crack?" I hadn't noticed it before. So this went on for a few months and started to get on my nerves and I told my counselor. We did CBT a few times, and all of the sudden, now I am avoiding them instead of stepping on them! Rugs, shadows, anything like that, I cannot step on the edge. Tile doesn't bother me (thank God because it's all over our store!), but if there is a stain on the tile or any color change, streak mark, etc., I avoid it like the plague. I have tried standing on the edge of the counselor's rug, but I feel stupid just standing there. It was either that or go out into the parking lot and "practice."

When I drink a drink, I usually have to leave about 1/8th of it in the cup. I have to really psyche myself up to drink something all the way down. Now, a margarita, that's a different story. But soda, milk, juice, can't finish it all.

There have been a few new rituals that have "snuck in" this week, but I managed to ward them off. Hehe. CBT works for me the majority of the time, so I am truly blessed.

I am really enjoying all your blogs I am reading -- I can really relate. All I can tell you is that the more stress you have in your life, the more your OCD will affect your life. You just have to expect that it comes with the territory and not think that you are the cause of the increase in intensity. This, too, shall pass. I try to remember how far I've come in two years. It truly could be worse.

A Day of Lasts

Well, today is the day, the last day that the store will be open for business, and we have TOO MUCH left, especially fixtures!!! What are we going to do with them? I just keep praying that someone will walk in the door next week and offer to take them all off our hands!

So far I have turned the open sign over for the last time and put the money in the cash register for the last time.

I am very sad but will be so glad to get this week over with! R is busy dismaantling things. He took all the inside signs down yesterday. Next week will be moving and removing decals from the windows. The sign company is going to come take the sign down, too.

Long Time No See

It has been very busy around here. Have decided to close for good this Saturday, two days from now. Ready to get it over with.
Went to three movies in a week - Batman once, Mama Mia twice. My OCD is pretty bad right now; movies help me relieve stress, especially movies that I know the dialogue to.
Tonight we are going to swing by and pick up Chinese (mine is House Special Fried Rice with no peas. They also always take the carrots out.) and go home to watch the movies that came in the mail today -- especially College Road Trip with Donny Osmond!
E and I are going to take R out tomorrow night for her birthday. Going out for margaritas, and then the three of us are going to break into "Hand Painted By" so that E and I can paint a figurine for R of her choosing. We will have the place totally to ourselves for the night! I will probably bring some DVDs to watch while we paint.
While K18 is in Honduras, K15 and I are going to New Braunfels for a few days. We will each take a friend, so there will be four of us. I am hoping to get a place at the resort, but it's probably too last minute. That's okay because the train gets on my nerves anyway. However, I love having the swimming pool sized hot tub at night. I could stay in there forever. This time we are skipping the tubing the river part (Both girls got quite an education the last time). Will definitely do that bakery thing one morning. May go into Gruene for the afternoon or into San Marcos on Wednesday. If I can get a place at the resort, will probably do spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread one night; hamburgers on the grill the next. Or I may just bring my George Foreman grill and grill some chicken breasts. Lunches will be easy: sandwiches, chips, leftovers. Breakfast will be bakery one morning, probably cereal two mornings because I don't want to have to deal with leftover eggs.
Well, my computer has disconnected itself AGAIN from the server. I have done everything Tony has told me to do (I have watched him do it twice), and, still, it won't connect for me! Ran out of fax cartridge today. I said, "forget it," I am not spending $25 for two more days of junk faxes! I will just go to Kleins when I need a copy. Both credit card machines stopped working today, so we were about to change our "No Checks" sign to "No Credit Cards." But we fixec the machines, and all is well.
Well, I have been eating so many Keebler Fudge Stripes tha now I'm not hungry for Chinese food.

Happy Birthday, K18!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday to my dear, sweet first-born, K18 who turns -- well -- 18 today at 5:05 p.m.! Bless her heart, she has to work tonight on her birthday. She received a lovely bouquet of flowers today, and she and her dad went out looking for car stereos. Going to the Melting Pot Tuesday night; taking two of her friends.

K15 was at drama camp all week and performed in a West Side Story showcase last night. She did great! My mom, dad, grandma, E and P were there, too! Afterwards we went to Rancho Grande for a couple of hours. Service was the pits. They never did bring K18 anything to drink. They did, however, sing a birthday song to her in Spanish and put whipped cream on her face, with a cherry for the nose.

As for me, I will be glad when this whole thing is over. I can already tell that we are going to have a lot of fixtures left over if we don't hurry up and sell them. A lady did come in today who wants to open a store in Conroe; she may be interested in some of the fixtures. She, like many other CLUELESS people, couldn't understand why we were closing and why I strongly suggested that she re-think her "vision." This, after she was already aware that the other homeschool store in Conroe barely made it two years and that our nearest competition is experiencing low sales. Oh, well, to be young again and dream the dream. I wish the best for her; I really do. Like R told her, "Give it a shot. You'll never know until you try." (Or go into debt first --- my thought.)

I am very blessed in the fact that I have lots of skills that will help me get a job. Not just any job. I want one that really pays me for what I am worth. I will not be happy with the bare minimum. I have education and legal experience, owning and running a business. There are only two things that I don't want to do - teach children and anything to do with finances. I am leaning towards adult education/training; but, hey, if you want me to answer 6-9 telephone lines and type up your memos, I'm all for it. Just don't ask me to add up any numbers or tutor your children. Numbers make me nervous and I am burnt out on teaching K-12.

Here are the girls' schedules for the fall so far:

K18 - Biology, Word in Season (United States History/English Lit. & Writing class), finish Algebra and move on to next math, Government - fall; Economics - spring, Health

K14 soon to be 15 - Biology, Word in Season (Renaissance and Reformation +), Spanish 1, Algebra, piano, possibly theater.

We are re-thinking clogging and piano right now, depending on schedules. K14 may get a job next year at a local tea room; K18 is still waiting to hear from Target, but I think they would have called by now.

It is 4:30, and, man, am I tempted to close early! Got a new phone this week and am still trying to figure some things out. My ringtone at the moment is Darth Vader's Imperial March from Empire Strikes Back. Hmmm. Tonight might be a good Star Wars night since our cable is still out.

Time to Hit the Books

A Spanish-speaking man came into the store today looking for the library (the library used to be in our building). I was trying to give him directions, and could not for the life of me remember how to say "traffic light" in Spanish. I can see the word in my head and will automatically remember it tonight, I'm sure, but it's too late. I felt like an idiot. I am looking forward to pouring through my new Spanish-English dictionary and my two new advance Spanish grammar books soon. Have to finish Lonesome Dove first!


I am feeling better today. R was finally able to talk to Mr. Klein today; he has just been busy. He is not angry. He was telling R how the easiest thing would be for someone to purchase the store. Well, we did have a very serious looker last week, but it fell through when they saw the numbers.

Thanks to my brother, B, we will be going to Moody Gardens in Galveston tomorrow, a first for our family. WE NEVER GO ANYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!! I am also planning a trip to New Braunfels in August, probably when K18 is in Honduras. I need some R & R!

Boy Blames Himself for 9/11

A ten-year-old boy with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) thought the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York were his fault, according to a new report.
Leading psychologists said the boy thought the September 11 attacks in 2001 happened because he did not step on a particular white mark on the road that day.
Experts from University College London believe it is the first time a patient has blamed themselves for a major terrorist attack.
In a report published in the journal Neurocase experts said the boy, who suffers from OCD and Tourette's syndrome, was wracked with guilty after the attack.
Mary Robinson, a psychologist at UCL, said his condition meant he was forced "to step correctly on a particular white mark on the road" every day.
But on "September 11, the day of the atrocities, he forgot to do this and therefore thought the World Trade Centre attack was his personal fault."
The report said: "The case highlights the need to support young people in this world of terrorism and the mass media immediate coverage of events."
According to psychologist Dr Robinson, the boy had been "extremely pleasant and likeable" in the run up to the attacks, with good school grades despite being affected by the two conditions.
In a report on the case, she said: "His parents reported that he had become much worse, that he was fed up, annoyed and tortured by his tics.
"One prominent symptom was that he normally had to step correctly on a particular white mark on the road.
"On September 11, the day of the atrocities, he forgot to do this and therefore thought the World Trade Centre attack was his personal fault.'
The boy was treated with drugs to calm his OCD and was also informed that he had actually skipped his normal ritual of stepping on the same white mark after the attacks occurred, so could not be to blame.
Dr Robinson said media coverage of conflicts could cause similar phenomena.
"We have not even touched on the coverage of Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel or Gaza, where there are almost daily atrocities," she said. "This would be far too great a task."
OCD is a condition where sufferers repeat certain behaviours, such as washing their hands or avoiding cracks in the pavement, over and over again.Ex-England captain David Beckham is reported to be a sufferer.
Tourette's, meanwhile, causes involuntary tics and outbursts of swearing.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed when terrorists flew two jets into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York in 2001.

Hungry Please Help

Monday I went deep into Houston on my way to the counselor. I was sitting at an intersection, and it was taking forever for the light to change. I was in the left-hand turn lane. While I waited, I noticed a man sitting in the grass, holding up a sign that said, "Hungry. Please Help."

That light just would not change. I kept trying not to look at him. I never give panhandlers money, never. I have given them food, but not money. The more I tried not to look at him, the more I looked at him. I knew that OCD was setting in. There is no possible way I could have driven off without giving him something and not obsessing for weeks afterward. I had all this time to give him something, but it was not until the light changed to green that I motioned over to him to come to my window, and I gave him a dollar bill. Whew! Payoff! I felt so relieved! Obsession loop broken!