Thursday

I woke up around 3am this morning and mistakenly allowed my brain to wake up and start thinking! Do you ever do that? Once I let that happen, there is no way i'm going back to sleep. It just isn't going to happen. I got some information about our schools last night and am sworn to secrecy until we go back to work next week and our school assignments are announced. And in the blog world, anyone could find my blog, so i'll keep my little secret a secret until then, but yeah, it's a big change but also a big vote of confidence in me from the powers that be, so i'm excited. So, my mind was running through this information I couldn't sleep, so I ended up just getting out my awesome IPhone and playing games until about 5, then I finally settled down and went back to sleep.

My day got off to the best possible start (yeah, right) with an early morning dentist appointment in Baton Rouge. I miss those days when the dentist would just say, "no cavities!!!" I don't think I ever even had a cavity until I was 20. Now, I don't hear much about cavities...it's more like, let's put a crown on #18. Let's re-do this crown on #20. Wait, re-do a crown? Do we do crowns more than once? Apparently, there is some decay under the crown and they want to re-do it? Wow. Ok then!! While it would be hard to find something good about that, the crown that I already have is GOLD and I HATE it!! I have often wished that I could just ask to have a new crown, but that just seems silly, but today I asked if they would have to remake the whole crown itself and the dentist said yes, so I said PLEASE don't make it gold!!! Yay!! So anyway, I haven't scheduled that yet. I am planning to wait until January and add all of our new necessary procedures to our flexible spending account. I am also going to look into getting braces again, so I want to lump all of that expense in there together.

One of my best friends from graduate school, Jessica, had a beautiful baby boy yesterday! His name is Marcello and he is 6lbs, 13 ozs! I am so excited for her and her husband, and I can't wait to meet the baby!! With my mystery fever this week (which has been gone a few days now, thank goodness!), I will wait until after I get back from Atlanta this weekend to visit them.

I had a great time at lunch yesterday with Judith, Susan, and a friend of theirs. I had grilled trout with corn roasted grits (they were DELICIOUS) and buttered sweet potatoes. The restaurant is new to our area and I think they will do pretty good. The menu had all sorts of different foods on it - many Asian and Lebanese type dishes too.

Cameron has been talking to my mom about borrowing her electric piano that she is wanting to temporarily find a new home for. He use to take guitar lessons and enjoys music a lot, so as long as the piano fits in his room or the office, we will go get it soon. He is supposed to measure the space to make sure and hasn't done it, so it will be up to him how quick we get the piano. It's not huge - I think 56" long, so it should fit pretty easily, but I want him to be responsible and check it out rather than just go get it and have to stick it somewhere in the house that we don't want it. My step-son, Sean, once saw a FULL size piano at a Goodwill store and bought it for $50. And then didn't have anywhere to put it, so we had it in our LIVING ROOM for a year or more. We used it as a buffet table for awhile. So, yeah, we don't want anything like that to happen.

I wanted to float in my pool today, but as usual, it is raining off and on, so I will probably pass on that and just read my book and chill out until it's time to go to Hilltop for STEAK NIGHT!!!! Yay!!

Monday

There are a lot of great things about living out here on the river and out in the country, but only 10 minutes from the city. The thing I love most is the wildlife that is a part of our landscape. Sometimes there are wild turkeys wandering around in the street, deer walking in the woods, or like today, I looked out on my neighbor's pier and saw this Blue Heron just hanging out enjoying his morning!

Today was a busy dental day! I had to go to Baton Rouge this morning and get my permanent crown put on. It was painless and i'm glad I got that over with. Then, this afternoon, I took Cameron to get his braces off!!! I was worried that his teeth might look stained, and there are a few spots on a couple of teeth, but nothing serious. He goes Thursday to get them cleaned, so i'll see if the dentist suggests doing anything or just leaving it alone. His teeth are so straight and nice looking! He got permanent retainers on the top and bottom, so thank God there wont be any aggravating him to wear them or, like when I had retainers, losing them everytime you have to take them out to eat! I'll try to sneak a picture of him soon, but he's pretty uninterested in having me do that!

I lost 2 more pounds for a total of 6 since Thursday! I'm back where I was before the cruise and i'm determined to keep going. I stopped at Taco Bell for Cameron on the way home from the orthodontist and figured I would get me a taco salad to eat before dinner. Cathy & Brent are home from a trip and invited us over to eat salad and red beans & rice tonight, so I figured i'd eat a little something first and then just have salad at their house. Anyway, I got home with the taco salad and realized I forgot to ask for it without beans, which I HATE, besides the fact that they have carbs, so I went on Taco Bell's website to see how many carbs so I could decide if I wanted to eat it anyway. On the 1st phase of the Atkins diet you eat between 12 - 15 carbs daily, so I was pretty sure the beans were bad, but figured I could eat around them. Surprisingly enough, WITHOUT the beans (or the shell of course), there are STILL 11 carbs in the taco salad!! This totally explains why I stopped losing weight during my Houston trip because I ate a taco salad on the way there thinking there were few carbs, which you should expect from lettuce, beef, cheese, and sour cream! So, no taco salad at all. I got out some leftover chicken from last night and ate some string cheese!

So, we did have dinner at Cathy & Brent's and exchanged stories from our vacations! We also watched the world's most awful show, "Moment of Truth," which we are all addicted to! It is beyond me why anyone would go on that show and expose their awful truths for money - and most of them only hurt their family and friends and leave with NO money! It's crazy!

Otherwise, it's been a really stormy evening tonight and the power was off for awhile. Living in hurricane country, many of us have backup generators installed at our houses, so we aren't ever really without electricity, but it's still annoying to have to reset all the clocks every time the power blinks! We built our house after Hurricane Katrina and decided to install a backup generator after spending 2 weeks with no power and it was a great decision. We've been lucky since then and haven't had any hurricanes hit our area, but of course, we're still rebuilding from Katrina's damage. We live about 40 minutes from New Orleans and you really have to see it to fully understand it or believe it. But anywho, we are just hanging out at home. Bryce is off of work for 2 days, so i'm sure he'll be camped out here with Cameron until his days off end and he has to go home. The great thing is now that he lives down the street, I don't have to go get him or bring him home anymore!

Have a nice night!

Wacky Wednesday

Walter & I got up at 4am to make the mystery cat drop at a place that is known to find homes for pets and does not put them to sleep. It was easier than I thought to get them into the carriers I bought and harder than I thought to actually leave them at the place, but we did it at about 5am. The cats have been suffering with no food and water, so anything will be better than that, plus they will get much needed medical care. Hopefully, they will find loving homes that they all deserve. The place we brought them was an hour from our house! I was feeling bad on the way home and Walter reminded me how much trouble i've gone through to do this the right way, when I could have just brought them to the animal shelter down the street that would have put them to sleep before long...and keep in mind...they aren't even our cats!!!!

Then, I had to go to the dentist to get my temporary crown fixed at 8:30 this morning. Something made a hole in the crown and my tooth was hurting a lot last night and anytime I ate anything. I could probably just suffer until my appointment to get the permanent crown, but I am not going to be dealing with a toothache on the cruise, so I went another hour to Baton Rouge and got myself fixed up!

I am going to dinner with my friend, Kelly, tonight at Albasha!! She is interviewing for one of the jobs in my office so we are going to talk about some work issues before her interview. I am dying to know who will end up getting hired. I'm sure some people other than my friends are interviewing, so I'm anxious to know! My boss told me the other day that she has a lot of good candidates and it will be hard to narrow them down to 2!

Walter has an emergency homeowners board meeting tonight with the board members and the fire chief because our new fire department that is supposed to be built on the end of our street now may be in the process of planning to build it somewhere ON our street. Yikes. That's all we need is to have fire trucks and volunteer fire fighters flying up and down the road. Our entire subdivision is 3 miles long - 1 street - and I just can't see how this would be a good idea. There is a meeting tomorrow night with the fire department and depending on how the meeting goes tonight, we may have to go, which would mean missing steak night! I am not amused!!! You can take anything you want away from me, but don't take my steak night!!!!

So anyway, it's just a quiet day around here today. I may take a nap or go for a swim, or both! I have to clean the house so the housekeeper can come tomorrow!! Walter says we should just leave her a check at the front door because I always clean up before she comes, but really, I have to get all the junk picked up around the house so that she can clean & mop, so I promise i'm leaving the hard work for her!!

Steak night!!!

It's steak night!! The night of the week that gets me through all the others anticipating steak night at Hilltop! It is truly the best restaurant i've ever been to and I could eat there every night! Walter and I went by ourselves tonight due to Cathy's car trouble, but went by Cathy & Brent's later for a drink.

I had a dentist appointment this morning to get a crown and let me tell you...that was fun!! I had 2 appointments scheduled this month and I thought I was just going for a cleaning today! Surprise!! Afterwards, me & my friend, Kelley had lunch at Calender's and then visited our friend, Jan, who is now hospital bound until her twins are born. Kelley and I were both social work interns at the same hospital, so we managed to visit with several of our former supervisors while we were there. We both enjoyed interning at "Better Beginnings" which was a Medicaid clinic for pregnant women and found out recently that the clinic was shut down. It is a real shame and the effects of that decision are already affecting the hospital. Women are showing up to deliver babies and have had no prenatal care and rather than Medicaid paying for visits to the clinic and doctor, they will pay rates for the Assessment Center, which is an emergency room!

Miracles do happen! I saw this story in People magazine about Elizabeth Smart. I was so fascinated with her case and just knew she would never be found alive. I am glad she is sharing her story to help other people. She really is a miracle. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20205956,00.html?xid=rss-topheadlines

My friend, Michelle, asked about our cruise T-shirts, so here they are:

So anyway, I went to PetSmart today to pick up some kitten food and while I was there, asked the veterinarian about medicine to use for kittens with diarrhea. When kittens go from nursing to eating food, it is common, but could also be caused by parasites, so I wanted to ask about it. After talking to the vet for a few minutes, she said that she was so happy that I was helping the kittens that she would see them all 5 for free and would only charge me to do some testing on 1 of them to see if they need medicine!! Yay! Now, if I could just find a solution for the 4 cats outside. They are starving and need to be taken somewhere, but the animal shelter that would take them is a "kill shelter" and if they aren't adopted soon, they will be put to sleep. I'm determined to avoid that if possible. I did get 1 call today about the kittens, but the lady wanted a female Siamese to breed with her male Siamese. Thankfully, I don't have one of those and don't want any extra kittens being produced on purpose!!! I am hoping for more calls this weekend!