Sunday

Awww man, you gotta love those Tigers!!! As they like to do, they came from behind last night and won in the last minute of the game so that all of us Tiger fans can go on in to see our Cardiologists in the morning!!! Lawdy be!! But it was a good game and i'm glad we won! They played against Auburn and it's the first time in 10 years that we've won in their territory! We have new quarterbacks, so nobody knows exactly what to think this year, but they did great and played a good game. Walter went to watch the game at a neighbor's house down the street. The guy, Tim, is the "party house" on the street and a crowd can always be found there on the weekends. I am not a huge sports fan and like to watch the game while i'm doing other things, so I stayed home and watched it while finishing New Moon.

And speaking of New Moon, it was a good book, but not nearly as captivating as Twilight. I'm not sure I would have kept reading if I hadn't known there are 2 more books in the series, but it was good and i'm glad I finished it. Stephenie Meyer is an incredible writer and really makes me feel like i'm there in the book and know and love all of the characters. I ordered Eclipse and Breaking Dawn this weekend and hope they will be in soon.

Walter and I are both going to continue with the Atkins diet this week and are finding it easy to stick to. I never really have trouble with it, but it's so much easier not to have to cook something separate for him when I cook all low-carb meals. I made a low carb meat loaf this weekend from a recipe I found online. I've made it before and it really is good. I can share the recipe if anyone is interested. We did decide to just enjoy dinner at the Mexican restaurant, chips and all, and then just pick back up with the diet today. My problem with that is that I usually don't pick it back up the next day!!! But we have and are both looking forward to losing some more weight this week. I still want to think about working out, but it's going to be a busy week for me after work. I have my social work supervision tomorrow until 6 and then I signed up for 2 trainings after work this week that will both last until 6.

My mom & step-dad are coming this afternoon to take Walter & I to lunch for his birthday, which is Thursday. We are going to go to Hilltop, (Walter's choice and my favorite restaurant in the world), and they have an awesome hamburger salad that is perfect for our diet. Cameron is invited, but his attitude was so ugly last night that I have informed him that he will either have to show me that it has improved or stay here. I wont be embarrassed by his rudeness. He chose to stay here, but he did tell me why he was being so ugly, which is due to our argument about the homework last week. I guess he's been stewing over it for a few days, which is fine, but he isn't going to treat me disrespectfully. He also didn't send an email "thank you" for 2 birthday gifts he received on Tuesday, so I let him know this morning that he has until noon to send them or I'm sending the gifts back. Both gifts were money/gift certificates, so it is not something he wants to lose, so I hope he does the right thing. I'm sure he's angrier with me now, but he will use his manners or lose the gifts. I talked to Walter about freezing Cameron when he was 10 years old and soooooooooo sweet. Now I wish we'd done it!!!!

I've been trying to call Elizabeth but haven't heard from her. I hope everything is ok since Ike rolled through. The house they just bought is near where 2 rivers meet and after Gustav, there was water almost in the house. I can't imagine that they could stand the extra water that came with Ike. I did invite them here and they didn't come, so I'm sure they are fine. I want Landen to come spend the night next weekend and maybe Mack too. I hate to not invite him, but he is such a hand full. Maybe if Elizabeth would come pick him up the next morning and Landen could stay longer if he wanted too.

Oh, and I almost forgot! Thank goodness, nobody showed up for the party yesterday, so I guess everyone got the "evite" email update and will come next month if they can make it! At my graduation party last year, a friend of mine showed up a week early by mistake and so that really had me worrying about yesterday!!! Whew!! And someone asked about the daiquiri machine - we rented one for my graduation party and it was about $150, which included the drink mix. We had the best time with it! We put it in the backyard where the party was going on and it stayed cold the entire time!!

Have a great Sunday!

Saturday

Good news on the diet so far! Since Monday, I have lost 5 lbs. and Walter has lost 4! It hasn't been very hard to stick to the diet and we are going to keep going! We will likely not be able to stick to the diet tonight because we are taking Cameron & Bryce to a Mexican restaurant for Cameron's birthday and there really isn't anything low carb on the menu. You may think that a taco salad without the shell would be ok, but seasoned beef is full of carbs, I've discovered! So, we are just going to enjoy a nice dinner and then go back to our diet once we get home.

Work was busy yesterday, but went by fast and I'm glad to be home for the weekend!!! My co-worker, Joan, & I held the first Why Try group with some of my 6th graders, and it went ok, but the kids were really silly when we first put them together and were only somewhat cooperative, but as they get used to the group, it should be better. We had the kids introduce themselves and tell a little about themselves, then explained briefly what Why Try was about. The teacher was supposed to have the kids come straight to our room at the scheduled time, but that didn't happen, so we lost 15 of our 30 minutes just waiting to have someone find the kids. Overall, it was ok and i'm looking forward to next week. Joan had to lead the 7th grade group at another of my schools by herself due to the meeting I found out about at the last minute, and that group did not go very well at all. We really do need to have 2 of us, at least at first, to keep the peace and settle the kids down. Unfortunately, I can't make it to that group next week either! I offered that Joan could just skip next week, but she wants to go ahead and have the group again. Many of the kids think automatically that they are in trouble or that the group is for the "bad kids" and it really isn't. It is for kids who need motivation, help making good choices, and dealing with peer pressure, but I know it causes some anxiety for the kids at first.

Thanks for all of the kind comments about JP's poem, and yes, I do plan to frame it! He said in his letter that he hoped I would frame it or put it on the refrigerator. He called last night to get some addresses of people who wrote to him, including my friend, Lesley! You can never imagine how much it means to hear from people when you're in a place like that. What's crazy though is that they can't have the envelope, so he doesn't always have a return address. What do they think you can do with an envelope? Anywho, he is doing good and was very happy to have gotten some mail. I found out yesterday that his Maw Maw (his dad's mother) completed her chemotherapy for lung cancer and the cancer is gone! She still has to have radiation to "sterilize" the area, but the cancer is gone. She & her husband both have other health problems, but at least that is not a problem anymore. They live about 15 minutes from me and I try to check in on them when I have a chance. They are good people and helped me so much with JP when he was little.

Walter's 50th birthday party was scheduled for today and I'm so nervous that people didn't get the email about us rescheduling it and will show up today!!! I made sure I cleaned the house good just in case!! Things like that just happen to me, so I know better than to think nobody will show up! Walter wants to rent a daiquiri machine for the party like we did at my graduation party and i'm excited about that! It was such a great idea and everyone loved it!

Sunday

Walter & I went to eat at Albasha's last night, which is a Lebanese restaurant about 20 miles from our house and it is soooo good! I could eat there every day!! We've been doing good with eating at home more (partly because no restaurants had electricity for awhile - but still), so we decided to treat ourselves last night. Tomorrow we are starting back on the Atkins diet. I have been on the diet off & on recently, but Walter hasn't tried it in years. He agreed to try it with me now AND we are going to exercise at that gym that we're paying for absolutetly no reason because we haven't been there in months!!! I went to Walmart today and got Atkins friendly foods and there aren't a whole lot, but I've learned to be creative. The only unhealthy item I picked up to make snacking easier for Walter is pork rinds, but otherwise everything we'll be eating will be a healthy mix of grilled foods and salads. I want to lose 15 lbs. and hope to do that as well as keep it off afterwards.

We made the decision today to postpone Walter's 50th birthday party until October 18th. The party was scheduled for next weekend, and our backyard will smell horrible because of all the dead fish in the river for a week or two and that just isn't going to cut it. Once I re-sent the invitation to everyone, my mom emailed me to say that the invitations are going out this week for my step-niece's wedding (to a guy she has been dating 6 months) and the wedding is that same day, so they wont be able to make it. I am fine with my parents not coming because they are recovering alcoholics and there will be a drinking at the party, plus if i'm invited to my step-niece's wedding, now I don't have to go! I barely know her and the drama is out of control in my step-dad's family, so this worked out pretty good, if I do say so myself. My parents want to take us to dinner sometime next week for Walter's birthday, so that will work out just peachy.

Several people asked me to talk more about the Twilight book. I don't want to say too much because I don't want to spoil anything for future readers, but I will give a small review for those who might want to read it. When I bought the book, I had absolutely no idea what it was about, seriously. I saw the pictures of all 4 books on every blog I went to it seemed. I have been bored with the books i've tried to read lately, so I figured I would buy the 1st book and just see what I thought. And also let me say, I would not have bought it if I thought it was about a vampire. Sorry. I would not have. As a social worker/school counselor, i've worked with a rather "odd" teenage girl who is all wrapped up in vampires and books about vampires and from what i've seen they are always dirty, a bit raunchy, unbelieveable, and the readers end up dressing in black and looking a little freakish. I have tried to work with her to keep her from being seen as "odd" for being so into vampires. I actually read the first chapters of Twilight wondering what in the world was going on with Edward, one of the main characters and was totally fascinated with him. Once I got to the part and realized what was going on, it was too late! I was hooked! I fell in love with him AND with the other main character, Bella. The author is such a good writer and the story line is so great that it really doesn't matter! I am the type of person who will watch a movie and just have to stop watching because "this couldn't really happen," or "this is so fake," but this book never made me feel like that. At some point, you realize you are totally wrapped up in the character's lives and that doesn't happen to me very often. And yes, I started the 500 page book Friday morning & finished it Saturday night, so vampires or no vampires, this is such a well thought out, well written, book that you should read it too!!! I think it opened my mind a little bit because if I was so caught up in this book already by the 2nd chapter, then I could keep reading once I saw the word "vampire" and give it a chance. Now, am I going to read the dirty, raunchy vampire books like the teenage girl at school? Oh hellllll no! But this book was so not like that! Nothing dirty, but everything beautiful! And a lot of thought provoking things about the choices that all of the characters have to make. Wow! If everyone could be open to new things and want to understand people just because they love them, what a world this might be!! Just read it!!! I still haven't had anyone ask for my copy, so if anyone wants it, i'll gladly ship it to you for free! I would hope that you would pass it on when you're done, but that's up to you!

And remember how hard we worked to scrub and hose down our dock after the river went down from Hurricane Gustav? Well, Hurricane Ike wants us to do it all again!! The good thing is that the pool isn't looking so green anymore!


Still no word about my son, but I think in this case, no news is good news. While FOX news had a reporter standing in downtown Houston reporting yesterday, I emailed them to ask if they could mention the status of the jails, but never heard anything. I am certain that if there were problems at the jails, we would be hearing about it on the news. Thanks for your prayers for my son! I really appreciate it!!

Monday

I had my bi-weekly supervision session with my social work supervisor today and I really LOVE meeting with her! I have to have 4 hours of supervision per month that I work (hence - no supervision over the summer) for 2 out of 3 years to become a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW). I don't intend to leave my job once i'm licensed, but I would like to have a small private practice to work with kids in the afternoons a few days a week, but anyway, that's WAY off from now, but I do have to meet with a supervisor. One of my co-workers is planning to get certified to supervise Courtney & I, but for now, we are both using a former professor for supervision. But I do LOVE meeting with my supervisor and consider her to be my own personal therapist sometimes!!! Today I caught my supervisor up on all the changes and what I will be doing this year. She is going to do group supervision with Courtney & I, as well as my friend, Christine! Yay!

I am so proud of myself sometimes for using my brain! Cameron's school sends home an entire set of books for the students to keep at home for the year so they don't have to bring them back & forth every day. And that's great. And super convenient. Unless, your child lives in 2 houses! Cameron is with me 1 week and his dad 1 week, so that is a LOT of moving books back & forth. I figured out last year to go to Half.com and buy the books he has so that we can have a set at each house, then sell them back the next year! Yesterday, I paid $128 for textbooks for this year, and sold 2 books (YES, the SAME day I put them on there) for $95, plus there is one more that hasn't sold yet. Work it out, girl!

The cat is out of the bag, and for once, it isn't a cat in my house!!! I have been planning a surprise party for Walter's 50th birthday in September and trying to "feel him out" to see if he wanted a party or not, cause i'd really rather him be involved if he really did want a party, and yesterday while we were having lunch at the Grand Wall (yummmmy), he said that he would like to have a party. So I said, ok, well, it's on September 20th!!! I've been working on this for awhile, and my next door neighbor, Leon, was going to have everyone at HIS house to fool Walter, including Leon's brother-in-law who is cooking a huge pasta Jambalaya over there for the party. And all that's still on, just now, Walter can invite who he wants and plan what he'd like to have, which is great with me. He says I couldn't have pulled this off, but yeah, I could have!!

I got ANOTHER Land's End gift certificate today for my birthday (on Wednesday) from my mom! I guess that means the crock pot will have to go on my Christmas list, but i'm really excited about the Land's End stuff and ordered 4 really cute shirts today!! Yay!! I had just gotten an email for free shipping, so I hit the jackpot!! Woohoo!!!

Cathy & Brent came over last night to see the car and I took Cathy on a ride (top DOWN of course) to Popeyes to pick up dinner for all of us & Cameron. We watched a little of the Olympics (Walter's latest obsession) and had a fun visit. We are going to dinner Wednesday night for my birthday instead of Thursday (steak night), so i'm looking forward to that.

And hey...leave me a comment so I know that you're here!!! I'd love to come read your blog too!!!

Questions & Comments:

Kim asked if my car is a standard like my old one - no. It's an automatic transmission. And i'm betting Kayli's insurance is higher because of her age.