So I Was Just Thinking

I have been so busy these past few weeks. So busy that I haven't blogged nor have I read anyone's blogs. Here's how bad it is: 273 Two hundred . seventy . three unread blog posts! To all my blogging buddies, I am not purposely ignoring you. What have I been up to that keeps me from keeping up with my blog friends? Well, let's start with Mondays: 6:30 a.m. drive to work, dodge slowpokes and judge whether is time to swing by Starbucks. (There usually isn't) 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Teach school and plan for the next day. 3:30 p.m. Pick up James from YMCA and head to his dance class. 4:20 p.m. - 5:20 p.m. Sit at the dance studio with no Internet access and practice my Spanish with another dance mom. 5:20 p.m. Hurry off to Flag Football practice. 5:40 p.m. to 7:00 Watch James play football without Internet. Sometimes I choose to walk around the neighborhood. 7:00 p.m. Drive home and make dinner, eat dinner, pack lunches for tomorrow, throw James in the showe...

Since the beginning of the year,  (and even most of the year before that) I have been making a habit of documenting what's been going on in my life. Mostly I have been doing it in some sort of art journal. I began fashioning my thoughts after the Chronicles of Marit  with a mixture of Dion Dior until about a month ago when I put the pen and paintbrush down and somehow forgot to pick them back up. How does that happen? Sure, I have skipped a day or two and come back right away to where I left off, but what makes a person put the book down and never come back? Even now, talking about it, I don't feel the urge to find some paint and catch up. I see the book but there is no draw (no pun intended.) What is keeping me from doing what made me so happy before? Well, I am not sure where the answer lies to that, but I thought maybe sharing the last page in my book, I might want to continue doing it again. I found these pictures in my camera yesterday when I was doing another projec...

I have been very remiss. This blog has been neglected. Since school started, my mind has been focused on lesson plans, laundry, getting Cait to dance lessons, attending crisis intervention training and giving all the important people as much attention as I can. Seeing how there are only 24 hours in a day and I like to spend at least 6 of them sleeping that doesn't really leave me a lot of time to do the things I enjoy sharing on my blog. Today, however, I told myself that I would sleep in, and I did. It was wonderful. Then I had to download some photos for a FEATURING Magazine project. (I have come to find I am actually a mediocre photographer.) That's when I found a treasure trove of family pictures and past projects. However, before I share these gems, I have a magazine announcement. Pre-order issue #2 in the store for a chance to win an inchie on the back of our next issue! We will give away 30 inchies to readers who pre-order issue #2 before September 21. These w...

The other day I went food shopping. When I came home, I had to clean out the fridge to make room for the new food. (Cait and I had been on a cooking hiatus while James was visiting his dad.) Many of you have heard about my recent adventures in single mommydom and have sent your regards and best wishes. I am very thankful for your kind words of support. I came down from Missouri with  what I thought were virtually no resources, just a truck full of belongings that I didn't want to part with because they defined who I was - a person who was formerly successful. They were my trophies I could gaze upon when the going was rough, and I could tell myself, "See, you were able to accumulate all this "wealth" before. You will be able to do it again." It was a very self-centered way of viewing things, but it helped me survive the past two months of joblessness/underemployment. However, as Caitlin completed the real life game of refrigerator "Tetris," I real...

Hehehe...bad grammar for an editor and teacher, but I had to do it! Today marks my 20,000th visitor! Can you believe it? When I started my blog in March of 2008, I had no idea what doors it would open for me. Four and half years and 20,000+ visitors later I have met so many people both virtually and in real life because of this blog. Since starting this writing adventure, this blog has transformed from a rambling of a bored mom and teacher, to the gallery of a curious artist and amateur photographer, to the rantings of an angry unemployed soon to be divorcée, finally to the celebration station of an employed teacher. When I came up with the title, "So I Was Just Thinking," it came from a quirky way that I would call my mom and brother. I would call one of them and just jump full force into the conversation as if we had been talking all along: "So I was at the store the other day...." I am sure many people found it odd, but I found that if I started with the n...

I can finally breathe a sigh of relief. I think I had been holding my breath for so long, I didn't even realize it. However, yesterday, I had two interviews at two different schools. They both went well, and I walked away saying I would be happy working at either school. In order to attend these interviews, I had to take a couple of hours off of my job at a call center. If you have never worked at a call center, consider your self fortunate. If you have...my condolences. Just let it be said that call center work is like working under the constant watch of prison guards...checking to see how long you have been off the phone without marking yourself available, monitoring if you have your cell phone out where people can see it, telling you that you cannot write, draw, do a puzzle or read a personal book when the calls are coming slowly. Instead they want you to be reading something called the KB (a complete database of every issue a caller could be calling about and how to handle it...

I didn't take before photos because  I never thought this place could better, but it has. When I moved in, there were so many boxes. My friends teased me about how many boxes I had labeled "glassware." Come to find out, the movers don't distinguish between glassware, pyrex, LeCruset, ceramics, or china so I had to open each box and decide if it would be unloaded or put in the laundry room. Unfortunately, by the time I had reached certain boxes, my strong arms had left and I couldn't push them into the laundry room because the washer was now in the way. Sooooo, they sat in the middle of my kitchen...until yesterday when the strong arms returned to help. My kitchen is finally wide open and it is very big. We also managed to get the remaining mini blinds hung, and found a way to hook up the ancient tv to the wii, dvd/vcr and cable box all at one time. (My cable guy was no help. Thanks Time Warner Cable.) Having an open kitchen makes me want to use it more so here...

I am a Food Network junkie. Seriously. When I am channel surfing there are certain shows I love to watch, but when they are nowhere to be found, Food Network here I come! One of the most important things I have learned from FN is mise en place or having everything in its place. Mise en place is all about prepping food and having ready so when you are cooking you aren't running around the kitchen looking for everything. "Where's the salt? Have you seen the baking powder?" And so on. Well, today as I was preparing the mise en place for dinner, I was thinking about how my life is slowly becoming like my mise en place . Sausage & Rice mise en place As many of you know, my life before moving back to Texas was chaos. We never knew when dinner was. What WAS for dinner? Where are my keys? Where are your shoes? I could go on, but you get the picture. Since moving back to Texas, things are different. My kids make their beds, get dressed and eat breakfast every m...

...as promised. Or as Paul Harvey would say, "And now, the REST of the story." The rest of the trip home was pretty uneventful except for having to stop every two hours to make Little Man use the restroom. (Mind you he would say "I don't have to go, MOM!" I finally listened to him, only for him to have an accident. Thank goodness for vinyl seats. It was a very long drive, but I am used to driving it in one shot. However, I never drive a 20 foot truck and trailer so I misjudged how exhausting it was going to be. (I am very thankful to gummy bears, skittles, and coke.) We, of course, hit Dallas at rush hour. This is the point where I started calculating how long it will take to make it home if I drive x-miles per hour once we get out of the city. I visualized how far it was from one city to the next since I was finally nearing my stomping grounds. Hmmmm, I think it is about an hour to the outlet mall. from there, I believe it is 30 minutes to Waco. My mo...

Yes, I drove this while pulling the attached trailer with my car from Missouri to Texas. The moment I picked up the 20 foot truck and trailer from the dealer, I was so nervous. The lanes on the Interstate seemed so narrow. I found myself drifting to the right line, so I stayed in the right lane the entire way to the apartment which made for a fun time because there are exits all along the way. The engine also didn't have a lot of pick up for such a big load so I am sure there were a lot of fingers flying my way. Hopefully, they felt badly when they saw me white knuckling it down the highway. When I got home, I just pulled into the driveway, praying that I could pull the truck off of the trailer to go pick up my paycheck to pay for the trip back to Texas. Unfortunately, the man at the dealer put the straps on wrong and I couldn't release the straps. I called a friend and sent photos of everything and went online and tried to find away to release them. Just when I was a...

What the heck, Playlist? Your player has been my background music for going on 3 years and now you go and do this??!! My favorite player is no longer available on my blog. The link however is there if you are ever curious what makes me smile, or laugh, or cry. I am not sure what to do now. This is the second player that has disappeared on me.

...That's what I love about my creative girl. She is smart and funny and pretty. But most of all, she's unique. When I was in high school, we would have special dress up days where you wore kooky clothes or dressed to a theme. I was so unsure of myself back then that, often, I would take the kooky outfit in my bag and change at school when I saw that everyone else was doing it, too. But Caitlin?? Not this girl. She goes all out. I wish I had the sense to photograph them all but you will have to settle for two. Back in October, the school had a special day to raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness. If they paid a dollar they could wear a hat and then one of the clubs sold pink accessories, but you could also win a prize if you were dressed in the most pink. Can you believe she didn't win? Her pink shoes were still on the moving van. Then, this week, the band had their annual banquet. Now don't start dreaming of ball gowns and tuxedos. The band director told t...

...to say farewell to Missouri. As of June 1, The kids and I will be back in Texas if everything goes as planned. Do I have a job? No. Unfortunately, things were to to the point that I couldn't stay here anymore. My husband I are separating. My job cut my hours. I wanted to get a job in Texas before I left, but time was running short. Caitlin wants to dance at her old dance school and dance camp starts in the beginning of June. If the kids and I are to find a place to live before then, we have to leave soon. So, June 1st it is. I will keep you all informed of our progress. In the meantime, enjoy my little farewell song.

...and ready to be in your hot little hands. What am I talking about? It's the inaugural issue of FEATURING Magazine . While I was home visiting my mom and friends in Texas, the elves got to work printing the magazine that we have all worked so very hard on for the past (oh I don't know how long.) If you haven't ordered your copy, what are you waiting for? Head on over to the FEATURING website and be in on what's happening. Even though, as assistant editor, I have seen everything that has gone into the magazine, I can't wait to get my own copy.

It was a beautiful day in Missouri today. We decided to see what Kansas City had to offer us on this day of the wearing of the green. Let me tell you, the "Irish" were out in full force today at the city's 40th annual parade. The streets were packed and EVERYONE had on green. They really go full force in this town even though the majority of people in this neighborhood are not Irish. But on St. Patrick's Day everyone is Irish. My patient waiters. We had to park the car pretty far away and take a nice hike through a part of the city that is definitely loaded with "character." We finally were able to scout out a spot where we could lean against a fence since there was no room for chairs by the time we arrived. There were so many interesting people walking by that it made the time up until the parade move quickly. However, being a Texas girl where they do things big even in the smallest of towns, I was a little bored with the most of the parade and left a li...

March is said to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb. Well, if that is so, I would like to see the lamb please, and I don't mean meteorologically. What exactly do I mean? Well, many of you know I have been on the never ending hunt for a job that will suit my current fiscal needs. I am thankful for the job I have currently, but if I am to move on with my life's plans, there will need to be a significant change in personal income. For this reason, I started applying for teaching jobs back in Texas. Twice now, I have been presented with what I have thought were good teaching opportunities. The latest one was such a sure thing, that I almost rented the moving truck and started calling the rental agency that manages my house and told them, take the house off the market. It's a good thing I didn't because said job was given to someone who had lost her position within the same district and had to be given the job due to contractual obligations. The people who planned ...