Sick

I had to miss the wedding today with Allen because I'm sick (with strep, of course!) :( I'm really upset that I missed it, but I know I need to get well...I can't miss any more classes and I definitely don't want to pass my sickness on to Allen (or the bride and groom!)

My mom's birthday was on Thursday and we went out to celebrate. We had so much fun! We went to this little, Italian restaurant called Mandola's. It had really yummy pizza. It was really nice to hang out with my parents and laugh with them :) We also went to Amy's Ice Cream afterwards (my parents had never been before...and we've lived in Austin for like 11 years!). I got Sweet Cream ice cream with junior mints mixed in and it was soo good. I had a ton of fun with my-I mean my dad's-camera! ;) Although someone (ahem, me!) forgot to check her ISO before she started taking pictures, so many of them are pretty grainy.

She's 47!

Hope everyone had a good week!

Marine, Aggie, and Secret Service...

The groom of the wedding I did yesterday was in the Marines, an Aggie, and training for the secret service...what more could you ask for? I had a really fun time at the wedding - the weather was gorgeous and it started early enough that the lighting was great all throughout the ceremony. The reception was pretty fun too - all of the groomsmen (and at least half of the wedding guests) were Marines (plus one Air Force guy that looked totally out of place!). So after the cake cutting, they sang the Marines' Hymn and then went straight into the Aggie War Hymn...I think I'm becoming more and more of an Aggie - blame it on Matt! I can't believe I've already finished my third wedding and I've only got three more for this year. Sometimes it's hard to make myself want to leave Greg and Riley at home on a Saturday afternoon, but I always end up having a great time once I get there.

School is going okay...I feel so busy that I'm starting to have to pick and choose what I do well, what I do, and what I don't do as far as assignments go. Basically all reading assignments have fallen into that "what I don't do" category. There are a few things still in the "What I do well" category, but for the most part, I'm doing well if I can just get them done! I am so ready for this semester to be over. 5 more weeks - I think I can make it!

Now for a trip down memory lane because I feel like reminiscing :)


First date with Greg...I had absolutely NO voice...that made for interesting conversation! ;)


White-water rafting with the cousins in Durango in 2005


Dustin and Queen...I just found this picture looking through real old ones and it made me laugh!


Marriage license!!

I hope your week is starting off well. I'm looking forward to Friday...again ;)

Poor Riley!

So Riley is healing nicely from her surgery and acting like nothing at all happened to her...and then she decides to go and scare me to death. So...I took her out to potty after she ate dinner around 5:00. About 30 minutes later she was throwing up everywhere. Greg was sweet and cleaned up the mess while I tried to get Riley to come out from underneath the bed. She hid for a good 10 minutes and finally came out as we were starting dinner. She was very, very restless though and we chalked it up to her tummy hurting her. She kept flopping down by me and scratching her eyes/ears/nose with her paws, going in and out of her blankie and just acting really uncomfortable. I got up to get more water and noticed that her eyes looked really puffy. Upon further inspection, we saw that Riley had hives ALL over her face/neck/back.

We immediately got in the car and rushed to the emergency vet (okay, well, I freaked out some and demanded that Greg go look up the nearest emergency vet while I screamed at him to tell me the number to information...I don't deal with panicky situations too well!) I called the vet on the way. Her breathing was fine when we left and she seemed fine when we got there too, but her eyes were almost swollen shut and I was so scared it was going to cause her airway to swell. They gave her Benadryl and got her hooked up to an IV. They brought her out about 30-45 minutes later looking much better, but still puffy.

Poor thing :( She's feeling a little bit better now, but she's still puffy and swollen. She's still really restless, but I think that's because of the Benadryl. Unfortunately, we also don't know what caused the reaction. She was outside, so it's entirely possible that she got stung (the vet said the time frame and the throwing up all fit that hypothesis too)...a bee also got in our apartment earlier today, so that seems the most likely thing. She also could have gotten bit by a spider while hiding under the bed (but then there is no explanation for the throwing up beforehand). We've also been switching her from puppy food to adult food, so she could be having an allergic reaction to that. I'm so frustrated that we don't know what caused the reaction and I'm so scared that this will happen again tomorrow while we're at work.

If a puppy causes me to freak out and have my hair prematurely turn gray, what the heck is a baby going to do to me?!

Three days!

Why do the weekends always have to go by so fast? I feel like it was just Monday...and now it's Monday all over again. Such is life, I suppose.

Riley made it through her surgery without too much trauma. She was not happy with me at all when the vet tech came to take her from me. She struggled and whined and then looked at me like I was a traitor. Gracie actually got spayed on the same day and the vets were very nice and let the girls stay together before their surgeries. They all kept telling my dad and me how cute they were together snuggling in their blankies. And they all wanted to know if they were related somehow! :) I'm glad that everything went well, but goodness gracious is it hard to keep a rambunctious 7 month old from jumping and running for 10 days. She acts like she didn't just have major surgery (I blame that partly on the pain medicine) and all she wants to do is play. She's gotten pretty good at listening to all the "No!" and "Down!" commands that are coming at her every two seconds ;) I have pictures of her all groggy and cute after the surgery but they're on my camera that is dead right now...so those will have to wait until later!

I had SO much fun at the wedding yesterday. You have no idea how happy I get when you put a camera in my hands and give me permission to stick my lens in peoples faces and flash away. I felt a little more at ease yesterday and not so nervous that I was going to have horrible pictures (even though that was still in the back of my mind). I think I'm even starting to understand how my speed light works (the external flash that you attach to the camera...the one that stands up real high). There is something strange that happens to me during weddings...I feel like I really get to know the wedding party (even though I'm not actually talking with them, just observing them)...and I almost always get near tears when they're leaving...except no where near as bad as I did at my own wedding!! The bride yesterday actually had a similar reaction as I did when Greg and I were leaving - you know, the whole bawling and hugging everyone reaction that is pretty funny to look back at in pictures. It made me feel better to know that I'm not the only girl who was sad to leave her family and her party. I think it's a mix of things...the fact that you're going on little to no sleep, the whole symbolism of leaving your mother and father, and knowing that one of the best days of your life is actually over. That will certainly push you over the edge ;)

Halloween is on Wednesday!! I am so excited! Greg, Riley, and I are going over to my parent's house to have dinner and hang out. My dad has to go to California because of all the fires (he's in insurance...definitely not fun to deal with all that!) so we're gonna have a nice dinner and I get to pass out candy to all the cute trick-or-treaters. Greg and I never actually carved pumpkins this year and I'm kind of sad about that. I had a lot of fun doing it last year (my first time to actually carve the pumpkin by myself!)...maybe next year we'll be less busy, but for some reason, I highly doubt that! To get in the Halloween mood we rented Vacancy on Friday night. I was so scared I almost peed my pants. We had to stop it on Friday (because it was dark and I was scared) and we finished it this morning...I definitely didn't like it. Apparently I was squeezing Greg's hand so hard that I made it numb...so there is my warning - don't watch Vacancy if you get scared easily!

I hope you guys have a safe week! I am praying for you!

Nervous mommy :(

We all know that my dog is my baby. And she always will be, even when I have kids. Tomorrow she is going under the knife...she's going to get spayed :( Poor baby. So keep her in your prayers! I'm a very nervous mommy, so I guess it's good that I only get like 12 hours to freak out about it (we scheduled it at 3:00 this afternoon)...plus, she's going in with Gracie (my parents dog), so hopefully the two of them will be able to be together before the surgery. And thank the Lord, we get to take her home afterwards.

Poor Riley :(

Tired

I'm tired. And I got a lot of sleep yesterday/last night...I'm just tired. I feel like there is always something that needs to be done...so whenever I'm relaxing, that something is in the back of my mind nagging me and not letting me relax at all. I can't watch a movie or tv or have a "lazy day" anymore because I have to read 50 books for children's literature and write a unit for curriculum and write a book for children's lit and do a book/movie comparison for children's lit and write a unit test for curriculum and do a teaching activity for content area...I just freakin' want to be DONE. I don't care what I'm learning anymore because I know none of it is actually going to be applied to a teaching job realistically. Real teachers don't have TIME to spend 2-3 hours on ONE lesson plan, especially when they would be having to teach at least 2 lessons per day, more if they're in lower levels. I know I'm not a "real" teacher yet. I'm 9 hours and a semester of student teaching short of that. But if "real" teachers don't do it, then why the heck do I have to do it? I'm really not getting that.

I think I care too much. That makes me stress and worry. Caring too much is a bad thing. Caring enough to keep up my GPA is stressful. Caring enough to try to write meaningful lessons when I have no students to actually teach them to is tiring. Caring enough to drive an hour to class with awful Texas drivers is aggravating. And caring enough to jump through impossibly high hoops that the department of education has thrown just might kill me.

And don't give me any of that, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" crap. I only believe that when I'm running. Speaking of running, all these things that I "care" about have made it pretty impossible to even dream of running. Because all I seem to be dreaming about lately is if my imaginary students have the schema to understand the fake unit I planned all out. I also have been dreaming a lot about showing up places having forgot something (usually an article of clothing - shoes, etc). I think this comes from the fact that I have 50 book reports due in a little over a month and I've only written 16 of them.

I'm sorry I'm being negative. But if I can't be negative and all "glass half-empty" on my blog, then where can I be? I'm sure it's because I'm tired. I tend to get cranky when I'm tired. And I don't think this 'tiredness' is going to go away until December.

Can I please just take a personal day from life?

Baby It's Cold Outside

So, I'm back with more details about my weekend! Friday night was fun. Uneventful, but fun. Greg and I watched Friday Night Lights (yet another t.v. show that I'm obsessed with. Although it's nowhere near as exciting as Lost or as drama-filled as Grey's Anatomy, it's still so good). And then we talked. And then we went to bed...How exciting, right?

Saturday Riley decided she needed to wake me up nice and early. Like 7:30am. Which is crappy no matter which way you look at it. I skipped running (more on that later...it's a long, long story that I don't even know how it will end), so I attempted to sleep in 'til 8. Then I got up and planned out a long grocery list and meals for our week. I'm so, so excited about yummy, warm dinners in this COLD fall weather! (Seriously...it's cold here! It's overcast, rainy, windy, and 52° outside!) Anyways...Greg and I went to the grocery store and hurried back home so I could speed to downtown Austin and end up at the wedding site 20 minutes early...(this is the point where Greg would make fun of me for hating to be late, but we'll skip that part).

I was nervous for the wedding but strangely excited too! Allen got there at 4 (the time I was supposed to be there) and then set to work familiarizing me with the new camera and then we started shooting. I've never had 8 hours of "work" pass so quickly - I really, really enjoyed the wedding. At first, it was hard for me to be super creative because I was kind of nervous...but I think I started to get better towards the end of the night. Or at least I hope I did ;) Allen gave me a new lens to practice with and hopefully I'll really start improving. I'm very excited.

Now...about that running stuff. I'm pretty sure it's going to be impossible for me to do everything I want to do right now. Or actually, not just what I want, but also what I need to do. See, I have classes, work, a husband, a dog, a house (that really needs to be cleaned), dinners to be made, homework to be done, weddings on Saturdays, church on Sundays, and running 25+ miles a week...and hopefully some relaxation time in there too. So as of right now, marathon training is on hold. It's not physically possible for me to get up at 5 am, run 10-15 miles, and then work a wedding for 8-10 hours. I was exhausted, worn-out, and sore on Saturday - I can't imagine what that would've been like if I'd run 12 miles that morning too. I still want to run a marathon (I think)...but it may not happen this year. It may not happen ever...I'm still trying to figure all that out. I'm NOT giving up running though - you should still expect to hear more stores like "Dear Car-Honker" and lots more complaining...I'm just not going to be marathon-training anymore...or at least not for the next 5 weeks. I'll re-evaluate at that point in time.

I hope you're all having a great FALL day! It's freezing outside, but it feels so good. It makes me want to go get hot chocolate with marshmallows and sit in front of a warm fire. Or get cozy under lots of blankets with some good movies and then sip apple cider and eat soup. Did I mention how much I like fall yet?



P.S: Dustin, I promise I'm reading your blog. I just have been a bad commenter lately. So write on. :)