75 Days to Go!!!

This post is for anyone counting down the days to the end of school. OK, this post is for me. There are approximately (at least in my district) 75 days of school left. Can you believe it? Spring is sure to be in the air soon, gardening is right around the corner, and no more kids to worry about. Just the thought of this is enough to lift the world off my shoulders. I love my job, honestly. What I can't stand is the nonsense that goes along with it, some of the adults, and all the gossiping and the fact that others never do their job and still get rewarded. I HATE the standing outside in the bitter cold and the deep heat. I do LOVE the innocence of the children, the belief in Santa and the Tooth Fairy, and watching them go from lumps that can't function on their own into real elementary school kids. Seeing them recognize letters and start to read will always be exciting to me. Just knowing that giving them a hug is enough to cure all the troubles in the world renews my faith in the human race every single day. I want everyone to know that the book, Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, is completely true. Its just a shame that almost right after kindergarten you forget that pureness and openness and learn hatred, nastiness, and what I like to call--loud mouthiness. I think this is the cruelness of the world.
I know this post was not about bulldogs but for some reason I felt the need to vent. Oh well, Happy thoughts to all and remember its all down hill from here.

Just a short check in

So the first week back at work is almost at a close. I must say its been better than I thought. The kids made a good transition between teachers and we are all adjusting quite well. Bruiser is busy planning for St. Patrick's Day and thinking about his costume to commemorate the day. Today, through my husband and my daughter, I've unearthed two other people near me who own bulldogs. One is a male and the other is a female. I still don't know if she has been fixed. I would love for Bruiser to settle down with a lovely little female and raise some pups. This is something I've wanted to do for quite sometime. He has brought such complete joy to me that I can't wait to experience that over and over. I know bulldog raising is not an easy thing (You have to help nature along) but I feel like I'm up for the challenge.
Well, we'll see!

Week off, snowstorm, gardening, and I don't know

I took the week off from blogging as it was winter break. Don't ask me why I bothered not to blog as I did absolutely nothing of importance during the week. The weather was dull and that only led to the horrible snow storm that we were hit with here on Friday. I guess I satisfied my creativity by doing a little poetry writing and cooking. I LOVE to cook. I see it as an extension of my creative abilities and I love to try new recipes. My husband was away for the weekend and I took the opportunity to make some homemade pizzas and calzone. I can only do this while he is away as he believes that pizza is not truly a dinner. He would also drive the most saintly tea totaler into the deep despair of alcoholism over how a pizza should cook, taste, be prepared, served, etc. It has become for me a forbidden food and I crave it always. If I were to be given a death sentence and had to choose a last meal, it would be cheese pizza with coke, cheesecake and fudge nut brownie ice cream for dessert. If this were to be a date, throw in a movie (any kind) and I'm good to go. I'm such a cheap date, I swear!
Today I had the extreme pleasure of purchasing gladiola bulbs at our local Christmas Tree shop. You just don't know what this does for me. There is about a foot of frozen snow on the ground but all I can think of is how much later the sun stays up and soon I can plant. I imagine my flowers and plants and just can't wait to see them again. I've already placed an order for more green things from one of the gardening catalogs. I love the feel of the sun on my back while I'm planting and working the soil. Then the real payback is when everything blooms again and the butterflies put on their show. Last summer I was lucky enough to actually have a hummingbird in attendance for a little bit. Oh I can't wait.......
And then there is back to school tomorrow. At least I can look forward to the 100th day. Its all downhill now! Yeah right, just humor me.

Now even I know I've lost it.

So I'm off from work for a week and thought I would sit down and look up some plants that I would like to add to my garden this year. As soon as those catalogs start coming in, I get itchy to run outside and start to dig some dirt. Honest to God, I don't know how it happened but I somehow fell into a link on topiaries and bulldogs. Oh My God!!!! I am now obsessed with this thought. Anyone that knows me, knows this will consume me. Just imagine, for me, I LOVE my bulldog, and I LOVE my gardening. Now my two favorite passions can marry and take root in my home! I can't stand it. When the moss dies, I can string white lights and leave it as a lighted sculpture in front of the house. I can dress it in a witch hat for Halloween or a wooly hat and scarf for Christmas, Easter bunny ears, a flag shirt----my head is going to explode. Yes, as you can guess it is pricey and I DO have lots of other things I can spend my money on, so I won't really be purchasing it. I did send the link to my oldest son though in case he can't come up with a gift for me for any occassion. You know I'm going to be thinking of it. For anyone interested, here is the link: http://www.dogstuff.com/bulldog-b-38.html?sort=2a&max_display=186
Dear Lord give me strength.

Winter Break is here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Winter break is finally here! I can't scream this enough. I only hope that I actually get to do something exciting while I'm on this break. For me, other than going out somewhere, this break is exciting because when I return to work, we will be very close to the 100th day of school. That means it is all down hill from there. Hopefully the weather will warm up, the delivery of gardening catalogs will increase, spring will be in the air, and I can look towards June. I LOVE June. June is my birthday. June symbolizes the end of the school year and the start of pool and outdoor time. I don't even mind going to work during June. I pray to God I'll have another bulldog in June, too.

Still, I'll do my best to focus on this week and have a good time. I'd like to rest up, catch up on cleaning and sleep and just relax. I know just the warm body I want to cuddle up to--a handsome young man, with red hair streaked with brindle black, with a melody to his snore that would soothe the fussiest baby. I'm sure you know of whom I write!

Oh the excitement......

My world traveling daughter received the sweetest Valentine's Day gift from her friend in Italy. He sent her a beautiful Tiffany ring with three diamonds, long stem roses, an adorable teddy bear, and a solid heart of chocolate! The thought of it all just makes me want to swoon. I tend to get "intoxicated" by the way he thinks of her and treats her. She stays level-headed and tells me and him she won't commit to anything. This guy truly had me at hello.

I received a nice bouguet of flowers from my husband, and a beautiful arrangement of roses and lillies from my first born son with a nice box of candy. Very, very thoughtful. He has the charm that my oldest brother was born with and believe me, that can be scary! The gifts from the kids in my class were absolutely adorable and totally unexpected. Their hand-written cards are the best. They are a hoot and a half.

Dissappointingly, Mr. Bruiser did not give me anything out of the ordinary for Valentine's Day. He does give me his undying love, warmth, and true companionship. For that, I will be eternally grateful. His picture at work was a huge hit. I wrote out Valentine's with candy and the cards, of course, had bulldogs on them. They firmly believe that Bruiser picked out the cards and candy himself. Oh how I love kindergarteners. They keep you forever young.

Anyone reading this, please enjoy the rest of the day and remember this, love is love no matter where it comes from, may your life be filled with it, even if those kisses are wet sloppy ones accompanied by drool!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day everybody. As promised to those that know me I could not let this day go by without posting Bruiser's official Valentine's Day picture. So without further delay, here it is. Enjoy the day.

Pink Eye or Not

My right eye has been bothering me for some time now. Ususally I'm fine at home but the second I entered my workplace it itches, I stick my finger in to scratch it, and the reddness immediately appears. Lately though I've been getting up out of bed and seems like only one side of my face actually wakes up. I can accept getting older and not looking like I once did. What I can't accept is having only one half of my face age! My right eye has a swollen ball underneath it and it makes my eye look like its sinking into the abyss known as my face. It sucks big time. Well today I woke up looking like I've looked for the last few days but I forged on through to work. Huge mistake on my part. Now I felt like I had to show up at work because I had to take an emergency day off yesterday due to a sewer back up (just fun, fun, fun!) and I couldn't go in as I had to move "crap" from one side of the basement to the other. As the day wore on at work today, my eye got redder and redder and it also had a lovely accompanying pain. After work I went in to see my doctor and he asked me a whole series of questions. I got there feeling angry as every person (adult) that I saw felt the expressed need to tell me my eye was red. This to them was a revealation. To me, after the first 100 times you hear this, it made me want to kick people in their eyes or much much lower. My doctor then completely examined my eyes. Yes I got them both examined! Guess what? No conjunctivitis, no pink eye. Just as I knew. He did prescribe some steroidal drops and said my eye was inflamed. I think the eye is enraged, not inflamed but I guess I'm splitting hairs. I have to put these drops in my eye every four hours and rest my eye. I have an eye patch I can wear to work so as not to contaminate my eye. I can hardly wait to get there. Oh the questions. I think I'll be telling people that I'm running off with a bunch of pirates and I'm trying to get in the mood. Or maybe I'll tell them that I'm trying out a new disguise and to see me in a week for the big reveal. I just can't stand the fact that people feel the need to comment on every component of my life. Trust me, I don't peruse their appearances with the same fine tooth comb that they put me under. Jesus it can give a girl a complex! Just for my own sake let me repeat: I DO NOT HAVE PINK EYE! I am suffering from exhaustion and a complete distaste for the stupidity of people.
On another note, while I was home yesterday I looked up the Westminster Dog Show and found that you can upload your own dog's photo to their million dog mosaic. For uploading your photo and agreeing to have your dog be part of this, Pedigree will donate one dollar to shelter dogs for each uploaded photo. Its a good cause and one you may want to check out. I believe that most dogs do not care if your eyes are pink. Pink eyes are completely acceptable in the bulldog world (actually expected) and among bunnies they can be deemed attractive. This leads me to my next thought. Anyone reading, listening to me--if you know my family at all and anyone should ask what I want as a gift for any occassion--the answer is a female bulldog. I would rather breed than work outside my home any day of the week even if I have to get up at all hours and dropper feed the pups myself. That's it. I'm done. Ahhhh, all better now.

I'm Back!!!!!!!!!!

Well I haven't posted in a few days as I have had a few things that I had to take care of and had no time. My job has taken up a lot of my time in a weird sort of way. The woman I work with is expecting her first child and will be leaving soon. A co-worker and I threw her a surprise baby shower with the kids this last Friday and I had a little creative lying that I had to do. I figure since it was for a good cause I will be forgiven. The kids were absolutely adorable when they saw the gifts in the basket. So sweet and so innocent. Just adorable!
The other thing that took my concentration was my coffee table and end table dilema. I had firmly decided after the holidays that I HAD to replace my end and coffee tables. They were these faux stone bases with glass tops. Since I became a great-aunt and new puppy owner I came to realize just how deadly these tables were. So in the interest of family unity I seriously needed to get rid of these things. Now if you know me at all, you know of my love for stone, granite, marble, you name it. I give true and accurate meaning to the term, "etched in stone." Also, if you know me at all you know I'm a huge internet investigator and shopper. So----of course, I purchased my new tables online. Of course, this being me, and if not for bad luck I would have no luck at all, there was a problem. The company clearly stated that upon delivery, I would have to open the boxes, inspect the furniture, and then sign for the furniture. Makes sense, right? Well, the stuff arrived in two seperate shipments and both were left at my door with no inspection and no one home to sign for anything. Not a problem until I opened the coffee table top to find it chipped. I immediately called the company and while they were gracious, they moved rather slowly. They also frightened the crap out of me as they offered me, at first, money off to keep the damaged top. I went email crazy and basically ripped my "friend" Kevin at the furniture place a new one. Lickety split a new table top was shipped out and they told me to keep the old one also. I think the new additions look lovely and I have my stone top tables. My reputation as the goddess of stone remains intact. My mother used to tease me that my house was like the Flintstones because of my love of rock. I say long live Mr. Slate. All hail Wilma Flintstone!

Super Bowl, Super Sunday, Super Shopping

So its half-time and the Super Bowl is half over. Yes folks its Super Sunday for all the sports fans, food fans, and beer drinkers everywhere. I say ladies, those not interested in the sport, why not make it a Super Sunday of shopping? I went shopping today and except for sport orientated stores, the shopping was great. I got some great buys on clothes and the dressing rooms were empty. I'm surprised some big chain retailer hasn't used the Super Bowl as the anti-men mantra that it can be and start a sale blitz to drive other women like myself to the stores. I can think of the ads now. Get the guys all together, fill them with crap food, beer and whatever else. Then bother the daylights out of them just before the game. Check books, credit cards, and cash will be offered up in any attempt to get the "womenfolk" quiet. Next scene would be a bunch of women who pile into a van, shop till they drop, and then toast the day with a white zinfandel. Come on ad men, can't you just see it? I can even imagine an ad for Lysol toilet bowl cleaner. Just show a woman cleaning up the bathroom after her husband hjosted the Super Bowl party. Tell me she wouldn't need a real Super Bowl cleaner. Come on people lets move that economy. Ok that's it for the lame comments. I guess I must be of the same mind as the people that booked Tom Petty for the half-time show. Why don't they just run a full half-time of commercials it has to be more entertaining. Please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1