Phantom CD and Favorite Picture!

I was rummaging through my desk at school today (yes on Saturday!) to search for a blank cd to burn some music for the car while grading papers.

I found what I thought was a blank CD (not marked). It was not blank, it was an important CD that I had been looking for a couple of months ago.

On that CD I found one of my favorite pictures of my niece E1 and I.


What a Happy Surprise!

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Hilarious Holiday Shenanigans on a Snow Day.

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Turkey Time

H had his 4th grade musical last night. There were some hilarious songs and he did a great job! Here is a little clip. Not the best quality, but it is what we have. Turn your sound up loud!

Hurrah...Employment and Puppy Shenanigans

Scott was offered a job today. For those who didn't know Scott lost his job after 9 and 1/2 years a week before our anniversary. Thankfully, we have not hit the month marker yet for being unemployed. His new job will be a pretty dramatic pay cut, but it is employment in tough economic times. Thanks for all the thoughts, prayers, well wishes and hoping that all our friends and family have been doing.

Lena started puppy classes this week and is the star of class. She knows just about all the things that they were going to work on Monday night, so we did work on NOT jumping on people. It is REALLY a work in progress, but we are not giving up.

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Top Five Reasons I Hate Facebook (aka: reasons I will not make a facebook account)

People give me a hard time about not being on facebook. I have thought about this long and hard. To be frank, I am OVERJOYED that I don't have to deal with the facebook drama. The following are just a few reasons why you won't find me there.

1. All the stupid games...get off your arse, quit playing make believe farmer or cafe owner and do something with your life. Perhaps you could learn to garden, or cook FOR REALS.

2. I don't want to reconnect with all the friends or family I left behind. I left them behind for a reason! If my bf from high school or my mother's uncle's monkey wants to talk to me then they can call me or send me a letter. I don't really want to look at all their stupid mafia accomplishments or the baloney that their kids/grandkids are doing on a daily basis.

3. People are complete asses when they can hide behind their facebook updates instead of REALLY communicating with people.

4. No one cares about your pathetic life enough to want to know that you are going to launder your undies, or wax your eyebrows, or watching movies on a Friday night or whatever lame update you are posting for the whole universe to read about.

5. Just because everyone and MY MOTHER has a page doesn't mean I have to.

I am confused why people give me a hard time for not being a follower. I frankly feel refreshed to NOT be one of the 300 million active users. Think about that!

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My Students

My students participated in an awareness event for the International Day of Climate Action. The IDCA was on Saturday 10/24, but my students staged this event at school on Friday to educate their fellow students. It was amazing and wildly successful. They collected trash on Thursday night from the school and fashioned it into the number 350, which is the ppm of CO2 that we should be trying to have in our atmosphere. We as a world have a lot of work to do to get to that goal as we currently have about 387ppm. Thought I would share a little of my kids hard work with the world.

Climate Changes

Ran across a cool website today and entered my own message of what gives me hope.

http://www.hopenhagen.org/

International Day of Climate Action is coming up on 10.24.2009. My students are going to be having an awareness day at school. We are planning to collect all of the garbage from the school and create a gigantic pile in the Warrior Walkway. Talk about impact. I will post pictures when I have them.

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HILARIOUS LINK

My dad sent me this hilarious twitter link.
http://twitter.com/shitmydadsays
I don't do all that facebook, twitting business but THIS is good stuff.

I am laughing so hard over here that I am crying.

I think that I should blog all the weird crap my dad says. That would make for some hilarious subject matter most days.

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My hilarious brother

My brother sends me things like this from time to time. I laughed out loud. That is just good clean fun!

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Rainy Days and Thursdays always get me...

I was going to say down, but truthfully I am not down. It is rainy, really rainy today. I love rainy fall days.

I was thinking today about all of the projects I would like to get done at home. Sometimes I wish the work week was 4 days and the weekend 3. Hear me out. I know I would not get much done at school (work) and I know that would mess with the rhythm of the world, but to be honest I wish I had one more weekend day consistently to get some things done.

I had a group of kids the last 2 mods that are flat out AWESOME. Some of them were not done with their assignment for today. I told them that they need to write and get their narrative done since it is due tomorrow, and if they were finished they are working on a peer editing activity. They are all quietly and diligently working. Watching little brains grow bigger really fulfills me. I wish sometimes that they got excited about the little things and thought that being smart was "cool". I think some kids really get it, but others get so wrapped up in the hype of trying to be just like everyone else and cool that they forget that their differences are what make them "cool".

Take me for example. I absolutely LOVE it when kids tell me I am weird. I AM WEIRD!!! I want to shout it from the highest mountain top, because weird is so much more desirable than mediocre, robotic, and assimilationist clones.

I seem to get a writing bug in the fall. I am feeling it lately, but I have so many papers to grade I am pushing it back. I think I will continue work on a short story I started about 4 years ago.

More to come as I get more motivated to write...

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What happens when Dad is home...

Looks like Lena gets a little spoiled when she and Dad are home alone during the day now that school has started. This is about the best 12 week picture we have...

She is such a good dog. Today I took her on a 1.2 mile walk, and she stops traffic. We were walking north and a woman was driving south on the street. The woman slowed, rolled down her window and hollered out..."AWWWWWW WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DOG!!!" This happens almost every time we go out with her. I think that I might have to look into getting a really good picture or two of her and enter her into a contest.

My camera is doodoo and I wish I could afford the camera of my dreams right now. I would really like to get some good pictures of her.

I am still stuck on her name, but narrowed it down. I need to send off her paperwork one of these days.

The options are:
1. Sagecreek Lena Sings the Blues
2. Sagecreek Lena Stormy Weather
3. Sagecreek Stormy Weather Lena
4. Sagecreek Lena's Sweet Song

Any other ideas?

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Great Birthday

Wow, I was going to say that today was my birthday but this whole day has gotten away from me without a blog entry. I got some LOVELY, but unnecessary gifts. I guess people really do read my crazy ramblings. My lil' sis sent me some gorgeous flowers, my friend Steph gave me a gift card to buy some clothes (once I lose a little more weight), Emily set me up with a ton of amazing utensils for my kitchen (much needed and so appreciated it was a really thoughtful and generous gift), I got some great cards and some green from my Aunt and MaRo. Oma told me to stroll by my bookcase and gaze at it (since it was an early present) that cracked me up. Lena was all of our gifts to each other this birthday season, but she felt the need to leave me...not one...but two presents of her own on the floor while I was making dinner tonight. How generous of her. C'est la vie. :o)

I wore one of my favorite dresses that Ro made me to work today and spruced myself up. It was nice. I didn't even really mind being there too much. I work with some funny and amazing people so it was nice to be around people you care about on your birthday.

After work I did a little browsing at the store with H.D. to determine how much he had grown over the summer. HOLY COW...he is tall and skinny. He brags that he will soon be taller than me (like that is hard). After shopping, we had a little dinner just the two of us since Scott works nights. We walked the dogs, I worked out to Tony Horton's Power 90 Express video (and sweat my buns off yes, I worked out! and on my b-day even) and had ONE glass of 7 Deadly Zins with Aunt Bee on my back porch. Seems like the perfect way to begin my 34th year.

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Weekend Craziness

So on my last weekend of freedom before the school year starts we did a ton of stuff.

Saturday H.D. had soccer practice at 8:30 am. We got up, made a delicious energy shake from the South Beach cookbook which had plain yogurt, silken tofu (dark chocolate), vanilla soy milk, and pistachios in it. It was soooooo good. My prediction was REVOLTING, boy was I wrong. Even H.D. liked it.

After soccer Emily and I went to the farmers market where I bought Zephyr squash, eggplant we will refer to as Eggie from here on out, and sweet red peppers. It was crazy busy down there, but was such a good time. I love getting to hang out with her whenever we can...so nice having your oldest and closest with you more than once or twice a year.

We went out to Jane and Tom's (Emily's folks) and I raided Jane's little garden and brought home a couple of green peppers, some tomatoes, another squash and some fresh basil. Jane's Market was good to me.

We ran a couple more errands and then back to the house where Emily worked on the internet, and I made mustard crusted steak for our dinner. We watched most of Mamma Mia and ate a yum meal, and H.D. and I walked Lena after Emily left.

Sunday was cooking day. Eggie watched me cook; and I cooked ALL DAY! The following is a list of dishes that I prepared and froze in ziplocs against my recycling and hippie nature (unless I can figure another way of doing it next time). I think I am going to wash and reuse the ziplocs to make myself feel better.

1. Breakfast Egg Casserole (12 servings) with canadian bacon, sweet peppers, tomatoes, sweet onion and mushrooms on half.
2. Spicy Broccoli (7 servings) Broccoli sauteed with olive oil, anchovy paste, and crushed red pepper. Sounds nasty--tastes DeLICIOUS.
3. Fresh Green Beans (6 servings) steamed.
4. Oven Roasted Veggies (6 servings) yellow squash, zephyr squash, sweet peppers, sweet onions, red onions, asparagus, garlic, and a little olive oil.
5. Kabobs (6 servings) beef, sweet peppers, sweet onions, red onions, tomato, and mushrooms (on some).
6. Pesto Chicken (3 servings)
7. Pork Chop Scallopine (2 servings and 1 plain PC for H.D.)
8. Ginger Chicken and Snow Peas (3 servings)
9. Mustard Crusted Steak (3 servings)
10. Grilled (9) Sirloin Burgers

That was my day. Scott made a Turkey Caesar Salad for our dinner, and lunch was burgers (sans bun for us).

After the cooking extravaganza, we took Lena on her nightly walk and since Scott was home Bij got to go too. She is getting so old and bad. We found another NEW tumor on her back behind her incision from the removal of the camel hump. It has just appeared within the last week and looks to be growing pretty fast. We made the decision as a family that we will not put her through any more surgeries as she has (4 that we can see) tumors and her back end is failing. It really took her a long time to get cooled down after the walk. Poor Old Girl.

Scott and I watched True Blood and I tried to get back on to a normal schedule and went to bed at 11:00. School starts tomorrow. :o)

Is this really a DIET?

I made a version of a pork chop scallopine that Scott found in the South Beach cookbook. It was delicious. This was our dinner one night. Pork chop scallopine, canelini bean salad, spicy broccoli with pepitas, and a salad. I was surprised at how amazing it tasted. Then we finished off with a Ricotta Creme, definitely not a cheesecake, but it was a decent alternative.

9 Weeks and Help Naming Lena

Lena was 9 weeks old yesterday. She knows SIT, and we are working on DOWN. Down is about 70/30, and she actually whined at the door once last night to go out! Hurray!

Asleep in the kitchen by the food!

Lena's ASCA (Australian Shepherd Club of America) papers came today from Pam.

We need to settle on her name.

Here are the options:

1. Sagecreek Lena Sings the Blues
2. Sagecreek Lena Sings the Reds (this is a play on the fact that she is a red merle)
3. Sagecreek Lena's Sweet Song
4. Sagecreek Lena You're My Thrill
5. Sagecreek Lena Stormy Weather (Her mom's name is Storm--but doesn't roll off the tongue. As much as I would like it to...since Lena Horne is known for Stormy Weather.

or Suggestions...?? We are limited on characters, Sagecreek must go at the beginning, so then there are 21 spaces remaining for letters, punctuation or spaces.

Let me know what you think!

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The Quest to Become Svelte

Scott recently informed me that he was going to try the Power 90 program to lose some weight. I had NO idea what this is. It is scheduled to be delivered Monday or Tuesday, but apparently it is some ass kicking workout dvds and a food plan. HE is finally determined to lose weight. I am usually the one that proposes stuff like this.

I jumped on the band wagon and in anticipation of his program coming we made a 2 week meal plan based on the South Beach Diet which we have had some success with in the past. I forgot how much work dieting is sometimes. I just have to stop being a lazy cook.

I wanted to share that I think that commercialism has created fat people based on the fact that it costs SO much more to eat a healthy diet. All the crap, preservatives, calories, and fat are exponentially cheaper than healthy alternatives.

Scott and I bought all the ingredients that we will need for the next couple of weeks, and I think then some. I decided that we will go forward with buying only 1-2 weeks at a time to avoid anything going bad.

Just a glance at what things look like at the Wegener household. I need to re-organize my cabinets, (did the frig) to make room and clean out so things are living on the counter until later today.

Incidentally, the refrigerator is like TETRIS.

I am tired of looking and feeling like Jabba the Hutt so I am excited to give this a try. I am however, quite nervous. Not about the muscle aches, or any of that, but I am nervous that I am not going to be successful and get discouraged. It is a weird fear, but just being honest!

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Puppy Play

Up to now Bijou has liked the puppy, sniffed her and trotted around with her, but I had doubted that she would really play with the puppy. Given that her legs barely hold her up some days. Wednesday night they barked and chased each other a little, but all standing up...no real rough and tumble play, and I had given Bijou a pain pill that night. Yesterday, Bijou had a morning and evening pill. She wasn't really hurting I don't think, but she was creeping around. This morning there was a pup wrestle mania in the living room. Bijou was the instigator this time... It was really good to see her interact with the puppy like the old Bij that always smothered most other dogs with love. They were almost "slap fighting" like kids sometimes do. It was hilarious. They were mouthing each other a lot as evidenced in some of the pics where one or both has their mouth open. Puppies learn bite inhibition best from other dogs, and I yip "ouch" really loudly if her razor sharp teeth bite me which is what all the books and people tell you to do. However, I am not the same as another dog. Bijou got rough with Lena, a little yelp and she backed off and Lena got a little rough with Bijou and Bij yelped Lena backed off. Perfect.

I also worked with Lena and the clicker this morning. Someone suggested trying the training in the bathroom to minimize distractions. I shut us in for about 3-5 minutes and we worked on making sure the clicker was "primed." This means that Lena knows that a click means "good job" and she understands that she gets a reward. I am convinced she knows. I re-read an email from Esther, a dog trainer in Holland that I met via YouTube, to be sure that she knows. Esther says, "click one time when she's looking away from you, if she looks up at you when you click ('where's my treat?') then she understands how it works." Lena's eyes were down. I clicked, she looked at the clicker, then my eyes, then the hand that usually treats her.

I am excited! We worked on "touch" today again and I started using the cue word touch after she performed action. I put my hand down, and when she touched it with her nose I clicked. This is an important command that will allow me to teach her other more sophisticated commands later.

We also worked on sit. She did pretty well, but it was getting close to about 4 minutes and her attention span was slipping. We ended on a positive note.

I am really excited about her...and nervous. I hope I do a good job, and I hope I am clicking at the appropriate time. Initially, I was clicking too late. Needs to happen during the behavior and I realized I was clicking after. I need to work on that.

Hopefully, we will start puppy class in a couple of weeks. I just hope that I can integrate clicker methods with their methods.

More to come...

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p.s. If you click on the YouTube link above you see Esther in action. Her pup was executing those moves at 10 weeks. Lena and I have a lot of work to do to catch up!!! Actually, I don't expect to, Esther has been doing this a long time and I am a novice, but I am hoping we eventually get there.

A New Wegener Baby???

Well although we have been trying for going on 5 years...there is not a real babe in our future (at least currently) but there is a new addition to our family.

Meet Lena Wegener

I knew that someday...when Bijou is gone. I wanted an Australian Shepherd. Bij has had some ups and downs this year and so I just started talking to breeders. I found a couple I didn't necessarily feel comfortable with (too much breeding) and then I found Pam Watson in Missouri. I told her that we were not ready for a pup but I had lots of questions for my someday. She was great...always willing to answer my silliest questions. Then she had two litters (her max for a year) pretty much back to back and one was 11 pups! She was faced with 17 pups to find homes for. She mentioned that she had some and I checked out her site. I immediately fell in love with Lena, but...I had always said, "when Bijou is gone." I didn't know what to do. We thought and talked and thought some more and finally I said, "I want her or nothing." Well, she was already spoken for...so much for that.

Then after the 4th of July we got a call from Pam. The people that spoke for her had a change in family situation and could not take her anymore...did we want her? Oh my...never a harder decision to make.

We had a family meeting, gave up eating out, and everyone agreed that she is their big b-day present, everyone agreed to certain chores, we all agreed to some sacrifices and she is going to be my physical trainer. :o)

We brought Lena home on Saturday after a 5 1/2 hour drive to get her and 5 1/2 hours home. We got to see her mom and dad and remaining brothers and sisters who were being shipped to Oregon (or Washington State) the very next day. It was exciting as you can see from the laziness that happened on Sunday.

She turns 8 weeks today!



Lena is a Red Merle Australian Shepherd...It will be no surprise to some of you that I only wanted a Red Merle or Red Tri Aussie...RED!!!

She has only made two small accidents in the house and both were totally preventable but on her first morning here, Scott forgot how small their intestines are and how fast food goes through. And I was on the phone canceling an appointment and was just about to take her out. Should have before I got on the phone. Both accidents were solids... :o) and the one I was responsible for was literally at the front door on the mud mat. She knows what and where to do it, but needs to learn to vocalize.

I started a very short clicker training session with her yesterday with touch...(more on this to come in the following days). She did well, but I kept it really brief as everyone has instructed that I have talked to (dog trainers).

Aussies are highly intelligent, and we hope for tons of tricks to share in the coming months. I am going to get her enrolled in a puppy class sometime the first part of August, and Harrison wants to learn so he can get involved with Junior Handling and run her in agility competitions. What an exciting chapter...almost as exciting as a real baby!

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Junk Email...Better than None?

So about a week and a half ago I went through all the emails in my inbox and junk mail and removed myself from just about every mailing list that I was subscribed to. Most would think that this is a good thing. I did. At first. Now I am not getting any email. I mean most days I am lucky to get one measley email. What a bummer, I am starting to think that maybe I should subscribe to a few random mailing lists.

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Triple Decker Cats

The boys sandwiching their crotchety old sis. This is the caliber of laziness around here lately.

Belated Texas Post

A 4th of July Message from Uncle Dan

I hope everyone had a great Independence Day. Reece as started smiling now so I wanted to send a picture. Also he fits in my old shirt that O-ma brought down to Texas. He won't fit in it for much longer. Reece went to the doctor on Thursday and he now weighs a healthy 11lbs 12 oz.

Love
Dan, Heather & Reece

As promised, evidence of our Texas Shenanigans and Baby Pictures.

E got her ears pierced on this trip...She was showing them off.

These kids make an awful lot of funny faces...I wonder why...

How do you know...

How do you know when it is time to put your dog "to sleep". Today I took Bijou to the groomers for a pre-Oma's house bath. I took her about 11:30 and got her back around 3:45. This is apparently how long it takes. I am skeptical but what do I know about dog grooming. Thank God they don't charge by the hour.

When I took her this morning she had more trouble than usual getting into the back end of the Scion. She hid from the groomer behind my legs, and then proceeded to poop the floor in fear. Ugh...she never does this.

When I picked her up she absolutely COULD NOT get in the back end. After one attempt she sat on the ground and looked sad. I finally laid the seat down and let her in the back door and hoisted her back end as she scrambled with her front paws.

Ride home was uneventful and I was chattering away at her happily about going to see her boy tomorrow night. He misses her and I know she misses him. (HD is at Oma and Papa's golfing, swimming, fishing, and learning the proper, boyscout way, to use a pocketknife.)

Once we got home she hopped out of the car, and crept up the front stairs to our yard. I was getting the blanket out of the back end when I saw her squat to pee. Her legs went out from under her and she was basically laying on the ground. Her front legs were holding the front of her up but her back legs were splayed out. She peed all over her backside, tummy, tail, and legs. So much for grooming. I hosed her off, sobbing the whole time and got her inside. My neighbors probably think I am looney tunes.

Man is she having trouble getting around. She isn't yelping or crying in pain but she can hardly get up from a laying down position. I can't wait to see what tomorrow's 2.5 hour drive does to her. UGH.

How do you know when it is time? She still gets excited to see us, she still eats and poops like a horse. She wags her tail when I talk to her but damn it, I refuse to see her suffer. How can I tell if she is suffering? Is peeing yourself suffering?

*cries* Man this stuff is hard.

She is 10 this summer...I know that is about normal for dals. We had the camel hump scare and now she has another small lump on her leg. What a hard thing to think about on a Thursday.

Help!!!

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Allergies...Damn Them.

So today I went for my weekly allergy shot. Usually no big whoop. Today seemed like any other Wednesday, talked to the nurses, told them about my trip, sat in the lobby and waited for 15 min to see if I had a reaction. The only difference was that I missed last week because we were in Texas. That is also no biggie. They just give me the same dose as the previous week and I go on the next week with the dosage increases. I left and everything was fine...a little itchy but fine.

Took Scott to work and caught a glimpse of my left arm out of my peripheral vision while checking the mirror as I was driving away. IT WAS HUGE.

I had a baseball (at least) sized lump on my left bicep, but felt fine.

I called my doc's office and the nurses wanted me back. When they saw my arm they were astonished. I have never had more than a little mosquito bite looking lump. They sprung into action. Got my doc to look at it...she was astonished. They gave me steroids (pill) and a shot of something (I think epinephrine) directly into the lump, and a claritin. I started to tremble from the shot and that felt pretty weird, but I was fine.

I thought I would take a picture of my nastiness to show.

This lump has gone down considerably in the picture because it took about 30-40 min for me to get home.

It is so interesting to me that I lived so much of my life really allergic and just dealing with symptoms. I think some have gotten worse with age, but the culprits in this shot were cats (DON'T SAY A WORD), weeds and grasses. The doc thinks it was the weeds and grasses that are blooming now that did it. I agree, only because since I got home the boys have been attached at my hip and I have had no sneezing symptoms around them. I do sneeze like the dickens when I get outside and smell freshly cut weeds/grass/outdoors.

Doc. N told Rita the nurse to made note that I should not have dosage increases while crap is blooming. Ok, well she didn't say crap but I did.

:)


You can sort of see how far the lump is sticking out.














The white zone is where she shot the epi. It was completely red when I got there. Even in this picture you can see the circum-ference of the redness.


Ewwwww...nasty and a bit painful.


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Picture Requests

I got a post from Aunt Robin about Reece Pictures. I did not take a camera, but Dayna did. I will email her tonight and post pictures hopefully tomorrow.

:)

He is a cutie that one.
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Recycle Bank

If you check again on the post about 3 before this...My points got added. You get 2.5 points for each pound of recyclables. We had approx 47 pounds in about 3.5 weeks. Not bad. We can not recycle glass, so it was paper, cardboard, and plastic.

Dayna, my sister, E, my niece, H and I have been in Texas since late Tuesday night. We had a fun road trip and MORE fun hanging with Aunt Heather, Uncle Dan, and Baby Reece.

HE is adorable and the kids are loving on him. We will post pictures when we get home, we forgot the cord for the camera.

We leave tomorrow in the wee hours.

Peace.

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Birthday and other musings

My birthday is coming up in a month and a half and I was thinking today that after a certain point it really doesn't matter what "number" you are. I don't even remember most days. Now you may say that is forgetfulness, old age, or nonsense but frankly I do not feel a day over 25 most days.

So on to the important stuff where birthdays are concerned. GIFTS!

My mom and dad bought Scott and I early birthday this year, we got a beautiful hardwood bookshelf when World Market was closing in Omaha. That was a great prezzie. We bought a second as the closeout sale brought lower and lower prices. (Yes we needed two, had books in boxes that we could not even get to or use.)


I was trying to make a list of things I could use, more for myself than anyone else. This always serves as a back to school list for me too since I head back on the 3rd of August.

Ideas:
Worms--More to come about this tomorrow.

Birkenstocks--The following 3 designs and colors are on the top of my list.


Gift Certificate to The Avenue.

New Kitchen "stuff"--And by "stuff" I mean EVERYTHING. It is my firm belief that at 10 years of marriage everyone should have a "Hooray you didn't get a divorce shower." Don't get me wrong, I love my husband, the name of the shower does not imply unhappiness. I just think that at about 10 years all your stuff is sufficiently worn and you could use some new.

A new couch.

The piece de resistance a Nikon D60 camera.

I really do have champagne tastes and a beer budget, just ask my husband.