HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Today's my birthday. Fun stuff! What did I do to celebrate? Let's see....I woke up at the crack of dawn, drove out to the barn to re-wrap Corky's leg for the 7th day in a row. Then I went to work, taught all day (and the kids were so much fun!), ran a pretty good marching band rehearsal after school (learned the first two complete chart sets to show #3). Afterwards I headed to the barn, re-wrapped Corky's leg again, cleaned stalls in very muggy humidity, then ehaded home. For supper I made myself a big spaghetti dinner (and now my gut hurts from so much food). Next I will do some painting, and then head upstairs to open gifts from my mom and sisters.

Pointing fingers

Blame is such a copout. It is so easy to point the finger and blame someone or something...find an outside cause to all of your troubles. This is the reason nothing in the world ever really gets accomplished or changed. There are a million reasons for every action. It's pointless to sit there and try and pinpoint every reason.

Tomorrow is my birthday! Yippeee (*sarcasm*). This isn't going to ber a very good birthday, I am afraid. It seems my life is always in a balance - when something on one part of my life rights itself and is going well, then something else on the other side turns ugly and festers. I need the stars to align in order for everything to be great...all points equal and good at the same time.

Nonstandard People

On the drive to the barn this morning to yet again wrap Corky's leg, I got to thinking about different people and how we seem to 'gel' with certain types of people. I think my favorite kind of people is what I call the 'Non-Standard' type people. You know the type - they do things a bit differently than the norm, they see things a bit differently, and they are fairly unpredictable (in a good or bad way).

I started thinking about the NonStandard people in my life. The first that comes to my mind is my husband - he is definitely NonStandard! He sees things very differently from the average person, and he has absolutely NO fear of letting the world know he sees and feels things differently. Sometimes this really annoys me (when he crosses the line from being 'different' to just downright crass) but for the most part it makes life with him very interesting!

I have several students I would call NonStandard. Although I am not supposed to have favorites, they are the ones I find myself having casual conversations with and enjoying their dialogue. Plus they make me laugh, and anyone that makes me laugh is tops in my book!

Things are looking up!

Positives in my life right now:

1. Corky is doing better!!!! No surgery (so far!)
2. The band is ready for homecoming. They sound great. I have the help i need finally to pull off pre-game and halftime, so a lot of personal stress has been relieved
3. Mom and dad are visiting this weekend, I haven't spent time with them in 2 months.
4. It's hot and sunny again!
5. I just finished some yummy ravioli
6. My desk is kinda clean
7. I found out that I have a LOT more friends than I ever realized. When you go through tough spots in your life, the real ones come out...and it is great to see I have such great friends.
8. My trumpet chops, after a summer off, aren't as bad as I thought they would be.

Life is grand. Amazing...a week ago today I was totally devastated and totally alone, no one semed to care. Funny how the people you don't even consider close to you end up being true friends. Amazing how you can find comfort and undersatnding in the strangest of places. Sad that you can't find it where you want it most. Great that things can always improve in that area.

This is Corky, photo taken one day before her devastating injury.

Passion - the ups and downs

Anything in life that gives you great joy also has the potential to give you great pain. That's the way life works. By allowing yourself joy, you open the door to possible pain and heartache. Depressing thought, but then the heartaches just make the joys all that much more incredible. I guess I am just not the type of person to try to live my life on a flatline. I have those great highs, plus the great lows. You can't focus on either side too much - accept the bad, knowing that the good is just around the corner.

*sigh*

*big sigh*

I have learned my lesson....again.

Time to revert back to the mentality of 2001.

Leaving again...

Once again, I leave tomorrow morning bright and early to chaperone the mission trip to Appalacia (Why can I never spell that dang word?). Corky's leg is still very bad, in fact I might even say it is worse than earlier in teh week. It is very swollen and infected. I have started wrapping it to keep it clean, and she is on antibiotics plus bute to help the swelling. I am sick with worry, leaving town for 4 days and she will be on her own basically...I worry that the wound will get dirty and more infected, or worse. Last year as I left for this very same trip, Corky was extremely ill with diahrrea and flu, and I was worried sick about her for 4 days. I don't think she wants me to leave!

Anyways, this trip is good for my soul - to go down to a place where people have nothing, and try to give back by helping out with chores, fixing, and maintenace of houses. Man, I hope I don't have to clean someone's root cellar again...yuck!

It's me again....

OK, so I stayed away from my blog for weeks because I was a bit miffed at the comments from someone, but hey, I am over that now!

School has started again, back to work and getting up at 6am every day. Mornings are rough on me. I would like to work in a third-shift school, you know, start in the evening and teach all night? Nighttime is my most industrious period. I get more done in between the hours of 10pm and 2am than I do in the other 20. Makes it hard to go to sleep when you get a burst of energy or get deep into a project so late at night.

With the start of September brings a host of worries. I tend to over-worry about things. I gigure if I give my worries prpoer time, then they will vanish and not come to fruition. Sounds good in theory! Here are my worries as of this moment:

1. I worry that Corky's leg isn't going to heal in time for Congress next month.
2. I worry about asking for my 2 personal days in October to show at Congress!
3. I worry about my band's performance every Friday night
4. I worry that I'll say something stupid in class or let a bad word slip.
5. I worry that were are heading into a depression and I will become bankrupt
6. I worry about paying my bills
7. I worry about my parents, living so far away
8. I worry about Kevin running into burning buildings to save people who probably won't even appreciate his risks
9. I worry someone will hit my truck parked in the street and keep going, leaving me with a repair bill I can't pay
10. I worry that I am unknowingly damaging my health by eating all these pretzels
11. I worry about the rootlessness of my life, where I feel like I have no home of my own, and where will I go in the future?
12. I worry that I am suffering some major permanent hearing loss from my job
13. I worry that something might happen to Taylor, I worry about losing her.

OK, that's enough already! Here...something fun to glance at:

Man, wish I could do that!!!!