Hey Lady, I Can See Your A.D.D. From Here

A note to my Friday Followers: I have posted a quick summary of this special spot in the blogosphere at the end of this post. Anypost, on with my brain sludge...


I haven't just sat down and let my thoughts just flow to the keyboard in a very long time; however, today I decided to pick my happy butt up off of the couch and relocate to the porch swing while Finn takes his afternoon nap. 

Moses is snoring next to me on the swing. Vega is under my feet and snoring, as well. It is quite funny, but I know if I get up to get the video camera that they will both wake up. I am munching on an oh-so-yummy pb & j sandwich made of all-natural peanut butter, sugar-free jelly, or is it jam? I am not sure what the qualifications are, but it sure is darn good.

I decided a couple of days ago to consciously get Finn on a schedule. I typically get him up when he wakes up, let him nap when he is ready around mid-day, and lay him down in evening when he is ready (usually anywhere from 5:30 - 8:00). It's going very well, and there hasn't been any bumps yet: 

8:00 a.m. Rise & shine

11:30 a.m. Lunch

12:00-2:00 p.m. Nap time

5:00 p.m. Bath

5:30 p.m. Dinner

6:00 p.m. Bedtime

He is loving life: crawling, pulling up, shredding Mama's magazines, playing pat-a-cake, commando-crawling under the furniture, racing me to any open doors, and getting into shouting matches with Vega. As soon as I find my card reader, I will post pics.

Vega Who? Vega What?

Sorry, where are my manners? Vega is our new German Shepard pup that we got from my cousin's litter. She kept one as well and named her Carson. It will be so much fun to watch them grow up together! His second day at home he ate a stinging or biting bug of some sort then cried, whined, and just laid low for a day or two. When he couldn't bark, Zac decided to take him to the vet, along with Moses, for a check-up. It was discovered that he had a "load" of round worms and hook worms. Eek! Since we caught them so early, they gave him meds, shots, etc. and he should be fine. I guess that explains his un-puppylike slothfulness. He is feeling much better and is beginning to act more like a puppy. He is very smart; Zac has been working with him every day to learn good habits and tricks. Our main focus right now is to teach him the basics and how to chase off farking ducks!!! He's beginning to get the hang of it, but it looks like he corrals them more than chases them off. Are German Sheps herding dogs? I guess I could ask Hubs since he read two books and a vast array of internet material on them before Vega even got here. Oh, and yes, there have been two confrontations with Moses so far. The first being when Vega first got out of the crate, ran upm and introduced himself to Moses, who responded in typical Moses fashion with a cat-slap to the snout. Two days ago Finn was asleep, Zac was on the back porch and I heard Vega scream, whimper, and howl, followed by a loud crash/boom. I assumed that Zac had finally had enough of the ducks and blasted one with the shotgun, so I ran (I use the term loosely) to see what had conspired. I found Zac laid back in his chair, Vega behind his crate, and Moses strutting past them both. Apparently, Vega had begun to get a little too comfortable with Moses and was deceived in believing that they were cool now. Moses quickly set him straight. 

You must think that I am crazy to have a crawler and a pup. 

You are correct.

Why Vega?

I agreed to the name before realizing Hubs got it from Pulp Fiction, but I still like it better than his other suggestions: Cyrus, Levon, and Cormac, which, by the way, were his baby name suggestions this time last year. Our other thoughts for the puppy were Kyzar or Remy. In case you haven't learned yet Hubs is a monstrous fan of folk music, Quentin Tarantino, and the blues. 

Around the Porch

Since this house's image is basically centered around the porch, it just makes sense that I say that rather than "around the house." Anytime the words "the porch" are uttered around our crew, everyone knows it's our house that is being discussed. We have finally begun to get the porch together, now that hubs has finished our fence. All of the colors of the plants make me so happy and take my mind off of the fact that typically I would be laying out on all of these fabulous fair days.

I refuse to get on that subject. If you want to know why I can't lay out any more click here. I am making it my new hobby to test all of the available self-tanners and write a post about them. This will take some time since I will have allow one to fade before trying another in order to for it to be a completely real experience. 

NOLA

To continue with the completely random pattern of this piece, I was driving back from New Orleans a few weeks ago and started having all of these random thoughts about Madonna's influence recording them onto the voice memo feature on my phone. I suppose I will post them someday. One of them was that they should create a musical out of her songs like they have done for Billy Joel (Movin' Up) and ABBA (Mama Mia). Am I right? It would be a killa! 

I arrive home to find that the week's Glee episode was titled "The Power of Madonna"! Whoa - too crazy.

I will be going back to NOLA this weekend for my monthly check ups. 

There are two things for whichI am desperately hoping: 

1. that the gorgeous, beautiful, magnificent, superb, splendid, spectacular, majestic, breathtaking weather we have been having continues. 
2. the docs reduce my steroid dose, yet again - I am tired of being fat swollen!

Nearly six hours after beginning this post, I have returned home to finish it with more subject matter. After I got my hair trimmed, I decided to go by our Barnes & Noble that will be closing on June 30th. I was not expecting the shelves to already be half empty. I know that it is odd to feel this way about a chain bookseller, but I couldn't help but feel a bit like Kathleen Kelly in You've Got Mail, except that B & N is more like Fox Books than The Shop Around the Corner. I have been going to this store since I was in the fifth grade! There is no other book store in the general vicinity with the selection and atmosphere that this store has in it. Do not even get me started on the other option: Books-A-Million. If you put a Starbucks in Wal-Mart does that make it a Target? No, no it does not. Looks like I will be saving my two hour book store strolls for my monthly NOLA visits.

A Little Bit for New Folks from Friday Follow

Howdy, Friday Followers! Welcome to my humble blog-abode. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Home: The commons where I talk about everything, post all my memes, and share what's going on.

2. About Moi: If you LOVE this, FOLLOW ME, and you'll get more of what you love!

3. The Crew: Who's living under my roof + a new puppy coming home tomorrow!

4. Transplant Times: Here's where you can catch up on what led me here: a heart transplant 6 months ago!

5. Book Nook: Bookworms, this is what will make you LOVE me. *wink*

6. Blogellas: a.k.a. my blog-button-roll

7. Grammar-On-the-Go: This is my newest feature, and I am loving it...because I'm a nerd like that. =)

Sound appealing?

FOLLOW ME!

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SUBSCRIBE

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HIT ME UP ON TWITTER

WELL, YOU GET THE IDEA.

COME ON, HOW MANY 25 YEAR OLDS DO YOU KNOW WITH A

NEW HUSBAND, NEW BABY, AND NEW HEART?!

If you're not convinced, here are some of my greatest hits:

Click 'em!

{1} ...And You Can Quote MEme on That

{2} From Photo Booth Saturday to Wordful Wednesday

{3} Steroids, Dust, and Kenny Chesney

{4} When Did Hubs Take up Writing? Here's When:

{5} Alot Is MIA

- One more thing -
 If you want to know something, just ask...
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Crossing the Caring Bridge

Here I am blogging as there are four, yes four baskets of laundry to be folded; I tend to procrastinate. However, I have gotten all of the Christmas put up and away, and now my spare bedroom door can stay open! My hubby mounted the shelves I got for Christmas! They need a few more touches then I will post before/after pics for that wall. Now I just need to finish my thank you notes.

I finally sent a link to my blog to friends and family that have been using Caring Bridge to keep up with my progress. I have around a hundred subscribers over there and will still continue to post small updates there as well. By the way, you can subscribe to updates on this blog just as you did over there through RSS and Google by going to my box down there that says followers. Please do; I would love that! Oh yeah and I love comments, too! The more the merrier - they make my day!

I am just loving the blogging community right now much better than Caring Bridge. It was great while I was in the hospital, but now I need more. Blogging gives me more: more flexibility, more freedom, more options, and more audience. In searching sites and blogs for heart transplant patients I was very disappointed to find, well, not too many at all or at least not any focused on young women. In creating this blog and writing about complete randomness I have found such a great support group of amazing women, those with lives like mine, those with lives the opposite of mine, and those whose lives I wish were mine. Haha. So for you new readers who are curious about my story over the past five months you can check out my journals and the ones posted by my mother-in-law, who wrote when I couldn’t. You can also go here to just to get an idea of the whirlwind. Plus, my blog post labeled “Finally Time” on January 9th will give a little more insight into what I generally want to do here and probably even repeat some of this.

All day long I see things, and I think, “Oh, I’ve got to remember to blog about this.” Then I forget all about it. I do want to take a minute to brag about how beautiful it was here on Friday. About the time I got everything out on the porch that I wanted to be able chill out and write with, Finn woke up. I figured, “Hey, he’s a boy; he’ll love the outside thing.” I pulled his exisaucer out onto the porch with me snapped a couple of pics with my phone, sat on the swing and enjoyed the pleasant 70 degree weather. Ahhh. However, I never got around to writing due to a couple of phone calls, oh well. But watching Finn yap at the ducks was hilarious. Maybe that’s what we need to keep them from coming on the porch and using it as their own personal litter box.

I have so many things I want to accomplish or at least begin work on while I have this gift of extended time away from work: 

1. To begin writing a book. A couple of doctors and nurses have begged me to write a book on several occasions. Whoa, I don’t know that I can make that sort of commitment, but there is such a need for something like that to give comfort to those awaiting transplant and those adjusting to their new life after transplant. It may be easier just to go visit them like Jamie and Toni did for me. Love you forever, girls!!!
2. To start some work on my National Board certification since I am always wanting to improve my classes, and an annual $5,000.00 check doesn’t hurt either. Plus, I have heard it is nearly suicide to do it during the school year, but you do not have a choice for the majority of it requires classroom observation, videos, and student samples. I know it is huge and will nearly break me, but I want it so bad. I want to be THAT teacher the kids remember because they remembered the material that I made fun and interesting and not just because I was funny or nice, which many will beg to differ.
3. To freshen-up nearly every room in my house and create cozier spaces. My walls need help! They are nearly barren. I want to take pictures from Country Living and Coastal Living and poof them into my house, especially the painting part. ;)
4. To get the office and all our books and paperwork organized and accessible. I did this earlier in the year, so this should only take a couple of days.
5. To organize my massive collection of resources for class. Over the past couple of years I have amassed tons of activities and presentations for my kids, and I am always wanting to tweak it, then I spend my whole planning period creating new stuff for them rather than getting real work done. There were pretty much no resources for ninth grade  English when I first started and now I have so much that I need to organize, weed-out, and update to where all that I have to do is grade with more detail. Plus, I love when I can pass it on and give it to another teacher to use when they are running around like crazy looking for an activity.
6. To read more. Since I started teaching, when I am at home the last thing I want to do is read one more thing. In the past few months I have been reading and completing more books than I have in the past few years, and I love it. I have joined a blog called Girls With Books. This is a large group of women who read and review books, so I will now be reading and reviewing adolescent and adult literature on that blog. I will post links here as I do. I am so excited about this little project.
7. To become active and involved with the American Heart Association. I have signed up to help raise money for National Wear Red Day, Friday February 5, to raise awareness of women’s heart health. I posted a small goal of $500. If you would like to donate you can go to my donation page by clicking the Go Red button on the top right of my blog.

Thank you all for your love and support during this crazy, bizarre, and interesting time in our lives. Zac, Finn, and I will never be able to repay you for all that you have done, but we hope you can feel the deep gratitude we are sending your way every single morning as we get to wake up in our own home.