Countdown

i give you a picture of dr.  just in case you forgot what he looks like!

just wanted to keep everyone updated on the countdown to summer.  25 days!

life is good in good 'ol mississip.  dr. is working hard in the sicu (surgery icu).  he will be in obgyn next month.  that means next month will be an easy month for dr. and he will get to deliver babies!  he has been working extremely hard on Q3 (call every 3 nights).  dr. is also studying for his boards which he takes may 4th and 5th.  please have him in your thoughts.  he has been extremely good at studying.  i wish i had as much willpower as he has!

spring is finally here.  well it has been here for a while, and with it, of course, is tornado season.  i know i am still shocked that mississippi has a tornado season.  we have been spared from any damage as all tornados have passed just south of us.

i am not quite as busy at school.  i have finally gotten out of the vanderbilt lesson plans an figured out how to write lesson plans in about 15 minutes.  this is wonderful considering it used to take me about 15 hours at the beginning of the year.  right now i am just coasting.  my centers are already prepared and ready to just pull out when we need to review topics.  my children's grades have progressively gone up all year and my entire class passed their state math exam.  yipee!

i took two of my kid's cases down to district to try and get them tested for special education.  both of them were accepted and one of them is even going to get home school!  yea!  needless to say i deserve to be coasting right now considering how much work i have put into everything else!

dr. has planted the vegetable garden.  we are growing beans, broccoli, corn, basil, tomatoes, watermelon, squash, canteloupe, cucumbers and an assortment of peppers.  believe it or not, most of them are growing (even though it is at a slow pace).  we are having difficulty with the canteloupe.  beans, squash, and cucumber are growing the fastest.

the front yard is looking great and i think is pretty much landscaped. now we just need a somewhat moist summer and it will look nice.

molly is fine and has had no real new adventures lately.  we still think she is only halfway spayed because every three months she roams the house for about eight days straight yowling as loud as she can.  we have learned to tune her out.  she is getting a little better with it.  at first she didn't want to have anything to do with us.  no petting, snuggling, or anything.  this past week while she was in heat ( which is not anything like a dog in heat) she cuddled with me every night just like normal.

jackson has grown on us a lot since we first moved here.  we have really been getting out and doing things with people.  i have two groups of friends.  one from school and one from the hospital.  therefore i have black girls night out and white girls night out. you can probably guess which one is more rowdy!  starting in july i will be the secretary/treasurer for the spouses alliance.  we have monthly girl nights out, play groups every friday, easter egg hunts, halloween parties, end of the year parties and are involved in a lot of community service.  it has been great being a part of this group.  all of us are in the same boat.  in a strange city with no money!  i have met some fantastic girls and meet about 3 new ones every month.  it is neat meeting them and going home and talking to dr. about different people and looking at their pictures on facebook to see if dr. knows them.  sometimes it turns out that he is really good friends with their husbands or was on call with them the night before.   

some of you have heard my stories from black girls night out.  that is a whole other blog!  needless to say, I would never give up the teachers i work with.  they are the most wonderful poeple i have ever worked with.  the principal .... not so much.

abigail hart allen is now 1 month and 1 day old!  

dr. and molly say hello.  ( well not really.  i am listening to some post-call snoring right now but i am sure if he was awake he would say hello.  and i am also sure that if molly could talk she would say hello or maybe hola.)

a day in the life of

...... molly.  everyone thinks molly is calm but i think she tries to fool people when they visit.  she is very much a people person ( oh.. i guess, people cat, would be the correct lingo).  these are just pictures from a day in the life of molly. in the laundry hamper, on top of the kitchen cabinets after walking across the curtain rod, asleep in dr.'s lap. you can click  on the picture to make it larger.

walking molly

well, everyone knows of molly's adventures outside and how it led to a infected paw and a cone on the head.  as much as dr. tries to put molly out.  i don't think she should go out.  our yard is surrounded by dogs on all sides and i just don't want to have a dirty cat lying around in the house.  she is perfectly happy looking out the windows and playing with the huge bumblebees buzzing around the other side of the windows in the sunroom.  so in attempt to compromise i have agreed to let molly venture outside but she may only go while on a leash!  yes, seriously a leash that is attached to a beautiful pink harness.  there is no getting out of this one!  at first she did not appreciate this compromise but now she doesn't mind it to much and she keeps looking back to make sure i am still there.   

wacky world

so many things to do and so little time.  the weber household is the same as it always has been.  we still are the owners of a crazy cat.  molly has a daily ritual and thank goodness she does because last week i forgot to set my alarm three days in a row.  if no one is up by 5:15 molly will howl until someone is out of bed (which can be bad on the weekends).  if we do not get up she brings her toy into the room to play while we "sleep".  every night while i take my bath, molly sits on the side of the tub and watches the water with an occasional paw in the water.  about two days ago, dr. went to get molly some food and came back with a different kind then she normally eats.  she let us know today that she does not approve of the new food.  although she had a full bowl of food, she opened the door to the cabinet and poured the food out.  she also likes to look out the front door (which has windows about 4 feet off the ground).  she stands with her back feet in the mail slot and her front paws on the glass.  i am not lying when isaid we have a talented cat!

my new years resolution was to work out more (i have oreos in my lap right now.) which means i would actually have to leave work before they kicked me out.  i have kind of kept up with my resolution.  i am trying to "leave" work at work but that is almost impossible to do.  for the first semester, the 2nd grade scored 86 % proficient in math.  which is wonderful with the neighborhood we are in.  that means 86% of the 2nd grade passed the math test.  now i won't talk about the 29% in 3rd grade math or the 50% school average in reading and language.  we have a lot of work to do but at least we are seeing some improvement.  

dr. is on trauma this month so he will get all the wrecks and the wounds from the gun and knife club.  i actually thought i would not see him this month but two days in and i have seen him the same amount of time i always do.

dr.'s birthday is in a couple of weeks.  he works weekends but is home by 10.  we would love to have visitors anytime.  just give me a heads up so i have time to clean up whatever molly has decided to get into.  she did get stuck in a lowe's bag yesterday which was pretty funny but not as funny as when she got her head stuck between the headboard and the window in the master bedroom.

alright, i have to go write lesson plans, grade papers, and average grades.  it's midterm already.  spring break in 5 weeks!

cat for sale

If anyone is looking for an orange cat with freckles, i have one for sale! i have come to the conclusion that dr. chose the smartest and most active cat in the universe. she may be a "super" cat if there is such thing. since the cone incident, molly has become a new feline. maybe she felt so secluded during her week of post surgery that she felt as though she would never take anything or granted again.

i thought it would be a good idea to buy molly a water dish that has about a weeks supply of water in it since she is an avid drinker of water. i was having to fill her dish up two times a day. there was a blue jug dish that would continually fill the dish as the cat drank from it. unfortunately when it refills, it has big bubbles in the tank (just think about the water jugs people have in their offices with little cone cups to fill up). molly apparently thinks bubbles are god's gift to cats. she insists on sticking her paw up the water dish until she finds the spout of the jug. she then presses the side of her body against the jug and tips the entire dish over which leads to the 1/2 gallon jug emptying onto the floor. after four straight days of having 2 gallons of water spilt on my floor daily, the jug water dish was taken away from molly. her white water dish was returned to her watering station.

now about a week after having the old water dish back, molly decides that this dish had become incredibly interesting. molly has learned to flip this dish onto it's side so that all the water will pour out on the floor and then returns it to its proper position. i just wish that i could be entertained by water dishes as much as my cat!

molly also seemed to have enjoyed halloween more than our trick-or-treaters did. since dr. was on call today, i did a little house cleaning while i was feeling sorry for my sick self. apparently molly thought the tootsie pops that we gave away for halloween were extremely special and decided to take them and add them to her stack of toys. fortunately she wasn't eating them, she was just adding them to her toy collection.

molly has also figured out how to jump from the tv in the den to the top of the bookcases and then jump onto the top of the closet in our den. unfortunately she has not figured out how to get down yet.

if this sounds like a cat that would fit into your family's lifestyle, i will drop her in the mail tomorrow. i can also send you more information on her astonishing abilities ( like looking out the front door window.... even if it is four feet of the ground).

why did the chicken cross the road

I found this on another blog and just thought it was funny....

KINDERGARTEN TEACHER: To get to the other side.

PLATO: For the greater good.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross roads.

KARL MARX: It was a historical inevitability.

TIMOTHY LEARY: Because that's the only trip the establishment would let it take.

SADDAM HUSSEIN: This was an unprovoked act of rebellion and we were justified in dropping 50 tons of nerve gas on it.

JACK NICHOLSON: 'cause it f___ing wanted to. That's the f___ing reason.

RONALD REAGAN: I forget.

KATHERINE ALVAREZ: To get away from my neighbor.

CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK: To boldly go where no chicken has gone before.

JOHN McCAIN: The chicken was a maverick, just like me. She did it for the greater good because she was serving the people, just like me. Sarah Palin crossed the road too...

SARAH PALIN: She did it for her family.

HIPPOCRATES: Because of an excess of phlegm in its pancreas.

LOUIS FARRAKHAN: The road, you see, represents the black man. The chicken 'crossed' the black man in order to trample him and keep him down.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: I envision a world where all chickens will be free to cross roads without having their motives being called into question.

MOSES: And God came down from the Heavens, and He said unto the chicken, "Thou shalt cross the road." And the chicken crossed the road, and there was much rejoicing.

FOX MULDER: You saw it cross the road with your own eyes. How many more chickens have to cross the road before you believe it?

RICHARD M. NIXON: The chicken did not cross the road. I repeat, the chicken did NOT cross the road.

MACHIAVELLI: The point is that the chicken crossed the road. Who cares why? The end of crossing the road justifies whatever motive there was.

JERRY SEINFELD: Why does anyone cross a road? I mean, why doesn't anyone ever think to ask, What the heck was this chicken doing walking around all over the place, anyway?"

FREUD: The fact that you are at all concerned that the chicken crossed the road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity.

BILL GATES: I have just released the new Chicken Office 2000, which
will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook.

OLIVER STONE: The question is not, "Why did the chicken cross the
road?" Rather, it is, "Who was crossing the road at the same time, whom we overlooked in our haste to observe the chicken crossing?"

DARWIN: Chickens, over great periods of time, have been naturally
selected in such a way that they are now genetically disposed to cross roads.

EINSTEIN: Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road moved beneath the chicken depends upon your frame of reference.

BUDDHA: Asking this question denies your own chicken nature.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON: The chicken did not cross the road .. it transcended it.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die. In the rain.

halloween

as halloween is nearing, we are trying to figure out what we are going to be.  we are choosing between two costumes for ms. molly.  she will either be a crab or an elephant.  

luckily she got so used to wearing her funnel, she does not mind if there is anything on her head.

she became awfully close to her funnel.  so much so that she decide that since she couldn't clean her body, she would clean the funnel.  towards the end of the week with the funnel, molly would spend her day making sure her funnel was in pristine condition.