Salt of the Earth

Just back from a field trip with Thomas 6th grade science class. We went to Salmon Creek and Bonneville Damn. It was really cool. At Salmon Creek they had 4 stations set up- each demonstrating something educational about salmon. Our first station was water purity. The second was salmon anatomy or something like that. After I got my group of kids situated with the group leader I headed off to find a bathroom. As soon as I came back I saw that the instruction had dissected a salmon and had the organs out on the beach. I then noticed Thomas kind of staggering towards a rock. I immediately went over to him and asked if he was ok. He shook his head NO and proceeded to put his head between his knees. I knew this meant that Thomas would soon be passing out. I stood next to him and the instructor continued to talk about the heart, blood, guts, etc…. and Thomas put his hands over his ears and moaned. He begged me to take him away from the area- so I helped him up and took him to a near by bench. He laid down and put his head in my lap and I started talking about leaves and kittens and anything else to get the idea of fish guts out of his head. Then the all to familiar chain of events began. He started babbling incoherently, his legs stiffened and then his body went completely limp. After about 20-30 seconds he moaned again. I leaned over and asked him ‘are you back now?”. He nodded. As he lay with his head in my lap I kept thinking of ways to get us home. SInce I had taken the bus with his class my car was still at the school and hour away. Mick rides to work- which meant he was an hour away from the car and two hours away from us. I looked around and saw an old folks home bus pull up. I remembered I had $20 in my pocket which i was completely ready to bribe the driver to get us back to town. I asked Thomas if he wanted to go home. He said ‘no’. He lay in my lap for a few more minutes then ate the protein bar i gave him. By the time his class got back up the hill from the fish gut demonstration Thomas was feeling better. He finished the field trip but I brought him home with me. He said his stomach feels a bit weird- as it always does after one of his fainting spells. All in all we had a really great time together. He’s still at that stage where it’s ok for me to be around. The bad news is, i don’t think he’ll be a surgeon or a fisherman or a dentist- or anything that requires blood and body parts. OH well

Tomorrow is a very busy, but fun, fun day
so Happy Halloween in advance!
T

i have a few minutes before i dash off to work- ha ha that still sounds so funny to me. I get to chill with the kindys today (Kindergartners). I’m pretty excited about that. I’m diggin being a sub. I don’t get benefits but I get paid. SWEET! Tomorrow I get to sub in the office. My favorite place. AND not only do i get to be in the office but Thomas comes home!!!

This is just a beautiful fall. We have had a few days that are just amazing. The colors are so spectacular. I have such fond memories of fall from when I was growing up. I’ve traveled around the world a couple times and seen some pretty cool things- but fall in Colorado is unbeatable. Someday I hope to take the boys back to one of my old stomping grounds and show them a true Colorado fall with the Aspens and apple and beautiful Rocky Mountains.

Anyway-
T

So I got my good news on Sunday. I got offered a job. BUT after thinking about it- i decided not to take it. It’s a long story and to make it short- i just didn’t want to do it. I’m happy working in the office-. It was a very hard decision that I agonized over all weekend.

Thomas is at Outdoor school this week- which is camping in a heated cabin with his home room. They learn about the wild or something like that. Personally, I’m ready for him to come home. Which won’t be until Friday at 1:30 pm.

Graham and I have been hangin out and chillin this week. We had our cub scout Halloween Party tonight. It was a lot of fun. He was a knight and i was a fairy. He had on armor and I had on flittery, false eye lashes that were WAY cool. I made this little hair piece thing with flowers and ribbons and I had a little wand with matching ribbons.

Those kittens are darn cute and are keeping us on our toes. They are getting so big and sweet.

watching some Dancing With The Stars. No Apolo this time. I am voting for Jeanie Garth. She’s awesome. I don’t like Jane Seymore- she’s arrogant and when called on her ‘lift’ her argument was vile. She needs to hang up her dancing shoes and go back to being a medicine woman. On the TV front I am in a betting pool for Survivor. I’ve never watched that show until this year. I didn’t get to pick my person- I got Jean Robert. He’s lazy and sleazy. I want him to stay in so I can win $100 but other than that- the tribal can speak him right on home. A new hit- Pushing Daisies. SO GOOD. I already know I want to own the season on DVD when it comes out.

That’s about i on this home front.
T

I may or may not have some good news on Friday. Can’t give too much away cause i don’t want to jinx it. So if you REALLY want to know- you’ll have to check back on Friday- afternooish.
T

Mick and Thomas went camping with the Boy Scouts this weekend so Graham and I sent yesterday running errands and spending the day together. It was really nice and one of those days I’ll always cherish. We headed around 11am and spent the day getting his Halloween Costume, having lunch, getting Halloween decorations and just being silly. We watched movies last night and ate pizza in my bed. It was a great day for us. I am looking forward to Mick and Thomas coming home today.

Work has been good. I really love that job. I love being there, I love being around the kids. Another teacher asked me if I’d like to work with her doing the reading program. If it pays for more hours I’ll definately do it.

Scouts is good. It’s overwhelming at times. There are days when I think I can totally do this and then there are days when I think ‘what the hell am I doing?’ It’s a lot of work- but it’s also very rewarding. I remind myself at times that I didn’t really want to do this- I did it for the boys. Several people have thanked me for it and have said I’m a natural. HA! Eating ice cream is natural. Molding 25 boys and being their role model- not so natural. But I committed and I’ll do it.

I’ve been watching this show called Intervention. wow. It’s about how addiction ruins their lives. I find it interesting because of the things they say- the things that are deep down in their hearts and souls that drives them to fill their bodies up with stuff that just hurts them even more. But they all have a sense of ‘emptiness’ inside. This one gal talked about her lifeline and how her husband, at one point, had been that. Her neediness scared him away and he left her. Since then she’s lived a life of self abuse. I felt badly for her.

Graham and I watched ‘Stranger than Fiction’ last night. Cute and touching movie. One of our stops yesterday was to the Hollywood Video store that was going out of business. Graham picked out the movie. I got a couple that I’ll watch later. I looked for Over the Hedge but they were out of it… must be a good movie, right Stella?

Kittens are too sweet. They are becoming even more loving. One of them attacked my hand in the middle of the night. I had to hide under my covers for him/her to stop and it was too dark to determine which one it was. Honestly, it doesn’t matter when it’s 3 AM.

T

Tonight I led my first scout meeting with my ‘new hat’. I was nervous and felt very unprepared. I changed the schedule around a bit- and I’m happy to say it turned out well. All my dad’s came up to me afterwards and gave me hugs and told me I did a great job. Kind of nice to hear that considering I wasn’t sure how it would all go. I’m sure there will be bumps but I think I’m gonna do alright on this ride.

Funny little kitten story. My kittens love to hang out in my bathroom – mostly to shred up the toilet paper, pull down my towels, knock everything off my counter and climb up my shower curtain. Countless times they have pulled down my hair dryer and curling iron. I just shake my head and laugh- cause they are so damn cute. So tonight after scouts I was in my room getting ready to sit down and get my Grey’s Anatomy on. (i love tivo) Just as I’m all comfy I hear a loud crashing sound coming from my bathroom. The damage- curling iron and dryer on the floor (fortunately the toilet seat was down) and 2 kittens hiding behind the toilet. For a quick second I thought- where is kitty number 3? I just figured -he ran out when everything came crashing down. SO I went back into my room to get back into my show and I heard meowing. Puzzled, I went back into the bathroom and saw kitty 1 and kitty 2 circling the toilet and I picked both of them up and gave them a little loving- thinking they were scared. Went back to my room and a few seconds later heard the meowing AGAIN but louder this time.Once again, I peaked my head into the bathroom to see who was upset. Kitty 1 and Kitty 2 were still circling the toilet and I thought that maybe one of the boys used my bathroom and forgot to flush. So I open the lid to see what the damage was and out jumped kitty number 3- soaking wet and scared to death. He ran right past me-before I could even be sure of what happened. I then grabbed a towel (from off the floor thanks to kitty 2) and ran after kitty 3 to dry him off. I called Thomas to help since kitty 3 is his baby. He came in and I handed him a wet kitty in a towel. Poor little Kitty snuggled right up to Thomas and wrapped his paws around his hand. Thomas and I joked about it scaring the crap out of him- but since he was already in the toilet ………

ah those kitties are endless hours of joy
and trouble
T