The 25th Hour ~karenjcardoza.com~

At least I got a Snow Day for my birthday but I certainly didn’t get any SNOW!  It apparently took a different track and the southern part of the state got about 4-6 inches but we’re getting RAIN right now… BOOOOOOOO!!!!

I ended the school week with dinner and drinks with my friend and co-teacher, Syd … great food, great company, and lots of laughs, not to mention great Margaritas! I  didn’t have lots of plans outside of the house this weekend though, and I’m thankful for that!  Yesterday, I did some paperwork and got caught up on maintenance things online like upgrading my Wordpress blogs and catching up on reading and research. Al and Jake went ice fishing and had a good time even though they didn’t catch anything.   We watched a couple of  movies last night:  Swing Vote and Practical Magic and had a quiet night at home.

Today, I was surprised to find that my MacBook Pro charger wasn’t working so we headed into the Apple Store at Providence Place mall to buy a new one. Luckily, I decided to bring my laptop along with me figuring it was better to bring it and not need it than need it and not have it.  I still have Apple Care but wasn’t sure if something like that would be covered.  We got there and found that the next appointment was an hour and a half away. I was tempted to just buy the charger and leave (and actually almost purchased one online before even deciding to go to the store.)  Luckily, I didn’t do that because when the “Genius” did a diagnostic test he found that the battery was practically shot too.  So, it “cost” me 2 hours in Providence that I didn’t plan on spending but I got a new charger and a new laptop battery for free. Lesson learned: If you have Apple Care, always bring in the computer just in case and don’t assume that it won’t be covered.

So, I’m behind on my lesson plans and other things on my To Do list for today but the house is smelling really good… Big Al is making Jambalaya as mojo for the Saints in tonight’s Superbowl game. All along, I’ve said that my NFC choice for this year was the Saints and I was rooting for them to go all the way this season.  Here’s hoping that they bring back a Lombardi to the Big Easy!!

It’s been a good weekend for me on another note too.. I love it when both of my kids are home and Kelsea hung here for the weekend.   She took some belly shots  of my niece and  her husband while she was home.

I’ve got an extremely busy week ahead, with meetings or appointments every day after school but come this Friday, I’ll be on February vacation and the Olympics will be starting. I’m GIDDY!

It’s been a good weekend and it rates Two Thumbs Up!

Lots of changes coming in my life…. Some are personal ones and some involve my kids’ growing up and moving forward to follow their dreams.  There’s also MAJOR changes coming in my school district and an uncertainty about what the future will bring there. Right now I’m also at that point where I need to take classes to keep my certificate. I’m unsure what to do and which direction to go into. I love teaching the population that I do and wish that Speech or OT weren’t completely brand new degrees… If they were ONLY a Masters then I would work towards either one of them but they both require an Undergrad and a Masters degree in the fields in order to be certified. That would mean about 10 more years of school, at least. I’m not sure what I’m going to be doing but I am going to take just one day at a time and be thankful for each and every one of them.

Impromptu photo session

Wow… it’s incredible that the first month of “Twenty-Ten” or as I say, “Two thousand, ten” is coming to a close. It seems to have flown by but it’s truly because I’ve been so busy that I’ve had one commitment after another and haven’t stopped to pay attention.

The new year brought me two new students, a new schedule and lots of paperwork, reports and lessons to plan and execute at school. I’ve spent quite a bit of time at Jake’s wrestling meets and tournament and there have been a lot of family gatherings as well.

Since I’m still not sleeping well and can hardly get out of bed in the morning, my 5:00 gym dates have come to an end. Unfortunately, I’ve had either meetings or appointments after school four out of five days a week all month, so the afternoon Wii Fit dates have been put on hold too.

Next month’s calendar is filling up quite quickly already but at least there’s a vacation week in there which I so desperately need to catch up on sleep. I’ll also need to do a lot of work for the online class that I’m taking this semester and of course, I’ll be glued to the Winter Olympics which start on February 12th. (I LOVE the OLYMPICS and have since I was a little girl… summer, winter, I don’t care, I love them both!)

I expect that February will fly by as well, then… One Day at a Time…

You never know what you have until you’ve lost it.  It’s amazing how much you take a simple thing like being able to sleep for granted….

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

It was an incredibly busy but productive week and weekend. I had appointments or meetings every day after school since coming home from our Miami getaway last weekend. This weekend started off with Sushi with my coworker then dinner out with Al and MJ and Louie on Friday night. Al and I had penciled in this Saturday as our shopping day. Man, did we ever!  It’s not a secret that I don’t enjoy the commercialism of Christmas and that the whole hustle and bustle and shopping stresses have gotten me down over the years. Since we’ve pared down, I’ve enjoyed The Holidays so much more.

We got our tree and some nice greenery for our door at our favorite place, Phantom Farms,  then set out get the shopping done in one day. After a full day out and about, we accomplished what we set out to do. We watched a few movies last night, Four Christmases, which was horrible, Julie/Julia, and Confessions of a Shopaholic which were based on novels and were good.

Today, was football Sunday and we enjoyed watching the boys win from our warm, dry home.  Al made a delicious lunch and I was able to knock off some writing projects from my endless To Do list; one of which was posting all the reviews for books read in December.

Tonight we need to decorate the tree and then I’ll be getting ready for another extremely BUSY week ahead.

I’m parked in my usual spot in the hotel lobby in Ft. Lauderdale and just finished securing tickets for our friend for Sunday’s game. We’re having a few cocktails and just ordered food.  It feels good to just relax and enjoy the company of good friends.  It’ll  be even better to see a good win on Sunday!

Our flight down was a bit bumpy but was uneventful and after meeting up with Bama and securing our car, we dove into lunch. We hung around in the lounge waiting for our room and caught up with friends. I was pleased to get some reading done and tomorrow I’m hoping for some sun so I can get some pool time in.

For now, I’m just content to kick back and be a lobby lizard… Go Pats!!