Maggots!!!

Yes, you read the subject line correctly - we have maggots!!!! This morning we got up and went downstairs as usual. While we were in the kitchen, Cleo went into the laundry room, and I noticed she licked something up - I thought it was a crumb - but then she walked into the kitchen and spit it out, and it started moving!!! I looked at it and thought it was very strange to have a cream colored mini worm in the house. But then I stepped into the Maggot Hall of Fame - the laundry room!!! In there I found about 15-20 live maggots inching around on the floor. (I still thought they were mini worms until Roy clued me in!) We started picking them up one by one. We checked cracks and crevices, but could not find where they were coming from. I have found about 5 more since the initial clean up, and now I am just grossed out. I called our pest control guy, and he said it's likely a rodent has died under the house or between the walls, and the maggots are eating it. He is going to come by tomorrow and try to figure it out. We've also killed a few spiders in the livingroom in the last few days, so he needed to come anyway. Gross!!!!!!

Mom's Visit

My mom came to visit last weekend. It was so much fun. We shopped and shopped, and then we shopped some more. With my mom's knee replacements being so successful, I think she can go longer than me without wearing out! It was so great to just have fun together without worrying if her back or knees were hurting. It was like shopping with a young friend - and I was the oldest!!!! Anyway, we both found lots of cute clothes, and I, of course, made new jewelry to match my new outfits (see the "sets" page on www.freewebs.com/debbeads.)

Since our birthdays are only two weeks apart, we decided to celebrate them together with a Baskin Robbin's ice cream cake!!!!!

Mom also took some pics of Cleo and I while she was here. I used one for my jewelry site (after I made a matching necklace for the shirt I was wearing!).

Cleo kept begging to go in the car. I guess since mom and I kept going all the time, Cleo thought she should go, too. In the above pic, she kept begging, and I kept telling her that we're not going anywhere...

This is how worn out we felt after a long day of shopping!

Next week at school is super busy with TAKS testing most of the week. My classes have a 91%pass rate in reading and math so far; the retakes for reading are next week, so I could end up with a 100% pass! Looks like either way, we should get the state incentive money in the summer. Also, I am teaching summer school in July, so that will provide more for baby savings. Our school is changing health insurance for the fall, and it looks like for only $20 more p/mth, I can get on a plan w/no deductible and only a 1k out of pocket maximum. Oh, and there are no pre-existing conditions or waiting periods for new members, which means even if we happen to get pregnant immediately, we will be covered! SO cool!

Looks like we will need to change churches ... again. Roy's professor (a world-reknown scholar) pulled him into his office a few weeks ago and talked to him about the whole getting-a-job-when-you-graduate thing. He gave statistics and everything. It was helpful because it was something Roy and I had talked about but didn't really know what to do. We are going to start looking again this summer. Looks like we will need to be Baptist. I am not looking forward to the hymns, but normally their preaching is great, and they generally are not dogmatic, which is good seeing that we rarely settle on any one "right way" anymore.

I have a TON of grading to do, so I best end this. I am already feeling like I need a nap! Not good.

Colorado or Bust!!!

Yea! We are going to CO in June to see our long lost friends, Cary and Melissa!!!!! I can't wait! Maybe I will get pregnant while I'm there!!!!!! Okay, that really wouldn't be the best timing, but it would be a memorable souvenir! We are going to make it a split trip between Ponca and CO. We are also taking Cleo, and I am trusting Roy that we are not crazy for doing so. Things are going fine here. I am in the last few weeks of school and already planning for next year. Roy only has 3 weeks left! Hurray! I will be glad to have my husband back. My mom is coming down this weekend to shop till we drop for our birthdays. I just turned 31 on the 11th, and now I feel way beyond old. One of my sixth graders told her classmate, "You know, 31 is not the new 20; it's just 31!" Nice.