Friday, August 20, 2010

Busy (excited) little bee!

Yikes... a week and a half without blogging! Major oops! on my part. Sorry y'all! To my credit, however, this past week and a half has been busier than the last year and a half (...okay, maybe a little exaggeration there, but you get the idea). In this time, I have...
  1. Lost a cell phone
  2. Lived for an entire week without a cell phone (extremely difficult, but still "doable")
  3. Bought a new cell phone (...with entirely new cell phone carrier. Yes, I caved to the iPhone 4. Sigh...)
  4. Studied like a crazy lady for the my last certification exam, the FTCE subject area exam, to (finally) be certified to teach biology in grades 6-12.
  5. PASSED my last certification exam!!! Whoo hoo!!!
  6. Bought way more decorations/supplies for my future classroom than I will ever need (...a little caught up in the moment!)
  7. Lived 4 days without my computer, aka my life, while it was getting repaired at the Apple store (waaaaaay harder than the cell phone!)
  8. Traveled back and forth to Jacksonville three times
  9. Introduced Charley to my 3 month old "niece" (I say "niece" because she's technically RK's niece, but I figure 7 years of being around the family makes me at least a figurative aunt, right?!)
  10. Actually relaxed once, maybe twice.
*Big sigh of relief*

I cannot tell you how excited I am to have all of that behind me. For the most part, things usually don't happen all at once like that, but last week was a major exception. Yay for slowing things down a bit!

As I mentioned earlier, Charley met Catherine (RK's niece) for the first time this past week. For those of you who don't know, Charley (my 1.5 year old labrador) is a big teddy bear who wouldn't hurt a fly even if it followed him around for a week straight. He's the dog that lets all the other dogs play and roll all over him without even batting an eyelash. He does give the occasional "okay Mom, I'm getting a little tired of all these youngin's" look, but would still never do anything about it. He's always had a special connection with children, and I was eager to see how he would handle a baby being in the same room. I mentioned this in a post earlier, but I've always felt that dogs know and understand so much more than we give them credit for. Sometimes I feel like he just looks at me and automatically knows what I'm thinking. I don't know, maybe that makes me a little crazy/weird. Anyway, so the moment came for the two of them to meet. The carrier sat on the couch just out of Charley's reach to let him get used to the idea of a new little person in the room. Monitoring how well he was handling it, we picked up the carrier and lowered it to where he could see her. He sat down very politely, slowly peeked inside, and suddenly got the biggest smile on his face. He looked over at me, and walked away. At first I thought he just wasn't as interested as I thought he would be. But, he completely surprised me with what he did next. He went over to the baby bag, picked up one of her stuffed dolls, brought it back over to the carrier and placed it very gently next to her. It was absolutely one of the sweetest things I had EVER seen. Granted, this will probably never happen again... but I'm okay with that. He is so gentle with her it's unreal. I can't wait to see how he handles our future children in his older years...

On a different note, I bought the iPhone 4 (with an adorable purple cover!) this past week as well. I've been a loyal Verizon-er for about 8 years now, and felt it was time for a "fresh" change of pace. RK has been with AT&T since before I met him and, of course, has had every iPhone they've come out with. He's much more of a "techie" than I am. I have to admit though, I love it! I've heard some people have issues with dropped calls and whatnot, but so far so good with this one. Anyone else have the iPhone 4? Thoughts?!

Lastly, I'm officially a certified 6-12 Biology (potential) teacher!!! I cannot wait to finally have my own classroom, my own kids, and my own "teacher desk." Yes, I know, I'm a nerd! ;) I've completely stocked up on every supply possible (kudos to Target and their $1 school supplies!) and am so excited to start my laminating, labeling, grading, etc. I know a year from now I will be so far up to my ears in the aforementioned that I'll want to shoot myself for ever thinking that, but for now it's still exciting. I think I'll wallow in my inexperienced optimism for now. :)

Enough rambling for now... Thanks for reading til the end. I really do appreciate it! Night y'all!!

8 comments:

Joanna said...

Can I call you Maggie?! I love that you got the iPhone 4 and I also have a purple cover! I'm about to do a post about it! I caved in as well. I got it 10 days ago and love it! I have been a loyal Verizon customer as well but the iPhone is soooo cool! On another note....yay for being a certified teacher I was a Biology major in college :)

D said...

Stop by my blog sometime, I gave you the versatile blog award! Love reading your blog!

www.simplymedb.blogspot.com

Our Happy Married Life... said...

hi new reader/follower and was drawn to your blog from your title. I'm a huge Lab lover and couldn't wait to see yours. What a cutie! Chloe is our 6 year old yellow lab. She's such a sweetheart. A lot of what you said about Charlie is exactly how Chloe is. I think they are the best dogs EVER! :) Look forward to reading more. :)

Ms. Dutton said...

Joanna- I love your purple cover! I'm super excited about being a biology teacher. It's such a fascinating subject... I only hope my students can get as into it as I did!

Danielle- Oh my gosh! Thank you soooo much!!! You honestly made my day with the award, I can't even tell you!! I LOVE to hear that other people actually enjoy reading my blog. I have so much fun doing it "just for me," but it makes it so much better to know that other people enjoy it as well! Thanks again!!

Our Happy Married Life- Yay! I'm so glad you're following me! New followers always put such a smile on my face! :) Chloe is absolutely adorable! I may be a little biased, but I honestly don't think there's a better breed out there! What great dogs... I can't wait to read more about Chloe!

Amber said...

Oh my goodness. How you lived without technology for such long stretches of time I have no idea! Especially the cell phone! So glad you're past it all and hope you're having a good week!

Ms. Dutton said...

Amber- The cell phone was hard enough, but the no computer thing really did me in! I felt so out of touch with the world! :( But like you said, it's all in the past now... thank goodness! Thanks for commenting! I have to say, I'm quite addicted to your blog... hehe!

makeupthoughts said...

Hi

I'm a new follower...I love your blog!!!!

Your puppy is so precious...reminds me of when my 6 year old lab Doro was so small:)))-he's a big chubby boy now :))))...come and visit me at makeupthoughts.blogspot.com

Dee

Ms. Dutton said...

Thank you so much Dee! He's much bigger now, but I just love the little puppy pictures! So glad you like my blog!! Thanks for following! :)