Pounce and more

For your viewing enjoyment: more pictures of Pounce. And what's going on in our lives? I can't sleep. I've had a sore throat and a wisdom tooth that is gnawing into my cheek. Which is pretty painful, as you may imagine. The hole in my cheek is kind of gross and impressive. But when I lay on my left side I wake up from the pain of my cheek hole being pushed into my wisdom tooth. I talked to a dentist I know and he's going to give me something to cauterize (sounds scary) the "wound." He said I don't have to have the tooth pulled right now. Which is what I've been worried about. Because I don't have time to have it pulled right now.

Yesterday we had Fall Festival here. I had a good time. I especially enjoyed hearing nice things about my husband. Two parents came up to Michael and told him that their children love his classes and talk about him and their classes. I beamed. It made Michael feel good too. I keep telling him that he's a good teacher and he should just stick it out for awhile. It's good to have reassurement from parents, though, and we don't get that a lot at boarding school. Really, it's good to get reassurement from anyone. Speaking of teaching, I have an administrator coming to observe my class tomorrow. That's stressful. Then sometime I'll have an evaluation. I guess if they tell me I'm a terrible teacher I can know that this is not the career that I got my degree for, and I'll move on to something else and they can just find a different teacher. For two classes. I know people are just falling over themselves to get this job. (cough, cough) Obviously, since they hired me out of desperation. Suckers.

Also, at the end of this week is Parent Weekend. Included in the fun and games are a parent/teacher forum where all the parents and teachers get together and the parents can ask any questions they like to anyone, and parent/teacher conferences. I learned last year that parent/teacher conferences weren't as bad as I feared. I'm hoping that my observation holds true for this year. So far, I only have two parents signed up to talk to me. That would be nice, but I'm sure it won't go down that way.

So that's some of the anxiety that I'm dealing with right now. I'm ready for this week to be over. Actually, I'd like to fast forward to exactly a week from now, when, hopefully, I'll be on my way to Nashville from Louisville to celebrate my sister's birthday. Sigh.



See, Michael's still around.



Shelby is starting to get irritated by Pounce. Pounce pounces on Shelby, especially her tail. Shelby doesn't like this much. Still, they have some sweet moments.



Just an autumnal view.



She's very playful.



I tricked her into climbing in there for a treat and then closed her in, turned the carton right side up, then released her. She didn't like it much, but it made for a cute picture. I put SoftClaws on her so that she can't scratch me or the furniture anymore. A good alternative to declawing. At first she fell alot when trying to jump onto things she used to be able to claw her way up. It was pretty funny. I hope you don't all think I'm a horrible person after this last paragraph. You've gotta take your laughs where you can get them. In case you're worried, I'm still her favorite person, so I must not be too mean.

Pounce de Lion

That's the official name. Whether it will stick or not I'm not sure. Mostly she goes by Pounce. She's 8 1/2 weeks old. She has become quite proficient at climbing legs. So I'm trying to dissuade her from that. Also, she's fascinated by the ceiling fan. She tried to climb up the bed post so that she could attack it. Several times she's fallen asleep on my lap, which is pretty much all I want from my animals. To cuddle. She's also getting quite vocal. If I'm not paying attention to her she wails. And meows. Endlessly until she's picked up. Soon after being picked up she wants to get down and play. Then she starts crying again because I'm not paying attention to her. She's already very good at using the litter box. We seem to have had one accident in the four days we've had her. Much better than Shelby as a puppy. Accidents all over the place.

Speaking of Shelby, she got sprayed by a skunk last night. I want to go back and check my posts from last year, but I think it's almost exactly the same time as when she was sprayed before. This time she didn't get as close and hence was not sprayed nearly as bad. We slathered her in tomato juice, dish soap, doggy shampoo and bubble bath. So far it seems to have worked. But last time, when we came home after letting her in the house we were nearly bowled over by the stench. It's the leaving then coming back that's the real test, so we'll see when we come home for lunch today whether our house seems habitable.

I wore a coat and scarf today. Probably if I weren't walking to work it wouldn't have been totally necessary, but I was and it was pretty cold and windy, of course. I think the weather has probably turned for worse. It's this time of year that I wonder whether I'll make it until April or May. Last April wasn't much good because it still snowed. And May was just OK. So here's to June. When I'll be happy again (I hope). Actually, I'm waiting to get in to see a doctor so that I can get on antidepressants, so it might not take that long to be happy again. We'll have to wait and see.

P.S. I did go back and check old posts and it was a year ago last Saturday night. So next November, remind me not to let Shelby outside at night.

The newest Shofner

We added a member over the weekend.







Shelby loves her. And she mostly ignores Shelby, but sometimes chases her or places with her tail. Sometimes they snuggle up together. She makes me happy. And she doesn't have a name yet (though I'm leaning towards Sadie or Thor) so I'm taking suggestions. We hope she'll grow up and eat lots of mice. (Did I mention we have a bit of a mouse problem?) And she likes me a lot. This morning when I was putting on makeup she meowed and complained that I wasn't paying attention to her. Then she climbed up my leg. Which was painful. But endearing.

Like whoa.

I realized last night that probably, you all think my news is that I'm pregnant. Amusingly, that didn't even cross my mind when I wrote that. So no, I'm not. Pregnant, that is. At least, if I am, I certainly don't know about it, and it would be very surprising considering the type of birth control I'm on. Almost fool-proof. Probably TMI there, huh?

Anyway, my youth pastor from back home, Pastor Mike, is here this week for a week of prayer type thing called FOCUS week. So I chatted with him last night and we just caught each other up on life. I remember many Friday nights at his house. Good times.

Also, we gave Shelby the tomato juice bath last night. She still stinks. And I think the hoodie I'm wearing today smells like skunk. But I'm cold. So it's either stink and be comfortable or stink less and be cold. Right now I'm opting for warmth.

It was good to see Shelby a nice orange-ish red color. I sang songs to her like "Shelby is the color of a red balloon and she likes to play and she likes to run and she likes to chase skunks every day." (That was a modification of the color song that we used to sing in Oral and Written, in case anyone was wondering about the tune.) She didn't care for the song. She mostly stood and shivered because we let her sit in the tomato juice for ten minutes. Then we bathed her with her regular doggy shampoo. Still with the stinking.

Anyway, that's what's going on. So if you wanted to know I was pregnant, too bad.

Eww.

So on Saturday night Shelby got sprayed by a skunk. It was not pretty. And she hasn't been back into the house since. So not only is she stinky, she's also covered in burs. She doesn't look very happy. But we did try to call her away from the skunk and she wouldn't obey, so you know, I feel a little bad for her, but not too bad.

She did get about two feet into the house. And so the entire house got stunk up. I febreezed everything ten times. And lit about 15 candles. And made some popcorn. And sprayed perfume. Yep. Still stinks at the front and back doors. I don't understand that because she wasn't anywhere near the front door.

Other than that, life is busy. We had senior recognition this weekend and I had to get up and give a welcome. I don't like speaking in front of large groups of people, so that was a little nerve wracking, but not too bad. Someone pulled a fire alarm during the sermon on Sabbath. I helped decorate for the senior dinner with parents extravaganza. Sunday was the staff recognition dinner.

I'm thinking about getting a master's in school counseling. Because my favorite part of my job is when kids come into my office and just talk to me about what's going on in their lives.

There's other news, but I don't really want to post it publicly, so if you want to know, you'll have to call or email.