Anniversary

Photo for the day:

 

Josey, worshiping the space heater. ::chuckles:: I have to turn it down or off at times because she’ll lay right there until she’s bright pink. ::laughs:: Crazy ass dog.

Today started bright and early with a text from my mom…letting me know that Aunt Kathy passed away earlier this morning. Her health had been horrible for a while now and the doctors had only given her a few months to live. Yeah well, ain’t no man telling Aunt Kathy what she can and cannot do. She passed away in her sleep. I am sad that I wasn’t able to see her before she passed. And mom told me that Aunt Kathy wanted to be cremated and no service, so I’m not sure what will be done. Uncle Jake and mom are going to talk to the funeral home tomorrow, so we’ll know more after that.

On a less depressing note, happy 8th anniversary to my husband and I! Hard to believe we’ve made it 8 years married, 10 total years together. We did dinner last night at Red Lobster, so we opted to keep today low-key. We snagged ice cream from Marble Slab again. So damn delicious. Me, I kept it simple – vanilla ice cream with rainbow sprinkles and white chocolate chips. David went with birthday cake ice cream with Oreos and chocolate chip cookie dough. It was SO packed in there. And then a family of like 40 showed up and I could wait to get out of there fast enough. The shop is only big enough for probably 20 people total.

Pluto & Oils

So apparently Pluto was being a right cunt yesterday, hence the crazy emotional crap I was going through:



And given that the vast majority of my planets (in my astrological chart) are in Scorpio…and Scorpio is ruled by Pluto….when Pluto is being a little bitch, it wreaks HAVOCK on me.

But now that Pluto has gone direct once again, all of that can mellow back out. Thank god.

Photo for the day:

 

My bottle of Samhain scented oil arrived today from Sage Goddess. At first whiff, I was so incredibly disappointed. It’s almost too damn sweet – pumpkin and ginger and sugar. I decided to test it out today before making my final decision. After about 30 minutes of the sugary sweet aroma, it really mellowed out into something deeper and less sweet. I almost kind of like it. I’ll wear it a few more times before making my final decision on it.

BUT. It reminds me now that I should not purchase any of Sage Goddess’s perfume oils unless I have received a sample of it AND like said sample. No more just ordering because it sounds interesting. ::shakes her head:: Yeah, Lioness was AWFUL and Samhain? While not quite AWFUL…it ain’t all that great either. So I’m thinking the month of October, I’ll focus on testing out the ass ton of samples I have from Sage Goddess and noting which ones I like AND which ones I do NOT. I made a spreadsheet for all the ones that I currently have, so I’ll just add notes to that as I go.

Tomorrow is Hubs & I’s EIGHTH wedding anniversary (TEN years together total, if you count our year of dating and year of engagement). We celebrated a little bit early and did dinner at Red Lobster. So delicious. Tomorrow we plan to go pick up two buntlets at Nothing Bundt Store – one Red Velvet and one Confetti. ::smiles:: Looking forward to that.

Thankful Thursday #39

Photo for today:



Raindrops on roses. ::smiles::

I received my 300th postcard from Postcrossing today:



Woohoo! It’s from Lithuania.

I am thankful…
1. Our new aide, Alexia, started yesterday AND she has prior work experience with children. Sweet baby cheesus, it’s a damn MIRACLE. Thus far, she seems to fit in very well AND knows what she is doing.
2. Glorious rain that finally fell, after days of oppressive heat and humidity.
3. Received my 300th postcard today. Makes me happy.
4. Truly beautiful Mabon altar and celebration I had on Monday. I’m glad I pushed it from Friday to Monday – I feel it made all the difference in the world.
5. That I am still holding strong to my vow not to engage in self-injurious behavior. The compulsion has picked back up here recently, but thus far, it’s just the desire. No real impulse to act on it.
6. That the Last Unicorn Tarot kickstarter is doing so well. It would be nice if we hit the $100K mark, as I would love a special card signed by Peter S. Beagle.
7. Domino’s pizza for dinner – I really didn’t feel like cooking, so I was thrilled when David suggested it.
8. Practicing various forms of self-care in hopes of alleviating this damn depression. Though, to be honest, I think it’s just going to linger until my MoonTime.
9. Remembering that I need new tires BEFORE I can get my car inspected. Would suck to drive all the way down to my lil hometown, only to fail the inspection. ::laughs:: Well, it wouldn’t be a complete bust, as I would get to see my mom. So yeah, four new tires coming up!
10. Got the maternal grandfather’s Family Tree of Ancestors up – all 80 pages pieced together, makes for a family tree that is 4.5 feet TALL and 11.25 feet LONG. The other branches of ancestors are much smaller.
11. For my massive bedroom and that I have a solid 16 feet of wall space on which I can easily (ish) hang up said massive family tree.

Yeah, it was rough getting through this list of thankfuls. My mind just isn’t playing nice currently. But I am glad that I pushed through and wrote it. Hell, even came up with an extra one for shits-n-giggles.

Storms

written: Sept 27th

Photo for the day:



The impending storm, slowly coming in. I lit a stick of “Sea Glass” incense (by DazeyMae Treasures) for the Harpies. I’m still seeking the aroma that keeps them happy. They seem “happy enough” with just about anything I offer them…but I would rather find something they REALLY like. Maybe a coffee incense – given that they requested that as the sacrifice in our very first deal?

Either way, the storm came in. Just steady rain. But still, enjoyable rain. Josey thought I had lost my damn mind, as I was standing out in it. But gods, I needed that.

Ancestors

Photo for the day:



Holy Ancestor Tree, Batman! And this isn’t even all of my ancestors! This is just the branch of my maternal grandfather’s side. ::chuckles:: EIGHTY pages…roughly 11.25 feet long and 4.5 feet tall. Yeah, that took more than a hot minute to piece it all together and get it up on the wall. The plan now, is over Winter Break, to correct the errors that I know are there and gather as much information on each ancestor as I can. (If we are being honest, I’ll be fucking proud if I just correct the errors…the rest of that is extremely ambitious).

I am not doing ok, mentally, at the moment. I know it’s mostly stress related….and hormonal related. ::sighs:: Doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck any less just because I know what is causing me to bottom out.

Luckily our new aide, Alexia, is supposed to start tomorrow. I was talking it over with Jessica – that it’s going to suck for the next month….because I’ve got to train Alexia now. ::sighs:: But hopefully, once I get her caught up, I can turn my full attention onto Jesse and whip his lil ass into shape. And if not? Well, then, I will be happy to shuffle him off to a new campus. I do not give a flying fuck at this point. In theory, we also have ANOTHER aide waiting for clearance. She was formerly a school crossing guard for the district. So maybe I shouldn’t even bother too much with Jesse, as I’m pretty damn sure he’s already in the process of being moved off my campus anyways. Gail’s hinted at that being the reason why I’m getting the second aide…but we’ll see.

Blessed Mabon

Blessed Mabon! I’m just a few days “late”, but damn, look at how amazing my altar turned out:



With the lights on:

 

Going from left to right:

Deer antler (shed)
Leaf candle holder with a Black Candle (for the waning year)
Galaxy Coyote skull
Silver candle holder with an Owl feather (symbol for the waning year)
Roses from my rosebush
Gold candle holder with a Hawk feather (symbol for the waxing year)
Mabon Candle from Bella de Luna
Mabon incense from Divine Scentsations
Buffalo bone bowl with acorns, a “baby” pinecone, and two sweetgum pods
Another deer antler (shed)
Leaf candle holder with a White Candle (for the waxing year)
My athame

Inspiration also from that 2015 Mabon, Nicky (a very good friend) had talked about how in her Coven’s Mabon, each participant was told to draw two Tarot cards – one of the year past and one for the year ahead. I elected to use my Messenger Oracle by Ravynn Phelan.



For the year past I drew “Time to Reflect” and for the year ahead I drew ”Hear the Ancients”.

One final shot of my Mabon Altar:

Updated Wolf Altar & Mabon in the Works

written: Sept 24th

Photo for today:



Just a photo of my updated “Dream Wolf Altar Territory”. The new goddess statue fits in quite nicely.
I set up my Mabon Altar today and I am REALLY liking the way it’s turned out. I can’t wait for my celebration tomorrow. Given that I’ve had to skip or seriously gloss over previous rituals/celebrations, I am really going all out of this one. Holy crap, the altar is stunning. I gained quite a bit of inspiration from my 2015 Mabon Altar, so some of that symbolism will be carried over. I really need to sit down and go through ALL my photos and pull out all the altar photos from over the years. I need to print those out and add them to my working Grimoire/Almanac. It’s just a massive task and I haven’t gotten around to it. One of these days….

I finished up my essay for class today. And there are NO readings this week. He’ll be giving us our Midterm essay questions on Wednesday. We’ll have two weeks to work on that before we have to turn it in.

Toast & Late

written: Sept 23rd

Photo for today:

 

I made cinnamon toast! I haven’t made it in ages….mostly because the Husband is so anti-bread, so we rarely have bread in the house. But I wanted bread to make chicken salad sandwiches, hence why I chose to pick up bread. I dunno why I decide to go with the Husband’s decisions on such things. It’s not like he asks me to do it with him. I just go with it. I really need to stop doing that. ::shakes her head::

Spent the day reading. I finally finished the damn article. ::chuckles::

I also got started on setting up my Bastardized Bullet Journal for October. I chose a non-composition notebook this time around. A thicker journal, actually, as I’m tired of the composition notebooks lasting only a few months. So hopefully this one will last a bit longer…at least through the end of this year.

And I got Annie’s package packed up and mailed out. FINALLY. Only took me like a fucking month to do! ::laughs:: But better late than never, right? Fuck, that’s the motto of my LIFE for sure. I don’t do too well with time limits.

Mabon & Work Complaints

written: Sept 22nd

Photo for today:



Just a bit of light reading for today. ::chuckles:: All 56 pages on archiving. ::chuckles::

Yep, one of many articles I need to read for my Archives & Manuscripts class. At least I find them interesting and enjoyable or this would be a HORRIBLE chore.

So yeah, my new aide that is supposed to start work on Monday? Yeah…it might be Wednesday. Somehow, my supervisor DOESN’T KNOW. Like, how the fuck do you not know when someone is going to start work??? Isn’t that part of BEING A SUPERVISOR???? ::sighs:: Yeah, most likely, I WILL be taking at least one class this summer, just to keep me on track to graduating in Dec 2018. I can’t take much more of this constant nonsense.

In other news, Blessed Mabon (or Autumn Equinox). I will be celebrating it most likely on Monday. I’m just too damn swamped at the moment to do more than just that. ::chuckles:: I’ve been picking up acorns and sweetgum burrs on my walks with Josey. Those will go on my altar for Mabon…once I clear my plate of my work and class obligations.

I dream of the day that I can celebrate whenever I see fit. ::chuckles:: That if I want to wait a few days to celebrate, it’s MY choice, not because I have all this other shit crowding my life. One of these days….

Thankful Thursday #38

written: Sept 21st

Photo for today:

 

Anput goddess statue by Brigid’s Grove.

I am thankful for…
1. This truly awesome lil goddess statue. Even though the creator named her Anput – an ancient Egyptian goddess, wife to Anubis – but for me, this little goddess will be on the Wolf Altar. This is the representative of the Wolf Mother.
2. In theory, I will have another aide to help out soon. Which is good, because we are getting ANOTHER new student on Monday, which brings our student count up to 66. ::shakes her head:: I am seriously losing my mind here.
3. That my supervisor came out today and got to see, first hand, just how insane my campus is and how badly we NEED an extra person. AND she got to see how crappy Jesse is being currently.
4. Reading an article on a Witches’ Almanac VS a Book of Shadows/Grimoire that has turned my thoughts on the subject completely on its head. I am taking my Witch Journaling in a new direction, and I hope it’s a good one for me.
5. Pleasant New Moon ritual that centered around a new journal for my Witch’s Almanac.
6. The work week is almost over. I’m so ready for it to be over. I desperately need a break from the insanity.
7. That my job is only part-time. I could not imagine dealing with this level of sheer insanity on a full time basis. I’m sure I would have been committed by now if I were dealing with 40+ hours of this a week.
8. That I’ve decided to push my celebration of Mabon (Autumn Equinox) back to Monday, even though it technically occurs tomorrow. I just have too much shit to do in too short of time….and besides…it’ll be 95+ degrees that day anyway. So autumn what? ::laughs:: Autumn doesn’t arrive here until mid to late October.
9. Tiny, tiny sliver of the moon rising in the sky this evening.
10. That thus far this year, I’ve maintained my daily photo and entry. Hard to believe I’ve managed to stick with it this long, but pretty damn impressive if so I say so myself.

Blessed New Moon

Photo for today:



Blessed New Moon!

Altar with the lights on:



Going left to right:
- Athame
- Galaxy painted Coyote Skull
- New Journal
- Black 7-day candle (originally a Samhain candle by Sage Goddess – now my New Moon candle)
- Raven Wing bowl (for the Harpies)
- Gemstones in the bowl are rainbow moonstone, black tourmaline, citrine.
- New Moon tealight (from Sage Goddess)
- Shadow tealight (for the Serpent)
- Snake hair stick (doubles as a wand)
- Little Sorceress necklace
- Galaxite gemstone
- Sacred feather and “Storm Watch” incense (from DrazeyMae Treasures)
- Slytherin pen (also doubles as a wand)
- Dark blue altar cloth

Serpent drawing I found on Deviant Art that I’ve copied to the inside of my newest journal:

Dead Weight

written: Sept 19th

Photo for today:


A pretty little feather I found on my walk – it’s roughly 2 inches long. I like that I can take photos of the feathers and then return them from where they came. I only keep the really special ones now.

So yeah, had to write up Jesse (my high schooler aide) today. Fucker is on his damn phone (after being told multiple times that it is supposed to be in the cabinet during work) AND left Laina (the other aide) solo in the gym with the students so he could sneak into the STUDENTS’ bathroom to play on his phone some more. ::snarls::

I am getting so tired of this song and dance. We desperately need at least one more aide because we are barely treading water, and Jesse is just a fucking weight, dragging us under at the moment. And it’s so unfair to the rest of us.

Contemplating

written: Sept 18th

Photo for today:
 

My dorky lil pup. I adore her under bite…and I adore the fact that most of the time, her lip gets caught on it, and she’s fucking adorable.

I am thinking of doing a big hair cut at the end of the month. I am toying with the idea of cutting off 8 to 10 inches. I am also toying with the idea of omber-ing my hair with blonde. Could be fun. ::chuckles:: I guess I’ll cut it first and then figure out if I want the blonde or not.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a cut of that significance. Years, even. This time around, I will be sure to have Tracy take before and after photos. A lot of my personal identity is tied up in my hair. It’s one of my best assets, so cutting it isn’t something I take lightly.

Hazel has invited me out in October to one of the Heathen group’s rituals – a Wild Hunt ritual. I’m rather excited as I’ve never A) been to a Wild Hunt ritual, and B) never been to a Heathen (Germanic) ritual. So that should be interesting.

I need to get cracking on planning for Mabon. It’s on Friday, so yeah, it’s getting close. I plan to cut some of the roses from the bush out back and have those on my altar. I was hoping for acorns, but I’m not sure they’ll be ready by that time. I may push my celebration back to the following Monday. ::shrugs:: Will play that one by ear.

And after that is Samhain. I need to get started on that one as well. I want to print out my Family Tree again. I’m not sure I’ll drum through all the names like I did last year, but I like having the Family Tree up for that. And I’ll keep it up until December for sure. I’m hoping once Winter Break arrives and my Archives & Manuscripts class is over, I can devote some serious time to turning a critical eye to my Family Tree. I know there are errors in there. I just have to have it all up on the wall so I can visually see where the errors are. Then I’ll know which “ancestors” need a double checking. And I plan to cull out the Family Tree a bit as well. It’s beyond too large to manage, going waaaaaaaaaay out for crazy distant “relatives”. The Tree currently has 9,204 individuals on it. ::shakes her head::

Blankies, Candles, and Archives

written: Sept 18th

Photo for today:



Josey is REALLY hoping I won’t take her “mini-blankie” – the scrap of tiger print blanket beside her. The blanket is in her kennel, and it is a seriously mangled/loved blanket. ::laughs:: She’s only allowed to destroy the blankets in her kennel (mostly because we aren’t here to keep her from destroying them), and thus leaves all the other blankets in the house alone. ::chuckles::

So Wal-Mart now has Yankee Candles. So dangerous. ::chuckles:: I did pick up a candle, not Yankee, but cinnamon scented in a nice red candle holder. Once the candle burns down completely, I plan to make my own candle in that candle holder. You know, whenever I finally capture this mythical thing called “free time”. ::chuckles::

Today was all about the reading. I had to read for my Archives & Manuscripts class. Note to Self: Stop making shit extra hard for this class. I hunted and hunted through the online university’s library for this one particular article that I HAD to have for class, to no avail. Finally, I just typed the article’s full title into Google, and BAM. There it was, in its entirety! Like, for fuck’s sake, girl! I’ll just start Googling this shit and be done with my university’s difficult library search. And damn, did that turn out to be an INTERESTING article to read!

Ok, so I admit, my opinions on things that are interesting to read, may not be everyone else’s jam. This particular article “The Archival Sliver: Power, Memory, & Archives in South Africa” by Verne Harris was all about the apartheid in South African, and how that racism/classism pervaded every aspect of their society…including the archives. And how the archives, based on what records (information) they kept and what they destroyed, helped shape and bolster the social memory/narrative, thus bolstering the racism/classism that made up apartheid. And I can see it mirrored in so many other places. Like, damn White People!?! Why are we such DICKS?!?! ::shakes her head:: Yay arrogance!

And to leave this entry on a positive note, damn, I love these Texas sunsets:

Flowers, Feathers, and Movies

written: Sept 16th

Photo for today:




It’s another, more artistic, photo of the blooming hibiscus. I love it. You can even see pollen. Who would have thought I would enjoy a PINK flower so much? ::laughs::

Found this woodpecker feather on my walk with Josey too:

 

Busy, busy day. Fed Leviathan (my corn snake). I figure since the mice are so small, I’ll bump her feeding schedule up to every two weeks instead of every three and see how she does. I like the individual packing of the mice-in-a-box I got from PetsMart. The mice keep better and longer in the freezer instead of the 3-pack I get from PetCo. It’s just that the mice from PetCo are bigger. Note: Said mice are frozen. I’m not keeping live mice.

David and I watched Crimson Peak. I enjoyed it. It reminded me a bit of The Haunting in the beginning. Crimson Peak had some creepy moments, but I wish it had MORE creepy moments. It had such potential, but it just kind of flopped at the end. ::shrugs:: But all in all, a good movie, just not one that I’ll be re-watching any time soon. Then, because it was midnight, and we had just watched a creepy movie, Husband decided we needed to watch Jack The Giant Killer. ::chuckles:: So yeah, I didn’t head to bed until 3 am.

Roses

written: Sept 15th

Photo for today:

 

My rosebush is entering its third blooming cycle. I finally treated it a few weeks back for the rust and spots, and she seems mighty happy now. ::chuckles:: Seems I will have roses on my Mabon altar for sure. She has a dozen or more rose buds coming up.

It’s amazing how much stress I’ve shed by dropping that one class. Like I can breathe again, and joke around with my students. Hell, I was downright jolly at work. ::laughs:: Didn’t stop me from busting Jesse’s chops of a few things and putting my staff through their paces on documentation. But I have HOPE. I feel like I CAN turn this ship around on my campus. I CAN make my aides even better and thus make our work environment better.

So I have two assignments for the Archives class due – my 200 essay on this week’s readings is due Sunday, and a 2-page paper over some archives in the news is due on Monday. I’ve already found the article I’ll be writing over. Now I just have to read it, take notes, and answer the questions the professor has posed and limit that to just 2 pages. ::chuckles::

October brings around another Round of the National Journal Writing Month Challenge. I figure I’ll do that again for sure. And I’m hoping that there will be a new set of Witch photo prompts, like the “Inner Witch October Photo Challenge” #innerwitchoctober that I did last year. But if not, I’ll do that one again. It would be interesting to see how my practice has changed and how my interpretation of the prompts change. ::chuckles::

Thankful Thursday #37

written: Sept 14th

Photo for today:
 

The neighborhood hibiscus is blooming again.

I am thankful…
1. That I was able to drop the Public Libraries class. The course load was just too much for me to be able to do at this time. It’s funny, but everyone is telling me to just not take that class again (it is not a required class), and yet, I kind of want to. I see it as a huge challenge, but one that would prove beneficial if I could take it and pass it. I will see how I feel about it further down the road.
2. Tomorrow’s paycheck is a REALLY nice one. Thank goodness, because I got bills to pay and I need to put back the money in savings that I had to take out to cover summertime bills.
3. Finding little tricks that keep my journal writing on target – from the sticky notes for the daily gratitude lists, to using the free planners to keep up with my 10-year journal. I like figuring simple fixes like this.
4. Albert, the resident cottontail rabbit, that has been frequenting our yard recently.
5. A good week celebrating David’s birthday. We celebrate in small ways all week long. Makes you feel a little extra special.
6. That FaceBook showed me photos from previous years on David’s birthday, which reminded me to hang the various “Happy Birthday” banners, like I have for multiple years now. David really liked that.
7. That the new system for checking the students in and out (ProCare) is back to working like it should, and that we’ve got the vast majority of the parents signed up correctly, so it’s a fairly streamlined deal now.
8. That I have come to the realization that I’m a very negative person at work. I’m grateful for that realization, because now I can begin the work to rectify that. I have no desire to be that person any longer.
9. The ability to purchase various things that I need and things I want with relative ease. And that I have the ability to shop around and find the quality, quantity, and price I want.
10. Using my good camera again. I had forgotten the joy of just taking it out and shooting photos, and how good they turn out without any major post-shoot work. I need to make more time for that love.

Feathers & Retreat

Photo for today:

 

Pair of feathers I found on my walk today with Josey. Cardinal feather on the left. Unknown black feather on the right – most likely a Grackle. Lord knows we have a shit ton of those around here. Too small to be a Crow, or else I would have kept it.

Holy fuck, I’m so completely beat down and worn out. I almost burst into tears at work, dealing with those shenanigans and thinking about all the classwork I STILL have to do. So I’ve decided I’m going to try to drop my Public Libraries class. It’s just too much to take on right now with everything else that’s going on in life as well. Sadly, the last day to just straight up drop the class was Monday. Now, I can drop it, but I’ll get a penalty. But you know what? The penalty is worth it if I can keep my job, pull an A in the Archives & Manuscripts class, and NOT end up committed or haven’t done any self-injurious behavior, or had a psychotic snap. THAT is what the penalty will keep at bay right now. I do plan to take the Public Libraries class before the end of my Master’s degree, but most likely it will be my last semester, so I only have to focus on that one class, plus working in a public library (which will GREATLY help me in that class). So yeah, it will push my graduation back a semester, but if it keeps me out of the rubber room? WORTH IT.

Now I’ll have to pay back that class to my Mom. She’s graciously paid for my classes as long as I get B’s or better. Hopefully, I will get some of the money back from dropping this course. But even if I don’t, I intend to pay my mom back every penny for this class.

It hurts to admit that I’ve truly bitten off more than I can chew. It really hurts to admit that I’m not strong enough mentally, right now, to take on this class with the way everything else is going. It just really fucking hurts. But I keep telling myself, this is NOT me quitting. I will tackle this class another time, when I know I can win. And I will get a goddamn A in the fucking class.

Birthday

written:  Sept 12th

Photo for today:
 

One of Frank’s little babies, chillin’ in Holly’s memorial crepe myrtle tree.

Today is David’s birthday. I took the day off of work. I just couldn’t go in to work today. I needed the day off. We did lunch at Bacci’s. And we finally swung by Marble Slab. We’ve been toying with going there for a while now and we finally went. Super delicious, but holy crap, expensive!

I am still trying to get all the reading done for my Public Libraries class. ::shakes her head:: Even with as fast a reader as I am, and as much as I love to read….I don’t think I can keep up with this class. I swear, it is going to require 25 hours a week, minimum, just for this one class. And I still have my Archives & Manuscripts class, PLUS work and then family life. There just aren’t that many hours in the damn day. How to people work full time, go to grad school full time, and have families with children AND still remain sane? I tip my hat to those people, because y’all are on deity level there.

Insanity on the 11th

written:  Sept 11th

Photo for today:
 

Jade charging plate I bought for David for his birthday. It has a wealth charm on it. This was the medium size, but it’s a lot bigger than we were anticipating.

I also got my replacement Morion quartz point:
 

The first one I received was a LOT smaller than the smallest size listed that I had purchase (I purchased a “large” one that should have been at least 1.5 inches long…it was barely 1.25). So they told me to keep the original one and that they would send another out swiftly. So I am thinking that with the Jade plate, they wanted to be sure I was happy, and thus may have given us a slightly larger one just in case. Which is awesome for us! ::chuckles::

Work was god awful. ProCare randomly decided to log half of my students out. So when the parents came to sign the kid out, they actually logged the kid BACK IN. And some of the students that I had marked as absent, ProCare logged in. So I was on the phone with Gail, my supervisor, trying to get that fixed…and two of my students got into a fist fight. And then another student was picking on a different student…making fun of his name. And when the kid told him to stop making fun of his name, the mean student then slapped him across the face. Like, are you shitting me? And of course, the kid being teased and then hit, that mom went off the fucking deep end about it. Which, I get it, but holy shit woman. Get a hold of your panties please. So yeah, had to call my boss again to give her a heads up that this lady may be calling her and ranting to her. AND shared the info with the principal as the mom was ranting about calling her about this. ::shakes her head::

Yeah, went home with a damn migraine for all my troubles at the end of the day. ::shakes her head::

Ribs

written: Sept 10th

Photo for today:


Chicken Alfredo – it’s one of those box dinners. Super easy to make and honestly, pretty damn tasty.

We did lunch at Texas Roadhouse. My ribs were so “eh” this time around. I mean, they were tender and all that, but zero flavor. It was so weird. But David’s were good apparently and he was super pleased, so I kept my little comments to myself. No sense in raining on his parade.

Heading into David's Bday

written:  Sept 9th

Photo for the day:

 

My black tourmaline chip necklace finally arrived from China. I love their business card they included with it. ::chuckles::

Today has been all about the reading. I have SO MUCH reading to do for both of my classes, it’s just insane. Even Josey was a bit concerned that I was up in my room reading:

 

I did however take a break from all the reading to run over to the Nothing Bundt Cake store and pick up two bundtlet cakes – one in confetti and one in red velvet. We decided to try the confetti one tonight. So I got out the Minion Birthday candle and put it on the bundtlet and had David make a wish:

 

We’ll do the same with the red velvet one later one. ::chuckles::

Money & Work Babblings

written: Sept 8th

Photo for the day:

 

Set of scented oils that I’ve divvied up for some friends. Sadly, I will have to wait until the next payday to mail them out. September is always a tough month because I’m still recovering from the lean pay over summer, as the Tech Job isn’t paying at the same level as the after school program. So while it does pay the bills, it does not leave any fun money. And given that David’s birthday is on the 12th of this money, any fun money I manage to scrounge up goes to him. And I almost always feel bad that I can’t do more. But, hopefully, this only temporary. Hopefully, once I finish my Master’s degree and get a full time library-ish job somewhere, my income will be better and more stable. At least, that’s the friggin’ dream. That’s what I’m attempting to achieve through all of this course craziness. ::shakes her head::

Work is interesting. My non-potty-trained student…today was his last day. His father was a bit snarky, which I completely understand where he’s coming from…but at the same time? I wish he could see it a bit from our perspective. We are understaffed even if all our students fell in the “normal” spectrum. And when we have students that need a bit more one-on-one? That leaves the other staff WAY over ratio with the students. It’s not fair to everyone involved. And if he were to get potty trained, I would be more than willing to have that student back in our program. There are no hard feelings on my side. I just know that it isn’t exactly fair to the parents, if we are being honest here. And I can definitely see things from their point of view. The whole situation just sucks. ::shrugs::

And my high schooler and I are about to have a Coming To Jesus Meeting. We’ve been working 9 days…and he’s been late for 8 of those days, been out of dress code at least half of those days, AND left early the past two Fridays. That’s so unfair to the rest of the staff because then we are REALLY short-handed, and he isn’t letting my supervisor know in a timely manner so that we could even be considered for getting a sub for those days. And I’m sure it’s because he has zero idea how the program is run (he missed a few days of orientation), and just assumes it’s all hunky dory. ::shakes her head:: But yeah, that shit has GOT to stop.

And because we are understaffed, it makes it impossible for me to rotate through the various places we go (like outside or to the gym or the group bathroom break) so see how it’s running (or NOT running). It also makes it very hard to be able to do on-site training for those areas. Hopefully we will get another aide SOON, and I can start getting back into the rotation on that stuff and nip some of these minor problems in the bud before they grow into BIG problems.

Thankful Thursday #36

written: Sept 7th

Photo for today:

 

A pretty feather I found when I moved the trash bin to the curb today – it has a soft, peach hue.

I am thankful…
1. That I followed Professor Enoch’s advice and saved all the articles I’ve been assigned thus far in my Master’s program (so articles from 4 classes). He said to save them because they would come in handy for the End of Course exam (at the end of the Master’s program)…but man, they are helping me in my Public Libraries class!
2. Able to watch the full moon rise from my own backyard. I love my little slice of territory.
3. That the local public library has one of the books I need to read for next week’s assignment in my Public Libraries class. I’ll pick it up tomorrow and hopefully read it over the weekend.
4. That my knee is back to its normal pain level and stiffness. It still sucks, but I can walk easily again, so that is a major plus.
5. Leviathan turned 11 on the 5th. Happy hatch-day to my lil lovely serpent.
6. That even though my brother’s house did end up flooding, I am thankful that he and his family are safe and sound.
7. Getting back into the habit of using my DSLR camera. It just has a level of quality that my cell phone doesn’t.
8. Allergy medicine, as the seasonal allergies flared up big time this week.
9. Definitely getting along better with my supervisor, Gail. I really am grateful for that.
10. That with as labor intensive as the Public Libraries class is, that my Archives and Manuscripts is a cake walk. I don’t know that I could have paired Public Libraries up with any other course and NOT gone insane. As it is, I’m pretty sure it is going to be a ROUGH semester just from the sheer volume of work it requires.

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Mabon & Cameras

written: Sept 6th

Photo for today:

 

Josey was “supervising” me as I was uploading photos from my DSLR. And I thought it would make a great photo, and my camera did not let me down. It just sucks that to get the photos off the camera, I have to use my desktop computer, which is why I don’t use my DSLR all that much anymore. But seeing how good these photos turn out is inspiring me to do the extra leg work to utilize my Nikon more.

So today is the full moon….and I ain’t doing shit for it. ::sighs:: Class work, Moon Time, and the insanity that is my job right now, means I have ZERO energy left over for anything else at the moment. Oh, and what little energy I do have, is being devoured due to a BAD flare up of seasonal allergies again.

So yeah, no altar was set up for this specific moon. No spell work will be done. At best, I will simply pause and greet the full moon as she rises. And looking ahead, I’m not even sure I’ll have the energy to do something for Mabon, which makes me sad, as it is one of the sabbats I really enjoy. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to that point.

Honestly, if I start working on my Mabon ritual, step-by-step, one task at a time, I should be fine by the time it rolls up on me. And honestly, other than getting a ritual candle (which I love doing), the rest is just gathering fall items from the neighborhood. Ok, so now I’ve managed to talk myself into it, so hopefully that will occur without too much stress.

Bunnies, Serpents, & Insanity

written: Sept 5th

Photo for the day:

 

Alfred, the cottontail, was back in the side yard again today.

Today is Leviathan’s 11th hatch-day. Hard to believe I’ve had her that long. But at the same time, it feels like I’ve had her for ages now.

I was hoping to get photos of her outside today, but time just got away from me. The Public Libraries class has a STUPID, INSANE level of course work. I have to read FOURTEEN books, plus 2 outside articles for each discussion post (and there are THIRTEEN discussion posts – so 26 articles). PLUS a public library interview, grant proposal, public library board meeting, AND the final. ::shakes her head:: I seriously may be bald by the end of this course from tearing my own hair out. Oye Vey!

Good Camera Shots

written: Sept 4th

Photos for the day:

Photo 1:



Photo 2:

 

Yep, you get a treat today! TWO photos of Josey taken with my DSLR camera. I had gotten my good camera out to try to take photos of the resident crows (no luck in capturing any shots of them), and when I was walking back up the sidewalk to the house, I saw Josey peeking out between the slats in the gate and just had to get photos of that. I think they turned out quite nice.

I am hoping once the temperatures start to drop down into the 70s, I can visit the Fort Worth Zoo once again. I miss doing good photography and I miss those beautiful animals. Besides, it’s been ages since I’ve had a good conversation with the Harpy Eagles, the Bald Eagle, and the Bushmaster at the zoo. Hell, maybe I’ll even make a trip over to the Dallas Zoo as well. I haven’t been there in AGES and I’ve heard the current director has made HUGE strives to vastly improve the Dallas Zoo. Besides, the Dallas Zoo has Okapis!

Magickal Musings

written: Sept 3rd

Photo for the day:



A very rough, beat up owl chest plume. Even though it’s in rough shape, it’s still beautiful. After taking various photos from all sorts of angles, I put it out by the rosebush.

You know, the rosebush has become a bit of a focal point for me. I think that’s where I’ll burn incense offerings from now on. That way I don’t have to worry about Josey sniffing the lit end and burning herself. ::chuckles:: Though, honestly, Josey’s pretty intelligent when it comes to ritual work. I wouldn’t say she’s a familiar, as she doesn’t HELP with the magick. More like a guardian. She sits respectfully outside of the Circle – which is cast with energy…there is no physical mark/boundary to show were the Circle, but she seems to be able to sense where that is. The only time she’s crossing into the Circle, is when the magick is done and I’m just chilling for a second to catch my breath. She’ll then come into Circle and lay beside me.

Bones

Photo for today:

 

I spotted this MONSTER skull at Lowes. I had never thought of Halloween decorations being at Lowes…but then again, until we got a house, I never had any reason to go to Lowes. They had a lot of cool Halloween stuff. I tried to talk the Husband into letting us bring the massive skull. He just had to ask where I would keep it. We have ZERO room in our house. So alas, the skull did not come home with me.

Instead, I bought him a bug zapper as an early birthday gift. Yeah, I’m just THAT romantic. ::laughs:: We are hyper rational when it comes to gifts. ::chuckles:: We figure it’s better to get something “boring” but something you will really use, than to get something “fluffy” that you will never use. I still remember one of my favorite Valentine’s Day gift from the Husband was a new sports bra and a pair of running shoes….both of which I desperately needed as the ones I currently had should have been thrown away the year prior. So yeah, definitely not the most romantic gift ever, but one I was very grateful for all the same.

And while we were at Lowes, I finally picked up the stuff to treat my rosebush. It’s got some “rust” going on and a few insect issues, but this should clear all of that up. And on a total whim, I picked up a bag of daffodil bulbs. I’ll need to see when the best time to plant them is. I plan to plant them in the mud pit in front of our house, where we had the plumbing issue earlier this year. No grass grows there currently. I would LIKE to pick up some stones to do a small border to help retain the potting soil I want to put there BEFORE I plant the daffodils. I’m stupid excited about the prospect of having my own daffodils next spring.

So ya know I was I talking about my knee being back to “normal”? Yeah, I jinxed the SHIT out of that. Today I was in THE worst knee pain I’ve ever been in…including when I tore the meniscus in my left knee. It hurt to bend the knee. It hurt to straighten the knee. It hurt to sit. It hurt to walk. It hurt to lay down. I tried to take a hot salt bath to see if that would help. Yeah, made things worse. I decided to bust out my knee brace, and ended up on my bed, in tears because it hurt so fucking bad. It hurt so bad that I laid there for a while not moving and just crying because I knew that taking the brace off was going to hurt so much worse. Since then I’ve pretty much kept my knee completely straight and the pain has definitely died down, but holy fuck, it’s still bad.

Yeah, so come Tuesday (because Monday is friggin’ Labor Day, so no doctor offices will be open) I am going to set up an appointment to see a damn orthopedic about this. I’m going on THREE WEEKS now of this fucking knee pain and I’m done.

Acorns & Rants

written: Sept 1st

Photo for today:




A pair of baby MONSTER acorns I found on my evening walk with Josey. They aren’t even fully grown yet. I should be able to get some awesome ones for Mabon (Autumn Equinox – September 22nd) along with some sweetgum pods (aka, Witches’ Burrs).

Holy crap, this first week has been pretty brutal. And add to the fact that I’m PMSing…yeah, my Give A Shit ™ is completely and utterly broken and vaporized. But luckily, the bulk of the students got picked up fairly early. Only had one stick around until closing. I seriously hope we get our 4th aide added to my campus SOON because 3 aides just ain’t cutting it. Especially given that we have one student who’s NOT EVEN POTTY TRAINED and is STILL IN PULL-UPS! I shit you not. And then we have two sets of brothers who absolutely HATE each other. And one set has the persecution complex down pat. ::shakes her head:: I just fucking hate it. First of the year is always brutal. Learning all the new students, all the new parents, attempting to train new staff. And doing it all UNDERSTAFFED just makes it so much more awesome. So much fucking sarcasm in that sentence. SO MUCH.

But yeah. I came home and we went and got 5 Guys Burgers and Fries for dinner (I get a cheese dog) and we watched Guardians of the Galaxy for the first time. LOVE it! Can’t wait to watch the second one tomorrow.

Ok, so in the Pull-Up Kid’s defense, there is something going on there – he has an ARD meeting soon, so he should be getting a diagnosis and a Plan in Place. But at the same time, the after school program STRESSES that the students HAVE to be potty-trained. We are just not staffed NOR equipped to handle students that aren’t.

Thankful Thursday #35

written: August 31st

Photo for the day:

 

My goofy ass pup. She can be one hell of a pain in the ass most of the time, but holy crap. She’s friggin’ adorable and it makes you forget all her daily bullshit antics. ::chuckles::

I am thankful…
1. Last day of August. Hard to believe that I’ve taken a photo every day this year AND posted a journal entry of some sort every day thus far. Some day’s it is a scramble, but I like that most of the time, it encourages me to pause and really look at the world around me.
2. I was able to trade away the “Lioness” perfume oil and get another bottle of “Muse” oil. I’ll be giving that bottle of “Muse” to Hazel. And since my pipettes came in, I plan to make some sample bottles of various perfume oils I have to share with friends.
3. Knee is actually feeling almost normal again. It’s been pure agony straightening it out from a bent position for about two weeks now, but now it’s back to just its normal ache/twinge.
4. That switching the parents over to the ProCare system at work has honestly gone soooo much smoother than I ever thought it would. There’s been a few hiccups, but nothing major. And the parents that were belly-aching about it in the beginning are really digging how fast they can just punch in their code and password and electronically sign their child out.
5. Renting various movies through Vudu. It’s been nice to see some “newer” movies instead of the much older stuff on Netflix.
6. Already done with my two assignments for my classes due this week.
7. That David and I have decided to postpone our plans to visit David’s parents in October. With the course load I am carrying (which honestly, is insane even for Grad School), there is just NO way I could be able to take 4 days off to go visit his parents.
8. Having groceries in the house again. I wish we both weren’t so anti-social and that making trips to Wal-Mart didn’t wear us both utterly out. But it’s so nice that we finally bit the bullet and have restocked. ::chuckles::
9. Left over Domino’s pizza that heats up wonderfully in the oven.
10. That Carli and Alison (two of my aides from last year) will be stopping by tomorrow to visit the campus/students. I know the students will be super excited.