Can't focus!

There are so many things I need to do...at school there are about seven stacks of papers to grade, forms to fill out, and conferences to prepare for. At home, I have laundry to fold, put away, closets to clean, and the holidays to prepare for. I think my mind is so overloaded that I just want to shut down and do nothing! I cannot get motivated to do anything!

I have all of these great intentions, get a little done at a time, rewarding myself, etc. Still can't do it! What is my problem? Arrgh!

I bring it upon myself

So, to add to the craziness of three children, one dog, a gecko and two fish, Todd and I have decided to adopt a puppy...we are gluttons! It is not doing him justice to call him a puppy, because he is larger than our other, full grown dog. He is a German Shepherd, or so we are told, but looking at his markings, we think he may have some Doberman or Rottweilier in him. Big Boy!!!

We decided to call him Clyde (there were three choices, Clyde, Bruce or Harvey), to keep the tradition of normal "man" names for our animals. Note: Wally and Jack the former dogs, Pete the dog, Scott the porch cat, Lloyd the deceased hamster... He is so much fun, sweet and sometimes just hysterical, except trying to train him not to pee in his cage or other various places in the house. We are living in a home of baby gates across the doorways right now. One of my students trained her dog to ring a bell when she needs to go out, and I am going to try that!

The kids love him, and Pete actually loves him, too. There is a whole lot of chasing going on right now in the house, round and round the kitchen, to the living room and back. Clyde is larger than Pete, and doesn't take corners as well, so we like to laugh about that. Maddy takes both of them by their collars and "walks" them through the kitchen. She is also very aware of the dog smells. "I smell pee," or "I smell poop," or even one day, "I smell cheese." (The cheese smell was the cleaning spray for the dog pee, I think.) She also has not figured out that if she runs, and the dogs chase her, at some point, she is going to get knocked down. You would think that after 3 or 4 times, it would register, but it must be the sheer joy of having the dogs following her.

So now, after all of the baby proofing of the house, and un-babyproofing this summer, we have to puppy-proof the house! Like I said, I bring it upon myself...WHY?

YESSS!

We have power! One of Todd's friends drove by the house last night and saw our porch light on...Duke has saved us. We stopped by this morning before school, and the boys ran in like we had been gone for a month. Guess what they did first thing? Yep, turned on the TV! (Just to make sure it worked..)

Lots of our neigbors still don't have power, so it looks like we'll be offering hot water, washer and dryer, and the dishwasher for a while....

Is God giggling?

Do you ever wonder if things happen to you just so God can put some humor in your life? This has been about the nuttiest week ever. A tropical storm (yes, I said tropical storm) hit OHIO, Kentucky and Indiana, and knocked out about 90% of the power in the area. Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoy reading, dressing up, playing board games, watching the kids ride their bikes outside, and all of that other stuff, but after a day of Luke checking all of the switches and outlets in our house (no, that one doesn't work, no, that one doesn't work), I needed the Wii and some High School Musical! So we packed it all up and went to my parents' house, 45 minutes away.

Flash forward to 5 days later...we are STILL without power, commuting to school and work, but at least we have hot showers and nightlights!! I really think that Nathan's quiet week of watching mom and dad's house has been ruined, but he's getting good at Guitar Hero. Todd is going crazy because he wants to be at home. Driving to work is hard (getting the kids up to come to school 45 minutes earlier), but again, can't complain, because the alternative is SO much worse!!

I know God loves me, nothing happened to damage our family, our house, our pets, etc, but I think that He is giggling right now....