...An almost perfect fall night

It was an almost perfect fall night. The temperature is falling lower by the minute. At home we made caramel apples. Juan carved a pumpkin and we watched the Peanuts on TV. The only thing missing was Russel who, unfortunately, had a previous engagement. Wish I was off tomorrow and that would be the cherry on top. Oh well, I will take what I can get. HAPPY HALLOWEEN! My favorite holiday.

Even more spoiled.

My dad and Lupe brought this back from Colorado for me. It's a little warm for it now but I can't wait for cooler weather. Thanks yall. Yeah I am spoiled.

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Blessed and spoiled...

I think I am probably one of the most blessed and spoiled people in the world right now.

I received one of the most thoughtful gifts ever. A while back I blogged about my childhood memories, especially about the dishes my mom had when I was growing up. The crazy daisy pattern plates, bowls and cups. I actually made several trips to the area Goodwill stores looking for just one cup or one plate and I never found one. I kept looking on ebay, more or less just window shopping. Last night I was surprised by Russel's family with a beautiful basket full of those dishes. Overwhelmed? Yeah I think I was more than overwhelmed with love, memories, and thankfulness. Wow. I can't even express how awesome this is to me. I am so blessed to be loved by Russel and his family. They are all so wonderful. So, this quote seems very fitting...."My cup runneth over."

                              

                            

Texas Stars Hockey

I absolutely love going to the Texas Stars Hockey games with Russel. We went to the game last night vs. the San Antonio Rampage. The Stars won in overtime 4-3. Woohoo. The only things I will miss this season is Matt Climie #33 the goalie and watching the Chicago Wolves play with Chris Chelios. The good thing about last night was Matt Climie has switched to playing goalie for the San Antonio Rampage now so I got to see him play.

Matt Climie in Stars gear

Now, let me say first of all, I know just about nada about hockey other than they use skates on ice and you gotta get the puck in the net. But its fun and exciting and if you are lucky you get to see a bunch of guys brutally slam each other against the plexiglass or beat each other up. Who wouldn't love to watch that?

The fans were almost brutal as the lady sitting in front of us yelled, "Climie you suck!" Wow, this is the guy that got the Stars to the Western Conference Championship last season and really did a kick ass job along the way. They also chanted in unison about 4 times during the course of the game, "Ref, you suck Ref, you suck, Ref, you suck!"

I also got to see a friend from high school. I suppose I am still recognizable. Ha. It was good to see him and his family there and introduce him to Russel.

I am looking forward to the next game we get to go to.

...more public information

Seeing this video brought back a lot of adrenaline, maybe its just my imagination but it feels very real. "My boys" were the ones going in that building. Later it would be multiple agencies helping us clear buildings but at that moment I see our units go in my stomach just turns.

http://www.dailytexanonline.com/content/utpd-releases-footage-september-campus-shooting

This is the Daily Texan link to the video along with a short article and lots of comments from the public. Some of them are a little unreasonable and some of them are constructive. It's very difficult not to comment with my response about what it was really like that day trying to keep everyone safe.

having too much fun

So, rather innocently Russel mentioned his coworker had a QR code posted on his cubicle with his contact information and he was thinking of doing the same. Well, I knew what a QR code was but I had never used the bar scanner app on my phone to see what it looked like when one was scanned. Since he mentioned it I have been playing with a code generator. Oh what fun I can have with this. There is a message encoded below inspired by Russel. :-)

Better than an art gallery

http://www.underwatersculpture.com/index.asp

This is a really cool idea, cool sculpture and awesome photography.




...public information

This is one of the only ones that would let me embed. My sincerest thanks to my co-worker Kathy who held me together at the seams. She did a top notch job taking the first call, dispatching the units and never stopping after that.

More rules to live by

When I started this blog I gave the beginning of my list of rules to live by. I figure I should add more just because I feel like it. Ha. I don't remember what number I was on so I'll just wing it.

13. When you make a mistake, don't try to cover it up. Own up to it and be ready for the consequences. (This is something I tell all of the new people I train at work. Its just not worth it for the boss to find out after the fact and you try to cover it up and get in more trouble)

14. You reap what you sow. This is one that I try my very very hardest at. I try to be a good friend, a good co-worker, a good girlfriend. I never intentionally try to hurt someone and I give my very best to them as much as I possibly can.

15. In the words of Ruthie Foster....Getting back up is harder than the fall. Yep...that pretty much sums up life's little stumbles, falls and crashes.

....the mythical creature

I hear they are releasing the Back to the Future trilogy 25th anniversary edition this year. Wow, that makes me feel old. Just yesterday I included it on my amazon wishlist as one of the many things I am asking Santa to bring me this year and the years to come. Hey, Santa aint made outta money you know.


Anyway, this morning I was walking down the hill to work and I saw it! I've never seen this mythical creature up close so I was so excited. She was just sitting there just like she was watching over the other crappy Hondas and Kias. There are only about 6,500 of the orginals in the world. Talk about endangered. You could tell she had been cared for. It was nice to see. Yeah you can laugh because she wasn't all that she could have been but she is still a classic. Re-meet the classic DeLorean.....

My favorite time of year

Fall is my favorite time of year...an ease into winter which is also my favorite time of year. Things always seem less stressed out and more relaxed when its not 115 degrees outside. October is my favorite month. I love Halloween even though I never seem to find anything to do thats more adult oriented. Usually I would take my nephew trick or treating and then go to sleep watching a scary movie. I love the idea that you can be whatever you want to be for one day and its perfectly normal. No one makes fun of you for wearing your Star Trek uniform that you secretly have hidden in your closet. No one thinks anything is out of the ordinary when you walk out in a poodle skirt like you are going to a sock hop. I am also glad that September is officially over. I seem to have bad luck in September from one year to the next. I am still a little unsure about the holidays. I had such a wonderful Christmas last year and haven't had one before that since before my mom got sick. I am hoping the rest of this year will just continue to get better. I have so much to be thankful for.

mulching over....

So, this morning I slept in. Then I got up and helped Russel in the yard. Mulching. Hmmm it helps the things in my mind work a little better. Who would have thought a little cedar mulch could help clear out some cob webs and relax me so much.

When it works out...

When (mostly) everything goes just like it should, people's lives are saved. I have always said I love my job, but at about 8:10am on September 28th, 2010 I wasn't quite sure I was liking what was happening. Then I realized that this is what I signed up for. I didn't sign up for the days when nothing seems to go right, but this particular day even my harsh criticism of myself turned out to be unnecessary I realized it did go right. It could have been so much worse. At the end of the day all of my boys came home safe. If you know me, you know the term "my boys" is a term of endearment for all of the men and women I work with no matter what agency they work for. No one else was injured.

I was given a wondeful piece of advice from someone after the event about beating myself up over what I felt I could have done better. She said, "If you wouldn't say those things to your co-workers why is it ok to say those things to yourself?" This one statement changed my entire perspective. I would never tell my co-workers, my team, my friends anything near what I was telling myself. After that, I gave myself a break. I can fix what I could do better.

I was preparing myself to hear all of the negative feedback from the media, the bosses and anyone else giving their two cents. I was completely not ready for the response we did get from EVERYONE. We have had such a wonderful amount of praise, understanding and support from not only the students but the parents of students, other agencies, and the media. Today I saw a picture of a group of students on the South Mall on campus who were collecting thank you cards, coffee, money, sandwiches and pretty much anything to show appreciation to the law enforcement agencies who were involved. They had huge signs like this:

Wow. I am not sure I have ever heard of this happening. Maybe for the first time in my life I might actually be proud to wear a burnt orange shirt with a "cow head" Just don't push it and expect me to paint my truck burnt orange. :-)

Here are more pictures of My Boys in action:

People are mean and evil

I was working my way home yesterday after work and stopped at a couple of stores. After my last stop I was driving home and noticed a dent in the hood of my truck. My first thought was WTF????? My second thought was:

It looked like someone got angry and slammed their fist into the hood right on the part where it probably won't come out easily. I just started thinking about what this person could have been thinking when they did this to my innocent truck? I didn't piss anyone off on the way home, I wasn't driving aggressively. I didn't even look at anyone crossway on the way. But some asshole decided that they had the right to ball their fist and take out their childish temper tantrum on my truck. In the end I guess I will just have to suck it up and refer to this sticker:

I guess I am going to start carrying around copies of my favorite parking tickets. Stupid people piss me off. I should probably make a copy in spanish as well because stupidity has no racial boundaries.

weeeee weeeee weeeeeee

Commercials that make me smile.

Bomber Field

I went to the radio controlled air show at Bomber Field in Monaville, TX this weekend with Russel. I really enjoyed it. The B-17's were very impressive, especially their paint and detail work. They looked very real in the air. My favorite was the bi-plane with the US Air Force paint scheme. I love the name "Bomber Field" I shoulda bought a shirt.

Homecoming Mums and stuff



Juan's garter



My sister's mum

It's been a long time since I have made homecoming mums but it was fun. This Friday is Lago Vista's homecoming game so I wanted to make my nephew a special garter just from me. So, after hot gluing my fingers until I have no fingerprints left I think they turned out rather well. I am still working on some special ribbon braiding to add as accents but here is the finished products. We also made some spirit ribbons which really turned out cute.






My Spirit ribbon



Spirit ribbon by Juan

Spirit ribbon by Juan

Scary stuff

Its almost fall so out with the scary crap. This big baby decided to come out and take a look at Bella. Bella decided she would give it a sniff and I freaked out. I knew it wasn't an aggressive breed but when you see a spider the size of your palm it is an automatic reason to freak out. This isn't the best picture because I had to grab the flash light and run back out there with a cell phone. I just hope I don't dream about this bad boy.

Fond memories

I have been looking for something from my past. When I was a little girl I have very fond memories of the dishes my mother had. I remember my dad would never eat on any other plate because this was very flat and large. Being a "meat and potatoes" kinda guy he needed lots of room. Ha. I remember squeezing a lemon in the coffee cups with salt or cutting up the lemon with the rind attached on the saucers and eating them with salt. We use to have at least 5-6 settings but now they are all gone and unable to be found. So, I found them on ebay but wow, they sure want a lot of money for them. I have come to be even more fond of them because they have a green daisy pattern on the edge. Green is my favorite color and daisies just happen to be my favorite flower. Maybe one day when I am rich I will be able to bring a part of my past back into the future.

Dog paws in water

I find it very strange that my labrador retreiver, Suzy-Fraggle, loves going to the lake and chasing after pretty much anything in the water, yet when it rains outside she does everything to avoid getting her paws wet. So, I asked her the other day if it was because wet grass somehow feels different than dry grass or if it was because she was not totally submerged in water and the paws gave off some sense of impending danger. Here was her well thought out response to my question: She said, "Here is my ball. Do you want to play with my ball? It's a great ball. Can you throw it for me? I will love you forever. Here is my ball. Look, can you see my ball? Potty in the rain? Ummmm I'll go to my kennel and you won't be able to see me in there. My paws don't like to get wet. Oh look! There is another ball in my kennel. Wait, don't leave, you have to throw my ball."

So, hopefully Suzy-Fraggle won't get a bladder infection because it has been raining for 3 days and in her mind it takes at least a week for the grass to dry. Poor Suze. She's a goober and I love her.