~~ Day 4 ~~

It's day 4 of blogging!  Getting into the groove and starting to get in the habit of doing it daily.  That's my goal for September anyway, a post a day!  Today started out with me heading into work during a nice little rush hour thunderstorm.  Last time that happened I was leaving work and was totally unprepared - no umbrella, no raincoat, nada.  This was me when I got to the parking garage.  SOAKED!

Today I was ready!  Had my umbrella and my tennis shoes and I was movin' from the garage to the office.  I love my building and my job and could not be happier.  Here's a pic of the Tower from a sunny day from earlier this week.

 

The last thing I want to post is a page from a beautiful calendar my sweet niece Emily gave me for Christmas on year.  I miss my family and my friends and this year has been weird and I don't what normal will be, but I pray for a vaccine so that I can get together with the ones that are close to my heart.  

~~ Burn ~~

 We like to do those frozen Italian dinners from Sam's - yum! - about once a week or so.  Last week I was heating up Chicken Fettuccine for dinner.  Super simple - remove lid, place on cookie sheet and bake!  The timer went off and I go in with my hot pad on one hand, thinking "I got this, who needs two hands?"  Well, I grab the cookie sheet with my right hand, protected by the hot pad and just as I bring it up to place it on the counter..... the dish slid and I, without thinking, grabbed the side of the cookie sheet.

The cookie sheet THAT JUST CAME OUT OF THE HOT OVEN!

The hand THAT DID NOT HAVE A HOT PAD ON IT!

It was an instant - I burned my thumb and two fingers, but I did not drop that Fettuccine!

What is funny about this is it brought back these two very distinct memories.  Ya know how they say a smell or a song can bring up old memories, well it was like that.

The first thing that came to mind was the time Jesse was maybe about a year and a half old and we were heating up tortillas on the comal, which happened to be on the front burn of the stove.  He just walked right by the stove and for some reason reached up and touched it.  That was over 15 years ago and I still feel terrible when I think of that.  My baby, oh he screamed and cried!  The blisters were so big on the tips of his little fingers and the worst part was having to doctor them until they were better.  As a momma, it is just the worst when your babies are in pain.  You feeling in your gut.   

The other incident was when I was younger, maybe 12 or 13.  My cousin and I were with my dad and grandfather out in the country at the family farm.  While they worked my cousin and I rode up and down the dirt road on his go cart.  I'm younger, so anytime the go cart died or needed to be restarted I had to go around to the back and pull the starter.  It was like a lawnmower engine, it was square and you pull the rope to start it.  Not hard and not a big deal,  I did it many times.  But for some reason this one time I was having trouble pulling the rope, so I put my left hand on the engine for leverage.....it was HOT!  Ended up with a HUGE blister down the side of my hand and that was the end of go carting for that day.

So the lesson I learned - just because you think you can take something out of the HOT oven with only one hand doesn't mean you should!

~~ Royalty ~~

Ha!  Not really, but I felt like it this morning.  Had to drop off my, almost 17 year old, minivan this morning.  Needed a ride back to the casa so I took my very first ever UBER!  It was like having a personal chauffeur.  I'm sitting in the back seat googling "how much should I tip the Uber driver?" all while having someone drive me around.  It was like I was, for about 20 minutes, living like the rich and famous!  Silly I know and how have I never been in an Uber until now?  I just don't get out that much I guess and when I do, I drive myself!  Actually, I like to drive.  Not crazy about traffic, waiting, and some people (ya know some people are just ridiculous). My driver said he drives 10 hours a day.  No way José.  

~~ September ~~

Happy September 1st!  

It's been busy, busy around here since school started (8/20) for the boys. This year COVID didn't delay the start of school, but it did change how they go to school.  Everyone in our district started school online, from home, and probably, like mine, in pajamas.  (That's a lot of commas. Did I get them all or did I put too many?)  Anyway, I have a 11th grader and a 10th grader this year!  WHAT?!  I think I say that every year when school starts.  Crazy how time flies!  

Here they are in their classrooms - 

      

Although it is different, they are off to a GREAT start!   

~~ Back to Work ~~

Many, many years ago I worked at UT and I loved it.  I left 16 years ago because I had a baby and I was fortunate enough to be able to stay home and raise that little boy.  Lots of thing have happened to me and my family over the past 16 years and maybe I'll get to some of that now that I'm going to try bloggin' again, but for now.....I'm back at UT!

Going back was something I thought I might do one day and honestly, it happened about 3 years sooner than I thought it would.  I tossed the idea around the last couple of years, but wanted to try to wait until the boys were out of school, but life things (personal and professional) at the beginning of the school year had me praying for a change and He answered with this wonderful opportunity.  My first day was actually March 16th -  the same day COVID turned our world upside down.  Yesterday was the first day I went into the office and worked a full 8 hours in the office.  It was great!!

My commute for the last eight years has been a mile.  One thing I was not looking forward to was the traffic on the way to and from downtown, but this is Mopac at 7:15am!  Traffic was a little heavier going home, but I'll take it while it lasts.

Me at my desk with my Hook 'Em face mask!

UT Tower

Kudos from my boss.

I am thrilled to be back at UT doing something I love and I can't wait to see what the future holds.  I am also excite to be a blogger again.  Hopefully I can stick with it and share all the excitement!

~~ My Marathon Kids ~~

~~ It's Good Friday and I'm Back ~~

WOW!  Can you believe it's been something like 7 years since I posted anything on my blog??  I had a few resolutions for 2018 and one of them was to get back to posting on here.  I loved writing about our everyday adventures and then looking back at the pictures and rereading all my stories.  So....here goes.  Don't know how exciting it'll be or if I will be able to get back into the habit, but I remembered my password and I'm going to give it a try.  Who knows maybe I'll inspire someone to start blogging again.  That is assuming anyone is dancing with me!