some meeting, some training, some..duck?

dooo-tee-doooo...so...then came january.

fresh out 'o the gates, we had a tx success meeting of the minds, to go over what this next round would look like. i warned them in advance that i was there as comic relief, so i hope they weren't expecting too, too much on that day. in all seriousness, jane had pretty much laid out a plan, as the changes were not super significant due to course descriptions. that said, we looked over the power point, mixed-it -up, brought in some additional resources, tweaked it a bit, cocked our heads sideways to look at it, then to the other side (kinda' like bruno does when we're conversing and he's trying to understand)...squinted, gave our two cents worth....i mumbled to megan that i was going to the bathroom (not that she cared, or that it was protocol to let her know where i was headed), but she must have heard me wrong... "what? you're going to get a beer?" (funny girl-i think she was projecting what she wished she wanted to do!). so much going on in one little room, and for the first half of the day, there seemed little method to the madness, which tends to drive a kid nuts, but in the afternoon we were able to tie it all up and felt good about what we had and that was that.

FF mid jan-off to abilene, tx with jane s, for my first training of the new year. i drove, as it took about as much time as messing with flights would've taken, and it was a nice drive-glad i did it, as i don't believe i have taken that route before. some nice scenery. we arrived at pretty much the same time, and found a great little chinese/japanese place where she had been before with, i believe she said, nettie. it was delicious.

very good-i would venture to this establishment again

? idk, it's kinda' like a mixture between an asian wait-staff who wants to remain anonymous, and the mysterious marfa lights...?

and it seems no sooner did i return from that training, than i was off to kilgore with ginger. we talked on the phone at length and then met up at HQ to ride together. it was a good trip-always enlightening. she told me about her up-coming vacation trip with her girls (which, i might add, she is currently on-that's how long this has taken me!! and it looks and sounds like she is having a blast and making wonderful memories! so happy for her!) kilgore was a treat-it's all about the restaurants, if you notice. the evening we arrived, we were in search of something, and there really wasn't anything right there in our neck of the woods, so we ended up in longview at a 'cafe' which served hotdogs and hamburgers. don't knock it, the hamburgers were great! and you go up to get your own fixin's...while you wait, you can grab a bowl 'o' beans. and so we did. but the best part was on the way out, choosing a dessert that would seal the deal. i always gravitate toward the caramel/pecan/truffle type. and while i do not recall exactly what ginger ended up with, i do remember coveting it...

we got together in my room and went through the power point to determine how we were going to present the next day and came up with a plan. fail-proof right? right...the day went smoothly and our little group seemed highly engaged...but (say it with me, now) 'there's always that ONE'...at least she was a sweet one. she really had questions about the math, which we weren't addressing, as it is not part of TX Success, but ginger did converse with her separately toward the end.

we came home and the next day i drove out to ft. worth to work with jane s and de An again. it was good times. de an brought starbucks, which is the perfect way to start any day! the one thing i had noticed the night before was that for some reason, the beginner 101 was set for the p.m. and the beyond the basics was set for the a.m. it's hard to go beyond the basics before getting to know the basics...so we did the prelim-who is just here for the beyond, who is here all day? and split them up, as there were only about 4-5 who felt they were not in need of basics, and just wanted to jump into the beyond. jane found a spot to work with them, as de an and i worked with the 101 group. several had been to the fall training, but when it came down to nuts and bolts, the learned new things, as always because there's just a lot of information that usually one time around the block doesn't allow you to take everything in and absorb it! so it was a good crowd, albeit rough, as we were dealing with people unable to install on their chrome-books (the whole update-thing and admin rights to push it from their bldg), so we made do with our ipads! pretty sure i was sweating that day (did you see it, de an? did ya feel the heat?!) 

i'm thinking we did wendy's for lunch because it was close, and subconsciously because they have frosty's...and we may have turned prematurely and puttered around in a parking lot looking for where the maze would connect with our lot. it did not...so back to the main drag to try it again. uf.

and we thought we were good to go in the afternoon, with only one new individual...but after about 15 minutes, it was visible that she was NOT having a good time. de an came over and mentioned it, so i took the lady out in the same area jane had been to go over the 101 (which she had come for-completely unfamiliar with Istation, except that some of her teachers loved it. she was district level, and wanted more information). so we had a little 1-on-1 session, and she left with a whole lot of information, and was able to see what all the hype was about and why her teacher was championing it.

and then we went our separate ways.

but there is another story of january. it's the story of my duck. i'd taken the dogs out walking, and in our pond out back, there was a handsome group of ducks, and then there was one. the one seemed to be a long time with its head under water...i guessed it was catching fish, or just looking at them...whatever.  when we came back around about 15 minutes later, it was with its head underwater once again.

first time

again-hard to see...

FF 1 week. i see the same duck (smaller than the rest), leaning on its side. i think, 'hmm. it must be dead or very sick) but i really couldn't tell because of the shadows.

FF 2 weeks. i see the same duck still leaning on its side, and i'm pretty certain it's dead. at this point, it really was disturbing, and i was wondering why no one else had mentioned it, or done anything about it. so i mention it to the gal up front at our office. i asked her, "are there fake ducks in the pond? because either there is a dead duck, or one of the fake-ys is malfunctioning."  "I don't think so," she replied, "but i'll ask maintenance and have them check on it." FF my walk back i notice that one of the bigger, prettier ducks has come to the wall. and none of them are paddling as a normal duck would, they are merely bobbing...so, yeah. my fake malfunctioning duck.

for the kid walking by, no worries, he's just sleepin.

FF MARCH malfunctioning sideways duck still struggles.

next up, i did have a birthday, and then i went to abq-tell ya' more about that real soon! it's about to get interesting! have a great weekend, and for those of you who are starting spring break, enjoy and be safe!! come back relaxed!

julie

bruno-not a scary dog, but he sure did scare me!

okay. so, on wednesday p.m. i walked into the front room, and saw a ziplock baggie, where i had stored some semi-sweet chocolate chips. the problem was that the bag was ripped open, dumped on the couch, with at least half of them gone...chaco was looking up at me shaking his head, saying, "bruno. he's gonna be in so much trouble!" so i picked it all up as quickly as possible, knowing that chaco had just been waiting for his chance, because that's always the way it goes. bruno quietly instigates, and chaco is usually the one who joins in and gets caught...younger brother syndrome.

i wasn't too concerned, because he'd gotten into chocolate before (small doses...somehow he gets into my backpack when i forget i had it there). anyhoo. they had dinner, and a couple hours later, he began acting very strange-panting, pacing, laying on the floor and whimpering a little, i checked his heart rate-palpitating rapidly and that's when i began to worry. by this point it was almost 10 p.m., so i knew we were going to have to go to emergency care-ugh. as quickly as possible, i piled them into the car-which was a rental for the next day's training (i'd been planning to take my own, but the transmission sensor went out and the mechanic said no-way). so i didn't have their car seats-they just sat in the back on a blanket.

once we arrived, they buzzed me in, and there were two other ladies right behind me with their pup, who had be run over and was in bad shape. once the paperwork was done, we went back to a room, and the vet took bruno's temps and vitals, then took him back and they induced vomiting; when she came back to the room, she was very concerned because there was blood as well, so she took me back to where he was for a minute, and said they were going to run the blood tests, and put him on oxygen to get the breathing back to normal. so we went back to the little holding room and waited-definitely teared up at this point and could have used a glass of water. chaco just lay in my lap (i was glad i'd brought him, but i couldn't leave him at home, because he would've been a mess as he doesn't do well alone). finally after they got the results, she came back still concerned, as they weren't able to come to any conclusions. so she suggested leaving him overnight to monitor him and do another blood test later in the morning because she felt they weren't getting an accurate reading due to the food...so that was the plan; i'd be back to get him at 4:30 a.m. so i could take off for training in kilgore at 5:30.

 the hardest part was that i had to initial a few different boxes, and decide whether to have them do cpr, or dnr. a couple of things went through my head. what stuck was-if they had to do that, who knows what quality of life would be like afterward. that's the worst feeling ever.

when we got home, ready for bed, it was close to midnight, and chaco got up on the bed, kinda' still looking around for bruno. i said goodnight to both of them-like always, and in 4 hours was up again, getting ready to go. when i arrived at the er this time, there was a different vet (2nd shift), and she was a talker. she said the same over and over in about 213 different ways...i kept trying to reassure her that i understood what she was saying and tell her what my plan of action was...finally it was determined that the results were still a little mysterious, and she couldn't quite pinpoint what had caused the bleeding; she was still concerned with a couple of the levels, and suggested going to my vet later in the day to retest for clotting factors. so with that we slowly backed out and took off. i knew he must've been feeling a little better, because the tech said bruno totally put on the breaks when she took him out to potty and walk-he was having none of that. sounds like bruno! he can be pretty stubborn.

once i dropped him off, google maps had me on my way to kilgore. it was about to be a long day! on the way there, i received a couple texts and a phone call from my people, and they know how much the boys mean to me-just checking up. once i got there and found the site, i was quite early, so i made my way to coffee (there was no starbucks in the vicinity, so gas station coffee was going to have to do!) and i called lori at that point, b/c i'd been trying to figure out how i was going to get back in time to get bruno to my vet. had it not been so late the night before, i probably would have dropped the key off with solange and asked her to take him (she's always been a champion for the boys), but that wasn't the case, and i'd not really been thinking about it. lori was very gracious and concerned-and pending numbers and how jane felt about doing the afternoon session, i would come back after the morning session. thankfully, jane was cool with it (not surprisingly, she gets dogs as family, too). 

the first session was quite a crowd-they had moved us to a larger room, and we got everything set up and handouts handed out, and then the fun began! jane did the intros and explained what tx success is, and i jumped into the presentation from the get-go; thanks for the vote of confidence, jane! she was great about adding information as we went, and it was comfortable, so i've gotten my feet wet! after going through much of what istation is, answering questions as we went, we got into some hands-on activities. this was a great opportunity to chat with some of the participants to answer additional questions and help in whatever they were working on. it was a good session, but i think there were a couple of disgruntled folk, who wanted the program to do something it doesn't do...

lunch time came, and we cleaned up to get ready for session 2, which some were staying, but several had not registered and were returning to their campuses. so jane and i bid each other farewell, and i hadn't gotten to the main road, when i got a call from jane asking if i'd left the handouts for the 2nd session-OH NO!! so i turned around, took my backpack in, and realized that they were actually in the trunk of my car-at the transmission place. i'd brought the wrong ones-for austin. oops. so i quickly went in to trouble-shoot with the substitute secretary and shared the files we needed from my drive, and she was able to make copies for jane and we were good to go. i need to call jane and see how the afternoon session went!

and i was off again. on the way back, i again got a couple texts and a phone call-just checking in, which really did mean a lot to me--my thoughtful friends. when i got home, i packed the boys up, and took them to the vet. when we got there and i explained the situation, they made a spot for me and the vet came in and talked with me after taking bruno's temp. after looking at the records from his august comprehensive, he said he wasn't too concerned, as bruno hadn't been throwing up nor having diarrhea, and at this hour, he wouldn't be able to get the results back until the following day; how about bringing him back tomorrow, so that we can monitor him. he did give me some antibiotics, in case there was some infection that may have caused the bleeding. (which may have been a nasal passage issue, bleeding back into the throat the night before causing it to look like he was vomiting blood)...so the good news is that bruno has been acting his normal self, and seems to be fine. me on the other hand-still tired. like i said before, i truly had thought about laying down on the sidewalk to sleep at one point. and looking at the clock right now, i am off to bed-needs more sleep!

love this nugget! my loyal friend!

but on the bruno front, feeling much better-thanks to all who said a prayer and sent love-
julie