Feline Friend.

Mom and I took a trip to the Humane Society and adopted ourselves a cat today. Our family felines have been gone for over five years and a cat presence has been missed.

We found this cat on our Humane Society's website. Bailey, a one year old Maine Coon. 

Maine Coons are the best cats. They're such lovers. As soon as we walked into the room full of cats, she stuck her paw out of her cage at us and we knew it was her. She was saying, "Pick me! Pick me!" It took me 2.3 seconds for me to realize that we HAD to have her. This is dumb, but I seriously started crying a little bit when I picked her up because she looks SO much like my old cat Piper who was also a Maine Coon. I had Piper for 17 years and she was the best cat of all time.

Here's Bailey sticking her paw out at me. She was in love.

Showing her little teefers as she rubs on the cage.

Look how beautiful she is! What hairy ears she has. I love 'em.

Big bushy coon tail.

We're so in love.

Mom with the baby.

This cat is seriously so good and sweet. She is going to be spayed on Monday and we'll get to pick her up on Tuesday. She'll be living out at my parents house. Mom is hoping this cat will be a lizard hunter for her this summer. Mom hates lizards and they like to frequent their backyard around the pool. I love this cat baby so much that I want her to come live with me at my house instead. Who knows. Maybe my parents' dog won't like her and Daisy Mae will love her and then she'll get to come be part of my little family. That's what I hope.

Like I said, her name is currently Bailey. Not quite sure how I feel about that. I've been thinking of name ideas tonight. Any cute name suggestions? 

I told my parents if I got two cats at the same time I'd name them Bebop and Rocksteady. As in these guys from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

My parents just shook their heads. I think it would be the best cat duo name ever.

A Wee Bit of Sarah.

{one} if you won a trip to Disneyland/world, who would you take with you?That's easy. I would take my sister.
{two} when was the last time you listened to a CD?Yesterday actually. I listened to the audio of a book I am reading for school. This is the first CD I've listened to in awhile. Usually I use the iPod or Pandora.
{three} what spice/seasoning is your favorite?I like my food the way I like my men--HOT. Anything that will bring some spice and heat is okay by me. All of the red chili pepper powders make me want to give high fives out to my friends.
{four} if you were in a band, what kind of music would you play?I would want to play the harpsichord or the tambourine or the ukulele. Those are my top instrument picks. I feel like my band would be pretty popular and spectacular based on that selection.
{five} if you could have personally witnessed one historical event, which one would it be?Heavy question. The space geek in me chooses being in Apollo 11 when the first humans land on the Moon. I probably would have pushed Neil Armstrong out of the way so that I could have been the first to walk on the moon. And then I would scream with excitement but there would be no sound. Then my mind would be totally blown and I would do moon walks of joy across the Sea of Tranquility.I mean, really. How did they decide who was going to be the first to step foot on the moon? Rock, paper, scissors? I bet Buzz was pissed that he lost.
Also, I would have enjoyed being on the ark with Noah and seeing all of the animals come two by two. That would have been amazing seeing everything from alpacas to kookaburras to tarsiers. I love all the animal children.

{six} if you could go back to school, what would you study?I'm really happy with my career choice. I love being a teacher.I would enjoy taking some extra courses though, like writing and photography classes. That would be fun.
{seven} if you could go to one sporting event, all expenses paid, which one would you see?Eh. I don't really know. Sports Shmorts. Maybe the Super Bowl just so I could see the halftime show. The atmosphere would be really fun. I would eat the heck out of some stadium food too.
{eight} do you drive an automatic or a manual?I drive an automatic. I've never attempted a manual. It would probably be disastrous.
{nine} are you comfortable speaking in front of people?It's not my favorite thing, but I'll do it. I teach, so I'm comfortable with the little guys. It's the big people that are scarier and more intimidating. I think I used to be braver when I was in high school. During my senior year, I did a few speaking engagements about disability awareness. The largest group I spoke in front of was around 300 people.
{ten} have you ever experienced an earthquake?I sure did wake up from one that happened up in Indiana a couple years ago. The things on my nightstand were bouncing around and I got up out of bed and ran towards my kitchen. Every dish in my cabinets were rattling. Slightly exhilarating. I believe an earthquake is headed my areas way courtesy of the New Madrid fault. It's only a matter of time. Rest easy, friends.
Happy Wednesday, everyone! I should probably be heading to bed now since I have to wake up at 4. Sigh. Peace out, home skillet biscuits.

A Whole Lotta Nothin'.

Well, kids. It's been many days since I've posted. I really have nothing of substance to share so I reckon I'll do what I do best: Random. And a 1 and a 2 and a 1, 2, 3, 4...


I'm going on a teacher field trip on Thursday. A group of teachers and I are traveling up to Illinois with our Assistant Principal to check out another school that is using the Leader in Me program. We are pulling out of our parking lot at 5:15 A.M. Why am I super stressed about this? Well, for one, I'm not a morning person. At all. I have a really hard time waking up in the mornings. I'm a night owl. I'm THAT teacher that arrives at the last minute possible every work day. I may slack in the mornings, but I definitely make up for it by staying late at school. All the time.
Lord knows I'm gonna be struggling to make it for the 5 o'clock hour. One of the other teachers that's going wrote on my facebook wall tonight: "So, is it okay to take bets to see what time you will make it to school Thursday morning?" Hilarious. See. Everybody knows.
Let's just hope I make it to school on time and that I don't bite someone's head off. Being in a van packed full of bodies while it's still dark outside isn't my idea of a good time.

I watch LMN all the time, but all of you know that by now. Their commercials are as follows: AARP, weight loss programs, debt counseling services, and Life Alert. I guess Lifetime's target audience is old people that are obese and in debt. I guess 2 out of 3 applies to me...

I just cracked open my 4th Mountain Dew today. What the heck is wrong with me? I don't ever drink this much coke.

I finally tried Chick-fil-A's banana pudding milkshake. It makes you wanna say bananarama ding dong.

I thought my random gift of two Halloween napkins from a student was the strangest gift I'd ever gotten. Last week it was topped. I received four safety pins of assorted sizes. From the same student. Thank you, dear child.

One of my students is really enjoying using the word "lame". Everything and everyone is lame. And I smile to myself every time he says it.

I hate doing sub plans.

Daisy was out in the rain too long and now smells like wet dog. Shew.

I was behind this man while waiting in line at a gas station. I really had to resist the urge to roll down the window and say, "I like your sweater, sir".

I still haven't changed half of the clocks in my house forward since the time change a few weeks ago. Now I just kinda feel like so much time has passed that I might as well just leave them until the next time change in the fall.

My birthday countdown is T minus 10 days. I love birthdays, specifically mine. Spring break countdown is 3 days. Big things are coming.

Double rainbow all the way across the sky!

Yesterday we had a little bit of a raunchy wind storm. Don't you just love the word raunchy? That word really gives your story an extra kick much like dipping sauces do for chicken fingers.
Our story begins with me out at my parents house to mooch off of their dinner. I do that often. That's the perks of having my family just a quick 10 minutes from my house. We were sitting in their den just keepin' it real as we do and the wind started picking up. I got up and walked out in their screened in porch. Major wind gusts picked up and started blowing a lot of their pool patio chairs across the yard. Notice the post storm debris. The most impressive thing was when the wind picked up that tiled top table. It was up in the air and the pink chair slammed into it and broke into a thousand pieces. You showed your stuff, Mr. Wind.

Rest in peace, pink chair. This was just a small sampling of the plastic shards I picked up from around the yard. The chair was blown to smithereens.

After the wind gusts, we had a downpour of pea-sized hail. Thank the good Lord I pulled my car into my parents spare garage. I just paid my car off last week. Last thing I need is hail damage on it. As soon as the hail finished doing its thing, it became really calm and sunny and we noticed this guy starting to appear in the back yard:

Sadly, you can't see the majesty of the rainbow in this picture. Disappointing. I swear the bottom left side of that rainbow was in our backyard. I could see it touchin' the ground. I was about to run to get a shovel to dig for the gold. I wanna know where the gold at.

When what to our wondering eyes should appear, but a double rainbow!

What does this mean!?!

After witnessing one of these double rainbows, I totally understand why the guy from the double rainbow youtube video was so stoked about seeing a double rainbow. I was doing my shares of "Whoas, woos, and wows" just like him, minus the orgasmic sounding "ohs" and the crying. 

It's so intense. So bright and vivid. All the way. Full on. It's too much. I don't know what it means.

Here's the Double Rainbow Song for your enjoyment. I love this junk. I was singing "Double rainbow all the way across the sky, wow, wow, oh my god" all night long.

All of that crazy weather fit in as a perfect example to my students. I'm teaching a weather unit this week. Today the kids were all kinds of excited talking about the wind, and hail, and the double rainbow all the way across the sky. Triple treat we had there.

I am so beyond glad tomorrow is Friday. It's been the longest week ever. I know I said last week was the longest. Well, I lied. This week wins. I've exhausted. I'm over it. All of it. Beyond ready for Spring Break. We still have to make it through another week. Big. Sigh.

Here are just a couple examples of how my brain is mush and I'm ready for a break. Today my hidden countryness snuck out of me and I said "might could" as in, "You might could get a piece of that cake". My Lord. I also teared up when a fellow teacher said she was taking her family to Disney World this summer. What!?! Geez. I'm a train wreck. 

Me On the Map!

I'm linking up with Michelle for Me on the Map. I love that I'm having a chance to share all about my hometown. Makes me feel proud to show off where I'm from. Link up to show off where you're from.

I live in Bowling Green, Kentucky. I was born here and have lived here all 27 (creepin' up on 28) of my years. I'm pretty proud of my little town. I love it so. I'll probably be living here until the day I die, and I'm totally okay with that. My family's roots have been firmly planted in Bowling Green for generations. I'm a pretty lucky girl in that all of my immediate and most of my extended family is in Bowling Green or in the surrounding communities.

Bowling Green has plenty to offer while still managing to maintain a small-town quality to it. It's a great place to raise a family. I-65 rolls right through us and we're just an hour north of Nashville if we need a big city fix. The city of Bowling Green has a population around 58,000 and our county's population is at almost 109,000. We're the 3rd largest city in Kentucky behind Lexington and Louisville.

What We're Known For

Bowling Green, BG for short, is the home of the Corvette. That's our claim to fame. Corvettes are made right here in the GM assembly plant. The public can schedule a tour of the plant, or if you've got some cash you want to spend, come buy a Corvette and you can take a special buyers tour.

The BG plant also used to make the Cadillac XLR's, but these are no longer in production.

You can also check out the National Corvette Museum. There's a lot to see and it's pretty neat seeing the history and evolution of the car. After you've worked up an appetite looking at Vettes, you can get some good eats at the Corvette Cafe diner.

The world headquarters of the clothing and underwear makers, Fruit of the Loom is in BG also. GM and Fruit are two big employers here.

The Lay of the Land
We are a very karst region. We're full of sinkholes, valleys, and caves. I've been working on a blog post about our caves and sinkholes, so more information on all that business will come in the future. I'm sure you'll be getting excited about that.

Besides the Corvette Plant and Museum, one of our other big tourist attractions is Lost River Cave and Valley. I seriously live a stone's throw from this cave. This is why I have so much fun wildlife frequent my backyard. If any of my blog friends ever come tour Lost River Cave, let me know and I'll walk across the road to meet ya. ;) For the bargain price of $15, you can take a 20 minute guided history walking tour and a 25 minute cave boat tour. You can also explore a Butterfly Habitat and Blue Hole trails. Lost River Cave is unique in the fact that there's not a lot of the cave to explore by foot. You have to take the boat tour to venture inside the cave.

Now, this cave isn't as impressive as Mammoth Cave of course, which is about 30 minutes up the interstate from us. However, Lost River Cave is worth checking out. Especially if you've never experienced a cave. I've been dozens of times and it's always a neat experience. My high school Prom's were held in this cave. I bet there aren't many of you that can say you had Prom down in a cave. Well, this girl did. The cave is available to be rented out for special events and wedding receptions as well. Our high school reunion planning committee tried to book it for our upcoming 10 year reunion, but it was already booked up for the next year. Bummer.

The Town and The Folk
Bowling Green has definitely built up a lot since I was little. We've added tons of new neighborhoods and developments. I can remember when one of our now busy main roads was basically farmland. Things sure have changed a lot. If you drove out in the county, you would see a lot of wide open spaces. Farms, cows, some horses, tobacco fields. All of the things that are typical sights in the country.

Bowling Green is a good mix. We've got things to do, many places to eat, shopping, and then we've got rolling hills and countryside. You can have your pick based on where you want to live within the county.
I went to a high school that was very normal in every way, but FFA (Future Farmers of America) was the most popular club and we had Drive Your Tractor to School Day and Muddy Truck Day. The best of both worlds. We've all got some country in us down deep. You've just gotta embrace it.

There are some pretty great and friendly people that live here. I mean, I'm here. That should be a good example of the greatness.

Famous BG Folk
My man, Mr. Duncan Hines was a Bowling Green man. Duncan sure knew his brownie and cake mix.
Each year there is a Duncan Hines festival here.

Horror movie director and producer, John Carpenter (famous for the movie Halloween) grew up here. No movie scenes were ever shot here, but if you watch any of his films, nearly all of the street names, community and facility names that he uses in his movies are taken from this area. For example, Michael Myers escaped from the Warren County-Smiths Grove Sanitarium.
You can take a driving tour where you can drive around to find the streets and locations that he mentions in his movies as well as see his childhood home.

WWF wrestler Hillbilly Jim resides in BG. I used to work with his daughter. Nice family.

Do we have any Nappy Roots fans in the blog house? Does anyone even know Nappy Roots? AwwNaw? Hell Naw?
Well, if you don't know them, they're a southern rap quintet that originated here in BG. Country style rap. Pretty fantastic.

Also, on the rise Cage the Elephant is from BG. I went to high school with these boys. I love that they always play on my favorite Pandora channel. That's pretty special stuff.

Oh yeah, Bowling Green was also well known for a famous brothel back in the day called Pauline's. It was in operation for nearly 40 years. The lady who ran the joint, Pauline, authored a book and appeared on the Johnny Carson show, I'm assuming to tell her tales about gettin' some tail. Scandal goin' on in the streets of BG.

Get Schooled
My alma mater, Western Kentucky University sits on top of a big 'ol hill in Bowling Green. We're the WKU Hilltoppers. See. Makes sense, doesn't it. Below are a couple of pictures that I took showing a view from The Hill.

I think Western's campus is beautiful. We may not have an abundance of parking lots, but we sure do have a lot of pretty buildings, nice landscaping, strange sculptures that our tuition has helped pay for, and even fun albino squirrel friends.

We also have a charming little downtown with some shops, businesses, restaurants, and a few night spots so you can get your drink on.

I could write about Bowling Green all the live long day. There's so much more to share, but, I'll leave the rest for you to discover when you come to visit me. I'll be your personal tour guide, eating companion, and shopping buddy. Hope you enjoyed learning a little more about where I live!

Later, buddies.

Wine. Supermoon. Poop.

Those three words seem to sum up my weekend pretty well.

Both Friday and Saturday nights were full of spending time with my friends and wine consumption. I went to bed both nights a giggly girl.

Did you all check out the super moon on Saturday? The super "perigee moon" was the biggest it's been in 18 years. Apparently to see the full bigness you had to check it out when it was coming up over the horizon, like in the picture below. It's a monster. I didn't see it until it was way up in the sky. It sure was bright though.

Things like my students hair (that I posted about once before), storm fronts, and full moons definitely effect how a day is going to be in a classroom. Ask any teacher. We always know when bad weather is moving in, when seasons are changing, and when it's a full moon. Kids feed off that stuff for some reason. We all turn into wild jungle cats. Friday at school was cuh-razy. Ashley and I had to go get margaritas as soon as we got out of school at 4:00. That should tell you something.

The moon can cause a 1-6 inch tidal rise and it also apparently effected the rise of my parents septic tank system. Saturday night they heard gurgling sounds from their toilets. Next thing they knew, the two toilets downstairs were overflowing and their bathtubs/showers were backing up. Grody.
They had a major septic backup problem. If you can't use the water in your house, you're pretty much screwed. No bathroom. No showers. No clothes washing. No dish washing. Yeah. Screwed. Today I've had my family as my house guests. They came over to shower, use the facilities, and wash clothes. My little house has been hopping all day. The good thing is that since they've been camped out with me, I got some things knocked off my "honey-do" list. My dad is going to be replacing the weather stripping on my backdoor, he cleaned out my gutters, and we worked out front in my yard raking and pruning and all that fun stuff that I absolutely hate.

Spring really is here. Boy is it ever. I've been sweatin' it up all day. I swear we don't have normal seasons in Kentucky. It goes straight from cold to hot. I just turned my heat off and I could be blasting the ac today. I'm not complaining though. I love hotness, but I just wasn't prepared to sweat this much while working out in my yard today. I hate boob valley sweat. You all know what I'm talking about. Anyway, I'm glad spring is here. I'm glad it's warm. I just hate Bradford Pear trees. They're so pretty, but man. They sure have a stank. Probably very comparable to my parents current backed up septic system.

Shew. One of my little Chinese students once said (in reference to these trees), "Stinky, stinky. Smell like dog poo". You are so right little one. I will forever think that when I smell these trees now.

I hope all of you had a good and stinkless weekend and maybe you raised a glass or ten to spring's arrival. Here's to spring!

"To me it look like a leprechaun to me."

Happy St. Pat's Day, friends! This is probably my most boring post ever. I have no energy and no funny in me right now. Kinda blah, you know?
I hope you all have had a great day filled with lots of green. I planned to do a long post about all of the fun we had at school today, but I'm afraid it's not going to happen tonight. A recap of our fun will have to wait. I'm so tired that my eyes are crossing. All the leprechaun's shenanigans wore me out. My bed needs me.

I will leave you with this. One of my all-time favorite You Tube videos. I'm sure all of you know it well. If you don't then you're lame. It HAS to be watched on St. Patrick's Day. For the leprechauns.

Have you all seen this little guy running around? 

Praise JC that tomorrow is Friday. This has been the longest week. Ever.