What’s been going on around the Kilgore house???  It seems like not a whole lot, but at the same time we’re busy most of the time.  Jeremie is doing something for work most days even when he is at home.  He’s also the board advisor for the next boy’s “Weekend” so he has weekly team meetings.  Also, he recently has takena refresher class to be a motorcycle safety instructor this summer and fall and still to fit in time for a first aid class too.  He’s a busy guy.

   I have been working too, of course.  This winter has gone very slowly but also very fast.  I think it’sseemed that way because I still don’t feel like I am back in a regular routine since Christmas break.  We have had 3 snow days since break, 2 holidays off (MLK Day and Presidents Day), and I had jury duty and missed 2 days of work.  Also, even when we are at school things have come up to throw off ”a regular day”, if there even is such a thing in the elementary school world.  I am currently in the process of changing my daily schedule again, and trying to fit in a lot of students in a short amount of time.  I feel a little overwhelmed right now….but I just keep thinking about how thankful I am that I have a job to worry about!  Speaking of jobs….that’s another big part about what’s going on right now.  Galesburg currently is in budget crunch time for next year due to the State being behind in payments, so new teachers like myself are a little nervous about what the future looks like.  I’m a worrier so It’s been tough not to to dwell on the “what if’s”, but I know God’s got me and what is meant to be will be….Anyway next year, jobs, and money are always a topic swirling around my school and Galesbur as a whole.

In other news…I am COMPLETELTY caught up with Lost!!!!  I have watched EVERY episode of Lost!  I started season 1 at the beginning in January and watched the current new episode last Tuesday.  It will be traumatic when the series ends sometime in the near future because this has become my addiction!  It is such a good show, but I’m not sure you can appreciate it unless you have watched all the seasons….all of the details and back (or forward) stories make it so great.  Love it!!

Also….I’ve been trying to kick my disgusting (and embarrassing) habit of biting my nails.  I have been doing a nice job for about a week, and my hands almost look human.  The motivation to kick the habit this time is that I want to get my nails done, but I was to embarrassed to show them my nubby nails.  I’m so gross…I know.

One year ago we brought our baby home….No, you haven’t missed anything.  I’m talking about our dog, Lucky.  Lucky came home to live with us on March 1, 2009, after his previous owner surrendered him to the The Prairieland Animal Welfare Center here in Galesburg.  We were “in the market” for a medium sized dog around 40 lbs…..and we now have a 105 lb. border collie/lab mix.   Luck is not perfect, but as far as dogs go I think he’s a keeper!  He is definitely my baby.

Lucky….

• is very afraid of thunder and storms in general
• loves bread (we don’t  give it to him…but he steals it occasionally)
• sleeps on the couch 95% of the day
• will only chew bones that are flavored and have knots on the end
• burps a lot
• never potties inside
• RARELY (once maybe) crews things
• has a new quark every couple of weeks, but does not consistently do the same weird things… (sometimes he loves being outside, sometimes he hates it, hides under the bed or in the closet, barks at you for no reason, gets on top of the toilet, opens the gate by ramming it with his head…..)
• tries to get on our bed but only when Jeremie isn’t home
• loooooooves car rides and going to “grandma’s”
• recognizes when we are close to Granny’s house or my mom’s house
• doesn’t seem to mind other dogs

Luck's favorite spot...drooling on our couch

Mom made this shirt for me for Christmas pj's....don't judge!

Christmas 2009

Snow is not a problem for this guy!

  Today is my 25th birthday….a quarter of a century!  Holy cow I can’t believe I’m 25….it just sounds too grown up!  To me it just seems like 18-24ish is still young adult/college age and then when you go over the 25 mark it seems like you’re totally an adult….at least that how I think I used to see it.

  Two of my closest friends that I met in high school have birthdays super close to mine (Seth on the 19th and Sapna on the 20th).  Another friend used to refer to us as the birthday trio.  We even had a combined party at Happy Joe’s Pizza for our 17th.  It always made my birthday more fun because we got to spread out the birthday fun for 3 days.  Every year (especially with Sapna) we would comment to each other how old we are.  Many times I would get a sweet card from Sapna and somewhere it would say something like “Finally 16…woo hoo!”  or Can you believe we are 17?  No more city curfew!”.   Ten years have gone by since Sapna and I first became friends and every year, even if I haven’t seen or talked to her for a very long time,  like clock work I still get  a birthday e-mail from her that makes me smile.  This morning I woke up and got to thinking about how silly it is that every year we seem to be shocked by our age.  Is it silly or maybe it’s not that I am surprised that I am a year older, but more surprised at how fast time is going by, and how different my life is from year to year?  Whether I am in high school or “a grown-up” it’s fun to reflect on where I have been and where I’m going.  Happy 25th to me….to Seth….and to Sapna!

About 2 weeks ago an event occurred early one morning that I’m sure will be “one of those stories” that we (or at least I) will talk about forever.  Before I tell you  my side of the story check out what Jeremie has to say about it…..

http://blog.jkilgore.net/2010/01/15/there-was-a-skunk-in-our-bedroom/

Ok….so that was a very accurate description of the situation and he how everything unfolded.  However, to fully understand why I find the whole thing so ridiculous and funny here is my version:

I remember being half awake and “feeling” something above my head.  You know that feeling when you get if someone is looking at you or standing behind you?  I remember feeling that something wasn’t right, but it took a minute to wake myself up enough to open my eyes.  When I did Jeremie’s left arm is extended up in the air several inches from my face.  I didn’t realize it at first but he was holding up the covers (mainly in front of himself, but me too).  I asked what he was doing and tried to pull his arm down.  My first thought was that he was sleeping.  From time to time when he is really tired he will talk or sit up when he is really “out of it”, so I thought it was one of those weird sleeping things that on a rare occasion happen.  He wasn’t sleeping though, and he whispered to me to not move or say anything.  We laid there silently in the dark as he held the blankets over our head for a while before I tried to ask again what was going on.  Again, he told me to just not say anything.   At this point my mind going crazy and I’m freaking out.  These are the thoughts going through my mind:

1.  Oh my gosh, the is someone in the house/room and he doesn’t want me to see and freak out….he’s hoping they will just leave….but that doesn’t make sense.  He wouldn’t just lay here if someone was in the house!  At least I hope that’s not what he would do!!!!  And shouldn’t my “watch dog” notice if we have an intruder????  If someone is in my house right now this will ruin everything!  I’ll never want to sleep here again if someone has broken in….we’ll have to move and that will be a pain, and can we afford to do that???

2.  Our dog, Lucky, is dead on the floor and he doesn’t want me to see.  I can’t hear Lucky snoring or anything.  Oh no!  My dog is dead!

3.  There is some kind of ghost like thing and he is hiding us from it with the covers.  If it was a ghost Lucky wouldn’t notice.  Do dogs see ghosts??  Maybe if I don’t breathe it will go away…

This goes on in my head like a record…those three ridiculous explanations I made up….for I think about 10 minutes.  It felt like an hour though!  Finally Jeremie sits up quickly, pulls down the covers, looks at the floor, and then layed back down.   “Nevermind”, he says, “I thought it was a skunk, but it’s not.  Go back to sleep.”  Then he turns over like it was nothing!  A SKUNK!!!  THAT’S WHAT A WAS SCARED TO DEATH OF????  AND IT WASN’T EVEN A REAL SKUNK!!!  I was so relieved everything was ok and I quickly relized how absurd the whole thing was that I started cracking up.   Jeremie’s “skunk” was a basket of clothes.  I will admit that the black pants and white shirt in the basket  kind of looked like a skunk….in the dark…without my glasses…and at 4:00 in the morning.  

I hope this story was at least a little amusing.  I still think it’s hilarious…but maybe it’s one of those “ya had to be there things”.

What?  You think 8 months is a long time to go with out adding a new post?  Psh!  O.k…..it’s horrible, I know!   Between me being way lazy about keeping up and Jeremie making several changes to our sites I let it go.  I am hoping to do a better job, but I should know by now not to make any promises.  I think I have made at least 3 posts now about how I don’t blog enough and that I’ going to do better….

Since the last time that I posted these are the “highlights” of what has happened:

-Spring:  Continued substitute teaching until  May

-Summer:  Continued working at Java Station Espresso and spending time with family

-July:  Traveled to Florida with Jeremie, Mom, Cameron, and Granny

-July 19th:  Celebrated our first wedding anniversary

-August:  Got hired as a Title I reading/math teacher in Galesburg  @ Cooke School in the AM/Steele School in the PM

-November:  Got moved to just Steele School full time

I am planning on posting soon more about my first few months of my first teaching position,  our Christmas, and other happening in the Kilgore house!

This past weekend we spent much of our time shopping for a washing machine.  How fun is that?!  The shopping was not neccicarily the best time ever, but I was super excited by the idea of not having to lug our laundry out of the house at least once a week and sit somewhere for 3 hours waiting for it to get done.  We have been fortunate though, that we have 4 different family members (my Granny, my mom, Jeremie’s grandma, and his mom) allow us to come do laundry whenever.  We are so thankful for that!  However, I am ready to not have to leave to wash my clothes.  Back in November we were lucky again in that a teacher from Churchill gave us a dryer that is not very old at all for FREE.  His washing machine was broken and they purchased a new one….they wanted a matching washer/dryer set so he wanted to get rid of their dryer and we gladly accepted it!!!  So we have had a dryer for a while, but no  washer.  We recently received our income tax return check so we decided it was a good time to make a grown up purchase and finally get a washer.  To begin with I thought we would just go get the most basic model and get the cheapest one we could find.  We went to Menards, Lowes, Lindstom’s, and Sears.  We had thrown around the idea of getting a front load machine because we had heard good things about them….but they are more expensive and we were not seeing many inexpensive and quality front load machines in Galesburg.  We were all reading to buy a top load machine that we both liked a Menards on Saturday afternoon….and then Jeremie “tweeted” about us shopping for a machine and asked for opinions about top load vs. front load machines.  Hands down people voted for a front load (less water, more gentle on clothes, good for kids, they are newer models…).  So then we decided to go ahead and just shop for front loaders.  We ended up finding a great deal at Home Depot in Bettendorf Iowa.  The salesman that we worked with was very knowledgeable, not pushy at all, and very nice.  They are even delivering the washer all the way to Galesburg (50 miles) and hooking it up for free!!!!  We could not believe it!!!  Since they come this far they only make deliveries on Tuesdays.   In the end we spent a little more than I thought we would but I am very happy about the decition we made. I can’t wait for our machine to be here on Tuesday the 14th!!!!  Woo hoo!

So this is a post that is a long time coming.  Jeremie and I adopted a dog from the Galesburg Prairie Land Animal Shelter on March 1st.  Yes, I know it is April 6th and I am just now blogging.   My blogging has been waaaaaay behind this year.  Anyway, our dog is a 4 1/2 year old border collie/lab mix.  His name has always been Lucky…so we let him keep it, even though it would not have been our first pick for a dog name.  It is a little ironic that the poor guy’s name is Lucky considering that we are at least his 3rd owners.  The story that we got was that his first owners had to give him up because he was aggressive with their small children.  The second owner was an older man that gave him up when Lucky did not get along with his very young grandchild.  So apparently he does not like toddler aged kids.  We have trouble seeing him doing this, but it is not something that I want to test out….Lucky is kind of a sensitive dog and my guess is that the owners did not do a good job in introducing the dog and child and he got scared by how “grabby” little kids can be.  Also, Lucky loves to play rough and even “wrestle” with Jeremie.  Maybe he tried to “play” with the kids and everyone got scared.  For now we plan on keeping him away from really small children (he does fine with older children) and get to know his personality more and figure out what the deal is with him and toddlers….

Lucky is a good boy, but has had a few quarks….especially his first week or so he was with us.  He was terrified of train whistles, which is a problem since we live in between two train crossings and very close to the train yard.  He did OK inside when they went by, but outside he would pull on his leash trying to get loose to run to the door to go in.  After that first time out when a train went by he then HATED to go out.  We had to pull him out the door and kind of push him out the yard.  BUUUUUUUUUUUT he now is used to the trains and seeing him now you would never know that he had a problem with them or going out doors.   He now loves to go out.  We have a pretty big fenced in yard.  The only pain is that we have no back door.  We have a side door, but it is outside the fence so we have to put Lucky on the leash and walk him to the yard.  Sometimes he runs around a little, espcially is we run with him, but for the most part he is pretty low key for dog with a mix of two breeds that traditionally are very active. He is quite a bit of a “couch potato”.  Most of the time he is sleeping either on the couch, his kennel (he goes their on his own) or our bed when we forget to close the bedroom door.   The only thing that occasionallyspooks him now is when there is low “boom”  from train cars linking up in the train yard. We have found that he is happier at night if he is kenneled and we pull a sheet over the kennel door.  The times that we  have left him out he does weird things like hide in the closet, jump repeatedly on us in bed, bark, and cry.  I think he must hear the trains linking or something…. He seems to feel a lot safer in his “bed” so we go with it.

Each day he seems more and more settled into his new home.  He definitely is a dog that came with some baggage, but we love him.  He is completly housebroken…and has never had an “accident” inside.  He can sit, shake, and lay down.  Most of the time is listens well and obeys us, but we are going to work a little more on a few things.  He was over weight when he was brought to the shelter and he has a big thing for people food.   They think that when we took him home he had lost about 15 lbs. and I would guess that he has slimmed down this past month with us too. I think  he has been in shock because he doesn’t get any people food at our house.  He was a little obsessive about our food at first, but he is muuuuuch better now and doesn’t worry about it nearly as much.   We really did get a good dog!  I think over time as we work with him he will become an even better boy.  

To see some pictures of our new big “baby” here ya go….

http://picasaweb.google.com/erin218/Lucky#

And…..we’re back again.  My blog has been down for a looooong time and once again I am up and running!  As I sit here in my pajama’s thinking about the list of things I have to get done before 2:00 (before the start of the Boys’ Weekend #88 that Jeremie is leading)….I know I am not going to get a post done right this minute.   However, there will be one to come soon.  So if you happen to be checking to see by some random chance that I still use my blog….well, I’m back in business! 

I am officially an employee of the Galesburg Java Station.  Please try and hold back your excitment….    I was kind of in the process of looking for a second job for right now and so that I would be sure to have a summer job.  I hadn’t applied anywhere and wasn’t sure what to do that wouldn’t take up ALL my time or be a cruddy job.  Darla (aka Mrs. Knox…aka. Paula) asked if I wasn’t looking to make a little extra money because a friend of hers had a sister who was taking over the Java Station here in town.  Sooooooo she put me in touch with the owner (Gayle) and I now have a job. 

The Java Station is a little drive thru coffee place in the parking lot in front of Dollar Tree and Burgland Drugs.  I started training this past Saturday and I also went in a little this Monday morning. I plan to go in this Saturday for more training. Right now I’m just kind of watching and learning all the coffee lingo and such…and occasionally making a drink or two.  When I feel comfortable and they are comfortable leaving me alone I get put on the schedule.  I drink coffee and enjoy coffee like drinks but never really knew the difference between lattes and mocha’s. I just kind of order something random when going to a coffee place.  As long as its not TOO sweet and has coffee in it I’m good.  Anyway…I am kind of learning everything (how to make espresso and all of the drink “recipies”) for the first time. I think it will be a nice solution to my need of an extra job.  Although it opens very early in the morning the latest it is ever open in 6:00 p.m…..so no late nights.  Right now I will probably fill in here and there, work a few days after school, and possibly Saturdays.  Hopefully this summer I will get some more hours….but we’ll see. 

Especially ever sense I took a children’s literature class at MonmouthCollege I have just fallen in love with children’s books and children’s literature.  I liked books OK while growing up, but I wish that I would have read more and appreciated books like I try to now.  During the class I read dozens and dozens of children’s pictures books, elementary level chapters books, and young adult novels.  Most of the time I tend to wander toward the young adult section of the library or book store more than the novels geared for adults.  On of the absolute best books I read in this class was called Fablehaven by a fairly new author, Brandon Mull http://www.fablehaven.com/.  I am not the biggest fan of fantasy books or movies and I was not entirely excited to read the book…but it was required by our teacher.  She looooooooovedthe book.  Along with my classmates I also became hooked on the book and on Mull’swriting after reading it aloud with Jeremie (he also is a big fan)   His books are just fantastic.  The dialogue between the two young main characters is so realistic.  The story is funny, exciting, and just plain entertaining. I really believe that these books are just as good or better than Harry Potter! Fablehaven is part of a series that Mull is still in the process of writing. So far there are 3 books of the series in print.

Well….our teacher got in contact with Brandon and he came to Monmouthif we could get local schools to allow him to speak withtheir students.  I was lucky enough to not only go to two of his presentations, but also host him at the college by showing him around and having lunch withhim.   It was so cool to sit and talk with him about his books and what was to come.  At the time Fablehaven was the only book in the series out.  I met him in Jan./Feb. and book #2 was to be out that April.  As we ate lunch he told us he was in the process of writing book #3 and how excited he was in the way the series was going.  A couple of days ago I found him on Facebookand being the dork that I am I adding him and sent him a a message.  I told him who I was and that I met him when he came to MC….and how I loved sharing his books with studnets.  This is what he wrote back!!!!!!

Great to hear from you Erin! I really enjoyed my visit to Monmouth…in fact, Monmouth serves as a location in Fablehaven 4. I’m glad you’re having fun with the books and sharing them. I think the fourth Fablehaven may be my best yet.

Keep in touch!

Brandon

AHHHH!!!  How cool is that?!  I was so excited to hear from him.  I would looooooooove to bring him back to the area and have him speak here again.  I have met several kids at Churchill who also love the books and have gotten several hooked…and some teachers too.  There is some talk that it might become a movie too, which would be great!  Oh!  The 4th book will be out March 24th!!!  Can’t wait!!!!