It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.

9:01PM - So long...farewell...

Due to diffiiculty posting and too many students having this account, I have moved sites. If you'd like my new site, email me at aburgess68@comcast.net. I'll respond and let you know the details. See you around!

ABB

(heart me)

1:33PM

Hi all!

So normally I wouldn't update since nothing has happened. But the web filter at school is down and I'm just enjoying the fact that I can update from school. So I am!

Anyway, nothing has really happened in my life. Christmas was pretty good, even though my grandmother was in the hospital. She had a cold that went bad and so spent about a week in the hospital. She seems to be doing better now. Especially considering that she turns 90 tomorrow.

Brad's birthday was last Friday so he's one step closer to 30. Unfortunately, he had to work insanely late, so I went to dinner with my friend Beth who has recently moved back from Virginia. We spent an incredible amount of time at Garrison's (like, 3 hours or so) eating, drinking a bottle of wine, getting coffee and just talking and catching up in general. I'm really glad that she's back here, even though the reasons for her being here are not so happy.

Tonight, I'm going to a champagne tasting at my friend's new house. We've started our own wine club so that we can drink the wines we want and learn what we want from the wine, rather than relying on the spotty info that a distributeur may or may not provide.

Well, that's about it and I need to finish this up to actually teach my IB angels. Especially before they fix the filter and I won't be able to actually post. Love you all! I'll try to be better about updating!

ABB

(3 hearts | heart me)

12:33PM

I got this from my friend Kristin...not bad, I think.

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	8
Mind:	6.2
Body:	8.2
Spirit:	7.2
Friends/Family:	7.1
Love:	9.1
Finance:	8.1
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Went for a drink yesterday after school with some co-workers. It was fun and relaxing, in a way that get-togethers with them often aren't anymore. Maybe we can do it again sometime soon.

After that, went to a pizza place/bar with E. It was fun and definitely good to see her. We'll have to do it again sometime soon, maybe before Christmas.

Last week, I went to see Harry Potter, which I thought was surprisingly good. I went into the movie knowing that major aspects would have to be cut. It's impossible to make a 764-page book into a 2 1/2 hour movie without major snippage. I agreed with the parts they cut out and although I would have liked to see more (since I just like to immerse myself in that world), I definitely didn't mind not having SPEW, for example.

Well, I need to go get some grading done. Family lunch (with my family at my Grandmother's) and dinner (with Brad's family at his sister Laura's) tomorrow. Brad and I are fulfilling our roles as the Bishop-family alcoholics (I still don't understand how we got that designation!) by bringing two bottles of wine. To the Burgess-family celebration, our bottle of wine and bottle of champagne are just poor contributions to the abundance of alcohol that will be present. :)

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

(2 hearts | heart me)

9:35PM - I could have danced all night...

...but I'm far too old for that. Instead, I stayed up to watch the members of Southside Dance Company dance all night. It went well, although I'm still not convinced. There are other things I could say, but this is not the place. Too many people know about this that shouldn't, so I'll just keep it to myself for now.

I do think that I'm too old to have stayed up for 27 straight hours and then only sleep 4 1/2 hours. I feel as though I'm horribly hung over and I didn't even get the pleasure of having even one drink last night. Although I did drink some energy drink called Lift Off. It comes in tablet form in individual packages and then you mix it with water. It's herbal, I think. Anyway, imagine fluorescent green condom packets. That's what they look like. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. I don't know whether it works as well as Red Bull...I drank two of those but by 5 AM, I was just desperate for anything to keep me awake.

Unfortunately, I missed my friend's baby shower. I have a present for her that I guess I'll give her later. We've all planned to go Christmas shopping in December for kids on the Angel Trees (rather than buying gifts for each other), and her baby isn't due until Dec. 30th. So I'll give her the gift then.

That's all for now. Gotta go watch UGA come back to beat Auburn...then stumble into bed to hopefully sleep for a long, long time. Therapist appointment on Wednesday. Guess we'll see how crazy I really am...

(3 hearts | heart me)

7:31PM - I stole this from lizz414...

If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want, either good or bad.

When you're finished, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people remember about you.

(1 heart | heart me)

10:01PM - One day soon I'll update for real, but until then...

You are a Social Liberal (60% permissive) and an... Economic Moderate (41% permissive) You are best described as a: Centrist Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

(3 hearts | heart me)

8:57PM - More boredom...

Your Inner Child Is Sad

You're a very sensitive soul. You haven't grown that thick skin that most adults have. Easily hurt, you tend to retreat to your comfort zone. You don't let many people in - unless you've trusted them for a long time.

Your Seduction Style: Au Natural

You rank up there with your seduction skills, though you might not know it. That's because you're a natural at seduction. You don't realize your power! The root of your natural seduction power: your innocence and optimism. You're the type of person who happily plays around and creates a unique little world. Little do you know that your personal paradise is so appealing that it sucks people in. You find joy in everything - so is it any surprise that people find joy in you? You bring back the inner child in everyone you meet with your sincere and spontaneous ways. Your childlike (but not childish) behavior also inspires others to care for you. As a result, those who you befriend and date tend to be incredibly loyal to you.

What???

Your Personality Is

Guardian (SJ) You are sensible, down to earth, and goal oriented. Bottom line, you are good at playing by the rules. You tend to be dominant - and you are a natural leader. You are interested in rules and order. Morals are important to you. A hard worker, you give your all at whatever you do. You're very serious, and people often tell you to lighten up. In love, you tend to take things carefully and slowly. At work, you are suited to almost any career - but you excel in leadership positions. With others, you tend to be polite and formal. As far as looks go, you are traditionally attractive. You take good care of yourself. On weekends, you tend to like to do organized activities. In fact, you often organize them!

(heart me)

8:48PM

Hey, me too!

What Your Underwear Says About You

When you're bad, you're very bad. And when you're good, you're still trouble! You're a closet exhibitionist who gets a thrill from being secretly naughty.

I already did the age one. I think that I was a 30 something...

(heart me)

10:02PM

Wednesday is almost over...

Thursday had better be quickly over...

Friday - Sunday: Nashville, good music at fun bars, good laughs with Brad's friends that love me b/c I love Brad (and even them, sometimes), good football (just b/c we'll win), good times.

Mon dieu que j'ai besoin de ce weekend.

Thomas, merci ? Dieu pour toi et ton email. Tu m'as fait sourir quand je suis arriv?e chez moi hier soir. C'?tait parfait. :)

Mon cousin et ma cousine ont d?couvert aujourd'hui qu'ils auront un b?b?, un gar?on. Je suis tr?s heureuse pour eux parce qu'? mon avis, une fille ne serait pas la meilleure chose pour elle, pour ma cousine. Elle avait (a?) des probl?mes de sant?, de mang? (comme, elle ne le fait pas...) et un gar?on va ?tre pour le meilleur.

Aussi, pendant que j'?cris en fran?ais, j'ai entendu que M. Gris ?tait un ours (?) aujourd'hui encore ? une de mes danseuses. Je le d?teste et si je pouvais, je le t?rminerais. Mais bien s?r que je ne peux pas. Tant pis pour moi! :(

Sorry for the French...just things that I needed to get off my chest. Feel free to translate them (as if you need my permission, I'm sure that I don't even know that half of you are reading this - Am?lie!), but it makes me feel better to write them initially in a language other than English.

Well, Brad's back now from walking Coal (I'm trying to force them both back down to a healthy weight) so I'd better go. I may update again before Nashville, but will definitely do so after I get back. I'll have pictures as well.

Des bons baisers ? tous!

(8 hearts | heart me)

9:10PM

Angela took the free ColorQuiz.com personality test! "Needs a peaceful environment. Wants release from s..." Click here to read the rest of the results.

I promise that I will update soon...just give me a chance to catch up in RL.

Stress...can't take much more...

9 days 'till Nashville...

(2 hearts | heart me)

8:57PM - New hair!

So, after a fantabulous lunch with Kristin today (unfortunately, Jenny couldn't join us and Allison works forever away), I went and had my done.  For the first time in my life, I have highlights.  They're hard to see in the pictures (however, my braces show up perfectly), but they're there.  I'm not sure what I think of them.  I had thought about getting it dyed darker and then highlighted, but my budget forced me to choose.  Maybe next time I'll just go darker and skip the highlights.  But anyway, here are the before pictures (taken in my car on the way to the salon):

And here are the after pictures. taken by myself again, and one by Brad:

  

 

 

If you're wondering why my face is so swollen, it's not because I've had surgery or gained an obscene amount of weight in the past few days.  It's because my braces are making my cheeks all puffy and for some reason, also making my double-chin even more prominent. 

 

Other news, ummm, well, I had no school today and again no school tomorrow.  Why?  Not really sure.  Something about saving gas, but all I know is that I'm using more gas today and tomorrow than I would if I were officially at work.  Had dinner with my girls Friday night - Chinese and champagne  :)  Also on Friday, I got my bottom braces on (hence the swollen cheeks) and they hurt like hell.  They're better now and I now feel that I can chew equally with my top and bottom teeth.

 

Well, that's about it for now.  I know, I know, I'm so boring.  Well people should give me interesting stuff to talk about!  :)  Gotta go watch LSU/Tennessee.  Rootin' for LSU b/c TN just sucks...anything orange sucks!

 

See you all later!

 

 

(1 heart | heart me)

11:26PM - Family...

I miss my family. Not my immediate family, like my husband and baby, or my mom and dad, but the rest of my family. The people that I grew up with, the one that I played with every other weekend while we waited for our respective fathers to pick us up and I saw every summer as much as my brother. The one that I didn't get along with as a child then had a year of friendship in HS, then became friends with again about 3 years ago. The one that I grew up thinking of as grouchy and I've grown up to realize is grouchy, but not as much as they used to be. The one that recently joined the family but has grown further apart since becoming family.

(heart me)

8:36PM

It's both sad and refreshing when friendships die and one is able to let them go...

I feel that I may finally be on the right track for letting go.

I hope...

(2 hearts | heart me)

7:54PM - New hair?

So I'm thinking about getting my hair done like this.  It's not actually that much different than it already is.  What do you think?

(3 hearts | heart me)

10:38PM - Friends only tonight...

Comment to be added...

(3 hearts | heart me)

9:01PM - OK...OK...

Well, it appears as though people actually read this and want to know about my life!  :)

It's been awhile since I've updated.  School makes it difficult since the web page is blocked by FortiGuard and I now longer have the password to be able to bypass the system.  So I'll just go back generally and update and I apologize if I repeat myself.

I know I posted that I bought a new car (wow...that was a month ago!).  But at the time, I still had to get the sunroof installed.  It is now installed and fabulous.  I love it, love it, LOVE IT!  Every once in a while, the sunroof doesn't like to close, but it always eventually does.  By that, I mean that it closes automatically when I shut off the car (although I can bypass this if I just want to sit with it open without wasting gas).  Sometimes, when it does that, it goes to close and decides that it can't do it, so it will open and close one or more times additionally before it finally "likes" closing for real.  Most of the time, I stop it and then close it myself and it works fine.  I have also named my car, Dorc that I am.  Any guesses?

Gryff.  As in Gryffindor.  As in Godric, from Harry Potter.  I know, I know...I'm a Dorc.  But I love it.  Brad's going to get my tag tomorrow and I'm trying to get a specialty tage that says "HHR FAN" or one of several other options, in case that one is taken.  :)

Let's see...what else?  SDC is going well and I may be getting some additional part-time help from a parent and another teacher.  That will be nice, especially since I have a life now and most of my events seem to occur on Tuesdays or Fridays.

School is OK, except we have meetings all the time!  I don't know how they expect us to get anything done when we lose an average of 2 plannings a week.  The new Smart Boards are really cool.  Wish I had one.  Instead, I have to beg, borrow or steal whenever I need / want to use one.  It's a pain.  But at least I'm doing it and using them, which should make my case stronger for moving back into the building next year.

Ryan started soccer the middle of August.  I'm pretty sure he doesn't like it, but rather just the idea of it.  It could also be simply that hour long practices and hour long games are FAR TOO LONG for a 3-year-old!  He seems to do well at the beginning of practice, but by mid-way through, he's done and wants to go home.  His first game was last weekend.  If you were the kind of parent to keep score, which of course I'm not, his team lost (Brad does keep score :) ).  He started, but then never went back in.  Not b/c the coaches wouldn't put him in, but b/c he refused to go back on the field.  Oh well...

Last week, I went to a picture party for Allison Palistrini, my "social coordinator".  It was lots of fun just to hang out with my girls and meet some new girls.  A lot of them were from their sorority and I joked that I feel like a sister, I now know so many of them.  :)  But I do miss my own sisters.  I wish that I saw them more, rather than just showers for weddings and babies.  Even if I'm nothing like most of them...

In sadder news, my great-uncle passed away last week.  He was 89 years old and had fought in WWII.  There was an awesome picture of him at the family visitation in his flying pareahenalia.  So cool!  It was very sad, but I know that he is happier wherever he is with my Daddy Buddy.  He had been sick for a long time with Alzheimers and other illnesses.  So it truly is for the best, but that doesn't make it any easier.  We went to the visitation two Fridays ago and then the funeral on Saturday.  Brad was amazing and went late to the opening game for UGA, passed up tailgating to go with me to the funeral.  As he said, that's what family does.  Sure, he might have been my great-uncle and I might not have seen him in a while, but he was still family.  And family sticks by each other, supports each other at times like that.  I hope that when my Uncle Bill passes away, Ryan will feel the same way and will come to be with me, as well as his family.  I hope that I raise him to believe in the importance of all family like that. 

Sorry, rambling...

Néanmoins, I also have happy news.  My friend Meghan recently made the UGA Equestrian Team.  She can't ride for a while due to injury, but that's amazing for her.  The Equestrian Team is new, but is already ranked nationally.  She's an amazing rider and loves it, especially her horse Risqué.  So congrats to her!  My friend Kristen recently bought her first piece of property, a townhouse in Woodstock.  She has joined the Dark Side of Those-Who-Live-Over-There but I'm happy for her!  I know that she'll love owning, even if it does take quite a chunck out of her paycheck!  Um, what else?  Oh, E joined her sorority and seems to be quite happy.  I miss her like crazy and really wish that I oculd have seen her this past weekend, but Executive Wifehood called and Brad and I had to attend an IST Corporate Function at Eclipse di Luna.  It was fun, but not as fun as I'd hoped.  At 10:30, Hal decided that he wanted to go hit Maco's and so we left.

Well, this is a really LONG post now, but I think I've hit some major points.  What's up in your life?  Post something if you read this, whoever you are.  Tell me your name and one thing recent that has happened to you that I don't know about.  No lurking allowed!

ABB

(5 hearts | heart me)

9:26PM

The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to Purgatory!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	High
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Moderate
Level 2 (Lustful)	Moderate
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Moderate
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Low
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Low
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

(2 hearts | heart me)

11:02PM - Guess what this is!

 Yep...it's my new car.  No fog lights, but it will get a sunroof.  I'm a little worried about the process, b/c it doesn't come with the sunroof, but they're putting it in.  Anyone know how that works?  It kinda scares me.

YEAH!  I have a new car!!!

(10 hearts | heart me)

9:31PM

Yeah for the first week of school!

Classes started on Monday. Really weird to be at school and not have certain people come visit me because they're gone...either graduated or off to Switzerland. My classes seem pretty good. My Frnch 6 class is awesome b/c I know them all and they're all really great. They also all like me! :) My French 2 classes seem pretty good as well. One class has more life than the other, but they both seem like fun.

Got nothing done during my planning today, although I did manage to score a victory and get a key to the dressing rooms for SDC. Talked to M. leChef and found out that M. Gris was wrong, a key DOES exist to just the dressing rooms and said key was issued to me. Stupid man thinks he owns that place. Too bad it's NOT his personal property, but rather county-owned government property, as is every classroom/trailer/building in every school across the county. Je déteste les idiots qui ne se rendent pas compte qu'ils sont si ignorants! Il devrait être illégal d'être si stupide et aussi si égoïste!

After work, I went to dinner with E at La Cazuela. Good times, good sangria!

Desperately need to work out tomorrow. I'm gonna try to go with Kristin. But I keep forgetting to confirm with her. If you read this before I call you at work tomorrow, call me! Tomorrow is good for me, 6:15.

Gotta go finish all the stuff I didn't get to do during planning today. Salut!

ABB

(1 heart | heart me)

12:53PM - Back to school

School starts tomorrow. I am woefully unprepared. Actually, I'm probably fine, but I feel completely unprepared. At least I start with French 6, a class of seniors that I don't need to impress. And then I have 4th block planning, so I can get ready for the next day.

My goal for this year is to leave every non-SDC day by 4:30. I need to continue working out like I did over the summer, but with all Ryan's soccer and my SDC, the only way that will happen is if I make the effort to leave by 4:30. If you talk to me, bug me about it. I will be better if I know that others know what I'm supposed to be doing.

For other news, I found out earlier this week that a friend of mine found out that she is pregnant. Don't get excited, she doesn't want to be. She is still in college and definitely NOT married. She hasn't quite made up her mind yet, but is strongly leaning towards not keeping it. I don't know what your views are on the matter of woman's choice, but I would rather not get into a flame war about it here. All I'm asking for here are your kind thoughts towards her and the difficult situation that she is in. If you pray, please ask for her to have peace of mind to be able to do what needs to be done, whatever that is. Don't judge her, because it's too easy to judge if you've never been in her situation. Until you have, you can't ever really know what it's like. Even I don't know exactly. My pregnancy, although unexpected and undesired, still came after graduation, marriage and establishing a career.

Another friend of mine is having some female problems. She has to go back to the doctor for further tests...something none of us want to hear after having been for our yearly. Anyway, pray for a clean bill of health for her.

My plans for this week include:
1. getting to the gym 3 times (Mon, Wed, Thurs?)
2. having dinner with E (Wed? I don't remember...is this right?)
3. orthodontist appt...maybe getting bottom braces (Thurs)
4. drinks sometime with Kristin if we can work it in
5. Little Gym with Ryan (Mon @ 6:30)
6. teaching, grading...wonder why this is at the bottom of my list? :)

ABB

(2 hearts | heart me)