The World According to Leslie

Ok so this is going to be a really long post.... I'll try to label things to make it easier to follow. Papaw's Surgery: Right after my grandmother died, we found out that my dad's dad (Papaw) had cancer in his bladder. He had been so busy taking care of Grandmother that he only took care of "immediate" things for himself. He had two surgeries to remove cancer, but they did not get it all either time. Then we learned that the cancer had spread to his prostate also. So on August 12th, Papaw had surgery to remove his bladder and his prostate. He now has a bag attached that acts as his bladder. He has been recovering very well! Praise the Lord! He spent a couple of weeks with my parents. Yesterday, he decided it was time to "move back home". :) So after the home nurse visited yesterday (they come 2-3 times a week still) my mom took him home. :) I'm gonna miss having his so close to us, but it's only about 10 minutes away now. :) School: Scho

So..... we're not moving. There will be lots more details later. Right now, I have to focus on forcing myself to think GOOD thoughts. I also have to FORCE myself to NOT wish evil things on the landlord. Until next time........

On Tuesday, we moved Chasity's bedroom stuff into the new house. She has a few toys still here and her closet clothes. If the rain will stop, we will probably take that to the new house tonight! If it keeps raining, well, I guess everything else will go tomorrow! :) We also took my China cabinet and my china. You know the kind! The China we do NOT use! lol All the dishes we normally use were there already anyways! :) We've been paper plating and plastic utensilling since last week! :) Everything made it in one piece! So I got that set up in the dining room. The dining room table went also! :) So the dining room is basically set up! Chasity just has a few more things for her room! Tonight, we were supposed to move desks and such, but with the rain, I am thinking I'm not putting anything in an open trailer! We have flood warnings out until early afternoon! It's raining pretty steady today! (Wouldn't that be how it works!?) Anyways.... that's the mo

Yesterday, August 18th, was Chasity's 7th birthday! It was the first time EVER that I was not with her for the entire day! :( I started my student teaching (with teacher workdays) yesterday! Chasity hung out with my mom for a little bit. Then she went to my sister's house! When Tony got home, we let Chasity pick where she wanted to eat. Anyone guess where we went? If you guessed McDonald's (with playland) you are RIGHT! We were there for a little while. Good thing we left when we did. A horrible storm came through right after we got home. The power even went out for a couple minutes! WOW! (Could you imagine PlayLand in the dark? lol) Anyways.... I think she had a great day! Until next time..... Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Today, I went to meet my cooperating teacher, CT. Her name is Ms. D! She showed me around the school. It's one of the older schools in the district.... not the oldest, but older! :) There are only going to be about 900 students there this year. The school is used to having about 1500. Last year and this year, the district re-districted some of the schools. Plus, last year, they opened a new high school here. So a lot of the kids went to that new high school. I found out that instead of having 3 different lesson plans--preps--this semester, I am only going to have ONE! I have the same subject for all 3 classes!!! I'm excited! I think that Ms. D and I are going to get along well. I'm excited about what's going to happen this semester! Until next time........

This week is going to get things rolling for me.... It's going to get the school year started for me.... It's going to start getting crazy!! Let's see...what do I have to do this week? Monday: 11am--meet with friend to give them Chasity for the night Visit Papaw at hospital (oh yeah! more on that soon!) Go to Chasity's NEW school to turn in one paper Turn in one form for Student Teaching 6pm--Class for UNCC Tuesday: 9am--meet my Cooperating Teacher (CT) for my Student Teaching Get Chasity back from friend Visit Papaw at hospital Take flower to Grandmother's grave (for bday) Wednesday: CHASITY'S BIRTHDAY!!!! Begin Student Teaching (ST) with 1st teacher workday Thursday: Teacher workday #2 Open House at ST location Friday: Teacher workday #3 MOVE!!! (Or start unpacking to stay here!) If you think this schedule looks interesting, just wait.... next week will be even MORE fun when Chasity starts school! :) Until next time........

I am writing this in the comfort of my desk chair from the confines of my OLD house! That's right! I said OLD! We didn't get moved in this weekend! Why? I'm glad you asked! On Tuesday, we completed all the painting we were doing. Mr. B said that he would definately get the carpets cleaned on Wednesday and we could move in on Friday. However.... Mr. B did not get the carpet cleaner over there until Thursday night. The water was turned off. The water went on and in our name on Friday! Mr. B didn't get the A/C fixed in the master bedroom area! It' 100 degrees in that room! So.... we called him until 9pm last night. We never got an answer about anything! Now... Mr. B and family left at 4am to go on vacation. He won't be back for a week. We may not get to move at all! Until next time........

As you know, I am going to be doing my student teaching this fall. I am going to be at a local high school working with a teacher who has been teaching for a while! I think that will be good for me! :) Anyways, tonight, I am going to attend the mandatory Orientation! It's going to be the same thing I went through last semester, so this time I am not freaking out. :) I got an email last night from my University Supervisor (US) he/she (there were only initials for a first name, so I don't know if he/she is male or female...yet!) is going to meet with us after the Orientation tonight. That means I should get a copy of my class schedule for the semester! I can hope it's not EVERY week, but if it is.... I will be there! :) For the rest of today, I'm going to be running around getting stuff set up for the new house. I'm also going to be going to visit my Grandfather at the hospital (more on that later)! Until next time........

Yesterday, I packed up most of my dishes. For the week, we are eating college-style...paper plates and plastic forks/spoons! lol I took all the boxes of dishes to the new place and unpacked them there. Now... I don't normally do that all in one day, but I needed the boxes back! Seems I didn't get enough boxes to pack in! :( All we have left to do at the new house is paint 3-4 doors! We are painting them white. Washing didn't help them. The people before me left the place in a mess....a real pig-sty! So we were doing some painting anyway.... the doors need it! Tony has to finish the trim work in the master bath! Yeah!!! It's finally ready to use....almost! lol My dad is going to throw another coat of paint on the dining room. Then.... we have to wait for the landlord to have the master bedroom closet built, the kitchen floor leveled, the a/c fixed in the master bedroom, bathroom, and sitting area/den, AND he has to have the carpets cleaned! ALL of that MUST be

So....the date is set! We are MOVING! If everything goes as planned (does it ever?), we are moving on Friday evening! Tony will be home from work around 3:30-4pm. We are going to have friends from church and possibly some family come and help us....hopefully! Then, Saturday, we are hoping to have Chasity's party. However, I just found out last night that my brother, his wife, and their 5 kids, AND my sister all made other plans for Saturday! ARG!!! So....we may have to postpone Chasity's party until after school starts so that people will stop planning stuff and show up! It's not like they didn't know! I've been telling them since late May/early June what DAY the party is! Anyways.... the party will probably be a last minute decision..... unfortunately! However.... she WILL have one! I just don't know when! :) Until next time........

Last week, the landlord of the new house said that we would be in the house "no later than Aug. 1st". Considering the amount of work he is having done, we knew that was never going to happen. Tony said that the landlord could have another couple of days....until Tuesday of this week. The Landlord said...."ok". We will be finished and you can get in here! So Monday, we went over and painted Chasity's pink room! We still have to do the trim work, but it's pink! We cleaned the dark wood paneling in the office with Murphy's Oil Soap. That room looks really nice! We put a coat of Kilz on the living room. On Sunday, Tony went to talk to the landlord (Mr. B) and told him that as long as they were finished by TODAY (Thursday, Aug 5th) everything would be fine. Mr. B said that wouldn't be a problem. So last night, we went over to see how everything was looking. Mr. B said that his guy would be "finished inside tomorrow (meaning Thursday) and all he