My Dogs are Mooing

I've got new stuff coming soon...I promise! In the meantime, though, I want to offer you some alternate reading material.  Husband has challenged himself to start his own blog!  Cycling is a true passion for him, so he's started his own blog to share some tips, tricks, and other observations. Interested?  Check him out at www.ozarkcadence.blogspot.com (Note -- I get nothing for promoting his blog.  Well, maybe I'll get a foot rub later -- but that's it.)

As of a few weeks ago, Fiance is no longer Fiance -- he has been promoted to Husband.  Wow, it's still strange to say that!  I've caught myself a few times referring to him as "my fiance" before realizing I can't say that any longer.  I sometimes look down at my finger and am surprised to see another ring there. I've started the process of changing my name and my driver's license and all of that other fun stuff. I'm re-learning how to write my signature, and I will admit it was exciting to get my first piece of mail with my new last name. Legalities aside, we've now become a team of two.  We're linked by more than just a hard-to-pronounce last name and a piece of paper filed at the courthouse.  We've promised to be there for each other no matter what.  He's going to see me at my best and at my worst, and it won't change how he feels about me.  When he's frustrated he might want to push me away but I won't let him. We hope

Last week I attended a meeting where the presenter discussed the power of "yet"-- how someone can re-frame his/her thinking so as to have a growth mindset.  For instance, instead of saying "I can't run a marathon," I should tell myself, "I can't run a marathon...yet."  To be fair, I feel there's a fine line between self-confidence and false confidence; no matter how strongly I believe in myself, I'm not sure any amount of positive thinking will turn me into an Olympic gold medalist.  However, my thoughts on the theory were tested just a few short hours later... I discovered that someone was making disparaging jokes at my expense about my weight.  It's no secret that I have a love-hate relationship with my body; anyone who follows me on social media has seen my #runburstinrun journey. And it is indeed a journey -- I feel like I barely remember where I began, and there is no ending in sight.  The source of the jokes claimed no harm was

This past week I've been working with my students on writing revisions using the genre of flash fiction. Typically flash fiction is 1,000 words or less; for our purposes, we are sticking between 500 and 750. In order to model for my students I created a piece of my own, and I enjoyed reconnecting with my inner writer.  One of my students, after hearing me read my first draft, asked me why I was a teacher instead of a writer #notsohumblebrag.  Now that I've polished my story, I thought I'd share.  It may still need a little work (I'm still not sure I'm happy with how I wrote the ending), but it sure was fun to create. Enjoy! The Golden Years “Mistakes are ok...but not here.  You’re fired!” Fred started filling a cardboard box with his personal belongings from his locker.  He wondered if they had a room of boxes somewhere, ready to hand out whenever someone was let go -- something that happened a lot.  In his time at the company Fred only bothered t