Friday, January 11, 2013

Teacher bravely disarms shooter - great story, but

Hero teacher bravely confronts, disarms California school shooter

Awesome, awesome story!!

But, my son will graduate in May with a degree in education.

I seriously fear for his life.  Every day.

But then, anything can happen at any given time.

When I was in school back in the stone ages **cough** (I graduated in 1989), there was nothing like this.  no school shooting.

Were there shootings?

Yes.

Just not at school.

My junior year of high school, there was this party.  Half the school, at least, was invited.  I've tried doing a google search for it and I can't find anything.  Trying to remember back to then is hard.  All I can remember is that the boy that was killed's name was Brian and the boy that shot him was Jason.

Jason killed Brian over a fudgescicle.

Dumb, right?

Brian was 20, and at the time, that was legal, if I remember right, to buy alcohol, or he got someone else to get it.  There was beer involved.  Jason was 15.

15.

I think that was the first time ever I heard of a teenager shooting and killing someone.  At least where I lived at the time.

Why did Jason shoot Brian over a fudgescicle?

Because Jason's step father was abusive and they told him there had better not be any food missing from the house when they got back from a week-long trip they were on.  Meaning, no missing fudgescicles and he was supposed to eat elsewhere while they were gone.

Being as there was alcohol involved, Jason was not thinking.  He went to his step father's room, got the gun, told Brian to put the fudgescicle back, and when Brian didn't comply, he shot him.

In front of about 30 people.

I can remember in the week that followed the shooting, there was a line all the way around the round (our high school was round....litterally....it looks like a prison) waiting to talk to the guidance counselors.  Kids were terrified.  Scared it was going to happen to them.  Scared for Jason, who at 15, was tried as an adult and sentanced to 30 years in prison for manslaughter.  Sad for Brian's family.

Crazy, right?

And now, things like this are common place.  We hear about them on just about a daily basis.

And it makes me sad...and scared.

But, I support my son's choice 100%.  And I'll be there for him if he ever has to go through anything like this, and I pray that he does not. 

Just as I pray that nothing like the shootings that have happened all over the world will not happen again.

*sigh*

Melancholy day, I guess.

But a good story!!

Gym tonight! 

Oh, and an update on Georgianna - she is a perfectly healthy 13yo boxer, just needs to lose some weight - just like me, lol.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Thinking good thoughts for one of our dogs :( ..and a plug for a few rescues

We have boxers.

We LOVE boxers.

We have had chows, standard poodles and German shepards......Boxers top them all.

The only problem with boxers is that they are VERY prone to cancer.

We lost Dallas in 2003 to a brain tumor.

We lost Sampson in 2009 to lung cancer.

Georgianna, our 13-year-old that we got from a rescue in Alabama - we know that she has mamary tumors, but with her age, they said to leave them alone, that as long as they don't grow, they are fine.

A few days ago, she started vomiting and had diarreah.  Yay.  Awesome to go home after work and see your husband running out of the house with a trash can, trying not to yack everywhere because you walked in to dog poo in the house because the poor girl couldn't hold it.

Megan is taking her to the dr today, because even though the vomitting is gone, she has this hack.  I am thinking that she has the beginning of congestive heart failure.  If I'm right, it's totally treatable.  We just have to make sure to get her on the right meds.  I love our vet, too.  They are verry supportive and, unlike some vets out there, they try to make things very affordable, too.

The rescue we got George from is Rockin P Rescue.  Sam, we had him from a puppy.  Dallas was a rescue from the Carolina Boxer Rescue.  He was a dog that was rescued after Hurricane Floyed and no one claimed him.  He was the BEST dog that  I have ever owned, and definitely my boy.

The blurb on the Rockin P site after I adopted George, at a bout 5 months old:

And here she is 13 years later :)  This was on Christmas day.

Libby, we got her from a breeder that I have known for over 6 years.  She only breeds her females twice, then has them spayed.  They then go to adoptive homes where they can live out their lives :).  Libby is a European boxer.  She has a more laid back temperament and a shorter snout than an American bred boxer.

If you are interested in finding out more about where I got Libby, you can go here: Winn Creek Boxers.  I will say this - you are paying for QUALITY if you go to Kim or anyone that she recommends.  These are not puppy mill dogs, nor are these breeders doing this for money.  The good ones that do all required testing and everything actually LOSE money when they have litters.

I do HIGHLY recommend Kim, and I also HIGHLY recommend both the rescues mentioned above.  There is NOTHING WRONG with getting an older dog.  Dallas was at least 5 when we got him.  He fit right in.  You don't HAVE to get a puppy every single time you get a dog.

Anyhow, while I patiently wait for my daughter to call to tell me what the vet said, I had better do something productive here at work.

Later!

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Drinking diet soda linked to increased risk of depression (interesting blurb of the day)

Drinking diet soda linked to increased risk of depression

The top response to this article reads as follows:

"This study is stupid! The reason diet soda drinkers are depressed is because the fatties are the ones drinking it. Not mention the age of the people was 50 to 71, hell they are almost dead what do they have to look forward to?"

Really?

A lot of the diet pop drinkers I know are thin, fit, and very, very happy.

Do I drink diet pop?  No.  Not regularly, anyway.  I don't like it that much.  I prefer water.  Once in a while, I'll throw some crystal light or mio in for a little taste, but overall, I like water.

Now, I am trying to get my daughter off of regular pop, for health reasons.  She is overweight and is at high risk for developing a fatty liver.  Getting her off of high-calorie soda and foods is our first priority.  Baby steps, or she will become depressed or pissed off over me being a tyrant and overbearing.  She drinks diet mountain dew.  Is she depressed now?  No.  She's a college student going to school to be an Airplane Mechanic, lives at home, and pretty much has a very good life, including social.

The only reason that I can think of people being depressed from drinking either diet pop or fruit drinks would be the crash after the sugar/caffiene high is gone, lol.  That could be depressing if you were really enjoying that buzz.

But do I really think that drinking diet soda can lead to depression?  Nah.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

If caffeine is not a drug....

Then why do you feel so crappy when you quit partaking in it?

I decided to stop drinking caffeine yesterday.  I don't drink a whole lot of it, but I decided to stop drinking it again.  I usually have one cup of coffee in the morning.  Mostly just so I have somthing to drink when I get up.  I've gotten to where I just grab a bottle of water instead. 

I have a meeting tonight.  It's a dinner meeting that I have once a month that helps me earn education credits for one of my certifications so I don't have to re-test when my certification time is up. 

I'm leaving at 3:30 so that I can get to the gym before I have to be at the meeting at 5pm.  They feed us dinner at the meeting.  Most of the time it's really gross pizza (seriously) and salad.  Sometimes some kind of pasta.  If the meeting wasn't so long, I would just wait til I got home to eat.  My Greek yogurt is NOT going to last til we eat dinner at 6:15ish :p.  Maybe I will grab a chicken sandwich or something on the way there. 

This week at work has been very hectic so far.  I have an unannounced audit that will happen any day - at least we know approximatley when it will be.  The guy comes the same time every year.  Usually the day before or the day after my son's birthday.

Speaking of my son, he is student teaching this semester.  Hard to believe that he will be 22 on Thursday.  He graduates from NC State in May with a degree in Science Education with a concentration in Physics.

One of the dogs is sick.  If she's not doing any better by tomorrow, I am going to have Megan take her to the vet.  She is 13 (the dog, not Megan :p), so unless it's something easy to fix, there really isn't very much they can do.  We know she has several tumors - begnin for the most part.  But there is no telling what's going on inside.  Most of the tumors are mamary.  She's still eating and bouncing around...she just has a cough and is vomitting.  I have a feeling it may be her heart :(.

Anywho.  Until later....