Sus-tastic!

It's cold.

And by "cold" I mean biting cold. The kind that makes your skin hurt when it's exposed.

My day started with a pleasant surprise... A two hour late start for school. That's how cold it was this morning in the Twin Cities. Late start really means that school districts are waiting to see if it will warm up a little so that little children can safely stand at their respective bus stops. If it doesn't, then school is cancelled. If it does, then the day commences- albeit two hours later.

It warmed up. Or at least, the sun was shining.

This was the temperature in my car when I pulled into school this morning.The temperature was -7, but it was the windchill that was the real problem. That was reported as -35 degrees.

That was the start to my day. So chilly that even Dixie had to wear her fleece coat.

It was a crazy day at school. My teaching partner has been out sick this week. Some interesting subs have shown up. Let's just say that I miss her.

I finally wrapped things up and hit the road about 4:45pm tonight. I hopped on the interstate, only to find a virtual parking lot. Apparently a semi had started on fire, and so all lanes were closed and traffic was routed on the shoulder. It took me an hour and forty-five minutes to get home. It normally takes 20 minutes.

I was spent.

I came in the house, dropped my backpack, and went to collect the mail.

There it was....
A special sussy just for me.

Thanks Allison! Snazzy new fleece jammies, and a special collar for Dixie!


What a fun ending to a hard day. :-)


DIXIE TIDBIT:

Just an update... Dixie's tail is better. She's not so leary to ride in the car. Time heals.

Puppy dog tails

I officially have the crud.

With all the talk of illness around the OC lately, I was bound to catch it! It started on Saturday with a good, old fashioned head cold. Now it’s moved in to my chest, and I have a barky cough. Ugh. Monday was MLK day. The kids had the day off of school, but teachers had a technology workshop. I was able to make it through the morning presentations, but left early to go home and rest on the couch.

Dixie had an unfortunate event happen to her last week. I was ready to go to work in the morning on Thursday. Dixie and I were in the garage. I loaded my backpack (full of a day’s worth of diet mountain dew) and then opened the back door for Dixie to jump in. I shut the door before her tail cleared it. Oh, man…it was like it happened in slow motion. I could see that the door was going to close on her tail, and tried to grab the door. I didn’t get it in time. Dixie cried, and jumped out of the car. I petted her and tried to console her. I told her that it was an accident. She reluctantly got back in the car. Dixie is a back seat rider. But this morning, she slinkered up to the front seat. She stood on the seat and stared at me, as if saying “You IDIOT! Why did you hurt me? Why did you do that to me?!” I petted her and she finally sat down. I looked over at the passenger window. It was covered in blood. Her tail was bleeding. When we got to school I was able to see the owie, and apply gentle pressure to stop the bleeding. Later, I took her outside for our morning break. She rolled in the snow and pranced around happily. When she came inside, I noticed that the entire tip of her tail was bloody. We had to make a quick stop off to the nurse’s office to clean her up. Dixie doesn’t normally like riding in the car anyway. Now it’s an event to coerce her to get in the car. The last couple mornings she has run back to the house (from the garage) in an effort to avoid getting in the car. Poor Dixie.

I finally finished my “secret sussy” project, and will pack it up to mail it this weekend. It’s been a fun project. Thanks for organizing that Amylia and Beth!! What a great idea!

Driving to work this morning, my car thermometer said -15 degrees Fahrenheit. IT IS SO DARN COLD! Even Dixie is moving quicker outside. Apparently it’s supposed to be a balmy 11 degrees later today. Gosh, do you think there will be indoor recess?! I think so.

Brrrr.

The life and times of an amazing dog

Happy New Year. Late. But it’s still a new year, really…. Just ten days into it after all.

Dixie and I had a wonderful Christmas. We spent time with family. Dixie so loves the “opening presents” part of Christmas. She is so funny to watch. She will be sitting calmly, and sees someone start to open a present. She darts over to them and attempts to get her nose in whatever part of the package or bag that she can. She acts very disappointed if the gift is not a toy for her. As she only got a couple presents, we starting “regifting” some of her old toys—putting them in bags so that she continually had something to open. Nutty dog.

We came back to school last Wednesday after 11 days off. I thought that Dixie’s eye was unusually goopy, and needed to be wiped many times throughout the day. Finally in the afternoon, I called the vet and made an appointment. We went that night, and found out that poor Dixie had conjunctivitis. (doggy pink eye) She had ointment to be applied twice daily. It has finally cleared up after a week on the medicine. (and no, the kids at school didn’t catch it from her because it’s not communicable)

I am hooked up to my new Cozmo. All is well. I got some Isocks from my sister (little socks to put your iPod or iPhone into) , and found that the sock is also the perfect size and shape for my insulin pump. I like having my pump “in” something if I decide to store it in my bra. Otherwise, the plastic on bare skin really bothers me. Diabetes infiltrates even Christmas presents.The longer that Dixie and I are together, the more I appreciate my “furry blood glucose monitor.” (especially after seeing the photo of the CBGM sensor site on Amy’s site! Yikes!) She has gotten very particular about her desired range for my blood sugars. She is alerting if I am over 140, and under 80. She isn’t happy unless I’m in that range. Last night, I ate a low carb meal. (tilapia and a medium sized salad that had lettuce, ½ cup tomatoes, and some cucumbers on it) I decided I should only bolus for 15 g. carbs. I pulled out my pump, and Dixie started hitting me. (as if to say, “I can read your body. You don’t need the bolus dummy!”) I didn’t bolus. An hour later I tested. Blood sugar = 90. See what I mean?!

She is really very skilled.

It’s would be kind of scary.

But it’s not. It’s just really, really cool!

(and she just does it. No big deal to her.)


Dixie Tidbit:
(o.k... this entire post has really been about Dixie :-)
Dixie loves to roll in the snow. Especially when it's hard and crunchy. I'm not sure if she is scratching herself all over, or just enjoying it like kids do when they make snow angels!