Today I celebrate two years as a homeowner. It’s been a great, but busy two years. So tonight I drink a glass of wine to my house which is still in one piece even though my sanity might not always be. Cheers!

Today, Adam and I headed out to get pumpkins. Okay, so we procrastinated on this but life was busy. Lucky for us, we have two pumpkin patches within three miles of our house. Last year, we went to Lone Pine Farms so we wanted to try Thistle Down Farms this year. Thistle Down Farms participates in the ‘Farm to School’ program with my district bringing local produce to our school district, so I wanted to support a farm that participates in such a great program. When we got to Thistle Down, we found just a bunch of pumpkins laid out in front of the farm. We decided that we wanted to have the experience of going out into a field and searching for our perfect pumpkin, so we headed back to Lone Pine.

When we got there, we found over 95% of pumpkins were either rotten or rotting. I guess this is the natural consequence for waiting until the last minute for pumpkins. If we had not waited so long, I know we would have found the perfect pumpkins for us. So we headed back to Thistle Down Farms to pick out three pumpkins…one for Adam, one for me and one for Ginger.

Note to self: Don’t procrastinate on pumpkin picking

Today is my dad’s birthday…he turned…okay, I won’t say how old because that’s rude. We celebrated his birthday with a fantastic dinner last night at The Ringside in Portland. If you are meat eater and love a good steak, this is the place to go. We have not had a better steak in all our lives. This place holds a special place with my parents because my dad proposed to my mom there. Without The Ringside I might not exist.

Head’s up: This is not a happy, go-lucky post.

It has been no secret that my job has been extremely difficult, stressful and draining so far this year. This past six weeks have been the hardest time I have had in my 3+ years teaching. It’s only a few students who are creating this stress while the rest of my students continue to be relatively successful, but there is one things that is constantly on my mind.

What I am amazed with is the large amount of issues/problems some of my students come to school with on a daily basis. I am seeing students younger and younger coming in with mental illness, violent behavior and a sincere disrespect of themselves and others. What makes me so mad is that most of these situations could be prevent if parents were more responsible during their pregnancy or raising their child at an early age. It completely breaks my heart to see these students engage in behaviors that could have easily been prevented. Seeing these children act out of control, unable to control their emotions or thought processes due to poor parenting, abuse or teratogens during pregnancy is so hard to see on a daily basis. It makes me very pessimistic about society, and its depressing. Most of my students would not be in my classroom if their parents had made better choices. It’s unfair that children have to suffer at the expense of their parent’s bad choices in life.

I am not an angry person by any means, but this issue enrages me more and more every day.

I have an iPhone now. So much fun.

Okay, so it’s not the best title for a blog post, but it’s Ginger’s new nickname. Over the past month, Ginger has been drinking tons of water which has been leading to frequent bathroom trips…hence the name “The Pee Machine”. With vet visits and tests, the vet suspects Cushing’s syndrome where the body produces too much cortisone. While the results won’t come until next week, for now, Ginger is on human blood pressure medication which I picked up today at Fred Meyer. The prescription says “Ginger Dog”. Currently we are treating her high blood pressure which will hopefully help her heart murmur while we wait for results. It was pretty funny today going to the local pharmacy to pick up her blood pressure medication…I can’t help but laugh.

On thing I enjoy about our district is teachers praise other teacher with awards. We call these Spirit Awards. This is the third one I have received. For me, it helps me keep in check that through the hard times, I am making a difference. Here is my recent award from our behavior specialist:

“Erin Muessle deserves a spirit award for using behavioral data to make informed decisions when working with students with behavioral disabilities. Not only does she use data to make educated decisions in her classroom, but she creates behavioral data systems for other teachers to use in the building. Additionally, Erin has a “can do” attitude and is always willing to go the extra mile to do what is best for students. Erin Muessle is a “top notch teacher” and is extremely deserving of a spirit award.”

If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance and
they don’t work there, you live in Oregon.

If you’ve worn shorts, sandals and a parka at the same
time, you live in Oregon.

If you measure distance in hours, you live in Oregon.

If you know several people who have hit a deer more than
once, you live in Oregon.

If you have switched from ‘heat’ to ‘A/C’
and back again in the same day, you live in Oregon.

If you install security lights on your house and garage but
leave both doors unlocked, you live in Oregon.

If you can drive 75 mph through 2 feet of snow during a
raging blizzard without flinching, you live in Central,
Southern or Eastern Oregon.

If you design your kid’s Halloween costume to fit over
a 2 layers of clothes or under a raincoat, you live in
Oregon.

If driving is better in the winter because the potholes are
filled with snow and ice, you live in Oregon.

If you know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still
winter, and road construction, you live in Oregon.

If you feel guilty throwing aluminum cans or paper in the
trash, you live in Oregon.

If you know more than 10 ways to order coffee, you live in
Oregon.

If you know more people who own boats than air
conditioners, you live in Oregon.

If you stand on a deserted corner in the rain waiting for
the “Walk” signal, you live in Oregon.

If you consider that if it has no snow or has not recently
erupted, it is not a real mountain, you live in Oregon.

If you can taste the difference between Starbucks,
Seattle’s Best, and Dutch Bros, you live in Oregon.

If you know the difference between Chinook, Coho and
Sockeye salmon, you live in Oregon.

If you know how to pronounce Sequim, Puyallup, Abiqua,
Issaquah, Oregon, Umpqua, Yakima and Willamette, you live in
Oregon.

If you consider swimming an indoor sport, you live in Oregon.

If you know that Boring is a city and not just a feeling,
you live in Oregon.

If you can tell the difference between Japanese, Chinese
and Thai food, you live in Oregon.

If you never go camping without waterproof matches and a
poncho, you live in Oregon.

If you have actually used your mountain bike on a mountain,
you live in Oregon.

If you think people who use umbrellas are either wimps or
tourists, you live in Oregon.

If you buy new sunglasses every year, because you cannot
find the old ones after such a long time, you live in Oregon.

If you actually understand these jokes and forward them to
all your OREGON friends, you live or have lived in Oregon.