Happy Halloween...

*The above pictures are in reverse order. I have no idea why blogger reversed the order and I don't feel like figuring out how to re-reverse them. You should be able to get the general idea of the evening though.

The boys were off today so Dirty took off because I still had class. They started the day by going in to Dirty's office to trick or treat. They made a pretty big haul there. Then they went to the park where some of my friends and their kids were having a playdate. I thought that was pretty brave of Dirty to be around a handful of my friends with no other husbands around.

We started trick or treating in the neighborhood about 6 p.m. The boys were both eager to get to Grandpa C.'s and Grandma T.'s so on the walk there they weren't too interested in stopping at the houses giving out candy. Once at Dirty's parent's house we helped give out candy. That didn't last very long because Grandpa C. was giving out handfuls to each trick-or-treater. We then went inside to visit for a little bit and eat a few pieces of candy. After the visit we made the boys walk home to burn off some of the candy energy.

Once home the boys (as soon as they got to the top of the steps) dumped their bags and sorted their candy by type. I then gave them each a labeled container to put their loot into. The Scientist not only sorted his candy but then continued to lay each type neatly into his container. He didn't inherit my perfectionism at all. ;^)

Parent-Teacher Conferences and me...

I didn't realize that it was okay for parents to bring their children with them to Parent/Teacher Conferences. Dirty and I always found a sitter, or went alone, and thought that that was protocol. However, tonight, because we had two boys at the same school, we decided to divide and conquer. This was so not a problem there were kids with every parent I saw there that evening. Our conference times were staggered so that in the best scenario we would have been able to make both meetings together. In the end, though, Monkey's teacher was running 5-10 minutes behind and The Scientist's must have been a little ahead of schedule.

I took Monkey and went to talk to Mrs. B. She has been there since she was a student teacher and both of her boys went to the school as well. She is fantastic and I think Monkey really likes her. She keeps a "portfolio" for each child with pictures of them in class, what their favorite things to do are, and their progress throughout the year. We then went over what he's accomplished in the 8 weeks or so that he's been in school. His memory for things is better than average. He knows 24 of the letters, and their sounds, which is way above the average. He didn't know any of his letters when he started class. Half of the letters he knows Mrs. B hasn't even covered in class yet. He also really loves the dancing and moving time. (Surprise!)

Dirty went with The Scientist, who's teacher was ahead of schedule, and they went over his report card. He's doing really well. His major strengths are counting money (surprise!), math, and especially science which he excelled at. The scientist is doing much better in Art this year. His Art teacher stops me in the halls, every now and then, to tell me that he did great with this project, or it made her so happy that, out of all the class, he remembered this that she'd talked about before. His teacher Mr. C. also said that he's a talker, but that he's very good about knowing when it's an appropriate time.

Both boys, during the conferences, went off to a corner of their rooms and either read quietly (The Scientist) or observed leaves with a magnifying glass very quietly (Monkey) while we talked with their teachers. I had no idea that bringing them was an option. I'm so proud of both of them I could burst right now.

An update on my biology test grade is that I actually scored an 84 (94 with my supplemental quiz) so my average is actually higher than a 96. I changed three of my answers on the test so I could have scored a 90 (100 with my supplemental quiz). I still have a pretty high "A" in the class.

I was in an extremely good mood today and kept thinking throughout the morning/afternoon...GO SCHOOL!!!

Hello Old Friend...

Yes it's been awhile. I've not had time for a while lot lately other than school, housework, raising two boys, and keeping the hubby happy. Working on schoolwork has paid off. I have an "A" average for midterms. I'm not putting in quite as much time as I should but I've still got my head above water.

Monkey turned four. He has a new potty-training motto since his birthday. "I am four and four-year olds are in control of their bodies." As far as I can tell he also knows all of his letters. He also knows most of their sounds.

The scientist, after a long talk about how he is not type of person who is mean to his little brother or who thinks bad, possibly violent, thoughts about people. His response, although timid, was, "I'm allowed to be whoever I am." This wasn't snotty, but more matter-of-fact like he's been told it before. I then had to explain to him that it was my job to make sure that he knows when he's making decisions that are not nice or right. I don't know what's going on with him right now. I do know he's growing physically, and I guess I should understand that he might regress in other areas during that process.

Dirty is holding up pretty well. It makes me giggle a little that every weekend when we have a chance to clean up he almost every time says to the boys, "You know Mommy and I used to clean the house every weekend and spend hours making the house look nice. Did you know that?" On a slightly sour note he also shaved his hair off. All of it. He said he wanted it off. Every time he does that I question why he doesn't shave it but leave an inch or even a half an inch of hair. Instead every time he shaves it down to probably an 1/8 of an inch.

Maybe I'm just jealous. I really need a trim if not a full blown cut. I can't decided where to go. I have a few leads but cost effectiveness is of high priority. That's all I've got right now. We've all been fighting colds and I've had sinus issues for the last week. I took some ibuprofen but it hasn't diminished the extreme pain in my cranio-facial area.

Happy Birthday Monkey!!!

This photo was sent to us by Grandpa C.

Who Knew...

I would be so excited about one measely day off...which is tomorrow...from school. I have one whole day off to do whatever I freaking want. It is Monkey's birthday so part of the day I will be making cupcakes. The other part I guess I should use studying or catching up on my research for my research paper. That reminds me that I have to have a rough draft of my Literary Analysis paper for Thursday. For some strange reason I feel like I should go to Target. I may do it just to appease the spirits that are inspiring me to do it. I also have to go to the grocery store because I have decided to make chili for dinner tomorrow. We are meeting some friends at TG Park for the above mentioned cupcakes after school tomorrow. Other than that the day is open. Both boys are hoping to be sick so that they can stay home and it's only helping that I don't have somewhere to be as well. Now I'm going to get off of here. Sebastian just let loose a deadly gas and if I don't evacuate the area I may suffocate. YUCK!!!

The problem...

with going out on a "school night" with friends is that I'm wired afterwards. I'm not tired at all. I just set up a facebook account because TA and JK said I must. That and GG has an account and so I can't be the only lame-o without a facebook account amongst my friends. I fell prey to peer pressure by creating an account and also buying a pepper spray from the self defense guy because it's better than a gun(his rationing).

My main question was, "Exactly how effective would this be against a bear?" because he said that it was more powerful than bear spray. I never knew there was such a thing. The question I asked him originally was "Where on the bear would I have to spray it?" The self defense expert said that it would be best to spray it in the nose/eye/mouth area, but that I would need a bigger volume of spray against a bear. Whatever. I guess I'm not concerned enough about muggers and rapists in the city. I'm more concerned about, when Dirty takes me on these backpacking trips that he's always talking about, how much I'm going to have to interact with the wildlife?

So now I have a two million something units per whatever of pepper spray on my keychain. Another worry I have about the pepper spray is will my monkey of a child, who is able to scale our full size refrigerator and was able to open our high handled doors by 18 months, be able to operate the pepper spray. The self defense guy's answer was, "Well if he does and it gets on him I can guarantee that he won't do it again." That would be a fun emergency room visit.

I'm feeling at this point like I shouldn't have wasted the money. I guess it's peace of mind. I think I would have rather gone out a couple times for "gourmet" coffee. Oh well.

So now the minutes are ticking away past midnight. I have pepper spray on my keychain. I might be able to keep a mugger or rapist at bay by using some newly learned self-defense moves. I did have fun out with my friends. I have class early (9 a.m.) and I could possibly sleep until 8 if I just throw on clothes, brush teeth, wash face, prepare coffee and run out the door. I'll probably be moving pretty slowly though and will need to get up sooner than that to make sure that I don't forget anything. For instance, I forgot to put on make-up tonight. I also felt a little underdressed. The last time I went to Erato I wore nice clothes and none of my friends dressed up. Tonight they did. The last time I wore my black silk heels and it rained. I just realized this weekend that the reason said heels no longer fit right is because I wore them in the rain and they stretched out. So I guess I'll set my alarm for 7:30. I'm ready for bed now.

RHCP are hot rockin'...

Thank you Red Hot Chili Peppers for making rockin' music!!! With the help of Stadium Arcadium, your last album before going on hiatus helped me move a couch, a very heavy piano with non-working wheels, another couch, a book shelf with books removed, a book shelf with books on it (mostly children's encyclopedias and some college texts that Jake uses for reference like his Excel text), a dresser, and two very large containers of legos (man are those heavy).

I may have more moving to do tonight though. The two sets of shelves I placed in the living room on each side of the window (this is off track and a little silly but I just typed winder hee hee) do not match. I have another shelf that matches and will probably end up switching the non-matching one out. Now that I think about it that kind of stinks since the non-matching book shelf is the one I moved without removing the books. Work smart not hard, dang it!!! Winder...ha ha.

I also replaced the backing on a set of one of the above bookshelves. I'm not exactly sure why it's only secured at the top and the bottom, but I don't design cheap furniture. I'm sure it has to do with the bottom line. It's actually held up quite nicely with the life of Monkey. He's an extreme climber and he's been using those shelves since he was about a year old as practice. I guess it was a $20 investment over six years. Yeah, that's not bad.

Are you spiritless???

Dirty just finished reading my copy of Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. I think Mr. Krakauer is a great writer and like how he references other situations to help convey the meaning of whatever situation he's writing about. When I read Into The Wild I was struck by how this young guy understood so deeply how unconnected we as society are with each other and with the Earth.

Daily I have thoughts of how much crap we have collected and give our kids. I think about how most, if not all, of it is really unnecessary. I imagine daily what it would be like to cast off all the material garbage that society says we need and move out into the country living off the land with just with what we need to live. Some of my more girly sensibilities usually stop me short, but do I really need all of the comforts that I have? Where would we be as a society if we didn't have computers in every home, multiple tvs with satellite, all of the video games, the mounds of toys, and all the extra food that we as Americans consume because our culture says that more is best and a sign of success.

I admired, in a sense, that Chris McCandless had the boldness and the conviction to get out there and discard all the extra stuff. I understood on some level why he went into Alaska with supplies he bought at a Kmart and didn't take a map or extra provisions. Would I have the bollocks to do that myself? Heck no...but I understand his reasoning. He wanted to be off the grid. He wanted to go someplace uncharted, but how can you do that when everything has already been mapped? You don't take a map! It's really bugging me that Dirty only sees the practical side of the situation (Why would you go into Alaska with supplies you bought at Kmart? Why wouldn't you take more food than that?) and he doesn't seem to understand, or give any gravity to, the spiritual aspect of it. He just says that the story is no good because the guy was stupid for doing what he did. Yes, I would agree that it was eccentric. I also think that it was a journey of a soul to make sense of our society and to know that the Earth is really all any human needs to survive. If only he hadn't been taken down by starvation causing bacteria he would have made it.

How can you read it and not see the spiritual journey the guy was taking? I've written this blog waiting for some of the movie to download because it's linked by youku.com and that site usually lags some time into whatever you're watching.