House Full of Boys...and Me

Winding down the semester...

2011-04-17T17:55:00.003-05:00

I haven't really written anything since my last day of break before the semester started. The course load was much more do-able and less stress inducing. I only have about a month left of this semester. My birthday is next week. I have one year until I graduate with a nursing degree. I'm taking the bulls by the horns this summer and taking three classes so that my course load senior year will be a little more manageable. I am hoping to get some sort of student nurse tech job after fall semester. By then, I will have gone through all the different hospital areas of nursing, and I will finally find somewhere that I would really like to be in nursing. This semester wasn't so bad which was maybe in part due to the awesome spring break I had.

I didn't go anywhere special unless you count Chesterfield as special. I think most would agree with me that it is indeed NOT special. Although that is where I hung out with the ever awesome JW. We watched Daria and had margaritas. Then moved the party of ~~two~~ three (because PC showed up) to my house. Her husband met up with us there. Then my husband, my kids, JW's kids, and SF joined in. While the kids were playing in the bedroom and the ladies were having more margaritas, I heard a tiny kitten mewing. It turned out the foster cat that was pregnant with kittens decided to have her kittens.

When I first opened the door to the room she was in, she looked up at me looking like she was thinking, "What in the name of tarnation is going on here? I just pooped out this thing...and it's making noise...and my belly hurts...AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT EXACTLY IS GOING ON!!!!!" So long birthing story short ~~which most people won't want to read every detail of anyway~~ She ended up having six kittens while four nursing students and three children went into the room and oohed and aahed over them. It was an awesome start to spring break. Why I started this post in the first place...

I am relieved that this sudden burst of energy (that happened today) is happening right at crunch time (in the semester), as opposed to right after (which could prove disasterous). I almost have my house tidied up to where I can think straight. I am getting some of the little homework assignments out of the way so that I can focus on the papers (four to be exact), AND I've decided to recycle the paper I do in Psych for Adult Health because one of the things that I learned this year in Adult Health clinicals is that screening for depression is important step in adult health assessment (which brings the final tally for paper writing down to three). Take that second semester of junior year!

Work smarter not harder...

2011-01-19T21:31:00.002-06:00

Why, oh why, is my neighbor shoveling the sidewalks already? It hasn't stopped snowing yet. Dude also owns a snow blower so it's not like he needs to keep up with it or anything. I suppose at least he isn't using anything gas powered, which is his typical way to go about things. It's obviously distracting to me though or I wouldn't be updating my blog. I would be reading the second chapter of psych that I need to read before tomorrow's class. He's stopped. It's quiet again. Back to reading. Resume your normal activities.

I will ground you from chocolate cake for the rest of your life...

2011-01-14T16:44:00.004-06:00

I just threatened my children with this, because they brought chocolate cake away from the table and into the living room area. Yes, I used a threat. Yes, that threat was completely preposterous. How on Earth would I ever keep away ALL chocolate cake from both of them for the rest of their lives? I just had my first mood swing of the semester apparently.

Squirrel this and squirrel that...

2011-01-11T15:17:00.003-06:00

As long as I can remember living in this building (over 10 years at this point) there has always been some critter or another making it's way into the unfinished third floor. Most of those times the critters have been squirrels. Although the time when The Oldest was still a baby, barely a toddler, we had a kestrel that had gotten in, while chasing another blackish bird (that I don't feel like looking up the name for).

The squirrels have gotten bad, especially in say the last year. I've told the landlord (Dirty's step-mom) in the past and she's kind of glazed over it with a, "I always had problems with animals getting up there, but for me it was the pigeons." Okay, well as our landlord, how shall we all move forward and get rid of these stinking squirrels. We tried poisoning them. Then we learned that when you do that, the sick and dying squirrels go out and get eaten by predator birds, like the kestrel or even more exciting a red-tailed hawk, and then the predator dies. I like kestrels and red-tailed hawks. They are awesome! AND they eat squirrels! Not enough of them in my opinion or else we wouldn't have the current infestation in our third floor. Where was I? Oh, yeah we poisoned the squirrels. They disappeared for a bit. They are now back. Their numbers are growing.

They are branching out to the crawlspace at the back of the building, which is where, I might add, we've had squirrels fall through a space in the wall, to the basement where they scare the living bejeezus out of us and the poor, older lady who lives downstairs. She's scared of our cats and they're domesticated. Imagine how she feels about the nasty squirrels. Their scratchings are starting to sound like it's right up against the plaster boards...THAT ARE OUR CEILINGS!!! The cats are quite eager to find out what they can hear scratching our ceiling. I don't want the filthy squirrels near my lovely cats. I've contacted some critter removal companies and hope to hear back in the next day or so with ranges of price quotes. I haven't really been anxious all winter break, but with school assignments already starting and dang squirrels trying to get into our apartment, the anxiety is starting to build. I may be just a bit dramatic since I watched the Hoarders last night where the guy had well over 2000 rats in his house that were his "little buddies." He said that the rats would pull his hair out for nesting materials (SQUIRRELS MAKE NESTS TOO!!! AND WE HAVE LOTS OF HAIR BETWEEN THE SIX OF US!!!) and lick at moist areas of his face (WE HAVE MOIST AREAS ON OUR FACES, TOO!!!)

Okay, I've officially worked myself into a tizzy. This was all going to be a facebook status update. This never would have fit into however many characters they let me update with.

I've come to the conclusion...

2011-01-09T10:25:00.007-06:00

My facebook status updates are just a smidge too long. Pair that with my new phone puts a quota cap on how many characters I can use in said status updates=me editing like I'm updating through Twitter. So I may just start posting relatively short blog updates. This is all a bit lofty as far as goals go. I'm finishing up my winter break after my first semester of nursing school. I passed all my classes, got taken down a notch by the twenty-something, over-achievers, and came to the conclusion (on that particular topic) that I'm okay with B's and if the class is really tough for me to grasp a C (insert a very loud and dramatic gasp here). The testing that they have us do at the end of each semester predicts that I'll, more likely than not, pass the NCLEX. So, guess what, that's all I need and I can't let nursing school consume me, as unfortunate as that may be to my cumulative GPA. I was pretty happy with the balance I had of family, friends, and school.

Now, the original reason for this post...I need to purchase a shop vac. I tried with much frustration to vacuum up the remnants of Christmas with my current Bissell and decided that that was futile. Since I don't think Dirty will let me use the remainder of the Christmas money to purchase a Dyson (which we really need in the House Full of Boys and me and a new addition, but I digress) I need to baby the Bissell and use a more equipped machine to pick up the pine needles.

Okay, one more update about the House Full of Boys...it's not just me in the girl realm here anymore. Well wait, I need to rewind a bit more. In August, we lost The Old Man. I have another post in the works. It was supposed to be a R.I.P./Memorial type of thing that I wrote when we lost him, but then I was sidetracked with nursing school. So I'll just make the statement that I'll edit that post held in cyberspace and if you want to read a sad portrait of when we lost The Old Man you can. Okay, where was I...We are no longer just a House Full of Boys and, of course, Me. On October 24, 2010, we adopted our new addition, Ida B. She, on her own, had a sad, challenging beginning, but now she's happy and healthy. It was a bit of an adjustment for all of us. She and Max didn't exactly "get along" to begin with. Now, they play and sometimes she even lets Max cuddle with her. That's not all that often, but Max has a new daytime companion, which is why we added her to the family to begin with. Okay, this quick burst of a post has turned into a slow, lingering post, which makes this new conclusion I've come to seem more abstract than ever.

I can't just sit down and write out a bit of what I'm thinking. It just starts to spew from my fingertips into the computer like proverbial word vomit. I guess maybe that's just what happens when you don't post for months. So maybe it's not so abstract?

Okay one more bit of word vomit for you. As I was finding links for the post, I wanted to say something about Tenth Life Cat Rescue, which is where we got Ida B. This is a small, local, no kill cat rescue. If you need a cat or kitten, check them out. If you don't want a cat or kitten, they have a trivia night coming up in February. I think last year the tables sold out. If I can find a website to link the info for the trivia night, and remember to follow-up, I'll do that later.

UPDATE: If you click the "adopted" link where I talk about us adopting Ida B., you go to the Tenth Life website. On their home page you will find the link for their Trivia Night coming up in February. Help the kittehs!

Goodbye Woobers...

2010-08-27T15:13:00.003-05:00

Here's the post I mentioned in the previous post today about The Old Man passing. I'm not going to alter it. It pretty much sums up what happened. The whole thing happened so suddenly after having the dental surgery. We thought we would have longer with him. Sometimes I still think I can hear him barking to come inside, out in the yard. We miss having a dog sometimes, although I'm more partial to cats. :D

08/27/2010 A month or so ago, a friend posted a status update about how her friends' pre-baby dogs' health were starting to decline. At the Old Man's last vet visit, I was so relieved that he was not having any of the geriatric complications that I would have checked off of an assessment sheet for the vet. I knew he was old. It was his ten year appointment, but, at the time, he just seemed so healthy for his age. A while back, a bump appeared on his right mandible (that's his top jaw for you non-medical field folks. ;) We thought it may be due to an abcessed tooth. We took him in. They performed surgery to extract the possible suspects. The bump went down a bit. Then it started to grow out of control. The vet pulled fluid off and said it didn't look like the fluid that is in either cysts or tumors. We let it go. We did what we could to make him comfortable. The tumor grew and grew. He was still able to eat and happy to see us. He wasn't quite as able to keep up the way he used to. The tumor grew so big it pushed his eye shut and was protruding from his mouth. This last week, the tumor had developed lesions. Those lesions started to bleed. By Wednesday night/Thursday evening, he was bleeding...so...so...much. I stayed up with him much of the night. Then Dirty took over. We'd hoped to take him to Laumeier one more time. We'd hoped to get pictures with him one...more...time...He was bleeding too much. He was weak. We couldn't keep him any longer. We didn't want him to be miserable. Dirty took him Thursday on that final car ride. I had to go to class. I failed my first real nursing school test. Thank goodness they'll let me retake it. Now we're miserable. I go from composure to complete and udder tears. I was feeling better today. Then I came home and unlocked the door. I was waiting to hear him come to the top of the stairs and start sniffing to see where I'd been and who I'd seen. That didn't happen. I miss him. We all miss him. Goodbye Woobers. I know your spirit's somewhere out there in the Universe. I hope there is reincarnation and you can come into someone else's life who will be an even better pack leader to you and take you on more walks and not care if you lay on their couch.

Wordless Wednesday...

2010-08-18T12:58:00.004-05:00

Not! Ha! Not really. When have I ever been wordless? If anything I'm too wordy. So the boys started school Monday. The Older has jumped right in. He is more confident about his school situation this year, which is very good. I think his teacher is a good fit and I'm hopeful that her influence will help him become a bit more organized. Monkey was worried before school started because he remembered his teacher from this year last year, and he thought she was mean. However, he learned that she isn't mean, she's actually nice. This year, I've been dropping off and picking up both boys. In doing so, I've been able to observe his teacher and I think that she is on par with his first preschool teacher at Stix. She has a real even temper and her way of keeping the class calm is speaking quietly and closely to the kids. I think his class is a really good group, meaning the class is manageable, read no intensely bad trouble makers. I know that's awful, but even the best teachers can lose control over their class when there's even just one trouble maker. Out of control classrooms leads to not much learning because there are so many disruptions. They're still getting settled though.

Our routine is not quite in place, it's only been two and a half days after all, but we're working on it. I just wanted to give a shout out to our President, Barack Obama, for not allowing tv during the school week for his kids. We had a bit of opposition from The Older about no tv/electronics/video games when we told him the rule before school started, until I told him that the President doesn't allow his children to do those things either. Since that conversation, The Older has only pondered how he'll use his time with those devices this weekend. There hasn't been any whining or even asking for those things either. Soon though our extracurriculars will really kick in and we won't have much time for electronics anyway.

Now it's time for me to go. I have five chapters of reading for when my classes start next week. I went to the bookstore today and I had a box of books...AN ENTIRE BOX...AND IT IS HEAVY!!!!! I'm so proud of myself for getting to this point and, for now, I'm excited about this new journey. The community college one was fun and, now that I've moved on, I'm really looking forward to all the work that I'll have to put into the four year university journey. Time to get reading.

Something's kind of bugging me...

2010-08-04T15:34:00.005-05:00

Which may not be surprising to anyone that knows me. Ha. Anyway, yesterday was a primary election voting day. I researched the issues on the ballot. I voted even though it's not one of the "big" elections. I took my kids along because I feel it's important for them to see the process and it opens up dialogue about why I'm doing it. Anyway, since I became a registered voter, I've done my best to be an informed voter and to also use my power to vote.

So the issue...I am probably not liked by some of my neighbors because...well...sometimes, I can be a bit of a word that rhymes with witch. I have also snitched on my neighbors to the entire neighborhood listserv when they were using a cannon to make a big explosion noise...BETWEEN THE HOUSES...IN THE CITY!!!!! I digress, certain neighbors like to kind of schmooze with other neighbors (both on the block and throughout the neighborhood), not unlike politicians, and basically try to win a block, even neighborhood-wide, popularity contest. I don't necessarily need that sort of validation in my life. I know not everyone is going to like me. So to each his own.

Last night at the National Night Out block party our Alderman stopped in for a visit. The group of men I was standing with all said hello. A certain neighbor, we'll call him Schmoozy, made it a point to verify for everyone that he personally knows the Alderman. Then something happened that made me think. The Alderman saw my "I voted" sticker and said, "This lady's my friend. I'm Steve Conway your Alderman."

I said, "Yes, I know. I'm 'ME.' Nice to meet you. This is my husband 'Dirty.'"

He said, "I'm glad to see that you've been out to vote."

Schmoozy interjects to the Alderman, "Well, I didn't know that you were on the ballot. If I'd of known that, I would have voted today."

The Alderman, looking a little quizzical, and I say at the same time, "I/he wasn't on the ballot. That's not what this election was for." Schmoozy had to redirect after his faux pas and decided to highlight some tacos another neighbor made. I'm sure he felt (in a sing-songy voice) 'awkward.' The Alderman then said it was nice to meet me and went on to tell his son that there were carne asada tacos. So I guess the whole thing isn't bugging me as much as it's showing me that Schmoozy is a social climber that thinks knowing the right people, places him in a better station than the people he might not like and that he is above things...like the law (hence shooting off a cannon, three times, without a permit). Unfortunately, in trying to show his connections, he also showed his lack of intelligence on matters like the political process and the fact that he doesn't really feel that the right to vote is all that important. I'll take being unpopular and being a snitch.

He's full of them lately...

2010-07-29T09:21:00.002-05:00

I told Monkey this morning that he gets to wear a tie everyday to school. He got so excited. His reply, "I get to wear a tie everyday to school?!?! At my language immersion school? I'm going to get to be rich and famous too?!?" I told him I wasn't sure about the rich and famous part. I do know that he'll be adorable in a tie and blazer.

More 5 year old musings...

2010-07-20T22:21:00.005-05:00

One evening the boys were with babysitters and after swimming, the sitters were unable to find Monkey's underwear and shorts. They were in there, but weren't found at the time. The sitters found a pair of their sister's smallest underwear and pants. After washing, we tried to return them. First the underwear, when they were finished in the washing/drying cycle. The little girl (maybe a little embarrassed?) said don't worry about it and to throw them out. So this evening, Dirty brought the shorts back. When Monkey gave the shorts back to the mom, he said, "We can't find the underwear, but that's okay. My penis kept falling out anyway." We're working on our tact here in the House Full of Boys. Ha. Also, yes we use very techinical terminology for our "tenders" or "bits and pieces" or (insert whatever politically correct term you use for your swimsuit area here).

Can I play out in the rain?

2010-07-19T13:47:00.002-05:00

9YO: Can I go play outside? Like out front.

Me: Wouldn't you rather play out back?

9YO: Why do you want me to go in back?

Me: I'm afraid someone might steal you.

9YO: Why? No one would want to steal me. Anyways, probably the only people out right now are hobos. And I don't think they'd want to take me.

Yes, this is an actual conversation with my nine year old.

Five year old ramblings...

2010-07-15T13:04:00.007-05:00

The Older boy is gone on a play date for the afternoon which gave me an afternoon with Monkey. We immediately left for the grocery store to pick up some lunch meat and milk (and diet cola :). Monkey must not have heard The Older being picked up and at the bottom of the steps, he yelled back into the house, "The Older, come on we're going to the grocery store."

So I told Monkey, "He's not here."

Monkey asked, "Where is he?"

I replied,"He's at J's house. Remember? He had a play date with her."

Monkey's response as he shrugs, "Well...that was quick." So we were off to the grocery store. We had a pretty decent run. I love going to the grocery store in the mornings during the week. I honestly used the grocery store like some people use coffee shops or bars. Before I started school, almost two years ago, I was at the grocery store daily. I have also always enjoyed my time with either of the boys at the grocery store. It may sound weird, but the grocery store was my favorite place to teach my children stuff. We would talk about food or the polite way to leave your cart when you are perusing the shelves looking for items or using manners to interact with people at the deli or seafood or bakery counters or the checkout persons. I find it better to "hang out" in than say Target where I would just buy crap that I don't really need or couldn't really afford. There's always some food item that could be picked up though. (I'm looking into getting a therapist to deal with some of my eating/food issues. They run deep.)

Anyway, after the grocery store on our way home through the park, Monkey yells out, "Hey, I think that's E.'s car." Our incredibly cute two year old neighbor girl.

I said, "Yes, it probably is. They were going to be in the park today."

Monkey asked, "Well, does she even know how to swing?"

"I would say probably yes. She does."

Monkey then asked, "Does she know my name?"

"Maybe. I'm not completely sure."

His final question that left me giggling the rest of the ride home, "Well, does she know what the back of my throat looks like? Because I've looked at it in the mirror before."

My response, "No, no she probably doesn't know what the back of your throat looks like."

Once home, we had a nice little lunch chatting about his friends. This started because he wanted to watch Minnesota Cuke before nap time, which is about dealing with bullies. That led to him talking about people who he thinks are bullies and how he would go about being friends with them. Then he said something slightly disturbing, "D. always tries to kiss E. (a friend from school not the neighbor) and he shouldn't do that because they don't match."

I pushed this a little further, "What do you mean they don't match?"

"D. is brown and E. isn't."

I asked, "Who says it has to be that way?"

Monkey stated, "I do. It's a simple puzzle."

My teaching moment, "Well, I'm here to tell you that even though people don't match it doesn't mean that they can't kiss and love each other." I then gave as many examples as I could think of including his grandparents.

Monkey added, "But D. is mean to E. sometimes, and they're not best friends."

I state, "Well, I guess that's good."

Monkey asks completely shocked, "To be mean to people?!?"

I clarify, "No, that it would be good to be best friends before you kiss someone."

Monkey says a little relieved, "Oh. Can I save the rest of this spaghetti for later?"

"Yes, but I want to make sure that you know that it's okay for people who don't match to kiss each other."

He asks sounding a little bored, "Back to the D. thing again?"

"Just that." And thus ended the intercultural education of the five year old at lunch. Apparently, he was most offended by a boy being mean to a girl sometimes, but then trying to kiss her other times.

I keep thinking....

2010-07-08T00:26:00.009-05:00

I should write something. I read other people's blogs and advice on twitter about blog-keeping. I don't seem to have time to edit photos to add to this here blog. So, what's been going on...I just finished The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I loved the book through all of it UNTIL THE END!!! Here's a ~~what do they call them~~ spoiler alert, the pregnant sister at the end nurses the dying man in a barn because she's just given birth to a stillborn baby and allegedly has milk to spare. I breastfed two babies (maybe TMI get over it. This here's a family blog.) and happen to know firsthand that breastmilk doesn't come in for days. Colostrum sure. However, this was allegedly the day after giving birth. Take that John Steinbeck with all of your vivid imagery and insight into the human spirit and your Nobel Prize for literature. I really did find most of the novel beautiful and what I just described, but the final scene (that of the teenager nursing a grown man) kind of ~~ruined it~~ left a bad taste in my mouth (pun intended? not so much I found it while editing :). So while I find breastfeeding beneficial and a really "good thing" a la Martha Stewart, I was a bit disappointed by this final impossible scene. Sure ~~Rose of Sharon's~~ Rosasharn's breasts may have been of porn star proportions (have I written about my own experiences with that I can't remember? It's a funny little story. Maybe someday.), her actual milk dropping wouldn't have been an actuality...at that point. I apologize and digress. I guess it was really bugging me. To the point, of reviving my blog after months of disuse. If I haven't lost my entire readership (all three of you) from lack of writing, I just may lose it with my breastfeeding candor. Or I'll lose it if I can't get out of thinking in this "Okie" dialect. Thanks a million, John Steinbeck, for vividly placing me in the mind of a migrant worker during the Dust Bowl (Click the link and learn somethin' folks). I may have officially tipped into the country folk side of things, despite being a city dweller.

What else...we've spent much of the summer at the pool, or baseball related little league stuff, or school for me. The house was going to pot when I stayed home last night to clean and tidy up a bit. It felt good...and liberating...to once again have a clean house. I've also started working out again after two months. That feels good...and liberating too. I almost passed out twice during that workout restart though. It was a fun time explaining to my nine year old that I was about to pass out because "I'm overweight and out of shape. Please just get me a big cup of water!" URGH.

I don't have anything else to say really after class and a few drinks at The Royale. My first alleged bloody mary was sad and it made me sad. I pouted to David, my favorite bartender, though and he made it all better with two wonderfully made bloody mar(ies?) I'm glad we now have an understanding aka I tip well so he remembers my face. There's nothing worse than paying extra for ambiance and getting a poorly made cocktail. Thanks, David and good evening/morning/whatever time zone you may be in (most likely the midwest area). One final thought, should I go through and label all my previous posts? I mean as a stay-at-home mom of two boys/full-time student/doting wife/fabulous housekeeper I have a TON of time on my hands. HA! Maybe once my fall schedule starts up.

First All-Around!!!!

2010-04-24T17:38:00.006-05:00

The oldest (because I'm still trying out good blog names for him) had his first gymnastics meet today. It was a small meet with just members of Concordia Turners. However, of all the other things that he's done, that he hoped to do well enough to win, this one he did really, really well! I was so impressed when I saw him on the rings. His form was so "on." I really felt proud of him and was surprised by how much he's progressed since he started. For his gymnastics level, he took first in four out of seven events, second in two and third in one. To top it all off, he got first in the All-Around. We were so excited for him! These pictures aren't great, but the routines are short, and there is limited good picture taking time. So...

Neighborly niceness...

2010-04-11T18:27:00.003-05:00

(Note: This is a reconstruction. There may be some fiction involved.)

Lovely, young family of four walks down the alley to get to their car, which is parked on their parking pad. They've recently been parking here and walking around the block now that it is warmer. They realized that they can indeed park two cars on the parking pad and still have enough room to get into and out of the cars. They have come to enjoy this flexibility because their street has a high volume of cars that park on their end of the block. There is a car parked diagonally in the alley completely obstructing the roadway going east, but not causing the family any sort of problem. The couple settle their children into the car, open the windows, jokes around with a pair of walkie-talkies as the youngest son says, "Ignite engines." This tells the dad that he can start the car and begin driving because the son now has his seat belt on. Tap tap tap. "Hey neighbor."

It's the next door neighbor that has five cars total in the two person household. He parks all of his cars used or unused directly in front of his house and his neighbor's houses because this is the city after all. "Do you mind if I use your parking pad. I need to work on my car and I can't get it into the garage."

The fathers says, "Sure. We'll be gone this afternoon until about 2 for a birthday party. That shouldn't be a problem." The wife sits there steaming. She can't believe the gall of this neighbor who so inconsiderately parks so many cars on the street making it difficult for any of the other neighbors to park near their front doors, who rarely has anything to carry to the house unless it's a mini keg of beer, who has blatantly told the rest of us neighbors that getting to park in front of one's house is a chance that one has to take because it's "just part of living in the city" but leaves cones out on the street when it's snowed so that he and his wife have spots directly in front of their house, and who can't even park further down the block or on the not so far down cross street because he "just doesn't want to" making it just that much more cramped on our end of the block.

We've been using the parking pad since it got nice out. We're hoping to get the door put in on the parking pad so that we no longer have to walk around the block. It's really lovely to get home with a trunk full of groceries and to have a shorter walk to the kitchen once the back gate is open. It's nice that even though we have to walk around the corner to get to our front door, because at the moment we don't have a way into the yard, to not have to fret over getting a spot close to the front door when we have two boys and bags and crap to carry into the house. We have to walk further, but it's a guaranteed spot. It's also less stressful to not hold our neighbors in contempt when they have guests that park in the limited parking, especially when those guests take, and make, a space that could easily fit two cars into one spot because they are inept at parallel parking.

That is, until your neighbor with five cars asked to take one of those spaces in your parking pad, and now that you've written this post, you're starting to wonder if he's doing it for some sadistic I will make you give me reverence and take a bit of your newly, not really acquired but implemented, space because I get off on taking up as much public space around my private space as I can. Except, sir, that that parking pad is NOT public space. I WANT MY SPACE BACK. It's human nature to be territorial and if I have to, I'll go out there and pee all over the parking pad. It's still there, by the way, and it's almost seven. I'm going to go and jam out to P!nk's Sober now and get away for a little while.

And Dirty thinks I'm Hermione...

2010-03-17T15:39:00.008-05:00

So we are looking into a language immersion school for Monkey next year because we aren't thrilled with our kindergarten option and he didn't test into the "gifted" (but really accelerated not gifted) school. Originally, I was turned off of the school because it's a Charter School. In my circle, Charter School=The Devil because when children go to the charter schools, the money that the government uses to pay for their education, is redirected from the public schools to the charter schools. There is a whole moral side to this that I now feel bad about. I am contributing to the decline in enrollment to the public schools and taking away the money that would follow my child through the public school system. I am not completely able to put all my feelings eloquently into words on the subject and therefore, I digress.

At this point in time, there are two language options: French and Spanish. I believe living in America that Spanish would be the most useful. I took French in high school and have never used it. I didn't even use it when I went to Canada to be perfectly honest. The French teachers at the school, and apparently the staff as well, all push for the French option. Their argument, French is spoken in more countries throughout the world than Spanish. Okay...that is true. French is spoken in more countries throughout the world and a heck of a lot of those countries are teeny tiny countries, and larger coutries, in Africa, a few countries in Europe, Canada (And who really counts Canada? I kid.), Haiti, then finally tiny remote islands in the Pacific ocean.

Spanish on the other hand is spoken throughout Central America and South America and by so many people throughout the United States. I wish that I took Spanish in high school. There have been so many instances when I could have interacted with people. The Scientist's friend in first grade's mom was from Ecuador and she wasn't comfortable enough to speak to me in English. His other classmate, J, I don't know where her family was from but again there was a language barrier and her mom only felt comfortable talking to the mom from Ecuador. In both instances, the most interaction we had was saying hello and smiling. Most conversations were stunted after that. Anyway, I decided that the Spanish option was the most practical since Mandarin isn't available yet.

Now, I would like to give a brief excerpt from my conversation with a staff member who was pushing the French option:

Enrollment Lady (EL): Have you decided which school?

Me: Yes, Spanish. I have no plans to move to the Great White North.

EL: Well, it would help with pronunciation of the street names. For instance, it isn't show-tow; it's Shuh-toh, and it's pah-pahn; not pay-pin.

Me:(thinking) It's not win-GARD-ium levi-OH-sah; it's win-GARD-ium levi-oh-SAH. Yes, we live in a French settled city. Yes, we pronounce the street names incorrectly. French is still a useless option in my opinion. It doesn't seem like a strong enough argument to learn a language just so you can pronounce the street name correctly. I've gone my entire life without people pronouncing my name correctly. I got over it by the end of high school.

I apologize if I've offended anyone by my lack of interest in using or learning French or in thinking that it is at all useful. I guess it's also obvious that the way these French speakers conduct themselves in promoting French just rubs me the WRONG way.

Not anything new...

2010-03-08T20:39:00.005-06:00

but I'm so very excited to have my acceptance to UMSL's College of Nursing. I had to apply as an undergraduate before applying for clinicals, and even though I had that acceptance I didn't feel like I could call myself an UMSL student. Now, I am proud to say, "I'm a nursing student at UMSL." Sure I haven't actually started my Clinical Major, but I have acceptance to start. Knowing that makes my insides feel bubbly. GOOOOOOOO TRITONS! (Which can I say seems like an odd mascot since it's not living? Are there other inanimate object mascots? I can't off the top of my head think of any.) YAY!

I have my advising appointment in April on my birthday. That is when I'll get to register and get my official UMSL id. I can't wait, but I am also trying to enjoy my time at the community college. It's going to get pretty hectic once I start clinicals. I won't have my Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays off anymore. As Jillian Michaels says, "You don't get to the finish line and stop. You finish stronger than you started." That's how I want to finish out my community college career. I'll start by getting back to the four short stories that I need to read for tomorrow morning's class.

SQUEEEEEE!!!!!!!

2010-03-06T14:28:00.003-06:00

Today, I hitched up the trailer bike, and Monkey and I rode over to the R.'s house for a morning playdate. The ride was a little brisk but not bad overall. It was one of the first times in a while that AR and I were actually able to sit and talk without child interruptions every 30 seconds. Afterwards, Monkey and I rode home taking a slight detour through the park. It was a really nice morning.

The mailman was delivering mail as we pulled in front of the house. I opened the door and let Monkey in, and when I looked down I saw a packet...from UMSL...it's the piece of mail that I've been waiting for for just over a month!!!!! I opened the packet and skimmed the cover page. It's a packet!!! It has eight items!!! It says it contains an acceptance letter!!! I then moved to the actual letter. "Dear Me, I am pleased to inform you that you will begin the Clinical Major in Fall 2010 at the College of Nursing at the University of Missouri-St. Louis." SQUEEEEE!!!!!! I immediately called Dirty and posted a status update on Facebook.

I am so excited. I got in. I am relieved. I didn't apply anywhere else. If I didn't get into UMSL's program my four year plan would be totally screwed. I didn't really want to go to Chamberlain. At the moment, it isn't one of the schools in the area that is very reputable. I think that is mainly due to newness in the area. SLU and Maryville aren't really an options due to price. Barnes-Jewish admits on a first come-first serve basis and I didn't apply soon enough. I feel like I can take a deep breath. I don't have to worry so much about my classes as long as I can keep up a "B" average, which shouldn't be a problem because I have had, up until this point, straight "A's." I did get my first "B" on a paper today though. I have to admit that I didn't do my best. What was I thinking making page long paragraphs? I am not going to just stop trying in my classes, but the stress of keeping straight "A's" to get into a merit based program isn't quite as necessary. Phew.

Morning Routine...

2010-02-02T19:08:00.004-06:00

There are only so many moments where I feel I get the chance to really focus and connect with my boys. For most of the morning, while we're getting ready for school, there's so much silliness between them. It's mostly potty humor with "butts" and "pooping" being the main focus. They are little boys after all. I try to limit this because it's really easily escalated to running at top speed through our apartment. (I'm still processing The Scientist breaking his arm in this way; running through the house, not the potty talk. I was the cause of the fracture.) Somehow though, we are able to complete our routine in time for Monkey's bus.

I usually supervise, heavily mind you to keep on schedule, the getting ready of Monkey. He tends to sleep later which gives him less leniency with his time. Plus he's a little boy, and he hasn't quite trained his body to focus yet. Eat, get dressed, brush teeth, put on coat and backpack, head to bus stop. These are the steps to our morning. I walk with Monkey alone to the bus stop. The Scientist continues getting ready while we're gone.

As we walk, we sometimes hold hands. I don't check my phone. My undivided attention is his. Sometimes we see special birds. Sometimes there are questions that pop into his head. "Which one is our Christmas tree?" "Why did daddy put it there?" "Which one is a yard waste dumpster?" "Why is it green?" Sometimes I ask him questions about the night before. "How was gymnastics?" "What did you do last night?" "What was your favorite part?"

Most days he runs ahead to the corner. Every single time I get nervous. I wonder if he'll remember to stop at the corner? Once I catch up, he usually finds a game to play. When it snowed, he threw "snowballs" at me. This morning and yesterday morning, he wanted to break up the ice in the gutter. I usually stand and watch for the bus to turn onto the street at the end of the neighborhood. As soon as I see it, I tell him that his bus will be there soon. He always gets a little giddy when I tell him. This makes me sure of the fact that, while sometimes he is not motivated to go to school, once he's moving in that direction he enjoys himself.

As the bus pulls up in front of us, I offer him my hand. Partially, this is to make sure he doesn't run out too quickly. The other part, is because I don't know that he'll always let me take his hand. One morning he didn't want me to walk him to the door of the bus. It was bittersweet. Luckily, it only happened once. I give him the option now that he's done it once, "Do you want to do it yourself or do you want me to take you?" I now ask him daily as I offer my hand. I lean down so I can hear him better over the street noise. Every time, since that one time, he says, "I want you to take me." My heart melts. He still needs me. He still wants me. I walk him to the door and say "Good morning." to the bus driver, and "Bye Monkey." as he steps onto the bus. Then, I walk back to the curb. I can still feel the warmth of his little hand in my palm. I stand and wait. I watch to see if he'll remember to wave goodbye.

Most mornings, he does. I watch him put his seat belt on. Then, I see his little face, grinning widely, peering out the window. He waves to me. Again this feels bittersweet. He won't always look out the window smiling, waving. One morning we were fighting. I put my foot down and wouldn't let him take two different toys that each had many pieces to lose. He was angry with me. He wanted to take the pieces. He wanted to take both action figures. I wouldn't bend. There was no time for negotiations. Despite bus schedule regularity, I'm always anxious we'll be late. We never are. The walk that morning was tense. He was so angry. As we walked, he listed reasons why it was fine for him to do what he wanted. I tried to explain why it was not. We did the routine.

I told him when I first saw his bus. As it pulled up, I offered my him my hand, he took it. Now, I recall this was the morning he wanted to walk to the bus himself from the curb. His being angry with me pushed him to grow a little. I gave him his space. I supervised him from the curb. I watched him put on his seat belt. He turned his head to look out the window. He was smiling! I was surprised. He was just so angry with me. I watched his eyes as he remembered he was angry. He tried so hard to change his smile to a frowning, pouting face. That morning, like some other mornings, the bus driver took a little longer to pull away. That morning, like the other mornings, I was grateful for those precious extra seconds. In that time, he couldn't turn his smile into a frown. He began to laugh and smile again. He waved in a sort of silly resignation and turned forward as the bus pulled away.

It was over. He was fine. We were fine. In the mornings, after his bus pulls away I feel light as I walk back to the house. He's five already. He rides a bus to school. He still needs me and misses me while he's gone. Sure I enjoy the time during the day when the boys are away. I also miss my time with them as a stay at home mom. We need time away from one another though. It makes those times together that much more special. I've been so lucky to stay home with them those first few years when they develop so much socially and emotionally. I 'm so lucky to get those few precious minutes of just he and I in the morning when he's so confident and happy to move forward in his day. It makes me feel as if I'm made of air and light.

Over the Holidays and then some...

2010-01-08T10:40:00.006-06:00

This is take two because the first take my slideshows were set to some music that I didn't endorse or approve. It's going to just be slideshows, I think.

Thanksgiving/Christmas Celebration with my dad's side of the family:

My brother, A, came into town and visited with my dad's side of the family. He hasn't done that in many, many years. He spent most of the time with my dad, stepmom, and two brothers, R and N. Then we got together with my dad's siblings and "the cousins" on Saturday for our traditional Thanksgiving/Christmas celebration. This year, my aunt's typical planning craziness included a Christmas Cantata that included worship and a sermon from her pastor. She was almost lynched though when she wanted to have the cantata before the food. We L's LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our food. So to postpone dinner was a dicey gamble. It was a fun time. Then A came home with me and the next morning my brother K, his wife M, and their boys T and G, met us for brunch at MoKaBe's. It was a good time.

Our tree farm trip:

First our car started acting funny and we had to take it to the mechanic. By the time we got on the road, The Scientist was SO CRABBY! We did everything we could to appease, or ignore him (in a nice way), to let him know that we were trying to give him an experience. It took a little creativity and patience.

Christmas:

Dirty's mom came to visit us for a week and he took off the whole week. It was a really, really nice way to start the Holiday break. Monkey developed an uncanny ability to guess what presents were. He guessed what most of the presents were that he was getting. It was completely crazy. We enjoyed a lot of family time and I didn't want the break from school to come to an end for the boys. They did start acting like my sweet boys again. So it's good to know that in two weeks, I can dust off the snotty, disrespectful attitudes and have the awesome, loving children that I raised thus far. Oh, and next year, I'm getting the boys, and maybe even Dirty and I, pajamas for Christmas Eve. Our Christmas morning pictures are a bit white trashy with The Scientist with no shirt and Monkey with no pants. You live and you learn. I try to anyway. ha.

AAAAHHHHH........

2009-12-21T11:58:00.004-06:00

That's me breathing in a deep big breath. I made it through the semester. My children are acting a bit like kids whose parents don't spend enough time with them. I'm hoping I can reverse that over the my winter break. I'm very hopeful. I know that my sweet, considerate, loving children are in there just below the surface and I will get that back. That's the child update and now onto the family update.

It's only been three days since I finished my final and I already feel like I've crammed a ton of family-time into those few, short days. Friday was laid back and relaxed. I took Monkey to the bus stop and The Scientist to school. Once there, I was invited to coffee at one of the other mom's house. My original plan was to head to Target and get some shopping done, but it's hard to pass up coffee and visiting with people you like, so I went there instead. Oh and LK brought donuts. I think they were from the place on Southwest. I can't remember but they were good. Anyway, after leaving there I did end up at Target. I spent two hours walking around and trying on clothes. I only ended up with a skirt and a dress, but I like them both a lot and only spent fourteen dollars. Awesome. After Target, I went to El Burrito Loco and got their specialty, El Burrito Loco, and went home to eat it. I was starving after shopping and the drive home from near Carondelet Park to my house just north of Tower Grove Park was excruciating. I watched ~~nutjobs get followed with a camera~~ Jersey Shore and ate my burrito. Then I headed to Monkey's class party. They didn't celebrate any holidays because there is one Jehovah's Witness, but there were two birthdays so there were cupcakes and singing. I was miserable throughout the afternoon after El Burrito Loco, but I pushed through.

Saturday I cleaned in the morning and my MIL came in a little after lunch. We had a nice time visiting in the afternoon. Then everyone got ready to go out. I took the boys to my Aunt L. and Aunt J.'s house. We met my mom, her husband C., my brothers J and A, and my brother K, his wife M, and their kids T and G. Unfortunately, Monkey had NOT taken a nap and he was great for about an hour, but then he was bouncing off the walls. My aunts are very particular about their Christmas tree. My aunt J keeps each individual box to put the ornaments back into. They used to have pretty indestructible ornaments when they had cats, but they no longer have cats. I was on pins and needles all night about Monkey darting around.

He was extremely fast and precise in his movements and I was having trouble keeping up in the small space winding around people. He kept turning on the same Charlie Brown Christmas ornament of Linus saying his Christmas speech. That was fine, but it scared the crap out of me when he would dart at the tree. It was like a praying mantis. One of the times I thought he was going for the ornament and I went to spot him and make sure that's all he did, but instead, he went straight past the tree, picked up this little ceramic vase thing, walked around the island, up to the refrigerator and tried to stick the vase thing on it in the span of about one and a quarter seconds. It didn't stick though and instead crashed to the ground making a skin cringing shattering sound. I wasn't too far behind, but not close enough to catch it. UGH! My aunt turned around and said a little sternly, but more entertained, "What was that?" I apologized profusely and she said she'd been hoping that thing would break so she could get rid of it. Thanks Aunt L.

That started the extremely hectic portion of the evening where my kids only wanted sugar due to tiredness leading me to defending the food from their little monkey paws and them snapping at each other, and at times Monkey would hit. It was awful and I kept remembering conversations with other moms when we would wonder why So and So's kids are so awful to each other. I mentioned above that I think it stems from lack of parental interaction and I've noticed it slowly getting worse since I started back at school. ICK! At least I know there is a problem and we're going to attack it.

Sunday I went to breakfast with my mom, C, my brothers, SIL and nephews. We went to City Diner because I thought I remembered a friend saying that it would be a good place to take my vegan brother...it was NOT a good place to take him. Everyone else seemed to like it enough. I would have rather gone back to MoKaBe's though. But my mom needed to get back to Ohio to write a paper and get back to work. Poor A was stuck eating french fries and that was it. Sorry A. After that, my MIL had the boys help her make breakfast sandwiches to freeze for the week. Then she took them to Washington, MO for a sleepover and visiting with family.

Dirty and I hardly knew what to do with ourselves. We went to ~~the place I despise and would sometimes rather be submitted to test out medieval torture devises than step into~~ Wal-Mart where we had gift cards. However, without children and only one ~~child~~ husband to appease while shopping it was almost pleasant. I was able to get a sewing machine for under $100 AND it also comes with a subscription reimbursement for Martha Stewart Living. Major score. Plus later when we got home, we realized that the guy who couldn't wait to get around us, when we were waiting for another couple to come out of their aisle at Wal-Mart, bought us a 5 pack of Hanes V-neck undershirts. Thanks Rude Dude. Although, I don't think that will make him any more chipper this holiday season, but we got a kick out of it.

We also went out to lunch and it was one of the most freeing feelings of eating out without your kids. After the evening spent at my aunts' house, I really needed that. While there, I asked if he wanted to go see The Road. By the time we hit another handful of stores and got to the movie theater, Dirty mentioned that we still hadn't seen New Moon and it was going to be another 2 hours. It was going to be two more hours at The Galleria too, but I argued that at least we could look around for more Christmas gifts. Now for my New Moon theater going story...

This story isn't that great, but it's a little funny. We got to the theater and I didn't expect a ton of people since it's been out for a while. We ended up being two of 11 movie patrons. There were five other ladies only one of which came by herself. The other four came in pairs. Then there were two homosexual couples who I think came for this. One of the couples I overheard remarking about Jacob Black stating that he was "born that way. It isn't a lifestyle choice." I have to say I might be one of those creepy women waiting for Jacob Black to reach the age of majority. He was pretty fine. I think Dirty liked him too. He kept saying the line from Austin Powers, "Women want to be with him, men want to be him." We then came home and wrapped presents and had cocktails. It was a really nice night.

Today, Dirty went for a bike ride. I worked out. Then the boys came home and we ate lunch. Monkey went down extremely easily for a nap, and I took a three hour nap on the couch. Once we were up, we attempted shopping again with the boys. That didn't work. We ended up at Toys 'r Us and the boys were able to spend some of their Christmas money. I tried checking my grades on my phone and it worked. Straight A's baby!!!!! I guess that there have to be some sacrifices and I'm processing how I feel about my children acting like hoodlums. Like I said before, I'm hoping to reverse that over this winter break...as well as apply for nursing schools...and check out kindergarten teacher options for Monkey...and of course, to take a nice relaxing break after busting my hump this semester.

Winding down the semester...

2009-12-02T21:03:00.004-06:00

I don't have much time to make a big long post. I'm in preservation mode to get through the semester with straight A's. I'm may be a bit in denial about how much work I have ahead of me. I do have a ton to do, but am working on one task at a time while also making sure to keep a tally of all the things that need to be done by December 17th. I went to see the UMSL School of Nursing. It's competitive right now, but I'm hoping all the hard work I've put into school, this time around, will give me an edge. I really liked the campus. It made me excited to start the nursing school portion or this trek, but like I said...one task at a time. BUT I have registered for classes next semester and am in the process of applying to UMSL while also looking into other options because of the competitiveness.

The Scientist (until I can come up with a suitable nickname) broke his arm on Thanksgiving. The story is basically this...he was having trouble getting motivated to get his coat on to leave, I challenged him with "I bet you can't make it into the kitchen in two seconds," he did but ran full tilt into the door frame. I knew he was really hurt (not that hurt, but hurt) and after consulting Children's Hospital's website decided with The Scientist to "watch and wait." He went through Thanksgiving day flinching every now and then, but doing most things as normal. We called the nurses line the next day. She suggested not going to the emergency room, but go ahead and see the pediatrician. Once there he recommended x-rays and that led to a six hour wait for the orthopedic pediatrician to decide whether to cast or splint the fracture. He's good now but milking the "I can't write" angle for all it's worth. To an extent we're going along with it. That may change once we go see the orthopedic nurse practitioner tomorrow.

Otherwise, we've been busy with schools and gymnastics and family get-togethers for Thanksgiving/Christmas. The Scientist was asking me today what we do as a family to celebrate the holidays. He didn't realize that we start Christmas at Thanksgiving and that goes until New Years. Busy, busy, busy.

You will also notice that I've changed the background layout of my blog. Thanks Half! I snatched the website from you.

Note to Self...

2009-11-19T09:49:00.003-06:00

When "tapping" a dish to get the air bubbles out from under the surface of the food stuffs, make sure to use a ginger "tap." Otherwise, you will end up splattering the food stuffs, hypothetically speaking guacamole, all over yourself. It will get in your hair, on your sweater, all over your face, and I should let you know that your glasses won't help to shield your eyes from this mess either. Getting a hypothetical dip that has lime juice, onions, tomatoes, salt, and jalapenos in your eye does not feel good!!! This is of course for future reference. That hypothetical guacamole does taste really good though. Too bad it's not for home.

Halloween 2009...

2009-11-01T12:00:00.003-06:00

This year, we told the boys that we had to use what we had, costume wise, or design inexpensive costumes. I don't know if anyone else has noticed just how expensive Halloween costumes are, but they are and they aren't even made very well. It makes me wish that I had a sewing machine and the ability to make things with it. I would ~~quit spending so much time on the computer~~ find the time. I think it would be fun and I like making things and using my hands. Where was I?*

Oh yeah, so Monkey, being the Transformer fiend that he is, chose to go as Bumblebee from last year. Great that was easy. Who's going to remember? Well you will if you follow that link. :D Okay, and The Scientist, who will henceforth be known as Pokemon Trainer, wanted to go as a Skeleton Wizard. I kind of thought at first that, man oh man, we are going to have to buy a bunch of crap to make this work. Dirty jumped in with some creativity and said, "We can use the tape that I used for my costume." I didn't get a picture of his costume, but he taped a gigantic "E" on his shirt and he's a boy...get it??? He was "E-mail."

Right, anyway, he used the tape and put the shirt together. He did the pants too, but while the shirt looked alright ~~but anatomically incorrect I'm working on the perfectionism~~ the legs looked pretty shotty. So I redid those as the sun was sitting. Earlier in the day, we went to the Halloween store and bought some cheap facepaint (Lord, please don't let it poison him. One time use should be alright, right?) I really enjoyed painting on his face. If the career as a nurse for some reason doesn't work out, my next move might be cosmetology. Gosh, I'm having trouble staying on topic. I watched a few tutorials on YouTube on creating skeleton looks and painted his face letting him give input on what he wanted. The YouTube tutorial didn't have lines across the gumlines, but it's how he wanted it and it was so. I wanted to keep going and make it even more shaded, but he cut me off. The colored hair spray was right next to the face paint in the store so he decided he wanted green hair too. We used one of his LOTR capes (he has two LOTR costumes because we gave into his "I don't want to be Aragorn this year. I wanted to be Legolas." even though they are basically the same freaking costume. However, times are tight we need to get creative and put a little work into it. Voila!!!

So I finished Pokemon Trainer's costume as the sun was setting. I told them we could go. We walked down the steps and, after I'd already opened the door, I remembered we had not taken a picture. So after a quick temper tantrum from Monkey and the threat of "We will NOT go Trick or Treating!" we trucked back up the steps. Pokemon Trainer was actually excited to get his picture taken. This is actually extremely out of character for him, but I'm not complaining. We hit our neighbor's houses and kept asking each other where all the Trick or Treaters were. As we got to the end of our block and made our way over to Flora Place to Trick or Treat our way up to Dirty's parents house, I saw streams of Trick or Treaters crossing the streets. See Flora Place has all of these huge houses. I would venture a guess that most of the houses are three stories and have an average of 6 bedrooms. Apparently, big houses=big candy. There are always tons of people who drive from all over the city to Trick or Treat on this street. Crazy! Yet again, I digress.

So we made our way up the two blocks and the boys were going to trick Grandpa C. We stood back and Pokemon Trainer went up the steps and said, "Trick or Treat!" That was about the time that I heard Grandpa C. say, "Sorry, but I'm out of candy. They have some though." And he directed Pokemon Trainer to the next door neighbors. Monkey went up, but didn't bother with his mask so Grandpa C. said to him, "Oh of course I have candy for you! Where's your brother?" Monkey pointed him out and Grandpa called him over again. That was kind of funny. So we went inside and I the boys dove into their candy bags and the adults went into the kitchen for cocktails. Once the boys got a little rowdy, Grandpa C. put on Monsters vs. Aliens and they settled down again. It was a nice night of visiting.

It's become a bit of a tradition, and it's nice. The boys don't end up with too much candy because we really only hit three blocks. They don't seem to notice because we end up at ~~Happy Fun Land~~ Grandma T.'s and Grandpa C.'s and we get to visit with Dirty's parents while the boys gorge themselves on candy and watch satellite tv. You know what the crazy thing was? As soon as Grandpa C. dropped us off, and while I was walking up our front stairs, I had this feeling like I wanted turkey and a Thanksgiving feast. I'm ready Thanksgiving goodness. Bring it on!

*I lost the post-it that had the "strike through" feature written on it. It took me forever to find a copy of it in my many past posts. Luckily, I don't know if it was me or Jeannette, but I had a copy in my dashboard. That started me on my lack of focus for this post.

Note to Self...

2009-10-22T10:23:00.000-05:00

If you are going to not pay attention in Huber's labs, then I would suggest you start bringing a medical dictionary with you when you study. Half the stuff he brings up isn't in the book or his oh-so-comprehensive study notes, which means you need to have a tool to look this crap up. That's all. Get back to studying. You had better keep that "A".

Happy Birthday Monkey...

2009-10-20T21:44:00.004-05:00

I can barely believe that it's been five years since he was born. He's no longer a baby or a toddler. He's a kid now. He'll be going to kindergarten next year. However, he still likes to cuddle every now and then. I've been on the verge of tears for the last couple days. Some of it has been frustration with not knowing what to do about The Scientist's anxiety, but I think some of it is also that Monkey is five...a whole hand!

For The Scientist's fifth birthday, we had a HUGE party at The Heights. For Monkey, we're having a party at The Heights, but we haven't had the time or the energy to make it as big as it maybe could have been. For that, I'm sorry. I'm sure he'll have a blast, because that's the kind of kid that he is. I know that I'm doing things for all of us that, in the long run, will be totally worth it. I still worry about what we're having to give up now. These moments pass so quickly. I swear I'm doing the best that I can, and I hope that one day, the boys will be able to look back and appreciate it.

So here's my favorite picture of him at the moment. I think it expemplifies his spirit; on the go, happy, outgoing.

Oh brother...

2009-10-07T15:54:00.004-05:00

I've been busy(read trying to stay on task for school yet sometimes getting sidetracked which is why I'm only getting a "B" in Microbiology). I am otherwise doing well in my classes. I have an "A" is Anatomy and Physiology II, an "A" in Bio-Medical Ethics, and an "A" in College Algebra (which is actually what I remember doing freshman year...in HIGH SCHOOL!!!) I would be okay with the "B" in Microbiology, but it's slipping. I went from a high "B" to a barely "B" and that is with the "drop the lowest test and quiz scores." Why am I so obsessive about my grades, you ask?

Well, I'll tell you why I'm so obsessive. I am in my third semester of a BSN. I am starting out at community college because (1)it's cheap and (2)it's close. If I were to do the nursing program at the community college, I would have to finish their prerequisites and then sit on a wait list until they have a spot for me in their program. Since there is a year/year and a half wait list, I would basically be working on the classes that I would need for a BSN. Their program is about as long as the BSN program and I would only end up with an ASN. That seems inefficient. This leads me to why I'm so obsessive about my grades...I have to transfer after the fourth semester to a BSN program. All of those BSN programs look at your cumulative GPA. My first go round of college was disastrous (read in some instances as 0.00 GPA that I have to work back from.) There seems to be a lot of competition to get into nursing programs, so I need a good GPA. I'm hoping that once I'm in a program, I can back off a bit.

We've also been busy with the boys schedules. They are both in soccer, which makes two hour-ish practices during the week and two hour games on Saturdays. We were introduced to a new athletic club that we are excited about. Monkey did the gymnastics class and LOVED it!!! They have the spring floors and he did not stop bouncing the entire time...even when he was sitting. The Scientist tried an older gymnastics class and liked it alright, but I'm not sure if it's enough to go back. Monkey's is one night a week. The Scientist's are two nights a week. Then we've been doing family things on Sundays.

We went to Six Flags a couple weeks ago. We all had a blast. The Scientist rode his first roller coasters (not his thing). Monkey wanted to ride the roller coaster, but was one inch too short. :( We had dinner with the in-laws last week. We went to Onesto...so incredibly yummy. This week, we go to "Day Out with Thomas." I have only a slight clue as to what that actually entails. I think we'll have fun though. Upcoming, we have Monkey's FIFTH BIRTHDAY!!!!! I just wrote that and it hit me. I CAN'T BELIEVE HE'S TURNING FIVE!!!!! And of course, there is also Halloween, which I haven't even begun to think about. I'm hoping the boys will want a recap of Halloweens Past. I vaguely remember Monkey saying something about wanting to be Bumblebee again, but I think that was in a line-up of a few different characters throughout all of the Halloween Festivities. I guess I need to think about that. I haven't even asked The Scientist.

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! IT'S BUS STOP TIME!!!!! BREATHE IN. BREATHE OUT. This is my life lately. I have anxiety about every little thing including if we missed the bus, even when I logically know that it always comes later than 8:30 a.m., but what if it, for some reason, came before and we missed it. ETC. Is it Christmas break yet?

Honest Scrap Award...

2009-09-03T16:04:00.003-05:00

This is probably the second blog "award" I was given. I look at them more as linky-love and will follow the rules as such. I will also attempt to do this in the next twenty minutes as I have to go to the bus stop to pick up the boys.

1. Choose 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design.

2. Show the 7 winners’ names and links on your blog, and leave a comment informing them that they have won the Honest Scrap award.

Elizabeth

Theresa

Franchesca

Jeannette

Half-Pint

KBO

Kim

3. List at least 10 honest things about yourself.

#1 I forgot about this portion when I started this post
#2 I'm a bit longwinded...but I'll leave it there for now.
#3 I love being a full-time student. So far I'm really good at it. I know I'm just at the community college right now, but I feel like a rock star when I'm there because I excel in most of my classes. The only one where that didn't happen was Macroeconomics, and I honestly didn't put that much work into it.
#4 I'm a perfectionist.
#5 I'm scared to death about going into the workforce someday.
#6 I'm a procrastinator.
#7 I'm overweight. I don't necessarily look like it, but I am. I have my tricks, but I'm not healthy so looking good doesn't matter as much.
#8 I started out wanting three kids. Then reality set in as well as personal responsibility and I realized that it just wasn't in the cards. I would love to have more, but then I remember "freedom". I will only be 44 when Marcus turns 18. NICE!
#9 I am perfectly content in my own head and could really do without human interaction most times. Probably why I love reading. But there are times when you wish the person talking back to you wasn't yourself. :D
#10 While I talk about leaving St. Louis to live somewhere else (Phoenix AZ), it will probably never happen. I love St. Louis...a lot. I can't really imagine myself anywhere else permanently.

WOO! I finished. I'll comment on those blogs that I linked later. I've got to get to the bus stop.

Back to School Part Two...

2009-08-20T20:50:00.007-05:00

I spent today:

I walked and ran for about 45 minutes today. Then I stretched for about 15 minutes. This is something I'm hoping to keep up. I've always wanted to be a runner. I'm not so good with the endurance portion of any activity. But I was inspired by E, who started in a similar position and then ran the Chicago Marathon. So I'm hoping to get in shape, have my clothes fit better, and just be more healthy.

On facebook tending my farm. I've decided I don't really like Farm Town because I don't know how I feel about people trying to chat me up when I'm on my farm. Plus when I go to the market with my stuff, it's a little creepy for people to be in the market place wanting work and begging people looking for people to do work. I don't know. More power to the people who like it. I have some family on there and a few friends, but it's not really an avenue that I want to take to keep in contact with people. I generally am more the type of person to not really keep in close contact with anyone. It's who I am.

I also did laundry. I finished up what Dirty started this weekend while I was gone on my trip to Ohio to see my mom and brothers. I did a few more loads so the boys have clothes to wear tomorrow.

I vacuumed and swept my floors. Sometimes I feel like vacuuming is a bit of a waste because our carpet is so disgusting from 9 years of us living on it and never being professionally shampooed. But I do enjoy walking barefoot throughout my house and not having anything get stuck on the plantar surfaces of my feet.

I cleaned the bathroom while I daydreamed about slipping into The Royale for a midday cocktail. After which, I went into the kitchen on autopilot to make an iced coffee and accidentally started to make a cocktail instead. So I dumped out the liquor, luckily I snapped to before I wasted too much, and made the iced coffee.

I watched some Flight of the Conchords clips on youtube. Business Time is one of my favorites. But really all of their stuff is hilarious.

Then I went to the bus stops. Well, really I stood in between the two stops hoping that they didn't both come at the same time. I had no idea which direction they were going to come from. So I walked quickly between the two stops everytime I thought one of their buses might have arrived. Dirty was on his way home, and I knew that the buses would be running late since it was the first day, but I was worried nonetheless. So I saw SC come out of her house and start walking to the stop. It did occur to me, in one of my many trips back and forth between blocks, that The Scientist might be old enough to get off of the bus himself and walk to where I was waiting for Monkey who is not allowed off of the bus unless a parent or guardian is there to receive him. SC let me know that, yes, indeed The Scientist can get off of the bus without a parent or caregiver there. And we talked about some other logistics. The buses did come about the same time. The Scientist's bus got their first and as we walked to, and arrived at, Monkey's stop, his bus showed up. I talked with the Scientist to see how he would feel about walking, the two blocks to where I would be waiting for Monkey, by himself. I would never be okay with this in other circumstances, but, in this instance, I would be able to see him get off the bus and walk toward me the entire way. He's been asking me, for at least a year now, if he could walk home by himself...when his school was about two miles away. But now, he's a little older, I trust his judgement when crossing the street, and he's ready for a little more responsibility. So tomorrow, is day one of The Scientist walking two blocks to where I'll be waiting for Monkey. I really do enjoy some of the things about the boys getting older.

Both boys had great days at school. We went to Cici's as a special treat for the first day. The boys got to play video games while we were there and get little trinkets from the "gumball" machines. Then we came home. I cleaned the kitchen, which had fallen into disrepair from the soccer practice nights of the week, while Dirty put the boys to bed.

And now I'm blogging, listening to more Flight of the Conchords, and will probably head to bed soon...after I fold another load of laundry. Tomorrow, is the last day of school for the week. Sometime this weekend we're going to Elephant Rock's. We'd originally planned to go on Saturday, but then I started worrying about all the people that might be out then too. So we might save it for Sunday, when less people are out and about.

Back to School...

2009-08-20T11:35:00.004-05:00

I don't have much to say. The boys got ready without too much fuss. The Scientist had a bit of an issue with being defiant. I think in order to have some control over the situation. Monkey seemed excited for the day. Plus he gets to ride a bus this year. And now they are off to school for another year. I kind of miss just being home all day while they would go off, but I know that I need to finish what I started. I can't just stay home forever. I want a career and a degree and more importantly a paycheck. So I'll stay the course. Even though I want to sit on my butt all day and watch crappy daytime tv, I'm going to do some laundry, tidy up the house, and maybe even clean the kitchen. Here's a slideshow of the morning.

It escalates so quickly...

2009-08-12T15:14:00.003-05:00

I let the boys watch a couple Chaotic shows on youtube.com this morning. Afterward though, I felt guilty. So we had lunch, and I gave the boys directions that they could play with anything that doesn't have to be turned on or plugged in. The Scientist being a gaming convert complained because everything else is sooo boring. I persevered though and stuck to my directions. Monkey went into the bedroom and found a box (quite easily might I add since I cleaned and organized their bedroom and toys) of small action figures. The box contained knights, bowmen, Gormiti, Power Rangers, Megaman, and Transformer guys. Monkey then made a battle area where he clipped two dishtowels together and stuffed the ends into the chair and couch cushions so they spanned a small area over the fighters. The Scientist made a base up high on the windowsill. They played nicely for maybe 15 minutes, while I walked around the house picking up and tidying, before I heard The Scientist either blocking or creating force fields for every single move the Monkey made. Remember how I said The Scientist wasn't happy about being diverted from the tv and computer?

They stayed together in the living room for a little bit longer, but then The Scientist came to me to say that he was "so bored". I stayed with the conversation trying to help him find something else that he could do. I picked up books. I showed him other toys. I pulled out LEGOS. His response was that that was all BORING. Monkey then picked up on the tension between The Scientist and I, and began trying to find as many things to "do" that would entertain The Scientist and aggravate me at the same time. Because really if it was aggravating me it was entertaining The Scientist. They ganged up on me, but they were playing together. So I let it go. They were in their room. They were playing together. They were sticking to my original instructions. I went into the bathroom to take the nail polish off of my toe nails.

The boys were both giggling. Monkey ran past me into the living room. Then past me into my bedroom. Then past me again into their bedroom. That's when out of the corner of my eye, I see that there are white flakes creating a trail everywhere Monkey ran. Those flakes I realize are instant mashed potatoes (Don't judge me. They are quick and the boys in my house don't notice the difference, or care for that matter, if our mashed potatoes come from a box.) Apparently, the entertaining themselves had entered a new level and that level was a mess through the house. This called for a plan of action.

Step one: Separate the children. Step two: Vacuum up the mashed potato flakes before they somehow get wet. Step three: Explain to Monkey why having food ground into the floor of an old house where bugs, rodents, and goodness knows what else get in all the time is NOT a good idea. Monkey resisted initially because he "likes bugs", but then I got to the beetles and the rodents and he wasn't as blase about feeding them.

Step one was where I separated the children. I sent Monkey to his bed and The Scientist to the couch. Then while cleaning up and calming down, made them stay there for thirty minutes of quiet time. Monkey was not going to comply to this easily. He yelled at me from his bed about why he doesn't care if he feeds the bugs. But then, while on his rant he heard imagined a beetle in his room and got scared. I looked in to see if there was indeed a beetle, which there wasn't, and went about my business of painting my nails during that little bit of quiet time. Within five minutes, Monkey was quiet, which I thought maybe he'd escaped through the curtain and over the piano into the living room, but I didn't hear any giggling. He had not escaped. He did fall asleep though. I was able to finish painting my nails, let them dry for a while, and now I'm writing this...in the quiet...but man that got out of control so fast.

Monkey and his girlfriends...

2009-08-10T20:07:00.002-05:00

This evening as I was making dinner, Monkey came in and out of nowhere said, "I only love A, Ma, Mo and E."

So I asked, "Why do you only love them?"

His reply, "Because they're my girlfriends! Because they're BEAUTIFUL!!!"

After a little giggle, I responded, "Yes, they are."

Later, after Dirty got home, Monkey went to him and told him pretty much the same thing. "I only love A, Ma, Mo and E, because they're beautiful." Look out, Ladies.

Summer Shower aka Zeus Says "Go Inside"...

2009-08-03T22:58:00.007-05:00

It was mid-afternoon, about the time that I feel like taking a nap, and the same time that the boys want to run back and forth through the house chasing, tackling, and catching each other while giggling and screaming, let's be honest, their heads off. I see no problem with that, except that we live on the second floor and have downstairs neighbors. I try to be considerate and prohibit things like jumping off the top bunk while pretending to sky dive or playing "Whack-a-Mole Towering Tower" (thank you grandparents) at the very least when the neighbors are home. We are a loud family. I'm sure our neighbors know it and talk about us with each other. Sometimes we don't quite know when to put on a more "public" face and being that our neighbors are pretty close and every little scratch or sneeze bounces off of the bricks in the city, I'm sure they know more about us than they would ever care to know.

I got off track, this particular day our downstairs neighbor C. was home and the boys had a ton of energy to expel, so I made them go outside. At that point in the summer, the bugs weren't so bad. Please don't get me started about how I get eaten alive every time I go near the door now. I'm sick of scratching, but I'm glad I now have nails.

Once again off track, so I saw that it was windy outside and figured the mosquitoes would have a harder time controlling their flight patterns because of the wind. Not ten minutes after we went outside it started thundering. The Scientist started in with "Zeus is saying we are supposed to go inside!" and "Zeus is very angry! He's going to attack us!" I was thinking there is no way I'm taking you guys inside just to have to running, bouncing, banging off of every hard surface just because of a little thunder. I told them we could go inside if Zeus started throwing lightning bolts. At first, they sat on the porch with me. Monkey ate a snack of shredded carrots, chickpeas, and orange bell pepper. The Scientist played with some dinosaur figures. Then Monkey finished his snack.

After his snack, he started getting his hands wet and making hand prints on the wall between the front doors of our house and our neighbors. That turned into running out into the rain for a few seconds then racing back up the steps onto the porch. Which then turned into moving a little further down the sidewalk. Eventually, The Scientist wanted to join in so he ran out and started getting wet. Once they were both thoroughly soaked, they realized they were having fun running around in the summer shower. So we stayed outside and the boys ran back and forth on the sidewalk, beat the crap out of a tree, and pretended to be "seekers" like Huntik on cw4kids. When they started to get cold they came up on the porch, where there was some sword fighting and being skittish in front of the camera. After quite a few tries, I did get a decent picture of both of them.

My final note, that doesn't really have anything to do with summer showers or Zeus, I will not be using Photobucket.com again. The site is so slow and it takes forever to edit pictures. I used slide.com for this.

City Garden...

2009-07-30T23:17:00.002-05:00

I don't have a whole lot to say. I've finished my summer math course. It hasn't felt much like summer. We have a lot that we are going to cram into the few weeks that we have before the boys start school and I start my very full fall school schedule. We'll be going camping. We are going to go to the City Museum. Lots of playdates. There is a new park in St. Louis right smack in the middle of downtown. It's a couple blocks from City Grocer where you can buy coffee (if you're anti-Starbucks, like myself.) The New Busch Stadium is pretty close too. We've already been three times and plan to go back tomorrow. Another reason it hasn't felt totally like summer is because we also had some unseasonably cool weather ('70s in July, what?) Here is a post in pictures of our first trip to City Garden.

Note to Self...

2009-07-21T20:40:00.002-05:00

When your four-year-old decides that he would like to "trade" his brand new Transformer for a different Transformer with someone, that you know, you probably won't see again for a while, DO NOT DO IT!!!! He will hound you constantly to call the other person's mom to facilitate a trade back. Once you call the other person, know that they will not answer their phone and you might not speak to them, or hear from them, for quite some time. And yet, you will have to listen to requests, try to rationalize to and explain to aforementioned four-year-old, that, no, when you left the message it was to ask for a trade back. The message was not left to tell them to run the wanted toy right over as soon as possible. Furthermore, don't let this happen the day before a 14.6 mile bike ride, because you will still have to come home, make dinner, do laundry, change sheets, give baths, and deal with silly-in-the-head boys all night after said bike ride and will be completely worn out and not in the mood or have the patience.

I know you are an intelligent person, but letting your four-year-old run the show in that situation was not an intelligent decision. Now go hit the showers! You are a little gross. Oh, and don't forget to get the dry clothes out of the dryer, fold them, and put the wet sleeping bag into the dryer before it mildews. Even if you're tired, you still have to keep that laundry moving forward. You are running low in the clothes department. After those two things, you should go relax in bed with that book that you're supposed to have read by next Tuesday for book club.

Goodbye sleepless, nursing nights...

2009-07-14T18:41:00.003-05:00

I made my first sale on Craigslist today! I sold my old glider rocker and ottoman. It was missing a decorative button and was stained on all the used parts, but with a little Resolv-it, it could look lovely again. It went to a lovely couple, S and A, who are expecting. Congratulations S and A! I hope that it is as comfortable for them as it has been for us.

We bought the rocker when we were expecting The Scientist. I would sit up in it, with a boppy pillow around my waist, nursing The Scientist, many times falling asleep myself while trying to rock him to sleep. I don't long for those sleepless nights, but I do happily reminisce about him being oh so little, curled up in my arm, a little bundle I had the hardest time figuring out. Being a mom and taking care of a baby did not come naturally to me, despite all the "practice" I had playing house and with dolls. It did help me with changing diapers, juggling a baby in an arm or on a hip while doing other things simultaneously, and changing clothes on something so tiny and seemingly fragile.

So goodbye sleepless, nursing nights. Goodbye tiny babies. (You know what though, me saying these things and purging all this baby stuff, I'll probably end up unexpectedly pregnant.) No, I'm on a different trail now of personal, developmental growth and the freedom that comes with your children getting older. I like this time too, but there's just something about holding a sleeping infant that's all swaddled. Sigh.

Reason #21 I am able to put up with Monkey...

2009-07-07T21:43:00.002-05:00

Upon seeing this picture and being asked by his dad, "Who is that?"

Monkey responded, "Mommy." This flattery can sometimes be hit or miss. This time it was a definite hit. Even when I'm feeling so UNself-confident, Monkey can help me feel better. Either that or he is a politician in the making. ha ha ha.

His favorite...

2009-06-30T19:47:00.002-05:00

My four year old has lots of favorites. His favorite transformer is Ironhide. His favorite stuffed animal is Seashell, the stingray. His favorite food is cheese. Tonight I learned his favorite curse word. It wasn't so bad. We were watching a movie. He smiled when a character said pissed. I asked why he was smiling. He replied, "I'm smiling because he said my favorite curse word." I asked, "You have a favorite curse word?!"

"Yes. It starts with a 'P'." Just to make sure, and I'm not completely sure why I felt the need to, I asked, "Is it pissed?" Grinning really big he said, "Yes. That's my favorite curse word." I couldn't help but giggle. He looked at me and asked, "What?!" He used it a few more times under his breath in the next couple minutes. The fact that he wanted to share with me what his favorite curse word was touched me, however inappropriate that might be. I think part of what made me giggle is the fact that he even has a favorite curse word. HE'S FOUR! He knows he shouldn't use it, and I didn't want to make it "forbidden fruit". So I let him say it a few times to get it out of his system.

RIP Michael Jackson...

2009-06-25T19:44:00.002-05:00

I think that John Mayer, my cohort, summed it up best when he twittered, "I think we'll mourn his loss as well as the loss of ourselves as children listening to Thriller on the record player." I remember listening to Thriller on a record player when my family lived a block from Tower Grove Park on Lackland. My sister had a poster of Michael on the wall and she may have also had the crystal-studded glove. Everyone wanted the zipper covered leather jacket and while it was out of reach for us, we were able to afford his albums. They were still albums then, at least for us, because we didn't own a cassette tape player. It's unfortunate that his reputation was marred with child-molestation accusations and other craziness involving buying the "Elephant Man's" skeleton. Thinking back on my childhood and even early teen years there were many of his songs that added to the soundtrack that is my life. Remember the theme song to "Free Willy" or the video "It's black, it's white." That video had cutting edge computer generated morphing images. Not only that but it also had Naomi Campbell (pre-crazy psycho throwing her cell phones at assistants) and Macaulay Culkin in it. I also remember when I was at my grandma's, who had cable at the time, and Thriller came on, I was told I couldn't watch it. I hid under the army green afghan and watched through the holes. I know that not everyone will, but I'm going to remember him for those good memories, and not the media-frenzy memories where they just wanted to knock him down. Goodbye, Michael.

Note to Self...

2009-06-25T19:14:00.002-05:00

When making rice in the rice cooker, if it seems like there is way too much water there probably is. Even when the package directions say one cup rice to two and a half cups water, it isn't necessary for the rice cooker. The rice will still turn out alright. (We in the House Full of Boys aren't exactly well trained palates.) The starchy mess that will ensue will really be unnecessary though. So in the future, stick to the two to one water to rice ratio or even a one and one half to one water to rice ratio. Don't forget. Thank you for your understanding and continual push toward excellence.

ME

Finger-pointing...

2009-06-19T21:45:00.003-05:00

Today at the Tower Grove wading pool, I was yelled at by a mother for pointing at her son to let him know that I was talking to him. I don't know that I will ever fully understand why people find that action so "aggressive", but fine people do. The reason I rushed over and pointed at him for a brief second to make sure he knew I was speaking to him...he was repeatedly pushing my child's head under the water causing him not only to inhale water, but also scraping his face, hip, elbows, and knees on the concrete. I started walking over the first time I saw him do it and, in the few seconds that it took me to get across the fifteen feet between us, he did it two more times. The Scientist was struggling to catch his breath and get away. This kid's two brothers and his sister all stopped when they heard me say, "Hands to yourself." He did not (obviously). So I did point and said, "Yes you." Unpoint, switch to a open hand. "You may NOT push people under the water. You need to keep your hands to yourself. You could really hurt someone. Do you understand what I am saying to you?" This exchange took about three seconds, he nodded, and then I went over to make sure The Scientist was okay. We went over to our stuff, right on the edge of the wading pool where I perched because I know a lot of the kids there are poorly supervised, and the mom came over with the offender. She says to me, "You are not his mother, so don't point at him." I replied, "I'm sorry if I've offended you by pointing briefly to get his attention, but he was repeatedly pushing my child..." Here she interrupts me to say, "I'm his mom and I was sitting right over there. That is why I'm coming over here to have him apologize." To her son, "Apologize." Son weakly says, "Sorry." Then she walked off. My issues with the situation are as follows:
(1) She was about fifty feet away from your children. Granted the rest of her children were not attempting to drown any of the other children at the pool, but one of them was. This makes me think that really you should be within a closer vicinity of your children (all five of them).
(2) She never even attempted to get up off of her butt until she noticed that someone had pointed a finger at her child, who was holding another child's head under the water. I am absolutely sure that you cannot be an effective parent while sitting on your ass.
(3) She finds a brief finger-pointing at her child more egregious than her child holding another child's head under the water.

Am I completely wrong in what I find the greater issue here? I would love to hear comments. I sometimes feel like I'm too aggressive when other people's children kick my children in the face repeatedly, hold my child's head under the water repeatedly, etc. But in those instances they do happen repeatedly and the other child's parents are nowhere near the child and/or don't seem to give a shit that their child is bullying another child. Am I going overboard in stepping in on the situation?

Requested Mojitos Recipe...

2009-05-22T08:06:00.002-05:00

This mojito recipe is from Michael Chiarello, who I had a major crush on in my early stay-at-home-mom-days. I like the recipe because it makes a whole pitcher, and it's a cocktail that doesn't have a ton of different liquors that you have to buy. Enjoy this responsibly. It's pretty potent.

Mojitos

One bunch of mint, cleaned and stemmed
One cup sugar
Four lemons, juiced
Four limes, juiced
750 mL light rum (I use Bacardi)
One liter club soda (I like Schweppes)

In a pitcher, muddle the mint and sugar. Add the lemon and lime juice and dissolve the sugar. Then add the rum and the club soda.

Super-easy! Super-yummy! Well actually for me, with my weak hands, juicing eight pieces of citrus fruit is a bit of a chore, but worth it for the ease of the rest of the recipe. Happy Cocktail Hour Everyone!

(I just want to note, that even though I'm posting this at 8:15 a.m. I am not having a cocktail hour at the moment. So the "Happy Cocktail Hour" statement is for the future. :D)

A recipe...

2009-05-21T19:35:00.002-05:00

After taking a bruschetta dish to a MOMS Night Out and getting many requests (if three or four requests equals many), I thought I'd post a little blog entry. Sorry there are no pictures. I do finally have a new, extremely nice camera, but I'm working on uploading and editing the pictures. And I didn't think, at the time of making the bruschetta topping, that I would make a blog entry about it.

Bruschetta Pomodoro

About 3/4 pound (5-6) plum tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped
1/3 cup chopped kalamata olives
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons capers, drained
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
About 4 ounces Parmesan cheese, cubed (optional, but I LOVE cheese)

1 French baguette
1/4 cup olive oil

Combine the first 9-10 ingredients in a bowl; cover and let stand at least 30 minutes.

Cut the baguette into 20 (1/2-inch-thick) diagonal slices. Brush both sides of slices with olive oil. Grill, uncovered, over medium-high heat (350 to 400 degrees F) 1 to 2 minutes on each side or until golden.

I believe that this method would actually produce crostini and not bruschetta. However, for anyone that just loves food, and doesn't care as much about the terminology or history, we'll stick with the name that The All-New Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook gave the recipe which is Bruschetta Pomodoro. Afterall, I would hate to end up seeming like Stephen from the first season of Top Chef about his wine pairings and incessant need to educate others. Finally, if you love capers, olives, or other cured and briny foods this is an extremely yummy recipe that I think you'll enjoy.

It's been awhile...

2009-05-04T16:53:00.003-05:00

I was looking at a friend's blog and realized that it's been five weeks since I've posted anything. School is good. I had my first bad experience with rude staff at school. I must have been hyped up from the possibility of giving my final presentation in a class, because when the lady told me I needed to stop arguing with her and that she wasn't going to let me test if she had to explain anything to me again, I left astounded and dumbfounded. So when I recounted the situation moments later, I was on the verge of tears with the receptionist in Advising and actually did burst into tears with my Advisor. Insert wavy lines and flashback scenario here...

A non-traditional student, Me, walks into the placement testing center. She doesn't have any real insecurities about the situation, because, thus far in her community college career, she has encountered helpful, mostly friendly people. The receptionist in the placement center asks why she is there. I tell her that I'm there to take a math placement test. She says, "Uh, you can't just take one part of the test. You have to take the whole thing." So I reply, "Well, I was told in advising that I only need the one test. I have prior college experience and math is the only class that I need a placement test for." She looks a little confused, well a lot confused, and catches the eye of a lady walking by her desk. "She says she needs only the, uh, math test." Older lady says, "That's fine. Just write math on the slip." The receptionist hands me two slips of paper and says, "Fill this out to six." I smiled and said, "Thank you." Then proceeded to walk confidently to a table to fill out my form. Then another lady calls my name. I respond with a, "Yes. That's me." She walks over and takes my forms as I'm completing them. As she's looking them over she says, "You need to put a semester on here." I flushed a little and said, "Oh sorry. I wasn't exactly sure if you needed the semester I'm in here at the college or the semester that I'm needing to take the placement test for." She snapped back, "Yes." I'm thinking, is it really that crazy for me to have a little confusion with the one word instruction? So I write the semester that I need to register for that is the reason for me taking the placement test. She takes the papers from me. We walk over to her desk and she starts to type my student number into the computer. Then she looks up at me and says, "You need permission from a counselor in order to take this test."
I said, "Yes, I know. Ms. White put a note in my file that authorized me to take the test."
She said, "There is no note in your file. The only thing that is in here has to do with biology. There is nothing about taking the math placement test."
I said, "Well Ms. White put a note in there and said that it's in there, make sure they look for it."
She snapped back, "There is no note."
I then asked, "Are you sure? Because she said that the note was good for a week and as long as I came in this week that it would fine, but I couldn't wait longer than that, because they expire."
She asked, "Did this happen today?"
"No, it would have been...last week Tuesday or Wednesday."
"There is no note."
"Ms. White put one in there."
"If I have to explain any part of this again, I'm not letting you take the test today."
"I just don't understand. I was told that as long as I came in this week that was fine. So now I have to start all over again?"
"What do you mean start all over again?"
"I'm sorry, I mean that now I have to go back to advising, sign in and wait for Ms. White, have her put the note in again, come back up, and, by that time, it will be past the testing time. Then, I'll have to wait until next week." I glanced down at my watch and saw that it was already 2:00 p.m. and I didn't know how strict they are with the test times.
"You don't have to wait for Ms. White. Any counselor will be able to put a note in. If you hadn't wasted all this time arguing with me you would have made it back."
I'm thinking what the heck, woman!!!! "Okay, that's fine. I'll go down and see what's going on." So I left and headed down to Advising.

Once in advising, I recapped the scenario to the receptionist and near the end my voice started to break. She asked me if I was okay, and I replied, "Yes, I guess I'm just a little flustered." She told me to have a seat and that Ms. White would be available soon. When I went into Ms. White and retold the story, I did start to cry. She apologized for not having any tissues and gave me a little drink napkin. Then she showed me that the note is in my file, that all you have to do is scroll down, and we talked about my options for taking the test at a later date. I told her to leave the original note, because I was going back to the Placement Testing center immediately to make sure that lady knew the note was in my file.

Back in the Placement Testing office, I wasn't able to talk to the crabby lady because she was giving instructions. So I waited. While waiting the receptionist from the Advising office came up and pretended to look for some papers. When she saw the lady that had upset me she asked if that was the lady. I positively id'd the perp. and she said under her breath, "I'll let her boss know." I talked to a different lady who was very nice and said that when I come back to only deal with her. She said that I wasn't at fault and said I could still take the test if I wanted to. I thanked her and said I was just not in the headspace anymore. I was extremely pleased that crabby lady did learn that the note was in there, and I kind of hope she feels bad for being so rude. Realistically, I know that she doesn't, but it would be nice. After I left there I went back to advising to have Ms. White put a new note in. She told me to wait until the day I planned on taking the test or the day before.

I went in today and took the test. The algebra levels are as follows: pre-, elementary, intermediate, college. I did some review and hoped to at least place into elementary. I took the test and the nice lady was extra helpful and polite to me. I finished, she brought my little slip over, and then directed me to go see my counselor. She said that they would interpret the slip. I saw MTH 140 (aka Intermediate Alegebra to us community college types), but didn't know if the code was more in depth than that. So I went to Advising and eagerly awaited the interpretation of my placement slip. Ms. White came out and looked at my slip and she said, "You can fill out your form, and I'll sign it." I asked, "Well what math should I look for?" She said, "It's right on there MTH 140." I flushed and smiled really big and asked, "Really?!? I tested into MTH 140? I was hoping to at least test into Elementary, but Intermediate?" Ms. White looked at me and smiled, "It's always the smart ones who are so surprised that they are smart." I blushed so more and left the office because I needed to think about my schedule. So take that crabby placement testing lady.

Mid-term/semester update...

2009-03-28T18:07:00.003-05:00

This Thursday, we attended parent/teacher conferences. We started the afternoon with a playdate after school at Tower Grove Park with friends. The weather was so nice and we ended up staying until 5 p.m. The playdate was impromptu though so the boys were starving and I decided to make a quick run through some fast food joint. I dreaded the experience and the place we went lived up to the expectation. The service was super-slow and the food was eh. I'd chosen fast food because I thought it was going to be fast...it wasn't we ended up running late to the parent/teacher conference. My anxiety was only exacerbated by the fact that Dirty called to tell me he was also running late because of traffic. Eventually, we made it to the school and were really only five minutes late. Monkey's teacher assured us that it was no problem.

We went into her room and sat at a table. The boys played quietly behind me as she paged me through his portfolio. Not too long after we started, she said, "Come on in, we're just getting started." That was Dirty getting there. We finished looking through the portfolio and Monkey is continuing to progress in writing, letter and number recognition, she said he's ready to start reading and that he would start that soon, she said his drawing has improved and that they are becoming more recognizable, then she let us have it. Monkey has not been behaving this week. She said that she has seen a whole new side of Monkey that she did not know existed. Normally, she can easily redirect him, but this week he has really been misbehaving, he's not napping, and he's been really defiant. We expressed our concern and did the parent thing, by trying to rationalize, with decreased sleep, diet changes, et cetera. All of which is true. Plus, we are coming off of spring break where we didn't have set bedtimes, routines were screwy, and he was gone from school for a whole week. She told us that she didn't say anything throughout the week but it has been a bit of a problem. At least, academically he is doing well. I'm sure he'll be back to his normal Monkey self soon. The Scientist, on the other hand, is doing great.

The Scientist's report was gleaming compared to Monkey's (which I won't do because good parent's don't do that ;). His teacher said his writing has much improved with his confidence since the beginning of the year. He received "A's" in Reading, Social Studies and Math, which his teacher usually doesn't give out until 4th quarter. Mr. C. said that The Scientist's ability in those areas is really exceptional so he'd earned the "A's". All of his other subjects he is still doing well in. He's still a bit too talkative at times, but he's gotten better at controlling himself when he's supposed to. Finally, there's me.

I would love to say that I've got straight "A's" again, but sadly I don't. I have one "A" and three "B's". There is a likelyhood that I will get two of those "B's" up to "A's" by the end of the semester. The one "A" I have is in Anatomy and Physiology though, so I'm pretty proud of that. I've made it to the point where most people drop A & P and I've made it here with an "A". I filled out my financial aid and will receive even more than I did for this past year. It's nice to get "something" for the almost eight years that I've been a stay-at-home-mom. All the sacrifice and low-income is paying off with...free schooling!!! Totally worth it. I got to be home and raise my children during their more formative years and now, with more confidence in myself and my abilities, I've started a path that I've always wanted to take, and I'm doing awesome.

Spring Break...

2009-03-22T20:56:00.004-05:00

We had a great spring break! The boys and I were off the same week, which was nice. I pretended that I was just a stay-at-home-mom again and not a student. Well, that's not completely true because I worried about not studying throughout the week and I did go to S.'s house to identify muscles on the pictures she took of the models in Anatomy. We ended up with a playdate every single day. Here is a brief description of how that went.

Monday: We were originally supposed to go to TG Park and ride our bikes, then go to lunch at the R.'s. But then M.R. got strep so that was cancelled, but we still had the boy R.'s over for a playdate while M. and A. went to the doctor and then had the prescription filled. Then we rode bikes to my in-laws house, where we played and fed the dogs and watched satellite. Then we rode back home.

Tuesday: We went for a bike ride to TG Park. Then we stopped by my in-laws, to see if A. needed us to come back to feed the dogs. She didn't so we went home and the boys played in the back yard for something like four hours. I stayed inside and cleaned the kitchen and tidied up the rest of the house. Later in the evening, The Scientist's friend, M., came over for a sleepover. They stayed up pretty late playing video games then reading.

Wednesday: We all went to Mastadon State Historic Site, in Imperial, to visit their museum and hike their "Bone Bed Trail". It was a neat little museum and I learned the difference between Mastadons and Mammoths. Mammoths were mainly in the western portion of the United States. Mastadons were mainly in the eastern portion. Mammoths were bigger than Mastadons. The differences between the two are similar to the differences between African and Asian elephants. After the hike and a snack, we came home and the boys played outside for another few hours.

Thursday: We went "all the way" to Wildwood to visit the Ri.'s. It was the first time that I got to meet their newest addition C. He is super-cute and pretty much just slept the whole time were were there. BUT that meant that D. and I got most of the entire playdate to ourselves to sit and chat. The boys all got along great and were pretty much off playing. D. and I ended up tidying up the toy room near the end. I realized mid-playdate that I forgot to take the play table, which I told P. M. that I would transfer to D. Then the boys and I left, and it wasn't until I reached Lindbergh on I-44 that I realized that I'd forgotten both of the boys books in her basement. So I called her and we set up an additional meeting the next day to exchange everything I'd forgotten.

Friday: I dropped the boys at the R.'s to play while I went to meet D. in Eureka, where we had a cup of coffee and chatted a bit more. It was nice to see her two days in a row (just like old times). That ended pretty quickly, because I needed to leave to get back to the R.'s. I watched A.'s boys, and my own, while she took M. and G.K. to dance class. While she was gone I tidied up her kitchen from lunch. I figured it was only fair since she fed my children. Then she got back, and we sat and chatted. I tried to help her process clothing choices for her upcoming reunion in NOLA. It was a lot of fun, but being the fifth day of non-stop action I was pooped and therefore not much in the energetic scheme of things. The boys actually left relatively easily, which was a nice end to things. That night, we met my in-laws for dinner at Pho Grand, and then we had gelato next door at The Gelateria.

Saturday: I believe we had a pretty lazy morning, then we headed to Home Depot. After that, we came home, regrouped, then headed back out. The boys went swimming and I went to Target. I bought all of the Charlaine Harris' paperback books, Twilight: The Movie, new shelves for the boys room, and a few other odds and ends. Then, I went back to The Heights to meet the boys. They were finished playing, but the weather was so nice, so we went to the playground.

There one of my pet peeves reared it's ugly head. A mom sat in her car where she talked on her cell phone the entire time. Within one minute of the boys getting onto the playground, the youngest needed help getting down from somewhere. Within fifteen minutes, the youngest whipped "it" out and started peeing in the middle of the playground. Granted, this was after a minute or so of him looking frantically around for "something". At that point, his mother started yelling his name from her car. He obviously couldn't hold it and she's yelling at him. After about ten seconds of him peeing in the middle of the playground and her yelling, she FINALLY gets out of her car, still on her cell phone, and it isn't until she actually gets to the gate that she says, "So and so, I have to go. Yeah, I'll call you back later." Then she yells at him, "YOU DO NOT DO THAT! IF YOU HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM YOU GO TO THE SIDE OF THE PLAYGROUND! YOU DON'T STAND IN THE MIDDLE AND GO! YOU ARE SO NAUGHTY!" Then she called her older son and said they had to leave shaming her younger son even more by saying, "We have to leave because your brother is naughty." Um yeah, how about you don't leave two children under six unattended on a playground. Sure, the playground is completely fenced in, but what are they supposed to do if they need you? Walk out of the playground and across the parking lot to your car to ask you? Right, then you make your child feel like an idiot because he doesn't know what to do, but you are nowhere near him in order for him to ask you. Nice.

Sunday: Another last lazy day. We took our time getting ready and then we went to the Zoo. We went to Zoomagination Station and renewed our Zoo membership. Then we rode the train and got to see the orangutans close up. All of them were right up against the glass just looking at the people looking at them. So cute. After the zoo, I dropped the boys at home and I went to Old Navy. Then, we spent the rest of the evening at home, winding down, and getting ready for the upcoming week. I finished my homework for tomorrow and finally completed my notecards for the muscle test in Anatomy on Friday. And now I'm writing a blog about our Spring Break week. It was so nice to have a week off, do nothing but be, and we have fantastic weather. It could have been slightly warmer for my tastes, but overall it was lovely.

Note to self...

2009-03-11T22:11:00.002-05:00

A bird free-flying around an open space will scare the living s&%# out of you. Having a flying beast come near your head with wings a flappin' will cause you to pull your left trapezius. It will also give you flashes of gigantic moths flapping around your face, and you know how freakin' scary you think that is. No, no it's not swimming from manta rays or stepping on crocodiles in rivers, but it's still an experience that will scare the bejeezus out of you. No matter how much the bird tries to lift the cage door open or tweets at you to let him out, "DO NOT DO IT!!!"

I can't fall asleep....

2009-03-09T00:13:00.003-05:00

I don't know if it was the Diet Dr. Pepper after 7 p.m., the ice cream at 9 p.m., the uneasy processing about my day, or my anxiety about the upcoming week, but I cannot sleep. I was hoping that if I got into bed and relaxed with a little music that I would get the urge, but it's now 12:15 a.m. in the newly daylight savings time and I am no closer to sleep. This week Dirty and I are watching my in-laws three dogs and their lovebird. I'm torn between the comfort of home, which is a sense of normalcy for me and the boys, namely a fairly set schedule, and how much time I can spend at my in-laws to give their animals a sense of normalcy, namely people in the house. Although, my two kids, and heck even the husband and I, are probably more stressful for them that just being alone. Part of my reason for not falling asleep is figuring out my school schedule, the family schedule, and adding in the extra four animals schedule. I know I can work it out. I will work it out.

My next big worry is my Anatomy class, which is slightly weird considering I also have a History test this Thursday. But I am more worried and especially anxious about the two Anatomy exams I have after getting back to school after spring break. The two exams are on muscles. (sidenote: Yay, a yawn.) There are A LOT of freakin' muscles in the human body. I don't have to know all of them, but of the 40+ muscles I do need to know I also need to know their origins, insertions, actions, and innervations. I'm already behind in the schedule that I made up for myself for the next couple of weeks. This week, I'm going to put some time into learning those four things about the muscles I need to know, but I'm going to put more time into learning where exactly they are on the body. I have to do that because the campus is closed the week of spring break, which means I'll have no access to the charts or models on campus.

I've also been feeling especially out of shape lately. I told myself that when I got the right equipment (a sports bra) that I would start jogging. Even with my crazy upcoming week, I'm going to try and jog for at least 20 minutes 7 days a week. My other problem is that I have clicking in my wrist, knee, and sometimes ankle. Now my anatomy professor said that once it starts it won't get better, but right now I'm carrying more weight than almost ever, I haven't worked out regularly since I started school, and my diet is that of a couch potato. I've been really stressed by school, family, life...

Some good things:
I thought I might be sick of John Frusciante's The Empyrean before I listened to it, but I wasn't. It is really a spectacular album. I hope I never get sick of it.

The workmen, R. and J., finished all the work on the plaster and the hole in the hall ceiling that they were hired to do. It was nice to no longer have strange people in our house...no matter how nice they were. (and they were really, really nice people) They did a great job, and I can't wait to paint everything.

We have painted the boys room. The Scientist picked the color (although we actually bought the shade lighter than what he picked, please don't tell him...ever). It is called moss green. It looks great in their room. We still have to re-white the trim and parts of the ceiling, but we are going to do that a little later because painting a room is a lot of work. We also purchased a curtain rod and four navy curtain panels to place between the living room and their room (Monkey picked out the blue). I also bought a new lamp for their room. So we can get rid of the lamp that was a hand-me-down and had a patched wire (kind of scary). Our final purchase for their room will be shelves for the wall and that will likely happen next weekend. (that's my hope anyway)

We had a really nice playdate Friday night with The Scientist's three best friends, J., I. and M., for M.'s birthday. He chose to go swimming at The Heights, which works out great for us since we're members, and dinner at CiCi's Pizza. All the parents were there, and we both really feel blessed that The Scientist has such a great group of friends. They play really well together and go out of their way to make sure that everyone can be included. On another day, they wanted to go down the big slide, The Scientist was the only one not tall enough, so in the spirit of fairness they decided that no one should go. All of the kids, except for I. are also in the gifted pull-out at school which, after a couple weeks of The Scientist not wanting to go to school on Fridays because of it, he is enjoying it again.

I suppose that's all for now...even though I'm not really any more tired than before. I probably shouldn't have taken Macroeconomics on a Monday, because I seem to get like this every Sunday. Then I'm in a class on Monday that is very interactive and the teacher makes us answer questions and write on the board and I'm out of it. Nice.

How do you spend the nicest day in weeks...

2009-02-07T18:31:00.003-06:00

Well, here in the House Full of Boys we started out pretty good. Dirty went for an early long bike ride. I slept in until about 9:15 while the boys played quietly. Then after I woke up, I ate breakfast and gave Monkey a bath. Then, we went to a playground at McGrath school, which I think is in Brentwood, and followed that with a stop at Maplewood Bike Shop. After much waiting, The Scientist was finally getting a bike that wasn't too small. We drove toward home and, because The Scientist had his new bike, I dropped Dirty, The Old Man, The Scientist, and Monkey in Tower Grove Park so they could bike, scooter, or walk home.

It wasn't too long after I got home that they arrived. Monkey was crying, and The Scientist updated me that Monkey had fallen and cut his Chin. I don't remember if I blogged about it before, but he'd cut his chin at the pool, in practically the same place, maybe four or five months ago. This time, he had fallen off of the scooter, cut his chin, and bit his tongue. I hoped for the best but, after about five minutes of trying to clean it, realized that we needed an emergency room visit.

I packed up a bag full of Transformers, HotWheels, Micromachines, and Transformer books. The last four or five times that I've been to the emergency room, we waited for a long time, and the tv, bead coasters, meager selection of books, and locked-up video games only hold the attention for so long. I only brought water because, from prior experience, I know that they don't allow any food or drink for the patient just in case anesthesia is needed. I dropped the boys off at the entrance and went to park the car in the garage. I'm always surprised how fast people drive in the garage (or the boys' school's parking lot for that matter) knowing that there might be kids darting out into traffic, but I'll save that rant for another blog...or facebook. :D All of my preparing, was unneeded though. We weren't there more than 10 minutes when they called us back to an exam room.

We weren't in the exam room for even one minute when the ER resident, Dr. C, came in to evaluate. We were still working on getting Monkey's shirts off, and he was less than helpful. He even snapped at Dr. C, which is understandable. The poor kid has been in the ER no less than five times in four years, and the visits have never been exactly pleasurable experiences. Dr. C. had already looked at our file and reminded us of verified our prior visits (ex. possible swallowing of thumb tacks-negative findings, laceration on ear from fall in daycare). I smiled and said, "He's adventurous." Dr. C looked at his chin and told us it's superficial, but because of the location of the laceration sutures would be needed. He said that he would have someone from Child Life come in and explain the procedures to Monkey and bring some distractions.

She, sorry I can't remember her name, came in and talked with us, and Monkey a little, about a cool gel that would make his chin feel better. Monkey snapped at her too. The doctor dropped by again with some of his supplies. The nurse then came in to numb up his chin. Then we waited for about thirty-five minutes for the gel to kick in. I told Dirty, in that time, that I was a little ticked, the one time he's able to go the the ER for the boys, we didn't have to wait for hours, and everything was moving really smoothly and quickly. He said that he was glad it did because he was freaking out as it was. Monkey did really well throughout the procedure. It took about thirty minutes for Dr. C. to give Monkey five stitches and he had to leave, come back and re-lidocaine part of Monkey's chin. We were released soon after that with orange popsicles for the boys.

We made a quick stop at McDonalds for dinner (read: Daddy feels guilty that I told you they wouldn't hurt you in the emergency room, but then they did.) After that, we made a quick stop at the grocery store for ice cream, triple anti-biotic, dinner for a couple nights, and milk. We've ended the trip to come home to about ten spots of dog vomit throughout the carpeted area of the house. I made Dirty clean it up because I would yack myself if I had to clean it up. And that is how the House Full Of Boys...and Me spends the warmest day in what seems like months. I'm sure you're extremely jealous of how glamorous my lifestyle must seem. :D

Stop teasing your brother...

2009-01-24T09:05:00.002-06:00

I have a question, a survey of sorts, to pose to any readers with early childhood experience, or other insight, into dealing with brotherly teasing. This is an issue I try to curb as much as possible, because little things always end up turning into big things. Then I end up with a headache.

So here is the situation, my four year old, Monkey, has no problem with having girlfriends. For a while, he didn't really have a definition for what a girlfriend is, but I always follow up when he talks about girlfriends by asking, "What is a girlfriend?" His answer to me used to be, "She's a girl and she's my friend." But lately his answer has evolved into, "It has to do with kissing, Mom." I, of course, had to ask, "You kiss, P, Mo, and Ma?" I was relieved when he said, "No, Mom. You can't kiss at school." Also, lately, he's added another girl to his list of "girlfriends".

The new girlfriend is my seven year old's, The Scientist's, friend J. The Scientist has no problem with Monkey saying J is his girlfriend. What The Scientist does have a problem with is Monkey saying that J is The Scientist's girlfriend. J is a girl, she is The Scientist's friend, but at this stage in his psychological development having someone say that someone else is your girlfriend really bothers him. He loves playing with J. We've have a semi-standing playdate every Friday evening swimming and then going out to eat. I need to know how to help him feel comfortable with having J as his friend and still deal with any teasing, which with other little boys seems to be occuring now. With Monkey I'm usually around to make him stop teasing his brother about it and explain the meaning of girlfriend in the context of J as The Scientist's friend. I don't know why Monkey's started this other than it is something he found that he can do to push The Scientist's buttons and sometimes that what he wants to do. Any thoughts/suggestions/comments?

I don't have long but...

2009-01-23T14:43:00.003-06:00

A few things I wanted to get off of my chest...My last blog when I mentioned my neighbor's dog I said a form of "dear" like a billion times. Greta was a very sweet dog and very loved by her family, friends, and neighbors. However, it is possible that my comp professor from last year will read this blog, and I don't want her to think that I've somehow regressed into a world of redundant writing. I like to think that I have not, but since I am not given a grade which will add or detract from my college GPA, I am a bit less intense about checking for errors than I was with any papers for class.

I've also started a new semester at school. I've mentioned before what I'm taking, but I don't feel like looking through my blog archives to find the exact entry to hyperlink, so the classes I have this semster are Developmental Psych, Anatomy and Physiology I, Macroeconomics, and American History I. My first week went great. I enjoy the topics in the classes and enjoy most of my professors. I have two classmates from last semester in three of my classes this semester, which is always nice. The class that I know no one is Macroeconomics. I think it will be a fun class. The teacher is a trip and talks like a radio announcer or the guy who announces the rules at the Omnimax. Plus he's really interactive and runs a tight ship. I like those kinds of professors. I already have a ton of reading, but have enjoyed getting back into the learning environment. Throughout the week this week I just kept thinking how I really love community college.

I'm eager to move on to the next portion of my nursing education, but in the meantime I'm really enjoying school. The campus is great. I like how it's laid out. The Campus Life group holds a lot of functions. This week I attended my first and it was an inaugural party for Obama. They had two big screens which played CNNs coverage of the event. Luckily, I had a break in between classes and was able to watch a majority of the actual inauguration. After the ceremony there were beverages, sandwiches, chicken, and taquitos. It was nice. I would get more into that but have lost my blogging momentum...

The last weekend before school starts...

2009-01-15T19:48:00.002-06:00

It is now the last Thursday before school starts for me. I am both excited (because this pushes me a little bit more toward my goal of becoming a nurse) and anxious (there will be a lot of studying for the classes this semester and less time to have get togethers with friends). I'm looking forward to my anatomy and physiology class and hoping that I'm able to do as well in it as I did with the rest of my classes last semester. I've really enjoyed my time off. Jake was off most of the boys Christmas break and, while it was nice to have some time to myself during the day, I wasn't at the point of "Get my children out of my house before I lose it!" It was nice to have time to spend with our little family. Then, after the boys went back to school I had a week and a half of laidback housewife-life. I went to coffee with friends. I visited some of those same friends. I went to playdates that were for the kids, without my kids, and visited with my mom-friends. I kept the house relatively clean. I cooked dinner for the family where we were able to sit together around the table.

Sitting together around the table is something I'm hoping eventually pays off. Right now it's a bit of a chore. We are trying to push the learning of manners. This is something I have to teach not only the children, but my husband. We had rolls tonight and my husband took his butter knife and cut (read smooshed it through) the middle of his roll, and the roll he was preparing for a child. I said, "I know this is advanced manners, but you aren't supposed to cut your dinner roll." He said, "Pssshhhh. Whatever, that's stupid." Then he proceeded to say, "Would you pass me a roll?" I said, "You didn't ask politely." So he looked at Monkey and said, "Please, would you pass me a roll, please." Then he felt the need to bring up Lambert's, which I feel is not a good idea when you're trying to instill table manners. Luckily, the boys didn't pick that up and run with it. It's bad enough teaching table manners to three boys without them thinking it's okay to throw food around the room.

I also wanted to mention a dear soul who passed away and will be dearly missed. Our neighbors across the street lost their dear Greta after twelve loving years. Our sympathy goes out to you M and D.

I keep starting new posts...

2008-12-27T21:23:00.005-06:00

but after writing for a while I generally decide they are kind of stupid. Things that I've written about include how I love cats but not dogs, how I am not good with change, and something about how we are a very selfish egocentric country. All of these ideas putted out after a paragraph or two. I will say that I've been reading archives of other people's blogs and one of them in particular is really touching. I've decided to just free-write about what's been going on for, at least, some sort of update.

I've finished my first semester of college where I'm actually engaged and trying instead of...what the heck did I do the first time around?!? I'll leave that one alone. I did really well and earned a 4.0, and including the last time around I have a cumulative 3.25. Not...too...bad. I'm excited and also extremely anxious about next semester because I have Macroeconomics, History (not my strong suit), Human Growth and Development (a psych course), and Anatomy and Physiology...gulp! I've heard that course is tough, tough, tough. I've had a very, very basic course of it before, which will hopefully be helpful. Lord, please let it be helpful. I've heard that it's a lot of memorizing. So really the tough part will be that it is time-consuming. I am happy that a classmate from my Comp class last semester is also in the A&P class with me. Yay! Someone to start a study group with.

Christmas vacation has been great. Because it's coming after actually being in school it really has been pleasurable to just sit around and not have to think too hard. I've been trying to read a book that I borrowed from TMA forever ago. I'm having a little trouble actually wanting to read. We've been partaking in a "How I Met Your Mother" marathon every evening after the boys retire to their room. We've also had qutie a few activities.

This time off we've had a lot of family gatherings. We've been to Laumeier Sculpture Park to have Jedi Training with light sabers. We had a park playdate with the R's. We also had NR and LR over yesterday morning for a playdate where the older boys played Wii and the younger boys played cars and watched Kung Fu Panda. Most recently, like this morning, we went to the zoo.

We took The Scientist's best friend, NR, with us to Zoomagination Station, which has all these different centers, as the boys call them. There is a veterinary area where you help stuffed animals feel better, a playhouse where you can sort recycling and fill bird feeders, a viewing area where you clean the windows, an art area, puppet theater, library reading area, sand and water tables, and the place The Scientist and NR spent their entire time the habitat building area. The boys spent the entire 45 minutes building a rainforest and rivers. This particular center has rocks, wood, trees, felt "lakes", animals of every sort imaginable. They really enjoyed it. After that session we went to the Children's Zoo.

I love, now that the boys are older, taking them to the Children's Zoo. We didn't even really see any of the animals. They spent an hour and a half playing some sort of challenge game and then a Jedi game on the playground. I wish that I would have taken my mp3 player, because they were so occupied I was a little bored sitting in the sunshine watching them run in circles up the steps, down the slide, up the rock ramp, down the slide. They did tell me on the way out that Monkey had opened the gate at the top, went out, then came back in and locked the gate. I had three going in, three going out, and they were all looking out for each other. It was a really nice playdate. After that we had a quick bite to eat and went to the Herpatarium, or Reptile House, where we watched one Caimen Lizard chomp down, and not let go of, another Caimen Lizard's tail for like five minutes. At that point, the boys speech was starting to have potty talk interspersed, and I was having caffeine withdrawals, so we walked to the car. Well actually, I would give them a spot to wait at and they would race each other ahead to the specified point.

Wow, would you look at that? I have a whole post. I guess the point is to just have little bits of randomness to start with instead of a cobwebby old topic. Or maybe just having something other than school going on, which I've found some people would really like to forget that time of their lives, helps.

This season...

2008-12-21T09:20:00.004-06:00

make it about reaching out to other people and enjoying those around you. I'm not really big on the gift-giving aspect. (I'm a horrible gift-opener. My reaction is always awkward and unreadable.) I have been trying to see around those first reactions of people (mainly in the service industry) and trying to think of reasons why they may be acting the way they act. I know it's helped me be more patient. And I've found, that if you are nice long enough the person who is irking you eventually comes around and smiles or, at the very least, ends the "transaction" on a much more pleasant note. I'm trying to remember that this season is a hard time for many people, and the reasons are usually emotionally tied. I know, from my own experience, how powerful one's emotions can be to keep in check. Following this paragraph is a PostSecret. It reminded me that you never know who you are going to influence in a significant way.

This Christmas, I'm enjoying that I have a break from the stress of school. It's making me appreciate family time. I bought Christmas Vacation, with Chevy Chase, hoping that it would be a movie The Scientists would like. We watched it last night and we didn't even get through the animated credits, and he was already laughing. He loved the entire movie and was laughing so hard. It was a nice change from the normal moaning and groaning he usually puts up about movies I've picked.

When I bought the movie, I was supposed to get forty percent off, but my coupon wasn't scanning correctly. The sales lady, who would be one of the previous sales people who don't seem very cheerful, used a different coupon on the register. I ended up paying full price for the movie. However, she took forty percent off of a Star Wars pop-up book that the boys wanted for Christmas. The book was originally $32.99, because of the coupon I only paid $19.79 for the book. I kept telling the lady that I was fine with not getting a discount on the DVD, because the computer took more off for the much more expensive book. This was one sales person who never broke with her gruff exterior. After witnessing the other customers in the Borders, I understood why. Those were some crabby customers. They were snapping at the workers and rolling their eyes. I felt really bad for the workers. It's not like they enjoy pushing charitable causes on the customers or asking you if you're already a member of Borders Rewards program. It's part of their job description and the customers shouldn't act like it's a personal threat, or attack, on their time. God forbid! A simple "No thank you." is enough. A "I REALLY JUST HAVE TO GO!!!" is over the top and really quite rude.

So while I don't think that those snotty ladies will read this blog, for the handful of people that do (and really I don't think you're the ones with these rudeness issues), remember that smiling, being polite (using please and thank yous when necessary), and being patient are ways to show that you respect the person you're dealing with. It's not a way to act condescending and superior. And in an effort to not leave out any specific holiday celebration (my apologies if I do):

"Merry Christmas"
"Happy Holidays"
"Happy Kwanzaa"
"Happy Hanukkah"
"Happy Saturnalia"

Mr. C., The Scientist's teacher, made a slideshow of the class making their gingerbread houses. You will find the link here.

Thanksgiving Extravaganza!!!

2008-11-30T18:01:00.003-06:00

I had four days off (so did the boys) this weekend. It was a nice little break, but I'm not at the point where I'm sick of school. So I am actually looking forward to going back and finishing up this first set of classes. I have my paper to finish, a few more tests, and one final. Then I have a month break. That's all well and good, but, like I said before, at this point in the game I don't really need the break...or do I? We just had a really busy holiday weekend. This weekends festivities are the start of what will not finish until February really.

We start with Thanksgiving for Dirty's side and Thanksgiving/Christmas for my side of the family. This year, and I'm thinking it's pretty similar to years past, we start out slow then have a total blowout with my family's celebration on Saturday. The food only got better as the weekend progressed. I love going to my family's functions because I get to eat true Filipino dishes like chicken adobo, pianono (sweet rice cakes), pancit, and the pork cooked in it's own blood (which Tito Poli was so kind to help me with the pronunciation, but that I can't remember today). Really I have never been brave enough to try the pork cooked in it's own blood, but I like bringing it up for the ew-factor. I live with all boys remember...I think my sense of humor is slightly tilted in toward their humor. It was planned as a formal dinner by my wacky auntie.

Auntie Vivien, as I said before, is a little wacky. She likes to make elaborate plans and menus. God bless her, because our family get togethers are nothing if not impromptu at every turn. This year on the itinerary was a napkin folding class, a turkey muffin decorating class (this did not happen), formal-wear for dinner (this also, for the most part, did not happen, but I will describe more later), and, as always, a short sermon with the topic of what thankfulness is and what we are thankful for. I lucked out and got the bible verse that was shortest. I Thessalonians 5:16 Rejoice always, which was good because I wasn't filmed for more than 30 seconds. I missed the part of the e-mail (which I didn't get until Thursday anyway because of multiple personal e-mail accounts) about formal dinner-wear being required.

I did dress nicer than just knit-wear with elastic waistbands and a hoodie, but because of a hold-up in the laundry sector I wasn't dressed as nicely as I was hoping. My original choice was to have dark washed jeans with a black empire-waisted silk top so as to still look cute but not have to suck in my tummy all night. I ended up in a very fitted low cut black tank top. I still looked cute but man was I uncomfortable most of the evening. My wacky auntie conducted napkin-folding class, ran around the kitchen and dining room trying to get the tables set formally, then she disappeared to change. When she emerged from the bathroom she was wearing black leather pants, black and white cowboy boots, a black leather vest, and a white shirt that had the buttons covered with embroidered fabric. There was also a matching jacket, but she was already pretty hot in all the other leather. Everyone got pictures*, and she was just as happy as a clam that everyone enjoyed her outfit as much as she did. After the picture-taking fiasco she gave her sermon and we ate. After some sitting around we took a family picture.

The previous year these were done after the presents were opened and there was more room. This year everyone just wanted to get to the dang presents, but a minor few wanted to have the picture taken before the presents. So we spread out across the livingroom in front of the tree and presents. I think that the photographers (guests who I think might be invited solely for the purpose of taking our family's picture) had to take two-three across depending on the camera. Then we stepped it up a notch from last year and also took a digital video to "view on youtube". I'm sure it will have a lot of groaning throughout. Finally it was present time.

I, over the years, have been given some pretty crazy things. I think it's gotten better on many fronts. The men-folk, last year and this, were given denim shirts. Last year there was only one style and it had a small embroidered "St. Louis" on the right with an arch and tiny skyline. This year all the guys got denim shirts, but they were all different colors of denim. I was sitting next to one of my four brothers, N, and he picked up his box and said, "This is probably a shirt." I looked at him and said, "Oh it's a shirt and I bet it's denim." He opened the box and it was a bright red shirt. I looked at it giggling and said, "IT IS DENIM!!! IT'S RED DENIM, TOO!!!" We were laughing so hard. Then once the family historians noticed that people got similar gifts a group picture was mandated. All the boys had to put on their shirts and smile for the camera. Dirty somehow was able to blend into the beige walls and didn't have to model his shirt. This was really one of the best family functions in my memory.

I think we all really enjoyed it here in the House Full of Boys. We laughed all night long and especially on the car ride home. These are just a few of my favorite memories from the night. Dirty said it was a tie between my wacky auntie and my cousin A. It's really too bad that it only happens once a year.

*I do not really like my camera. I would like to have a new digital camera that is just a camera. It really only needs to be a step or two up from the gumball machine toy that I gave Jake a year or so ago. I'm thinking Fuji or Canon about $150 (possibly less if it's decent). I'm writing this in case Santa is a reader of my blog. I don't think he is though, unless he's incognito, because I've never seen "North Pole" on feedjit. :D

"feeling good pants" and other random thoughts...

2008-11-20T18:14:00.002-06:00

After a few weeks of eating whatever I've felt like, and feeling worse and worse, I have started an eating right plan. I am going to try and limit (drastically) the processed foods. My rule is "If it's processed drink a big cup of water first." The next rule is "Whenever I get that hungry feeling, drink a big cup of water." The last time I did this I lost eight pounds, and that was without exercising.

I also started with the first day of working out. I did 40 minutes of strength training, which should have been only that, but since I'm so out of shape it was also cardio. I measured all my problem areas, and I need to lose 6" off of my thighs to fit into my "feeling good pants". I'm going to try and work out daily like I was before I started school. I think that with that, and the limiting my calories, I should be able to get back to my pre-Monkey weight. Since I weigh as much now as I did when I was completely pregnant, and ready to give birth to him, losing the amount I want to shouldn't be a problem.

I've tried to post on here a couple of times since election and either had technical issues or felt that my work was uninspired there hasn't been anything. For instance, I wanted to post a video of Monkey dancing to RHCP "Especially in Michigan". I don't know what the problem is with the blogspot video player/downloader. I'm losing my focus and my eyes are tired.

I'll end with this story. I bought the generic proactiv at Target and started using it. It cleared up my forehead, and is starting to work on my chin. The blackheads are also gone from my nose. I guess because I was wearing the lotion at night that it spread to my eyes (where it's not supposed to go) and it totally dried the skin out. It's really awful and looks similar to how a rash looks at the end of running it's course. So after a couple days and the dried skin spots spreading to cover my entire eye area I decided not to use the lotion at night. I've had to moisturize like crazy trying to counteract the extremely drying effect that the lotion causes. I was hoping to go get my hair cut this weekend (another thing long overdue...it's been a year and a couple months), but the place I was going to go is a little hoity toity. I don't know if I want to show up in a hip salon with my eye area looking all crazy. So I think I'll postpone until...next week? We'll see.

Election Day...

2008-11-03T21:04:00.003-06:00

Today is the day. Get out and vote today. My MOMS Club is finally implementing my idea for helping each other out on election day by watching each other's kids. I guess now it's something that helps out a bit more since our monthly meetings are on Tuesdays. When I suggested it a couple years back no one was interested.

I have been known in the past to complain about taking my kids with me, but I generally don't mind taking them with me to the polls. The Scientist gets to vote at school, and I think it's good for him to get to see the real thing. Originally, this year I was going to go after I finished my classes. I've decided to go ahead and take them before we all head to school. We drive right by my polling place anyway. I've already researched my ballot and have filled out the sample so that I can get through it quickly.

I'm excited this year to see the results. I don't really talk about my actual political views but I do have opinions. I will say that I do not like receiving forwards of other people's political opinions. The truth of the matter is that everyone votes according to what they feel are the issues that are most important to them. My important issues, that I don't mind sharing, are the economy and the environment. So do I want to get e-mail forwards about how Obama is a terrorist and couldn't be his own secret service agent if he were to be elected president or how he practically performs partial-birth abortions himself...ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! No matter who takes office the results of their efforts won't be immediate. We are still a nation of over-the-top-everything.

Happy Halloween...

2008-10-31T23:36:00.003-05:00

*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...

2008-10-30T21:13:00.002-05:00

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...

2008-10-29T22:09:00.003-05:00

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!!!

2008-10-21T18:49:00.001-05:00

This photo was sent to us by Grandpa C.

Who Knew...

2008-10-20T20:41:00.002-05:00

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...

2008-10-15T23:55:00.006-05:00

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'...

2008-10-10T14:46:00.003-05:00

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???

2008-10-03T21:47:00.004-05:00

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.

More good thoughts please...

2008-09-29T18:43:00.004-05:00

A good friend of mine found out this weekend that her step-daughter was murdered in southern Mexico while living there fighting for a cause that she believed in. Please send your good thoughts to the E's. I'm still a little upset right now. I didn't know Sally personally but what I knew of her she was a very intelligent, bold, loving person. She fought for what was right in all things. Here's the link carried by the AP be warned that there is a scary looking picture of the man. This link is a blogspot writer who has a more in depth story of Sally as well as a picture of Sally in Mexico.

Another A, John Frusciante, and A Random Question...

2008-09-28T17:11:00.004-05:00

A full week after taking the first test my psych. teacher got our grades back to us. The grades are curved so I ended up with a high A instead of a low B. Woo Hoo!!! So far so good on the school front. Dirty supports my need of plenty of time to study and I'm working on introducing the home chores in with the school stuff. It's nice getting staight As though and it's hard to integrate the daily chores.

In other news I'm completely obsessed with John Frusicante. I don't have a website for him because his doesn't seem to be working right now. So there's a video from youtube where I've added about 100 videos of John or the RHCP because I love them too. When I got to go to a RHCP show a few years ago I was mainly going to see John. I believe he is one of the best guitar players of "my" generation.

That my is in quotation marks because well he's 9 years older than me and therefore more part of my sister's generation than my own. I've gotten confused with the lettering of the generations but I think I am technically a Y and yet I think I identify with the Xs even though I was more of a tween (that wasn't a vocabulary term when I was a "tween").

Anyway, I have another test tomorrow. I'm not too worried about it but I still need to reread my study guide a few more times and make sure I know the differences between conlict, functionalist, and interactionist perspectives.

Random question...when people say they read Nietzsche do they actually do it like, "I was bored so I pulled out my copy of Nietzsche to read."? Some of my friends think that I read "heavy content" books because I read classics like Tolstoy and Austen.

Good Thoughts...

2008-09-25T14:17:00.004-05:00

Today I wore a necklace in honor of my good friend and her flight to freedom. I don't normally wear many necklaces, but I'm going to more often when I can. Send your good thoughts/prayers/whatever you call them her way. :D

First A...

2008-09-18T18:40:00.002-05:00

I had my first test today. I was most worried about this test because the professor has such a low pass rate for his tests. I love the age of the scantron!!! I took my test between 11-12:20 this morning and even with the three 2-3 part essay questions my professor was able to have my grades posted by 2 p.m. when I got home and immediately got online to see if my grade was posted. That was never the case the first time I went to college. Scantrons came about when I was in jr. high and were more prevalent in high school. Some of my college professors used them but mainly they used essays (yikes!!!).

I felt good about the test after I finished it. I couldn't really imagine not doing well and getting a bad grade. I felt like the answers were coming to me and, even though I was worried about jinxing myself, I thought most of my answers were right. I scored 91 out of 100!!!! Not only that but this professor gives supplemental quizzes. If you miss them you can't get the points and it isn't counted against you, but if you take them you get 2 points for every correct answer. The quizzes are his answer to extra credit. I took the quiz and got 14 points which count toward my test points. So I end up with over 100% for the class. I was so excited I did Gob's chicken dance.

Buckled down...

2008-09-13T18:44:00.002-05:00

I did much better this week keeping on task and studying. I still had to take breaks every now and then but tried to take breaks from types of studying instead of breaks from studying all together. If I got sick of reading I would write out main points that I needed to study. If I got sick of writing out the study guides I would go online and do practice tests. I felt like I was pretty productive school-wise this week.

I did go out last night with a few of my good friends. We went to The Royale. I was hoping to try one of their burgers because they are allegedly one of the best in St. Louis, but while making dinner for the boys I ended up eating a bowl of Thai Chicken Curry Soup. It's a soup that I tried once and love. I need to find a recipe because they don't always have it at Schnucks. Anyway, after eating the soup I wasn't really hungry. I did have one of their drinks called The Subcontinental. It is the first drink on this list. When I ordered it I thought is sounded refreshing because of the fresh cucumber juice. Indeed it was and apparently that is how it is described on the above list.

I had a lot of fun visiting with some of my mom friends who I hadn't seen for a few weeks. It's been hard not seeing them a few times every week. We were all just catching up. I was hoping for some effective "peer workshopping". My friends came through and RE ended up editing my essay (yes I'm kind of a dork and brought a copy of it with me) right there at the table while we ate our shared appetizers and sipped our drinks.

Around 10 p.m. they have a DJ come in and the table that we were sitting at, which if you look at The Royale website above you can see it all the way in the back corner, is where the DJ sets up. So we moved to a different table and stayed until about 11:15 p.m. when AR said she had to go. RE was her ride and DR is pregnant and not drinking. So that was the end of the night. Dirty was surprised when I was home by 11:30 p.m. Apparently this is much earlier than my typical staying out time, but AR and RE both have young kids and AR also has a cold. It was a really nice time and unfortunately I'm kind of paying for it today. I haven't had much of an appetite and I just feel really tired.

My essay which is due this week is pretty much finished except for a few things I need to change. I have two tests this week. I'm not too worried about my Psychology test but am extremely worried about my Biology test. I really have to work on my Biology studying from now until Thursday. I have to go. Dirty has chosen Waterworld for movie night. UGH!!!

Editing Day in class...

2008-09-11T15:15:00.002-05:00

I guess that a lot of my "peers" felt that they had been screwed by their peer workshop groups as well. In the time that we were given today our instructor, the lovely Mrs. W, took as many of us seperately out into the hall and looked at our papers scanning them and giving us suggestions. My paper didn't have a whole lot that she commented on negatively. There was one paragraph that she said could use more of my thoughts and feelings, but that was out of five pages. The parts that I was questioning keeping in she validated and said that they fit into the story and helped support some other part. So there isn't too much in the way of revision that I have to do which is nice. I need to add a bit to one paragraph and clean some places up a little but other than that I didn't have many foreign marks on my paper. YAY!!!!

So I totally got screwed...

2008-09-10T14:52:00.003-05:00

Yesterday in my Comp. II course we had peer workshops to get feedback on our recall essay outlines. I was with two other girls. One of the girls is from Africa. Her outline wasn't really an outline but more each point that she was going to hit on. I could tell the direction of her story and see that it was personal. Just the outline proved to be a very moving story about how coming to America has been a diverse learning experience, everything she overcame just to get her driver's license, and the events that led up to getting her license. The only problem is that she's pretty shy and not confident about her English vocabulary. So she did give some feedback but it wasn't to my outline.

The other girl came with a half-sheet typed outline of what is supposed to be a five page paper. Her subject was going to college, she said, because at this point in her life it's the only thing she's really learned from. I read what she wanted the content of her paper to be and it was, basically (not easy to do with the minimal amount of effort she put into it), going to college is hard. The reasons she gave for it being hard was not knowing where her classes were, not knowing where the gym was, and not knowing where the bus stop was. Then her second grouping of information was that she learned a lot by going to college. Her reasons were that she took a campus tour, she learned where her classes were, she found out where the gym was, and she found the bus stop. Her conclusion...College isn't so hard and she's made friends. After reading this I looked up and she asked, "Do you think I have enough for a five page paper?" I said, "Um no?!?!? I think you're going to need to really expand on your experience." So then she asked, "Like what?" I asked,"Was this really the hardest part about going to college? What about enrolling, registering, figuring that whole process out? You didn't have any problems with that?" I spent 45 minutes basically writing an outline for her while the African girl and I brainstormed what she could write about and what she may have learned by going to college. AND I WAS WORRIED ABOUT TAKING COMP II WHEN I SERIOUSLY DOUBT THIS GIRL IS ACTUALLY LITERATE!!!!!!

At the end of the class, which my instructor had to leave early because of a meeting, I went up to her and asked if she could tell me where the writing lab is. I proceeded to tell her that I did not get ANY feedback from my group and that I spent most of the time we had writing an outline for one of my partners. She replied that she had overheard a lot of that and that I wouldn't have to work with these same people again. She said that one the things she like about community college is the diversity in the types of people that attend and one of the things that can be a problem about community college is the diversity in where the people are when the come to community college. She said that if, because of peer editing, I don't get enough feedback and she grades my paper and I don't do well that I can talk with her about it. She can help me edit at that point and I can revise and turn it in again. I still plan on going to the Student Success Center and talk to the folks in the Writing Lab and get a little help from them for my paper.

I decided to write about going to my 10 year class reunion. I've been writing all afternoon, haven't even gotten to the actual reunion in my paper and I'm already nearing the end of page 3. I'm guessing I'm going to be able to take a lot of the stuff out about certain persons that I came into contact at the actual reunion. Otherwise, I could probably end up with a novelette.

So I should be doing homework...

2008-09-07T18:03:00.008-05:00

However the boys have way too much energy after eating dinner. Dirty is gone for the MS 150. He'll be home in a couple of hours. He raised $700 towards the fight against MS.

I've been home with the boys alone all weekend. I haven't gotten any homework done. Well that's not true. I've read maybe four paragraphs of psychology and partially finished brainstorming for my comp. II course recall essay. I'm starting to understand why parents/adults push high school graduates to finish college while they still have no kids. My house was a mess. I spent about an hour today catching up on some of the cleaning. The cat litter, for instance, was starting to knock people unconscious when they would walk through the door. We were losing minutes lying on the floor trying to regain our composure. The bathroom was my own personal shame when Dirty's friend, BB, came over before they left for Columbia and used the bathroom while Dirty packed up. The bathroom hadn't been touched all week and was smelly and splattered with toothpaste. It was pretty embarrassing. Then I go look at my friend's 365 day portrait project to find this. I was so grateful that she only took a picture of the shower curtain.

I've watched four movies this weekend. A local blogger turned me onto illegal tv show and movie sites. I watched Juno (loved it), Lars and the Real Girl (loved it), Dan in Real Life (loved it), and 27 Dresses (it was alright for a chick flick). Finding free entertainment was nice and slightly titillating since it was illegal. I've also been watching tv shows that way too. Not so helpful on the finishing homework front but old habits die hard.

I've learned some new tricks and hopefully when you click on the hyperlinks they will open in a new window. I was told that it's too much of a bother to hit the back button and blog savvy folks will just move onto something else. This way instead of moving the mouse up to the back button you can move it to the "X" close window button. I'm wondering now that I wrote that though if it has something to do with the differences between MACs and PCs. Feel free to let me know and I apologize if I've offended with my naivete.

I am having a real issue with needing pockets. Sometimes I wear pants or a jacket and can keep my cell phone in them or keys or whatever. But a lot of the time I wear skirts or don't feel like having the bulk in my pockets. I've decided after many months of consideration that I am going to become "the lady who always wears an apron in her house" lady. I like having the easy access pockets and the keeping the front of my clothes clean aspect would also be nice. My only problem is that my one and only apron is not cute. It's navy canvas and boring, boring, boring. I want some old school style aprons. I saw an episode of Sex and the City where Charlotte was making her first Shabbat dinner. Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte were all wearing extremely cute stylish aprons. I either need to figure out how to sew and make my own or find someone else who does. I don't know why women stopped wearing them. It's not like they aren't functional...like gloves or hats.

So there's some good news and some bad news...

2008-08-19T23:13:00.004-05:00

The bad news is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince "the movie" has had it's release date pushed back to something like next June/July. This really stinks but I think I read something about how this makes the last three Harry Potter movies come out closer together. That's good right?

The addititonal good news is that because the Harry Potter movie has been pushed back to a later date Twilight, the movie, is getting pushed up to the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

I am excited. However, is any of this at all relevant considering the last movie I saw in a theater was Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix? I've wanted to see a few movies since then and just haven't. I guess I'm excited for all those people that spend their extra money on going to see movies in the theater. I wish I had extra money to spend on that stuff. This is all I have to think about since I am all wired for some odd reason. I am not tired at all...I guess I'll go watch some more tv. I turned it off in hopes of feeling more tired. It didn't work.

I passed my appeal, lazy day, reading juvenile literature...

2008-08-18T19:24:00.003-05:00

This is kind of a school update. I got my appeal approval in the mail today. I've been given the okay to receive financial aid. YAY!!! The boys also had their first day of school today. I'll update on the specifics of that later. I spent most of the in a chair reading a book. I got the last installment of the Twilight series this weekend and am a little more than halfway through the book. It is SOOOOOOO good! TMA if you read this and would like to borrow the book you are more than welcome. I should be way done with it by the time you get home from yet another (wink) of your trips. I'm going to go read my book again.

I'm going to school!!!...UPDATE!!!

2008-08-14T15:38:00.004-05:00

Well I'm going back to school. I successfully navigated that which is community college and 1.)had my student status changed to "regular" so that my credits would count and I can get financial aid 2.)sat with a counselor and made up a schedule 3.)met with a financial aid officer to fill out an appeal because my last set of grades from CC were no good. Now that those things are finished I am waiting for a letter stating that my appeal has been granted (so that I can get financial aid) and wait for my student ID to come in the mail. After sitting with a counselor I found out that my previously taken Biology class is no good because it's too old. So unfortunately I have to retake it. However, because of our current financial situation (which won't be that way forever) I was approved for a federal pell grant. That pell grant will cover EVERYTHING!!!! It will pay for all of my classes and I think it will cover all of my book expenses as well.

It was really a lovely surprise after waiting in the Financial Aid waiting area for 45 minutes to find out that it will all be covered. I am also proud to say that I kept a smile on my face and treated everyone kindly and with respect. First of all me with a smile on my face for three hours at a time is not something that happens often. Secondly to keep a smile on your face while dealing with crabby front desk FA guy, who is acting like you are extremely annoying for even thinking about asking him if the category that you signed in with is the correct category because you don't want to get sent to the wrong person only to find out that you had categorized yourself with the wrong number and then to cause frustration for them and me and also wasting my time and theirs, is not an easy feat. (Nice run on right? I might have better writing skills after I take my English 102-Intensive writing course.)

So now I am registered for four classes: Intro to Biology, General Psychology, Intro to Sociology, and College Comp II. I'm excited! I'm really looking forward to starting even though the girl who helped me get my id acted like I was a crazy person for taking the courses I'm taking. They aren't any different than the courses I was signing up for 10 years ago. I didn't really understand why she was acting like that. I'm more worried about statistics, macro economics, logic, and ethics. I guess I am slightly worried that I'll have nothing to write about for my College Comp II course. I don't do well if I'm not given a clear subject to draw from, and I'd rather not all of my papers be about all the day to day hum drum that is my life. I guess that's what this blog is about but is it really enough to carry a good grade in a college course??? I don't know.

Okay well before I freak myself out to much about the courses that I'm going to take this semester and in the future... send good thoughts my way and that of the appeals person in the financial aid office. I already know that I have favor but when two or more are gathered together...

Summer is winding down...

2008-08-04T08:55:00.003-05:00

Well we've made it through two months of summer break!!! It was getting a little hairy mid-July. Then Yellow Belt started summer camp and for something that was supposed to make him a happier person he was really getting on my nerves throughout the experience. I know that sounds really awful but he was so tired which made him crabby. He was talking back and whining and being mean to Monkey. He was really quite unpleasant. I made a promise to myself to make sure that we actually do start up our bedtime routine again...now that there are just a couple of weeks until school starts. (Insert gasp here) I'm excited for the boys to start school. I'm hoping that with routine Monkey's potty-training regressions will stop completely. He's almost earned the Transformer that's been sitting on top of the upper kitchen cabinets (the only place he can't get to yet...well he probably could but that's something I listen for) for of couple weeks now. And since there are only two more weeks of summer break left for them I really want to enjoy them.

Today Yellow Belt had breakfast in bed while Monkey barged into my bedroom demanding that I "get out from under those sheets. Come into the kitchen and made me some breakfast as well. I want cocoa pops and milk in a bowl with a spoon and milk in a cup with a lid as well." ("As well" is his new favorite phrase.) I told him I was getting out of bed for no less than him asking politely for his breakfast. The first time he asked politely he did it with many "hmphs" and a little pouty attitude (thanks to Yellow Belt's example) which I told him wouldn't cut it. So then he asked nicely and I got out of bed. It's made me realize how nice it is that Yellow Belt doesn't like to eat right away when he wakes up and will play quietly by himself until I'm ready to get out of bed. Monkey has never given me that luxury.

One thing I did like about Yellow Belt being in camp, and so busy the last two weeks, was that I was alone with Monkey a lot with no interruptions. He's going through this "using big vocabulary" phase which is extremely cute. Even though he can be challenging sometimes he also really enjoyed being "the only child". Now I know that I've spent a lot of time with him in the past three and a half years but this summer it's been all three of us. Plus Monkey is at this really cute age where he has a lot to say and he has the language skills to do so. Monkey really gets a kick out of being funny. It's not really a making jokes funny but more him telling stories or using phrases that you would really expect to hear from a three year old. He's also really cuddle-y. He likes to tell stories. Unfortunately they mainly have to do with Transformers but he does add in other characters. It's really a lot of fun to hear him talk. I guess because I spend so much time with him that I understand him really well. I think he talks pretty clearly but most times I have to translate for others...or at least give them a general idea of what he's talking about (the topics aren't exactly varied). I guess it helps when you have a starting point.

I can't believe there are only two weeks left of summer vacation...

Working out...

2008-07-25T13:24:00.003-05:00

I haven't blogged about working out in a while. I have been working out but my topics seemed a little too boring. Not that they are spectacularly exciting but I thought those that read might not be too into hearing how often or what I'm doing to work out. However, like I said, I have been working out. I've been walking a lot even in the heat of the St. Louis summer. Not so much this week but there were other factors in this last week...physically speaking. Also for at least the last month I cut out the cardio portion in my bellydancing/strength training work out. I did that mainly because of the walking so much. You will find the video that I use on the second "here" of this post. I found that when I cut out the cardio portion I was more likely to fit in more of the muscle toning portion throughout my week which is what I feel I need the most. I've been doing approximately 70-90 minutes throughout the week. Each targeted section is 10 minutes. I do seven different routines (arms, chest and back, hips and waist, abs 1, abs 2, legs and butt 1, legs and butt 2)mixed and matched usually three each day I work out.

I've noticed, of all things, that my neck seems to be getting slimmer. I guess because I'm building up my trapezius muscle between the arms and abs workouts. I'm still seeing definition like before. I don't know if it's necessarily more. Since I still haven't lost any weight there's still that layer of fat covering everything. I feel stronger, and I'm getting through the routines completely. It seems easier to push through them and and really perfect the moves even though my muscles might still be sore from the day before. I also feel like my body wants to be in a perfect posture when I'm sitting throughout the day. I don't always feel that way by the end of the day when I'm tired though.

I think that's enough. I have about 50 minutes until I need to pick up Yellow Belt and his friend, NR, at day camp. I think I'll read. I really want to finish The Amber Spyglass already. I want to know what happens but have been a little bored with the plot. I have a new book that I want to start that my friend TMA let me borrow. So it would be nice if I'd just finish this book already.

No satellite. Will read...

2008-07-22T08:08:00.004-05:00

I really miss satellite tv. But here are the books that I've read in the last week that it's been gone.

The Golden Compass
Pride and Prejudice (I started this before but really got into it and finished it after satellite was no longer)
The Subtle Knife
Water for Elephants
and I've started The Amber Spyglass

Not too bad for a week.

No more satellite for this family...

2008-07-14T20:02:00.006-05:00

And here are shows that I'm going to miss.

1. The Graham Norton Show-He may be the funniest person to watch...ever. I laugh out loud so much during this show that my stomach usually hurts afterwards. That usually only happens when I'm out with my girl friends.
2. Jon and Kate plus 8-I like that when I watch this show I realize that they are raising six kids the same age as Monkey. I actually have it pretty easy. It's also inspirational (even if they don't think they are) because they are handling it with 2 7-8 year olds and 6 3-4 year olds. There are times when I'm stressed out about just one of each age group and think, "Jon and Kate do this only so much more." Plus I wish that I was as dedicated as she was to prepare almost every meal at home and for it to be mainly organic fresh food. It's amazing.
3. Flipping Out-I may never know if Jenny and Chris made up with Jeff. Okay so I'll be able to still see their blogs on bravotv.com but it's not the same as watching a whole episode. Also, Jeff has a wicked sense of humor and I really liked watching him. I look at the people he's hired and think, "Man that job would be pretty easy. Why isn't Chris Elwood just doing the things on the list? It's not like any of the items take that much time. And not only that but he gets paid well to do them. I wish my "job" paid. It's practically the same job."
4. Iron Chef America-I <3 Alton Brown and Kevin Brauch. Oooh Oooh Oooh and Michael Symon.
5. The Next Food Network Star-Will the lady with squinty eyes and great fashion sense be "The Next Food Network Star"? At first she annoyed the heck out of me but now I like her and feel that she is the most qualified. I wish I had the money to have her wardrobe. Although I don't think I could chase after Monkey in Jimmy Choos.
6.You Are What You Eat-I wish that I could make money as a nutritionist. I also like the knowledge I got from that show on food nutrition and physiology.
7. Ace of Cakes-That would be one fun job working in a bakery with artsy people joking around and creating cakes.
8. Top Chef-Oh the drama!!!
9. That Mitchell and Webb Look-This is a sketch comedy from Britain that is hilarious. Although when I started watching it I had a hard time watching the real BBC news documentaries on "interesting people with problems". See they had this sketch on a documentary about a man with something like 7 penises. Then through the whole sketch there is a voiceover about "Now you can stare at this person with a deformity without feeling guilty." Of course the deformities they used were always ridiculous but I had trouble watching the real BBC news documentaries that I had recorded and watched religiously after this show. The poor guy with 7 penises had to clean his bathroom more often than I do which was very very sad. ;D
10. Little People, Big World-I like watching this and I'm not really sure why. I've enjoyed watching the kids grow up. I also like to watch the mom. I would like to be as centered as she seems to be when my boys are in their late teens about them growing up.

I can't think of any other shows at the moment so there may be a part 2 in the near future.

Some local business blogs...

2008-07-14T07:18:00.002-05:00

I found out that a local grocery store has a blog found here. But then I didn't want to leave out my neighbors soap and candle business blog found here. And unless I think or find any other local companies that I would like to help promote I'm finished for now. I would add my coffee shop that I haven't been to since summer started, but they don't have a blog just a website.

Camping at Lucky Clover...

2008-07-13T16:27:00.003-05:00

We went camping the end of last week at Lucky Clover Camping and RV Resort. Dirty packed and organized everything. He put up camp and kept the boys occupied most of the time we were there. I actually enjoyed myself a majority of the time. For anyone that knows me you will already have an understanding of how much I do not enjoy camping, but with Dirty doing a majority of the work I ended up having a really nice time. Our trip started out with a real traffic pain. A little after Fenton there was extremely slow moving traffic. I had the windows down on the Civic thinking that we would have plenty of airflow but with us barely moving and the sun beating down on us it was unbearable. We ended up getting off at Beaumont and Antire Road and taking back roads to 109 where we hopped back on the highway after a quick bathroom break (I had only factored in a little over an hour in drive time and my bladder was about to burst).

It was a little hot the first day with no water time for me and mainly trying to stay as shaded as possible. Dirty took the boys down to the river to play while I stayed at camp and read Pride And Predjudice. We ate hot dogs, corn on the cob, and ceasar salad for dinner. Dirty had picked up a pack of four different colored glow sticks and gave one to each boy each night. I was surpised how long it kept them occupied the first night. Then they took them to bed as "night lights". Dirty and I didn't sleep too well because it kept raining and were weren't sure how waterproof the tent would prove to be. We all stayed dry through the next morning though so our waterproofing measures from a couple years back have held up.

The second day Dirty woke up really early and made us coffee in our new 5 cup percolator coffee maker. It was more work than it should normally be because we didn't have many coals left after the rain. He could have maybe dug a little deeper and put the percolator further in the ground but didn't think of it until later. The boys got up and we packed up our floating essentials. It was a beautiful day on the river. The sun was hot which made getting in the river enjoyable. There weren't too many people out since it was Friday morning (There were a ton of people floating Saturday so we were glad we weren't going out that day). We took our time and stopped often. We also stayed places longer than we normally would have. We usually put in around 8 or 9 in the morning and are done by noon. We didn't finish this time until nearly 4 or 5 p.m. Near the end of the float Monkey lost a paddle. There was a hole in the paddle part and had been filling with water all day. When he dropped it it sank to the bottom immediately, and we never found it. After the float we went back to camp and started dinner. We had marinated chicken, more corn on the cob, and apples. Monkey ended up throwing fit after fit so he was sent to bed. Yellow Belt stayed up until after 11 when he protested that he was going to stay up as late as Dirty...even though he'd fallen asleep in my chair.

The next morning Dirty made us coffee again. The boys fished for a while. Then we packed up camp and headed for home. We came home and brought everything in, took baths and showers, and finally we collapsed. After resting for a while we worked on unpacking and trying to clean what needed to be cleaned. Everyone was in bed by 9 except for me. I tried to stay up and finish Pride and Predjudice but couldn't make it through the last chapter without having to reread everything a few times finally deciding to put it away and finish it when I woke up.

What exactly have we been doing...

2008-07-08T14:13:00.003-05:00

I was asked by my dad what the boys and I had been doing the last two weeks and I went completely blank. Now this is pretty common. There are more than some days that I can't remember what we've done all day. I think my forgetfulness has to do with dehydration. I think most times every physical issue can be traced to dehydration or lack of nutrients in one's diet. Because really I could go on and on about what I know about signs of vitamin and mineral deficiencies and the foods to eat to counteract these deficiencies. However, for the sake of anyone reading this, I digress.

Since the 19th of June when we had a sick Monkey, then Yellow Belt caught it, then Dirty and I, being the hypochondriacs that we are, thought we had it as well. The next two weeks I walked us to a lot of places. I've been trying to walk in order to burn off more calories than I take in and to conserve gas. We walk to the wading pool in Tower Grove park. We walk to our friends, the R.'s, across Tower Grove park. We walk to the library at Kingshighway and Vandeventer. We walk to the South Grand shopping district. Then there were places we went but didn't walk. We went to my book club where I didn't really get to talk much about the book, but it was a morning out of the house and the boys had fun. We went to the zoo. We've also had playdates with friends here and at their houses.

I also had the Installation Dinner for MOMS Club. One of our members who lives in Clayton offered up her back yard for us to infiltrate for the evening. She had actually been dealing with a bout of salmonella leading up to the dinner. It was a nice evening and my friend, KL, made a rockin' mojito. It was even better than mine. She didn't have a recipe for it though because she improvised off her original recipe. It was really yummy. For MOMS Club I also finished up my term as Treasurer on the the board. I completed the Financial Report that is required by each chapter at end of year. I'm kind of glad that I won't have as many responsibilities but a little sad that now I'll just have the regular activities to attend. I'm hoping I won't notice as much when I start school and am busier.

The fourth of July we went to the Missouri Botanical Gardens which had free admission to the gardens and the Children's Garden. They have the Niki sculpture exhibit which I would like to check out sometime without the boys. I think that if I had more free time I would probably go there on the free mornings for city dwellers and just walk around the different gardens. By the time we walked from our house to the gardens the boys were done walking and didn't want to do anything but go straight to the Children's Garden. We pushed them further than we probably should have which made everyone very crabby. By the time we got home Dirty and I had decided not to do anything else that day. But he called his parent's house and confirmed our plans with them to have dinner at their house. We went and the boys played with his step-mom's niece which I guess is now Dirty's cousin. And of course Grandpa C. bought fireworks and sparklers for the kids. I nearly had a heart attack from the unsafeness of Monkey with fire which was apparently very obvious to all the adults present because after many gasps and cries of "Oh my goodness!" I was asked a few times if I was sure I didn't want a glass of wine. We made it through that and walked home. We saw a few fireworks go off over what seemed like old McRee town which was exciting enough for the boys.

And that pretty much sums up what we've done the last couple of weeks. This week we've already run errands, went to a Monthly Social, had a playdate here, had a playdate at a friends. And later in the week we'll be going camping and on a float trip. I'm thinking of putting a stipulation on marriage that I will only go camping if it's in Hawaii. :D Dirty says that for our 20th anniversary I am obliged to go on a camping trip where we follow the same path that Frodo followed from the Shire to Mordor. I told him he can go alone. I'll be in Hawaii on the North Shore of Oahu. You may have also guessed that I've been spending a lot of time daydreaming about a vacation to Hawaii. If you guessed that you would be correct.

I told you not to drink the water...

2008-06-19T19:53:00.002-05:00

Well it's been awhile since any of us have been sick with fever/vomiting/etc. But after a day at the wading pool Monkey has come down with a medium-grade fever and has thrown up once. He's been on the couch in his bedroom all day and that is totally uncharacteristic for Monkey. He's gotten up a few times to play quietly on the floor and sit by me while I cleaned the kitchen after dinner. He's had no appetite. Also uncharacteristic. He's like a hobbit in that sense that he has a couple breakfasts, elevensies, lunch, mid-day snack, tea, dinner, dessert normally. During the morning he had a bite of cereal and half of a saltine cracker. I didn't know what to do with myself all morning not having to be in the kitchen. Mid-afternoon he had half an apple which he threw up a couple hours later. Through the evening he's eaten maybe 10 more saltines and a few bites of bread. I've also been giving him as much iced water as I can. Mainly he is just holding the sippy cup near his torso and it's probably helping him feel more comfortable.

It's funny because when he is well he wants medicine for all kinds of made up maladies. Just this week there was a "favor" aka fever that he told me started in his head but that it was at that time in his "ankle" aka his calf. Now that he has a real fever though he doesn't want anything. I don't push tylenol or ibuprofen because really it's just to help make him more comfortable. The whole reason for the fever is to trigger the immune system so if he can handle it then there's no reason to push the medicine.

I believe that all of this was caused by drinking water from the wading pool in Tower Grove Park. We went yesterday and spent a couple hours playing. I had brought little craft brushes for the boys to "paint" the planters. They did for at least an hour but I noticed that Monkey was sucking on one of them a few times. I warned him not to suck on the brush or to drink the water because it could make him sick. I always ask them if they want to throw up because neither of them have fond memories of throwing up. Who does? It didn't seem to really click with Monkey yesterday though. He, at one point, washed off a grape in the pool as well. YUCK!!! I really enjoy the wading pool and it's even nicer since they put in fountains, but my friend, AR, put it best, "It's really just a really big foot bath if you think about it." And that it really is. I was glad that I found a toy that would keep the boys occupied in the water and not just running around the fountain. Doing that Yellow Belt wiped out and scraped up half of his torso and his elbow. They did have a lot of fun despite the scrapes and sickness. I'm sure we'll go back. I'll have to reevaluate the craft brushes. It is free afterall. :D

Summer Snail Day...

2008-06-11T09:46:00.004-05:00

I've been trying to occupy the days with water play, craft activities, and outside play. One day this week while playing outside in the water Yellow Belt found a worm and a snail. Monkey melted down because he didn't have any and Yellow Belt wasn't sharing. Dirty happened to call (to check in on how the day was going which was not so good at that point) and he let me in on the whereabouts of a snail habitat in our very own backyard with tons of snails. So we went back to the habitat and collected snails, after we created a snail sanctuary on the porch, played with the poor snails for a while, then released the snails back into their habitat (because we are all about animal conservation...just like the Irwins). We went in and had lunch where I thought about what kind of craft we could do to take up some time in the afternoon.

Originally I was going to just make a snail picture but our glue sources are low. Our tape sources are also slightly low so I remembered that we still have a ton of contact paper from a centerpiece that we did for Yellow Belts Blue and Gold Scout Banquet. It was perfect because the pieces of construction paper stick to the sheet of contact paper and you just layer another piece on top. This helps keep all of the construction paper in place in case it's not touching enough contact paper on one side it is on the other. I cut out the snail "shells" which were brown circles and blue snail "bodies" which were blue little finger looking things. I let the boys cut out their own grass and rip their own leaves. So then they put all of their leaves and grass on the contact paper and then placed their snails in and amongst the grass and leaves. After they finished I placed the top sheet of contact paper and cut a border around the sides. They really liked creating their new placemats.

Overall, it was a fun summer day. And now I have to top it. :D

Tricksey Little Hobbitses, Mildewy laundry, and Lord of the Rings marathon...

2008-06-10T17:52:00.004-05:00

To start with tricksey little hobbitses...Tonight we had chicken enchiladas. This is not something the boys love (it's not dino chicken nuggets after all) but they ate it tonight without too much hassle. Monkey wasn't quite as hungry as usual what with the animal crackers/enough pepper cheese to constipate an elephant/a third of a peach/applesauce dipper/graham cracker sticks/apple juice/cut up tomato snack. So he didn't eat much of the dinner. I told him that in order to get dessert he needed to eat more...then I left to go talk to Dirty about what I spent at the grocery store today. That was a parenting mistake that I should have learned not to make by now. So Monkey took his adult sized plate, emptied it into the garbage disposal, rinsed his plate, then asked for dessert. When I went to see how much he'd eaten there was no plate because it was completely cleaned off in the sink. Do I tell him I don't believe that he ate the rest and not give him dessert? Do I give in because he did clear his place and clean off his plate? How can I verify that he did indeed eat his dinner? I didn't. I gave him the one flavor-ice that has frozen since we got home from the grocery store and a waffle cone bowl with some rainbow sherbet in it. Tricksey little hobbitses...

Mildewy laundry has to do with the fact that I am washing for the third time the same load of darks that I keep leaving either a.) in the washer until it mildews or b.) in the dryer not giving it more dry cycles (because it's a super large load) until it gets mildewy. I've spent more money on laundry detergent, water, and electricity with this one load of laundry than I cared to. I vow to get this load of darks through the entire laundry cycle instead of leaving it down in the basement to mildew once more.

And finally, our family has been having a Lord of the Rings marathon in all of our free tv watching time (LOTR for all of you lay-folk). In anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour or so we have been watching all three of the LOTRs...since last Friday. It's now Tuesday and we are finally on the final movie (Return of the King...again for all you that don't know much about LOTR) We have all three movies in extended versions. That adds on maybe 30 extra minutes or so of movie onto already pretty long movies. Don't tell Dirty but I actually enjoy all of these movies but love busting his chops about how I don't want to watch them. I don't really need a reason to watch Viggo Mortensen, Orlando Bloom, Elijah Wood, or Andy Serkis (hee hee hee for anyone that doesn't know he actually plays Gollum). My only problem with watching them this time is that Dirty has sub-dialogues of what the characters are thinking. For instance, when Eowyn is trying to convey to Aragorn that she wants to end up with him before the final battle because she loves him Dirty says, "Step up off my grill woman! I only dig elven women. Those pointy ears really do it for me. I don't want some human woman. I don't care if you can wield a sword." Other than that I do enjoy the movies and that is why I'm calling my three year old a tricksey little hobbitses.

Summer Vacation...

2008-06-05T11:51:00.004-05:00

Summer vacation is officially here. I know that all of us that get to be more house-bound during the summer were looking forward to it. Of course we will be visiting all of the regular summer places around town but we get to do it when we want to do it whenever we want to do it. Last night Yellow Belt was upset that he had to go to late (7-8:15 p.m.) Tae Kwon Do until I reminded him that it didn't really matter that it was late night because he could stay up until I go to bed which would be at the very least 11 p.m. He perked up after that. I think the routines and schedules were really wearing on him.

Yesterday we had our first day of summer vacation. The boys woke up I think about 7. (I can't remember anymore since today Yellow Belt slept until 9 a.m. and Monkey slept until 10 a.m.) Yellow Belt didn't want to eat breakfast so I didn't push it. He ended up just eating lunch. The boys both stayed in their underwear until after lunch when we got sunblocked up and swimsuits on. We played in the sprinkler and baby pool. The boys like to dunk into the pool and it's the perfect size for that. After outside play we came in for "quiet time" so that I could work out. "Quiet time" didn't end up being very quiet because Monkey was too silly trying to entertain big brother. Afterwards I went to go clean the kitchen and start dinner. Yellow Belt and Monkey watched some tv and then Yellow Belt came in, at 4:30 p.m. no less, to inform me that Monkey was asleep. Yellow belt then demanded dino chicken nuggets for dinner because he DID NOT want salmon patties and he wasn't going to eat what I made. I informed him that I wasn't making anything else and he WAS going to eat the dinner I DID make. He disappeared the rest of the time that I prepared dinner. Once Dirty got home, about 5 p.m., I woke up Monkey who was surprisingly pleasant during dinner, we ate, had the discussion about not wanting to go to Tae Kwon Do, Yellow Belt decided once again (for the fifth time at least) that he does indeed like salmon patties, and Dirty and Yellow Belt left to go to class. They stopped to get milk and ice cream on the way home and the boys both stayed up until around 11 p.m. (the reason they slept late today).

I spent the entire day enjoying the moments and telling the boys how much I was enjoying spending time with them. I know that there will be a point during the summer when we're all going crazy and I'm counting down the days until school starts but for now I'm really enjoying our slow starts and being together all day long. Today Yellow Belt has a playdate and will be gone all afternoon until after dinner, but we got some quality time to watch Essence of Emeril together which we haven't done in a really long time.

Holy Inappropriateness Batman...

2008-05-23T19:19:00.004-05:00

My neighbor that moved in where my in-laws used to live is a really nice guy. He likes a well manicured yard and clear sidewalks when it snows. He always does it without asking and usually says, "No really. I like doing it!" Which is extremely generous of him. He pretty much does every one's front yards within at least a five house radius of his. He snow blows both sides of the street, around some neighbors cars even, on pretty much the whole block. I think that's his gift to the mail person. We are having a birthday party for Yellow Belt tomorrow evening and even though Dirty offered to do it since we were having guests in the yard our neighbor still did it during the day today while we were both gone.

As a thank you we try to get him some Schlafly beer as a thank you because he enjoys beer. We do it when we can, which isn't often with our current financial situation, in hopes that it conveys our gratitude. We don't have a lawnmower, a snow blower, a weed whacker, or any of the other tools you might need to keep your yard looking crisp. And since Dirty offered to do it and our neighbor did it anyway we bought a couple of cases and were going to let him pick which one he wanted. Dirty left it to me this time to speak with our neighbor about which he preferred.

Now as I've stated he'd been working in the yard all afternoon. He had just gone inside but I was hoping to catch him before he went out or got too comfy inside. I ran over and rang the bell. No dogs barking. Must not work. Knocked on the glass of their door. Dogs bark. It's only a matter of moments now. Then he opens his door...wearing nothing but a towel...that is gaping toward the bottom...threatening to pop open and show me more than I would really ever want to see of one of my neighbors. Holy inappropriateness!!! So I said a little shyly and really embarrassed that, "You really didn't have to answer the door in this state!" He said, "Oh no. It's not problem." All I can think is...white hairy chest...please don't let the towel drop...oh good the puppy came out to see me and I don't have to look up...just spit out the types of beer you bought and have him pick...AS QUICKLY AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE...PLEASE...OH...PLEASE!!!!! I gave him the choices. He didn't have a preference. I was trying to figure out how to get out of the situation as quickly as possible. I said, "Well we should be in the yard later. I could get it to you then. But actually. You're already at the door (practically naked anyway). So if you can wait, like, 30 more seconds I can go get it and run it back over." "Sure that would work." "Okay great." I ran back over and then had to walk back with the case of Hefeweizen. I would have ran had I not feared slipping on the walk and then breaking the bottles in the case. I noticed when I came back out that he was leaning out his door watching. So as soon as I gave him the case he said, "Yeah, I cleaned off your patio out back for you since you'll have guests over." "I said we really appreciate it. Thank you so much for always doing the yard." And he said, "Oh really no problem." Then I ran off because I think my entire face was red from being embarrassed.

Yikes!!! Then I couldn't even get ahold of my husband to tell him of the very odd uncomfortable situation and that I would NEVER be doing that again....never...ever. So after many weeks of not blogging about anything here's a story for you. I hope your neighbors never answer the door naked...unless you want them too of course. I really did not.

Cinco de Mayo recipes...

2008-05-05T07:59:00.016-05:00

Just in case you need some quick recipes (and hopefully Schnucks on The Hill has restocked because it was slim pickin's yesterday :). I like this recipe for margaritas. And this is my favorite mixed drink which are mojitos. Most resturants don't make them, and I've only like this recipe which makes a whole pitcher. Be careful with these. They are extremely tasty and you might not noticed just how potent they are.

For salsa (I make it fresh): I take one small onion, a clove or two of garlic, a handful of cilantro, and one whole jalapeno (more if you like it really spicy...Dirty likes three. I know he's crazy. He likens it to getting tattoos. He knows it's painful but he still endures it.) and throw all of that in a food pro (i<3 kevin brauch and alton brown) and pulse until finely chopped. Then add four tomatoes that have been quartered, the juice of one freshly squeezed lime, and a pinch of salt. Enjoy with corn tortilla chips.*
*I can't get the salsa picture to come through right. I've tried three times and now I give up.

For guacamole (again I like it fresh...and chunky. No blended, can't tell what's in it, baby food texture guac for me.): Take two avocados, cut in half, remove the pit, score a criss cross pattern in the flesh, and scoop out with a spoon. Add two diced tomatoes, a handful of chopped cilantro, one fresh jalapeno pepper, one or two cloves of garlic, and a small onion all finely diced. Then add a pinch of salt and ground cumin and the juice of one freshly squeezed lime. Gently fold the ingredients together, being careful not to break up the avocado too much, and enjoy!!!

Bellydancing video update...

2008-05-03T18:39:00.005-05:00

The videos that I am using, as far as bellydancing goes, all feature Rania. The two specific videos that I have are here and here. The first video, as you can see, is only $5 right now on amazon.com. I haven't actually used the second video (I've only viewed it) because I just got it today, but I plan on starting tomorrow. The "My Personal Trainer" video actually has a plans in it, and the one I'm most interested in, has seven days a week (mainly 50 minute) sessions.

And I'm so excited that Dirty helped me brainstorm how to link web urls into the blog content YAY!!! THANK YOU, DIRTY!!! This is extremely exciting!!! I'm going to have links all over the place now. I've graduated to a new level of blogging...at least in my own head. :D Do the emoticons bring me back down a level?!?

my coffee shop...

2008-04-30T17:19:00.002-05:00

Here is the web address for Hartford Coffee Co. I'm sorry that I can't link it. I need to have a tutorial with my more blog saavy friends to figure out how to link things. I've tried using the shortcuts at the top of the posts and they aren't working...well the pictures do but nothing else.

http://www.hartfordcoffeecompany.net/index.html

I'm a "Regular"!!!

2008-04-29T22:32:00.005-05:00

Some of the coffee shop regulars are viewing me as a regular which I found exciting this morning. I've decided to introduce myself to the staff of my favorite coffee shop the next time I'm in...especially Sullen Guy who always under-charges me, gives me extra bacon when I order a sandwich, doesn't get frustrated when I can't decide if I want food or not, and let's it roll off his back if I get distracted (sometimes I have Monkey with me). I'm always polite* (I greet them with a "Hi", I try and be as quick with ordering as possible, and ALWAYS say "please" and "thank you") but if I'm going to see these people as often as I sometimes do I should introduce myself...right???

*At least to the ones that don't try and act all condescending when, I accidentally, order two "endless cups" (insert nasty look here by guy taking order), and I end up clarifying my order by saying that I want two 16 oz. sized "to go" coffees which is technically different than an "endless cup". I did have one of the staff give me a look like "You are so clueless. I'm so much hipper than you will ever be. I would never screw up my coffee order. How lame you must be. I can't believe all of the extra steps you are making me go through to put this order in." which I thought was rude.

As a person who works at a coffee shop you should have the understanding that some of the people who order will have some order clarity issues...THAT'S WHY WE DRINK COFFEE!!! So don't all go and get an attitude when one of us accidentally orders using the incorrect terms for the coffee (sizes, types, etc.)

I could also complain about a girl that works there who speaks as little as possible to me and acts like I'm bothering her by being there ordering. But I digress...

BTW Sullen Guy has never given me attitude. He quietly backs up in the order, corrects it, and then gives me my "to go" cup (whichever size I want...generally the 16 oz.) marked with a "B" (I think that stands for endless cup. I might ask him the next time since I'm going to introduce myself anyway), and then ALWAYS says thank you. So thank you Sullen Guy. You always brighten up my coffee shop visits.

Count it...

2008-04-29T22:07:00.005-05:00

Number 26 Pilates routine completed. I also did cardio workouts six times last week. I've done two this week already. I have found that I am craving more water (now that I've cut out soda again. Yes, I relapsed.) and also fresh fruits and vegetables. I get really bad with soda where I'm thirsty and I drink that, but then I feel bloated and then I crash while never truly quenching my thirst. With water I sometimes feel engorged in my stomach I drink so much at one time but that subsides after a little while and I actually feel better. I don't have the same problems with coffee...so I'm sticking to coffee.

Public Enemy Nos. 6,7,8, and 9.....

2008-04-29T22:03:00.002-05:00

Yech!!!!! Max The Cat caught 6 and 7. We bought some glue traps and caught 8. I guess Max The Cat must have also caught number 9, and Dirty just stepped on that one under the computer desk. BLEEEEECCCCCCHHHHHHH!!!!!! We bought poison so that they would just die in the walls but Dirty is too worried about using it with the pets and kids. I say we cram that stuff in all of the holes we think they are coming out of and be a little more proactive. BLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Note to Self...

2008-04-24T20:52:00.005-05:00

Would you quit doing that belly dance routine in your socks on the carpet?!?!? You're wearing holes into the bottom of your socks and there are MANY other things that you need, clothing-wise, instead of buying new socks. That and the fact that it can't possibly be that attractive to belly dance in your socks anyway. SO KNOCK IT OFF ALREADY!!!

Count It...

2008-04-24T20:40:00.006-05:00

Pilates routine number 25 completed today. I've also proudly finished four days in a row of cardio for at least 30 minutes. Nice. While doing the belly dancing routine with no pants on looking in the mirror I noticed that I am getting definition in my leg muscles (quadriceps and glutes to be exact). I was also admiring my shoulders and triceps while doing mat Pilates.

So while I'm not losing any weight I still feel like I'm looking better. I'm trying to be at peace with the fact that I won't get to a size 4 in as quickly as 30 Pilates sessions. And really it's taken me about a year to get to the size I am now. There was some time after gaining weight of just being where I wasn't feeling very healthy but was okay with just being.

I like that after cardio I feel like I have more energy throughout the day. For instance, I got home after Tae Kwon Do and swept the kitchen, cleaned the bathroom, and vacuumed the whole house. And while I feel physically tired I still feel more energized than before getting back into shape. I think I'm sleeping better and wake up ready to go. And cardio is something that I said I obviously needed and I'm glad that I'm finding ways, that I enjoy, to incorporate them into my exercise routine.

Count It...

2008-04-22T16:04:00.005-05:00

Number 24 Pilates routine completed. I also walked yesterday, extremely briskly, with KL. She's not that much taller than me, and I don't think her legs are that much longer than mine, but man alive I was huffing and puffing and sweating profusely. She chatted and I don't think she sweat at all. Now the sweating thing could just be me because I've found that I am a pretty sweaty person, but I do remember her telling me that she is pretty sweaty also in a previous conversation.

Today, I also completed an intermediate belly dancing dvd. I started it while Marcus was at preschool, but then lost my focus. I needed to put a letter in the mail and the mailbox that I was thinking about is across the street from a coffee shop. I also had a card completey punched which gave me a free coffee at said coffee shop. So I quit because I "decided" that it was "too hard" and that I should try a beginners video (which I would still like to do). But this afternoon I decided to give it another go and finished it. It was a really good cardio workout and different than the same old same old Pilates/Yoga/Dance dvds that I have been doing. That made my hips sore in all the right places. :D Plus I love dancing as a workout...even if my tummy is not toned like the girls in the video and I jiggle a whole lot more than any of them. It's belly dancing so you are going to jiggle a little even if you are in great shape like Rania who leads the video. I definitely need to perfect the moves though. I had trouble getting into position for each set which threw me off. But it was my first go at the belly dancing and I think I did pretty well. I think I'll try to renew it through the library for as long as they'll let me.

Public Enemy No. 5

2008-04-19T22:26:00.007-05:00

Mouse number 5 was found after Dirty was "smelling" something which he thought would end with us finding a mouse carcass in one of my shoes. After an extensive hunt and me looking in every place possible in my stuff he found Public Enemy No. 5 in one of his shoes. This one was pretty gross. The two mice that I found I found pretty quickly but this one was bloated and obviously starting to smell. Max The Cat must have had the mouse under siege in Dirty's shoe. The mouse may have already been tortured and then found the quiet place to die. I don't think that Max The Cat would have waited it out long enough if it was an able-bodied healthy mouse. I am also apparently hard of smelling when it comes to decomposing mouse bodies because I couldn't smell it until I was right up next to it. YUCK!!!!!

Count it...

2008-04-17T15:49:00.002-05:00

Number 22 and 23 completed last Friday and Today. I was a little upset when I talked with my friend, JL, and she said her clothes are fitting better and that her appetite has been suppressed some. So it's now Thursday, almost a week since I worked out last, and I still feel strong when I do it. My clothes are fitting ehhh. I've been eating like crap. I haven't been drinking enough water. My kidneys are sore today after two days of drinking soda which I have not been drinking for quite some time. I've been trying to drink more water today. I've really just had NO energy for the last week. I guess it's because of the no working out. I could blame it on hormones but I did that last weekend and it shouldn't be off that long...should it? Oh and I'm trying to remember that JL is going three or four times a week for 90 minutes at a time. I'm only doing 30-60 minutes depending on which workout I do. And she's in a really hot room and sweating that whole time as well. I'm guessing that that kind of work out would really detoxify your body since you drink so much water and sweat out all those toxins. Also it's yoga and there are a lot of positions that help your organs expel those toxins. If I had two things I could do the same thing she's doing: 1.) time- if I have to leave the house without the boys it won't happen 2.) money- I don't have $17 a class to spend on workouts. Enough of my pity party. I have to go to the bus stop.

Public Enemy No. 4

2008-04-17T14:46:00.004-05:00

Public Enemy No. 4 has been captured and tortured to death by Max The Cat. His body was left in and amongst some of my shoes in front of my wardrobe.