Work smarter not harder...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.