We've been having such a good time here in Wisconsin, it almost makes me want to move back home. Almost. Lauren and I have both been sick nearly the entire time we've been here, and it's cold as hell, but it doesn't matter. It's nice to be home again.

The weekend Donald was here went really fast. We spent most of the weekend with his family. We got a big family portrait done (which was a fiasco, but made his mom happy), and went to the casino. We left for Chicago on Monday, and on the way there Lauren puked all over the car and continued to puke for the next five days. Needless to say, the Chicago trip was pretty much a bust, especially considering that I caught her bug Tuesday night and ralphed all day Wednesday. We did manage to make a quick trip to the Shedd Aquarium and to Ed Debevic's, but that was about it.

We spent the next few days after Donald left recovering from the stomach flu and shopping. Boy, did we shop. My mom and I also made a trip to Ho-Chunk in which I lost a hundred bucks and she won a thousand. After Lauren's diarrhea finally went away (another lovely side effect of the stomach flu), we both decided to get colds. This has went on for about a week now and I'm getting sick of it! I haven't had a voice hardly at all for the past three days (and if you know Donald's family, you know this is a big disadvantage - the only way you are heard is if you talk louder than everyone else!).

Yesterday, Donald's sisters, his mom, and I spent the day baking. We made peanut butter cookies, peppermint fudge, chocolate chunk cookies, cheesecake, brownies, brandy slush, and lots of other yummy goodies. We had a great time, even though Lauren was a pain in the rump most of the afternoon. Today we had Christmas with Donald's family, and Lauren received enough toys to keep an entire small country entertained for a year.

In other news, Lexy dumped her loser boyfriend after some serious drama that I was unfortunately involved with. Even though the drama sucked, it is definitely for the better and I even think that if I wasn't here it wouldn't have happened at all. The ex (Erik) is a serious piece of work and there are not enough bad words in the world to describe him. Maybe I will talk about it more when have more time.

Tomorrow Lauren and I are hanging out at Donald's parents for most of the day and then going to Lee's mom's house tomorrow evening, and then having Christmas with my family. Christmas day will take us to Dubuque, Iowa for Christmas with Donald's grandma and aunts. We are leaving for home on the 3oth and will be home the 31st, and I start student teaching January 7th!

Bye!

I have decided that I am the least germophobic person I know. While all the other moms at the grocery store are sanitizing the shopping carts before they put their little angels in it (or worse, using one of those cloth cover things), I plop Lauren in and hand her a piece of fruit from the sample tray in the produce section. Germy carts and finger foods together - I am daring.

Tonight we were getting Lauren ready for bed and it became apparent that she was eating something, which becane cause for concern since we hadn't given her anything. Donald glanced at the floor and noticed what she was consuming. "Is that a Pop Tart?" he said. I said, "Oh yeah, must be left over from breakfast," and we both let her finish eating it. Bad parents.

I don't know. Sometimes I think that all this sanitizing people do actually does more harm than good (case in point - MSRA). What ever we're doing (or not doing) must be okay, because Lauren's only been sick twice, and once was a reaction to her MMR shot. I really do surprise myself, though - before I had Lauren I really thought I would be one of those anal, over-protective moms. I'm totally not.

My friend Cortney asked me to post about her friend's 8 month old daughter who just underwent a liver transplant. They are raising money to help fund the operation as well as the family's living expenses. If you want to learn more and/or help, visit Hope for Valery.

Several Rants, all School Related

First - I'm still waiting on my student teaching placement. My coordinator emailed me a few days ago and said that my school district of choice (Madison County) has been in constant contact with her, but doesn't want to give her a firm answer one way or the other. I had to give her two alternate districts that I'd be willing to work in so that she can try to find some sort of alternative if Madison County falls through. I was really hoping to get a placement before we go out of town so that I could go in and meet my host teacher and principal, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.

Second - I tutor for Brainfuse.com, mainly students who come from low-performing schools. Today I was tutoring a 6th grade girl from a school in Chicago in math. We always start students at one grade level below what they are in, unless they have really good quiz results, so I started her today with the very first 5th grade lesson on writing numbers in different forms. She was really struggling (as in not knowing how to write one thousand forty two in standard form - 1042), so I decided to quickly review place value with her. Turns out the girl had no concept of place value, period. She could not show me the ones place in a number, or any other place for that matter. She has no clue that 10 ones equals one ten, and ten tens equals one hundred. No clue. No wonder the girl isn't doing well in math! I just want to know how it is possible for a student to get to 6th freaking grade and not know place value. That is not her fault - that is a teacher's fault somewhere along the line. So, next week, I will be working with her on 1st grade place value lessons. It makes me want to cry. Our educational system should not be failing kids like that.

Third - Saturday is my last day teaching my first Kaplan ACT class. I'm so proud of all (well, all but one) of my students! I have two boys in my class, twins actually, who both came in with 27s. Their dad was going crazy because they could not get their score up, no matter how hard they tried. Well, on our last practice test, they made a 32 and 33! I couldn't be prouder. All my kids have went up at least 2 points, which is just great. The one girl who I'm not proud of has missed 4 out of 8 classes and 2 out of 4 practice tests and then wants to know why her score hasn't gone up. Gee let me see.....

All that being said, I really am enjoying teaching/tutoring. I'm getting excited for student teaching, but really anxious, too. It is going to be a tough 12 weeks, and I am sure I'll be ready for it to be over. Not to mention that my heart is going to be breaking every day when I have to leave Lauren :o(

Why We're Leaving Part II

Donald and I have always talked about moving out West somewhere. Donald has always had fantasies about living in Las Vegas, and we briefly discussed it, but I just didn't feel good about it. There are some positives - easy to find a teaching job, lots of entertainment - but I don't want Lauren growing up in Las Vegas. Not to mention that it's in the middle of the desert, so there goes my desire for green grass. Anyway, we were both really clueless of where to move. We knew we wanted to go somewhere better, but had no idea where.

One night we pulled out our Atlas and started putting x's through places that were a definite no-go, like Maine and Alaska. We also marked off places that one of us felt strongly against, for me it was places like Florida and Nevada, for Donald, Wisconsin and Minnesota. After doing this, we were left with probably 15 or so states, like Washington, Oregon, California, Montana, North Carolina, Vermont, and others, too. I started to research places that I'd heard good things about. I wanted to go to Chicago, but Donald wanted nothing to do with that. We really couldn't come up with a place that we both agreed upon.

One day while surfing the net, I came across a website called Find Your Spot. Basically it is a series of questions that you answer, and based on your answers, the site recommends the top 10 cities that best match your wants/needs and personality. Donald and I both took the quiz, and most of the places in our top 10 matched. Number 1 on both of our lists was Little Rock, Arkansas, but because we weren't prepared for the looks we would get when we tell people we are from Arkansas, we crossed that one off. Other cities in both of our top 10's were Portland, Corvallis, and Eugene Oregon, Hartford, Connecticut, and Baltimore, Maryland. Neither of us are keen on the East Coast, so we crossed off Hartford and Baltimore right way. We were left with three cities in Oregon.

We stared to do some research into Oregon, and found out that it seemed like it would be a pretty good match for us. The weather is rainy during the winter, but the summers are (from what we hear, anyway) unbelievable - 80 and sunny for 4 months straight. I don't mind the rain, and it is a thousand times better than snow. The politics lean towards liberal, especially in Portland and Eugene, and people are environmentally aware. After doing weeks of research, we decided that we would be moving to either the Portland or Eugene area.

Just in the last week or so, we've decided to stick with Portland for now. I think I would really like Eugene, but it doesn't seem like such a good match for Donald. First, it's sort of a "hippie" town, and Donald gets annoyed with drum circles and poetry readings and all that counter culture stuff easily. Portland is bigger (about 2.3 million), has more to offer in the job sector, plus a larger school district. Housing is more expensive, and we will more than likely be stuck renting for a while, but I'm willing to live with that (as long as we can find a place with a yard). We are planning on getting rid of at least one of our cars (Donald's), and possibly the second as we find out how much we can rely on the public transportation (MAX train and bus - and bike of course), depending on where we live.

We are insanely excited and would move tomorrow if I didn't have to do student teaching this spring. We have already started getting rid of stuff (selling what we can on craigslist and giving away the rest on freecycle). Our move date is tentatively set for the third week in May. Right now we are in the process of researching neighborhoods/communities in and around Portland, getting moving quotes, and doing some preliminary job hunting. We are hoping to have a house lined up before we move, but if not, then we will stay in an extended stay hotel for a week or two until we find something. I will be going to work in the fall (which makes me want to cry, but student loans must get paid back sometime), and will begin looking for a teaching job this spring. We will keep you updated the more we find out and make plans!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We're not doing much this year. I don't feel like cooking for just the three of us, so we are going to go out to lunch/dinner tomorrow and then take Lauren to go see Bee Movie. It'll be her first movie, and I think she'll like it! At least if the movie is a bust we'll have popcorn to distract her. Heh.

I am definitely NOT doing the shopping thing on Friday. First of all, we aren't buying a lot for gifts this year. Lauren has a few things that we've picked up already, and that's all she needs. The kid has so many toys and she never plays with any of them, so we're not buying any more. Plus, I know the grandparents will be buying her crap, so we're saving our money, heh. I am knitting stuff for a lot of people this year and everyone else is getting stuff out of our "stock" closet. Honestly....does anyone really NEED all that crap stores sell at Christmastime just because we don't know what else to get them? Probably not.

We do have to venture to the mall on Saturday, though, as I have a secret shop that I'm looking forward to. I'll tell you all about it afterward, but I can't right now! Top secret, sheesh.

Oh, by the way, Gymboree is having a really good sale right now if anyone needs a few more things for winter. I got Lauren two fleece hoodies, two fleece pants, a winter coat ($14!!!), a swim suit for a little over $50. I have an extra 20% off coupon if anyone wants it, let me know and I'll email you the code if you want to order online. Everything is already 30% off, so with the extra 20% off, the stuff is dirt cheap.

So it's official. My sister's due date is July 23. Yep, after a dozen or so close calls, she's finally pregnant as confirmed by a real live doctor. I really am trying to be happy and supportive, but it's not easy. It would be much easier, of course, if I hadn't received the phone calls from my mom last week telling me that the cops had been to Lexy's house twice in the past week because her boyfriend's been hitting her.

So that's the way of it. 19 and pregnant, with a job at Taco Bell that pays $8 an hour, and a one-room efficiency apartment. Oh, and we can't forget the $1000 in outstanding fines she has for various driving infractions (the latest obtained last week when a neighbor called the cops because the boyfriend was trying to smash her windshield when she was trying to leave - turns out the cops don't like it when you try to drive with a suspended license). And a boyfriend that hits her. Fuckin' lovely.

This guy she's with, Eric, is just a winner. He got out of jail six months ago for drug dealing and assault charges. He won't let her go to Chicago with me next month because I wouldn't let him go along. He won't let her out of his sight. I can't even talk to her about it because he listens on the phone when I talk to her. She flat out told me a couple of weeks ago that he verbally abuses her and threatens to beat her if she doesn't give him her paycheck. He quit his job at Taco Johns to go work at Taco Bell with her so she couldn't be alone at work. I don't know what she's going to do.

Of course, she is playing house right now. I'm not saying she shouldn't be happy, but I honestly think she should be more concerned than anything. If the dude will hit her, he'll hit a kid. "Oh, he just has anger issues," she tells me. Yeah, let's see how those anger issues manifest themselves when he has a screaming baby at 3 AM. I don't know. I don't know what to say to her or even how to feel about this.

When I was on the phone with Lex yesterday talking to her about this, Eric piped in and said, "You know you have to move back to Wisconsin now so you can watch the baby for us". Fat chance, dude. I know my mom is going to end up keeping the kid, just like my grandparents kept me until I was six because my mom was too busy being a teenager (I was better off for it, but a mother should still take responsibility for her own child).

I don't know. I just don't know. I'm so worried for her.

We've all been bordering on the very edge of sick for the last few days, except for Donald who crossed the line last night and is now miserable. Lauren's had an on-and-off low grade fever the last few days and so has had no appetite and runny diapers. Yummy. I've been Zicam-ing so, hopefully that wards off the worst of it for me. We shall see.

Other than that, there's nothing exciting going on here. I've been making candy Christmas wreaths and Donald's been selling them at work, so that's keeping me busy. We started to dig out our storage closets last weekend and put a few things up on craigslist, so our house is a disaster. We have three weeks until we leave for Wisconsin, so I really need to focus on getting some of it out of here.

I still haven't heard anything about my student teaching placement. I emailed my placement coordinator last week and she said she hadn't heard anything back from the district yet. I hate not being in control of this, and it's starting to make me crazy. I really want to have it finalized before I leave because I was hoping to go meet the host teacher before I left, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. We'll see.

So apparently it's Christmas now. I had an event at Wal-Mart today and spent the entire five hours listening to Christmas carols play over the loudspeaker. I like Christmas as much as the next person, but not in the first week of November! Heck, Target has had Christmas cards out since the middle of October. I guess there's something to be said for getting a head start, but by the time it's actually Christmas, I'm so sick of Christmas that I just want it to be over!

A Southern Halloween

Getting ready to leave! (Sidenote: she calls sunglasses "goggles". How cute is that?)

Neigh! I'm riding a pony!

After we got done doing Trunk or Treat at a local park, we headed to the 'burbs to go trick or treating with our friend Kelly and her daughter. Her husband towed us around the subdivision in this thing. She told me the name of it, but I can't remember. It must be a pretty popular thing to do down here, because there were about four of them driving around the neighborhood.

I was taking her door-to-door, but she was crying for Daddy, so Donald took over and she was totally happy!

Sharing the goods with Daddy.

Silly papa!

Well, I was going to start knitting the P a scarf, but I can't find my knitting needles. Donald might know where they are, but of course he's in bed already. Darn it! Now what am I going to do.....?

We went to FreedomFest tonight in Madison. It was a lot of fun for Lauren. They had some band there that was supposedly big in the 60s, and Peeler danced her heart out for quite a while. She also got to go down one of those big blow up slides with the help of mommy. We watched the fireworks and Peeler gave a running commentary throughout the whole thing..."neat", "wow", "loud!". Heh.

Darn it I'm irked about those needles. Where the hell are they? Donald probably hid them somewhere so Peeler wouldn't find them, and now I can't find them! Dang it!

I'm Finished!

I finally finished my last class! I'm just waiting on my last three papers to be graded, and then I won't have to worry about anything until January! Yay!

So now what am I going to do with my time? I have a few things...

*Figure out what I'm making people for Christmas. I have a whole discussion thread full of ideas that I need to wade through.

*Convince my dad to get rid of all his crap before we move so that I can start selling some of it.

*Do more research about where to move and plan some of the logistics.

*Clean out the spare bedroom for my dad.

*Find more ways to make some extra cash!

*Teach Peeler her colors! The child calls everthing blue or red.

Autumn has Finally Arrived (and my camera sucks)!!

Finally we are getting some fall-like weather here in Mississippi! Last week was cold and rainy, but the weekend was divine, and there's more of it in the forecast. We took advantage of the nice weather this evening by going for a walk near the Natchez Trace. It was a great photo taking opportunity, but apparently our camera sucks. Or it could be the operator. We used to have a Kodak EasyShare, but after three years of use it died on our cruise this spring. We bought a Canon PowerShot to replace it, and it is nowhere near as user-friendly as the Kodak. Anyway, it was nearly twilight this evening, and I could not get the pictures to turn out for anything. When I used the flash, it made the background look dark, like it was pitch-black outside. When I turned the flash off, the image was blurry. I'm thinking the shutter speed needs to be faster, but I don't have the first idea how to change it or even if it can be changed. At any rate, I'm kind of upset because we got a lot of really cute pictures that are all blurry. Bleh. I want my easy Kodak back. Pictures always turned out perfect with that thing! Anyway, here are a few pictures that did turn out.

This is easily my favorite picture of Lauren taken recently. It really just captures her, if you know what I mean.

A study in motion. She loved this bridge! I bet she ran over it at least 20 times, back and forth.


And, a picture with her pumpkin. She "helped" me dig the guts out, but did not like the feel of them at all!

Well, we're going! And so is Donald! We are going to leave Thursday, Dec. 6 after Donald gets off work and drive through the night. Donald will stay until Tuesday, and then he'll fly back home. Lauren and I are going to stay through Christmas. Yay! Now we just need to figure where we're going to stay :o) I'm sure Donald's parents will love to have us, and there's always his sisters' house.

I'm excited to be going home for Christmas!!!! Even if Donald won't actually be with us for Christmas. He doesn't mind though - I told him that he wouldn't have to put up the Christmas tree, and I think that's all that matters to him. Heh.

I have a goal....

We are going to try to live without turning the heat on all winter. I think it's doable, considering it's been in the low 40s at night here the last few days and we've been just fine. It gets a little chilly at night, but it's nothing an extra blanket and fuzzy socks can't fix. Yesterday I roasted a turkey in the oven and that kept the house warm (almost too warm, really) all day and night. I think we can do it!

Why is this illegal?

Seriously? Jackson police have nothing better to do?

I really want to go home in December. I've convinced Donald to let Lauren and me go, but I haven't quite convinced myself. We've been working so hard to save money for our move, and we'd have to spend about $1000 of it for a trip back home. I'm just not sure I want to spend the money, because ultimately, having enough money to move is really important.

I think what I'm going to do is gather up some junk from around the house and try to sell some of it. We have to do it anyway before we move, so maybe I'll just get a head start and use whatever money I get from that to go to Wisconsin. I don't know. It'll be a year next month since we've been home, and I'm ready to go back for a couple weeks. I'll be finished teaching my class the first of December, so after that I'm free until I start student teaching in January. If we don't go now, we probably won't get home until at least next summer, maybe later depending on our situation.

I REALLY want to go! Ugh. Sometimes I hate being a grown-up!

Why we came and why we're leaving

Why We Came to Mississippi

I spent my junior and senior years of high school in a little (tiny) town in northern Mississippi. I didn't mind it too much at the time, but it was definitely different from what I was used to, and went back to Wisconsin for college. During college, Donald and I made quite a few trips back to Mississippi to see my dad, and discovered that we really liked the coast area. We decided that we would move to the coast of Mississippi (Gulfport, Biloxi) during the summer of 2005 after I graduated.

I'd always wanted to live near the beach, and Donald loved the casinos, so it seemed like a great fit for us. Our plans were to just get whatever jobs we could, rent a little house or apartment near the beach, and just hang out. And then I got pregnant. We almost decided to stay in Wisconsin, but because my family is so crazy, we decided to move anyway. My dad lived in Hattiesburg, about an hour away from the coast, and we knew quite a few people there, so we weren't worried about being all alone with a new baby. I finished school in July, and we planned to move in August.

I was actually really excited about moving to the coast. I imagined long lazy days spent at the beach with the baby, trips to Florida, and hanging out with my dad in Hattiesburg occasionally. We had an apartment all picked out and were ready to move. Donald and I drove down to Hattiesburg from Wisconsin the third weekend of August. We left our cars there and flew home so that we could drive the moving truck down the next weekend.

And then came Katrina. We knew it was going hit the coast on Friday the 27th, but of course we had no idea how bad it would be or that it would hit Hattiesburg as badly as it did. Even if we would have known, we still didn't have much of an option of where to go (or even to go) any more. Our cars were already in Mississippi. The moving truck was packed. We'd already turned in the keys to our apartment. So we went.

Hattiesburg, and my dad's house, were completely destroyed. We stayed with one of my dad's friends for six months until Lauren was born. During this time, Dad decided to start travel nursing, and we decided that we weren't going to stay in Hattiesburg. We really didn't know where to go. We didn't have a whole lot of money, so we didn't feel good about moving too far away, so we eventually settled on Jackson (2 hours north of Hattiesburg).

Why We're Leaving

I guess the biggest reason is that we just don't fit in here. We have issues with this area in particular, but honestly I don't think any area in the South would be much better. We're not religious, and anyone from the South knows just how big of a deal that is. It is nearly impossible to meet people unless you go to church. Everything about the politics of this area makes me want to bang my head against the wall. Case in point - the Democrat running for governor (John Arthur Eaves) is advocating public school prayer. The Republican, Haley Barbour, is so far up the butt of special interests that it makes me want to puke almost as much. I honestly have no idea who to vote for. Anyway, the politics suck. The weather sucks. (Most) people think global warming is no big deal because the rapture is going to happen before it matters so they won't be here to deal with it anyway. People look at me funny when I don't wear makeup in public. I'm sure that happens in other places, too, but the women in this area are crazy and I'll never fit in with most of them (unless I decide to wear skin tight jeans and heels to McDonalds, go tanning, and apply my makeup with a putty knife). I know there has to be some normal people out there somewhere, but honestly, I don't feel like finding them. And now I'm just rambling.

Anyway. We're getting out. I want to live in a neighboorhood that is neither cookie-cutter suburbia or poverty-stricken. Somewhere where recycling is normal, the grass is green, and people don't judge you based on the church you attend (or not). I need cool weather, snow (just a little), and public transportation.

Sometime I'll talk about why we chose Oregon. I don't know when, though, because I still haven't finished my last class. Hah.

A Peeler Post

Lauren is 21 months! She's really come a long way developmentally in the last 2 months especially. She is now talking up a storm! About a month ago I was thinking that I should write down all the words she knows and count them up. I figured she knew about a hundred. Well, since then, her vocabulary has at least tripled! There's no way I could keep track of everything she knows now. Her speech pattern is kind of humorous. She ends all of her sentences with "yeah". As in, "Play pool, yeah", or "Horse neigh, yeah". It's cute.

She loves anything baby. She has a couple baby dolls but loves this one the most. She feeds her and tries to change her diaper, and even tries to nurse her. Apparently baby wanted water in this picture.

She's a pretty good eater, too. She loves chicken and when ever we ask her what she wants for dinner, she'll say "Chicky, yeah". Hah. Here she is eating her spaghetti a few days ago.


Her hair...I don't know what to do with it. It is finally growing, but now its in her face all the time. She pulls out barrettes, and it's not quite long enough to put in a pony tail. She always ends up looking like mommy never brushes her hair!

We went to Target the other day and took a trip down the Halloween costume aisle. I couldn't decide what I wanted her to be, so I figured I'd let her choose. So, I let her out of the cart and figured whichever costume she liked, she could have. She ended up going straight to this horse thing....when she puts it on it looks like she's riding a horse. It's cute, but of course it was the most expensive toddler costume they had. Oh well. I think she'll play with it even after Halloween because it is a big stuffed horse, so maybe she'll get my money's worth. We'll see. Anyway, I had to find her a cowboy hat to go along with it, so we ended up with this one. She had it on yesterday and was dancing around the house with it on.


She also loves to "help" mommy. She "helped" me make pumpkin bread and caramel apples yesterday. The kid ate pumpkin puree right off the spoon (yuck!). She apparently liked it though. She was in charge of putting nuts on the apples. Yeah, that didn't go so well. She had fun though.

We made sock puppets the other day with a couple of Donald's old socks.


Finally, she has started making funny faces that just crack me up. When she does this one, she looks exactly like my grandma used to when she took out her dentures and tried to scare me. She'll now make this face on command when you ask her to do the funny face. Quite the little comedian!

Two, Three!

Our child has just about no fear. She will jump off of almost anything, with the only warning being her saying, "two, three!". And then she jumps. And hopefully one of us is there to catch her.

The Story of the Zoops

I went into Donald's work today to take him lunch, and one of his co-workers asked me if I knew of a good daycare. I told her that I didn't, since I stay home with Lauren I've never really looked into it. I asked her why she was looking for a new daycare, and she said that the one her son is in now is turning him gay. I thought she was joking so I laughed! Turns out, the class is mostly all girls, so her son is spending the day playing with girls. His teacher told mom that her son was learning to jump like a cheerleader, and now mom is freaked out that her son is going to "turn gay" and is taking him out of that daycare. Oooookay! I asked her if working with mostly men would turn her into a lesbian, and she of course said no, but I don't think she made the connection. Geez!

Just a few quick updates:

*We're going to Vicksburg tonight and staying at the Ameristar hotel for Donald's birthday. I told him he could go alone, but he insisted that Peeler and I come with, so off we go. His friends at work gave him some money for his birthday, so he's going to have a good time in the casino with it. Hope he wins!

*After being insanely busy last week, I have run out of steam. I haven't done a damn thing all week. I really need to get busy this weekend and finish up my schoolwork so I can just be done!

*I hate McDonald's Monopoly. Donald and I are both on diets (7 pounds down, whoohooo!) and this damn game is making it difficult. We sent in for some free game pieces, but who knows how long it will take for them to get here. This is the closest to the lottery we have here in MS, and it's kinda like crack.

*I know I haven't posted any pictures in a while. This is because I haven't taken many. The kid doesn't sit still long enough any more. Also, I can never find the camera. I promise I will try to do better.

Gazelling

The closest thing I can think of to describe what I've been doing lately is "gazelling". For anyone who is familiar with Dave Ramsey, you know just what I'm talking about. Only I'm not doing it for debt - I'm doing it for savings. Gazelling is basically working your toosh off to make as much money as possible in as little time as possible. Dave Ramsey recommends it for paying off credit card debt, but like I said, I'm in it for the savings. I've been working about a thousand piddly jobs lately to make as much money as possible. For all those interested in what I'm doing -

*ExpoTV pays anywhere from $2-$10 per video you submit to their site. This means making videos of yourself reviewing products, editing them, then uploading them. I usually make between 5-10 videos a day during Lauren's naptime, then edit and upload them at night when I'm doing other things. Between Donald and I, we've made over $2,000 doing this in the past two months. Not bad!

*SharedReviews.com pays me $10 for every product review I write. They have a limit of $100 a person, so you can only do 50 reviews. Right now they're in beta testing and only have $10,000 to pay out during this time, and they've already paid out $5000, so I've kinda been in a hurry to get my reviews in before they run out of money. I just found this site 2 days ago, and since then I've written 27 reviews. I need to finish up the rest of mine, plus do 50 for Donald before they run out of money. This will only get us $200, but every little bit helps!

*Of course I've been teaching my Kaplan course on Saturdays. I've also been picking up proctoring hours when I can. Proctoring only pays $7 an hour, but all you have to do is hold a timer for 4 hours while the kids take the tests. I don't even have to stay in the room with them! So, I just go in the conference room and work on other stuff during this time. Not bad!

*I just picked up a student for private ACT tutoring through Kaplan. This gives me an extra 2 hours of teaching pay a week, plus an extra 2-3 hours of prep pay.

*I've been doing demo events at Wal-Mart. These are really easy and pay pretty well ($70 for 5 hours). I could do more, but of course most of them are on Saturday mornings when I'm teaching my class. I've done two in the last week on weeknights, so hopefully more will pop up soon. My next scheduled one isn't until October 28.

*Brainfuse tutoring starts in two weeks! I'm hoping to get in at least 10 hours a week doing this for an extra $400-$500 a month.

And this, folks, is how we are able to save anywhere from $800-$1000 a month. We can only save about $50-$100 from each of Donald's paychecks, so most of it is on my shoulders. It's okay though. Even though I bitch, I like staying busy. THANKFULLY I am working on my last class for school and should be done in a few weeks, so that is one less thing to worry about. That is, until I start student teaching in January. That's when things will get interesting!

Heard on the radio today:

"It's going to be a great week weather-wise. Highs in the high 80s, lows in the 60s all week. No rain in the forecast. I just love this wonderful, cool fall weather!"

Umm, yeah. While I agree that this week's weather is much better than previous weeks' weather, this is NOT "cool fall weather"! Not even a little!

I love fall in the North. Adore it. After a hot, humid August and early September, there is nothing better than being able to open your windows again and let the cool breeze come through your house. Real fall in Wisconsin starts in late September, or early October, depending on when Indian Summer comes around. Real fall weather is lows 60s for highs and 30s-40s at night. It's just cool enough for a sweater but not cold enough for a jacket. It's simply wonderful.

Fall up north is leaves burning in ditches along side the road. Yum. And speaking of leaves, you can't beat the fire reds of the Maples. Which of course coincides with the annual "leaf book" project at every elementary school. You know you are from the north if you know how to preserve a leaf between two sheets of wax paper!

Donald and I started our fall tradition the first year I was back in Wisconsin for college. I decided one day that I needed to carve a pumpkin, and conveniently that was the day that my lovely Corsica was not running. So, we borrowed a wagon from Brian's house and we walked all the way from Brian's house near 5 Points (if you know Janesville) to the fruit place way out on 51 South, past Burger King. I don't know why, but Donald ended up pulling me in the wagon most of the way there. It had to be at least 2 miles from Bri's house to the pumpkin place, but we had a great time. Every year after that we always went to the pumpkin place a few weeks before Halloween to get a few pumpkins to carve. That first year was the only time we walked though :o)

Mmmmm, fall. Homemade apple pie, crunchy leaves, frosty breath, yellow-orange-red wonderful fall. This is always the time of year that I want to go home because I miss it so much. Last year we were up in November, but by then the "good" fall had already passed - the trees were bare, the pumpkins were frozen, and well, it was just cold. Sadly I don't think we're going up this year for fall either. Ahhh....a girl can dream!

This week I did two college fairs for Kaplan. Basically I just had to go to the school, set up our table, and talk to students (or more likely - their parents) about our classes. It was interesting, and strange at the same time, being back in a high school. It'd been a long time since I'd been around high school kids. It went well, though. It was fun talking to them and talking to other college recruiters, too. Kind of depressing at the same time, though - if I'd have known in high school what I know now I would have probably went to a different college. Not that I didn't like Madison, because I did - I loved it. BUT - there's something to be said about leaving college with no student loans. Ah well. Can't change the past!

Anyway, I teach my first "real" class on Saturday. Last week I just talked to the parents while the kids took their diagnostic test. I think I have 5 kids in my class, and their scores range from a 14 to a 27, so there's a big variety there. I'm looking forward to it, so hopefully it goes well!

Everything else is fine. Donald isn't annoying me as much this week (maybe it was PMS?), so I guess I'll keep him :o) It's finally starting to cool off, but I wish it was still about 20 degrees cooler (60s would be nice).

Had to get Lauren ANOTHER pair of shoes today because she's out grown 4 pairs in the past few months. The kid is breaking me with shoes. In March I got her a pair of Keds sandals, size 5 that were huge on her. She wore those until about June, then I got her a pair of cheapo sandals at Target, size 6. Only took her about a month to outgrow those. She outgrew her sneakers about the same time, so I got her a pair of New Balances (6.5) in July. Now they're too small! So, she got a pair of Nike mary jane sneaks today at Kohls (size 7!!!), so I'm hoping those will at least last her through the fall! The kid has some huge feet! It's really annoying buying shoes all the time. I looked at some at Target last time I was there for some sneakers, but they were so stiff that I just couldn't bring myself to making her wear them. The shoes we got today from Kohls are so light and flexible that I wish I could get a pair!

Donald has this horrible habit that when he takes clothes out of the dryer, he just throws them in a clothes basket. This drives me nuts because then the clothes get all wrinkly and I either have to iron them or run them through the dryer again. I've told him that this drives me nuts time and again, but he never listens. I don't know why I bothered, but a few nights ago I told him again to PLEASE not do this, but to either lay them flat or take the ten minutes to fold them.

So tonight he put in a load of laundry before he put Lauren in the bath. After I got done putting her to sleep, I came out and noticed the dryer running. Of course curious to know what he did with the clothes that were in the dryer, I searched high and low for them. They were no where to be found. Only when I opened the dryer when it buzzed I discovered where the clothes were. He put the wet load in with the already-dry load and just ran the whole thing like that! The dryer was so full that I don't know how he got it all in there in the first place! Needless to say, the clothes were no where near dry, so I had to take out half and re-run them! So, now it is going to cost us three times the amount to dry that dang load. Not to mention the fact that now I have to stay until this load is dry so that I can fold them and run the second load before they get mildew-y. MEN!!!!

Let me tell you about my horrible week....

Yesterday I was getting ready to go to Target to pick up a few things, and decided that I'd better check to see how much money we had in the checking account. When I pulled up our account, I was in for a shock - our rent check had bounced! I about passed out. Turns out I forgot to write down our trip to Cozumel for lunch one day last week, which made our checking account $12 short when the rent check went to go through. Yeah. So of course we have every penny of our extra money sitting in our HSBC high interest savings account, and couldn't just transfer the money, so I had to go talk to our apartment manager and let her know what was going on. I ended up bawling my eyes out in front of her (yes, I totally felt like a douche bag), and she was really nice about it and everything. She said that we'd have to pay a late fee now as well as a returned check fee (an extra $50 - youch!) plus pay the rent that day with a money order. We still use our credit union in Wisconsin for our checking, so I couldn't just run to the bank to get the money out. I had to seriously DIG through all of our filing cabinet to find our ATM card for our savings account, the dig to find the PIN (we've never taken money out of this account before!), then go to three different ATMs in order to get out enough money. I finally got it all taken care of, but jeez I felt stupid. That's the first time we've ever bounced a check! Then when I came back to the office to give them the money order, I ended up bawling again. Ugh. That's so unlike me - usually I'm able to hold it together pretty well, but I was wreck yesterday. I guess between the situation and Donald and then Lauren being in a cranky mood it was all just too much. Donald was pissed, but I think he's over it now. Oh well. Life goes on I guess.

Then today I wake up and find that almost all of the videos Donald made last month for ExpoTV have been rejected! We've been making video reviews of a website to make extra money for our savings account - we've made over $2000 so far! Well, last month they decided to change some of the categories to $10 a video, so of course we made a ton of $10 videos. They rejected them all for "poor audio and video quality" when we used the same set-up we'd used on every other video that was approved! So, by them rejected those 50 videos or so, we lost $500! We are going to email them about it so hopefully they change their minds, but geez! This is too much!

So on top of all this, I've been trying to finish that damned SAT. Yeah. Not going to happen. Apparently the SAT is a hell of a lot harder than the ACT. Heh. I sat down to do the math sections the other night and just laughed. I emailed my supervisor and told her that there's no way I'd feel comfortable teaching kids this stuff right now, and she hasn't emailed me back yet so she's probably mad. Whatever. These kids (or their parents, I should say) pay nearly $1000 bucks to take this class, and for that kind of money they deserve a teacher who knows what they're doing. If I had a few months and could actually take the time to re-learn this stuff, it would be a totally different story. I told her I'd be happy to study for a while and then try to teach an SAT class at a later date, so we'll see.

So yeah. I hope my first ACT class tomorrow goes better than the rest of the week has. I told Donald I need a free vacation! Free because I don't want to stress about having to spend any money on it! Too bad I don't think that's going to happen :o(

Tonight was my last session for Kaplan teacher training. I guess they like me because they've given me two classes already. The first one is for the ACT and starts this Saturday! The second is for the SAT (which I've never taken) and starts next Sunday.

I'm VERY nervous about the SAT class. First, I don't know jack about the SAT. I have a test that I have to do and score at least in the 90th percentile on to be able to teach it, but my trainer seems to think that won't be a problem. Hah! Second, I'm starting half-way through a class. The guy who is teaching it right now is an awesome teacher, so I'll have big shoes to fill. Third, the guy who's teaching the class right now told me that there's a kid in it that is a mighty big pain in the rump. Terrific. I'm going to go in on Sunday and observe the class, so hopefully I won't find out that I've bitten off more than I can chew.

I'll also have two students that I'll tutoring privately once a week each for the SAT. This again makes me nervous. These kids (well, their parents) pay big bucks for private tutoring, and I kind of feel like a sham, since I really know nothing about the SAT. I guess I have a lot to learn in the next few weeks!

The good news is that I will be done with both classes by the beginning of December and I may or may not take any thing else after that, depending on what happens with student teaching. I'm happy to be making some extra money for the savings account, though! Every penny of what I make from all my little side ventures is being saved for the move, so I'm happy to contribute more!

Things I'm pondering right now...

1) Why is it that I'm the only person in this house that knows where the dishwasher is located and what it does? I swear I'm the only person who ever puts anything in it or puts anything in it away. My dad doesn't even touch it when he's home. Must be a man thing. Either way, it's annoying as hell.

2) Why is it that when I buy a gallon of milk it just sits there in the fridge, and half of it goes bad before it gets used? And when I only buy a half-gallon, it's gone in two days.

3) Well there was a 3. I forgot what it was.

I PASSED

both of my Praxis II tests! With really good scores! 193 on Curriculum (K-5) and 182 on PLT (5-9). I got a National Excellence award for the 193 (top 15% of scores nationwide) and was 2 points shy of getting it for the 182. Haha...Donald says I should re-take it. NOT! This is such a big weight off my shoulders...so glad it's over!

Had my second-to-last Kaplan training session tonight. It's still going fine but I will be glad when it's over! I'm not sure when I'll get a class yet. The final session is Sept. 5, so I have this week off to hopefully get some school work done - 4 papers to go and they are all at least 4-5 pages, so we'll see. My goal was to be done by the end of the month, but I'll be happy with finishing by Sept. 7. Then hopefully I can finish up the last class by the end of September and have Oct - December free. That would be nice. I'd be able to really focus on my tutoring with Brainfuse and teaching with Kaplan (if I get a class).

As you can see at the top of the page, I put up two counters; one for days until we move, and the other for our savings. Donald and I were talking yesterday and we both agreed that time is going to fly between now and our move. 8.5 months to go! Seems like forever but it is not really that long. We are still thinking about where we want to go. We'd almost settled on Eugene, Oregon, but now we're leaning more toward Portland or even Vancouver, Washington. We still have a lot of research to do but I'm loving the sounds of Portland more every day. Seems like a wonderful city.

Anyway, I'm going to try to get to bed early tonight - if you call 12:30 early. I try to start the week feeling fresh :o)

Score one for the good guys....

Donald and I have really been trying to eat healthier. In reality that translates into me not buying junk food when I go to the store anymore and trying to cook better meals. If it were just me and Lauren, this would be easy. We'll both eat almost anything. Donald, on the other hand, is the world's pickiest eater. He won't eat rice, any vegetable except corn, green beans, and peas - and only canned. He hates all seafood, fish, wheat bread, cream cheese, sour cream, any fruit except watermelon and canned pears, or anything even the least bit spicy. Needless to say, it's getting difficult to find healthy things that leave out these ingredients.

Over the past few months, I've figured out that once of the easiest ways to eat more vegetables is to throw baby spinach in everything. I put it in my lasagna, spaghetti, smoothies (yes, really - just toss in a handful - it'll turn your smoothie green but you won't taste it at all), sandwiches, wraps - anything. Of course, anything that I put spinach in, Donald won't eat. So I usually end up making two different versions, one with spinach and one without.

I got sneaky tonight, though. I decided to make Shrimp (Chicken for Donald) Penne with Creamy Pesto, and Donald of course got home from work before I could throw in the spinach. I'd already decided that I was putting it in his and he'd just have to deal with it. I had the spinach all chopped up with the garlic and in a bowl on the stove. When he came into the kitchen, he asked - "What is that green stuff?" I told him it was parsley, hahah! He bought it to, and ate his dinner, spinach and all, and even said it was good. I win!

No, I did not tell him he ate spinach. He would then just say something like, "I thought I tasted something funny in there". I'll let him believe that he's eating parsley for the rest of his life. MEN!

Hats are Fun!

I rather like this look :o)

I know I'm cute!

Okay, enough of this!

Oh man, my schedule has been kicking my butt the last few weeks. Monday through Wednesday nights I spend working on school work. I'm trying to get the last of my work done before the end of September. It's going to be cutting it close, but I really want a couple months to relax before student teaching (and then moving). I have five papers left for Math/Science, then seven for Social Studies/Health/Art. So if I can continue to get 2-3 done each week, I should be fine. Thursday - Sunday I spend prepping for my Kaplan class. It technically shouldn't take me that long, but do you know how long it's been since I've done trig? A very long time (and I wasn't that good at it in the first place). The algebra came back pretty easily, which I was surprised about. Anyway, class is going well. Teaching is actually fun (probably a good thing). We'll see how it goes when I get real students, haha. I have two more weeks of training and then hopefully I'll get my own class to teach.

I know I'm going to be so much busier during student teaching and I am so dreading it. I already hate locking myself in the spare bedroom at night so I can get things done. It totally sucks, but I suppose it'll be worth it soon. To top it off, Lauren has been going to bed later and later (11:20 tonight when she finally fell asleep), so I get less time at night to work. This is probably because when she wakes up in the morning, I'm so beat from staying up until 2-3 the night before she usually ends up nursing back to sleep. If we actually got up the first time she woke up around 7-8 instead of going back to sleep until 10, she'd probably go to bed earlier. And then wake up earlier. So I'm screwed either way. Heh.

Yeah I know I'm complaining. Except that I'm really not. I do like being busy - I get more done when I have a lot to do. Better time management I think. Anyway, so if you don't hear much from me in the next few weeks, you'll know why.

Playing in the Tunnel

I'm craaaaazy!

Okay, this heat is just getting ridiculous now (right now - temp 100, heat index 109). All of my Mississippi friends can relate, I'm sure. Lauren and I stayed inside this week because it was so hot, and I was looking forward to next week for some more reasonable weather (read: not over 98 degrees). I just checked the 10-day forecast, and now the highs are over 100 every day for the next five days. It's not supposed to be anywhere near bearable until next Saturday, with a high of 94. Yay. Another week of being stuck inside.

I had to get out of the house today. Since school started yesterday, I thought it was safe to assume that the playground at McDonald's would be free of big kids. I was wrong. When we got there, there was only one other little boy playing. Within 10 minutes, a whole slew of boys showed up. With their moms of course, but they may as well have been there alone. They were demon children if I've ever seen any. They ranged in age from probably 4-7, and they were craaaazy. The moms didn't seem to care - they just let them beat the crap out of each other. The other mom of the little boy came and sat next to me and was giving the other moms dirty looks, and I can't say I blame her. I know boys will be boys, but damn, control your kids! So, needless to say, we didn't stay at McDonald's long.

I'm starving. I had a cheeseburger at McD's for lunch and some of Peeler's Happy Meal fries, and I just ate a plum, but I'm still starving. Guess that means I'd better cook dinner....

Lexy went back to the doctor today. She was diagnosed with Fibrocystic Breast disease. It's nothing life-threatening or anything, but she does have to go back in for a biopsy the 24th, I think. She has one lump that they are concerned about that they just want to make sure isn't cancerous. She is supposed to limit her fat and caffeine intake and also take a Vitamin E supplement. So I guess she will be fine, pending the results of the biopsy of course.

Speaking of, she's still going headstrong with the wedding idea. I'm supposed to be finding a red dress to wear to her wedding at the courthouse :o| I wish I could just convince her to get pre-martial counseling, but she "doesn't have that kind of money". Whatev.

Whew! We had a busy weekend! We left right after Donald got off work on Friday for Meridian. We got there around 7:30, checked into the hotel, and then went in search of food. We ended up eating at the hotel restaurant, but I think we'd have been better off going to Waffle House. Donald ordered the chicken strip dinner for $7.99 and got 3 chicken strips and about 4 onion rings. After dinner we went swimming, then went right to bed.

Neither one of us slept for crap Friday night. I had to be up at 5:30, and I don't think I got any real sleep until around 2:00. The plan was for me to just drive myself to the test center so Lauren and Donald could sleep in, but of course Lauren woke up the minute I got out of bed. Donald ended up taking me to the test so that Lauren would hopefully fall back asleep in the car, but of course that didn't happen.

I had to be at the center for my first test at 7:30. Testing was supposed to start at 8:00, but our proctor was horrible and didn't manage to get us started until almost 9:00! This first test was Elementary Education: Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment (K-5) which I honestly found to be easy. There were 120 multiple choice questions in 120 minutes. There were only 2-3 questions that I really wasn't sure about - one involving meiosis, which I'm still not sure of the answer even after looking the info up online. The other one that I remember was something involving a pre-writing activity and I kept second-guessing myself. Other than that, I really knew all the material so I think I did pretty well.

I got done with the first test around 11:00, and didn't have to be back for my second exam until 2:15, so we went to the mall, just for something to do. When we walked in, I noticed a sign that said something about a drawing for a $500 mall gift card, so we went and signed up for that. You had to be present to win, so we went to Goody's and I found a few pairs of pants for cheap and then had lunch at a Mexican restaurant. We went to the drawing, and discovered that they were actually giving out 10 gift cards, ranging in value from $25-$500. They first drew the 10 names out, and Donald was called! He went up on stage, and then from the 10 people the drew for the specific cards. He ended up winning $50, which was awesome! We didn't have any more time to shop, though, so now we have a gift card for the Meridian mall and we have no idea when we'll ever be back to Meridian. That's okay, though, because that mall and the mall in Janesville are owned by the same company, so we can use the card in Janesville next time we go home.

I got back to the center at 2:15 for the next test, which was Principles of Learning (5-9). This test was rough! It was four case studies with three constructed response questions for each study, plus 24 multiple choice questions in 2 hours. That basically gave me 5 minutes to write each answer, which is not a lot. I really wasn't that prepared for the content of this exam as I should have been either, which didn't help matters. The first case study was about the social and emotional development of adolescents, and my program has really focused on the under 12 set, so I had to dig waaaay back to my undergrad years for this one. I probably screwed it up. The multiple choice questions were again easy, so hopefully I made up some ground there. We'll see in a month!

After the test, we drove to Philadelphia to play at the casino a bit. Donald and I each had $20. He lost his in a matter of 15 minutes, but I was able to keep mine for at least a half hour before I got bored and we decided to leave. I cashed out with $21.07, so I won a buck. Yippie. We then had dinner at a Chinese buffet, then drove home. We ended up getting home around 10:30 last night. We both passed out promptly. Heh.

Of course Lauren woke up earlier than normal this morning, so that sucked. I spent the day prepping for my Kaplan teacher training course, and Donald picked up the house. My course started at 5:00 and lasted till 9:00. It wasn't as horrible as I'd expected. We had to prepare an introduction, so everyone presented that and then we listened to the trainer yak for 2 hours. Then we had 5 minutes to prepare a lesson, and then had to teach that lesson. My lesson was on verb tense. Considering that it was the first time I'd really ever taught, I think I did okay. I stumbled on the imperfect tense and felt retarded, but other than that I survived. For the next class, I have 2 teach-backs to prepare, both in Reading. The class was interesting, but I'm really not used to sitting in class anymore. I had a horrible headache by the time we were finished.

Okay, well....that's it I guess. I'm POOPED so I'm headed to bed!

Lauren and I went to Lenny's Subs for lunch today. Afterwards, we walked next door to Micheal's craft store. I still had my cup of ice tea with me, so I let Lauren hang on to it while we were in the store. She was drinking what was left of it while we were waiting in line, and she was being quiet, so I left her alone. Then this old biddy behind me in line asks just what I'm letting my baby drink. I should have replied, "Jack and Coke" but I didn't, and just said tea. Then she said, "Well, I guess that's better for her than Coke." Damn old ladies need to mind their own business. I never give my kid soda and she's had tea about 3 times in her life. 98% of the time she drinks either water or milk. I know what's good and not good for her, I don't need an old crabby lady telling me! Man! Maybe I'm just uptight about these things....

In other news, I'm taking the Praxis II this weekend. We have to go all the way to Meridian for it. I have no idea why there wasn't a test offered in Jackson (it being the biggest city in MS and all...), but whatever. So we're driving down Friday night and coming back Saturday night. I test 7:30-10:30 and 2:30-5:30 (I think). I haven't studied for it at all, so I'm really hoping I pass. Good thing MS has the lowest passing scores in the country. Hah! It kind of irks me that I even have to take it - my initial license will be in Oregon and the Praxis isn't required there - they have their own state exam. But because I'm student teaching in Mississippi, I have to pass the Praxis before I can do that. Anyway, I really wanted to get to Barnes and Noble to read through the study guide, but I don't know if it's going to happen.

Finally, our internet has been crazy slow lately and I hadn't been able to figure out why. We set up a wireless network a few months ago and I guess we never got around to configuring the security settings because last night I discover that there were two other people stealing our internet! Dang them! Paul and Ebony whoever you are...no more stealing my bandwidth! Well they can't now because I set up our security tonight. Took me FOREVER but I think I finally got it figured out. It's going much faster now!

A couple weeks ago we bought Lauren a potty because she is just so interested in pee and poop. She loves to sit on it diaper-less or otherwise.

Proof that our children really do learn from us. Hah!

"I know something is supposed to be happening..."

She hasn't peed in it yet, and really there's no hurry. She definately knows what pee and poo are though, as she loves to follow me into the bathroom and say "Mama pee! Poo!"

Nothing is sacred anymore. Not even my poo.

Vent about the family...

What makes people self-destruct? I just don't understand. This has been quite a weekend for my family, and everything that happened is just ridiculous.

First, my brother: Him and four friends were out on the strip Friday night drinking. Supposedly three black guys in a truck came by, yelling racial obscenities towards Jake and his friends. I don't know exactly what happened then, but I can gather that Jake and company yelled back, etc. Whatever happened, it ended in the three guys beating the crap out of Jake so bad that he was in intensive care until today. His right eardrum was crushed and the doctor says he'll never regain his hearing in that ear. He also has some blood sitting on his brain, but the doctors think it will go away on its own. Thankfully he's going to be OK - we were all worried for a while. No doubt that if he hadn't been drinking - when they did the blood test for alcohol is BAC was .29 - he would have (hopefully) had the sense to get the hell out of dodge. This is not the first time Jake has had alcohol related problems - he's already had two DUIs along with numerous underage drinking tickets (he's only 20).

Then, Lex - I've vented about Lexy before. She just doesn't get it. Now she has decided to marry some guy named Eric - today is the first I heard about him, when she told me that I had to come up in November for her wedding. WTF? I guess she's been dating him two months. Mom doesn't know about it yet, and I'm sure not going to be the one to tell her. I'm not exactly old and wise, but I do know a few things, and one of them is that relationships don't work out just because you love somebody. I've tried talking to her sooo many times. I just want to shake her and yell "DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING TO YOURSELF?"

Is the root of all this really just low self-esteem? Does Jake not care enough about himself that he just drinks himself to death, slowly? Does he not care enough about his future to not accumulate thousands of dollars of fines, not to mention a criminal record? Does Lexy really not care about herself enough that she sleeps with anything that moves? Does she not care enough about her future to not take out multiple payday loans and then not pay them back? How do you "fix" this? Can they be helped? Or are they just going to have to figure it all out for themselves someday - when it will probably be too late?

Lauren had her 18 month check-up today. She's 23.5 pounds (35th percentile) and 33 inches (86th percentile), so she's still tall and lean! She has to go back in a month for a height check, though, because she's dropped 10 percentiles. The doctor is not worried - she just wants to make sure that she's still growing okay.

I really like this clinic we are taking her to. The staff is so wonderful and they really take their time. We see a nurse practitioner instead of a doctor and I bet she spent 20 minutes in the room with us chatting and playing with Lauren.

Lexy went to her Doctor appointment today, too. I don't know what's going on with her. Supposedly the surgeon told her that the lump went away? and that she wouldn't need surgery after all? I don't know - she rescheduled her appointment so mom couldn't go with her so who knows what's really going on. I'm not going to worry about it for now - she's probably just after attention again :o(

Donald and I were doing something last night, and not paying much attention to what Lauren was up to. When we looked, she had taken every single book off of her shelf and piled them on her chair. Way to entertain yourself, kiddo!

She was so proud of herself! And then she promptly knocked the whole stack over and laughed callously as mom had to pick them up. Funny stuff.

Happy Half-Day, Lauren!

Today (well, yesterday now, I guess) is Lauren's halfday! I can't believe she's already 18 months old. She's growing up so fast.

My Rooster rarely sits still. She is go, go, go from the minute she wakes up until she finally goes to sleep. That's why I haven't posted many pictures lately because she's never still enough for me to take any! I did manage a few last night -


She really is my clever little monkey. Of course I may be partial. Hahah. She still loves to read her books, and her new favorite book is Olivia. She can recognize and name a few letters of the alphabet. She knows all of her body parts and can name most of them when asked. She just learned "elbow" the other day and loves saying it. She calls her tummy "mine". I haven't quite figured that one out yet. She will point to just about anything you ask her to in any of her books. We are working on colors but they seem to be giving her a bit of trouble. I know she knows blue and green, but the others...not so much.

We bought her a potty chair at Target the other day because she is so interested in Donald and I going to the bathroom. She loves sitting on it when we are in the bathroom and says, "Pee, pee, pee" over and over and over. She hasn't peed in the potty yet, but she has succeeded in peeing on the bathroom floor a few times! I'm really in no hurry to potty train, though - we will follow her lead and she'll let us know when she's ready.

She's also sleeping very well now. She still nurses to sleep, but she is in her own bed now (still in our room) and usually stays in her own bed and doesn't wake up at all until early morning. We need to work on the nursing to sleep thing, especially at nap time, since I will be student teaching in less than six months and she'll need to be able to get to sleep on her own by then. Speaking of nursing, she still loves it and doesn't seem to want to give it up any time soon. She's only nursing now in the morning as she wakes up, at nap time, and at bed time (and sometimes once after dinner). As she gets closer to 2, we will think more about weaning. Until then, she is happy and as long as she is happy, we are happy.

While she is definitely in the terrible toddler stage, she is still a good girl. She has her bad days, but they don't happen too often. I know her very well, and I can usually tell why she is upset and what needs to change to make her feel better. I know the days that I don't give her enough attention because she lets me know! I've really been trying to work less during the day and spend most of my time with her. She's only going to be little once :o)

Our central air is not working, and it is so hot in here! It is blowing....but not cooling. And it figures - today is the first HOT day we've had in a while. I am calling maintenance as soon as I get up tomorrow and hopefully they can get it fixed pretty quickly! I'll die without air....

We have a busy weekend coming up. Saturday I'm doing an event at Wal-Mart in Pearl, giving away free White Cloud diapers. Fun times. Can't really complain, though...it pays $82 for 5 hours. Hopefully Peeler does okay with Donald all day!

Speaking of Donald, he's been working like crazy lately. Last week he had 20 hours of overtime! A few weeks ago, the girl doing all the audits quit, and they never replaced her, so Donald was stuck doing audits (which is a full-time job by itself), and now they've decided that he's good at them, so he gets to keep doing them! The overtime is not all bad though - it is helping us reach our savings goal for moving. So anyway, I think Donald's going in to work on Saturday morning before I leave and probably Sunday, too.

Learning her ABC's

I have been so tired the last few days, and I've finally figured out why. Instead of the usual Diet Coke or Diet Dr. Pepper that flows through my veins, I've been drinking Caffeine Free Diet Coke. Kroger had a sale a few weeks ago, and I had coupons, so I stocked up, and that's all we have left. I was so exhausted this morning, I had to stop at Starbucks and get a cup of coffee on the way to the playground. I was about to fall asleep! An hour and another Diet Coke later, and I was feeling fine. Must go get caffeinated soda tomorrow! Something has to supplement the measly 5 hours of sleep I get a night!

In my exhaustion this morning, Lauren had a first. She watched TV! Donald and I watch TV at night when she's around, but she's never actually watched a kid show before. Well, this morning I hooked up the DVD player and put in Disney's Alice in Wonderland, and then I planted my butt on the sofa. It lasted all of 15 minutes until she was bored with it. Figures.

After the TV didn't work, I gave in and we got dressed. We started for the playground, but on the way there it started to rain, so we went to the Micky D's with a playground indoors. There was this other little girl there, she was probably 2-3ish. Peeler LOVED her. They walked around hugging each other. It was so cute. Just when I thought it couldn't get any cuter, Peeler gave her a kiss. I wish I would have had my camera with me. Just darling.

And as if this post needed another topic, I got hired by Kaplan! I start training in two weeks. I have to attend a 4-5 hour training session every Sunday in August, with additional computer training at home (it's paid). After training, I'll be teaching my very own once-a-week class. I'm looking forward to it - I won't make much only working a few hours a week, but it'll be nice to get out and maybe meet some people. I'd pretty much given up on the job - I had my interview waaaay back in the middle of May. They said they'd contact me when they had a training session start, and I never heard anything until yesterday. I'm glad I got in, though!

The Peeler is officially driving me crazy now. Damn toddlerhood. I'd been warned that 16-22 months was horrible, but jeez....

Today she would not stop biting me. Seriously. She wasn't biting hard enough to hurt, and I think she was just trying to play, but it's still a no-no. Every time she'd bite me, I look her straight in the eyes and say, "No biting. Biting hurts mommy," and plop her on her chair. In three seconds, she'd be right back up, running over to me and putting her teeth on me again, laughing as soon as I plopped her back on her chair. Eyeyeyeye.

The child is just so uncivilized. Hahaha. I know that that's the way she's supposed to be right now, like a little caveman, but that doesn't make it any more fun to live with. We were eating popcorn tonight, and she just put her hand in the bowl and went crazy, splattering popcorn all over. She's also figured out the "limp baby" technique in where if she doesn't want to do something she just goes limp and collapses on the floor.

We may all survive this year in one piece....or we may not....

Soooo....

My sister told my mom and I a couple weeks ago that she felt a lump in her breast. Neither one of us really took it too seriously, but we both told her to make an appointment with the doctor to get it looked at. You might wonder why we didn't really think too much of it - Lexy is like the little boy who cried wolf. She's cried so many times we just stopped making a big deal out of these types of things. Lexy ended up making an appointment and went to the doctor last Friday.

The doctor did a breast exam and was concerned because Lexy says the lump hurts. She scheduled an ultrasound to determine what kind of lump it was, and she went to that yesterday. The ultrasound found that the lump is solid (so not a cyst) and that Lexy would need a biopsy and bloodwork to determine if it is cancerous, but she will need to get the lump removed surgically regardless. Her next appointment is with the surgeon July 24.

The good news is that it is pretty unlikely that it is cancer. She's only 19, and cancer doesn't run in our family. There are a million other things that it could be. Still, I'm worried about her and I know my mom is worried....

Sometimes kids just make you swear. Or at least they do me.

Case in point - Thursday I had a bunch of errands to run with Lauren. First we stopped at CVS, then ran to Target. On the way home we had to stop at Kinko's to FedEx a box to my dad. In Kinko's there's a card rack, and of course there's a card with a dog on it. Lauren loves dogs. The entire time I'm trying to get the form filled out, Lauren is practically screaming, "Woof! Woof!".

"Yes, baby, that's a dog,".

"Woof! Woof! Woof freakin' woof!"

After I finish getting the box shipped, I take her over the card rack to look more closely at the dog. Big mistake. Huge. As we start to leave, the tantrum starts.

"Wooooooofffff! Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh! Wooooooooooooooffffff, MAMAMMAMAMAMA WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOF!!!"

So I put her in the car, trying to nicely explain to an irrational toddler that the doggy lives in Kinkos and can't come home with us. Yeah, that didn't go so well. Of course, by now it's POURING outside, and I'm trying to drive home without killing us both.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! MAMAMA I FREAKING HATE YOU!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOFFFFF!!!!"

This continues for ten minutes. Of course we hit every red light between Kinkos and our house. I've finally had it, and yell - "Peeler! The doggy is DEAD! Now shut your hole!".

Yeah, not my best parenting moment.

It finally dawned on me that I do have a radio in my car and I turn it up as loud as I can without feeling too guilty that I'm damaging my kid's hearing. Her woooooofing eventually faded into a whimper and we got home in one piece.

The rest of the afternoon continued on in the same fashion, until I couldn't take it any longer. I locked us both in the bedroom, laid on the bed, and pretended I was asleep until she finally crawled up next to me and passed out.

An hour later, she woke up and was the sweetest thing ever. Go figure.

Hope you all had a nice 4th. Ours was just fine. We were planning on grilling this afternoon, but it looked like it was going to rain, so we scrapped that plan and went to CrapDonald's instead. The only good thing about McDonald's is that they have an indoor playground so Peeler can run around and be crazy without driving other people crazy. After dinner we headed over to the festival in Madison. It started to rain about ten minutes after we got there, and it didn't look like it was going to quit any time soon, so we went to WalFart for a while and just walked around. After an hour of that, we left, discovered it had quit raining, so went back to the park to watch the fireworks. They were surprisingly good! Lauren really liked them, too. It ended up taking us nearly an hour to get out of the park, so we didn't get home until after ten.

So, yeah, we had a good day. Donald and I still miss our 4th of July celebrations that we used to have in Wisconsin, though. Those were never boring. Our friend, Levi, his birthday is the 4th as well, so we always did a joint celebration that included lots of alcohol and even more fireworks. The last year we were up there (2005), I was pregnant and felt like crap, so I missed most of the fun. Donald had enough for the both of us, though. Our friend, Shawn, worked the night shift at the Hampton and kept the pool area open for our crew. Well, Donald decided it would be a good idea to empty about 20 mini-sized bottles of shampoo into the hot tub. Needless to say, there were suds EVERYWHERE. I slept through the entire event, but in the morning when we went down for breakfast, the pool area was still knee-deep in suds. It was horrible - and funny!

The year before that (2004), we were again at the Hampton. I honestly don't remember much of that year because Cortney decided it would be a good idea to play a drinking game with Blue UV. Now seriously, I've never been a big drinker. I can count on one hand the number of times I've been drunk. OMG, I ended up sooooo drunk that night. I paid for it too - I was sick!

I'm trying to remember what year Nick stayed at the Hampton with us. Must have been 2003 - maybe 2002? I can't remember. Anyway, that night ended with him streaking down the hallway nekkid - we have (or had) it on video somewhere! Yeah that was fun. Was that the year of the trip to Denny's to see if we could buy whip cream? Cort you'll have to clear that up for me - I think it was!

Ah, memories. Now we're all grown up and scattered all over the country. Sometimes I still wish we were all together up there, but it wouldn't be the same anyway. Most of us have kids, and you just can't do that sort of stuff with munchkins around. Eh, oh well. Someday the kiddos will be grown and we can be the crazy old people who act like we're 20 :o)

Anyway, Donald and I miss you Wisconsin people! Wish we could have been there :o(