Mashed Potatoes for Brains

2008-07-25T11:33:00.000-07:00

Hello again! It has been way too long since I've posted, huh? Things have been a bit crazy, but I guess that's expected....

Most of you know that we made it to Wisconsin. We are doing okay up here, not great, but okay. Donald searched for a job for about a month and couldn't find one, so he went back to the Gazette. Thankfully he had that to fall back on, but it is difficult living on his salary alone! We are very lucky we had money in savings to get us through the summer. I will be starting my job the last week in August, so the money situation will get much better then! It looks like both of my classes will be full, so now I am just waiting on my teaching license to come back.

My sister had her baby last week - Matthew Lee. He is a perfect baby in every sense. One of these days I will find the cord to my camera so I can post some pictures.

I have been very worried about things lately that are mostly out of my control, but worrisome nevertheless. For the last year or so, I've been learning about Peak Oil and discovering that we are sadly in the midst of it. For those of you who've never heard of Peak Oil, I highly suggest checking out some of these sites: The Oil Drum, Casaubon's Book, and The Automatic Earth. In a nutshell, Peak Oil essentially means that the supply of oil in the world has reached its peak, and now supply will decrease while demand continues to increase. As if Peak Oil weren't enough, the financial crisis in the U.S. is adding to our economic worries. Implications of these to crises are apparent: more people being unable to afford energy (gas, electricity, etc.), more people being forced out of their homes as a result of foreclosure, and more people being laid off or losing their jobs.

Unfortunately I am beginning to realize that my mom may be one of the first victims of these crises. She simply cannot afford her electric bill ($200/month in the summer with no air and $400-$500/month in the winter), her house payment ($900/month), and food ($500 a month for the four of them). Mom got a disconnect notice in the mail the other day and is now furious at the electric company for not having any compassion, etc. as the rates have increased almost 100% over the last 2-3 years. It appears that my sister and her baby will be "moving in" with us as she cannot have a newborn in the house with no electricity. Time will only tell how long it will be before they lose their house and then what? Will the whole family need to move in with us? What about her animals? Things are very uncertain right now, especially here in Janesville since GM will be closing in a year or so. That puts over 3,000 people in this city out of work which will have huge effects on the local economy.

I don't know what will happen in the future. But I do know that things are about to change, big time. How much can you afford to spend on energy? Personally, I know for myself that if gas prices get much higher, we certainly won't be able to afford going much of anywhere. Electricity? We certainly couldn't afford $300/month! Thankfully our house is very energy efficient, but if our rates double, we'd be priced out. I am afraid that more people than not will be in this exact situation in the next year or two, and then what? There are big changes coming...

2008-05-02T20:47:00.000-07:00

All I want to do right now is cry and sleep. We are leaving for Florida tomorrow morning and I have no desire to pack. It's that bad. Moving has become a nightmare. I never really had a good feeling about it to begin with, but it is going to be worse than I thought. The main employer in Janesville, GM, just announced that they are cutting the entire second shift, permanently laying off 750 employees. And because practically every other job in that damn city is dependent upon GM, other workers will be laid off, too. So, with literally thousands of suddenly unemployed people in a city with a population of only 60,000, the prospects of Donald finding a decent job are suddenly not so good.

As if that wasn't bad enough, Donald talked to his mom tonight and they've only filled my classes with about 8 kids so far. I need at least 30 to work full-time. In her words, worst case scenario is that I do the Kindergarten part-time and daycare part-time. I couldn't do it. I do not have six years of higher education to potty train kids. Sorry. Not to mention the daycare portion would only pay $10 an hour, if I'm lucky. Screw that. If I can't do the Kindergarten thing full-time, I'll have to find a different full-time job. And I just talked about how fun that's going to be.

I am so frustrated. Donald and I have worked too hard to throw everything away. I am NOT going to be broke again. We lived paycheck to paycheck for seven years. It's just been the last year that we've actually had the freedom of not counting every penny that we spend. I will not get back to that point again. Maybe I'm spoiled, but life is too short. I feel like we're making the biggest damned mistake of our lives....and I don't know what to do about it.

So yeah, I guess I need a vacation. Good thing we're leaving on one tomorrow - if I can motivate myself to pack, that is.

Some pictures from the last few weeks....

2008-03-22T18:31:00.000-07:00

Donald and I went to the Obama rally when he was in town a couple weeks ago. We were right next to the entrance and we both got to shake his hand. It was awesome!

We spent 3 days on the Coast last week. Lauren loves to jump!

And jump!

Mommy and her baby.

Holding sand in her hands.

The "homeless" look is in this season. I always tell her she looks homeless when her hair's not brushed. Hah!

Lauren and the freaky Easter bunny today at the egg hunt.

I got caught in this picture. I just had to show off my fabulous new hair cut!

We colored eggs today!

Look at this one!

Yep, I'm sassy!

2008-03-18T21:38:00.000-07:00

Ah, spring break. I so needed this week off. A lot of people think that breaks during the school year make teachers spoiled, but let me tell you, if we didn't get a week off from the kids, the kids wouldn't make it until the end of the year. I've spent my time off reading a novel and getting a little school work done. Not enough, but a little.

We went to the coast last weekend so Donald could play in a slot tournament. He didn't win, but we had fun anyway. It was nice to unwind for a couple days (well, a day really, because it always take me at least the first two days to actually unwind, and by the time that happens, it's time to go home). But whatever. I spent Sunday laying on the beach and that was glorious.

Tomorrow I am meeting with my host teacher for several hours so we can plan the next two weeks. I take over full-time teaching the Monday we get back, which I'm trying to forget about for right now. I can't believe I only have three weeks left. I'm ready to be done and sad for it to be over at the same time.

I'm still conflicted about going back to Wisconsin. Just the thought of being back makes me want to puke. Everyone else is so excited that we are coming home. Donald's family, my family, and our friends couldn't be happier. Don't get me wrong, I do miss all those people, but it has been so nice living a relatively stress-free existence for the past two years. We do our own thing, and that works for us. Maybe it sounds selfish, but I don't want my family calling me to do them favors anymore. Plus the winters suck. Thankfully we missed this one (they got something like 90 inches of snow! Holy fuck!).

Oh yes, I can't forget to tell you that Lauren has learned to swear in context. On our way back from the coast, we'd pulled into a gas station to get a drink. On our way out of the parking lot, a car pulled out in front of us. Surprisingly, Donald didn't swear. Not a second later, from the back seat, Lauren says "Dumb ass". I cracked up. It was so obvious that she was talking about the other car, too. She's also been calling Pa "shit head" and then saying "Pee-ew". Haha! She is such a little pickle head lately. I've taught her to say "I am tenacious" because that is exactly what she is. When she wants something, we wants it NOW thank you very much. FWIW, she can also say "I am ferocious". I think that's right on, too. Heh.

And because I have nothing better to do (yeah, right), I have to tell you that my father got his nipple pierced this weekend.

2008-03-11T11:04:00.000-07:00

I honestly can't believe that I'm going to write this, but here goes. We're moving. Back. to. Wisconsin. I know. It's the stupidest idea we've had in a very long time. Except it's not that stupid. We have free daycare (Donald's mom runs a daycare), and Lauren will have family taking care of her all day, every day (Donald's sisters teach at the daycare). It's one of the best centers in the city, too. So that there will save us nearly $800 a month. Also, I already have a job. Janesville just passed 4-K so I'll be teaching that at Cargill (where I used to work). Donald is guaranteed a job back at the Gazette if he wants it, but he'll look for something better first. We can stay with Donald's parents until we get a house, which will also save us some money. It will be a very smart (financially, anyway) move for us, and hopefully we'll be able to buy a house soon. I never thought we'd end up back in Wisconsin, but I guess it wasn't as bad as we thought it was. We still want to move to Portland someday, but we need to wait until the economy is better and we both have guaranteed jobs there. I still think we are crazy...but, oh well!

Irrated...

2008-03-04T18:40:00.000-08:00

Ugh, I had a shitty day at school today. First, when I arrived at six this morning to get ready for the day, I discovered that my host teacher moved my desk and all my stuff after I left yesterday. Then, to top it off, I'm not able to fit a chair where she put my desk, so I don't have a chair at my desk. Her solution is to use my desk area as a "storage area" and then do my work at the round table that is six feet away (and usually covered with crap). What a pain. She said that she moved my desk to make it look like there was more room in the classroom. Why that matters, I'm not sure, but whatever.

There are a couple other things that are irritating me to, but they're too complicated to explain and I'm tired. They all mostly stem from the fact that my host teacher cannot make a decision to save her life and tries to make everyone happy all of the time. I've come to the conclusion over the past few weeks that you're going to piss someone off no matter what you do, so you might as well just do what you want. Today she was trying to make a decision about what time she wanted me to teach math tomorrow when I was trying to leave for Lauren's swim lesson. She finally said that I'd teach at a certain time, which was fine with me, so I hurried out of there. Then, she called me on my cell on my way home and said that she'd changed her mind so that I could teach later in the day because I'd seemed stressed. I wasn't stressed, I was just trying to get the hell out of there! Then she played the pity card that she was probably going to be at school until seven tonight and that she'd try to get everything done so that she could teach reading right away in the morning.

I know that none of these things are major. My host teacher and I really do get along quite well, even though we are very different. It is really hard to share someone else's classroom and try to fit in to their routines that have already been established. But, it will all be over in a little over four weeks and then hopefully next fall I'll have my own classroom!

Ah, thanks for letting me bitch....

It's going to be a good day....

2008-03-02T08:29:00.000-08:00

Donald and Lauren went to Wal-Mart and to get Krispy Kremes, and I'm here actually getting stuff done. It's a freakin' miracle. Later they are going to the park to feed the mean geese, so that's even better. Maybe I won't be completely stressed this week.

Speaking of stressed, only 5 weeks to go! Two weeks before spring break, which won't really be a break since I'm woefully behind in my actual school work. So, my nine days will be spent writing papers and (hopefully) finishing my teacher work sample. Oh, minus the three days that we are going to the coast for a much-deserved break. Should be fun.

In other news, it appears we are going to go ahead and move. If I had my way, we'd be staying here another year or two (I can't believe I'm saying it either), but only because I absolutely adore the school that I'm teaching in and am pretty sure I could score a job there. Donald has made his position known, and he is 1000% ready to move, so I guess I have to let him have a say in the matter. I don't know dates or even details, but our lease is up here the end of May, so it'll be around that time. Cross your fingers that I'll be able to find a job where ever we end up!

2008-02-16T23:35:00.000-08:00

Since I'm bored and awake, I figured I could spare a few minutes to give my blog a much-needed update. While I really should be planning my science lessons for next week, I'm so sick of school crap that I need a distraction.

Student teaching is going really well. I just finished my 5th week, so I have 7 weeks to go! It is going really fast, but these past 5 weeks have been the longest of my life. Does that make sense? My kids are all (mostly) sweet. About half of them brought me a gift for Valentine's; I could hardly believe it. There's one boy in my class that just gets on my every last nerve for whatever reason, but other than that, the kids are great. We really don't have any discipline problems in the classroom, other than just typical 4th grade stuff. The first few weeks of teaching were really rocky for me - I was beginning to think that I'd made a horrible career choice. Everything was just really overwhelming. The last two weeks, though, have been great. I'm really enjoying it and I think that I'll be mostly happy as a teacher. I do think that I want to move up a few grade levels, though. I just can't get into the cutesy-cutesy elementary stuff, and I think I would like to focus more on math and science than the reading that is emphasized in elementary schools. I would have thought that I would really like teaching reading and language arts, but I so do not. I dread reading every day. To me, it's just damn boring and tedious teaching kids to read. Is that horrible? I would much rather be doing math and science experiments. I guess every teacher has their own strengths and weaknesses and likes and dislikes.

These damn kids have also made me and everyone else I know sick. I've had some sort of respiratory infection now for over a week. It's finally starting to get better, but dang it sucked. Donald also got sick, and so did my dad, but somehow Lauren has escaped it (for now). All hail the power of booby juice!

Speaking of Lauren, she seems to be doing okay with me being gone all day. The first few weeks were rough, but she's gotten used to my dad now. I really do miss hanging out with her all day. We spent today cuddling and just hanging around the house, which was great. I'm ready to be done with school so I can go back to being just mommy! Sadly that will probably only last a few months, since I'm probably going back to work this fall. I would really love to stay home with her for a few more years, but my student loan payments are going to have to get paid. It'd also be nice to get a bit more money saved so we can put a down payment on a house in a few years!

Speaking of houses, I don't know if we are moving this spring or not. With the economy going the way that it is, I don't know if it is such a good idea right now. I can just see us moving all the way out there and not being able to find jobs. We have enough money saved to live for 6-8 months, but I really don't want to blow through all of our savings. I'm going to begin applying for jobs here next month, and we'll see if I get any offers. If I do, we're really going to have to think about it. I know Donald is all gung-ho on leaving in May because he's sick of his job, but he really does have it good at work. I definitely don't want to stay here long-term, but we may end up sticking it out another year or two. We shall see.

Hhhm, what else? I can't sleep right now because it is supposed to storm pretty badly tonight. I bought a weather radio today, but I don't know if I have it set-up properly. I really should be working on school stuff, but I'm so not into it. Maybe tomorrow?

Go Barack!

2008-02-04T18:19:00.000-08:00

2008-02-03T19:31:00.000-08:00

Good Lord, I am tired. I don't know how people do this every day, all day. This work thing is kicking my butt. That being said, student teaching is going fine. I can't say that I LOVE it, but I'm hanging in there. Three weeks done, nine to go. When will the light come on at the end of the tunnel?

Yeah. I don't have much to say because I don't have time for anything except school. Lauren's doing pretty well with me being gone all day. The first two weeks were pretty tough on here, but last week she did better. At least she's not screaming bloody murder when I leave in the morning anymore :o( She started gymnastics a few weeks ago and is really loving that. She calls it "wee class". Hah. She's also speaking really well now. I can understand almost everything she says and most of the time she talks in sentences. She can recognize her name when it is written and can name almost anything you point to. Brilliance must run in the family, haha.

Well, I'm going to bed before I pass out at the computer. Just wanted to give a quick update since I know most of you have assumed I've died. Maybe you'll hear from me again in a few weeks :o)

Happy Birthday, Lauren!

2008-01-20T20:49:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday, Lauren!

I can’t believe that you are two today! The last two years have been two of the longest years of my life, yet they have flown by. I know that doesn’t make sense to you, but someday it will, I promise.

You are such an amazing girl, and daddy and I are already so proud of you. You are so smart that people cannot believe that you are only two! You’ve known all of your letters now for three or four months, and now you can count to thirteen all by yourself! You are talking in three and four word sentences now, and you always know just what you want (and aren’t afraid to let anyone know it!). Some of your favorite things to say are: “Have it now, Mama!”, “Naughty kitty cat”, and of course, “More ummies please, Mama”.

Speaking of ummies, you still love to nurse. Mama never intended to nurse you so long, but you do love it so much that I don’t have the heart to take them away. Not that mama minds, really. Our ummy time is some of my favorite time to spend with you, when it is just you and mama and we can talk and hug and cuddle. I don’t know if you will still be nursing next year on your birthday, and if you aren’t, mama will really miss our ummy time together. You love to give your baby doll ummies, too. Just today you wrapped your baby up in a blanket, laid down next to her on the floor, and gave her ummies to help her go to sleep. You are very sweet to your baby doll and someday you will be a wonderful mother yourself.

You just started gymnastics class last week (which you call wee class) and you love it! Grandpa took you last week because mama had to be at school, and he said you did a great job! Mama is very excited because she gets to take you today and see you do your wees. I know that you will be just wonderful! You love to watch wees on TV and today you were trying to do them by yourself (all the while shrieking, “weeees!”).

One of your favorite things to do these days is read books. We don’t get to read nearly enough together anymore, now that mama has to go to school every day, but we do try to read every night together. Your favorite books right now are “Millie Moo”, “The Barnyard Dance”, and “Go, Dog, Go!”. You have so many books and we’ve read all of them at least once! I hope that by next year on your birthday you are beginning to read yourself!

Well, baby, I hope you have a great birthday! You are so excited because we are going to play games and eat pizza later. Grandpa is making you a clown cake and mama and daddy have gotten you lots of Dora presents! When you wake up this morning, you will be two! Mama will miss her baby, but she can’t wait to play with her BIG GIRL!!!

Love always,

Mommy

Day 3 - Oh the work

2008-01-16T15:42:00.001-08:00

I'm starting to get overwhelmed already and I'm just getting started! After getting to school at 6:30 and not getting home until 4:30 (at least), I'm already exhausted! Then, I have to do the mom thing, the wife thing, plus all my extra stuff for school! I honestly don't know how two-working parent families do it! I imagine we will all get used to it.

I had a short day in the classroom today. All the 4th grade teachers had science training this afternoon from noon until 3:30, so that took up the second half of the day. The school is working with an AWESOME science program through Delta State University that essentially gives teachers science kits with everything done. It will save so much time in the classroom and be so great for the kids! It is wonderful!

One thing I did notice today in the classroom was some disorganization/chaos during research time in the computer lab. I think it can easily be said that we don't spend enough time on science or history (30 minutes twice a week for each subject) and today's science/history session was nearly worthless, in my opinion. My HT told students to research either The French and Indian War for history, or flowering and non-flowering plants for science. She didn't really give them any direction as to what to look for while doing this, just to print off good research. Needless to say, the kids went print crazy, printing everything they found (many things duplicates because they all went to the first result in the search engine) and not reading any of it. After 30 minutes in the computer lab, we had over 300 pages of printed material. I'm not sure what my HT is planning on having the kids do with it, but most of it is way above their level anyway! I think it would have been much more worthwhile if students would have had a few specified sites to go to and find specific information.

I'm going to start working on my first lesson plans tonight. My first real lesson will be in Mississippi History. I'm thinking of doing a jigsaw lesson, and I think that will work out really well as the students really enjoy working in groups.

Student Teaching Drama

2008-01-11T07:37:00.000-08:00

For the last six months or so, I was all geared up to start my student teaching January 7, the first day back after winter break. My dad arranged his schedule so he could be home then, and I cleared my own schedule. I left Wisconsin when I did so that I would have time to get my stuff in order before school started. It was all working out just fine.

I met with my host teacher the Friday before I was supposed to start, and it went really well. She seems very nice and really knows her stuff. She uses a ton of group work and really involves students in the classroom. I left our meeting Friday afternoon ready to get started on Monday.

Friday evening I got an email from my placement coordinator stating that I wouldn't be starting until January 28! Needless to say, I panicked. It was Friday night, and of course everyone at my school was out of their office for the weekend. I did manage to talk to my mentor, and we agreed that I would try to get it all taken care of and hopefully start on Tuesday. He thought the email may have been a mistake, but wanted to make sure first before I entered the classroom.

Well, turns out the email wasn't a mistake, so after about 3 days of trying to figure things out, I decided to just "go with the flow" and start the 28th. I figured it might work out better, anyway, since my dad had just gotten home and not had a lot of time to adjust to Lauren and him to her. I scheduled some appointments and bought a few books to pass the time.

Now, this morning, I got another email from my placement coordinator asking me to start THIS Monday, the 14th! Ugh! After I just got all those appointments scheduled and rearranged! Not to mention that I have to get myself into a "mindset" to start big things like this. I was all ready to go last week, but now I've put myself into "vacation" mode again! Talk about annoying!

So, I guess I'm starting on Monday. It will work out better in the end, as I'll be done April 11 now instead of May 2. We will be able to have more time to pack and move, plus my dad will be able to get back to California sooner. Now I have a lot to do this weekend, including some serious shopping and planning. Yikes!

2008-01-10T12:31:00.000-08:00

Hahah, guess I haven't posted in a while. Well, we made it home from Wisconsin safely. It really was a nice trip, other than the fact that Lauren and I were both sick nearly the entire time we were there. First it was a nasty stomach virus, then a cold from hell. We are both still coughing, actually. I suspect I may have had a touch of bronchitis, but I seem to be nearly back to normal now. I was a huge slacker with the camera while we were home, so unfortunately I don't have too many pictures, but here are what few I have.

This is Lauren and her cousin Logan playing after they opened their Christmas presents at Donald's parents house. Both of them are only children and they played together surprisingly well!
Here's Lauren on Christmas Day at Great Grandma's house in Dubuque, Iowa.

Here she is with Great Grandma. It's funny - grandma usually scares the crap out of little kids, but for some reason Lauren loved her. They sat together all morning!This is my mom with Lauren. After not seeing my mom for over a year, it was strange to see how old she looks now. I had a really nice time with my mom this time and I'll miss her!

It snowed A LOT while we were home! The day that this picture was taken we got about 10 inches! Lauren had a great time playing in the snow! We had to borrow a snowsuit from the daycare because we (obviously) didn't have one, so that's why looks like a blue snow bunny.

Brrr!!!Aunty Charlotte (Donald's sister)Aunty Anna (Donald's youngest sister)Uncle Jake (my brother)
Lauren just loves her Uncle Jake! They had a great time playing together.
Aunt Lexy (my sister)
More about why her face looks like that later :o(

2007-12-23T21:36:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-12-06T13:10:00.000-08:00

2007-12-05T21:15:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-12-04T20:20:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-29T19:53:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-25T22:02:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-11-21T21:42:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-11-14T20:48:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-11-14T06:56:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-11-04T23:25:00.001-08:00

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

2007-10-31T21:56:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-10-30T23:20:00.001-07:00

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!

2007-10-29T22:39:00.000-07:00

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)!!

2007-10-28T21:55:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-10-26T12:29:00.000-07:00

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....

2007-10-26T00:07:00.000-07:00

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?

2007-10-24T14:02:00.001-07:00

Seriously? Jackson police have nothing better to do?

2007-10-24T13:02:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-21T22:25:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-19T09:01:00.001-07:00

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!

2007-10-14T21:56:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-10T20:54:00.001-07:00

2007-10-10T12:31:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-10-04T11:48:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-09-29T17:34:00.001-07:00

Gazelling

2007-09-27T21:16:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-09-18T22:20:00.001-07:00

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!

2007-09-14T11:42:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-09-10T21:25:00.000-07:00

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....

2007-09-07T13:19:00.000-07:00

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(

2007-09-05T21:23:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-08-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-30T13:05:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-08-26T21:52:00.000-07:00

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....

2007-08-23T21:04:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-08-23T13:47:00.001-07:00

I rather like this look :o)

I know I'm cute!

Okay, enough of this!

2007-08-19T21:26:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-13T22:08:00.001-07:00

I'm craaaaazy!

2007-08-10T14:35:00.000-07:00

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....

2007-08-07T22:24:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-08-05T20:58:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-08-01T22:38:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-07-31T20:29:00.001-07:00

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...

2007-07-29T22:43:00.000-07:00

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?

2007-07-24T22:16:00.000-07:00

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(

2007-07-23T22:39:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-07-22T00:35:00.000-07:00

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)

2007-07-19T23:16:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-17T22:30:00.000-07:00

2007-07-17T20:45:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-07-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

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....

2007-07-13T21:07:00.001-07:00

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....

2007-07-07T23:39:00.001-07:00

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.

2007-07-04T22:24:00.000-07:00

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(

2007-07-03T23:40:00.000-07:00

I hate Pringles. You can never eat just a few of them, and by the time you realize just how many you've pounded down, half the can is gone. By then you feel so guilty for eating so many, you just finish the can so there's no evidence. Pure Evil.

Hope everyone has a great Fourth. We're going to some festival thing in Madison that I'm sure will be joyous. Anything in Madison makes my skin crawl, but I have a feeling this may be worse. We'll see.

I've actually been productive the last few days so I'm taking the day off.

Also, when I turn my head to the right, my neck hurts. I'm assuming this is bad.

Getting Ready for the Party

2007-07-02T22:35:00.000-07:00

My little baby is turning into a little girl! *Sob*

Things I need to do, preferably in the next few days

2007-06-27T12:04:00.001-07:00

*Finish this god-forsaken class on teaching Language Arts. It is NOT fun writing essays about how to write essays. I have six papers left, one that is going to require an evening at Barnes and Noble counting the number of words and syllables in 15 different children's books. NOT fun.

*List Lauren's clothes from last winter on eBay. I have all the pictures taken and edited, I just need to get the auctions prepared and loaded into Turbo Lister for prime selling time, which will probably be the mid-to-end of July. Anyone need girls fall/winter clothes in size 12-18 months? I have a TON.

*Organize all my coupons from the past month that I have conveniently thrown in a file box for now. They all need to be clipped, alphabetized, and filed.

*Write about six new posts for DealHippo. I have a ton of new things I want to tell you all about, so I need to get this done!

*Go back to Target and see if they have their summer stuff on clearance yet. There's this tunnel thing that I want to get for Lauren, but I wasn't going to pay full price for it (imagine that). It was 30% off yesterday when I went, making it $17 or so, but I'm hoping to hold out for at least 50% off ($12).

*Register to take the Praxis II. This has to be done by July 5, so I'd better get a move on. I'd like to hang on to my $200+ for as long as I can, though. Puke.

*Open up an online savings account with HSBC. Right now we're just using our credit union's account, but HSBC gets 5.5%! Need to do this sooooon!

It looks like Donald is going to be on Peeler duty a lot this week :o( Oh well, it's good for him!

Some new Lauren videos

2007-06-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

I've been trying for days to get new videos uploaded to You Tube and finally got it to work today. Nothing too exciting, don't worry. The theme for the day is music. Hahah.

2007-06-25T23:43:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I get to say this - WE ARE OUT OF DEBT!!!! Except for student loans :o( But all the credit cards, other loans and MY CAR!! are paid off! We'll be paying on our student loans until we die (or win the lottery), but that's OK. At least we're ejumacated :o)

So there'll be no Wisconsin for me this summer :o( We are entering saving money mode. We are trying to save $10,000 by next summer so we can move!

I really am sad about not going to Wisconsin, though. Even though my family is a pain in the rump, I do miss them (sometimes). Plus, now we probably won't get back there until fall/winter of 2008! We were thinking of going back this fall for a few days, but now we will probably end up using Donald's last four vacation days to go to Oregon to scope out a few cities.

This whole Mississippi thing just hasn't worked out for us. The only thing that is keeping us here right now is Donald's job. He really does have an awesome job, even though the company is starting to go to crap. Anyway, we sure didn't plan on Katrina destroying the city where we had planned on living, and Jackson - well, it sucks.

We've both been complaining about this place for a year, at least. I'm sick of complaining about it and not doing anything to fix it, so it's time to change that. I really want to get in a place that can be home, especially since we're going to have to start thinking about school for Lauren in a few years. I need somewhere that jives with my soul where I can feel at home.

We've done some preliminary research in the last week or so, and right now Eugene, Oregon is the top choice. We'll almost certainly end up somewhere in Oregon; we're also considering Portland and Salem. Eugene seems like a great place with progressive politics, lots to do, and WONDERFUL schools (they have a Japanese immersion elementary school - how cool is that?). Anyway, this it. Once we get somewhere, we're staying for a long time. I want to start saving for a nice big house down payment, so we've got to quit wasting money on moving!

Book Review: The No-Cry Discipline Solution

2007-06-19T13:09:00.000-07:00

Through several blogs I read frequently, I’d learned about a new book by parenting author Elizabeth Pantley. I’d heard of Pantley from other parents when Lauren was having sleep issues, but had never gotten around to reading any of her previous books such as The No-Cry Sleep Solution. After reading her new book, The No-Cry Discipline Solution, and since we are still having sleep issues around here, I think (no, I know) that’s what I’ll be reading next.

Lauren, at 17 months, is just getting to the age where we really need to start worrying about discipline. I knew that I wanted to stay away from the yelling, begging, and definitely spanking, but you know – this parenting stuff is hard work! Thankfully, Pantley offers plenty of suggestions that respect both the parent and the child while also getting to the heart of what discipline is all about – teaching a lesson.

One of the biggest challenges parents face with toddlers is getting them to cooperate. We had be been going crazy here getting Lauren to cooperate while we brushed her teeth. Donald would literally have to hold her head so I could cram her little toothbrush in there for a few seconds at least. Of course, this only led to more tears and more fighting from her. I felt awful about doing this, but reasoned that it had to be done – she had to have her teeth brushed after all! When I came across the section in the book describing one way to get your toddler to cooperate by singing a song, I had to try it out during our next tooth brushing session. It worked like a charm! I just sang, “This is the way we brush our teeth, brush our teeth, brush our teeth. This is the way we brush our teeth so we keep them clean,” over and over and over. Lauren was so captivated by the song, I think she almost forgot we were brushing her teeth! We’ve used this technique every night for the past five nights with brilliant success.

The thing that I like best about this book is that the advice is easy to use and practical. Really, everything in the book is stuff that you probably already know you should do, but forget to do when you are so aggravated by your child’s behavior. Pantley also acknowledges that sometimes parents do get angry, and that it is OK. In fact, there’s a whole section on anger and how to deal with it (very helpful for Donald, in our case). It really feels as though Pantley is a good friend, helping parents to get through the dark moments.

There is so much more that this book offers. I’d highly recommend it to anyone with a toddler or preschooler who doesn’t always behave (and if you can find one that does always behave, send him this way!). As for me, I’m heading to Barnes and Noble to find her other book, The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddler and Preschoolers. Maybe I can get this kid to sleep, after all!!

2007-06-17T23:39:00.000-07:00

Lauren somehow got into my CD binder a few days ago and emptied all of my CDs all over the dining room floor. While this was slightly annoying, it gave me the opportunity to go through all my old CDs that rarely get listened to anymore. It’s funny how I can look at each CD and remember an exact moment that I’ve listened to it, and how my CDs sort of fit into the events in my life.

I received my first CDs for Christmas when I was in 6^th grade, and they were Melissa Etheridge and John Michael Montgomery. I still have both of them. Other CDs from the middle school era include Mariah Carey, Elton John, and Shenandoah. Yeah, I guess I was into country then. I can still remember my tiny little bedroom in that stupid trailer dad and I lived in after grandma died and how I would just spend hours in there reading and listening to music.

Early high school CDs included Alanis Morrisette, La Bouche, Oasis, the Presidents of the United States of America, Savage Garden, and Soul Asylum. I remember my friend Betsy did a skating routine to Runaway Train by Soul Asylum and every time I hear that song I think of her. Now that I think of it, I guess Soul Asylum was more of a middle school CD. I also remember listening that song coming on when I was listening to my Walkman the day that I moved out of my mom’s house in 7^th grade, and how it fit so perfectly.

Late high school music was Aerosmith, Aqua, Creed, the Cranberries, Enya, Sarah McLaughlin, Matchbox 20, and Offspring. I remember making tapes of all these CDs in my room because I didn’t have a CD player in my car. I remember listening to Sarah McLaughlin (Surfacing) and writing letters to Brian late at night when I was supposed to be sleeping or studying. I was always listening to music my junior and senior years of high school. I slept with my CD player on repeat every night.

My first two years of college I really had no idea what I was doing or where I was going. I remember desperately trying to Find God ™ and several CDs show this effort – 4Him and Third Day. Donald bought me the Train CD during this time because he told me the song “Drops of Jupiter” was everything he ever wanted to say to me. I still love this song and think of him every time I hear it. I also have Lifehouse, and can remember seeing them when they played at our county 4-H fair.

The CD that I’m so glad I found again though is Marcus Bovre – Angels, Bones, and Clocks. Marcus Bovre was a local musician out of Madison that was popular locally, but should have been famous nationally. His music and lyrics are beautiful. The first time I saw him and his band in person was at the Willie Street Festival in the summer of 2003, right before I left for London. He left the music business in 2004, I think, in order to spend more time with his family. One of the songs on this CD just struck me during this time, and has stuck with me since. I don’t even know the name of it, but it is exactly how I try to live my life. Here are the lyrics the best I can tell –

Twenty years and the minutes crawl and the days fly by
Twenty years ain’t nothing at all when you’re young like I
The absurdities are so sublime
I run red lights just to stand in line
Just to save myself some precious little time

I can’t save my life
Spend it by the nickel and the dime
I can’t save my life like that
Lazy days just growin’ fat
Feeding on my precious little time

Show some faith as a smile on the face of the millennium
Show some grace, just might change the pace of the days to come
When you measure all your time in line
The unbroken circle seems unkind
When you wave goodbye to your precious little time

I can’t save my life
Spend it by the nickel and the dime
I can’t save my life like that
Lazy days just growin’ fat
Feeding on my precious little time

The absurdities, they’re so sublime
I run red lights just to stand in line
Just to save myself some precious little time…

I don’t know how much more time I have here, so I want to do something every day to reach my goals. I don’t have time to wait for things to happen to me – I try to make them happen for myself. Anyway, the whole CD is great and I’ve been listening to it for the last day.

Oh yeah, since 2003 I’ve given up on CDs and just download my music. Unfortunately when my computer died in 2005, it took all of my 5 gigs of music with it. Boohooo.

2007-06-14T22:07:00.000-07:00

Phew...it's been busy around here. Hopefully things will start slowing down after this weekend...but I doubt it.

Dad leaves to go back to California tomorrow. He'll be right in L.A. for the next three months. He's been home for over a month now, so we've all really gotten used to him being around. Lauren loves her "Pawww" and I think she's going to be really sad when he leaves. She's gotten in the habit of going outside with him all the time when he goes out to smoke. I don't think he's coming home after his next contract, so it could be six months before we see him again!

We spent last weekend at Jen's brother's house (who also happens to be the owner of the company Donald works for) swimming in his pool since he was out of town. We had a great time! The pool has a really shallow area (like six inches deep) that Lauren could play in without too much interruption from us, so she really liked that. Plus there were two waterslides - one for big people and one that was just her size! We all had a great time. We're going back tomorrow night for one more swim before he gets home from vacation.

Dad going down the slide.

Gosh it's hot here. It went from being pleasant to hotter than hell in a week. Now, I like it warm, but when you walk outside and literally bake, it's too much. Our electric bill is going to be crazy next month from running air all the time.

Oh yeah, and for today's excitement, we had three lizards in the house tonight. THREE. The first one I saw right about the front door. Donald tried to get in a cup, but ended up knocking it down, and Sammie mauled it. He got the tail off and then the poor thing ran behind the filing cabinet and we couldn't find it. Later, I saw Sammie staring intently at the wall, and there was another one! This one had a tail, so we knew it wasn't the first one. Donald managed to get that one outside in one piece. THEN - I went outside to get some soda out of my car, and came back in, and there was a third one on the ceiling by the front door! Sammie had a good time with that one, too. Ugh! I don't know where they are coming from. We've never had a problem with the darn things before (of course we didn't live in this house last summer, so who knows). Maybe they're hiding in the door frame? Yuck!

2007-06-04T00:32:00.000-07:00

Oooh, forgive me for not being around much the last week or so. Unfortunately there's more of that to come. I've been extremely busy! My new school term started June 1, so I've been writing papers like crazy again. I actually have to keep up this term since student teaching is coming up quick! Also, my dad is still here which keeps me busier than usual because I actually have someone to talk to and do things with during the day. Hahaha.

I've also been working on a new project! I don't have it quite ready to unveil yet, but when I do, you'll be the first to know. Anyway, between those three things, my time has been crunched. Eeeek.

Yeah, so now its 2:30 AM...I think it's time to go to bed. See ya....in a few days probably!

2007-05-25T13:07:00.000-07:00

My interview for Kaplan yesterday went really well. The center manager just asked about 5-6 pretty general interview questions. The training class should start in the next month or two. He said right now he just has me and one other person, so he has to wait for a few more people before he can open a class. I'm fine with waiting because this wasn't really something I was looking for in the first place.

I also have two other "projects" that I want to get started on that I think have great potential! One is writing an e-book and the other is building a website and possibly a blog to go along with it. I'm hoping that I can get them started this year and then "give" them to Donald and let him work on them. I already have too many projects!

We're not doing too much this weekend for Memorial Day. Dad said something about a cookout in Hattiesburg on Monday with one of the girls he works with, but we'll see. Anyone have anything fun planned?

2007-05-23T21:17:00.000-07:00

I passed my audition for Kaplan, yay! I'm going in tomorrow evening for an interview and if I pass that then I go on to the teacher training course. They never did call me, so I ended up calling them yesterday. I hate it when places don't get back to me when they're supposed to.

We got the laptop working last night so now we wireless internet. That makes me happy. Having the laptop is going to make doing my school work so much easier. Speaking of, my new term starts in a week and I'm not ready to start again! Oh, well...just three classes to go before student teaching (!!).

I wish my house would stay clean for more than 15 minutes. I no sooner get done cleaning one room and it is trashed again in 30 minutes. Having my dad here doesn't help matters because this place is so small and cluttered as it is, when another person's junk is added to the pile, it just becomes worse. Plus I swear neither one of the men in this house know how to pick up after themselves. How hard is it to put a dirty dish IN the dishwasher rather than leaving it in the sink? MEN!!

2007-05-21T21:39:00.001-07:00

I guess it's been just a few days since I've updated. We've been busy around here!

Dad got in Thursday afternoon so we spent the rest of the day re-organizing his room and closet. Friday we did lots of running around which included trips to Walgreens, the dry cleaners, the DMV (or whatever it's called here), Big Lots, Marshall's, Mazio's (gotta eat), and a furniture store. That was exhausting. Lauren was a really good sport about all of it, too. We spent Saturday trying to get more than one computer hooked up to the internet, but failed. Sunday a friend of dad's came over to work on it and failed too. I called Comcast about the situation today and apparently we need some sort of disk for the other computers. Will pick that up tomorrow. Today Lauren and I went to Walgreens and Wal-Mart for various things. Tomorrow we have playgroup. I also need to go grocery shopping one of these days!

Dad bought a new laptop so he gave us his "old" one. The old one is a Dell and is not even a year old, but it is a piece of crap. The wireless card isn't working for some reason, so we'll have to get that fixed. I don't know what the deal with it is, but once we get it fixed it will be great to have around! Then we'll have 3 computers...just what we need!

In kid news, Lauren is walking really well now. She even tries to run, but that doesn't work out so well. She's also talking up a storm. Some of her new words are kitty, toes, moon, daddy, ears, eyes, book, ball, and baby. She knows most of her body parts (head, ears, eyes, mouth, chin, tummy, knees, and toes) and lots of animal noises (cow says moo, dog says woof, kitty says meow, sheep says baa, horse says neigh, snake says sssss, and monkey says ooo ooo).

She's driving me nuts with the tantrums, though. If I take something away, all hell breaks loose. She's started biting, too. I think she does it to try to be funny, but it hurts! Darn kid. On the up side, she's sleeping VERY well now. I put her to bed at nine and she doesn't wake up until I come in around 1 or 2. I bet if our bed wasn't so creaky she'd sleep till morning.

Speaking of the bed situation, when my dad leaves this time we're putting her in her own twin. I'm just not getting much sleep with her kicking me all night. We'll keep her bed in our room for a while though, until we're sure that she's okay with it. I have to get her sleeping on her own by January when I start working. Bleh.

Okay, guess that's it for now. I have to start working on my Philosophy of Teaching. Fun times.

2007-05-17T12:09:00.000-07:00

Lauren's doctor appointment went well today. We went to a new doctor here in Ridgeland and it was really nice! It is a brand new office and it is just adorable. Anyway, she now weighs 21 pounds, 8 ounces, which is in the 9th percentile. She's 32.5 inches tall, which is in the 95th percentile. All those numbers make for a tall, skinny baby! I don't really think she's that skinny - she's got some yummy baby chubbies for sure! Anyway, she's healthy as a horse and didn't even cry when she got her finger stuck for the hemocrit screen :o) We still have to go to the health dept. to get her shots, though, because this doctor doesn't have the insurance deal worked out for immunizations yet, I guess. Kind of a pain, but whatever. Hopefully they have it worked out soon!

2007-05-16T21:11:00.000-07:00

In my frantic dig to find my ACT scores today, I unearthed all my old high school stuff. Yikes! I meant to keep some of the pictures out so I could scan them up, but I forgot when I started cramming stuff back in the closet. Of course my scores were in the box that was way in the back of the closet, on the bottom, so now everything is a mess. Oh well.

I think I did okay at my Kaplan audition. I'll know by Friday if I made it. If I did, I still have to do an interview and a 20 hour training class before I can teach. Oh, and re-take the ACT because my scores are over 5 years old. That part kinda scares me. I knew all that math crap in high school, but now I don't think I could do a trig problem now if my life depended on it! You have to have a 27 or higher to be able to teach, so we'll see. I probably won't be able to score that high again.

2007-05-13T21:41:00.000-07:00

Donald got home Friday afternoon - we were very happy to see him! We had a nice weekend. Last night we went to Kelli's house and Lauren had a great time playing with her daughter, Maddie. Maddie's four, but Lauren didn't care - she still had fun. Today we went grocery shopping (ICK!!) and had to make a quick Wal-Mart trip. That was a nightmare. I had 8 coupons for $2 off two 2-liters of Coke that I thought expired today and I wanted to use them. Turns out they expired yesterday, and the cashier at WM wouldn't let us use them, so then we didn't want all that soda. The cashier was not happy about having to take the soda off our order, but oh well - that's her job. Then she told us to go put the 2-liters in a cart over by customer service, and the guy at customer service about had a cow. After we finally got out of the store and to the car, Donald realized that the cashier never gave us back our gift card, so I had to go back in to get it. Did I mention how much I hate Wal-Mart? Donald was fit to be tied by the time we were done, and then we still had to go to Kroger.

Anyway. We have a busy week this week. Tomorrow night we are heading to Vicksburg to use our free play and free hotel room. We're coming back Tuesday morning before Donald goes to work. Wednesday I have my audition/interview for Kaplan and I haven't gotten my presentation together yet, so I'd better do that. Thursday Lauren has a doctor appointment with her new doctor, and my dad comes home. I also have Lauren's winter clothes that I need to list on eBay and my student teaching application to finish up. Bleh.

Hope everyone has a great week!

2007-05-11T11:46:00.000-07:00

This is what I found when I got out of the shower this morning. That's dental floss, all unravelled.

Obviously she liked the taste of it because she drug it around for quite a while like this.

Off to better things. Notice my purse, contents emptied all over the floor. Again.

I thought about trying to salvage some of it, but I gave up. In a ball it went, right into the garbage :o(

2007-05-10T20:00:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to think about student teaching and getting NERVOUS!!! I start in January, which is coming up faster than I thought. I have to have my application completed by the end of the month, which includes an autobiography, philosophy of teaching, resume, and various other things. I know it sounds bad, but I've always been good at most things I try, and I'm really scared that I won't be "good" at teaching. I know that no teacher is perfect, but darn it I want to be a good teacher! Hopefully I don't screw up too much :o)

In other news, we've definately entered the realm of "toddler" around here. Everything is a crisis to Lauren. She had 4 tantrums today - and today was a good day. Some of the problem is that we haven't babyproofed well enough, and she is into everything, which results in me taking lots of things away from her. The kid can seriously reach everything in the house. Tonight I was drinking a can of soda and I wouldn't give her any and she did NOT like that one bit. She flung herself on the ground and just wailed. It's going to be a long two years.

Donald gets home tomorrow night - yippie!! I'm going crazy around here. He's my entertainment :o)

She's stealing my money already....

2007-05-09T21:08:00.000-07:00

2007-05-07T12:46:00.000-07:00

We took Lauren to the park the other night and there was a couple playing tennis. She looked right at them and exclaimed, "Ball!". Here we are trying to get her to say it again.

2007-05-07T12:42:00.000-07:00

I had a nice birthday yesterday. Donald got up at 5 AM, went to Wal-Mart for supplies, and then came home and made me breakfast in bed. Yummy!

Lauren and I are doing fine all alone. We went swimming last night for a bit and came home and watched a movie. I must say it is nice being able to watch whatever I want on TV! Donald is sort of a TV hog. Hahaha. Lauren helped me make stuffed shells last night, which I've been dying to do but kept putting off because Donald won't eat cream cheese. So we made and ate them without him.

Tomorrow we are meeting up with a brand new playgroup at the park, so hopefully we can both meet some new friends. We have a shop on Wednesday, but other than that, we have nothing planned for the rest of the week.

2007-05-05T22:06:00.000-07:00

Donald is leaving for Birmingham this afternoon for a week for work. It's going to suck big time not having him here, but I imagine we'll survive.

We got a new camera yesterday. I couldn't survive without one any longer. We ended up buying a Canon PowerShot A550. We'd previously had two Kodaks, and thought we'd try something new since both of those ended up not working. The last camera we bought was back in 2003 - the Kodak 5.0 MP. I was/am amazed at how reasonably priced digital cameras are now! We paid over $600 for the last Kodak four years ago, and now you can get nearly anything you'd ever want for less than $300! So, we ended up spending much less than I thought we would!

Well, I guess I'd better get to bed. I haven't been up past midnight in weeks!!

2007-05-04T10:46:00.000-07:00

I donated blood last night and today I feel icky tired. It was my first time doing it, and they talked me into doing a double red cell donation. It took about 45 minutes and didn't feel that great, but I think some of that was because the needle thing was in funny. My arm is a little sore, but that's okay. I don't have to do it again until August. Because I'm tired, I was planning on napping with Lauren today, but don't you know the day I'm tired she decides to only sleep for 30 minutes instead of her usual 2 hours. Bleh.

2007-05-03T10:37:00.000-07:00

Ugh, I just ate so many strawberries that now I have a stomache ache. But they are so delicious!

We went to storytime today but had to leave halfway through because the kid took a monstrous dump right in the middle of it. I went out to the car to get a new diaper, but discovered that when Donald cleaned out the car, he really cleaned out the car. So, we had to go home because she was super stinky.

I passed my test last night. It is so different studying to pass than studying to get a good grade. WGU doesn't give grades, just pass or not pass, so the numbers don't matter. I got an 82 on my test, which is just fine since 70 is passing. I'm sure I could have done better if I'd have actually studied, but why study when the numbers don't matter anyway? Maybe I'm just lazy.

I've been entertaining the idea that maybe I went back to school for the wrong thing. It's probably just the indecisive side coming out, so I'm trying to ignore it for now. I mean, I really want to do something with education (I would love, love, love to open a small, progressive private school someday), but I am really NOT sure I want to teach in a public K12 school. Plus being a teacher is going to keep me poor for the rest of my life. Maybe I should have went the medical route after all. Can you go to school for two things at once? HAHAH...then I'd really be crazy. Imagine working on a teaching and nursing degree at the same time. I'd be better off locking myself in an asylum right now.

Oh Donald would kill me if he even knew I was thinking about more school after this. As if $60,000+ in student loans isn't enough. Why did I turn down that full scholarship to Milsaps again? Oh, how hindsight is 20/20.

Wow okay that's enough rambling for today. This is what happens when I have too much time on my hands!

Annoying Toddler Tricks

2007-05-01T18:13:00.000-07:00

Donald taught Lauren two new "tricks" while we were on vacation. First, he taught her how to say "no" and now she is saying it every two seconds!

"Lauren, what does the kitty say?"

"Noooooooo".

"Where's the balloon?"

"Noooooooooooooooooooo".

At first it was cute, but now it's getting annoying really fast.

The second "trick" is "bleeehhh". As in when something is yucky, it's bleeeehhh.

Everything at dinner tonight was bleeehhh, except of course dessert (ice cream).

This toddlerhood thing is going to be a long, long journey - I can already tell.

2007-04-30T11:25:00.000-07:00

We made it home safely and had a great time! The only crappy thing was that my camera broke on our second day, so we don't have many pictures :o( We did take some with dad's camera, but he's back in California, so it'll be a few weeks until he comes home and I can get them from him. I can't even get the pictures we did take off of the memory card right now, so no pictures at all for a few weeks. Sorry!

Other than the camera situation, we did a have a wonderful trip. The wedding in Key West was beautiful. We had a great time at the beach in Cozumel and we ended up doing a wildlife adventure thing in Belize. I would love to spend more time in Belize without the kiddo someday - lots of fun grownup things to do there!

I loved the actual cruise part of the vacation. Lauren was very well-behaved, even at dinner. All of the crew loved her. Dad entered the belly flop contest and got third place. That was a sight to see, and it was probably the highlight of the trip! We weren't sure if we were going to like cruising, but it really is a worry-free vacation with lots to do for anyone. We will definately do it again!

Well, now were home and the house is a mess already. I've been trying to work on laundry today, and am almost finished. Not much else going on this week, except for my big test on Wednesday. Dad will be home again in two weeks so I have to get the house and spare room ready for that in the next few weeks.

Hope everyone had a good week!

Bye!

2007-04-20T17:00:00.000-07:00

Well, we're off! Here's our itinerary if you want to keep track.

Friday: We left our house around 5:30 PM and driving to Pompano Beach, Florida. It is a 14.5 hour drive (yikes!). You can see our route here. We are hoping, praying even, that Lauren sleeps most of the way. We should arrive in Pompano Beach around noon Saturday.

Saturday: We are going to see about checking into the hotel early and hopefully taking a nap. Then we'll just hang out at the beach the rest of the day and then find somewhere to eat.
Our hotel - Beachcomber Resort and Villas

Sunday: We have to pick my dad up at the airport at 5:00 AM. I'm still not sure why he was compelled to book the red-eye flight, but whatever. Another beach day and hopefully we'll get to squeeze in a nap.
New hotel for Sunday - Comfort Inns and Suites, Fort Lauderdale.

Monday: We leave on our cruise! The boat sails at 5:00 PM; I'm hoping on being on-board by noon.
Our cruise: Royal Carribean's Enchantment of the Seas

Tuesday: Key West! My cousin, Trisha, is getting married at a botanical garden in the afternoon, so we won't have much time to explore the area. This is also formal night on the cruise, so we'll be getting all dressed up!
The Key West Tropical Forest and Botanical Garden

Wednesay: Today we're in Cozumel!!! I'm so excited for this day. We are spending the day at Paradise Beach. We are going to rent kayacks and snorkel gear and drink foo-foo drinks on the beach all day! Sounds like a good time to me!
Paradise Beach

Thursday: Belize! We don't have anything planned yet for Belize. We may still book an excursion, depending on how tired we are and how Lauren is acting. All of the "good" excursions are too wild for Lauren, so we may just stay on board and soak up the sun.

Friday: We are at sea all day. We will be spending the day relaxing in the sun with more foo-foo drinks and lots of food!

Saturday: We get back to Fort Lauderdale around 7:00 AM and disembark. Boo hoo. We're staying in Fort Lauderdale at some Best Western (better find the print out for that, LOL).

Sunday: Driving back home. Not looking forward to this AT ALL!!! We may end up leaving late Saturday night, depending on how tired we are.

Monday: Back to reality. Belch.

Hope you all have a good week! I hope we do, too!

2007-04-20T13:12:00.000-07:00

Wow. For the first time in months, I have nothing to do. Everything is packed except for a few things that are in the dryer right now.

I even managed to finish my class. Don't ask how because I have no idea. I'm just glad to have it over with so I don't have to worry about it when I get home.

Lauren is sleeping and now I'm bored. It's great to feel bored once in a while!!!

The good, the bad, and the, well, ugly....

2007-04-18T13:37:00.000-07:00

Lauren is getting so big! She's looking more like a little girl every day and less like my baby...

Playing on the floor with mama.

Daddy penned her in the living room with her dinosaur thing so I could get some work done. Needless to say, she did NOT like that idea.

Um, yeah...here's Donald trying on the scuba gear. Attractive, no?

2007-04-16T12:03:00.000-07:00

We finally got our taxes finished today. Why is it that we get a huge return from Federal but have to pay in to State? I don't get it. Eh, oh well.

We went swimming last night and met a really nice lady who lives in our complex that has offered babysitting! Yippie! She just moved here from North Carolina to take care of her dad who has dementia, and her kids are in college, so I guess she's bored. She seems very nice and she played with Lauren in the pool and Lauren even seemed to like her. So hopefully we can get to know her a little and then she can babysit! It will be a welcome relief.

Hmm...oh yeah, if you have a CVS nearby you can get a free stroller there this week. If you spend $20 on Huggies products, you get the stroller free. I had some coupons, so I got 2 Jumbo packs of diapers, a thing of wipes, plus the stroller for $12 (paid for with Extra bucks, so free really). Not a bad deal if you can use an umbrella stroller. All we had was our big Peg Perego and we've been wanting a smaller one just for quick trips to the park, etc., so that worked out great for us. We're a Pampers family (when we use disposables) and I've never used Huggies before, so hopefully they work out okay...trying to stock up for vacation.

Let's see....what else? Lauren's back to healthy. She had a pretty crazy rash Friday and Saturday that I'm pretty sure was roseola, but she's much better now. Back to her happy self, thank goodness, because I was ready to give her away!

Okay, I guess that's as much as I can think of right now. Better get back to work on this damn paper. Belch.

2007-04-15T22:07:00.000-07:00

Ack. Just found out Friday that Donald has to go to Birmingham in May for a week for work. His boss got promoted, so him and Jen are taking over the other lady's work, so they both have to go to Cisco to some training seminar to do the new work. While it's good for Donald....his employer investing $2000+ in training courses for him means they must like him....it sucks for us because he'll be gone all week! I guess I shouldn't complain too much. I know some of you have hubbys that are gone for weeks at a time! I could never do it, not without family around. I'd go nuts!

2007-04-13T20:59:00.000-07:00

Before I got pregnant, everyone I ever knew vaccinated their kids. Not getting vaccinated just wasn't an option. I never questioned whether or not I'd get my kids shots - of course I would! Why wouldn't you?

Somewhere along the line I encountered parents who did not vaccinate their kids. These parents claimed that there were all sorts of nasty things in vaccines that shouldn't be put in kids. The government requires these shots, and how could the government require something that could actually harm your kids?

I ended up doing a little bit of research, and ended up deciding to get Lauren most of her vaccinations. We decided to skip the chicken pox vaccine until she's older, but went ahead with the rest. I'd heard some bad things about the ProQuad vaccine (MMR + chickenpox), and asked the doctor to just give her the MMR without the chickenpox. He kind of looked at me like I was crazy, told me that it was required to enter school, blah blah. I told him that I knew all that so he went ahead and just gave the MMR.

I think the pox vaccine is kind of silly to begin with, since it's not a life-threatening disease or anything. Yes, people die from it, but mostly adults or people with immune diseases. For me growing up, pox was like a right of passage. I got it in kindergarten from my cousin who was a few years older. I remember my grandma taking me to her house to play just so I could get it.

Anyway, today I stumbled across this article today while googling for info on roseola (yeah, I think Lauren has/had it), and now I'm so glad that we decided to wait on the chicken pox vaccine. Basically, it talks about kids who have autism and how the parents think that autism can be linked to the ProQuad shot. Basically the ProQuad shot has about 10x the amount of chicken pox vaccine that the regualar chicken pox vaccine has, and combined with the MMR vaccine, the combined vaccine stresses out the immune system and triggers autism. I know there's probably research out there for/against this argument, and if I wasn't so busy I'd try to find it. Either way....it can't hurt to hold off on the chicken pox vaccine until the kid is older. Autism scares me, especially this regressive autism that may/may not be triggered by the ProQuad vaccine.

Something to think about. Holding off on the chicken pox vaccine can't hurt, could help. Never know!

2007-04-12T11:42:00.000-07:00

Lauren is finally feeling better, after 5 straight days of running a 103 fever. Today was the first day that she didn't wake up and feel like she was on fire. I was starting to get worried! I'm feeling okay. I haven't really gotten sick, but I don't feel 100%, either. I had a sore throat the past two days, but today it seems to have gone away. If I'm going to get sick, it had better happen soon!

Since Lauren was feeling better, we went to storytime this morning at the library and then picked out a few more books. We also went to Hudsons and I made the mistake of showing Lauren a singing teddy bear while we were there. The teddy bear ended up coming home with us :o( Oh well. I guess $9 is a small price to pay for a quiet baby in the store.

I'm not exactly sure what we are doing this weekend yet. Donald said something about the Natural Science museum again, so we'll see. I need to stay home and get ready for this trip, but it's supposed to be nice out, so that probably won't happen. Oh well!