Can I Get You a Kleenex?

In the last three years, we have been incredibly lucky where illnesses are concerned. The girls both had the flu, stomach and regular, while the Mister was deployed to Afghanistan. This hardly counts as anything though since the Murphy's Law of deployments is that if something is going to go wrong, it will go wrong during a deployment. Then, when the Mister got back from Afghanistan, he brought some sort of virus with him that he and I had for a week or so. That was fun. Yup. Other than that, the girls have only had minor things that didn't last longer than 24 hours. Compared to all of my friends and family on Facebook and their kids that seem like they come down with something every other week, we're a pretty healthy bunch.

About a year ago, the Oldest child seemed to be getting constant colds that were too frequent and lasted too long. She also complained that her eyelashes were driving her nuts and that she wanted to pull them out. I thought she was going insane. Turns out that she developed seasonal allergies. Her doctor told her to take over the counter Allegra which seemed to do the trick for about six months. Now her allergies have evolved from just being seasonal to including pet dander as well. Great. Fun times.

THEN, about three weeks ago, the Youngest child came down with what we figured was a cold. Coughing, sneezing, stuffy, congestion. You know. We poured over the counters down her throat and after about a week, she seemed to be getting better. Then, two days later, she started coughing incessantly with sneezing with a stuffy nose. So, we bought more over the counters. This time, nothing seemed to help. The fact that the Mister and I didn't come down with anything was also a clue that maybe something other than a cold was going on here.

Today, I took both of the girls to the doctor's. I'm telling you what. All the constant coughing, sniffling, sneezing, and hacking is really starting to grate on my nerves. I know they can't help it but, GEEZ! The doctor changed up Morgan's meds and said that she might have to add either a nose spray, inhaler, or both if the new prescription doesn't help. He diagnosed the Youngest with allergies as well. She's on Allegra and an inhaler. Seeing as how Tricare is doing their damndest not to pay for anything anymore (and I think we actually have United Health Care now because we, meaning military families, are being pawned off), we spent a crapton at the drugstore on allergy medications tonight.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we don't have to play around too much with their medications. The Youngest has to be reevaluated in two weeks because of the inhaler. She was relieved when I told her she didn't have to take it to school because she didn't want to be made fun of for having it. How sad is that?? Mean kids suck. Allergies suck. Long car rides with two sniffling and coughing kids suck. Just saying.

First Day of School 2012 Edition

Today was the first day of 7th grade and the first day of 10th grade for my daughters. It was a day that we were all dreading for different reasons.

The Youngest child is afraid she'll get a mean PE teacher, lol. She didn't really care for her PE teacher last year and is hoping that she gets a new one this year. She also agonized over which new ensemble she had would have the honor of being her back to school outfit. Other than that, she was excited to start back to school. She loves her new clothes, shoes, backpack, and school supplies. It's just the way that it should be for a kid her age.

The Oldest isn't looking forward to anything this year. Again, par for the course for someone her age. She isn't happy unless she has something to complain about so she should, in theory, be ecstatic to go back to school. She hates math specifically and really isn't looking forward to any of her new classes this year. There's also this girl that's been a thorn in her side since last year that she's not looking forward to dealing with this year. Normally, I chalk this kind of thing up to normal girl teenagery-type angst. But I've seen this girl in action. She copies the Oldest child's hair for cripe's sake and spreads rumors about her too. If she, the Oldest, doesn't end up suspended from school for fighting this year, I'll be amazed. Not that I condone violence or fighting and there will a punishment at home in store for her should she resort to violence. But some people don't learn lessons until they're slapped in the face with them...literally.

As for me, I'm not the type of mom that looks forward to the first day of school like an oasis in the desert like most parents do. Having a kid with learning disabilities makes school and homework a challenge beyond the norm. It's just easier having her home. Secondly, I really dislike dealing with the traffic three times a day. It was a nightmare at the Youngest child's school this morning and we even left early in anticipation of the back to school rush. ::sigh::

Other than the traffic though, today has gone off without a hitch so far (knock wood). I still have to pick them up and stuff. But I made them both the breakfast of their choice. Well, mostly. I served up scrambled eggs to the Oldest because she's not a morning person and I thought the extra protein would help her through her day. She is, after all, used to sleeping in until noon or later. She also had toast and Ovaltine. The Youngest had a waffle, banana, and a glass of Ovaltine. I felt very soccer mom-ish this morning, lol.

I found out today that my class that was supposed to start on the 10th is cancelled due to low enrollment. I was switched out to the October 22nd session which is when my other fall semester class is starting. I was hoping to have a staggered schedule this semester but no luck. At this point, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that neither of my classes are cancelled because the October 22nd start date is the last of the fall semester and I've already bought my books. I only have four classes left for pete's sake. Let me get it done!!!

Tomorrow is a run day for the Oldest and I. It's one more thing for which I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Having to get up an hour early to go running before school will take a lot of willpower on both our parts.

You People Are No Fun

A summary of my most awesome weekend...

Friday was the last day of school for the kids. They have the next two weeks or so off of school for Winter Break. I'm so looking forward to not driving kids to and from school every day. Friday night, the Youngest child had a new friend spend the night at our house. She was an...interesting kid. We had a Christmas event planned for Friday night but with the nasty weather we had, we nixed that and went to iHop for dinner instead.

Saturday, both the girls managed to make plans to spend the night at friends' houses so the Mister and I had the night to ourselves. It's the first night we've had alone since our anniversary vacation back in May. Because the girls made these plans on the fly, we didn't have a chance to plan a special night so we just went out to dinner and then did some shopping. It was just nice knowing that we could do what we wanted to do without worrying about having to get home to the kids.

Today, we vegged. The Mister had two papers to finish up for his classes and the girls were both tired from their nights out. I think that I might be coming down with a cold (my throat is scratchy and I'm tired beyond all belief), so I took a pajama day and watched Netflix on the couch all day. I also played Tiny Tower on my phone too, heheh. My Bitizens are prosperous just in case you were wondering.

We did have a couple of hiccups in the weekend. Bailey peed on our brand new couch. I'm pretty sure this is a jealous reaction to the cat. She used to pee in our bed when she got mad but our bed is so high now that I can barely get into it, lol. Bailey won't even jump into the back of our SUV anymore. As for the couch, we got Lazy Boy's maintenance coverage or whatever they call it so all I have to do is schedule someone to come out and clean it. If they can't clean and remove the smell, they have to give us a new couch. Even so, the Mister and I were very upset by this behavior. Not to mention, the house smells like dog pee. Bailey has also taken to eating cat cookies if you know what I mean. Besides the fact that this is totally, completely, and utterly disgusting, and she's making a mess throughout the house with kitty litter, we have the clumping litter which could make her sick. I have what I hope is a solution to this problem but we haven't tried it out yet, so we'll see. Since Friday, I've vacuumed the house, upstairs and down, four times.

All in all, and in spite of the dog, we had a great weekend and I'm looking forward to the next couple weeks. Woot!

NaBloPoMo Day 9: Hump Day

Wednesday has me thinking about what we have going on this weekend. Not a whole lot.

First of all, the Oldest Child's punishment will come to an end on Saturday. I'm not going into the details of the offense, but I will tell you what the punishment was because it's a bit funny. She's been grounded, but not in the traditional sense. Grounding kids to their rooms, nowadays, it's a pretty useless thing to do. Even when I was a teenager, I was never very upset to be grounded. I had a TV, a radio, a Nintendo, a phone, and a full bookshelf. The Oldest Child has many similar things. She has a TV, an old Playstation 2, her cell phone with it's Internet, games, texting, etc., and whatever else she has in there for entertainment. Out of a 24 hour weekday, she spends 15 hours of her day in her room, voluntarily. So her punishment was that she had to sit at the kitchen table doing homework or reviewing her text books if she didn't have homework, for a minimum of two hours directly after school. Then she was grounded FROM her room until 8 pm. This has been a three week long punishment and she's whined and complained about it every single day. I'm hoping that it has been an effective punishment but only time will tell.

Secondly, the Mister and I are going to make a serious dent in our Christmas shopping this weekend. I'm saving some stuff for Black Friday and Cyber Monday but for the most part, I want to get as much done as I can, as soon as I can. Last Christmas sucked with the Mister being deployed so I want this year to be fantabulous.

Lastly, the Oldest Child has her last band competition of the season on Saturday. This competition is being held at Vista High School. Her high school band has come in third at the previous two competitions so they're hoping to place higher this last time. I can't believe they didn't place higher last weekend. The band that came in second sucked. I know, I'm biased, but they really did. While I enjoy seeing the bands perform, it's supposed to rain on Saturday. I'm a weany and have no desire to sit in the cold rain. Supposedly, the show will go on unless there's lightening and the chances of that are slim to none. Oh wells.

That's my weekend plans.

Looking Through the Window

The Children's Pool at La Jolla, CA

What have I been up to lately? I don't call anyone, I don't blog regularly, and I only post generalized snippets of my life via Twitter and/or Facebook. I feel very out of touch.

So, the Mister and I went to see the Foo Fighters at Viejas Arena last week. Cage the Elephant opened for them. It was the best concert I've ever been to. Granted, I haven't been to a lot of concerts, but the Foo definitely comes out on top and I can't imagine a better show. The concert was on a Monday and we didn't get home until after midnight. Getting up at 6:20 the next morning with the kids was rough, lol. Worth it though. I was tired, had an ear ache and a sore throat on Tuesday, but it was all worth it to see Uncle Dave and the boys.

The oldest child is currently enjoying the longest and most severe grounding of her life. I won't go into the details except to say that if she ever deserved to be whipped, this would have been the time. Other than that, she is finishing up the football season with the band on Friday. She has her first competition on Saturday. Despite her complaints, she has had fun being in the marching band this year. It still remains to be seen whether or not she'll stick with it next year.

The youngest is still the same. She gets her homework done as fast as possible and goes outside until it's dark enough to come in. On the weekends, she's out the door as fast as she can to come in at dark. She's so tanned and her hair is so sun bleached that she doesn't even look related to the rest of us. Saturday, she's going to her first party as a middle school kid. It's Halloween themed so I'm sure it'll be a good time.

The Mister got his associates degree certificate in the mail the other day. He actually could have gotten it a long time ago but kept putting off taking biology, his last requirement for the degree. Very soon he'll have his bachelor's in hand. Other than school and work and going to concerts with me ;), that's about all he's up to. No deployments on the horizon as of this writing. Things like this can change in an instant though.

As for me, I'm in transition. I feel like I've either hit the "finding myself phase" of early adulthood very late or I'm having a midlife crisis very early, lmao. My clients were regularly pissing me off (sorry to any of them reading this) so I started siphoning them off until I was down to zero. I was planning on getting a job outside of the house not realizing what life would be like once the kids were in high school and junior high respectively. Unless I want to work from 5 pm to 6 am, and I don't, finding a job outside the house will be really tough for me. Likewise, school has been put on hold indefinitely. I have run out of financial aid so until I figure out a way to pay for it out of pocket, school isn't likely right now. I have to say, I'm not that sorry about it. I was only going through the motions and doing the minimal amount of work necessary to maintain my GPA. I wasn't enjoying any of my classes or actually learning anything. My only regret is all the time and money I wasted going to school when I wasn't getting anything from the experience.

In the interim, I have started a historical research project that I find fascinating, engaging, and fulfilling. It's still in the early stages so I don't have anything to say about it yet.

I'm also loving living life in California. In the less than two years we've lived here, the Mister and I have been to two concerts, one symphony and our anniversary vacation to Paso Robles. As a family, we've been to Sea World twice, Seaport Village, Julian, Balboa Park, numerous baseball games, the book fair at UCLA, to the desert to visit Jennifer, and other outings around the San Diego area. The kids have been to the zoo, the wild animal park, Old Town as well as many others. Not to mention all the fabulous shopping we've done. That's more than we did the entire six years we lived away from San Diego. California suits us.

First Week of School

This school year has been the biggest adjustment. Both kids are at new schools...again, this year with one starting junior high and the other high school. I'm so tired that I don't know if I'm coming or going. This is what our day looked like yesterday:

6:20am - The Mister, the oldest child, and I get up.

6:20 - 6:45 - Getting ready for school, filling out paperwork for the oldest child, The Mister leaves for work.

7:15 - I leave to drive the oldest to school. Traffic is backed up 2 blocks because some genius city planner thought it'd be a good idea to build a high school on the corner of 2 of the 3 busiest streets in town and right on the way of morning commuters on the way to 2 different freeways.

7:30 - I get home and put my phone in the youngest child's room so that the alarm I have set will wake her up while I hit the shower.

7:30 - 8:30 - The youngest child and I are getting ready for the day.

8:30 - I head out to drive the youngest to school. That's right. I get the privilege of driving both kids to and from school this year.

8:45 - We get to the middle school and I have to park to go into the office to pay for the youngest's PE clothes. I pay, say goodbye, and drive home.

9:00 - about noonish - I go on a cleaning spree cuz I'm back to wearing the hat of SAHM (and that's all I have to say about that at this point in time) so I figure I should clean. Plus, I have maintenance coming at some point in the day to fix the 1/2 bath toilet that's been broken for about a month.
Some point during the morning, the Mister comes home from work to work out in the garage. This is what he does all day yesterday.

1:00 pm - I go a round with the oldest child on the phone (Going a round with her at least once a day is par for the course. No biggie.) as she calls me from school (Wednesday is early release day for her) to tell me she's walking to her old junior high to "see people". I tell her that's fine but that she needs to be home before 5 to eat, hydrate, and rest before band practice later on that night.

1 pm- I'm mopping the kitchen. Maintenance guy has come and gone and fixed the toilet half way telling me that it will hold "for a while". The Mister is still in the garage working out.

2'ish - I finally sit down for a minute.

3:10 pm -  The oldest calls and asks me to pick up her and her friend at Jack in the Box. I tell her to be ready to go cuz I have to leave soon to pick up her sister.

3:20 - On the way home from Jack in the Box, my reminder alarm goes off telling me it's time to leave to pick up the youngest. At this point, I'm speeding to get home so that I can drop off my cargo and get to the middle school on time.

3:25 - 4:05 - Picking up the youngest child. Which, btw, traffic is only backed up about half a block at her school. The parking lot, however, is a nightmare. I have to fight cars coming from three different directions and kids crossing two different ways in the parking lot just to get back to the street. It sucks and I hate it.

4:10 - 5pm. - The Mister is done working out and is now hiding out upstairs to get away from the VERY loud teenager and her friend and I join him when the youngest starts adding her voice to the fray.

5 pm - All 5 of us load up in the car to drop the oldest and her friend off at the high school for band practice. Then the three of us go to Target to get the youngest a lock for her locker and juice boxes for her lunch. She has decided she doesn't want to buy lunch this year. We'll see how long that lasts.

6'ish pm - We get home and I put a pork tenderloin in the over for dinner.

6:22 pm - The power goes off. Lucky for us, at this point in the day, it's only about 90 degrees outside and not the 100 it was earlier that day. Ha ha. My tenderloin still has about 10 more minutes to cook, at least, and none of the sides have been cooked yet. So, dinner is a bust and we hit the Arby's.

7:25 - We're home and I get a text from the oldest asking me to bring her a folder she forgot.

7:30 - 8:15 pm - I sit in the car wondering where in the heck the oldest is, playing solitaire on my phone, and listening to music. Loudly. In our texting, she didn't bother to mention that I could bring the folder when I came to pick her up from practice. I thought she needed it immediately. So I sat in my car for 45 minutes for no good reason. We go another round on the way home.

The rest of the night until 9:30, we complain about how hot it is in the house and that it's still too hot outside to open the windows. I'm thankful that we bought our emergency lantern in NC for our hurricane supplies even though it was never used for that purpose. No power on a hot night is no fun. We decide to go to bed cuz what the heck else are ya gonna do??

11 pm - I have finally just dozed off when I hear knocking at the door. It's the maintenance guys. They need us to move our car that's parked at the curb because the cause of the power outage is in our front yard. The electrical box thingy blew. Oil was all over the place. It has to be replaced. Blah blah. So the Mister moves the car, we go back to bed, and power comes back on about 1 am. The AC has never been more appreciated than in that moment.

Every day from now on will be a variation of this with the exception of losing our power for 7 hours...hopefully. I don't know how long I'm going to last having to drive both kids to and from school every day. In theory, the oldest can walk. The high school isn't so far but when it's 100 degrees outside, I don't like her having to walk. And she's just plain bitchy when I make her walk to school and I don't know if it's easier just to drive her so I don't have to listen to it or if I should make her walk. The youngest, however, her school is way too far away for walking to be an option. I hate traffic. It stresses me in a non-normal way. I need pills. I swear. How many days left in the school year???

The Wrath of Mom

You know how I hate Mondays, right? Well, tomorrow is going to be a particularly rough one.

We have to get up at around 3-3:30 am so that we can have the oldest child at the airport by 4:30. Why? She is taking a class trip to Washington, D.C., Gettysburg, PA, and NYC this week. I am very much the nervous mom. I can't believe that I'm sending my child clear across the country without me or her dad. And just so ya know. The first person that tells me she'll be fine and laughs at my mom-ness is going to get my foot up their butt. Seriously. I'm sure she's going to have the most absolute wonderful time with her friends and see some fabulous historical sites, but I will worry nonetheless. I just hope she gets lots of great pictures.

After we get back from the airport, the Mister has a 6:30 meeting at work and I have one from 10-11 and another from 11-noon. I can't imagine, after having to get up at the time of the morning, that I will remember what happens at either of these meetings let alone be of any use at them. Good thing I have a nice supply of coffee in the house.

I can't believe that if I were to go to bed right now, I'd have to get up again in 8 hours. The sun hasn't even gone down all the way.

Welcome Back! We're Staying Put

This is a long overdue post. The Mister arrived home from Afghanistan safe and sound February 27th. If we are Facebook friends, friends IRL, or family, you already know. But for those of you that don't want to be friends with me on Facebook :( this is news to you. The homecoming was pretty neat. Their flight didn't get back until about 9:30 at night so I wasn't expecting anything special at the base but there ended up being a band and lots of people and fanfare so it was nifty.

As for our contest, the Mister won by less than 1/2 a percent. He opted to get a new set of golf clubs as his prize. I have to wait until at least May 27th before I can buy a new purse, lol. I made up for it by buying some new sunglasses though. ;) Honestly, I was disappointed and surprised that I lost. He ate ice cream every day for dessert and had steak every Sunday and barely worked out. I, on the other hand, dieted and ran at least 12 miles a week on my elliptical machine and I also did aerobics at least once a week. I really expected to win. AND!!!!! Since he's been home, I've gained freaking four pounds back. Sheesh, gosh, and holy freaking moly! I am so not happy about that. He's such a bad influence, lol.

Also, we had decided that we were moving out of base housing while he was deployed. Our property was vandalized twice in three months. Not to mention that base housing just sucks in general. So, one day after the Mister touched down on home soil, we started looking for a new house. We didn't really tell too many people about this because I didn't want to get a certain somebody's hopes up. Now I'm glad that I didn't because finding a rental that would accept our two Boxers was harder than I thought it would be. So, we gave up and decided to stick it out in base housing for a while. I finally unpacked the rest of our boxes this past week. An entire year here and we still hadn't finished unpacking. I think this contributed to our overall feeling of dissatisfaction with our living situation. All of the things that makes a home a home, knickknacks, whatnots, photographs, etc., we had left packed up in boxes. Living like that gives you (at least it does me) a feeling of instability and being temporary. I missed my things and I'm glad they're out and about now.

Anyway, that about brings everyone up to speed. The youngest is doing well. The oldest is taking her 8th grade trip to Washington D.C. and NYC next week. The Mister is back to work. And I'm up to my same old shenanigans.

7 Things I Did to Take Back Sunday

Having the Mister gone this past week has been an adjustment. I find myself getting sentimental over the dumbest things. For instance, I can't make myself erase our last Blackberry Messenger conversation off of my phone even though it makes me sad to see the little red "x" next to his name that means "Contact is Unreachable". It's pathetic, I know.

The girls have been really good all week. I don't think anyone believes me when I tell them that all three of us are doing okay, but we are. Every once in a while, I catch the oldest being too quiet or staring off into space and I know she's thinking about her dad and today, the youngest told me she was missing her dad. Still, over all, we're getting in lots of girl time, just the three of us.

Today, Sunday, I decided that I was going to take Sundays just for me. All week long, I work and take care of the house, kids, dogs, and whatnot. I've decided that Saturdays are going to be my commissary days and little shopping excursions for the girls. That's what we did this past Saturday. But Sundays, I've decided that they're going to be days that I get to do whatever it is that I want to do. I think I need a bit of time to ease into this new idea because this is what I did on my first "Me Sunday".

1. I did my laundry. Again, I got all sentimental because some of the Mister's clothes were still in the hamper.
2. I changed the sheets on my bed.
3. I helped the girls with their chores.
4. I vacuumed the downstairs, the upstairs hallway, and my bedroom.
5. I cleaned the downstairs half bath.
6. I hung wall decorations (it only took me 6 months) in the living room, entry way, and downstairs half bath.
7. I cooked dinner.

Maybe by next Sunday I'll have figured out how to relax. ;)

Don’t Wanna Hear It

These are things my kids, and I’m sure tons of others, say that drive me up a wall.

• “I AM!!!!”  Said in response to me telling them to something I’ve already told them to do at least once before. UGH!!
• “I’m up!” Said in response to me telling them to get out of bed in the morning for the umpteenth time.
• “I didn’t do it.” Sure you didn’t.
• “She’s bothering me.” Shut up before I bother you.
• “Do I have to?” or “I don’t want to.”
• Responses to bad grades:  “I didn’t know it was due.” or “My teacher hates me.”
• “I’m doing it!” or “I did it/I”m done.” Again, in response to me telling them to do something, usually their chores or school work, after I’ve already told them to get going at least once or when they think they’re done but I can still see dirty dishes or counters that need cleaned.
• “It’s not fair.” Whine, whine, whine.

 

I’m sure I’ll be back to update this post, lol. Leave a comment with  your kid complaints and I’ll add them too.

I Guess This Is Something Else I Shouldn’t Have Said

We had a bit of a thing happen today. I’ll explain.

Last year when we took our OBX vacation, I wrote a letter of explanation to the oldest child’s school two weeks beforehand to let them know she would be absent and to request that her work be sent home with her so she could do it while we were gone. They didn’t give her her homework but let her do it when we got back. Whatever. But when we did get back, I fielded a couple calls from the school explaining to me the importance of students attending school. I was miffed but I let it go. I take my kids’ educations very seriously and don’t just arbitrarily let them miss school. Besides, we visited a lot of historic places which provided a hands on learning experience AND the kids only missed 4 days of school because of Veteran’s Day.

This year, I was better informed having read the student handbook that the kids get from the school district. Turns out that if you take your kids on an trip which has “educational opportunities” that the absence is excused as long as you send in your letter five days prior to the absence. I did so this year and even quoted the paragraph out of the handbook to cover my butt, not wanting a repeat of last year’s phone calls. Again. They did not send the oldest child’s school work with her but I didn’t receive any phone calls this year. I figured everything was good.

Yesterday, the oldest brought home her 4 1/2 week grades. NOT GOOD! She was missing a lot of assignments. She is now grounded. GROUNDED. She tried blaming our vacation on the missed work but I wasn’t buying it. One of her progress reports (they are sent separately from each of her teachers) had a hand written note at the bottom that said that it’s necessary for her to attend school in order to maintain her grades. That was it. The final straw that broke the camel’s back. I’m sick and tired of them riding their high horse and judging me because I choose to take my child on a family vacation. This year, she only missed 3 1/2 days because of the weather and Veteran’s Day. If they had sent her work with us, I can guarantee you it would have been completed and turned in when we got back. So, I write this teacher a letter explaining how I followed procedure according to the handbook, blah, blah, blah. My tone was a bit snarky but not overtly disrespectful. I was careful. I signed it with both my phone number and e-mail address at the bottom. She replied by e-mail, cleared things up, and the oldest is still VERY GROUNDED.

However, we find out that her teacher, upon reading my letter, yelled at her in front of the entire class. Maybe I was snarkier than I remember being. I am not happy about it though. She shouldn’t have taken out whatever feelings she had about my letter on the oldest let alone in front of the entire class. It’s immature and unprofessional. Sometimes I just really don’t get people.

Oh well. Only three months to go and I’ll get to deal with a whole new school, new teachers, and new snarkiness.

I Don’t Work Weekends

It was another slow weekend at our house. Friday the Mister and I did a bit of Christmas shopping. We also bought snack food for the Ohio State v. Michigan game on Saturday. We picked up pizza for dinner that night too. Real exciting, right?

Saturday we watched Ohio State beat Michigan for the sixth year in a row. Michigan fans want their coach fired, hehehe. The Mister wore his fuzzy buckeye hat and weirded out the neighborhood kids, lol. I think I’ve posted a picture of it before, but just in case, this is his hat:

I bought it for him for Christmas forever ago. He wore it to the grocery store one year in California. I did not go with him, lol.

Saturday night, the oldest child was invited to a birthday party. We didn’t let her go. It was for our neighbor who turned 14. She had a party that started at 8 and ended at midnight. The Mister and I don’t feel she’s mature enough (even though she’ll be 14 herself in July) to attend such a party. Funnily enough, she wasn’t even mad or upset. I don’t think she wanted to go anyway. This girl doesn’t go to the oldest’s school so she wouldn’t have known any of the kids there anyway.

Sunday, the Mister and I went to the commissary for the first time in about two months, maybe longer. We had been doing our grocery shopping out in town, but with all the Thanksgiving food we needed, we decided to hit the commissary, save some money, and stock up. It was a freaking madhouse. They didn’t have any eggs, chicken broth, allspice, and a couple other things. It’s annoying having to go two places for stuff. Add that to the crowds, the drive, and having to tip the baggers, is it really any wonder why we opt to shop out in town??

We also did some more Christmas shopping on Sunday. This is the earliest head start I’ve ever gotten on Christmas shopping. We are always very last minute usually. We’re also doing a red and silver theme on our Christmas tree this year and picked up these really neat LED lights for our tree. I can’t wait to try them out. I’m totally excited about Christmas this year. I’m really in the Christmas spirit and I’m looking forward to getting out my Christmas decorations and putting away my harvest decorations on Friday. Yay!!

Halloween 2009

After my rather eventful Friday, laying low for the rest of the weekend seemed to be in order.

Halloween was nice. The oldest dressed as a dead bride and the youngest was a clown. We had more trick or treaters than last year but still had left over candy. The major drama of the night was the mosquitoes. It was almost 80 degrees when the kids were out and the mosquitoes were out in full force as well. My favorite costume of the night was a car wreck. A girl came by in a bloodied and ripped dress, lacerations on her face, neck, and arms, and she was just a general mess. It looked very realistic and while disturbing, I thought she did a great job with her makeup and costume.

Today, was a big ol’ nothing. It’s been rainy and overcast and the only time our door opened was when the Mister went out to grab us breakfast. It’s nice to turtle in your house every once in a while especially when the weather’s nasty.

NaBloPoMo 2009, post 1 of 30.

You Are WEIRD!!

I know that we are new to the homeschooling thing. I don't, by any means, shape, form, or dream, claim to be an expert on homeschooling. However, for the record, I resent anybody making the JUDGMENT that homeschooled kids are weird. Screw you. And just so you know, our kid was weird before we started homeschooling not that it's any of your damn business. ;)

Two Posts in One Day

We had another household mishap. They’re starting to become routine which is scary. To refresh your memories before I tell you about the newest breakdown, our washer is still acting up and my retarded Dyson Animal is still broken. The newest thing? Our garbage disposal is broken. Let me tell you why.

I have a lazy teenager. Her only chore in our house is to unload and reload the dishwasher. For a normal person, this would take 20 minutes a day at the most. For her, it can take upwards of four or five hours depending on how much I yell and badger. Last night we had spaghetti for dinner. It took her about an hour to not clean all of the dirty dishes and to shove all of the unused spaghetti noodles down the sink which totally packed in the pipes and clogged them. Then, she neglected to tell us that she had clogged the sink up. I discovered this at about 10:45 last night when I was trying to wash my hands and the water didn’t go down the sink. I turned the garbage disposal on because 99% of the time, that’s all it takes. Nope. All this did was cause noodle water to explode out of the other side of the sink. I tell the Mister and he grabbed the plunger and tried clearing the drain that way. He plunged and all this did was pull more noodles up the drain. Then we tried running the disposal again and that’s when we had a massive geyser. Noodles and noodle water everywhere when the pipe burst its seal under the sink. By now it’s after 11 and we’re picking noodles off of ourselves and there’s nasty water all over my kitchen. The Mister took the pipes apart and snaked the drain with a wire hanger (we don’t have an actual plumber’s snake.) After some snaking and more plunging, he cleared the pipes. He put everything back together but when I tested the garbage disposal, more water started coming out of it. It blew some sort of seal on the inside of it. We know NOTHING about garbage disposals but I’m assuming it’s going to have to be replaced.

We didn’t get to bed until after midnight because we both needed showers. I literally had to pick noodles off of the Mister’s back. We were a mess. I am so not happy with my child that she should be entirely grateful that I don’t beat kids. In her roots, she’s a good kid but this laziness of hers is becoming an epidemic. And yes, I know. What else is a teen supposed to be but lazy? But GEEZ! That doesn’t mean I have to like it.

Considering the punishment and grounding I have in mind for her, my house is going to be the most un-fun place to be for the next week or so. Calgon take me away!

Left or Right?

I don't and never have considered myself to be an overly political person. I think that it is beyond ridiculous that if you call yourself a republican that you automatically agree with every other republican, that you all have the same views, and that you all have the same priorities and values. Vice versa with democrats. I call myself neither a republican nor a democrat but more of a centrist with left leanings. This may be considered odd by some because we're a military family but that's just how I am. My dad, however, would be appalled because he's very much a conservative, heheh.

I've also never been one to agree with people or ideas because of trends or because something is the "popular" choice. I make up my own mind based on facts that I can see for myself and not blindly believe what other people tell me. I like to think that I make informed decisions.

All that being said, I'm going out on a shaky limb to say the following about the President's address to students.

I've read the text of the speech myself and I don't have a problem with it and the message it is conveying: Stay in school, achieve your goals, get your diploma. What made me angry in the beginning is that the whole thing was made out to be like the President was using this speech as a method to push his agenda on our kids. Turns out, in all honesty, that that wasn't the case. I think the Whitehouse should be blamed for not presenting the speech for what it was correctly from the get go. What REALLY made me angry is that on Friday, I called my daughter's school and asked if the student's would be watching the speech today in classes. This was before the text of the speech was available to be read beforehand. I was informed that they would be recording the broadcast to show at a later date after sending home permission slips to parents first. I found out today that that wasn't, in fact, the case and that they were showing the broadcast as they deemed it appropriate to the curriculum for the day. I feel like I was lied to or at the very least, misled. In the end, I would have been angry if the Whitehouse had intended to broadcast the speech without allowing parents and educators to read the text first and know ahead of time what they were exposing the children to. In my opinion, it is the only responsible thing for parents and teachers to do, to know the materials that their kids are reading and watching before the kids actually read and/or watch it. They, and I, would do the same thing with any movie.

It also ticks me off that parents who agree with me are automatically labled as being eccentric conservatives or unpatriotic or conspiracy theorists. That kind of thinking says to me that people think that because I choose to be involved with my children's education and because I care what kinds of media that they are exposed to, that this makes me a crazy parent. I think it makes me a responsible parent and I don't defend my point of view.

Does all this make me more of a republican, fanatical conservative? I don't think so but I do think that it should be beside the point altogether. First and foremost, I'm a parent and then I'm a concerned, informed citizen. I think everyone, lefties and righties, need to get a grip.

Another Day of Firsts

Today was the first time the oldest child was allowed to wear makeup to school. Nothing too dramatic. Luckily for me, she seems to lean more towards the conservative side rather than the clown school side. She’s also the same way when it comes to her clothes. I’m keeping all my appendages crossed that she stays this way. I consider myself really lucky that I don’t have to fight with her about how she dresses and stuff.

Today was the first day that I’ve ever homeschooled a child. It went really well. Way better than her first day of school last year when she came home crying. We covered reading, spelling, math, and science today. I had a lot of misgivings about this undertaking but I honestly and truly think it’s the best thing for her. It’s only the first day so there’s still obstacles to overcome but we can’t do any worse at educating the youngest than public schools have done. This I know without a doubt.

Today was the first time that I’ve ever smashed a cell phone into a bazillion pieces. Well, to be more precise, a Marine Corps six ton did the job but either way, my BlackBerry is still dust in the road. I’d rather not say how it happened because I come off really bad in this story so don’t ask, heheh. I got REALLY lucky in that my line was eligible for Verizon’s new every two so I have a brand new BlackBerry Storm and I LOVE it. I’m sad that all of my contacts, saved e-mails, and pictures on my other phone are lost, but I have a new gadget so I’ll survive the loss.

Today is the first day that I’ve ever had the Uh Huh Hers on my iPod. I just downloaded their Common Reaction album from iTunes and I have to say that I think I’ll really love it. It reminds me a lot of the 80’s electronic pop kind of music. It’s also very much chic music too. They sound great and I love the  upbeat-ness to all their songs. It’s gonna sound pretty great at top volume in my car tomorrow, heheh.

Today was the first time I’ve ever run over two curbs in one outing. I don’t know what was wrong with me but those curbs kept jumping out in my way.

Now, I’m off to bed. Today is NOT the first time that I’ve ever hated getting up at 6:30 in the morning making it so I have to go to bed early at night just to get through the day. I’m so not a morning person.

The Summer...So Far

It's been forever since I've had a real blog post. I read somewhere that you're not supposed to acknowledge time away from your blog or apologize for it. I think that's funny but even so, I won't apologize. Life happens, ya know?

So, the summer. The Mister spent most of his summer in Jacksonville at Staff Sergeants Course. If you're not familiar with this, it's basically a bunch of Marine Staff Sergeants getting beat down with PT (Physical Training or exercise to you and me.)and supposedly learning how to become better Staff Sergeants. No biggie. He was able to come home every weekend and even some week nights. The girls and I manage quite well on our own. I enjoyed not having to cook hardly at all this summer. With the Mister gone, the girls and I ate light and had many "catch whatcha can" nights.

The oldest child celebrated her 13th birthday back in July. She had two different sleep overs for it and managed some pretty good loot. She got a new cell phone, some clothes, DS games, and her first real, not play, makeup.

My 32nd birthday was 6 days before hers and I spent it at home. I honestly don't remember if the Mister was home, if we went out to dinner, or what. My own birthdays mean very little to me.

The youngest child has been herself. She's made a couple new friends in the neighborhood and has stayed busy, out and about, all summer. Oh. And we've decided to home school her this year. Maybe I'll talk about that in a separate post sometime.

Work has been pretty crazy for me. CRAZY!! I've had several big projects due this summer and with the kids home and the Mister gone, I've been busy. I even worked overtime for the first time last month. I may or may not have a couple new clients lined up for the coming months as well. I'm pretty ambivalent about that. Don't get me wrong. I'll be grateful for the work but I'm to the point where I'm happy with my the steady clients that I have now so if these new ones don't work out, I won't be too sad about it. In addition to my consulting work, I've been trying to write for another blog that has to do with social networking and working from home. It's really tough keeping up with two blogs let me tell ya.

Also, the Mister and I are on the very cusp of being officially open for business with the soap project. We've made three new and improved batches that we are taking to Ohio (more on that in a minute) that we plan on hawking to friends and family to sell. I've redesigned our website, designed a logo, made cigar labels, and we are just about ready to open our virtual marketplace. More on all this in another post as well but feel free to ask any questions and pass along the word!!

So, Ohio. We are planning a trip there. This will be our first, for real, honestly, planned trip to Ohio that we've ever taken. We've gone for weddings, funerals, illnesses, and to pick the kids up but never just to visit. The last two times we tried to plan a trip, someone in our family died. I kid you not. The last time, almost two years ago, the week we were going to go, my brother-in-law was killed in an accident. We hadn't even told anyone we were coming cuz we wanted it to be a surprise. I'm telling you what though, if someone dies this time, I will never plan another trip to Ohio again. That would just be too freaky. We have lots planned. We are taking the oldest child to Cedar Point. It will be her very first trip there and she's very excited. It's almost a rite of passage for someone from Ohio. The youngest isn't going because she won't ride rides. She'll be hanging with her cousins and grandparents. My step mom is also treating us girls, and my sister, to a day spa. They're getting mani/pedi's and facials while I get my hair cut and colored. I'm not much for having people touch me so I opted out of the other stuff. We're also going to a zoo. We haven't decided between the Indianapolis Zoo or the Columbus Zoo yet. We're also going to try and fit in a trip to COSI in Columbus. I used to LOVE going there when I was a kid and I would really like to take my girls there. Man. I'm kinda tired thinking about all that, lol.

Anyway, we've made a couple trips to the beach but not nearly as often as I would like to have. I timed it the other day...From the time we get up, get ready, and drive to the beach, it takes us two hours till we hit sand. Two hours makes it so that we don't get to go as much as I would love to go.

To fill in the nights, I've been watching some new TV shows. I really like True Blood and Hung. They're fun and pretty over the top. The Mister and I have also started watching Nurse Jackie on HBO. I love that show. I've been a fan of Edie Falco's from when she was on the Soprano's. Old summer shows we're still watching and loving are The Close, Raising the Bar, and Weeds.

I've also been reading again. I read the entire Sookie Stackhouse series (The books from which True Blood is based.) in a week, lol. I downloaded them all to my Kindle app on my iPod. I've also been reading my English Royals non fiction books as well. I'm reading a book about Henry VIII's wives and a book about Mary Queen of Scots. I'm really enjoying them both. They make me miss watching The Tudors less, lol.

I don't think anything else of significance has happened this summer. It's been relatively quiet. The Mister graduates from his training on Wednesday and we leave for Ohio on Saturday. We'll be back a couple days before school starts and that will be the end of summer. I'm a little sad about that. I look forward to summer all fall, winter, and spring and it just doesn't seem to last long enough.

So. What did you all do with your summer?

Quick Update

After my yelling episode the other night, the kids involved all got into trouble with their parents, mine included. Apparently, I yelled loud enough to be heard across the street, lmao. Oh well. Anyway, the boy who was trying to tug the youngest out of the house wrote her a very sweet note of apology. Whatever his motivation behind the note (whether he took the initiative himself or was told to write it by his parents.) I don’t care. It made the youngest feel really good and made me feel better about the state of parenting in my neighborhood.

I’ll be back later today with some pets! I just have to scan some old photos. Yay!

The Longest Week

I know that I said that I would be back to my Pets Hall of Fame series yesterday. At least I think that’s what I said. But I’ve had a hellacious week and I haven’t gotten back to it yet. I will. Probably tomorrow. I swear to try my best.

I wasn’t even going to say anything until I read Jennifer’s post about her experience at the movies. But now I feel inspired and you all get to listen.

I’m not sleeping. Again. And I’ve had a headache since Monday. Yesterday, I was awake at 3 am and got up out of bed at 4 because I was irritated with trying to get back to sleep. Or maybe I was awake at 2 and up at 3. Who freaking knows at that time of the morning. I get to sleep fine, I just can’t stay asleep. It’s irritating. Blah blah.

Anyway, Tuesday night, both the girls were invited to different friends’ houses for a sleep over. No big deal. I didn’t even have to drive them anywhere which was cool for me. The oldest was told to be home by 5:30 on Wednesday and the youngest was next door so I knew she would be home early. She gives me a call around 9:30 and asks if she and T can come over to our house to play. Sure. Whatever. So they troop over to the house with T’s younger sister, A in tow. Nobody mentioned A coming over too, but what the hell. One more makes little difference in my busy day. So, I tell them to occupy themselves while I was trying to work upstairs in my office. Little did I realize that I was babysitting A and T while their parents went to Jacksonville. Hello!! How do you leave your kids at someone else’s house for a period of time without touching base with them first?? They didn’t roll back into town until 6 last night. By this time, I had fed their kids lunch and dinner and had to deal with constant interruptions to my day while I was trying to freaking work.

THEN!! The girls were outside with some different neighborhood kids playing. The Mister and I were watching TV in our bedroom when we hear the youngest child come into the house yelling, “Leave me alone!!” and crying hysterically. I call her into our room to see what the hell when she told me the other girl, she’s 13 or 14, was tossing her around and the boy, also 10 like the youngest, was trying to pull her out our front door when she was trying to get away. Wtf?!? First of all, you should know that she doesn’t like rough play like that from anybody. Not even her mom and dad. She has a sensory perception thing that makes her overly sensitive to what would be a “normal” situation to other people. But whatever. So I go outside to see what the heck is going on and proceed to yell at the top of my lungs. They really picked a bad day to start a ruckus on my front yard. I yelled at the oldest child to get her butt inside and then yelled at the other kids to take their butts on home. Then I slammed the door hard enough to knock a picture askew. Boy. It was just a bad day. It’s times like those when I have to wonder why I’m the only parent paying attention to yelling and screaming outside. And I would never in a million trillion years drop my kids off at someone else’s house and then leave town for the day without talking to the parents first. What is freaking wrong with people? And lastly, there is a difference between the noises of the terrified and the noises of someone having fun. It shouldn’t be that hard to distinguish.

And to top things off, the Mister checked in for his training yesterday so he’ll be gone for the majority of the summer. It’s not nearly as bad as a deployment but it still sucks royal. It’s 12:30 and I could use a freaking nap.