Sunday, September 25, 2005

P.S.

The fair sucked (the website lied. It said that it closed at 10 pm, but we were there at 6:30, and all the food shacks were closing up and no one was really there. Thank goodness there wasn't anyone around to charge us for parking or an entry fee) and we didn't get to eat funnel cake!! The whole purpose of going to a fair is to get funnel cake!! But ya know, if the little shack had been open, I'm not quite sure I'd want it anyways. The guy was scratching himself before he proceeded to tell us that they only had nachos and soda. Yeah, I wouldn't even trust buying a soda from him. So I guess it was for the best.

Oh yeah, and Mason's crawling. I forgot to mention that earlier today. And I'm trying not to be over excited, but YEAH MY BABY'S CRAWLING!! We're so proud. Okay, that's it.

Don't panic, I'm alive...

So yeah, I've been slacking on this lately. Oops. It's mainly because I'm lazy (if you haven't picked up on that trait of mine already), and also because I haven't had much to say. The week has been somewhat mundane I suppose. I don't know. Enough with the excuses...

I'm trying to think what to fill you in on and I'm drawing a blank. Well, good news with Mason's new caregiver. She's really nice and it's working out so nicely. She has two kids that go to the school I teach at, so I just bring Mason to work, and she comes to my class and gets him about 15 minutes after I get there. Neither of us waste time traveling when we don't need to, and he gets lots of attention by all involved. My fellow teachers love holding him, talking to him and loving on him. And the students, well, they're just entertained by something so small that makes funny noises and gives them strange faces. I just feel so content about the new situation and so darned relieved that he doesn't have to be exposed to the ginormous amount of germs and nastiness that breeds in daycares. Plus, he's with the same lady everyday and she thinks he's cute. :)

Work is chugging along and going well. Not much to say in that area I guess. So let's move on. This weekend has been busy but good. My husband hasn't had to work much, so it's been nice to have him around and live like normal people--well, live like normal people, not be normal people. Let's not get crazy or anything. We ran some errands yesterday and watched "Napoleon Dynamite". I guess it was funny and somewhat entertaining, but I don't see what all the hubub is all about. Many of my students have "Give me some of your tots" and "Vote for Pedro" shirts and I never got it. I've seen the movie, I get it, but I didn't laugh as much as I feel I should have. I'm sure I'll disappoint them. Oh well. Today, we went to do some home shopping, but it's so stressful and complicated. We're still trying to figure out how to make it happen, but I don't know. I hate renting, but at least it's less hassle. On a lighter note, we're going to the local county fair tonight, mainly to look around and get out of the house. And of course so Mason can meet his first Carnies. ;) Dinner's ready. Have a good week to all.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

It's a love/hate relationship...

Technology can be your very best friend. You can drop an email to old pal and reconnect in ways that maybe you wouldn't have before. You can write an essay or report or letter and spell check it and have it printed in no time at all. You can look up anything and I mean anything on the internet and have a billion sources to choose from (seriously. I just looked up "underwater basketweaving" and got 1,941 hits!). You can use a cellphone to call anyone, anytime, anywhere. Oh wait. Scratch that last part.

So I have never had a problem using my cellphone in our house, which is a good thing, since we don't have a landline (it seems silly, since we have two cellphones and no one ever calls us anyways!). Then, I get home from work and try to call a pizza joint (strictly for a fundraiser for the school. I wouldn't eat it otherwise, of course!), and BAM! My phone says with a nasty undertone, "Warning! Service Not Available!" What?!?!?!? Since when? I tried sending a text message and the same message appeared. What the crap?! What if I needed to call 911? That's super. I tried to see if somehow the cellphone company hadn't received a payment or something, but when I looked up our account on their website, it didn't mention anything out of the ordinary. So I don't know what to do. It's been like this for a couple of hours now. If there was a total emergency, I'd knock frantically on our neighbors' doors until someone answered. But otherwise, I'm out of luck and out of touch.

Monday, September 19, 2005

The news is out

So I told the girls at Mason's daycare that his last day will be Wednesday. They were a bit shocked but understanding. It's going to be weird not going there anymore. I worked there for almost a year and Mason attended there for 6 months. I guess it's somewhat bittersweet, but not really. I won't be sad, just weirded out as always to change.

I've gotten word that Mason's new daycare provider is very preachy and religious so we'll see how that goes. I don't mind that she's a devout Christian nor do I mind if she mentions religion to me, but I don't want it crammed down my throat. I am relgious even if I don't go to church. Some people don't think that, but that's how I was raised. You can pray, reflect on your spirituality and worship in your own ways, without stepping foot in a church. Granted, I would like to find us a church that feels like a second home as a few in my past have. But, it's hard when there seem to be more churches than there are people around here!! There are only so many Sundays in the year, people!! I don't want to take the next 5 years of "church shopping" to find the one that's right for us. Either way, I'm not a sinner for not attending church. I just hope Mason's caregiver thinks the same way. I don't want a scene of her shaking a bible over my head and screaming, "Redemption!" I know, I'm a bit of a cynic. But those of you who know me already know that well, don't you?

Work was good today, by the way. My resource kids were well behaved for the most part and enjoyed practicing their spelling words for over a half an hour. There's something to be said for that. Only one student gives me trouble and really even that isn't all that severe. I just think he has self esteem and self confidence issues that stem from his family life, which in turn diminishes his motivation to work in school. But overall, he's at least still trying. My 6th graders are the same lunatics as always. Two were competing in a round of The Quiet Game during class. It got a little old, when one had his hand up, I called on him and he tried to mouth out the words of his question. I said that if he doesn't speak out loud, I'm not answering. If you feed into their madness, they will suck you in. And I certainly don't need to advance a level in the world of insanity...

Sunday, September 18, 2005

Problem solved

So, we've decided to pull Mason out of his current daycare (for many reasons, but maily because I hate having him in an environment where he's exposed to so many kids and so many germs), and put him in an in-home setting. We have chosen a lady that comes highly recommended to us by two fellow staff members at my work. She only watches one other baby and she's such a nice person. I've talked to her a couple of times on the phone, and I get a really warm, caring vibe from her. We're gonna go over there Wednesday evening and meet her in person and check out her place. I have a feeling that it's gonna be a great place though. I just feel so much better now that we've made a decision and he will be with someone that can fill his needs with more immediacy than a full-fledged daycare can.

We've had a nice weekend, on a separate note. Yesterday we went to Chili's, because it just opened in our town!! Yum yum!! It was really nice to get out and Mason enjoyed himself too, as he usually does in public. He wanted to trade the waitress his toy rings for her notepad, but she of course had no use for the rings and he would just eat the notepad. Everything goes in his mouth these days. And I mean everything: dog toys, the edge of the living room area rug, potpourri, pens, car keys, and of course his own appendages. It's cute, but makes us much more wary parents than before. Whenever he's rolling his tongue around in his mouth, we do the "What do you have?" and fish around in his mouth for whatever object he may have found tasty. Sometimes it's just his own tongue and then we can breathe a sigh of relief...Anyways, then this morning it was so nice out that Mason and I hung out outside for a bit and I of course took a few candid shots of my beautiful baby. He loves being outside and he just wants to explore everything. And I think he's beginning to realize he has a shadow. It's very cheap entertainment. It's too bad they couldn't stay that easily entertained forever. Someday his shadow and his fingers and the dog will be replaced with much more expensive gadgets and toys...

So that was my weekend in a nutshell. (Where did that saying come from, anyways? Why a nutshell?) And tomorrow I shall try to find time to write, even if I have a "case of the Mondays" (a little "Office Space" reference for ya...)

Friday, September 16, 2005

What to do, what to do...

I am still alive and still willing to keep an active blog, but things have just been a little frizzle frazzled lately. I wrote on Tuesday, but only to open your eyes to some dumb humor. Let's see if I can get you up to speed. Well, work is work. I still enjoy it but it's still tiring. This week I didn't work with the kids in resource much, because the room was being used for school pictures. So, I've been spending more time in the 6th grade, which I don't mind at all. In fact, on Wednesday, I was able to hone my Language Arts skills and do a writing activity with the kids. It was a lot of fun. They read an excerpt of this story about a girl named Poverty that is really huge and not very attractive. The point of the story was to identify the keywords that authors use to define and describe their characters. Then, the students had to come up with a funny character of their own. They had to write about it and draw it. I love the imagination of a 6th grader. You get ideas that range from a strange looking human with abnormal physical features to superhero monkeys. Very funny. I really really enjoyed it and it got me thinking about next year. Do I want to stay there and perhaps take a lead position in one of the upper grades (honestly, I'd really only want 6th grade, so I don't know how that would work), or should I persue moving on to the public school and just teach a middle school grade so I can teach English? I have no idea what I want to do. I have some time to think about it, I suppose.

Now to my daycare dilemma. I want to move Mason from his current daycare, because I'm just not happy there. I don't think he's being mistreated or abused (because if that were the case, I'd yank him out of there so fast, their heads would spin and I would leave him with a friend or quit my job if I had to), but I'm just not satisfied. He's sick a lot and I hate the fact that there are days when there's some random 18 year old chickee taking care of him. And now they've started enforcing the policy of pre-paying the Thursday before. Yeah, that's not gonna work for me. My husband's job is not that predictable. To a degree, we have an idea what it will be like, but we're not always sure. I sure as hell am not paying for days that Mason stays home with daddy. THEN, yesterday I had a little run-in with the girl I mentioned a few weeks ago (the one I didn't feel comfortable leaving Mason with). She apparently thought I had already left, because she was in the other room and said, "Mason's cute. I didn't used to think so, but he's growing on me." Now, maybe I should have just shrugged it off because her opinion shouldn't matter to me and furthermore she's COMPLETELY WRONG. But it bothered me. Trememdously. I went out of there furious. When I returned to pick Mason up that afternoon, I actually made a complaint to the director. She said that she would have cried if someone said that about her baby and that she was impressed that I didn't go in and slap the teacher in the face. Well, she wouldn't be that impressed if she knew me, because I am anti-confrontation much of the time. Anyways, moral of the story is, the teacher was formally written up and I am further convinced that I need to look elswhere for childcare. The problem is, most full-fledged daycares around here are far more expensive than where he's at currently and I don't want him to go to any of them anyways. I have been informed of two in-home daycares that are up for my consideration. One is operated by a lady that used to work at the school I teach at. She comes highly recommended, but she's more than what we pay now. Then another lady would be slightly more than we pay now, but she'd have to take him with her to bible studies at her church and perhaps other errands during the day. I don't know about that. She seems like a genuinely nice, caring person that I would trust my baby with, but I don't feel right about allowing a stranger to transport my child all around town. What if they get in an accident? That just scares me. My husband and I have discussed the options briefly, but we don't know what we're going to do. Money is already tighter than a drum, so how do you squeeze money out of nothing? Sigh. I guess a prayer or two is in order...

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Simple humor for a simple mind...

I told you that I have a sixth grade sense of humor and here is further proof. If you've ever been on Hallmark's website and seen Hoops and Yoyo cards, then you're familiar with the characters and how quirky and funny they are. If you don't find humor in them, then don't continue reading this blog. For the stupid-humor crowd, check out hoopsandyoyo.com , click on Animated Series and watch the 3-parter called "The Runaway Marshmallow". It's pretty darn funny...

Monday, September 12, 2005

I'm in love with another man...

He has brown hair, blue eyes, he laughs at my jokes and has the softest skin. And he looks strikingly like the man I married. I love my son. I was just giving him a bath and I had one of those "Oh my God, could I love any more than this? I think not!!" moments. I was singing "The Wheels on the Bus" to him, as he sucked on his little rubber ducky and looked curiously at me with those sparkling blue eyes. As I took him out and lathered him in baby lotion (I know he doesn't actually need lotion since he has squishy soft skin as it is, but it makes him smell so good), he giggled and babbled away, just the happiest baby ever. And I came to the conclusion that I'm the luckiest mom on the planet. I know someday we'll have another child, but for now, I'm happy and in love...

Sunday, September 11, 2005

Penguin Pilot

Just wanted to fill you all in on a new blog that is certainly worth your time. http://penguinairlines.blogspot.com/ My husband decided to start his own, as a way to vent his thoughts and views on life and worldly issues. And I tell you, it's very intelligent and insightful. It makes my blog look a bit petty, but that's why I married him. He's the brains in our relationship. And I'm fine with that.

I'm sick of pink!!

Yes yes, I'm sure you've noticed that I changed my blog. I was getting bored of the pink. I'm sick of pink. Alright, I still like wearing the color, but other than that, "pink is so last year". Last night, I thought it would be fun to get pink eye myself, just so that Mason didn't feel singled out. My eye felt itchy and I did the oh-so-smart thing and rubbed it. Suddenly, my eye was really red, runny and the actual eyeball was swollen!! Yes, swollen. I was freaking out just a bit. The white part around the colored part (I'm not a natural born optometrist, as you can tell) was bigger than it's supposed to be and near the bottom lid it was a nice yellow color. So, we called on our nearby friends to take Mason in for awhile while we took a field trip to the ER. After not waiting as long as I had expected, I was told I had pink eye. Don't rub it, touch it or even look at it. It's very contagious, so my goal is spread the love and give it to my husband. Okay not really, but I wouldn't be surprised if he got it. So yeah, I'm sick of pink--Mason getting pink eye twice, me getting it and staring at an all pink blog page was just too much. Plus, I thought the new background was more Fallish (I realize as an English teacher and an educated person that "Fallish" isn't a word, but too bad! So thppt to you!!). Hope you like the changes. Ta ta for now.

Saturday, September 10, 2005

All is well

So, Mason's eye is looking better and we pray that it stays that way. Yesterday, I stayed home with him and plugged him full of eye drops (well, not plugged, but battled him a bit). It was a worthwhile day off too, which was nice. I organized some bins of teaching stuff (specifically the Language Arts stuff, because the 6th grade teacher really wants me to take over that subject, which is perfectly fine with me. It's better than math, because that would be a backwards step for those kids...), picked up some fall/winter clothes for Mason (since it's already starting to cool down and he's quickly growing out of his clothes) and did some other shopping. It was nice to have an actual week day to be out and about. And I didn't feel guilty being out, since it wasn't like Mason was sick nor was I.

Today, we enjoyed the beautiful weather (I'm so ready for the summer heat to be over and done with and the nice cool fall weather to take its place!) by going to the downtown square. Mason loved rolling around in the grass and watching the people that walked by. It was his first dirty feet moment. He was reveling in the exciting feel of wet grass between his toes, so his little toesies got nice and greenish brown. He's never really gotten dirty, but it was the first of many many moments to come, I'm sure. At least it was somewhat easy to clean him up, as opposed to future endeavors that might require a power washer and sander...

Thursday, September 08, 2005

This has been the greatest day ever!!

(Please re-read the title with great sarcasm) It has NOT been the greatest day ever. Not even close. First, I wake up around 5 this morning and can't get back to sleep. I can't stop sneezing. So I decide to shower. I almost had a very painful fall when getting in, because my feet were lotioned and slick and my one foot slipped in the shower and I had to grab onto the shower door. That was a close one. When I got out, my husband and Mason were still sleeping, which meant that I had 15 minutes to get myself and baby ready to be out the door. And can you believe it? I made it. I had Mason dressed and fed and myself dressed in time to get him to daycare and myself to work without being late. I'm amazing.

Then I get to work and there is a sign up that says that we're being audited so we can't use the teacher's lounge at all today. I guess the auditors were going to set up camp there. This means no copy machine, no laminator, no microwave and no storing lunch in the fridge. That means no making copies for next week or eating lunch in the teacher's lounge. Nice. Then, as I am working with my resource kids, I am informed that someone needs the resource room to test certain students for Speech. With no extra classrooms, I am forced to take the kids outside, where it's really windy and sunny. But there is a God, because the kids were still able to concentrate and complete their work. One girl even got 100% on her spelling test, which in itself is a gosh darn miracle!! I was so proud. THEN, my lead teacher in 6th needed to leave because her son in Kindergarten was throwing up. She gets back and there's a phone call for me from Mason's daycare. He has pink eye. Again. I was so frustrated, I was in tears. I began to feel so guilty that he is a daycare baby. If he was staying home with me everyday, this wouldn't happen, especially not twice in two weeks. So, I had to leave work and get him.

I managed to get him in to see his doctor today and she confirmed that it is pink eye again. Arrghh! He can't return to daycare until Monday now. Great. So, I had to call work and tell them I won't be there tomorrow. Of course my son comes first, but it's hard to call in to work to tell them your son is sick (or has pink eye for the second time, in my case). The boss is understanding, but makes me feel a bit guilty that I take him to the daycare that I do. Like as if they are mistreating him. She suggested this at-home daycare that a lot of the teachers use. I may look into it and see how much the girl charges.

I hate not having many resources here. Don't get me wrong, I think it's definitely a good thing that neither set of parents live in town(because distance makes the heart grow fonder, does it not?), but in cases like this, it makes it difficult. And our only emergency contact here has her own little girl (Mason's future girlfriend), so she won't want to expose her daughter to pink eye.

I love teaching and working with kids. I miss it terribly when I don't teach, but I really really wish I could be a stay-at-home mom until he's at least 3 or 4. But unfortunately, our funds don't stretch that far. They are already pulled to the max as it is. We have three jobs between us and it's still painful to eat fast food or get gas for the cars (Good God, when will that craziness end? I should just start walking to work!!). I guess it'll all be okay and we'll survive. Pink eye's certainly not the end of the world. It could be a lot worse. We could be living in New Orleans right now.

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Very sad

Okay, you probably read that and thought, "Oh no! What happened? What on earth could be so sad that her title would be 'Very Sad'?" Well, calm down! For Pete's sake, calm down!! Really, the "very sad" thing is just that a) I finished The Half-Blooded Prince and b) it ended very sadly. I won't give away the ending just in case you are currently reading it or want to, but it's just so darn sad! Plus, I always feel a little down when I finish a book because it's that "now what?" feeling, but I'm glad I finished it and found out who the Half-Blooded Prince is. (they keep you guessing until the very end!) So yeah, that's the sadness...

Not much else to say. My boss is very picky about certain things and it's pretty silly. She wants you clocking in AT LEAST 5 minutes before your scheduled time, I guess because she feels you cannot be working at 7:30 if you're clocking in at 7:30. Stupid. We have a staff meeting about that and other things on Friday and we'll see what hits the fan.

It's nice that we didn't have school on Monday. This week is going by so much faster.

Monday, September 05, 2005

Happy Labor Day!!

As I mentioned in my previous post, we haven't had a real exciting weekend, but it's still been nice. Today, we decided to barbeque some skewers, since it was a nice day and Labor Day, afterall. They were mighty tasty, I have to say. While hanging out outside, Mason took a ride in his red wagon (hence the picture), which he loved. He just adores watching the neighbor cats scurry away from him and he often attempts to snatch the limbs off the bushes that line our house. I have a feeling he's gonna be an outdoorsy kind of kid. That's great, because I will not allow him to be raised by the television and video games. But I do fear the day he proudly shows off some spider or snake or something else slimy and nasty, expecting me to be impressed and pleased. No thank you. No eight-legged or no-legged creatures if you please.

Later today, I went to the mall to return that oversized shirt I mentioned in my last entry. As a side note, I like to think that I am the type of person that tries to find good in most people and assume that most people have good intentions. In fact, in my marriage, I tend to be the one who says, "No honey, I don't think they meant it that way," or "I'm sure they did it on accident," etc. I want to believe that people are mainly good and that they just make mistakes or screw up now and then. But today, I started to lose my faith in humankind. The drive to the mall was the first incident today that proved against my people-are-good theory. I had two people cut me off and another tailgate me in a 2 mile stretch of highway. Then in the mall parking lot, someone stole the parking space that I was clearly waiting for. When I got into the store to return the shirt, I noticed a pair of shoes that I wanted to try on. (very cute tan and brown dressy Mary Janes) The lady that helped me the other day was there again, and I think maybe she was still fuming from the fact that I had tried on a million items and only purchased one. Anyhow, I asked her if I could see them in a size--I didn't get to finish my sentence, because she cut me off, saying, "Those are the only ones we have, and they're 10's." I said "Okay, then I would like to try those on." And she said, "You can try that ONE on. (meaning the one that was on display. Yes, only one shoe. Gee, thanks.)" So, I did and they were too big, so I put it back. I settled on getting a pair of jeans in trade for the shirt that didn't fit me. When I told her I needed to return the shirt, she proceeded to interrogate me on my decision, "Do you want another size?" (no, the smaller size doesn't fit across my chest) "Have you thought about just putting a tank top underneath and not buttoning it?" (yes I have, but I don't want to) "Do you want another shirt instead?" (uh no, I want these jeans!) Arrgh! What is so hard about returning something and getting something else? How many buttons would she really need to push on the damn cash register for this transaction?! Holy moly! Finally, she sighed and made the exchange with some obvious regret. Whatever lady, just give me the frigging pants and let me go! So, after walking out of there thinking I should have complained to her supervisor (but with my luck, she might have been the supervisor), it crossed my mind that maybe people aren't as good as I had hoped. I don't know. Maybe I'm just having one of those days.

Mason is sounding for me. Have a nice short week.

Sunday, September 04, 2005

Hiatus

I'd like to tell you that I have not been able to write entries for this blog because I've been out galavanting around town, or on some family camping trip, or skiing and boating on a lake or barbequeing with friends to celebrate the Labor Day weekend. But then I'd be lying. The sad truth is that I've just been tired and frankly, lazy to write. Yes, I'm enjoying the idea that I don't have to return to work until Tuesday, I can't say that I've done much thus far. Yesterday we went to the mall for lunch at Honeybaked Ham (yum yum!) and it hailed. It hailed so hard that my husband and I could barely carry on a conversation across the table from each other. Mason didn't seem to mind nor care. He just smiled gleefully at the strangers in the restaurant and played with his five-point restraint harness on his stroller. Then, we went into the mall and I attempted to shop a bit. I was given a giftcard for my birthday for a clothing store that I've never shopped in before. The clothes looked cute and very hip for work. But, the prices are a little hefty and the $35 card only got me a pink sparkly dress shirt, that I'm actually returning. The sleeves are too long and the waist makes me look pregnant again. Why did I buy it, you ask? Well, because I tried about 5,000 items in the store, frustrated at the way they fit. Some were surprisingly big (I always go for the bigger size in stores I don't know, just in case) and others were made for Lindsay Lohan. And my husband was wheeling Mason around the mall all the while and they returned, assuming I was done. So, I grabbed the bigger size of a shirt I had liked and slapped it onto the register counter. I was ready to get out of there, just out of pure frustration and exhaustion. I hate shopping without another female who's patient and also struggling with size issues. Anyway, I then treated myself to a Moolatte' from Dairy Queen and People Watched for a bit. I thought it would be oh-so-cute to offer Mason a smidgen of frappucino and whip cream from my straw. He liked it, he liked it too much. Every time I tried to take a drink, two little pudgy hands reached out and tried to snatch it from me. So we cut him off before he became a caffeine addict at the ripe age of 8 months and we'd have to start pouring shots of espresso into his bottles...Last night we went this hole-in-the-wall pizza place for the first time and it was darn good. It's always scary to venture into the unknown territory of new restaurants, but we were pleased. We topped off the night by watching "Guess Who" (with Ashton Kutcher and Bernie Mac), which was funny. A good day overall.

Today, we haven't done much so far. We ate breakfast and went on a walk around the neighborhood with Mason and the obese dog Max. That is quite a feat. We are convinced that Max has severe learning disabilities, because even though he's three, he isn't all that potty trained nor knowledged on how to act on a leash. He thinks that being on a walk allows him to sway from one side of the street to the other, peeing on every gosh darn bush, tree, branch, leaf, fly and molecule that he passes along the way. He also thinks that he's participating in the Heavyweight/Fat Small Dog Division of the Sled Dog Races, because he insists on running to the extent of his leash and pulling us along. It makes for a tiring walk around the block. Mason on the other hand loves to just take in the scenery and watch the world go by. He jabbers along, talking to the birds, houses, cars, trees, clouds and bugs that he happens to notice. The cutest part is that he loves to relax and prop his tiny feet onto the tray in front of him, looking like a miniature lounge lizard. What a life...

So, that's it. No parties, no family cookouts and no social events to speak of. Just me and my little family doing what we do.