Saturday, August 30, 2008

WOOT!

It's been over 100 the last 3 or 4 days. Yesterday, it was 103 (tied the record high) and breezy, which we call the blow dryer effect.

Today, it's only supposed to be 93 and tomorrow? 83!

Eighty-three!

Quatre-vingt trois!

I can't remember how to say it in Spanish, I am so excited! Octenta tres? Ochenta y tres! (had to look that up)

Drei und octzig!

восемьдесят три! (yeah I totally looked that one up, too. cut and pasted it too, which explains the different font)



Monday's supposed to be 87, so not bad for Labor Day weekend. Of course, it will then be upper 90's for the rest of the week (averages are around 90 so it's still a heat wave), but we'll take what we can get.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

And either I had a stroke

or I went to the dentist. The left side of my face is still sagging 3 hours later, even though the feeling has returned to my teeth and gums. My left eye keeps wandering and watering.

Yeah, I guess he did hit a nerve.

the ants go marching 100000000 by 100000000, hurrah! hurrah!

Each time I put out a bit of poison and the ants swarm it, then take it outside and croak. Then 2 days later, there's a new influx. They're invading the kids' rooms and I've dug around to be sure there's no food in there and everything. They were in the diaper pail last week.

Well, the past few days, I keep putting out poison around the kitchen, but the ants keep coming and coming and coming. They're digging in the grout around the sink, for heaven's sake!

I finally got out a spray bottle of orange-peel extract poison and started squirting them.

Take that you creeping b******s!

My new favorite useless blog

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

Hey Mom, do we still have any pictures of D's "Bon Vonage" cake?

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Wicked!

Not the book or play by that title. I'm talking about romance novels again.

I just read a really really good one, which was more of a mystery novel and which I loved the socks off of. Unfortunately, it's called If His Kiss is Wicked and has a picture of an unshaven man on the front - no man-titty, luckily, but a 100-yard stare or maybe Jesus gazing to heaven or something - and the hero is never unshaven throughout the book. The title and the picture have NOTHING to do with the book.

And this is by Jo Goodman, not to be confused with Foley's His Wicked Kiss, or even Goodman's own Beyond a Wicked Kiss (which the library only has on CD, which does me no good at all), or any of a zillion other romance novels with Wicked in the title.

So who came up with the title?

I mean: If his kiss is wicked, Then what? He's not wicked, his kisses aren't wicked, he kisses her a couple of times and it's fabulous and then they get married. OK, so they get married really quickly, but it's still before they go and have hot sex (I'll tape the pages together for you, Mom). And after that, they start to sort out the mystery and understand each other and fall in love for real.

But the main thrust (HAR!) of the novel is the aftermath of the kidnapping and brutal beating (luckily, not raping, though that is the only bright spot and I know that, historically speaking as this is a historical novel, the deflowering of virgins is Going Too Far, but these were brutal kidnappers, three men who didn't even ask for a ransom, so why they wouldn't have raped her is actually hard to fathom and never gets questioned) of Emma, who lives with her artist uncle and his daughter. She's definitely having post-traumatic stress and she has big gaps in her memory of the abduction and her escape. She goes to the hero, Restell Gardner (I think that's right. I didn't get used to the name), because he is rumored to be able to investigate and protect. She thinks the attack might have been meant for her cousin.

And then the can of worms is opened...

You know, I keep finding weaknesses in the plot and in some of the characterization, things I wish Goodman had explained better or something, but I still heartily enjoyed it.

This seems to be a book in a series because there's an overload of relatives who keep showing up all happily married and joyful and having abundant offspring, though trying to figure out where all these siblings and step-siblings come in by reading the blurbs on amazon is doing in my head, so I'm just requesting what I can from the library, even though I'm pretty sure some of these books aren't in the same series.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Books!

I was reading a thread on favorite books on the Smart B****es and was requesting like crazy from the library. Then I checked my account and saw that I have some books that I have been waiting for for ages and four of them are coming all at once.

Still waiting on the latest Brockmann and Howard books, but they're getting closer.

But I don't even LIKE cilantro!




You Are Cilantro



The bad news is that there are some people who can't stand you.

The good news is that most people love you more than anything else in the world.

You are distinct, unusual, fresh, and very controversial. And you wouldn't have it any other way.

Another win from Sarah Addison Allen

I mentioned her first book, Garden Spells before.

I think I liked The Sugar Queen even more. I certainly felt the romance aspect of it a bit more and was happy for everyone, maybe even for the mother, who was a b**** in so many ways and who maybe was going to be human by the end. I would have liked more about Adam the mailman. Josey was so trapped and figured out how to get out and became the person she should have been all along. I still wish she had read the letter to find out if there were more of them, though. I loved Chloe's books.

Is all that cryptic enough?

Basically, Josey is the privileged daughter of the man who transformed a sleepy little town into a ski resort. The man married an impoverished socialite and then proceeded to cheat on her, then they finally had Josey rather late in life. Josey was a royal pain in the a** as a child and has been dominated and subjugated by her mother ever since her father died when she was 9. So when the novel opens, she is in her late 20's and in love with the mailman - has been for 3 years, though all she knows about him is that he delivers the mail and barely notices her.

Then Della Lee Baker climbs a ladder into her room and goes into hiding in her closet, which is also where Josey hides her stash of snack cakes, travel magazines, and romance novels. So then one step leads to another and then to another and everything changes.

I wish Ms. Allen would write faster...

Forgot to say yesterday

That part of DS2's no good horrible very bad day on Friday was that he had a cold coming on. He woke up Saturday with the snottiest nose imaginable and a touch of pink eye with goop. He's already a lot better today, but still loaded with gunk.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

good morning!

we got out of bed when we felt like it, except dh, who was rushed along because everyone else was up and hungry and we were going out to breakfast. there was a pancake b-fast to benefit the local food bank. the kids had carbs and more carbs - pancakes and biscuits, but no eggs, sausage, or gravy. ds1 had ketchup on his pancakes and his biscuits.

the best part was that we sat with a work friend of mine from the fabric store whom i haven't seen since she got pregnant (by surprise) a few months before i did and then she quit because she already had 4 kids, 2 with special needs and she needed her weekends to rest more than she needed the pitiful pay and excess fabric. we talked and talked. you know those people you can just talk to for hours a time? you know, being an introvert, i need some extroverts like that in my life. there are other introverts who are my friends and we can be comfortable even when silent, but a good old gab session works, too. we used to get sidetracked and just chat when we worked together instead of keeping busy. bad us!

anyway, where was i? oh i haven't seen her or talked to her in such a long time, so i didn't know that the girl they told her about on her ultrasound turned out to be a boy. surprise!

Friday, August 22, 2008

DS2 and the no good, horrible, really bad day

From 7:20 to 8:305 this morning:

1) he had to get up
2) he had to get dressed
3) why do I haaaave to go to school?
4) he had to eat breakfast
5) but NO, Mommy, I wanted to pack my own lunch, and THEN I'll eat breakfast
5b) he had to eat breakfast
6) he didn't waaaant cereal, he wanted toast
7) but he can hardly taste the butter on his toast unless it's about an inch thick
8) somebody put a few more toys into the box of toys he had been carrying around, so it was obviously DS1, who denied it, resulting in a loud argument
9) he couldn't find his shoes
10) Buzz Lightyear wasn't in the car. He couldn't find it in 3 minutes and we were already on the edge of leaving late, so Mommy made him get in the car
11) he couldn't point his toes down. Not that there's not enough leg/foot room in the car (which there isn't) but because his shoes are too tight
12) when asked why he's wearing his old shoes, he said that the new ones are even tighter
13) DS1 attempted to join the conversation, resulting in a loud argument
14) every time he goes into his classroom, he starts sneezing
15) Mommy said he's allergic to school
16) DS1 opined that DS2 doesn't like school because he gets sick in the car on the way there, resulting in a loud argument
17) he wouldn't get out of the car at the drop-off spot because he was sick, so DS1 had to climb over him
18) so Mommy yelled and then pulled the car up to a parking spot and had to walk him back in, telling him that if he was late, he would have to explain to the people in the office exactly why
19) once to his class, his classmates wanted to know why he was upset, making it worse

TGIF!

This week on Prison Break....

Isabelle didn't want to go to sleep last night. She took a micro-nap at 8 pm, after spending an hour or so fussing and fuming, then she just didn't want to go to sleep for real.

So I was on my bed, pillows strategically placed all around in an impenetrable fort so the lovely little lady wouldn't roll off. I was reading Stormy Weather by Carl Hiaasen (sp?). I got into at one point and fussy girl was rolling around, playing with toys and complaining, then - whump whump sliiiiiiiide thump WAAAAAAAAAAAAAA - she managed to fall off the bed in the 5 inch space between the bed and the dresser, after wedging herself up into a space that she couldn't really roll herself into, but had somehow kicked and wiggled her way there.

I leaped to her rescue and slid her out of the spot (it was like the dresser and bed were giving birth - there was her angry angry face staring at me, shouting as I moved aside the cord (she managed to take down DH's alarm clock) and eeeeeased her shoulders through) and she wasn't hurt, just scared.

Then afterwards, it was one of those awful times when, as a parent, you try really hard to not laugh or to wish that you had your camera handy. Because that would be a great shot and I could have captioned it a la I Can Haz Cheezburger. But now, I will have to try not to laugh when I tell people about this, won't I? Oh, too late.

So now we're up to 3 falls from the bed. SIGH.

Beta all the way baybeeeee!

http://happymealsandhappyhour.blogspot.com/2008/08/alpha-mom-vs-beta-mom.html

And I do appreciate the alpha moms, but honestly? whew. Too much work.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Anyone want an Entertainment book?

Let me know and we can have one sent for your area and our school will still get the money.

Cheeses me off, though. They sent a copy of the local one home with each kid, so now I'm going to have to buy one, but which kid's book do I buy? Because they get a blinky light to put on their bike if they sell one. They get another prize and the blinky light if they sell two, then something else and those prizes if they sell 5, plus another if they sell 9, etc. So do I bundle all sales on one kid's sheet? Or let them each sell their own?

And if I send out emails from their website, the kids get other prizes, so if I have your email addy and you live in the US, you just might be hearing from me....

I hate fundraising.

Monday, August 18, 2008

general updates and rambling

Well...

I got the oil changed in the car today. That's about it, really. No, I guess I should add that it hasn't been changed since oh, about January and 6000-ish miles, so it was way overdue. DH has driven it a lot more lately, but you know who's still in charge of maintenance. They also noticed the drive belt or serpentine or something like that was cracked and old, so I got a new one of those, too.

DD and I went to the Trader Joe's that's in the same parking lot area. I wanted to get a gooey snack and a loaf of bread from Great Harvest, but it was closed. No sign about why or when it's opening again, but the shelves were still stocked, so I am hoping it's just a temporary seasonal thing. Especially because they owe me a loaf of free bread, since I brought my card along for the past dozen I have bought from them. Anyway, by the time the car was ready to go, DD was exhausted. She didn't fuss too much, though she took exception to having her diaper changed and then after I fed her a bit, she didn't want me to sit still anymore, so we walked around in Midas. She was asleep within a mile after I put her in her carseat, though. She woke up for a bit, so I lay down and nursed her again, then she woke up and ate again a few times. She's now coming up on 4 hours of this extended dance remake of a nap.

OK, I hear her again, so I suppose I should go rescue her.

And I finished "Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!" by Fannie Flagg, which my mom had recommended. Very interesting, often funny, but sort of over-issued. Not a current term, I am sure ;) but I mean that she was trying to put too many issues in one book, it felt to me. Though the shirnk in pink tights was good ;)

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Wait, isn't this from "Atonement" ?

The day started out as uneventfully as any other, and continued thus to midday and from there it was nothing at all to ease into an evening of numbing, undiluted monotony that survived unmarred by even the least act of momentary peculiarity-in fact, let's skip that day altogether and start with the day after.

Jon Starr
Rumford, ME


Yes, the results are in! http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/scott.rice/blfc2008.htm

That's the

Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest

my personal favorite contest.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

be vewy quiet (and pictures)

the boys are in school.

dd just fell asleep in the car after the grocery store trip and slept for 2 hours.

life is goooood.

i was uploading pics of teeny tiny cloth diapers i need to unload and here are two new ones that i hadn't posted before.


chewing on the changing table


ds2 wanted to try the sling. ds1 did, too, but by that time dd was done, so i didn't get a picture

Thursday, August 7, 2008

I smell a rat

We thought we had mole tunnels.

The kids said they saw a mouse creeping through the rose bushes by the big front window.

I looked out there yesterday morning and..... that's no mouse.

Full-body chills, vague feeling of nausea, clenching of jaw.

Yep, that, my dear boys, is a rat.

Commence freak-out.

Post number 403

Ah. I guess I missed the post #400 milestone by not paying attention. So woooot! a few days late :)

Monday, August 4, 2008

bad mommy 2: even badder mommy

So.... Isabelle fell off the bed the other day. And then yesterday, I didn't think to put a pillow next to her when I got up when she was napping and so she fell off again. She had a scrape on her cheek, so she either rubbed against the bed on the way down or fell on her face.

My only excuse is that DH was sleeping next to her and I have only ever seen her roll in that direction (ie if she's on her back, she goes to her right, on her front it's to her left), so instead, she rolled off my side.

And will I be a bad mommy if I send the boys to their rooms when they haven't even been up for an hour? ds2 refuses to eat breakfast and his mood is for s*** so far. 9 days to school!

Sunday, August 3, 2008

ogres are like onions

1) We've made it to Shrek the Third in our retrospective of all that is green and smelly. I even requested the book by William Steig, so now we've seen it all.

2) I have onions from the garden. I don't like onions all that much and don't use them in many things..... so what do I do with all these onions?

great excitement yesterday

So anyway, with DD's new found life skill which isn't good for her health, I asked Dh to put her crib together yesterday. First, I had to shuffle furniture around in our room and vacuum and such and then the boys helped hiom. DS2 did most of the screws and screamed when DS1 had a turn and did ONE screw. Then it turned really ugly when ds1 was going to put the mattress in by himself and they almost had a boxing match over it and finally I pulled ds2 back and after a struggle, I pretty much lost it with him. He is such a defiant little monster lately. Sorry, I know I shouldn't say monster, but I was thinking a much worse word. It's the defiance and black-is-white knee-jerk reactions that are on my last nerve. I know he's the former baby who now has a baby sister. I know he's always trying to catch up with ds1 who is 2 1/2 years older (BTDT!), I know he's 6 and in that 6 year old kid trying to be the boss phase. But does he have to do it over the summer where I have to be around him 24/7? He's still that sweet little boy who wants to sit on my lap and then he's the snarling beast or the screaming, crying waterworks. Emotions run high.

So anyway....

DD has her crib set up now. As they were putting it together, I realized I still hadn't found any crib sheets. So once it was all set up, dd had taken a very brief nap (still in my bed) and DH could take over the supervision of the baby, I made a fitted sheet. It was remarkably easy because the 44/45 inch width of quitling fabric is just exactly right for a crib sheet. I cut it to the right length, sewed right-angle seams at 8" in and cut off the corners, then hemmed and sewed on elastic at the same time. It's very bright fabric. She'll never be able to sleep without sunglasses. I need to get to work on another sheet for when that one needs to be washed.

So now the tricky part is to convince the baby to sleep in there.

Friday, August 1, 2008

bad mommy

was just finishing up on that last post all off a sudden i heard muffled screams coming from my room.

my little black belt had just ninja-ed her way off the bed.

seems to be uninjured.

i will be very very vigilant about surrounding her with pillows.

time to set up the crib!

Hiiiii-ya!

We had belt promotions last night. I'm a green belt now, which is the 4th belt and the second one in the intermediate class. DS1 is a blue belt, 2 ahead of me and also the last rank that is in the intermediate class. In a bit under 4 months, he'll be moving to red belt, which is the advanced class.

DD is a black belt :)





I was going to take some pictures of all of us together, but forgot my camera in the mad rush to barely get there on time for DS1's belt ceremony. Got lots of praise and cooing and funny remarks from people there about her gi. I was going to give her a white belt at first, then thought about using green or blue since that's what we were moving to, but decided that black would get more notice. That shirt's not going to still fit her by the next time we promote. Well, unless DS2 goes back and then he should promote in about a month.

Pants were sweat pants from ottobre - you can't see it, but there's wide gray ribbing at the waist. The shirt was from http://babypatterns.atspace.com/overview.html - the yellow wrap shirt in 3-6 months. I had a heck of a time trying to get it to print out as big as it's supposed to be, plus it's probably supposed to be knit instead of unstretchable woven, so it was a bit tight.

She managed to not melt down, though the whole thing (2 ceremonies) lasted over 1 1/2 hours and when she was getting fussy was when I was out there doing my karate stuff and getting my belt so I couldn't just stop and nurse her.

DS2, on the other hand.... well, he didn't melt down, but as soon as we got there - IMMEDIATELY after eating dinner of which he didn't eat much because he wasn't hungry - he went to the snack table and proceeded to graze for 1 1/2 hours. Don't we feed him?

And then DS1 sat and read a comic book throughout my belt promotion. Now why did I drag the whole family along again?

"....and all the children are above average."

"The goal in California is to have all students perform at the proficient or advanced level."

As in, not at basic or below basic. Because being only at a basic level would be bad, you know. Because average is, well, average. I mean let's not try to explain statistics to the state superintendent of public instruction, in which we tell him that no matter where the bell curve sits on the proficiency meter, HALF of all kids are going to be below average. OK, so what he said was that they should be above basic proficiency not above average, but isn't basic... doesn't that say "average" to you? Doesn't that say, "you should at least know this much," not, "you should know more than this much because a C.... dang, that's like failing and you're a loser, you poor, pathetic SECOND GRADER." Sorry. Getting worked up here.

We just got a letter with DS1's STAR (standardized) test results. DS1 is advanced, luckily, since he's the one that spaces out instead of working hard in class. So sometimes he's coasting, but at least he's coasting at a decent level. The lowest percent correct he achieved in the test in all the subsets of English and Math was 92% in measurement and geometry. Lots of 100%, yes, even in English, because even though he hates to write, he loves to read.

So this is a mish-mash of brag post and rant.

Oh, and standardized tests "help us understand how well are schools are doing and how we might do better in the most important job of all - preparing students to succeed in school and beyond."

Does this include the autistic boy in DS1's class last year? Or the boy who has ADHD? Who might or might not have taken much of the test, depending on where they were in their heads and bodies during the whole week of learning that they lost to this test? More than a week, since they were taking mock tests and essentially studying for the test. And how about the kids who probably freaked out over the test because they couldn't get the answers right during the mock tests and so figured they were stupid going into it?

I always did well on standardized tests, too. I did really well on my SATs and ACTs, too. Got good grades, kept my nose clean. And the only long-term job I have ever held was sort of a loser position and I quit over 10 years ago and have never established any sort of career other than mom. I guess if I had ever had to find a career, if I hadn't derailed myself by moving out of the country where I wasn't allowed to have a job and then staying home with the kids, maybe I would be rich by now. But I've never been driven. Maybe I am coasting, too.