yeah, probably.
we're not letting the girl go on the sleepover w/ the daycare counselors (see previous post). i'm fairly certain it would be fine but it just seems weird to me.
most of the time i'm pretty naive and the hubs has accused me of wearing rose colored glasses (though it's also one of the things that drew him to me) and i give people the benefit of the doubt and think the best before the worst, but...when it comes to my kids i'm (we're) pessimists.
i think the hubs is this way, always thinking the worst, because he's more of a cynic and realist in general so it's not a far stretch for him to be overprotective w/ the kids. plus, how many news stories do you have to see not to realize that there are freaks out there? did you read about that austrian guy who kidnapped his own 18 year old daughter and held her hostage in the basement for 24 years and fathered 7 children with her? google it. when shit like that can happen in this world, when people can do that, there's just no telling what the person down the street can do.
for my part i think i'm overprotective because my mom wasn't.
i know we have to walk that fine line between suffocating our kids and keeping them safe. i know that if i say no to everything i'm going to turn them into these rebellious people who do things just to spite me. i know this. i try to pick and choose my battles as far as that goes. hey, she went to williamsburg with people i don't know for two nights! she has spent the night with friends.
i just find it odd that people w/out kids want to have kids sleepover. hello, can we say michael jackson? no no i realize these counselors PROBABLY are not anything at all like michael jackson, but i'm sure some of the parents of the kids that hung out w/ him thought, he's michael jackson, surely he's safe.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
helen keller, sleepovers and pads
or, things that have conspired to make this a suck ass day.
first. at least three weeks ago the girl was given a project for school. i should say the hubs and i were given a project because this year it seems we are getting graded and not the girl. at the beginning of the year when she was assigned projects she waited until the last minute, would throw something together that i would then type on the computer (and resist trying to edit) and dammit if she didn't get an a or b on the projects. when she was assigned this project, on helen keller, i started nagging her. sadly she is like me in this regard and procrastinates. i get the project details in bits and pieces, usually at bedtime or in the morning when there's nothing i can do about it. the report is due tomorrow. she has to give a 2-4 minute speech as if she were helen. she has a tri-fold board (those science fair boards) that has to contain quotes, fast facts, a time line and pictures. most of that is done. this morning she informs me that she needs a costume for this gig. granted 3 weeks ago she asked if she could wear a flower girl dress she wore about 3 years ago. i told her no, i doesn't fit anymore. nothing else was said. this morning she informs me that the costume is part of her grade. it was an ugly morning. we argued. she glared. she blamed me. it was ugly. so of course for the rest of the day i'm going to be thinking of some way to pull a helen keller outfit out of thin air. i hate school projects.
second. daycare sent home a note this week that two of the 20-something female counselors have invited the older after school girls on a sleepover this friday. do you find that strange? we do. obviously i do not think these counselors are pedophiles or serial killers because i do pay them to take care of my kids during the day, but aside from that i know nothing about them. the daycare is affiliated with a church (that is not why we picked this daycare). i am not stupid enough to assume that because it is a church affiliated daycare that everyone there is lily white. i also realize that as the girl gets older she will not always be with me and that we will have to let her do things we might not always be comfortable with, however, i just don't feel right letting her spend the night with people i pay to care for her during the day when i know nothing about them. the sleepover will be at one of their houses. i don't know where they live. my gut is telling me no (as is the hubs'). yes i'm cynical in this regard at least, but who in their right mind spends all day getting paid to take care of kids and then wants to spend their free time, not getting paid, to be with kids that aren't theirs? the hubs said it's like a restaurant owner inviting everyone back to his house after closing so he can cook for them. what adult chooses to spend their free time with kids that aren't theirs?
third. day before yesterday i was zipping through the drug store and picked up a thing of pads and tampons. i didn't think much about the pads except to make sure they aren't the type w/ wings cos i hate those damn things. i'm always getting the wings stuck to stuff before i get them where they're supposed to be, etc. so i didn't pay attention...that is until yesterday at work when i saw one for the first time. i'm not kidding, the thing is a foot long and two inches thick! i have complete coverage from my belly button to the top of my butt crack. it is ginormous! are you KIDDING me??? i could seriously duct tape these suckers together and make a new pillow top for my king size bed. and no, it is not a depends, seriously, i checked.
first. at least three weeks ago the girl was given a project for school. i should say the hubs and i were given a project because this year it seems we are getting graded and not the girl. at the beginning of the year when she was assigned projects she waited until the last minute, would throw something together that i would then type on the computer (and resist trying to edit) and dammit if she didn't get an a or b on the projects. when she was assigned this project, on helen keller, i started nagging her. sadly she is like me in this regard and procrastinates. i get the project details in bits and pieces, usually at bedtime or in the morning when there's nothing i can do about it. the report is due tomorrow. she has to give a 2-4 minute speech as if she were helen. she has a tri-fold board (those science fair boards) that has to contain quotes, fast facts, a time line and pictures. most of that is done. this morning she informs me that she needs a costume for this gig. granted 3 weeks ago she asked if she could wear a flower girl dress she wore about 3 years ago. i told her no, i doesn't fit anymore. nothing else was said. this morning she informs me that the costume is part of her grade. it was an ugly morning. we argued. she glared. she blamed me. it was ugly. so of course for the rest of the day i'm going to be thinking of some way to pull a helen keller outfit out of thin air. i hate school projects.
second. daycare sent home a note this week that two of the 20-something female counselors have invited the older after school girls on a sleepover this friday. do you find that strange? we do. obviously i do not think these counselors are pedophiles or serial killers because i do pay them to take care of my kids during the day, but aside from that i know nothing about them. the daycare is affiliated with a church (that is not why we picked this daycare). i am not stupid enough to assume that because it is a church affiliated daycare that everyone there is lily white. i also realize that as the girl gets older she will not always be with me and that we will have to let her do things we might not always be comfortable with, however, i just don't feel right letting her spend the night with people i pay to care for her during the day when i know nothing about them. the sleepover will be at one of their houses. i don't know where they live. my gut is telling me no (as is the hubs'). yes i'm cynical in this regard at least, but who in their right mind spends all day getting paid to take care of kids and then wants to spend their free time, not getting paid, to be with kids that aren't theirs? the hubs said it's like a restaurant owner inviting everyone back to his house after closing so he can cook for them. what adult chooses to spend their free time with kids that aren't theirs?
third. day before yesterday i was zipping through the drug store and picked up a thing of pads and tampons. i didn't think much about the pads except to make sure they aren't the type w/ wings cos i hate those damn things. i'm always getting the wings stuck to stuff before i get them where they're supposed to be, etc. so i didn't pay attention...that is until yesterday at work when i saw one for the first time. i'm not kidding, the thing is a foot long and two inches thick! i have complete coverage from my belly button to the top of my butt crack. it is ginormous! are you KIDDING me??? i could seriously duct tape these suckers together and make a new pillow top for my king size bed. and no, it is not a depends, seriously, i checked.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
My favorite Train album
a few years ago i heard drops of jupiter over the speakers at pita delite during lunch and fell in love with train. since then i've seen them twice in concert and have, i think, all of their cds. while i love most everything that comes out of pat monohan's mouth, i think my favorite cd is my private nation.1. Calling All Angels
2. All American Girl
3. When I Look To The Sky.... And when I feel like there is no one that will ever know me, there you are to show me
4. Save The Day ....Hey baby, I don't wanna be your Superman I just wanna be your man and I'll be super, baby You'll be standin' in the sun shine I'll be standin' right here in the rain You save me and I will save the day
5. My Private Nation
4. Save The Day ....Hey baby, I don't wanna be your Superman I just wanna be your man and I'll be super, baby You'll be standin' in the sun shine I'll be standin' right here in the rain You save me and I will save the day
5. My Private Nation
6. Get To Me ......Go on hitch a ride on the back of a butterfly There's no better way to fly To get to me I look around at what I got And without you, it ain't a lot But I got everything, with you, everything
7. Counting Airplanes ....I don't spend my time with anyone Who doesn't think I'm wonderful Or somewhat cash refundable at times
8. Following Rita
9. Your Every Color ...I can see the red, white and free in you You light the night up like the moon And underneath your clouds, I see the blue You're hopeless 'cause you tell the truth The stars are jealous of your shine If you were mine There's not a thing I wouldn't do ....You're coffee brown and bubble gum pink And oh I think the shade of you is on the brink Of changing all the ways I see the world I could drown inside a single drop Of all the kinds of things you got And all the kinds of things I'm not
10. Lincoln Avenue
11. I'm About To Come Alive....Maybe I'm not but you're all I got left to believe in Don't give up on me I'm about to come alive And I know that it's been hard And it's been a long time coming Don't give up on me I'm about to come alive
No one thought I was good enough for you Except for you Don't let them be right After all that we've been through 'Cause somewhere over that rainbow There's a place for me A place with you
In every frame upon our wall Lies a face that's seen it all Through ups and downs and then more downs We helped each other off of the ground No one knows what we've been through Making it ain't making it without you
as much as i love to write and love music i can never put into words how i feel about music. i just feel it. to me, good music, good lyrics are really poems set to notes. songwriters are poets. i love the turn of a good phrase, the thumping beat in the background. this album has a great mix of slow and faster songs and they're mixed just right. plus, pat's voice is in my range so we sound good when i sing along w/ him in the car! : 0
Monday, April 28, 2008
storage and organization
ok friends i need help. seriously, if i have to bitch at my kids one more time about cleaning their rooms i'm going to fucking explode. i totally realize part of the problem is they don't have enough storage space (and they have wayyyyyy too much shit).
they both have large closets, the kind with the folding slat doors, but stuff is just piled in them. the boy has a toy box in his, filled w/ toys he doesn't even play with.
i'm thinking i need some sort of (inexpensive) closet organizational tool. stacking bins or shelves or something. i am willing to de-ass some of the toys. by inexpensive i mean i'd love to find a way to solve both closet problems for under $100. is this doable or am i out of my mind? they both currently have a huge tub filled w/ stuffed animals and i don't want tubs all over their rooms. also, in the tubs things seem to get lost and forgotten.
any organizational suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
they both have large closets, the kind with the folding slat doors, but stuff is just piled in them. the boy has a toy box in his, filled w/ toys he doesn't even play with.
i'm thinking i need some sort of (inexpensive) closet organizational tool. stacking bins or shelves or something. i am willing to de-ass some of the toys. by inexpensive i mean i'd love to find a way to solve both closet problems for under $100. is this doable or am i out of my mind? they both currently have a huge tub filled w/ stuffed animals and i don't want tubs all over their rooms. also, in the tubs things seem to get lost and forgotten.
any organizational suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
old faithful
as some of you may know the hubs and i started watching lost this year. we are not watching the current season, no, that would have been too easy. no, we have gone back and watched the previous seasons on dvd. we're caught up now. it is quite frustrating because season 4 is underway but we cannot watch it because we missed the first half.
so, this weekend we went back to our faithful friends on west wing. omg. i love absolutely everything about that show. the music, the cast, the stories, etc. we've watched all 7 seasons a kabillion times, but we're starting over again until the 4th season of lost comes out on dvd. yes, we are tv nerd/freaks.
anyway watching west wing always makes me sad that the real political world is not more like the tv show. i am in a quandary because i honestly and truly do not have a good feeling about any of the candidates. i am ashamed that george bush in our president. i have to think that other countries are looking at us and going, really? that's your best and brightest? y'all are fucking idiots!
the hubs and i talked about this last night. these talks are sometimes difficult because he is a die-hard republican. no, he's not bill oreilly bad else i wouldn't be married to him. even he has problems with bush, though he'll probably have a cow that i've put that in writing ; )
he said that we will never have the best and brightest in the white house because the best we have to offer don't want that job. they don't want to deal with all the rhetoric and politics. i find that very depressing and hopeless. i've always sort of felt hopeless when it comes to politics anyway, but now even more so.
when i think about how hard we work, how hard most everyone i know works, and how people are really trying/struggling to make ends meet and then see people like my sister who get free health care and daycare for her kids and it just pisses me off. i don't want my taxes raised so i can fund more of that. i'm not a hard ass. i do think there are people out there that need help, at least for awhile. but should money be taken out of my pockets because my sister decided to have two kids out of wedlock, knowing full well she didn't have the means to support them to begin with? i stopped having kids, partly, because we couldn't financially afford more. i was responsible. why should i pay for her not being responsible?
ok, i'm putting my soapbox away now and getting back to work.
so, this weekend we went back to our faithful friends on west wing. omg. i love absolutely everything about that show. the music, the cast, the stories, etc. we've watched all 7 seasons a kabillion times, but we're starting over again until the 4th season of lost comes out on dvd. yes, we are tv nerd/freaks.
anyway watching west wing always makes me sad that the real political world is not more like the tv show. i am in a quandary because i honestly and truly do not have a good feeling about any of the candidates. i am ashamed that george bush in our president. i have to think that other countries are looking at us and going, really? that's your best and brightest? y'all are fucking idiots!
the hubs and i talked about this last night. these talks are sometimes difficult because he is a die-hard republican. no, he's not bill oreilly bad else i wouldn't be married to him. even he has problems with bush, though he'll probably have a cow that i've put that in writing ; )
he said that we will never have the best and brightest in the white house because the best we have to offer don't want that job. they don't want to deal with all the rhetoric and politics. i find that very depressing and hopeless. i've always sort of felt hopeless when it comes to politics anyway, but now even more so.
when i think about how hard we work, how hard most everyone i know works, and how people are really trying/struggling to make ends meet and then see people like my sister who get free health care and daycare for her kids and it just pisses me off. i don't want my taxes raised so i can fund more of that. i'm not a hard ass. i do think there are people out there that need help, at least for awhile. but should money be taken out of my pockets because my sister decided to have two kids out of wedlock, knowing full well she didn't have the means to support them to begin with? i stopped having kids, partly, because we couldn't financially afford more. i was responsible. why should i pay for her not being responsible?
ok, i'm putting my soapbox away now and getting back to work.
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