Mission Accomplished

The week, by the numbers

• 1: Business trips taken by Hubby
• 2: Press Conferences (aka Parent-Teacher conferences) attended
• 3: Days late on returning library books. Just never got around to it
• 4: Times I wished that red wine didn't make me so sleepy because I could have used a glass of something after work each evening.
• 5: days that I worked. (which I might add was about 4 days too long)
• 6: (at least) people I've complained to about working
• 7: (at least) new little friends I made this week...one little girl brought me a card and present today. Another? Tapped me on the shoulder and flashed me the sign for I love you. And the little boy that shouted out really loud "Miss Martha, you are the bestest teacher we've ever had". (and yeah, the other woman was in the room when he said it). So just maybe I'll change my mind and decide to sub again...but first I need at least 7 days to rest up and renew my happy chi...

Behind the curtain...

On a couple occasions, people have asked me why I don't work in the nurse's office at the Things school. Sure, I've got the training, even the experience as outdated as it is, would probably be better than what we've currently got as a school nurse. Part of my reasoning for NOT working has to do with time and money: I have no desire to be away from home that long for that tiny of amount of pay. I've also said that I don't want to see what goes on "behind the curtain"...you know, a la Wizard of Oz. I'm a much happier parent not knowing the inner workings of my children's school.

So, instead, I work with our school's "day care" program. Sure the pay still stinks, but the hours are way more flexible and we are one layer further out from the behind the scenes stuff at school.

Except this week, I have somehow found myself subbing with a department that is a bit more connected to the real school.

Suffice to say, I was right NOT to want to see that much about what makes a school tick.

Colleen-o has her own way of doing countdowns. For me, I have a simple countdown I'm working towards: 14 hours to go. And then I'm free of this added job that I've taken on. It's been a long and rather enlightening week. Suffice to say, next time I'm asked to sub this much, all I need to do is think of "behind the curtain" and respectfully decline.

Just who does he think he is?

Yet another random conversation...Thing One says "Mom, don't forget my press conference is this Friday".

Huh?

Press Conference?

Don't you mean Parent-Teacher Conference?

Go Ahead and hate me..

Not because I'm beautiful (I'm not)...but I've finished my Christmas cards. Yep, signed, sealed, and even delivered to the post office.

6.03

I know, I should be grateful that my boys are early birds. Some day I will appreciate their willingness to get up and get going each morning with such a cheerful attitude.

But come on folks...a four day weekend. FOUR opportunities to go without alarm clocks and just let our bodies wake us up naturally.

Why oh why did they both wake up on three of those four mornings at exactly and precisely 6:03 each morning?

Good thing there is plenty of coffee to get my morning attitude re-adjusted. Because for this self described morning person, even 6:03 is TOO early to start the day.

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

But, I'm just delighted with how I spent my day. I did a little bit of this and a little bit of that.
Now I should be working on dinner, folding laundry, maybe even thinking about working on some Christmas cards. But really, I'd rather be doing more of this...

Giving Thanks...

This year...I'm ever so thankful for...

• That loving Hubby of mine. On a couple occasions this past year, I was reminded of women not nearly as lucky as I am when it comes to being married to a committed, hard working, honest man. And he's cute too...what more could a girl want?
• Those crazy Things I call my children. Again, I look around and see people who would give anything to hear the laughter and antics of wild ones running amok. I've got a pair and am ever so grateful for the endless supply of smiles they put on my face.
• A plethora of friends. If I am ever feeling alone and blue, all I need to do is shout out and suddenly a flock of great gal pals come scurrying over. Whether we are talking trash about some celebrity or wiping away the tears of each other's heart breaks, we've got each other and I'm ever so grateful for that.
• All the comforts of home...from cars that run, to a roof over my head and a warm cozy bed to snuggle into each night. I've got it all. It may not be the biggest mansion on the block, nor is the bank account as full as we'd like, but we've got enough and that makes me thankful.
• The many men and women who make sacrifices each day to keep our countrysafe and secure. I've worn the uniform of our nation's Army. I know that it is a very hard job that involves sacrifices rarely noticed by others. But I am ever so thankful for the many men and women who hear the call to duty and serve our nation with pride.

And with that...I say, what are you thankful for?

For all your HVAC needs...

Call SW Heating and Air Conditioning!

No, I don't work for them. Nor do I get any kick backs or rebates.
But, come on, who knew that such companies still existed?

• I called and left a message for the on-call/after hours technician. He returned my call within 5 minutes.
• He arrived within his promised time frame
• He explained everything to Hubby, they fixed the problem and the bill came to $0.00
• It was 'under warranty' he said. OK, probably the furnace is original to the house, making it at least 15 years old. And while we did have it "inspected" when we bought this house, that also occurred way past any warranty period I'd expect. (Can you believe we've been "court side" for just about 2 years now? In some ways, this place has always felt like home)
• This is the same company that came to look at our A/C unit this summer: and that time, they were at my house within 90 minutes of my initial call for a "routine' check.

Hello...you'd be foolish not to use this very customer friendly company!

OK, now before you think I'm all sunshine, rainbows and ponies this morning...I've got a bone to pick with the makers of the Butter Braids. This last batch I got through our school fundraiser? Well, the initial loaf is smaller than the old size, they were more expensive and the darn thing didn't rise like it is supposed to. I'll not be purchasing from this group again...thank you very much!

See...I can still be my hard to please, nothing makes me happy self!

Multiple personalities?

On the way home, Thing Two is talking with his brother about all the "helpers" he has:

Mr. Nerd helps me during math
Mr. Brain helps me during spelling
Mr. Glasses, well, he helps me pretty much with everything.

Right now, I"m wishing that he had a Mr. HVAC in his operating system, because our furnace has gone belly up and it is no longer 70 degrees and sunny in the long range forecast. (fear not, the after hours technician is in bound but still, there goes my mad money for the month!)

That Girl...

Gotta love the kindergartners. I'm working with a whole bunch of them for the next two weeks. And as I was leaving school this afternoon, one of them spotted me, he waved and I overheard him tell his mom "That girl was our substitute today. She was really nice!"...

Not sure which I was happiest to hear....a kid call me a "girl" (take that you old hag from the gym! Silver Sneakers will just have to wait for me to join your group) or that he thought I was nice.

Yep, without a doubt...it was being called THAT GIRL!

Another His/Her weekend

A happy pair we are indeed!

And just how do I title this one?

This morning's breakfast conversation went something like this

Hubby: Hey, I heard Christmas is cancelled this year if you
don't eat your breakfast (editor's note: we start early with the be good 'cuz Santa is watching stuff)
Thing Two: OK, then we'll celebrate Kwanzaa
Hubby: Um, son, we're not black
Thing Two: Then how about Hanukkah?
Hubby: Nope, we're not Jewish
Thing One: (who up until this point had been buried in his electronic gadgets, we'd assumed he was tuned out to the world around him): NO,I don't want to be Jewish, Hitler might come back from the Dead!

Life Observation #388

Why are we called Stay At Home Moms when we often find ourselves not able to practice the stay at home part? Grrrr....looking forward to a weekend filled with staying home and being a mom!

Why bother...

Spending money on hair color if someone at the gym is going to tell me "Oh you can join Silver Sneakers, you only have to be fifty".

HUH???????????
Next thing I know, folks are going to ask me if the boys are my grandchildren!

Old Navy, how you've broken my heart

To the fun folks at Old Navy:

Oh how I enjoy your commercials. Your stores are always such a fun place to shop. Affordable, colorful, stylish stuff. Until yesterday!

My question for you is: when did you start to ignore the BOY factor in your merchandising? While the girls had a plethora of fun seasonal stuff to choose from (from candy cane robes to snow man jammies), the boys had Nada. Oh wait, I take that back: there was one seasonal t-shirt. I believe it read "Santa is my homie" or maybe it was Homeboy. I so don't understand the urban slang, and even if I did, would I want my cute, adorable boys sporting a t-shirt that talks about homies/homeboys? Am I living in a suburban fantasy world to hope that we can hold off on the "gangster" look until at least middle school?

Please, I am begging you to re-visit your marketing strategies. Yes, I know, boys this age prefer to wear nothing but their boxers. But, could you at least offer some cute stylish, seasonal boxers just so us Mommies can continue the tradition of dressing our fellas in cute stuff Christmas eve?

Yours Truly, A Disgruntled customer (and yeah, I know Christmas is more than a month away, but it is your comrades in retail that rush the season so DEAL with it!)
PS: Kohls: you weren't much better! The biggest selection of seasonal jammies you had? Were in the men's department and well...suffice to say, Fredrick's of Hollywood called, they want their merchandise back!

Spelling Humor

The Things are night and day different when it comes to their aptitude for spelling. One kid looks at the word once, and remembers it from here to eternity. The other kid, not such a talent for spelling.

Last night, we were working on spelling with the one who doesn't really care for spelling words correctly. He was asked to write words that had the -ck ending. He snickered and giggled when he suggested "bick".

Well, color me confused! What's so funny about that word (if it even is a word?).
Then I remembered a week or two ago when he shyly told me he'd heard a new bad word....and spelled it that same way. At the time I just smiled, I was sad that he'd heard such a word, but grateful that he'd heard it wrong, and hopeful this innocence of whispering bad words would last forever.

Now? I still find it funny...but DUDE...here's a classic example of why being able to spell properly is important. If you are going to write cuss words, make sure you've got them spelled right!

Another Overheard moment..

Two Things sitting huddled on the couch this morning, when I hear one say to the other "She's Crabby" "Yeah, I know".

HUH? I am not crabby. I'm just slowly waking up, looking around for missing lunch boxes, filling thermos for husband, figuring out what to serve his royal pickyness that is Thing One, and hoping that we've got what Thing Two prefers for breakfast. So what if I was a little snappy when they woke me up before I was ready. I'm not crabby...I'm just the mom!

I go back to putting together sandwiches of all shapes/styles, when I hear "Yeah, but I caught her, now she's mine".

Double HUH? I'm just standing here, stewing...
Oh wait, notice what the boys are doing: heads buried in their electronic gadgets...
Apparently, they had caught "CRABBY" some sort of Pokemon.

Yet again, that reminder that sometimes it really isn't all about me!

Singing in the shower...

No, not me. Who has time for such a lengthy shower to belt out a tune?

Last night, Thing One was in the shower, and I was distracted helping Thing Two. He got to stay in the shower longer than the usual assembly line style of get wet, lather, rinse, get out that both my boys are used to.

So, as I'm walking in to tell him "time's up" I hear him singing the following "lyrics"...

• Ya shimmy to the left, Ya shimmy to the right. (at which point the ad libbing started) I don't know my left from my right so I'll just keep the shimmy going anyway I can.

It was one of those "Thing One" moments that just make me smile.

He's been doing that a lot lately...which of course makes me smile even more!

And the xray showed...

no evidence of a fracture.
So, I can hang up my crown of mommy guilt and go serve up some tater tots...

The nurse in me was sort of on the fence about a strain/sprain vs. fracture, but the mommy guilt led me to make the call. All you mommies and nurses in training out there: I'm here to tell you, the two areas may overlap but the water gets mighty muddy sometimes! :)

The trouble with quirky...

Thing One has an incredibly high tolerance to pain. This is not to say he isn't perfectly capable of whining and over-exaggerating with the best of them. But, when a real injury occurs, I've often wondered/worried whether he'd know it or not.

He tripped/tackled on the playground yesterday and immediately announced that he had a broken foot. Yeah right...

Only, now almost 24 hrs later, I"m concerned he might be right. I just checked in on him at school and he is really avoiding putting weight on the foot, hobbling about.

Me, ms. I hate to take them to the doctor, has called and he'll be seen in an hour...
Fingers crossed he's learning how to over-react and that it isn't broken...
Because if it is, well, pass that bad mommy award over to my side of the room.
I'll update once I know for sure...

Nightmares...4th grade style

Thing One announced this morning he was really sleepy. Could it be too much Halloween fun last night? Apparently not, because when I asked him he told me he had bad sleep because of "nightmares". Further questioning revealed the subject of his nightmare was "I dreamed I was going to school at at AN ALL GIRLS school". EEEEEEKKKK...that would be a bad dream for boys that are at that stage where girls are nothing but trouble

Aside from that, we seem to be in recovery mode from all the festive fun of Halloween. It was a mellow year for us this year. I'm not sure why but I think we're at an awkward stage in Halloween. They are done with the little kid side of Halloween (instead of picking out pumpkins, they offered to push the cart while I picked out the pumpkins) and yet they are not quite ready for the "creepy" side of Halloween. Stuck in the middle.
But, being pretty good cooperative Things (most days) they still went through all the photo op obligations and so ....yeah, I have photos to share! Enjoy!