Here is a simple test to see if you have swine flu. It never hurts to be aware!
Do I have swine flu?
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Pictures
Fun stuff from the last few weeks.
Duuude. My hair rawks.
Moooom, I didn't have ANYthing to do with this. I promise. *wink wink
Baby in a box!
I don't have to go to bed if I play the cute card, right, Mom?
What do you think of my photography skills, Mom?
Ah-ah-ah-ah stayin' alive!
Daddy always said I'd hate ladybugs. Not so much, Dad!
Mom doesn't like frilly and pink so much. So I got THIS for Easter. I like it. :-)
I'm going to point my teeny-tiny toe so you can ooh and ahh. Enjoy!
Gratuitous cuteness.
Duuude. My hair rawks.
Moooom, I didn't have ANYthing to do with this. I promise. *wink wink
Baby in a box!
I don't have to go to bed if I play the cute card, right, Mom?
What do you think of my photography skills, Mom?
Ah-ah-ah-ah stayin' alive!
Daddy always said I'd hate ladybugs. Not so much, Dad!
Mom doesn't like frilly and pink so much. So I got THIS for Easter. I like it. :-)
I'm going to point my teeny-tiny toe so you can ooh and ahh. Enjoy!
Gratuitous cuteness.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Hooray for standardized tests!
(If you thought that was a serious headline, you're wrong.)
We're done with WASL. Thank god. Although, honestly, I've never seen kids work so hard. I'm starting to think I might actually be decent at this teaching thing, you know. Even if those kids failed miserably, it wasn't for lack of trying, because holy crap, did they ever try. I had kids who worked so hard checking and rechecking their work that it took them two hours to do the reading tests. And before this year I had never had kids voluntarily use manipulatives during the math test - I offered, they were there, but they chose not to use them. EVERY SINGLE KID asked to use them this time.
And we're done.
I swear that was the longest 6 days of my life.
On another note, Emma has officially started talking. She's making attempts at a ton of words and sounds now. She says bye and waves when someone walks away, so not only is she saying it, she's saying it in context. She's working hard at making at least the vowel sounds in a lot of words. She's also being extremely annoying when we're eating. If we don't immediately give her food when we're eating, or she's done eating what she's been given, she lets out this high-pitched "Ah-AH!" that severely limits our chances of ever making friends with other people in the room. She only does it around food - otherwise she's a dream baby. We're working on not acknowledging the noisemaking - hopefully she'll stop before we've alienated ourselves from everyone. :-)
I can garden! Well, not really, but I can dig crap up and transplant stuff. I bought two really pretty hydrangea bushes for the front bed, and I managed to dig up my two heather bushes and move them around to the backyard bed without killing them. I've been working really hard on the beds this week. I dug up almost everything in the backyard bed, not realizing that the alyssum plants that I thought were dead really weren't. So I bought more alyssum. In the back bed we have two lily bushes, two heather bushes now, and a border of alyssum all around. Plus this beautiful little tree that popped up two inches from the foundation of our house, which receives all the warmth from the dryer vent right above it. It was so pretty that I didn't have the heart to move it, and the fact that it isn't dead yet says a lot for the protection of that dryer vent. I don't know what the tree is, but it will probably become a permanent fixture in our yard once I figure out where to move it.
The front beds have been an experiment from the beginning. When we got here they had a ton of mossy groundcover, a bunch of hostas, some bulbs and a rhody and azalea bush. Since then I've ripped out a bunch of weeds and moss, a couple of hostas and a hydrangea (because we had to get at the plumbing, otherwise I never would have gotten rid of hydrangeas). We planted two japonicas, a Japanese maple, 8 lithodora groundcover, and 5 hydrangeas. We now have two Japanese maples in our front yard - one is more bushy and looks like a weeping willow in the bed next to the rhody, and the other is more tree-like and is our centerpiece at the front of our yard. I had Scott put a ring of cement stones around it and planted alyssum there the other day.
We hired Trugreen to come spray our lawn this week. I got tired of buying fertilizer and mosskill and such and waiting waiting waiting to actually apply it, because every time I wanted to, Scott would have some reason why we couldn't. We just seeded, it just rained, I need to mow, we need to seed first, blah blah blah, I finally took the reins from Scott and called in the cavalry. Besides, I'm sick of pulling up dandelions in the backyard, and I can guarantee that Scott never does that. He mows and weedwhacks. I weed and plant. We need someone else to kill the weeds, especially with my back the state it's in.
So that's about it. I'm going to go edge the lawn today - or at least get it started before people yell at me. I feel so good these days that I forget that I've got two disks that could pop if I overdo it. On a good note, though - I've lost 22 pounds. I haven't talked much about my weightloss here because it's kind of a sensitive issue with me (always has been) but I think I'm getting to a point where I can talk about it more comfortably. So watch for a weightloss journal post coming soon.
Have a great weekend!
We're done with WASL. Thank god. Although, honestly, I've never seen kids work so hard. I'm starting to think I might actually be decent at this teaching thing, you know. Even if those kids failed miserably, it wasn't for lack of trying, because holy crap, did they ever try. I had kids who worked so hard checking and rechecking their work that it took them two hours to do the reading tests. And before this year I had never had kids voluntarily use manipulatives during the math test - I offered, they were there, but they chose not to use them. EVERY SINGLE KID asked to use them this time.
And we're done.
I swear that was the longest 6 days of my life.
On another note, Emma has officially started talking. She's making attempts at a ton of words and sounds now. She says bye and waves when someone walks away, so not only is she saying it, she's saying it in context. She's working hard at making at least the vowel sounds in a lot of words. She's also being extremely annoying when we're eating. If we don't immediately give her food when we're eating, or she's done eating what she's been given, she lets out this high-pitched "Ah-AH!" that severely limits our chances of ever making friends with other people in the room. She only does it around food - otherwise she's a dream baby. We're working on not acknowledging the noisemaking - hopefully she'll stop before we've alienated ourselves from everyone. :-)
I can garden! Well, not really, but I can dig crap up and transplant stuff. I bought two really pretty hydrangea bushes for the front bed, and I managed to dig up my two heather bushes and move them around to the backyard bed without killing them. I've been working really hard on the beds this week. I dug up almost everything in the backyard bed, not realizing that the alyssum plants that I thought were dead really weren't. So I bought more alyssum. In the back bed we have two lily bushes, two heather bushes now, and a border of alyssum all around. Plus this beautiful little tree that popped up two inches from the foundation of our house, which receives all the warmth from the dryer vent right above it. It was so pretty that I didn't have the heart to move it, and the fact that it isn't dead yet says a lot for the protection of that dryer vent. I don't know what the tree is, but it will probably become a permanent fixture in our yard once I figure out where to move it.
The front beds have been an experiment from the beginning. When we got here they had a ton of mossy groundcover, a bunch of hostas, some bulbs and a rhody and azalea bush. Since then I've ripped out a bunch of weeds and moss, a couple of hostas and a hydrangea (because we had to get at the plumbing, otherwise I never would have gotten rid of hydrangeas). We planted two japonicas, a Japanese maple, 8 lithodora groundcover, and 5 hydrangeas. We now have two Japanese maples in our front yard - one is more bushy and looks like a weeping willow in the bed next to the rhody, and the other is more tree-like and is our centerpiece at the front of our yard. I had Scott put a ring of cement stones around it and planted alyssum there the other day.
We hired Trugreen to come spray our lawn this week. I got tired of buying fertilizer and mosskill and such and waiting waiting waiting to actually apply it, because every time I wanted to, Scott would have some reason why we couldn't. We just seeded, it just rained, I need to mow, we need to seed first, blah blah blah, I finally took the reins from Scott and called in the cavalry. Besides, I'm sick of pulling up dandelions in the backyard, and I can guarantee that Scott never does that. He mows and weedwhacks. I weed and plant. We need someone else to kill the weeds, especially with my back the state it's in.
So that's about it. I'm going to go edge the lawn today - or at least get it started before people yell at me. I feel so good these days that I forget that I've got two disks that could pop if I overdo it. On a good note, though - I've lost 22 pounds. I haven't talked much about my weightloss here because it's kind of a sensitive issue with me (always has been) but I think I'm getting to a point where I can talk about it more comfortably. So watch for a weightloss journal post coming soon.
Have a great weekend!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Just one reason
This is exactly why I avoid revealing my religious preference at school. Or anywhere, really.
Kid comes up to me a couple of days ago. This was our exchange.
Kid: Mrs. B, did you know that there's someone in our class who doesn't believe in God?
Me (thinking, "Oh shit, who told you??" I calmly reply): And? There are many different beliefs out there, and there's nothing wrong with someone choosing a belief system that's different from yours or mine.
Kid: I don't think I can be in a classroom with someone who doesn't believe in God.
Me (thinking, "Oh, shit, do NOT tell him you don't, you will get REAMED by his parents"): Well, kiddo, I can guarantee that there will be others in this class and our school who don't believe the same way. How would you feel if your best friend was a Muslim? Or your principal was a Buddhist? Or your teacher was an atheist? (trying not to giggle)
Kid: I wouldn't like being in the same school with them.
Me: Why not?
Kid: Because God made us.
Me (hoping I can salvage some sort of acceptance lesson out of this): And that is obviously a very important part of your belief system. But you can't hold it against someone who believes something different. There are many beliefs out there and even if you don't like someone's beliefs, that doesn't mean that you can treat them differently or discriminate against them because of it. Got it?
Kid: Okay.
Me (blurting): And I don't believe in God either! Take your narrow minded thinking and shove it, you little snot!
(I'm kidding, that last part didn't happen. But it could have. It reeeeeally could have.)
Kid comes up to me a couple of days ago. This was our exchange.
Kid: Mrs. B, did you know that there's someone in our class who doesn't believe in God?
Me (thinking, "Oh shit, who told you??" I calmly reply): And? There are many different beliefs out there, and there's nothing wrong with someone choosing a belief system that's different from yours or mine.
Kid: I don't think I can be in a classroom with someone who doesn't believe in God.
Me (thinking, "Oh, shit, do NOT tell him you don't, you will get REAMED by his parents"): Well, kiddo, I can guarantee that there will be others in this class and our school who don't believe the same way. How would you feel if your best friend was a Muslim? Or your principal was a Buddhist? Or your teacher was an atheist? (trying not to giggle)
Kid: I wouldn't like being in the same school with them.
Me: Why not?
Kid: Because God made us.
Me (hoping I can salvage some sort of acceptance lesson out of this): And that is obviously a very important part of your belief system. But you can't hold it against someone who believes something different. There are many beliefs out there and even if you don't like someone's beliefs, that doesn't mean that you can treat them differently or discriminate against them because of it. Got it?
Kid: Okay.
Me (blurting): And I don't believe in God either! Take your narrow minded thinking and shove it, you little snot!
(I'm kidding, that last part didn't happen. But it could have. It reeeeeally could have.)
Monday, April 13, 2009
Easter
Busy weekend. Busy week, actually. Back to work last week and all, I was playing catchup for the first half. Then, wonder of wonders, I managed to get ALL caught up from a month and a half off of work PLUS get all my report cards done, all within 3 days. I kick ass, I'm not afraid to say it.
This past weekend Alex had a birthday party to go to, which just reminded me how much I don't like kids' birthday parties. Which reminded me that Emma's birthday is coming up. Dammit. I'm SO not in the frame of mind to do a big to-do, so I think this one will be a family gathering at our house.
Anyway, Alex's friend Geo turned 5 this weekend, and he had a mini carnival thing, with bowling, bobbing for frogs (they picked a frog our of the water and if they got the right number on the bottom of it they got a prize), beanbag toss, plus a clown doing face painting. They even rented a cotton candy machine. And I thought I was going all out by reserving Odyssey last year. Which we will be doing again for Alex this year - THAT was easy. Spend less than 100 bucks and you don't have to entertain OR clean up after a gaggle of little boys.
After the party we went to my parents' house and colored Easter eggs, which really involved Alex dropping one or two eggs into the dye, cracking another 4 or 5 "accidentally," and then getting bored and going off to do something else while Scott and I finished coloring. Which involved Scott writing dirty things on the eggs with the wax crayon. Typical.
Afterward (I told you it was a busy weekend, and this is only Saturday!) I took Alex to the Hannah Montana movie. It was awesome (the time with Alex, not the movie) because we went to a 7:00 movie, which is Alex's bedtime, so he was really tired and wanted to snuggle through the whole thing. And then we got an extra hour of sleep the next morning. WHEE! :-)
Due to my half-assery, the Easter bunny only visited Grandma and Grandpa's houses, so the kids didn't get anything from us. (Part of that stems from my being a regular Scrooge, but part of that has to do with my not wanting them to have more candy than they can choke on). On Sunday we went to my parents' to do an Easter egg hunt, then Scott's parents' to do dinner. Then we came home, put the kids to bed and passed out.
I've had my car for over a week now and I LURVVVVE it. She's so much fun to drive, and I haven't been able to find a thing that I DON'T like about her. I actually fight to drive down to Scott's parents' now, when before I wanted to avoid it if I could con Scott into it. And, as usual, when Scott gets off the laptop (whenever that might be, he's working nonstop overtime lately) I'll get the pics off my camera, onto the laptop, then move them over. Because the stupid USB port on the desktop computer isn't working, so I have to take an extra step to get pics on my blog. Bah.
In other news, Alex has finally started "getting" the whole letters/reading thing. You can tell he's going to be one of those nerdy kids who always has his head in a book. (Gee, I wonder where he gets that. It couldn't be the certifiable nerd and geek he has for parents.) He is always sitting there staring at books now and he is finally making headway with recognizing letters. He's even started forming letters on paper and can recognize a few (A, B, S and O mostly). He and I sat at the kitchen table for 20 minutes tonight, singing the ABC song back and forth so he could figure out which letter went in which box on this workbook maze we were working on. And the thing that really makes me proud? He ALWAYS goes back and checks to see what a letter should look like before he writes it. He even said, "Show me what that letter looks like" a few times. It's clicking. YAY!
Oh, and we were reading The Great Kapok Tree tonight, and his comprehension skills amaze me. There was a part of the book that talks about how, if the trees in the rainforest are chopped down, there will be nothing to hold the soil and the rain will wash it away. So we read the page and I asked him what would happen if they chopped the tree down. "The rains will come and wash away the soil," was his response. I only wish I had remembered to have a discussion on the word "erosion," because I guarantee he would have used that word in conversation at school tomorrow.
Speaking of school, he informed me that Nyomi was breaking up with him. Apparently he's been with other girls. And he hasn't decided who his next girlfriend is going to be, although he's interested in Alexandra. Hehehe...
Emma is, well, Emma. Not much to report on her end, although she LOVES being sung to before bed. I always sing her a lullaby and rock her in the glider in her room after reading a story or two. She doesn't really like story time at this point - she would rather have the book in her hands and flip pages by herself, so she only has patience for one or two short books right now. But I make sure she's crawling around Alex's room when I read him stories so she at least hears it all. She officially said Mama and Dada. Once. And she makes animal sounds if you ask her what an animal says, and then say it yourself. SO different from Alex, who already had a 20-word vocabulary by now, including almost that many signs. But I keep telling myself that HE was the weirdo and that she's normal. 'Cause that's a healthy way to label your kids. ;-) She started differentiating her signs a little this week - now she does "more" AND "please" instead of just flapping her arms for all of her signs. Oh, and last night she started fussing because her toy wouldn't do what she wanted it to, and I told her, "Emma, stop it or you're going night-night." She stopped. It worked four times. Which I think is proof that she does understand us even if she isn't talking back, so all is well and good.
Anyway, it's late and I promised Scott some snuggle time. Sorry about the lack of updates for awhile, but it'll be a little sporadic for a bit. Night all!
This past weekend Alex had a birthday party to go to, which just reminded me how much I don't like kids' birthday parties. Which reminded me that Emma's birthday is coming up. Dammit. I'm SO not in the frame of mind to do a big to-do, so I think this one will be a family gathering at our house.
Anyway, Alex's friend Geo turned 5 this weekend, and he had a mini carnival thing, with bowling, bobbing for frogs (they picked a frog our of the water and if they got the right number on the bottom of it they got a prize), beanbag toss, plus a clown doing face painting. They even rented a cotton candy machine. And I thought I was going all out by reserving Odyssey last year. Which we will be doing again for Alex this year - THAT was easy. Spend less than 100 bucks and you don't have to entertain OR clean up after a gaggle of little boys.
After the party we went to my parents' house and colored Easter eggs, which really involved Alex dropping one or two eggs into the dye, cracking another 4 or 5 "accidentally," and then getting bored and going off to do something else while Scott and I finished coloring. Which involved Scott writing dirty things on the eggs with the wax crayon. Typical.
Afterward (I told you it was a busy weekend, and this is only Saturday!) I took Alex to the Hannah Montana movie. It was awesome (the time with Alex, not the movie) because we went to a 7:00 movie, which is Alex's bedtime, so he was really tired and wanted to snuggle through the whole thing. And then we got an extra hour of sleep the next morning. WHEE! :-)
Due to my half-assery, the Easter bunny only visited Grandma and Grandpa's houses, so the kids didn't get anything from us. (Part of that stems from my being a regular Scrooge, but part of that has to do with my not wanting them to have more candy than they can choke on). On Sunday we went to my parents' to do an Easter egg hunt, then Scott's parents' to do dinner. Then we came home, put the kids to bed and passed out.
I've had my car for over a week now and I LURVVVVE it. She's so much fun to drive, and I haven't been able to find a thing that I DON'T like about her. I actually fight to drive down to Scott's parents' now, when before I wanted to avoid it if I could con Scott into it. And, as usual, when Scott gets off the laptop (whenever that might be, he's working nonstop overtime lately) I'll get the pics off my camera, onto the laptop, then move them over. Because the stupid USB port on the desktop computer isn't working, so I have to take an extra step to get pics on my blog. Bah.
In other news, Alex has finally started "getting" the whole letters/reading thing. You can tell he's going to be one of those nerdy kids who always has his head in a book. (Gee, I wonder where he gets that. It couldn't be the certifiable nerd and geek he has for parents.) He is always sitting there staring at books now and he is finally making headway with recognizing letters. He's even started forming letters on paper and can recognize a few (A, B, S and O mostly). He and I sat at the kitchen table for 20 minutes tonight, singing the ABC song back and forth so he could figure out which letter went in which box on this workbook maze we were working on. And the thing that really makes me proud? He ALWAYS goes back and checks to see what a letter should look like before he writes it. He even said, "Show me what that letter looks like" a few times. It's clicking. YAY!
Oh, and we were reading The Great Kapok Tree tonight, and his comprehension skills amaze me. There was a part of the book that talks about how, if the trees in the rainforest are chopped down, there will be nothing to hold the soil and the rain will wash it away. So we read the page and I asked him what would happen if they chopped the tree down. "The rains will come and wash away the soil," was his response. I only wish I had remembered to have a discussion on the word "erosion," because I guarantee he would have used that word in conversation at school tomorrow.
Speaking of school, he informed me that Nyomi was breaking up with him. Apparently he's been with other girls. And he hasn't decided who his next girlfriend is going to be, although he's interested in Alexandra. Hehehe...
Emma is, well, Emma. Not much to report on her end, although she LOVES being sung to before bed. I always sing her a lullaby and rock her in the glider in her room after reading a story or two. She doesn't really like story time at this point - she would rather have the book in her hands and flip pages by herself, so she only has patience for one or two short books right now. But I make sure she's crawling around Alex's room when I read him stories so she at least hears it all. She officially said Mama and Dada. Once. And she makes animal sounds if you ask her what an animal says, and then say it yourself. SO different from Alex, who already had a 20-word vocabulary by now, including almost that many signs. But I keep telling myself that HE was the weirdo and that she's normal. 'Cause that's a healthy way to label your kids. ;-) She started differentiating her signs a little this week - now she does "more" AND "please" instead of just flapping her arms for all of her signs. Oh, and last night she started fussing because her toy wouldn't do what she wanted it to, and I told her, "Emma, stop it or you're going night-night." She stopped. It worked four times. Which I think is proof that she does understand us even if she isn't talking back, so all is well and good.
Anyway, it's late and I promised Scott some snuggle time. Sorry about the lack of updates for awhile, but it'll be a little sporadic for a bit. Night all!
Monday, April 6, 2009
Back to work!
Yup, that's pretty much it. I'm exhausted. Didn't hurt too bad, but I did have to lie down on my couch while the kids were working on writing once. Made it all day on one dose of Motrin - whee!
We bought a car on Friday. I'll post pics and tell the story soon. Meanwhile, here's a cute one of Emma, just because.
We bought a car on Friday. I'll post pics and tell the story soon. Meanwhile, here's a cute one of Emma, just because.
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