Stuff

A small update on some random and not really interesting stuff:

1. Alex starts basketball in January, officially. They didn't have enough pre-k kids to do a full league but he will be getting an 8-week clinic wherein he will do drills and learn new skills. He's very excited. Oh, he also lost two teeth and got one fully in, and another is coming through.

2. Emma now speaks in half-realized sentences. Her single words are still mumbly and usually consist of only the first syllable, but by god, she can say, "OH NO" and "OH WOW!" with the best of them. She did so tonight when she saw our (fake) new Christmas tree with its fiber-optic light show. She also says "I love you" and (in context, sometimes its hard to make out) she says shoes, sock, purse, dog, arf, bye-bye, night-night, all done, down, up, bath, potty, toilet paper (it really sounds like tah pay), brush, diaper, bear, bug, butterfly, cat, meow, hair, eye, nose, book, no, and probably more that I can't remember right now. Which is totally awesome, don't get me wrong, but Scott and I had a conversation last night that went something like this:
Scott: I'm getting worried about Emma.
Me: Why?
Scott: She doesn't say words. She says sounds.
Me: She has at least 20 words in her vocabulary, that's above average for her age, she'll be fine.
Scott: Yeah, but I want full sentences.
Me: Scott, just because our son was a freak and spoke full sentences when he came out of the womb doesn't mean that all our children will be that way.
Scott: I can't accept that my daughter is not a freak.

3. I'm on break! On the first Monday of break I sent the kids to daycare so I could get all of our presents wrapped. Scott also took the day off and helped me out. Today I got the kids fed and out the door, did the last of my Christmas shopping, got our Christmas tree, exercised, got all the wrapping done, got the house picked up, took a nap (wow, that felt good), cooked dinner, took the kids to visit my mom, came home and sat for over an hour reading funny stuff on the web. I remember there once was a time that I read actual BOOKS, but I find that tha intarwebs are funnier. Sometimes.

4. Before everyone has a brain spasm about that last item (You're a teacher! How dare you say you don't read books!) I must mention that I have discovered a new series of books. All young adult fiction, since my fifth graders are the ones from whom I get the most recommendations of books lately. I started reading The Mysterious Benedict Society series while I had a student teacher and loved it. It's about four brilliant kids who use their different intelligences to solve problems and save the world. There are three books in the series and I'm on book two, and it's getting better as I go. I'm also about to start reading the Percy Jackson series, if only because I want to before the movie comes out. Oh, and I rediscovered the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House series, and since my aunt (Hi Linda!) bought me the set almost 20 years ago and I read them over and over so often that most of them fell apart, I will be looking to purchase a new set to give to my kids. No child should be without them.

5. I got a new camera! As soon as Scott and I sit down to watch the DVD on how to use the damn thing, I'll post new pics. I used it at school to create a thank you gift for my student teacher (I took pics of all my kids and had them each write a letter to her, then put them all in a photo album). I'm loving it so far, although I've only scratched the surface on what it can do. Scott also bought himself a new Droid and a 24 inch monitor to add to the 22 inch monitor he already had (some unfathomable thing that programmers must have, I guess - dual monitors for 46 inches of screen space).

6. I didn't get my dream job. I applied for the Highly Capable itinerant position that was available in our district and kicked ass in the interview. Did everything right, answered every question, I even knew one of the women on the interview committee and had an "in." Apparently, however, I just wasn't the right "fit." I imagine that they had someone else in mind when they posted the job - standard BS, we have to post it to offer it to everyone, blah blah blah. I am, however, keeping in touch with the teaching and learning supervisor and I have a feeling she might be my in the next time the job opens up. I WILL teach gifted kids someday. Even if I have to leave the district. I could go on, but dooce's rule of "Don't write about your job on your website" keeps flashing in my head, so I think I'll save the NCLB/"Summit" rant for the next get-together.

7. I'm still working on losing weight. I hit 80 pounds a couple of weeks ago, then took a break and enjoyed cake and pizza and a few other treats (that I hadn't touched in 8 months) and now I have to work off a few pounds I had lost. But dammit, I enjoyed that, and I don't regret any of it. :-) I also realized that I have no set time that I have to lose the weight I'm working off. I still have 50 pounds to lose, but it is so much easier to get back into my good habits now that I've established them. It is harder to exercise every day what with the weather, my foot (plantar fasciitis) and my back, but I imagine once the weather gets better I'll have even more motivation. So I'm taking it easy this winter and watching my patterns, and making sure my pants still fit. My cholesterol was 111 and my blood pressure was 110/65, so whatever I've been doing has been working.


8. Aaaaaand...I'm done. For now. More later!

I've been kinda busy.

Yes, so I haven't blogged in for-EH-ver. I also haven't done much of anything to blog about.

Oh, unless you count being acting principal at school about once a week.

And, well, I guess you could count chairing the Math committee at school.

Hm...you could probably also include having a student teacher. And mentoring a colleague. And coordinating a school-wide assessment. Oh, and that other committee that I've been on for three years now.

All while juggling two kids, one of whom takes Taekwondo lessons 3 times a week and starts basketball next month. The other of whom...ok, well, she's pretty much perfect and aside from one hell of a stubborn streak, is an angel. So I guess I can't use HER as an excuse.

Anyway, I've been busy. And the USB port on this computer is still broken and Scott is hogging the laptop so I can't even post pictures of me 77 pounds lighter.
(Edited - here's one, at least.)

We did a "Biggest Loser" competition at school and I came in second place - I lost 11 pounds in a month and a half. The winner lost 26. I asked if we could count what I had lost prior to starting the competition. They said no. Can't say I didn't try. :-)

Scott has been really busy too. He even got yelled at for working all the overtime he has had to work to complete the two projects he's working on. He finally took vacation time - he has 11 days off. It worked out really well since Emma got swine flu this week and he was able to stay home with her the last two days. I'm not sure if it was really swine, because while she did have all the symptoms, she didn't cough much and she got over it really fast. Must have been a really mild case - or I just make kids with amazing immune systems (we haven't had to take Alex to the doc for an illness in two years, either). I got sick this week too, but I think it's more a sinus thing than swine flu. I wasn't sick enough to miss work, that's for sure. Or, wait, let me rephrase that - I didn't LOOK sick enough that people at work would tell me I needed to go home. I felt like crap the last two days, but apparently didn't look bad enough for germophobes to harrass. :-)

Did I mention I'm not a germophobe? I only mention it now because it's a fun segue into my next story.

Emma is anal-retentive. And detail-oriented. And focused. It's like all of the genes that make me a balance of "whatever" and "perfectionist" were divided evenly between my two children. Alex couldn't care less if his room was clean and when it comes to trying to get him to clean it, we have to sit in there and direct every. single. move. he makes. The focus is not there.

Then there's Emma. Who walked around the restaurant this evening after we were done with dinner and proceeded to pick up every single piece of trash off the floor. And every single piece of spaghetti that dropped on her booster seat. And every single piece of food that might have fallen on her shirt (but I swear, not many did, she's a very prissy eater. Who would rather eat with a fork than her hands.). And no, I did not discourage it. It was so cute to watch her toddle around the table, back and forth, offering my dad a piece of spaghetti here, a straw wrapper there, saying, "ga" when she handed them over (because they belong in the garbage, obviously).

In other news, our cats are much happier. They finally have free rein of the house again. Max didn't work out. Which is really sad, because he was a good dog, but it wasn't fair to him to leave him in the kennel for ten hours a day when he did NOT like it, and we couldn't leave him in the house because he destroyed things. Like our bedroom door. Which he tore a foot-wide hole in. I ended up taking him back to the shelter, where they promptly featured him as the pet of the week (and mentioned his separation anxiety) and he found a good home. It will be a long time before we get another dog, and it will be a smaller, FEMALE dog - they're easier to train, for one thing. I was working with Max every single day on obedience and trying to get rid of his problem behaviors, and it wasn't working. I'm thinking someday we'll get something Border Collie-sized, and maybe a puppy. But again, it will be a long time, because we don't have the time for training right now. For now, the cats are loving this, especially since they had to spend all day out in the garage so Max didn't try to eat them.

Anyway, as soon as Scott stops hogging the laptop I'll probably post some pics of me and the kids. Maybe. I make no promises. I'm busy. :-)

More pics

My grandma was in town this week and we were inspired to take more pictures. Here are a couple of the best.
Four Generations

We don't get family photos often.

Another very typical Alex photo - always about to take off somewhere.

Emma looking adorable as always.

School starts Wednesday!

And I cannot WAIT to go back. This has been a reeeeaaally long summer for me. Partially because I've been an exclusive SAHM all summer, partially because I've been dying to get back into my routine to help along my weight loss, and partially because I'm dying for more adult interaction and stimulation.

Alex has finally cracked through the ceiling on his letters. He now knows 7 letters and their sounds - A, B, F, M, O, S, and X. He has a pocket chart in his bedroom that I put an alphabet border into, and we review the letters he knows before story time, and introduce and review one new one every couple of days. Once he knows the whole alphabet we'll start on numbers. He still gets numbers and letters mixed up (he'll say, while pointing to a group of letters, "those are numbers," and vice versa). I'm definitely happy about this - he should know the names and sounds of all of the letters and be able to count to 100 by the end of Kindergarten, and suddenly, at this rate he might be able to do both before he STARTS Kindergarten, so we're in a good place. I'm still waiting to see, but I guess he just hit a developmental milestone and it suddenly clicked. Was my worrying for naught? We'll see.


Emma is just darling. She has turned into this adorable, charming, wide-eyed little princess and she is so sweet and lovable. At her core. On the outside at the moment she's getting on EVERYONE'S nerves. She is constantly whining, screaming about something or another, and we're all getting tired of it. She started daycare last Tuesday and they said she was crying during transition times, which is not surprising, since she cries anytime I walk away from her or try to change what she is doing. Her mommy connection has gotten really annoying at times when Scott just wants to hold her for a second and all she wants to do is put her arms out for me while saying, "Mom! Mom! Mom!" I love that she wants me and that I'm so important to her, but I want her to be just as connected to Daddy too, and that bugs me. So, whining and clinging. It's just a phase...it's just a phase...it's just a phase...



Max has turned out to be a wonderful dog. He's so good, and aside from some random barking that he doesn't do when I'm around, and the occasional chewing of Alex's toys that were left outside (Alex says, "I know it's my fault, I left them out.") he has been great. I just trimmed his toenails tonight all by myself, and anyone who has ever had a big dog knows that's not easy unless your dog is very easy-tempered. He's very gentle with the kids, they love him, and he's a great security system. He had a lot of fun at MarDon this summer, playing with the other dogs in the lake.



That's about it for now. I'm still down 60 pounds, hopefully that will change once school starts and I hit my stride again. Now I get to go see if my dressier work pants still fit me or if I need to make another shopping trip. :-)

The blog post that wasn't.

So, we had a great camping weekend at MarDon resort in Eastern Washington - almost 4 whole days away from kids and responsibilities. And this year I did NOT come away pregnant. 2 years ago, not so much, but this year I refused to let MarDon work it's charms on me. Of course when I got there, all of our friends had to make comments alluding to the fact that Emma was a MarDon baby (I can't be sure, but the timing is pretty damned close). Anyway, I'm NOT pregnant.

But oh god...what if something is in the water?

60

FINALLY! So after a month of plateau, my good friend Dawn Facebooked me (who knew that could be a verb?) and said that after reading my blog, she wanted to let me know to eat more protein. And holy god, was she ever right. So I ate more protein. For 2 days. And dropped 5 pounds in those two days. After that it's been steadily downhill, and I've lost another 10 pounds in about a week. I'm thinking my body was just waiting to get a little more nourishment before it could let go of the pounds it was holding on to. The last couple of days it has slowed down considerably, so I'm thinking I just needed that jumpstart to get back on track.

In other news, I went to a bachelorette party on Saturday night. Wow, was that fun - not only the party itself (drunken debauchery - including a scavenger hunt that involved us being required to catcall at every guy we drove by on the street - is not something I get to partake in very often). But the most fun part was shopping for new clothes, getting dressed, putting on makeup, and LIKING the way I looked! No, let's be honest here - after probably 5+ years of not feeling at all attractive, I LOVED the way I looked. And after I finish baking my friend's wedding cake over the next couple of days, I'm going to be totally narcissistic and post an entry of nothing but pictures of ME. Because I've actually LIKED pictures of me lately! (You have no idea how excited I am about this.)

And in a last bit of news - about 5 minutes ago I read on BOTH Facebook and Myspace that my sister-in-law Alyssia (and of course her hubby, my buddy and bro-in-law Ryan) is pregnant. Now, unfortunately, she has pulled the "I'm pregnant!" crap with us several times - one time she even posted an ultrasound pic to HER blog that she STOLE from MY blog. So even though I saw her in a pic WITH the actual pee stick, I really don't think I can get all excited about this one. In fact, since they just left here for Japan a few weeks ago (which means she probably conceived this child while they were here, ew) and won't be back for TWO YEARS, I'm really just gonna sit back and wait until I see actual belly pics. OR a kid. You hear that Alyssia? You've ruined me. You have managed to make the one person who gets all excited about EVERYONE getting pregnant NOT excited for you. You happy now? You suck. And if it's a girl, you better at least have an M in it's name somewhere, for all the heartache you've caused me.

(I'm kidding, I'm kidding...I'm jumping up and down right now. Inside. Where no one can see it.)

Ummm...beach? Dog? Baby?

Yeah, I really don't have anything to write about. Truthfully, nothing interesting is happening in our lives right now (some would argue nothing ever does ;-)).

We went to Ocean Shores for a couple of days - my mom, me and the kids. It was overcast and because of my mom's limitations (she can't see because of her eyelid spasms and because of her Parkinson's and heart conditions she gets very fatigued easily) as well as having my two little ones, we really didn't do much. We shopped in one souvenir shop, went to the beach once, went to the pool twice. I was reminded that Alex has not taken swimming lessons, so I'm looking at starting that soon. Emma is a little fish - she kicked and floated better than her brother did.

My mom put it rather well when she said that it was like me going to the beach by myself with three kids, since she needs as much help as they do. It was relaxing, if you ignore the fact that Alex has become a teenager in a 4 year old's body. Good lord - the attitude, the whining, the entitlement! Not to mention the fact that we have not ONCE given in to him when he whines repeatedly, yet he STILL DOES IT. You would think after 5 years of consistency the kid would TAKE A HINT. He even - I kid you not - whined, "You never let me do what I want!" on this trip. I've decided that since I told myself if my teenagers said that (or any other version of such - "I hate you!" or "I don't get to do ANYTHING everyone else does!" included), that I would congratulate myself on doing my job. Because really, isn't it our job to set boundaries? Or at least I'll tell myself that. And I'll tell myself that the early onset of this behavior bodes well for his teenage years. Because he'll get it all out of his system now, right? Right? Come on now, agree with me - then I won't go batshit crazy.

I'm still working on the weightloss thing. I've found it's a lot harder to lose weight in the summer for me. It's mainly because of the lack of routine - every day is different so the routine I had set up before school got out has yet to fall into a rhythm while I'm at home. I'm exercising every single day for at least an hour - walking, running, workout videos, weights, etc. I don't remember the last day I didn't exercise. I haven't gained anything and the swimsuit I bought last summer is falling off of me (which kinda pisses me off - I spent 100 bucks on that thing). Oh, and the only shorts I own that DON'T fall off are the ones I can now pull on without unbuttoning them, which means that another 5 or 10 pounds and I won't be able to wear them either. I'm really looking forward to the day I reach my goal weight - I've found I can maintain my weight by exercising and eating 1800-2000 calories a day, and right now I have to stick with 1500 to lose. Which is okay when I have other things to distract me until dinner, but this sitting around the house for 2 hours while the kids nap kills me (especially when it's too hot to get into the garage to treadmill). So I blog. :-)

I'm looking forward to So You Think You Can Dance tonight - it's the 99th episode, and Ellen Degeneres will be a guest judge (she's one of my favorite personalities - her dry wit kills me). And I've been sucked in - I actually called to vote for my favorite dancer last week. After 5 seasons and 2 tour shows, I finally picked up the phone. I'd like to think that my votes helped Melissa - she got stuck in the bottom two but made it through. :-) She won't win (I'm thinking Kayla or Brandon will) but I've gotta stick with my favorite naughty ballerina.

Aaaand...yeah, that's about it. I'm sure I could sit here and type random boring crap for another hour but there really isn't anything to blog about. I should probably go unpack anyway. Oh, Max is doing great. I love having a dog in the house again. The cats don't - they've taken up residence in the garage for a bit, but they'll all get used to each other eventually.

That's it for now...

Do I feel old?

Can't tell you how many times I've gotten this question - most from my husband, har har, making fun of me because I'm TWO WHOLE YEARS older than he is.

Honestly, yeah, right now I do feel rather old. But that has more to do with the fact that I'm a little out of commission right now.

Normally, no, not at all. 30 is the new 20, right? :-)

And all I have to do to remind myself that I'm not "old" is think about how happy I am. I have everything anyone could ask for. A wonderful, loving, caring, supportive husband who smells really good. He does, really. An amazing, brilliant, talented, outgoing, sweet and (mostly) obedient son. A happy, smiling, sweet, easygoing, wonderful daughter who understands "no" at 10 months. A substantial roof over our head and the ability to pay the mortgage. Two quality cars with good insurance, plus the ability to drive them (although for me, there's a short-term hiccup in the ability to drive thing. But everything is temporary.) Two families that live close by so our children can grow up KNOWING THEM. I didn't really know my extended family. I still don't. And I wish I had.

No, I don't feel old. I feel lucky, although I don't really believe in luck. I believe in working hard to get what you deserve, although I'm not really sure how working hard got me the wonderful people I have in my life.

So, on the eve of my 30th birthday, even though I just ranted about the stuff my husband DIDN'T do, I'd like to take this moment to thank him and everyone else in my life who makes me as happy as I am.

Damn, I really am lucky.