8/25/08

First Day

It seem ridiculous to mourn my daughter's first day of PreK, but I just want to curl up on the couch and suck my thumb until it is time to get her. I am proud that I made it through the day without any tears as did Tiffany. She was nervous but brave and I know that she will love it. I too will love it after I get through this first day. Until then, I will watch some sad movie so I can justify my tears. To end this on a high note, I did have a great time choosing which records to display on my new shelf in the living room. That would have been less fun with Tiffany at home. Ok sad movie, here I come.

8/19/08

We had our "Meet the Teacher" night for our sweet girl who is growing up way too fast this past Thursday. Tiffany has been so excited these last couple of weeks to meet her new teacher, we have even been painting a small wood box to give to her new teacher, but when we got there she got teary-eyed and was scared to talk to her. It was really strange because Tiffany is so eager to talk to people about anything to anyone. I really liked her teacher and I know Tiffany will also. I am now beginning to feel the Kindergarten moment and it is a year too early. Because we are sending her to private school for the PreK program and there will be no change when she starts Kindergarten next year, I feel as though my baby is going off to school for the first time. We have car lines, detentions, report cards, lunchrooms to contend with this year. What am I supposed to do with that? I feel overwhelmed with all this information and in addition to that, this university model school gives me the added responsibility of educating Tiffany two days a week. I am excited about playing an interactive role in her education but I can't help but worry about my ability to teach her well or maintain some level of organization so she can effectively learn.

It's All Too Much!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkgV5yMw19o&feature=related

There is an interesting project that I have been working on. I recently met a woman on myspace who is doing really great work in the Czech Republic. She teaches English to the Czech students and has a project to help teach her kids. Its the Flat Stanley Project. In the book, Flat Stanley, Stanley was sleeping in bed when a bulletin board fell on him and made him flat. In addition to many other wonderful adventures, Stanley was put into an envelope and mailed to family and friends who took him to different places. The project is to make a flat version of yourself and send it off to people who will take pictures with it and mail it back to you. I had never heard of it prior to this awesome woman who is having kids from Czech and the US do the project to help the Czech kids learn English. What an awesome idea! Tiffany and Benny both made flat versions of them selves and they are currently on their way to the Czech Republic, I included the pictures below. The woman's name is Awesome Amanda (my title for her) and is a missionary so if you are looking to give financially to someone, I believe that she is worth it so check her out here.



Benjamin and Flat Benjamin

Flat Benjamin, who obviously required a small level of assistance.
Flat Tiffany. She asked that flat Tiffany have pigtails and flowers on her dress, so that was my contribution. She didn't think she could do fingers but I think hers are excellent. Just before this, she got a cut on her lip so the circle on her mouth represents that boo boo. You may also note the brown spots on her face, these are in fact oversized freckles. She cracks me up!
Tiffany and Flat Tiffany

8/17/08

Like the majority of the country, we have been watching the Olympics. At least bits and pieces of it. It amazes me the amount of talent these competitors have and I thought that we could have our own little competition, though we limited it just to the animals.

Princess received the gold for 'Urinating on Judge Upon Water Visualization'

Sasha received the gold for 'Loudest Bathtime Terror Cry'

Mavis received the gold for 'Pity Me and Watch Me Shiver' (post-bath event)

Sandy received the gold for 'Most Determined to Maul Judge'

The Dogs tied for the gold for 'Largest Concentration of Water Dumped on Judge'

Congratulations to all of the contestants. You are officially clean and flea free!


Speaking of animals . . . Saturday, while taking out the trash, I ran into one of my neighbors. She is a lovely women, with a grandson Tiffany's age. After we exchanged the usual pleasantries, she inquired about my cats. Strange I thought, until she told me that two of her cats recently became ill. At the vets office, they told her that the cats had been poisoned; one died on its own and the other was put down. I consider myself fairly open minded though at times negative phrases will escape my lips, but I always try to see the opposite point of view regarding any issue. I have been trying to figure out why some shit sucking asshole would do this awful thing, so far I can find no justifiable reason. I know that some people don't like animals and as such try to keep them out of their yard. But putting out tainted food will only attract animals to one's yard which to me equates intentionally trying to kill something that one has no right to kill. Now I know why I occasionally find dead squirrels in my yard with no apparent sign of death. I am so angry about this and would like to find this person and make them some homemade cookies. No, I wouldn't kill anyone because it goes against my sanctity of life belief, but I wouldn't mind putting something in there to make them throw up. Actually, I wouldn't do that either, but plotting against this evil makes me feel better. I will however be watchful of my neighbors and if I do discover this evil individual, I will be making several phone calls and maybe a flaming shit bomb on their front door step. Asshole!

I do apologize for my profanity but this is one topic that I believe justifies a little profanity.

Oh my laughable life, how lonely you must be. No words to read, no songs to hear, no insanity to scream at. Perhaps soon I will give you the attention you deserve, but for I now I go and entertain the monkeys swinging from the fans.

8/6/08

Our tropical storm lacked the ferocity I was seeking. As dangerous as these storms are, it is still exhilarating to have them sweep through with their torrential rains and thunderous winds giving you the ability to open your door and scream to the world all your frustrations without your neighbors running to your house with a baseball bat hoping to catch the one causing the screaming. Even though the puny storm didn't give me what I was seeking, I did get my usual set of funny pictures of the kids outside after it passed.


What?! I like mud!

It's the muddy Monster! Hear me Roarrrrrrr!


Cheeeeessssseeee!


I want in on the action!

OK, Let's stand together and say cheese!


Let's stare at the door instead of Mom. Ha Ha!


Let's plan our next form of Mischief.


Now we will make funny faces!


The loser of the mudslinging contest is Mom, who gets to clean up the mess! Congratulations!

8/4/08


Damn babies! They are everywhere following me all around town, the bathroom, the store, church and now their faces greet me on blogger after I sign in. They also haunt my imagination. There are times that I stick out my tummy and make myself look pregnant while brushing my teeth. Then I realize how I didn't have to try too hard to pooch my tummy and wonder if I should lose weight before getting pregnant. I could start walking again, stop eating Godiva ice cream and other things that I just don't want to do. Hopefully, I will be pregnant soon and lose weight using the morning sickness plan. Haven't heard of it? Well, I don't advise it but that would be the bright side of throwing up your brains five times a day. Don't you think so?

Onto the latest, Edouard has made landfall and will be here soon to flood our streets and trim our trees. Honestly, he seems a bit puny right now but I am sure that he will show us his real power soon enough, which still won't be much considering he couldn't even make hurricane status before making landfall. At the least, we are getting a break from the heat, much needed water and puddles to jump in later today. Like everyone else around here, I spent part of the day getting ready for whatever this storm was planning, got some extra water, some canned foods and we cleaned up the yard. Before we set out on the yard cleaning adventure, I explained to Tiffany that hurricanes were just really big thunderstorms and of course that we were safe as long as we stayed inside the house. So, I am in the bathroom and she comes running in screaming, "Hurricane Mommy, Its Here! We have to stay inside!" Naturally, I assumed she heard a helicopter or a motorcycle but sure enough we had a small thunderstorm sweeping through so we had to hurry with the our backyard clean-up before the rain started. But I had to laugh first. She is very excited about this 'hurricane' or is she scared, I honestly can't tell but its all a great learning experience.

Speaking of learning experiences, I had a great one yesterday. Tiffany will be attending a private christian school that follows the university model school. In other words, the kids go to school 2-3 days a week and are schooled at home the other days. The school just got their certification to be a university model school and part of being certified meant that the parents are required to attend seminars provided by the school. I wasn't expecting much from these seminars and in all honesty, I was expecting some backwards home school moms to give lectures on the various topics with a 'Praise Jesus' focus. So I had my first one yesterday on Learning Styles, Sibling Order and Personality Tests. I studying this topic at length during college but it was the only one that appealed to me or that I could find relevance in, so again I wasn't expecting to learn anything. I think that God loves these moments when we think we know more than those around us so he can snap us back and give us a dose of humility. Not only was the instructor not some backwards mom but she was highly knowledgeable on the topic considering in was her career to show schools how to find their students strengths through personality tests. I was blown away even though I had learned this before.

She did discuss one type of personality assessment that I had heard of but hadn't studied much. It takes the three basic types of learning (auditory, visual, and kinesthetic) and expands that to eight intelligences. When you can determine what ways you or in this case your kids learn then you can use that information to make learning more productive. After the seminar, I found an online test that can determine which intelligences you are and it surprised me because according to this test my primary intelligence is musical. I didn't agree at first but as I looked into it I realize that I am because it is the way I learn along with spacial (visual)and interpersonal (people) intelligence. I included links below if you want to take the test and learn more about that and if you scroll all the way to the bottom of this page you can see my results.


Multiple Intelligence Tests
Click Here (this test is missing one of the intelligences)
Click Here (this test is more accurate but asks for your email and also has really good info on the topic)

8/3/08

Success Sunday Banner

" Certainly this is a duty, not a sin. "Cleanliness is indeed next to godliness.""
John Wesley

My success this week was mostly cleaning, well at least emotionally. I spent much of my time this week taking care of myself. One day, I left the kids in day care and went antiquing with one of my good friends where we met a lovely older gentleman who sold us some wonderful candles. The next day, I had lunch with my bible study friends (without the kids) where we had biblical conversations on whether we would get into to heaven. It was a discussion of the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids from the Bible and as usual, I let my friends discuss while I listen to their arguments. Not only are their topics always interesting and insightful but it is fun to watch them playfully discuss their opinions. Friday, I treated myself to a massage. My massage therapist was someone that I had met through My Space and it turns out that she is a member of the church I attend. I had a deep tissue massage on my back for a whole hour and she was able to work out much of my stress and muscular knots. I will definitely be seeing her again.
I also had the not so fun cleaning adventure. Cleaning the kitchen. It started Sunday morning while the kids were eating their cereal. I noticed something in Ben's cereal which turned out to be some kind of bug. I take it away and give him new bowl of cereal and go to Tiffany and see the same thing. Then the light bulb hits me in the head and I realize that those are weevils. It was in their cereal, flour, rice, ground flax seed and several other food products. My day started with cleaning out the entire pantry and our kitchen now looks like the aftermath of a tornado. I was thinking about this quote the entire time because I was seeing expiration dates from three years ago and realizing that some of this flour (I had several different kinds) came from our apartment when we moved in 2003. That is not exactly being clean. I have always had problems with cleanliness in terms of housekeeping, but this is the first time I have ever had a weevil problem. Now my pantry is bare, clean, repainted in places and has new caulking. The majority of my grains have been tossed out while the rest is in the freezer. I am so thankful that I have not cooked anything for anyone else even though the bugs aren't actually bad for you, I still wouldn't want to share that with my friends.
It has been a success week for me. I feel better about myself and after much work I can now feel better about my kitchen. I do think I could use another massage though.


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