PS - You can play along here.
10.04.2010
RAW(e) Photo Competition: Girly
When I saw the theme of this week's competition, I just had to enter! I have lots of girly photos of Z, but this one remains one of my favorites.
Room Mothering
A million years ago, when I was a classroom teacher, I always dreaded party days. I taught in the 'hood and there was never any parental involvement. So in my mind, class party = lots of extra work, 22 sugared up kids, and no help.
With this in mind, I have always told my kids' teachers that I would be happy to help out with whatever they needed help with. When I mentioned this to Z's kindergarten teacher, she said the position of Room Mother was open, if I was interested. With visions of bringing in cupcakes a couple times a year, I agreed.
Then I got a note home about the Room Mother Orientation meeting. Wait, wha...? Orientation? A mandatory meeting? WTF?
Once I got over the shock, I arranged care for Q (Thanks JC!) and gamely attended the meeting. How bad could it be?
Let me just say, these women are hard core. There was a bound Room Mother manual. With tabs.
I quickly figured out that these were the type of women who would cut you over a position on the PTA. Like something out of a Lifetime movie. Not that any of them were anything but nice, nice, nice! I did have a moment of high-school-like panic about being in the room with the 'popular' girls, though.
At Z's school, the Room Mom's primary job is to set up/run a booth at the Fall Fun Day (aka: Halloween Carnival. Shhhh! Don't tell!). There is fund-raising and letter writing and money collecting. We have to find a (cheap) Christmas ornament with a place for a picture that relates to the continent our kids are studying - for the entire grade level. Australia, in Z's case.
Luckily for me, there is another mom on the kindergarten team who makes my alpha-mom aspirations laughable. Before the meeting was even held, she had selected our theme for Fun Day and painted a brilliant sign that looks like it came from a professional sign maker. Wow.
I am so out of my league.
With this in mind, I have always told my kids' teachers that I would be happy to help out with whatever they needed help with. When I mentioned this to Z's kindergarten teacher, she said the position of Room Mother was open, if I was interested. With visions of bringing in cupcakes a couple times a year, I agreed.
Then I got a note home about the Room Mother Orientation meeting. Wait, wha...? Orientation? A mandatory meeting? WTF?
Once I got over the shock, I arranged care for Q (Thanks JC!) and gamely attended the meeting. How bad could it be?
Let me just say, these women are hard core. There was a bound Room Mother manual. With tabs.
I quickly figured out that these were the type of women who would cut you over a position on the PTA. Like something out of a Lifetime movie. Not that any of them were anything but nice, nice, nice! I did have a moment of high-school-like panic about being in the room with the 'popular' girls, though.
At Z's school, the Room Mom's primary job is to set up/run a booth at the Fall Fun Day (aka: Halloween Carnival. Shhhh! Don't tell!). There is fund-raising and letter writing and money collecting. We have to find a (cheap) Christmas ornament with a place for a picture that relates to the continent our kids are studying - for the entire grade level. Australia, in Z's case.
Luckily for me, there is another mom on the kindergarten team who makes my alpha-mom aspirations laughable. Before the meeting was even held, she had selected our theme for Fun Day and painted a brilliant sign that looks like it came from a professional sign maker. Wow.
I am so out of my league.
9.30.2010
It Lives!
Turns out that cycling is a whole lot easier when you have air in your tires. How about that? The one-mile ride to Q's school was a piece of cake. When I started feeling a bit of quad strain on the way home, I had a moment of panic - until I notice that I was on a slight incline and had a head wind. Whew!
Apart from fitness, riding the bike had some other unexpected side benefits. Q is in the midst of some terrible-three-type control issues and wanted nothing to do with going to school this morning. But when he found out we were going in the bike? He could hardly wait to leave! I even got compliments from another mom when she saw me getting ready to leave. It boggled her mind that I could bike him to school.
I have decided that my pink mom-bike needs a name. Something as prissy and silly as she is. Penelope rides again!
Apart from fitness, riding the bike had some other unexpected side benefits. Q is in the midst of some terrible-three-type control issues and wanted nothing to do with going to school this morning. But when he found out we were going in the bike? He could hardly wait to leave! I even got compliments from another mom when she saw me getting ready to leave. It boggled her mind that I could bike him to school.
I have decided that my pink mom-bike needs a name. Something as prissy and silly as she is. Penelope rides again!
9.25.2010
Dog Days
"Daddy, there are too many dogs at my house," I announce on our semi-daily phone chat.
He paused for a minute and replied, "That is a sentence I never thought I'd hear you say."
It feels like a kennel here at Casa Critical Mass. I have my usual crazy complement of four and have added some to the mix. I must have lost my mind!
Scout the Golden Retriever is making a guest appearance while T's parents finish up their last month in Colorado. He is old and slow, so he doesn't require much work, but he is the size of a Shetland pony - I have tumbleweeds of Scout-colored fur blowing around the baseboards to prove it! He's been here for almost a month and may be staying well into October. Not a hardship as I am his favorite person in the world (much to Grandma's chagrin!).
We also have Bun's dog, Lucy. I promised to take care of her months before I knew Scout was coming to stay. Lucy is a spastic little Golden-Greyhound mix. Sweet and well behaved, but very high strung. She is the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak. The other dogs are laid back and lazy and Lucy gets them whipped up into a frenzy. She's not doing anything wrong, but she has tipped the scales on the rest of the dogs behavior.
With SIX dogs in the house? Every bird is barked at. And car. And neighbor that dares to leave his house. Every lap is competed for. Has your lap ever been the field of battle between 200 pounds of Labrador Retriever? With a little fat pom vying for your shoulder at the same time? Every kibble is scarfed up. In record time lest any of the other dogs try to get a bite in edgewise. Every surface is covered in fur. My Dyson can't keep up!
And the backyard? A minefield of dog bombs. Blarg.
Ah, but when they are all sleeping peacefully around you, you can't help but love them.
He paused for a minute and replied, "That is a sentence I never thought I'd hear you say."
It feels like a kennel here at Casa Critical Mass. I have my usual crazy complement of four and have added some to the mix. I must have lost my mind!
Scout the Golden Retriever is making a guest appearance while T's parents finish up their last month in Colorado. He is old and slow, so he doesn't require much work, but he is the size of a Shetland pony - I have tumbleweeds of Scout-colored fur blowing around the baseboards to prove it! He's been here for almost a month and may be staying well into October. Not a hardship as I am his favorite person in the world (much to Grandma's chagrin!).
We also have Bun's dog, Lucy. I promised to take care of her months before I knew Scout was coming to stay. Lucy is a spastic little Golden-Greyhound mix. Sweet and well behaved, but very high strung. She is the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak. The other dogs are laid back and lazy and Lucy gets them whipped up into a frenzy. She's not doing anything wrong, but she has tipped the scales on the rest of the dogs behavior.
With SIX dogs in the house? Every bird is barked at. And car. And neighbor that dares to leave his house. Every lap is competed for. Has your lap ever been the field of battle between 200 pounds of Labrador Retriever? With a little fat pom vying for your shoulder at the same time? Every kibble is scarfed up. In record time lest any of the other dogs try to get a bite in edgewise. Every surface is covered in fur. My Dyson can't keep up!
And the backyard? A minefield of dog bombs. Blarg.
Ah, but when they are all sleeping peacefully around you, you can't help but love them.
9.23.2010
Score!
Well, not really. Z has had two soccer games and lost both of them about a million to three. At the first game, I'm not entirely sure our team, The Ladybugs, understood that the objective of the game was to get the ball into the goal... By the end of the third quarter, a light seemed to have come on for a couple of the girls. Does it make me a bad parent that I am glad Z was one of the players who sucked the least?
In our defense, none of our team has played soccer before. Both teams we were against played together last year, too. And were hard core. We are in the five-year-old league and those teams have gone out and found sponsors to buy fancy uniforms. Wow. And I thought I was being all alpha-mom by making bows for the whole team and ordering funky soccer socks. (Red with black polka dots! Squee!)
And now? Pictures! Of my little soccer star!
In our defense, none of our team has played soccer before. Both teams we were against played together last year, too. And were hard core. We are in the five-year-old league and those teams have gone out and found sponsors to buy fancy uniforms. Wow. And I thought I was being all alpha-mom by making bows for the whole team and ordering funky soccer socks. (Red with black polka dots! Squee!)
And now? Pictures! Of my little soccer star!
9.19.2010
Feeding Anger
I just ate a handful of peanut butter pretzels because I am mad at my husband.
Yeah, that'll teach him.
Yeah, that'll teach him.
9.17.2010
Warrenty Expired
Yet another fun-filled doctor appointment, optometry-style.
On the down side, my contact prescription is so wacked out that they don't have anything even close to my prescription in stock. They sent me home in two ill-fitting contacts that make me squint worse than my outdated prescription did! The special order trail lenses have yet to arrive - a week after the appointment! Blah.
I also discovered that Wester is where every pair of boring glasses frames goes to die. When I finally found a pair that flipped my skirt up, they were CRAZY expensive and the shop didn't take my pidly insurance. More blah.
I guess I'll be experimenting with a little internet frame shopping. I just hope I can find something to accommodate my massive cranium. As most women's glasses make me look like I wandered into the kids' department, that will be yet another adventure. I am hoping to find some really funky cat-eye frames. Rhinestones a total plus!
What the heck happened? On the inside I'm still just a kid! Will someone send the memo to the rest of me? Thanks.
- I have yellowing of the lenses. Diagnosis: pre-cataracts.
- My macula (of macular degeneration fame) isn't all sparkly like macula are supposed to be. Diagnosis: pre-macular degeneration.
- There is a giant hole in my field of vision, a symptom of glaucoma, that caused me to flunk my peripheral vision screening. Luckily(?), it is probably caused by a small growth on my left optic nerve.
- I have some kind of health issue (blood pressure/cholesterol/diabetes/thyroid) causing me to have massively dry eyes, which leads to
- Calluses! On my eyeballs! On the up side, the calluses probably keep me from feeling how uncomfortable my contact lenses are. Um, yay?
- For the first time ever, having my eyes dilated rendered me close to helpless. I was safe to drive my car (distance vision wasn't affected) but couldn't see to sign my name to pay for my appointment. At my weekly lady's lunch afterward, there was much razzing about my blown pupils and did my policeman husband know about my recreational drug use?
On the down side, my contact prescription is so wacked out that they don't have anything even close to my prescription in stock. They sent me home in two ill-fitting contacts that make me squint worse than my outdated prescription did! The special order trail lenses have yet to arrive - a week after the appointment! Blah.
I also discovered that Wester is where every pair of boring glasses frames goes to die. When I finally found a pair that flipped my skirt up, they were CRAZY expensive and the shop didn't take my pidly insurance. More blah.
I guess I'll be experimenting with a little internet frame shopping. I just hope I can find something to accommodate my massive cranium. As most women's glasses make me look like I wandered into the kids' department, that will be yet another adventure. I am hoping to find some really funky cat-eye frames. Rhinestones a total plus!
What the heck happened? On the inside I'm still just a kid! Will someone send the memo to the rest of me? Thanks.
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