He wanted a weenie dog?

The kids' school has a schoolwide incentive (at least for the lower grade levels) of giving tickets for good behavior.  Every other week the kids can redeem them at the ticket store for prizes.

Sarah hoards her tickets.  She's even been known to skip the ticket store one week so she'll have more to spend the next week.

Jack blows his whole wad every time.

Sarah will say, "I have 275 tickets and I'm thinking about maybe spending 20 of them someday."

Today Jack said, "I got a weenie dog at the ticket store. I only have 3 tickets left but it was worth it."

His left ear fell off in the car.  And the red and yellow shoestrings representing ketchup and mustard are coming unglued.  I'm glad he feels like it was worth it, but he set it on the counter as soon as he got home so I could fix it.

"I knew I shouldn't have tried to tie his ears in a knot," he said.

Getting my hair done

I found a girl to color my hair.  She put some reds in there and some blondes.  And then she busted out her curling iron and curled it.

I love it!  It's a fun change.

This is the way I wish my natural curl looked, but I like knowing that this can be achieved (either by a pro or with a ton of practice) with a curling iron.  It reminds me that lots of the curls I see in magazines when I think, "Ugh I wish my hair looked like that!" aren't natural.

And if other people can fake it, then so can I. :)

Some of these are old...

But they always make me laugh.

At different times, there has been truth in all of these for me... :)

   Or substitute "teacher" for "parent"...

Makes sense to me...

Seriously...

A worthwhile goal....

Hooray for drugs...



To be fair, I no longer take a pill that helps me not care so much... or "takes the edge off" as I like to say... but I consider getting back on it all the time. ;)

Sorry if you've seen these a thousand times! Hopefully at least one made you smile.

TOMORROW IS FRIDAY! HAVE A GOOD ONE!

So the scoop on my ESL teacher is...

She's had a hard time dealing with stress and is on leave. So she decided to go ahead and retire to "destress".
If that's the truth, then I could assess her to see if she has an anxiety disorder. Pretty sure I'm qualified to do that after six weeks of abnormal psychology. :)

What have I been doing without the headphones?!

I'd like to thank Melissa McDade for reminding me that I have headphones in the van for the DVD player. 

..................

I've had the van since 2007.  I knew it came with headphones, but the kids were too small to use them.  So I forgot about them.

Randomly Melissa was talking about Cash watching DVDs and wearing his headphones a week ago, and I remembered that I, too, have headphones in my car.

"How do they work?" I asked excitedly.

"Well, your kids will put them on and they can hear the DVD."

"But then what?"

"Then??? Then... you can listen to the radio or a CD,"

"Wait.  You're telling me that if I hit the 'AM/FM' button WHILE the DVD is playing, the kids can still hear the DVD through their headphones?"

"Mm hmm.  How long did you say you've had your van?"

"For 5 years!"

"Oh, Julie."

"And we've driven to Missouri, listening to the kids DVDs.  I know every line to all of their movies by heart."

"Yeah, you don't have to live like that anymore.  Use the headphones."

................

And today I did.

And you know what? It was magical.  And I didn't have to listen to the theme song to Strawberry Shortcake on my way to work. Oh happy day!

How did I not know that I could be free to listen to my own music while the kids watched DVDs?

(I'd shoot a sideways glance at Jason right now if he were in here with me.)

When I asked Jason if he knew about the headphones and that I didn't have to be listening to the kids' movies, he said, "Uh, yeah."

To which I said, "Uh, why didn't you tell me?"

Then he said, "The van came with an instructional DVD.  I told you back in '07 that you should watch it.  But you didn't."

I'd like to say that if, hypothetically speaking, a person has the time to watch an instructional DVD that educates him on a vehicle that his wife will be driving... and if, while watching said DVD, he happens upon some useful information that might save his wife's sanity,.... I would think that person would SHARE that information with his wife immediately.

But whatever.

Of course, then again, maybe a person would assume that his wife understood the basic concepts of headphones and didn't need to break it down for her.

My ESL professor quit

So it's not like it's a class that I'm taking for a grade.  It's just a prep course for the ESL certification test, but my instructor who monitored our course work was an actual bilingual professor at Texas A&M.

She checked our homework and answered emails.  She unlocked our lesson modules each week and did our powerpoint lectures.

Sunday she sent us an email telling us that she was going to be unlocking all the lesson modules for the rest of the course because she was retiring at the end of the month.

Hmmm. A professor retiring at the end of September.  There was no mention of this when the course began in August.

Now I'm no detective, but something tells me that there was some type of falling out between Texas A&M and her. 

Maybe she was denied tenure, got angry, and left. Is she unhappy with a department head? Maybe she was asked to either retire with benefits or be fired without them.

Inquiring minds want to know!!! ;)

When a teacher retires at the end of September, something's not right.

Sooooo, I'm gonna email her and ask her what happened. Is that nosy and intrusive? ;)

Open Sesame

Jack [trying to magically open the door]: "Open," says me.

Me: It's actually "Open sesame".

Jack: Really? Why "sesame"?

Me: I have no idea.

Jack: "Open," says me makes more sense.



I really can't argue with him on that one.

Walking into church this morning...

They decided to hold hands and walk together. :)

Plano Balloon Festival 2012

Do you remember when I took the kids to the Plano Balloon Festival last year? I tried to take them with my parents on Friday night, but it rained. So I took them Saturday night... alone. The balloons didn't launch that night either. It was a disaster!!

If you get bored, you can read about it here.

Last night we tried it again. This year was MUCH better.

Jason went with us. He's gone to the farm to visit his parents now, but he left after the kids went to sleep. And AFTER the balloon festival.

It's good to have help. :)

We parked so much closer this year. The kids were a year older... and everything gets easier as the kids get older. Jason carried stuff and got the food for us. SO much better than last year.

The kids played a little bit on the inflatable slides.

We ate corn dogs, chicken strips, ice cream and funnel cakes. (Not exactly part of any clean eating program. But SO good. ;))

And we watched the balloons launch.

Ready to run some errands

Red Rover, Red Rover

For those of you who know "sweet" Karen Fishero, I'm gonna let you in on a shameful secret from her past.

We used to live in Mobile, AL on a cul-de-sac filled with children. Mom liked MOST of the kids. ;) But there was a certain neighbor named Brad that she struggled with. He was my sister's age... so 2 (maybe 3) years older than me. That would mean he was anywhere from 5 - 7 yrs old at the time of the incident.

One day my mom was playing "Red Rover" with the neighborhood kids. And when the chant went, "Red Rover, Red Rover let Brad come over," he ran towards my mom and whomever she was holding hands with. (My sister, I guess?)

If you're not familiar at all with the game, you form two lines... which basically makes 2 teams. Those two lines face each other and teammates hold hands. When you call someone from the other team over, they run and try to break through the line. If they can break through your hands, then they get to take someone from your team over to their team. If they can't break through your hands, they become part of your team. The team with the most players at the end wins.

When Brad ran towards my mom and (my sister, I think), my mom grabbed Hilary's hand TIGHT and wouldn't let go. Intentionally clothes-lining Brad. I can't be sure of this... but I imagine Brad fell on the ground. And sometimes I pretend he was out cold.

It's a move so uncharacteristic of my mother that the story has become almost legendary in my family.

So if anyone in my family is reading this, they will understand what I mean when I say....

After my day in Pre-K, there are 3 kids I'd give just about anything to play "Red Rover" with. ;)

Our week (so far) in pictures

Sunday afternoon, Caroline went to Raleigh's 4th birthday party. They played hide and go seek.

(Caroline is in the green bow, hiding her eyes. She's lying next to the birthday girl. It was cute to see that Caroline has friends her own age. I never see that. I just think of Sarah and Jack as her friends.)

Then Monday kicked off Howdy Week. It was "Western Day". Of course, Jack got his shirt wet while brushing his teeth.

Figures.

And tonight the kids ran to Jason when he came home. They were fighting for his attention. It was cute. So I took a quick picture. I figure you can't go wrong capturing those moments. ;)

well,

Life in Pre K is cruising along.

I've literally wiped 3 bottoms, changed 2 I-peed-my-pants accidents, and had 1 kid pee out on the playground. Not on accident. Dropped his pants, faced his friends, and peed.

I refill water bottles, open juice boxes, baggies, cups of Ranch dressing for little carrots, bags of chips, gogurts, and drain fruit cups. (Why do parents send mandarin oranges or diced peaches?)

There is no janitor so Robyn and I vacuum and scrub tables.

Oh... and we teach some too. ;)

I'm so tired when I get home, but then I think of that hefty $600 paycheck waiting for me at the first of every month and remember that I can do this!! :)

Today...

We rode our bikes to the park.

I learned:

1. The kids need to practice steering.

2. The kids need to be reminded to keep pedaling. (That would seem like an obvious thing to do when riding a bike but they stop at random times.)

3. It's all about balance when riding a bike that sloooowly. I didn't fall but I did almost run over Jack. He steered himself right in front of me and stopped pedaling. It was his fault. (see points 1 and 2)

my random facebook-inspired thought of the moment

I don't like it when people do their smiley faces backwards. It confuses me.

This :) makes sense.

This (: makes me look twice and reread your status to gather context clues as to what the heck that face is supposed to be.

I think we can all agree that the eyes should be first, the mouth comes last. A nose is optional.

I've decided when people do their faces backwards, they're probably left-handed and simply used to doing everything opposite from the rest of the world.

An early birthday present

I think I've said before that Jason doesn't usually buy me birthday presents or anniversary presents. We usually do the card/dinner thing, and that's fine with me.

But this year he got me a present. Possibly an awesome present. See? It says so on this box.

This box was left on my front porch while I was at work, and might as well have said, "Steal me. I'm awesome."

THIS was inside.

It wasn't a surprise. I picked it out, and I LOVE IT. I tried to go with a Macbook because I think they're cool. But I can't help it. I'm a PC. I need my Windows and my Microsoft Office (even though I know they make a version for Mac).

I love having a laptop. It's crazy lightweight. And I don't know how I ever survived without being portable. I mean I can check my email on the couch...

from my bed...




Here am I blogging in my living room.

:)

The kids are already driving me nuts with the pouty, "I wish I could play on that." "I want one." "When can I have a laptop?"

To which I said, "You're not allowed to breathe on this or even look at it. I understand you want one...too bad. And--let's see--I didn't get one until right before my 33rd birthday, so you're not getting one anytime soon. You're only 3, Caroline."

There may be typos til I get used to this wonderful new way of typing with a computer in my lap, but bear with me. I'll learn. I'm so excited! I'm wireless and mobile!!! :)

We're not weak. We're feminine.

Sarah: Boy, I sure am sore from PE.
Me: Really? What are y'all doing in PE?
Sarah: A unit on juggling.
Me: Well I....I guess juggling might use different muscles than you're used to using. 
Sarah: It wasn't so much the juggling as it was the warm up that hurt.
Me: So let me get this straight. You're sore from warming up... To juggle.
Sarah: Pretty much.
Yep, she's my kid.

Amazing Jake's

Today we skipped church [shhhh!] and took Jack [and the other kids] to Amazing Jake's.

Why?

Well... The long back story is...

Apparently, it's not uncommon at all for boys, in particular, to have difficulty staying dry at night. This has been the case for Jack. Our pediatrician suggested we do a bedwetting alarm since he's almost 6 years old and he still sleeps so soundly that he doesn't wake up to his body's cues telling him he needs to go to the bathroom. We bought the alarm and told Jack that if he had 30 dry nights, we'd take him somewhere fun. He chose Amazing Jake's.

Thankfully that alarm worked like a champ, and I'm HAPPY to say he's been dry for a month!

So that's why we had a FOUR HOUR excursion there. It was fun, but I'm tired! And the kids fell asleep on the way home. That's how I know they had a great time.

There were rides for the smaller kids, like a train, the carousel, and the spaceship ride.
(I had my flash on but some of my pictures still turned out dark.)

Caroline was excited about the spaceship ride... until it started. Then it went up high and around pretty fast. And it would bounce up and down a little. She had a scared look on her face for most of the ride.

But Jack and Sarah loved it and rode it again and again.

We all did the bumper cars several times.

The kids played video games. Jack and Jason did the go karts. Then we went downstairs to eat.

And play mini golf.

We had dessert while we watched a little bit of "Ice Age" in the movie room. Then we headed back upstairs and it was time for Sarah and me to hit the track!

Sarah took our pictures as Jack and I waited in line for the go karts. Jason and Caroline went too.

Not shown: We played a lot of games and redeemed tickets for lots of candy.


So this is how we spent our Sunday. Hopefully Jack is proud of himself and knows that we're proud of him too. :)

And hopefully he will continue to stay dry. [after all this, he better stay dry! :)]

At the bank...

Today I opened up my very own checking account with my very first paycheck in seven years.

(First paycheck, not counting the 2 piddly ones I got when I worked Mom's Day Out for a couple of months before I got pregnant with Caroline.)

Although it's not a lot of money and although it will all go towards my Master's and not necessarily fun things, I like having a little money of my very own.

[Just so you know, I consider the money Jason makes to be "ours". And the money I make to be "mine". I'll share if I have to, but when I refer to "our money", I'm talking about Jason's income. "My money" is mine. :)]

Anyway, I now have a checking account with checks with MY name on the top. I did put Jason on as a joint account holder. Mainly because the lady was looking at me like I was preparing my finances for a divorce or to flee the country or something.

"You want YOUR OWN checking account? Separate from the one you and Jason have together??? Do you want to keep him out of your money? Can he have any access or none at all?"

Don't be so dramatic, lady. It makes sense to have my own account. I can directly deposit my paycheck into my account. I can pay my tuition with MY checks. Relax. Put him on as a joint holder if it makes you feel better. This isn't some scandal. I just want a checking account.

Hooray for making money!

$627 never looked so good. :)

Day 2

So last night I had a meltdown.

I've made this "Saved by the Bell" reference before, but it's appropriate once again---

I had a Jessie Spanno meltdown.

You know the one. Where she's taking Keep Alert pills because she has to study. But Kelly and Lisa and Zack want her to be a part of the singing group, Hot Sundae. And they have to make a music video. Then they have to sing at The Max. And she freaks and gives her infamous speech:

"No time! There's never any time! I don't have time to study. I'll never get into Stanford. I'll let everyone down. I'm so confused!!"

That was me last night.

Minus the big hair. The singing gig. The pills. And Zack Morris in my bedroom telling me that everything's gonna be ok.

But I was sobbing last night... muttering something about there not being enough time, being in over my head, pulled in too many directions.

I may or may not have used 4 letter words. I can't remember. But if I were a betting woman, I'd put my money on some curse words coming out of my mouth.

My night was a mess. I had a good first day of work, but the day just wouldn't end.

~ I had a quiz for my Abnormal Psych class that was harder than I expected.
~ I got an email with the script for the video announcements for church that needed to be done at 3:00 the next day.
~ My ESL homework was about pragmatics, registers, and functions of the English language. What the [bleep]? (I'm pretty sure they're making us learn this crap so that we're just as confused about English as people who don't even speak the language.)
~ I was checking in with my friend about a charity auction I'm helping her with.
~ Sarah had homework.
~ I had to write a note to Jack's teacher.
~ Caroline needed to bring snacks for her class.
~ I had to make 4 lunches.
~ The laundry needed to be done.

I was in over my head. It hit me last night that I'm overcommited.

I checked the carpet beneath my chair to see if my brain had oozed out of my ears and formed a puddle under me. (It hadn't. In case you were wondering.) But I felt like it had.

So after near hyperventilation, talking to Jason--who tried to calm me down, and then calling my mom-- who was able to calm me down... (Why does it always seem to work like that? My mom can always effectively talk me off the ledge.)... I went to bed.

I woke up this morning, put my big girl pants on, and went back to work.

Day 2. I survived.

I'm blowing off my ESL homework because I know I have an Abnormal Psych lecture tomorrow and a quiz on Friday. So I'm saving what little brainpower I have for that. I went for a jog, and I'm about to go to bed.

I know I'll figure out how to balance it all eventually.

Until then, I'll try to say "no" to any new commitments... and I'll try to stay away from Keep Alert pills.



"It's gonna be alright. I just need one of these."

"Pills? You mean you really are taking drugs. Jessie, give me those!"

"I need them, Zack, I have to sing tonight!"

"Jessie, you can't sing tonight."

"Yes, I can. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I'm so [sob, sob] scared."


I was a SBTB junkie. I'll admit it. But in my defense, TBS played reruns all the time!

First day of preschool

Today was Caroline's first day of preschool!

She had a great day and loves Mrs. Katy! :)

Literally, as were standing in the hallway to walk into Mrs. Katy's room, she scratched open a bug bite and started bleeding. Hence the large bandaid on her chin/neck area. **sigh**


Today was my first day of preschool too. I am tired and sweaty. 16 four-year-olds. 12 of them are boys. [sooooo tired]

But I had a good day too.

One of the moms took a pic of Robyn and me with her son. And I'm pretty sure it would be illegal or something to post the pic with him in it without her expressed written consent.

So I cropped him out....

Here are Robyn and me.

And this is how I looked most of the day... As I was talking to them, Tying shoes, Helping them glue things, Opening everything in their lunches.

Look at this pic and imagine me saying, in a voice about 3 octaves higher than my normal voice, "Oh, Miss Julie's friends, please make a good choice and sit quietly. It would be so sad if I had friends move their clips on the first day. "

And now you've imagined my day. Lots of referring to them as "friends". Lots of referring to myself in the third person. Ya know. It's Pre-K.


And here we are before we left this morning.. :) I like having her at school with me.