Shoe confession

I don't know what these shoes are.

Are they houseshoes?  (Is "houseshoes" a compound word?)  Are they comfy boots to be worn out and about with leggings when it's cold?
I'm not really sure. The truth is I've worn them as both. 

When I wear them with pajama pants, it feels wrong.  The sole of the shoe makes me think these are comfy shoes intended for the outdoors.

But when I wear them with leggings, Jason wonders why I'm wearing my houseshoes to the grocery store.

I shouldn't own shoes that confuse me.  But I do.  And when you see me wearing them  in public, you'll know that I'm only 50% sure that it's ok to have them on. 

Sarah's coupons

Sarah came home from church with coupons she had made for everyone in the family.

 

You remember those coupons.  The ones you used to make for your parents for Mother's Day or Father's Day, hoping they would think the gesture was sweet but never actually cash them in.

You were supposed to be able to redeem them for chores, but I would always make coupons that were "good for 1 hug".

Look at the ones I got:

"Clean up my room for 2 weeks."  Arguably, that's something she should be doing anyway.

Can you see the writing in parentheses at the bottom?  It says "(But you are going to have to give $5 every time.)"

What? She's trying to make money off of her coupons? 

I told her that I'd have to be crazy to ever cash this in.  Maybe that's her point.  Maybe she's NOT trying to make money; maybe she's trying to ensure that I never ask her to clean her room.

Here's my other coupon:

 

"Help with dinner for 2 days .  (It's Free!)"

 

Free.  As coupons should be. Lucky me.

 

Did you also notice how the chore she's willing to do for free is good for 2 days, but the chore she wants to get paid to do is good for 2 WEEKS?

 

Smart girl.

 

 

I'm not sure if you can see to the right of my dinner coupon, there's part of Jason's coupon.  It also has the $5 caveat.  He can redeem it for 3 weeks of help with laundry.  At $5/day.  When she handed it to him at lunch, she said, "Are you prepared to pay me $105, Dad?" 

 

I guess he hadn't read the fine print because he asked her what she meant.  She said, "Well... 21 days at $5 a day is $105.  If you want help with the laundry, that's how much I get."

 

He said he'd pay her $5 for help with the laundry for 3 weeks.  No more than that. 

 

She was disappointed with his proposal, but I think she failed to see the victory in the fact that she was able to open negotiation talks with Jason.  She got a counter offer.  That's not a defeat. 

 



Quickie

I have a few pics to post and a funny story to tell, but there's no time for that now.  I still have to listen to half a lecture and review for my ESL test tomorrow.

But here's a quick post, as a nod to my love of words and all things related to words.

Did you know that most of us incorrectly use the word "antisocial"?  I didn't know that until last week.  I would call the socially awkward guy sitting in the corner by himself: "antisocial".  But he isn't.  He is asocial.

Antisocial means anti-society.  Antisocial is synonymous with sociopaths.  Serial killers are antisocial.  That girl who prefers to stay home and be alone is asocial.

I mean, I guess they could be sitting in the corner or staying at home alone, quietly plotting ways to kill people.  But assuming they don't want anyone to die, then they're just asocial.

 I love learning new things.  Now I know that I've been saying it incorrectly all these years.  And now I can stop unintentionally linking the painfully shy to the homicidal maniacs.  

Halloween-ish dessert #3

Frankenstein/ monster pudding with oreos.

 

 

Word to the wise: Draw the face on the cup down low.  Otherwise you have to put A LOT of pudding inside the cups to fill up to the monster's eyebrows.

 

If I were a craftier person by nature, I'd have thought of that.

 

 

Halloween-ish dessert #2

Blood shot eyeballs

But they look more like flowers or wagon wheels to me.

Jack and Caroline loved them.

Sarah? Not so much.

Pumpkin farm in Celina

Monday I took the kids out to Celina to visit the pumpkin patch.

I was contractually obligated to go since it was a field trip for my preschool.  My kids came along because they were out of school on Monday, and Child Protective Services doesn't like it when I leave them home alone. ;)

 

We fed the animals.

We did the hayride.

They wanted pics of themselves at every hay bale.

They wanted to see how tall they were next to the scarecrow.

Then they climbed in the rustiest truck I've ever seen.  I'm assuming they've had tetanus shots at some point.  I hope.

After all that, it was time for lunch. 
Correction: It was time for hand sanitizer then lunch.

Then we headed home. 
See ya, Celina Pumpkin Farm.

Study break

After my post about my newest conspiracy theory against Kid to Kid, I sat down to read Ch 12 in my psychology book.  And I kid you not-- I'm reading about personality disorders, specifically paranoid personality disorders.

Defined as "excessively mistrustful and suspicous of others..." (Oh crap. That's who I'm becoming.) "...without any justification" (Whew. Not me. I'm TOTALLY justified.)

:)

The case study in my book says, in part...

Jake grew up in a middle-class neighborhood...[H]e enrolled in a local junior college, but he flunked out after the first year...partly because he began to develop conspiracy theories about professors and fellow students, believing they worked together to see him fail.  Jake bounced from job to job, each time complaining that his employer was spying on him at work and at home.

At age 25-- against his parents' wishes-- he moved out of state.... He became increasingly preoccupied with theories about people who were out to harm him. Jake spent enormous amounts of time on his computer exploring websites, and he developed a theory about how research had been performed on him in childhood. [He believed] that researchers working with the CIA drugged him as a child and implanted something in his ear that emitted microwaves, which were causing him to develop cancer.  Over 2 years, he  became increasingly preoccupied with this theory, writing letters to various authorities trying to convince them he was slowly being killed.

Ok. I'm not that bad.

Yes, I think my local children's consignment store is stealing from me because they are, and I'll find a way to prove it! And sure, Jason puts tape over the camera in his work-issued laptop because he's worried they might be watching him at home. 

But we DO NOT worry that research was done on us as children while things emitting microwaves were implanted in our ears, thus slowly killing us.

Because that's ridiculous.  And could never happen.  Right?

Right?!?!?

My ears HAVE been hurting me lately. What could that mean? 

The Kid 2 Kid Conspiracy

So we all know that if you sell stuff to the consignment store, you get ripped off.  But at least you're getting a little money, and you don't have to mess with eBay or craigslist.

Any time I take clothes to Kid to Kid, they never want all of my clothes.  That's fine; I'm not offended.  And they always offer to donate whatever they don't use.  That's usually helpful, so go ahead.

But I sold to them on Saturday.  They didn't take all of my clothes and some of what they rejected was Fall season, shirts and pants from Janie and Jack, unstained clothing. The right season, a good kids' store, clean.  And they don't want it?

Now-- the less cynical side of me says, "Maybe they didn't need any more 4T boys' clothes." 

But when they rejected those clothes and then offered to donate them, I said, "Actually I'm on my way to Goodwill.  Do you want me to just take them to get them out of your way?"

The lady who never bothers to look up from what she's doing, stopped and looked me in the eye and firmly said, "No.  We'll donate them."

Fine.  They want the tax write off.  Whatever.

But THEN, after I drove away, I thought... Do they just rummage through my clothes and give me a little money to appease me.... $15.27 on Saturday... then keep the rest and sell those too?  That would be fraudulent, and I can't imagine that they'd be that bold.

The thing is I don't really know what they kept and what they didn't.  I saw some good clothes go back in the bag where they put all of my "unusable" clothes.  But they never told me what that $15.27 was for.  So I could go back in the store, see something of mine on the rack, and --for the most part--  not know whether that was something they paid me for or (possibly) stole from me.

I don't know.  It just feels fishy to me.  I don't care if it's for the tax write off, but I've never been ON MY WAY to Goodwill and have them insist that I leave the clothes there for them.

I think from now on, I'll be the one insisting that I do the donating.  Thank you very much, potential thieves.

Trust no one. ;)

Catching up....

I have a few different posts below. 

Working and going to school really cramp my blogging style ;)

Not a lot of time for it anymore.  But I'm trying to do better.

We mosey-ed on over to Cowtown

Friday we went to Fort Worth to visit the Stockyards and watch the cattle drive.  I LOVE the Fort Worth Rodeo in January, but it was a great day to just look at the stuff that there is to see in the stockyards themselves. Yee haw!

We watched the cattle drive.

 

 

The girls sat on a gen-you-wine longhorn.

 

 

 

Then they saddled up on some ponies: Ghost, Cocoa, and Clyde.

 

 

 

Then we took the "Stand by your pony like that was the most fun ride ever!" shots.

 

 

A big chunk of time was spent doing the cattlepen maze.  I'm sure I don't need to remind you how I feel about mazes and the anxiety that they provoke inside of me.  I didn't want anyone to do the maze.  But EVERYONE wanted to do it.  So I let them go right on ahead.  And I watched.

 

Here they are gettin' their directions. 

 

 

 "Work through the maze and find the letters M-A-Z-E. The letters are randomly scattered throughout the maze. At each letter, there will be a hole punch. Punch your card. Once you've found all the letters.  Find your way out."

 

Simple enough, right?

 

Here's just part of this ridiculous labyrinth of dead ends.

 

I took pictures as I could find my family from the observation deck.

 

When they initially went in the maze, Jason told Jack and Sarah to "take off", and they went running around without Jason or Caroline.  I was so tense about that.  I asked if he thought that was a good idea.  I could see them getting frustrated and unable to find their way out or find their dad.  But he seemed to think it was fine.

 

Then came the field trip of about 50 5th graders.  Running.  Screaming. Knocking people down.  That was a fun addition to this nightmare of a maze.

 

The big kids found their way out pretty quickly... but they didn't hole punch their cards.  See, the letters are hidden at certain dead ends.  So you have to intentionally go the wrong ways in search of letters.  It's more than just finding your way out. 

 

They were sent back in to find the letters.

 

 

That's when they started to get frustrated and started yelling at each other.  And I think they were stressed out by so many older kids being loud.  FINALLY they found Jason and Caroline again. And they all worked together to get out of the maze.

 

Jason was holding Caroline. Jack and Sarah looked like they wanted to kill each other.  Good times.

 

It took them 40 minutes to get out.  It felt like 40 hours. And I was just watching. 

 

But, on a happier note... They got prizes for finishing.  Vampire teeth. 

 

 

The rest of the day was eating lunch and doing some shopping. The kids got lollipops the size of their faces, and we headed back home.

 

The weather was beautiful.  The day was fun.

 

I really love Fort Worth... and I can't wait to go back for the rodeo and watch the real cowboys ride! :)

 

Although watching the kids ride these coin-operated horses was good too.

 

 

Legos

The building blocks to a strong father/son relationship. :)