Success!

Woo hoo!!! I think this calls for a celebration! Thirty days of blogging - without a miss. Yeah, I did have to rely on some silly quizzes and memes, but hey, they were fun too. Honestly, if you listen closely you can hear the cheers (or are they sighs of relief and exhaustion?) from the Blogosphere.

In non-blog related matters, I like to know who told my children that they are supposed to grow??? Come on - 'fess up! Seriously, in the past month or so, they both have had huge growth spurts - and now are wearing some serious flood pants. Okay, so I do get away with a lot because they are both peanut size anyway and usually get almost 2 years of use out of most of their pants - and because Ahren can carry off the some of the styles as cropped pants, it's even longer. If it weren't for the fact that Xmas is right around the corner, I would have to break down and buy them both new pants, but I hate to do that, because if I buy them clothes they are going to be for Xmas and going under the tree! Here's hoping that they can hold out for a few more weeks.

Addicted to....

...the Food Network. Since our local cable company was bought out by metrocast, we began getting a few new channels. One of them is the Food Network and I'm loving it. While I wasn't a big fan of Rachel Ray's talk show, I really love 30 Minute Meals - she's just so fun and entertaining, and I'm also finding that I really like (and learn a lot from) Good Eats. But I completely cannot stand Emeril - he's just so arrogant and for some reason, he really bugs me.

During the post Turkey Day shows, they were mostly featuring what to do with the leftovers and my favorite idea (did I post this already??) was to use the stuffing and add it to ground meat to make meatloaf - how brilliant! Seriously, all the the peppers and onions are already chopped up, and the breading is there, just add an egg to bind it all together and you're good to go!

Two more days!

Wow, I'm just feeling so common and ordinary.....

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 18 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Kudos to Writing Aspirations for finding something I could use for some filler on these last scraping the bottom of the creative barrel of idea days.

In the meantime, I should report that all has been quiet on the neighbor front, EXCEPT for the fact that today he (the neighbor) came down (they are only parttime residents here) and apparently turned OUT the light!!! Yes, the light that they have been using to harass my mother-in-law, which shines directly into her bedroom. Yes, the one that they replaced with an even brighter wattage light the day after we call the police when they put cat poop inside our car.

Stayed tuned, things might be getting interesting.

The home stretch....

...only 3 more days to go until Silence in the Blogosphere!

Because someone asked on 43Things about my tattoo, I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone (altho' I hate violent metaphors) and post my reply here:

On Memorial Day 2003, I had a miscarriage (interestingly, all my kids were 'born' on some sort of holiday - Ahren was May Day; Sean was Thanksgiving Day and now Angelina was Memorial Day). That summer I was going to be going to San Fransisco to attend the International LLL Conference along with some of my closest friends. I knew that it would be difficult attending the conference with thousands of pregnant mamas and little babies all swaddled up in their cute little slings, nursing away happily, so I decided that I wanted to do something that I wouldn't have been able to do if I was pregnant. I'd been wanting to get a tatoo, but couldn't decide between a kokopelli or a swirl design. The kokopelli would be kinda cool, because he's a little fertility muse and that seems appropriate for me - (considering I've only ever had unprotected sex three times in my life - okay I know, TMI, but it does make me thankful that I wasn't reckless in my youth.) But I was always drawn to the Spiral Goddess and I love how if you trace a spiral one way, you go in, and the opposite way you go out - kinda like the inward journey and also growing out and learning, expanding, etc.

While hanging out with my friends, two friends from the UK brought gifts for us, and one of them was a clay pendant with a spiral imprinted in it. That seemed like the Universe telling me to go with the spiral. Another friend of mine, had also decided to get a tattoo as well. So one night a bunch of us (I think there were 10 of us), went to get a taxi, and the doorman said that since there were so many of us, for $8 each we could get a 'house car' that would do the round trip. We were like, sure! Man were we surprised when we saw the 'house car' pull up - it was a white stretch limo! So we all piled in and headed over to Spirits of the Flesh (the tattoo parlor). Way cool! So we go into the place and tell the fella what we wanted to have done. At first he was a little freaked out by all these women (very mom-type women) in the place and he was all, like, "no, pictures" by the end of the outing, he was posing with us for pictures and let us each get some close "during" photos.

So in the end, I got a spiral design (taken directly from the clay necklace) on my left outer ankle in a dark purple. If I had it to do over again, I would have gone with black. The color and design that it is makes it look like it is done with ball point pen, I also someday would like to get the design made bolder - less like a pen drawing. I would also someday like to get it incorporated into something like an anklet. But I would need the right inspiration. Overall, I do like it - because of what it means to me, and really I don't care what anyone thinks about it. Honestly, one of the best things about it was that my closest friends were with me and that will always mean a lot to me.

FWIW, Pete totally hates it. He didn't speak to me for a couple of days after I got home. It will probably forever be a bone of contention between us. But hey, it's my body and it's not unhealthy or otherwise harmful. Most of my family (both sides) were pretty shocked - a guess it was a bit of nick in the Good Girl Armour, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

A Sense of Accomplishment

Well, after feeling like the weight of the world has been on my back for so long, it feels good to write that title. A good couple of days off from work, gave me enough time to get a handle on many things that were getting out of control.

I did take Pam's suggestion and worked little chunks at a time. As a result I was able to do the following:

• rake, mulch, and clean up the front lawn
• reorganize the pantry
• get my LLL files in order and process some paperwork (not finished yet tho)
• move the shelving unit and contents of shelves out of the bathroom/pantry off the kitchen to prep for the remodeling job
• grocery shopping
• get December school plans in order
• cleared out a bunch of the kids games and toys to take to school
• laundry
• cut my hair (yes, I did it myself and I'd say it looks pretty good)
• made my yummy mashed potatoes
  
• made real corn-bread stuffing for Sean
• made a birthday cake for Sean
• moved one of the futons in the livingroom which really made a big change in there that we realllyy like
  

There were a couple things that I wanted to get done, but they will have to wait. Right now, my biggest problem is trying to figure out when we are going to PA over the holidays. The timing of everything totally sucks. We can't go before Xmas because the 16th weekend is a performance weekend for one of Ahren's shows. The 24th weekend we are the Advent Family at church. Xmas week, the Farrs are coming. Not enough time in the month!!!!!

Should I put the scissors down?

I am in such desperate need of a haircut and I can't make an appointment until tomorrow (they are closed on Sundays), of course, then there is the whole idea of when I would actually be able get an appointment with Jen. Soo...... I'm about this | ----- | far from picking up the scissors and doing it myself. Basically what I really need are the bangs and front/sides addressed, which I could do. Right now, my bangs are down to my lips and while I was trying to do the dreaded 'grow them out', looking at past pictures of myself, I think I look better with bangs. Hmm? What to do? Maybe I will try to make one more call to get appointment with Jean today (she was my previous stylist), although she is almost always booked solid for weeks at a time.

Seven Years Ago Today....

Sean's birth story - or- what we did for Thanksgiving '99...

On Wednesday, (11/24), Pete came home from work and we enjoyed Chinese food take out for dinner, Ahren (2 1/2 at the time) fell asleep early at 6:30pm and slept until 8:30pm, in an effort to get her to fall asleep again I nursed her until 1:30am, when she FINALLY fell asleep and I crawled into my bed at 1:45am. At 2:00am my water broke! We called Nancy (our midwife) and began gathering our supplies. During early labor I used the birth ball a lot, which really helped.

Pete was skeptical about the idea of having a homebirth and really wasn't comfortable with it until the end of the pregnancy. But he really did a great job at everything.

One thing about me is that I'm a puker - anytime I get sick, I throw up - no matter what. So why should labor be any different? But the interesting thing was that once things started getting serious, I shut my eyes - and I did not open them until after Sean was born. Literally, we were moving all around - to the bathroom, livingroom, bedroom, and the entire time, my eyes were shut. Through several rounds of up-chucking, my eyes were shut - the amazing thing is that I felt so cared for by the three midwives there that I knew someone would be there with a bowl or bucket. I think I was so focused inward that when I tried to open my eyes the visual stimulation was too overwhelming, so I kept them closed.

Sean was born at 10:24, I remember being surprised that it was daytime, because when I had my eyes open the last time, it was like 4am and pitch black out! He scored a 9 and 10 on his apgars. He was 7lbs. 8ozs. and 21 inches long. Our family (mil, bil, sil, nephew and Ahren - when she woke up, she went over to G'mas) were across the street at my mil's house, so after we got all cleaned up and rested a bit, we went over there for Thanksgiving Dinner. What a treat for everyone else to get to see a real newborn baby!! That surely doesn't happen everyday.

While many would think that having a homebirth would spare a mother from having too many needle sticks - but alas, not exactly the case, because I'm Rh negative, I had to have a blood draw and then later a shot to protect any future babies from Rh factor issues. I also had some tearing, so I had to get stitched up afterwards. Happily I could do all those things from the comfort of my own bed.

So there it is, Sean's birth story. I feel so blessed to have had such a beautiful birth, it will always be one of the best moments of my life.

Oh dear

I'm really close to midnight, so this will have to be short.

Today was an unexpectantly productive day. I spent a good chunk getting the little bathroom off the kitchen cleared out. I moved my makeshift shelves for all my small appliances, into the diningroom and emptied most of the stuff in there. The plan is that this weekend, Pete will rip out the old closet/shelves that are in there. This is all in prep for the kitchen redo that will happen over Xmas.

We also did most of the leaves in the lawn - I know we are running late on that. This year we raked them into the yard and then ran over them with the mower several times, then I blew/raked them back into the garden, to serve as a mulch for the fall/winter. They did mulch up pretty finely, so I'm rather pleased, I think they will definitely break down over the winter and be all set by spring. We still have some more to do, but tomorrow we should finish.

I also got most of the roughed-out plans done for my classes through December, still more planning to do, but the general stuff is all worked out.

And I went to Target and got Sean a watch that he wanted for his birthday and a new Leapster game (I Spy Challenger). He loves I Spy games, so I thought he might like this one.

Now, Blogger better not be acting up, so that I don't miss the deadline - I only have 4 minutes to go.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Since I have a bit of headache, just a short post. Ate lots of turkey and trimmings with family - 'nuf said.

In lieu of a real post, I invite you (if you are a fan) to check out zefrank's show from Wednesday - the link is to the right. Ze, actually has a soft side - it's nice to see.

Just for something different...

I don't typically post recipes, but every now and again I have one worth sharing. Today it is our house specialty Snowy Mashed Potatoes. They are bit labor intensive, considering I typically boil up potatoes in the pressure cooker, then just mash 'em up with a little rice milk and canola margarine, salt and pepper. But these are extra special, special-occasion kind of mashed potatoes.
Snowy Mashed Potatoes

Boil 5lbs. potatoes in salted water
Mash
Add 8 oz. softened cream cheese
1 cup sour cream
salt
pepper
garlic powder
Mash until creamy
Blend in 6-7 chopped scallions
Pile in a buttered casserole dish
Dot with butter
Sprinkle with parsley and paprika
Bake 30 minutes at 350.

I think the key to making these heaven-like mashed is that I use either a food processor (lot more work) or a big standing mixer (much easier), so it all getting fully blended together. These are a very rich tasting mashed potato.

The plan for tomorrow is that we are doing the Turkey Day Festivities at Mike and Lucia's house (bil & sil). We are bringing the SMP, along with a Cornbread Stuffing that I made today (it is Sean-friendly, which means it has no wheat, dairy, soy, or any of the other 23 foods he is allergic to). I'm not sure how it will taste, so I will wait on sharing the recipe with you. I also made a Birthday Cake for Sean (using a Namaste mix - which is Sean-safe) which will be quite yummy. I also threw together a Cranberry Relish, but it seems a little bitter, so I might have to add some more sugar - we'll see.

Perhaps on Friday I will post the lovely story of Sean's birth. It really is a nice story and since he was born at home on Thanksgiving Day, it always gives us something to be thankful for.

The Lawyer Appointment Update

Thanks for asking Suna,

Well, we had our appointment with the lawyer today. I'd say it went well. He said, of course, that it would be ridiculous for it to end up going to court. He said that the burden of proof would lie on them and they would need to PROVE that it was our cats who were using the sand box. We are doubtful that they have actual proof (like photographs, or videotape, or DNA testing), so that is all in our favor. But it still leaves the issue of what the hell to do about it all??? Well, he suggested that we either call them or draft a letter with the intention to try to move past everything, especially considering that we do have to at least somewhat coexist with them across the street. If they don't respond to the letter or respond negatively then we will write to their lawyer and point out [this is great...] that they are in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Act, which was a form included in the initial letter to us - because their letter stated that we needed to pay the $900.00 within 14 days, but the FDCA states that we have 30 days. (Not that we will be paying in anyway). BUT our atty. said that that is in violation of the FDCA and WE would be entitled to a $1000 penalty along with our atty. fees. I don't think that this will come down to that, but it is nice to have in our back pocket.

Another really odd twist to all this is that today I spoke with one of the police officers about getting copies of the police reports and she said that he had come in on Sunday and showed them a letter (from either them or their atty.) that stated that we had worked everything out and everything was fine. It mentioned nothing about suing and she was surprised when I read her the letter we had gotten. I can't figure them out - either they are now realizing what FOOLS they are and are trying to backpedal OR they trying to give the impression to the police that they are trying to work things out. Either way, the only way I found out about that letter was because I 'happened' to be talking with the officer today.

In the meantime, we are considering getting an invisible fence and installing it ourselves.

Although I'm not really hopeful that things are going to be resolved and it is a bit frustrating to not be taking more action than writing a letter to say we want to work out a solution, overall I guess it was good.

What's the Soundtrack of YOUR Life?

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc).
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press play.
4. For every question, type the song that’s playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button.
6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool and no disclaimers allowed.

Opening Credits: "Hey, Lover", CJ Sister
Waking Up: "Iris", Goo Goo Dolls
First Day At School: "Mom", CJ Sister
Falling In Love: "Without Expression", John Mellencamp
Fight Song: "Someone's Gettin' Lucky Tonight", Amy Silver
Breaking Up: "Vacation", Livingston Taylor
Prom: "More Love", Dixie Chicks
Mental Breakdown: "Fight For Your Life", CJ Sister
Driving: "Authority Song", John Mellencamp
Flashback: "Lonely Ole Night", John Mellencamp
Getting back together: "Love is the Answer", John Ford Colley and England Dan
Wedding: "Painter Song", Nora Jones
Birth of Child: "Someday You May Notice Me", Livingston Taylor
Final Battle: "Killing Me Softly", The Fugees
Death Scene: "You Got the Right Guy" Livingston Taylor
Funeral Song: "Cherry Bomb", John Mellencamp

Interesting, although I think some of them would have made more sense if I could rearrange them to match. As you can tell my library is heavily stocked with CJ Sister, Livinston Taylor, and John Mellencamp.

Tomorrow is my appointment with the lawyer, I have to go by myself because Pete will be in Pennsylvania all day and won't get home until very late. Wish me luck (tho' I don't really think that I will need it).

hmmm, so? what's new?

As I've been trying (sometimes struggling) with something to write about each and every day this month, I'm reminded of a conversation that I had with someone several months back. While making small talk, we were talking about upcoming plans for the weekend (or something, I don't remember the details) and then the other person said something, 'oh man, now what will have to talk about on Friday?' - I think I said something like, 'oh, we'll think of something'. And we usually did. That makes me smile. :)

So my mental checklist of things to talk about in this here blog is feeling like it's getting thin. A guess that part of this is that the reality of my life seems boring (even to me at times). This past weekend was an especially low point feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders and really just wanting to run away from it all. But Sunday night is here and the new week about to begin -- so I will dig out my Happy Face and get ready to do my best acting and pretend that life is all normal and happy and I have no problems. Really, I will be okay, I'm pretty good at pretending that all is well and I usually end up convincing myself of that too. I think they call that Fake It Till You Make It.

So as not to be a complete downer - I offer you a helpful link. It's called Menus 4 Moms. Although Dads or singles could use it as well. It has FREE menus and grocery lists for 5 days each week, it utilizes leftovers into some of the nights meals.

Three things meme.

Three Things I Do Every Day:
-check my email
-take my vitamins
-love my kids

Three Things I Wish I Could Do Every Day:
-ride my bike
-keep on top of the laundry
-let go of stress

Three Hopes I Have for Today:
-get my files under control
-do something fun
-go to the grocery store

Three Things I Hear:
-Jimmy Neutron computer game Sean was playing on the pc next to mine
-my portable heater making me all toasty
-the tapping of the keyboard

Three Ways I Have Changed my Life:
-I'm learning to say no
-trying to live in the moment
-learned acceptance

Three People I Wish I Could See Again:
-friends I don't get to see anymore, 'nuf said

Three Items I Wish I Owned:
-a laptop
-a digital camera that worked
-a wardrobe from Title Nine

Three Wishes I Had When I Was Young:
-to be a truck driver
-to be a teacher (done)
-graduate from college (done)

Three Fears I Have:
-my children getting really hurt and being able to make it better
-my car being submerged under water
-driving across big bridges

Three Things on My Desk:
-phone
-papers, papers, papers
-printer

Three Thoughts in My Mind:
-trying to find a way to not let the neighbors bother me
-how am I going to get everything done I need to today?
-what cabinets to pick out for the new pantry

So much for that plan...

Last night, after I crashed and burned between the aggravation of having to pay a $500 deductible for an accident that someone else caused, finding out that we are being sued and the broken camera on top of the rest of the weight of world that seems to be weighing on me - I just cowered in bed, watching tv all by myself, never wanting to come out - well, maybe but only if it involved running away. At the very least I wanted to sleep in this morning. But did that happen? no, I woke up, completely on my own at 8 am. Any other day when I have to get up, I so easily can fall back to sleep, but not today. I'm up, and with one of those hangover type of headaches (but I wasn't even drinking last night - tho' maybe I should have been). Maybe I'll take a relaxing bath today - maybe.

So today's plan is to get all my LLL paperwork together and at least organized to catch up - and get started on transcribing the notes in my notebook for the lawyer regarding the neighbors. We have an appointment on Tuesday and it needs to be done by then.

Now, I'm off to get started. Wish me luck.

DAMNIT!

Ahren was using my camera to take pictures of the cat (trying out her hand at photography) and shortly after I told her to "be careful", she dropped the camera apparently on the lens and now the lens won't go back into the camera to put the cover on. DAMNIT! I'm pissed that the camera is broken, but she is upstairs crying hysterically "it's all my fault, mom trusted me with the camera and now it's broken" - which is true. I told her when she brought me the camera to show it to me, that I might be able to fix it, but it's not looking good. I'm mad, but I know that she didn't mean it, it was an accident and could have happened to anyone. I'm glad I didn't really say anything else to her, because I know that she takes things very seriously and really doesn't need me to make her feel worse. DAMNIT!

Doncha know....

that I would spend entirely too much time on a post that I accidentally deleted - I can't even blame the computer or my connection, it was simply user-error. So unless I find the source of the list again (you never know) I will just describe it to you and you can use your imagination at my answers. The List was a bad-ass long list of TV shows and you make bold those shows which you've seen at least 3 episodes of and italicize those which you have seen every episode of. It was kinda fun, revisiting those long ago shows like Happy Days or Twin Peaks.

I do have to say that I am rather glad that it is Friday and I can sleep in tomorrow. I plan to stay in bed as long as I possibly can with the blankets pulled up over my head. I'm hoping for rainy, yucky weather, so that I don't feel guilty about wanting to stay inside. Then after I crawl out from the bedroom, I intend to get a handle on some of this mountain of work that I've been neglecting. I plan to (as Pam suggested) set my timer for 15 minutes and work in blocks of time, my goal is to get at least 4 blocks of 15 minutes done on Saturday. That should make a dent in the work load.

A new reader...

asked if we thought about moving. Moving really isn't an option, well, ok, yes it is AN option, but not one that is realistic for us. Although we have honestly discussed it. Here's the situation. My husband family have been residence of our neighborhood for nearly 100 years. Our neighborhood is a REAL neighborhood, where the kids can ride their bikes over to the park and know everyone's house along the way. We have summer programs, movies in the park, ice cream socials for kids, cocktail hours for grown ups in the park. My husband grew up summering here (it started as a summer community), and we bought our house 13 years ago. We live across the street from my mother-in-law (who is 84), so that we can be around if she should need help. We are fully entrenched in our community. Last Labor Day my husband earned the Adult Appreciation Award (the most prestigious award in our community) for all the work that he has done for our neighborhood.

The neighbors, on the other hand, moved in 2 years ago, and while they are quite the party-ers and have lots of fancy toys, they aren't as connected as we are.

Interestingly at school today, one of my students asked me to read a book to him, it was called Three Samauri Cats. It was a very interesting story -- here's a summary:

" In this clever retelling of a Japanese tale, the daimyo, a powerful feudal lord, is distressed when a savage rat moves into his castle. The daimyo seeks the aid of the senior monk, a docho, in ridding the castle of the dangerous rat. The docho sends two young samurai cats, but they are not up to the task. The docho finally sends an old decrepit cat that appears to do nothing but sleep and eat. The old cat refuses to fight, instead overpowering the rat with passive resistance. As the old cat says, "Draw strength from stillness. Learn to act without acting. And never underestimate a samurai cat." Excellent illustrations enhance the story. Ages 6-10. Reviewed by Irene A. Allen, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti "

I think this will be my mantra. I've found that it is helpful to have some role models to hang onto -- like MLK, and Ghandi and now the Samurai Cat. While it is tempting to want to retaliate, it's not the right thing to do, and we while we DO need to stand up and defend ourselves, we also need to be able to feel good about the whole thing when we are done. So far, I couldn't be happier with how we have responded to their low-life antics.

Not much...

is going on these days. I made an appointment with a lawyer for next week. I'm dreading this weekend, well, only if *they* are around. Of course, everyone who I have spoken to has been very supportive and can't believe that the neighbors are doing this. (Actually, some of them can believe it, knowing the neighbors.) I've noticed that I've been losing weight again - which is not really a good thing. Today I forgot my belt and my jeans kept sliding down and bugging me. This tends to happen when I'm depressed or anxious or otherwise stressed about something. Last summer, I went from a size 10 down to a 4 and then this summer I dropped down to where size 2s were too big, I didn't want to buy any new clothes so I worked at trying to get back to the size 4 so that at least my clothes would fit. Now, my 'normal' size (I don't really know what I weigh) is on the smaller size of a 4, which is good, but any drop down seems to be noticable.

In other news, I finished my Sign Language class last night. It was nice, I'd like to take the advanced class next year. I'm really pretty good at fingerspelling and I can actually 'read' most signs pretty well (at least I can pretty easily understand our instructor, who is deaf). I would like to get better at conversational signing, which seems to be another skill set other than knowing signs.

Suna asked what I'm knitting these days. Good question! I still have a couple of projects on the needles. Lately, I've been going between the "Not In The Round, Round Scarf" like a mini poncho that is knit flat and then seamed together. The other project I've been cruising on is a Lion Brand yarn shrug. It's one of their newer yarns, called Romance (I think) and the pattern is pretty easy, it's a lightweight yarn and big needles (size 15), so it's going pretty well. I will try to get some pictures soon. :)

While I've been working on my goal of letting something fall away in some areas I'm doing okay, in other areas, I'm still working on it. That organization thing is one that I'm still working on. With my semi-annual report due now, and the realization of how far behind I am on my files, I keep putting it off and then it just makes everything bigger and seemingly unsurmountable, which makes me avoid it even more. I just wish I could hand everything over to someone else as an interim until they find a replacement, because I know that I'm not doing the job the way that it needs to be done. I'm just too frustrated with the bigger picture of the organization to really feel motivated to do it right (which I know is a distorted way to look at it). I know, I'm just rambling now.

A safety net

I'm not sure if Blogger is completely back on line, so I decided to add a link to my back up blog up (conveniently called What I learned yesterday...) published on WordPress. In case I disappear from Blogger, you will hopefully be able to find me over there, but I'm thinking that I'll only be using it for a back up when Blogger is down. Unless, I find that I really like and then maybe I'll move.

File under....

"You Have Got to be Kidding" -- I got a letter today that we are being sued -- yes, by the Neighbors From Hell. They are suing us for $900.00 -- apparently the cost for them to remove, dispose and replace the sand in their sandbox. Yes, this would be the sandbox that they refuse to cover. I am just about numb with shock and anger (can you be numb with anger??), I don't even know how to put it into words. After they vandalize our house and car, after they threaten to hurt our cats, after they have been repeatedly harrassing US -- they have the gall to sue us??? Our cats have not been outside since Oct. 20th, so it is clear that any further feces are NOT from our cat!

It is beyond comprehension.

Thought I'd share...

One of my favorite sites: PostSecret. If you haven't seen it yet, you gotta check it out. It is updated on Sundays, so there is a new batch every Sunday. People send in their secrets on a postcard and then some of them are uploaded to the site. Some are funny, some are sad, some are shocking, but it is all human nature. One fun thing to do is to check the site counter at the bottom, before you read the page, and then hit refresh and see how many people were "reading" the page along with you. (That's also good to do if you are feeling very alone - because you won't be feeling that way for long, seeing how many people are there with you. )

I'm keeping this post short since it seems like Blogger is acting weird. And damnit, it better post, or I'll be really pissed if this throws me off NaBloPoMo!

Driving around....

lately I've been thinking about cars. I don't normally think about cars all that often, but since I've been seeing the town behind a different set of wheels this week, it got my brain goin'. I honestly think that if I could get back one car that I owned in the past it would be an easy-hands-down decision -- the '88 Volvo wagon. Not only was it an '88 (my favorite number - just love the symmetry of that number). It was that classic boxy Volvo shape, which just screams New England to me. It was pretty much bare bones, only a radio, hand crank windows (duh - it was an '88!), although it DID have heated seats (Gotta love the heated seats - Sam knows!). I got it shortly after I had Ahren and was babystitting/nannying for my best friend's two kiddos. So I had lined up in the back two booster car seats with a rear-facing infant seat in the middle - what a hoot! We only got rid of it last year? is that right? maybe the year before? In any case, I loved that car - it ran like a tank and I've never felt as safe as when I was driving that car. Ah, memories!

Here's another list I stole from another blog. You know how I love lists. :)
The idea is to highlight the things you've done. What have you done?

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk.
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe.
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

Okay, now I feel like I'm not doing very much with my life. And I suddenly have an aching to revamp my 43 Things list. :)

Feeling discombobulated

Earlier this week, I upgraded my Firefox browser and incorporated the del.icio.us addin and I just can't get used to it. I tended to use my browser bookmarks slightly different than my del.icio.us ones and I knew that certain things were 1/3 down the list, then hover over and it was the item on the bottom. Now, everything is in del.icio.us, so I can't find things as easily and it's bugging me. The other thing that I don't like is that the bar below the tool bar, that I had certain regular bookmarked things on is now different and I don't like it. I also wish that with the upgrade they would have added a feature to allow you to open an new tab when right clicking on the back/forward buttons. Oh well, maybe next time.

It's just so funny...

I've heard this referred to twice on NPR this week, so I just had to share. On All Things Considered, they did a story on the voiceover artists who work on political campaigns. They had them do a few nursery rhymes as a negative political ad. It is absolutely hysterical --- my favorite line is definitely "....Humpty Dumpty - wrong on wall sitting." Sean and I were just cracking up in the car when they were talking about it on Wait, Wait. Take a listen to the original story by Melissa Block here.

Day 10

Okay, so it's Day 10 and I feel like I'm running out of things to write about. I'm sure that surprises those of you who know me. :) So, here's an open invitation -- if there is something you are dying to know about me, just jot it in the comments and it will give me fodder for an upcoming post.

In the meantime, I'll just chat about our Veteran's Day program at school. Today was the first day that our preschool students participated in a school-wide program at our elementary school. (We merged with the school district in Jan. '06). I'd have to say that our students behaved beautifully -- dare I say even better than the Kindergartens we were sitting next to?? I think it was partially because it is a great bunch of kids and partially because we prepared them for what to expect and how to act. I'd been reading them a social story about the assembly all week, which really helped. It was such fun to see the older siblings of our students and former students of mine all grown up. My students said that there favorite part was the singing and music (the Middle School string band performed). All in all, a very nice day.

Here's something for fun and to help someone with their research project. There is a Blogging Survey - I think it is only for moms who blog. I did it, it was painless. :)

Of course, we are on the eve of a weekend, which, as you know, results in much excitement - not always the good kind! around here. Wish us luck since I'm sure the neighbors will be around. On the bright side, then I will have something to write about.

What to say?

Well, it's been another everyday sorta day, so I figured it's a good day for a list I found on Dirty Laundry while using the NaBloPoMo randomizer.

1) What is your occupation? Preschool Teacher

2) What color are your socks right now? Dark brown to match my clogs

3) What are you listening to right now? The hum of my space heater

4) What was the last thing you ate? Fruit snacks (yes, I'm addicted)

5) Can you drive a stick shift? Yes, but I'd rather not.

6) If you were a crayon, what color would you be? blue-green or green-blue

7) Last person you spoke to on the phone? Farmer Rick to schedule the traveling farm to come visit our school.

8) Do you like the person who sent this to you? I don't really know her, just grabbed it from her blog, but she seems nice.

9) How old are you today? 38

10) Favorite drink? Diet Whatever

11) What's your favorite sport to watch? why would you watch sports? Isn't the idea to play them?

12) Have you ever dyed your hair? Long ago but probably never again.

13) Pets? 2 cats & 5 fish (oh yeah, and a bucket of worms. :)

14) Favorite Food? pizza

15) What was the last movie you watched? ?? I can't remember.

16) Favorite day of the year? First day of summer.

17) What do you do to vent anger? Talk to whoever will listen.

18) What was your favorite toy as a child? Hmmm, I don't know.

19) What is your favorite season? Summer!

20) Hugs or kisses? Depends on the person. :)

21) Living arrangements? The house that we hate is in the location that we love (although that seems to be changing a lot lately) :(

22) When was the last time you cried? I'd rather not recall.

23) What is on the floor of your closet? a basket of shoes and things to put away.

25) What did you do last night? Made dinner, got the kids ready for bed and relaxed.

26) Favorite smells? vanilla, and cucumber/melon

27) What inspires you? my kids!

28) What are you afraid of? My kids growing up unhappy.

29) Plain cheese or spicy hamburgers? Plain cheese.

30) Favorite dog breed? Goldens (if I had to pick)

31) Number of keys on your key ring? 1.

32) How many years at your current job? 4.

33) Favorite day of the week? Friday.

34) How many states have you lived in? 4

35) Favorite holiday? Winter holidays

36) Ever drive a motorcycle or heavy machinery? No, although I would love to ride on the back of a motorcycle, it will likely never happen. When I was little I wanted desperately to be a truck driver, but it didn't happen.

Also, a big greetings and Hello to Pam and any other new readers from the NaBloPoMo. :)

All I can say....

is Woo Hoo!!! Although Lamont didn't win - darn it! It does look like Courtney might win - yes, the polls closed 24 hours ago and we still don't know, because Simmons is calling for a recount. And of course, nation-wide the Dems are taking back the country! Definitely a reason to party. The icing on the cake? Rumsfeld stepped down. Oh-yeah!! :)

Our PD Day of cleaning out the storage closet on Tuesday was a huge success! We got rid a bunch of stuff and organized a bunch of other stuff. I think we found crepe paper in something like 5 different boxes and straws in about 6 others. Now, everything is together as it should be and properly labelled. I feel a sense of peace everytime I walk in there, it's almost meditative. Ommm.

Voting Day

After all my talk about getting out the vote and support of our local candidates (Go Lamont! Go Courtney!) I wasn't able to vote. I got there too late. I'm so disappointed at myself. It wasn't totally my fault, tho'. After spending the day at work, I had to drop the car off and pick up the rental - that which should have taken maybe 30 minutes at the most, ended up taking 2+ hours! They were late picking me up at the auto shop, then I had to wait while they processed my paperwork, which took longer because of computer problems, then the car that I was renting wasn't at the New London location, so we had to drive to the Groton location to get it (This included 3 full switches of kids car seats and my stuff). Finally, I get home with just enough time to get ready to leave for my Sign Language Class. ARGH!!! I stopped at the polls after my class but I was too late.

The upside to the day was that we got a lot done in the classroom storage closet and I'm now (temporarily) driving a PT Cruiser. Funny little car - ya either love 'em or ya hate 'em. I don't think I'd buy one, but it is fun driving a different car around - and it has a CD player - I'm loving that!

In happier news...

Today I spoke with my bil tonight about the kitchen renovations that he will be helping us with over the holiday vacation. I get almost giddy with picking out some new cabinets and new paint and flooring. He will knocking out the wall between the kitchen and the connected half bath, then bumping out the upper portion of the wall to incorporate upper cabinets and a countertop. We can't install lower cabinets because that runs into the staircase to the basement. Eventually, when we have the funds, we will replace/update the rest of the cabinets in the kitchen so they will all match, for now we will just go with something complimentary.

Tomorrow, I have a Professional Development Day, which would typically mean that I'd be going to workshops and trainings with other teachers in the school, but since the other teachers are doing Parent Teacher Conferences, we don't have any trainings to go to, so me and Jaime, the other teacher will be cleaning out the massive closet/storage room and trying to get some resemblance of order to it. I'm actually rather excited about it. Nothing like a little manual labor, hard work and accomplishment to clear your mind. :)

Okay, so I don't want this...

to turn into a whole blog on how much I dislike living next to the neighbors, BUT I have to share that twice when I went outside in the front yard (once to get sticks for the fire and once to get something from my van), Mr. R. yelled things at me, twice I ignored him, not even looking at him, not acknowledging him at all, (I think that bugged him, that he couldn't get me to get into a confrontation). I had to take A. to theater practice and dreaded going to the van, I told A. that if any of them say anything to us, to just ignore it and not look at them or say anything back. Luckily, they weren't outside when we left. After dropping her off, I stopped and did some grocery shopping, I was dreading (again!) coming home and bringing in bags of groceries from the car, but I am determined to not allow them to make me prisoners in my own home and that I would just ignore whatever they say/do. I'm thinking that they got the hint, because they didn't say anything to me. Now they are gone, so hopefully all will be quiet until next weekend. Although they have left a memento: the must have replaced the side light with a brighter voltage bulb, that shines in my mil's house - it lights up like a spotlight the entire side of the house. She is now awaiting an appointment to get room darkening shades, so that she can actually start sleeping in her bedroom again. Unbelievable.

Never a dull moment...

Here's the latest installment of the ongoing saga of the Neighbors from Hell (cue spooky music)... when we last saw our despicable neighbors, they had smeared cat poop on our front door and plopped it between the screen door and front door (classy, doncha think?) after they threatened to kick the crap out of our cat. I filed another report with the police, but since we decided that we would work on keeping the cats inside, I thought the whole thing would be over (I know, silly me!). So the cats have been inside for the past two weeks, with maybe one exception when one cat got out for about a half hour. Then today, when I was letting A.'s friend into the house, Jelly snuck out (drats!), so we were outside trying to get her back in, of course, whenever we would get close she would just run away. So we stayed outside, watching to make sure that she wouldn't go on their property (what a waste of an afternoon), at one point Pete heard the Mrs. saying, 'now the cat is out AGAIN!' So a bit later, I decided to go to the store, I open the van door and guess what was sitting on the drivers seat INSIDE my van??? A sandy pile of cat poop!!! Yes, folks, INSIDE my car - ON my seat! They must have opened my door and put it in there - unbelievable! I showed Pete and we decided immediately to call the police. (At this point, the poop could not have been our cat - because our cats have been inside for the past two weeks.)

The police officer came out and took our report, she then went to their house, but noone was home, so I gave her their cell phone number and she later called them and then called us with the results. She told them that they could not step foot on our property and if they did it would be "breech of peace". She also said that they were not willing to compromise. Pete asked what that meant and she said that she explained to them that cats are considered 'free-roaming' and we are legally not expected to keep the cat within certain parameters. She said that he said he would 'accept nothing less than us keeping the cats inside our house'. Huh? who does he think he is?? Does he really think that he can actually tell us what we do with our cats?? She also suggested that we write the letter that we've been working on sending to him, our atty. and the police department.

These people are just so unbelievable! My mom keeps saying that they should be lucky that we are not vengeful people and haven't retaliated.

Gotta love a bargain!

Today on my way to the Fancy New CVS, I stopped in at the Old Closed CVS (which is next to the new one) to check out the fixtures that they were selling. The mom of one of my students mentioned that they seemed to have some good deals, so I thought I would take a look. After about a half-hour of checking out all the possibilities, I finally decided on a two sided fixture with clear, plexi, slanted shelves that would serve quite well as a book rack, on the flip side I could do an assortment of shelves and slanted shelves. The fixture is about 5 feet tall, which is taller than I'd really like, but I'm hoping that Nancy's husband can cut it down (I know it's possible to do and really wouldn't be terribly complicated, I just don't have the right equipment) to about 3 1/2 feet tall. I also think it would be really nice if we paint it, too. In any case, I ended up getting the 4 foot long fixture with bunches of plexi, slanted shelves, straight shelves and L shelves for $60! Considering the fact that we were planning to purchase a book display fixture for the room that was 3 feet long and maybe 3 feet tall, one-sided for $99 on sale, I think I got a good deal.

It was a bonus that it happened that I could pick up the fixture and drop it off and assemble it (with the help of James - maintenance guy) all in one day. Since I'm getting observed on Monday by a curriculum consultant, I was a little stressed that things would be in disarray on Monday, but I was able to get it set up and books on it, and it looks great!

He is just brilliant!

Ze has done it again! Drawing an analogy between our election process and your household blender making smoothies. He's just brilliant. the show with zefrank: 11-02-06

In other news, one of the highlights of my day was that our school book order came in. I'm such a bibliofreak that I get all excited to see new books, even when they are for other people. We did get 20 new books for our classroom, all purchased with bonus points from scholastic. Plus, on Tuesday I was helping at the 4th graders school store, where they have a book cart - $1 for hardcovers and .50 for paperbacks - I scooped up 18 new books for our classroom there for a total of $10 add to that the wish list that I posted at the school book fair, where we got 12 new books for our classroom. That totals, 50 new books (of which I paid $10 for) for our classroom in the past week! Yeah, that rocks! If you are at all interested in the growing collection of our classroom books, you can see a complete listing here: http://www.librarything.com/profile/bheaney These include some of my personal books as well as the classroom books donated/earned for our room. These do not include the school books, which I'm gradually starting to list on a separate account, there are hundreds of books in that collection and I'm only to about 120 so far.

I know I promised to post some costume pictures, but I have to get dinner started, hopefully I will be back shortly. :)

Inquiring minds want to know...

what ever happened with the neighbors boat - it's still there :( But maybe there is still time for something to happen to it. I can hope, right?

I will work up some pictures of the kids all decked out tomorrow night - I'm too beat to do anything more productive tonight. One appointment and a long meeting have just tuckered me out. And I still need to figure out what I'm doing for my afternoon class tomorrow - eek!

Yeah, so now I'm almost official. I still need to move to the side, hopefully before bedtime.

Update: Okay, now I've got it moved to the side bar. :)

Day 1

The first day of NaBloPoMo -- and I'm so stacked with meetings and appointments, even though I have to leave in 15 minutes, I figured that this is my only opportunity to post something, so this is it!

Here's a little kernel about the Sunday accident: I was hit from behind while waiting to turn left. The guy who hit me had no insurance, no driver's license. No one was hurt, I didn't (regretfully) call the police. I took the car in for an estimate, we have a $500 deductible. A new bumper will be (you guessed it) -- $535!! Sheesh, if it's going to be over the deductible, it could at least be a couple hundred over the deductible!! So there goes $500 that we don't have in the first place. The rental car requires a credit card (we've already gotten rid of all our credit cards) or if you use a debit card, they charge either $75 or $200 (depending on whether or not the insurance company sent them payment) which gets charged to the card and refunded when you return the car, so I will also need to find another $75/$200.

I'm now getting ready to leave for a meeting at school - it's just the Exec Board, so they don't have babysitting, but I have to bring the kids anyway, so hopefully they won't fight with each other too much.