The Countdown has begun!

Well, in actuality, it began before Christmas. Nicholas has been figuring out the concepts of time and how calendars work (see, all that preschool calendar stuff we've been doing is working LOL). He's also gotten really into the whole concept of birthdays and has been asking since before Christmas when his birthday is. Before Christmas we would say in about 2mos and then try to focus him on the coming holidays. Now, the next big thing IS his birthday and he's ALL about that. All the time. When we told him on Monday that his birthday was one month away, he did his major happy dance including the booty butt wiggle. Now, he's working on understanding that his actual birthday and his birthday party will be on separate days and he's asking for countdowns for each. Right now, he wants to know how many weeks but once we hit February, I'm sure the daily countdown will start.

I have to say, it's so funny how excited he is by it and I'm eagerly awaiting the days too, just because he is finding such joy in it this year.

104:3 The Key to Midnight by Dean Koontz

Pretty typical Koontz read. A few extra little twists that were not immediately apparent which was nice for a change but he tends to tip his hand and show just about everything. I would really prefer not to have so many dream sequences that telegraph the twists. I did enjoy that part of this took place in Japan and other places instead of the usual California geography.

Page count: 419p/872p ytd

Thank goodness for short lived illness

Matthew woke up this morning running 96.8 and freezing under multiple blankets. By mid-day, Jonathan was in the same boat, Christopher's stomach was feeling icky, and I was dead tired with a headache. We all rested and while there are still cold symptoms floating around no one is feeling nearly as nasty as earlier today. I have no idea why everyone dropped like flies today but I'm so thankful that we are back to just coughs and mild congestion.

104:2 The Story of O by Pauline Reage

I admit, I read it mostly because everyone talks about it in hushed voices and then I saw it on the 1001 Books To Read Before You Die list so I figured I needed to see for myself what all the fuss was about. Trying to sum it up in one word....meh. I can see why it was shocking at the time it was written and I can't say I was comfortable reading about everything that was done but it's not a brilliant piece of literature. The characters were fairly shallow with almost zero growth and I never cared about any of them but there were pages and pages of descriptions of floors and walls and clothes and...you get the point. I didn't get the feeling that the author cared much about the characters or the subject matter either and upon researching it further, you find this to be the truth. She wrote it as a series of letters to her lover who said a woman couldn't write an erotic story. Honestly, I don't consider this very erotic. Shocking to most, yes, but not really erotic in the way I think of it. It's not sensual. It's consensual rape, debasement, and mutilation. That she is proud of what is done to her and then discarded because she is exactly what they wanted her turned into seems about right. The novel leaves off abruptly but I honestly don't know how else you would have ended it.

In short, I'm not sorry I read it and I do understand why it has the reputation it does but I don't need to read it again nor do I care about any sequels or movie versions. It just didn't strike any chords with me.

Page count: 199p/453p ytd

Not home all day, it must be Friday!

Well, that or a Tuesday. It seems time at home on those two days is definitely at a premium. Today we started out with our ES meeting at the house which was nice since everyone was moving slow this morning. I raced out of the house with Nico 15min for his zoo class only to encounter a fallen tree being removed from the Pacifica end of Hwy1. I'm thankful tho because I got there when there were one way traffic controls and it was being dealt with. Much better than getting there 5min after it's happened and everything is a mess and you are stuck for hours.

Zoo class was fun. Nico still refuses to participate in the animal pretending part which I find hilarious since he spends half his time as my kitty, Monday. He wouldn't even pretend to be a monkey today which really surprised me. When he sees his teacher hand out the cards for the parents to hide while they pretend to be animals, he runs to the same corner of the room and stays there until they all turn human again. I'm sure there is some deep Freudian thing going on in his id that causes this but I have no clue what it is.

He did decide that he really likes the new twins that just started this session so that was nice. They ran around after class over to the ARC and then Nico insisted we follow them to the petting zoo. I told him we only had a couple of minutes but he was happy for whatever time he could get out of me and even did well when I told him his time was up and we had to go. I plan on making sure that next week we don't have to run errands afterward so he can have more zoo playtime.

We did a return at Kohls and then I did a little shopping there. Some nice sales going on a few items that I have been looking for so I was happy to grab those, including a black dry-weave workout shirt for use at KSW. I dislike having my clothes sticking to me when we've been working hard and I'm hoping this helps that. Then we did a quick Costco run, and I do mean quick. I was in and out in less than an hour and spent just over $100. I stuck to my list except for two items that Nico reminded me we needed and he stayed in the cart so all was good. We even arrived 5min early to pick up Matthew & Jonathan from art class.

Grabbed a bit to eat and then it was off again. This time I was dropping the three oldest off at Black Belt Club. Usually I take that hour to go veg at Starbucks but this time I had been invited over to a new friend's house to help teach her cross-stitch. We ended up talking about all sorts of things (including a little cross-stitch) and talked so long that I was 30min late picking up the boys. It was a great time tho and totally worth it (even if I did have to put up with their razzing on the way home). We have a trip to Michael's planned for tomorrow. *happy dance*

Could it maybe, possibly be happening?!

Something weird has been happening the last couple of weeks and I've been afraid to post about it in case it jinxs me but here goes.

I think....*looking around to make sure I'm not overheard*....

Maybe....

Nico is turning *gasp* civilized.

Now don't quote me on this as he's had a lifetime of being quite the monster and we've only seen this new version for a couple of weeks now but I'm starting to have a glimmer of hope that not all is lost with him. He has recently started saying a very nice "Dank you" when he gets what he has asked nicely for. He is not running all over the grocery store like a maniac but staying basically with me and listening to gentle reminders when he does wander. Today at KSW, he went and worked with our head instructor while I did techniques and had a good time with him instead of clinging to me the whole time and when he finished before me, sat quietly and waited for the next part of class he could participate in. He's not having nearly as many temper tantrums about things and is starting to listen to reason more often. And tonight at game night, I didn't have to chase after him at all. He stayed with the brother assigned to watch him or stayed close by playing a game or playing on his DS.

I'm not saying he's turned into a perfect gentleman or anything. He still has his moments where he wont' listen and then the tantrums ensue. He still hits at least one of his brothers in the nuts at least once a day. He still threatens to kill or maim someone at least once every other day. Of course, that seems to be pretty constant with all of them so I'm sort of despairing over that one changing. BUT still, there is vast improvements being made and I'm really glad that he seems to be on the upturn from 3½ because as much as I love him, I really needed that stuff to stop.

So for now, I'm hopeful that the spawn of Cthulu maybe settling to sleep and a new slightly more civilized child is growing in his place. I can hope right?!

I'm raising gamer dorks

Yeah, I know, this isn't exactly the shock of the century but some days, it really hits just HOW dorky my kids are. Okay, we have a gazillion games in the house. If the kids can't play video games, the concept of going outside does not occur to them at all. They just grab a game, and another game, and another game, and another game. Don't like that mommy wants to watch the hockey game? Go play a game on the other table. Mommy and daddy just got a new game? What are the rules?

Seriously. It's insane.

Today, Nicholas has decided that he wants to play games all day. I convinced him between games to do some "school work" but really, it was game day. All day long. I can't tell you how many different games were played or how many times. We all had to take turns playing with him. The favorites of the day were Trouble (Stitch version, go figure), Don't Wake Daddy, and Panda Bear/Brown Bear...What do you see?

During dinner, I was playing Don't Wake Dinner with Nicholas and Jonathan and that's when Jonathan took it upon himself to make sure I knew just how dorky we really were. Apparently we were going to the kitchen to get a banana because "I like bananas. Bananas are good." (cue horrid northern English accent) and if we got caught daddy would tell us "Go to your room! I'm very, very cross with you. Go to your room!" (again with the northern English accent) For those of you with a dork factor less than a google (which obviously isn't me), those are both quotes from the Doctor Who episode "The Empty Child" with the 9th Dr. played by Christopher Eccleston. No, I didn't just look any of that up. I knew it by heart. Yes, I am that dork.

But you know, I'm okay with it. I've embraced my dorkiness. I wasn't exactly fighting it but I knew it was totally hopeless when I recognized the weird noise coming from Mark's phone as the comm signal from Star Trek.

So yes, my name is Jenevieve and I'm a dork and I'm turning my kids into dorks too. Christopher is the funniest in that he is the dorkiest when it comes to the weird crap he can pull out about his favorite subjects (anime, manga, video games, zombies) but then gets indignant when called on being a dork. Sorry kiddo, it runs in the family. Embrace it and find others who appreciate it cause you are stuck with it.

'Raine, 'Raine go away

Migraine that is. It hit about 10am today, not huge but definitely had me feeling at way less than 100%. I got home from the kids swim class and tried getting some more caffeine and protein into me to see if that did it since I actually worked out this morning. No dice. I tried drinking lots of water and having some vegetable soup in case I was dehydrated. Still no luck. Ate some yogurt and took some Excedrin. Nada. Had to take kids to KSW and YAW and do the grocery shopping with Nicholas in tow. Thankfully he was really good and I was able to move slowly and he stayed with me. Of course, that good behavior is now being paid for in spades as it's bedtime and he's running around like a maniac and yelling. Oh, god, the yelling.

I have no idea what triggered the migraine, whether it was just working out again after a few weeks of basic inactivity although I took that under consideration and didn't too a really streneous workout and I kept an eye on my HR with my monitor and while it got higher than usual, I would then pause and get some water to bring it down. Maybe it was the fact that I took my vitamins and supplements today for the first time in a few weeks? The stress of trying to get back into the swing of things? I just don't know. Hopefully a good night's sleep will see it gone tho because I wasn't able to get things done today and I am too far behind to be able to take days off.

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Dinner -
Bird's Eye SteamFresh Grilled Chicken in Creamy Alfredo with Vegetables (plus added fresh peas)

Update on Zadra

From Kathy's updates on FB:

Update on Zadra: Bone loss was total
for that section, but infection DID NOT spread to her brain. Could not
put tubes in her ears. Left ear drum so damaged, part no longer exists.
Doc says lost bone will regrow, but left ear drum is 50/50 chance of
hearing loss, possibly correc...table wit...h surgery. Even one day later could've had disastrous consequences for her brain

And later:

Zadra update: she will be on vancomycian and cefr??? one every 6hrs and the other once every 12hrs. infectious diseases is part of the team and immunologists will be added as well. right now it is day to day. don't know when she will be discharged. looking at antibiotics for a month possibly with a PIC line at home


Please keep the prayers coming for this little girl!

104:1 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel DeFoe

Matthew read a very abridged version back in 4th grade and loved it but got very indignant when he discovered that it was not the full story so I bought him a real copy. We finally started it during our story time last year but the language was so dense that it took us quite a while to get through it. The descriptions of how he managed to survive were wonderfully detailed and complete. There was a lot more religion in it than I thought but thinking it through further, that was definitely to be expected and it wasn't over done.

We all enjoyed the tale immensely but it was not an easy read aloud book. For the first 100 pages or so, I would have to stop after every paragraph and make sure Jonathan understood what was going on as the language didn't flow the way we tend to speak today. After that point tho, he seemed to generally be able to follow along with it fine with only the occasional question. I'm not sure I would do this as a read aloud again for someone so young and I definitely don't think I would do it with someone younger as I'm not sure it would keep their attention until the part when it becomes easier to understand. Nicholas did sit with us at times to listen in but never for the whole time and never consistently as he would with the Oz and Pan books.

Page count: 254p/254p ytd

First book done, only 103 more to go! LOL

Asking for Prayers

I just found out that my friend Katherine's baby girl Zadra is currently in surgery. She had an ear infection go undiagnosed for too long and by the time they caught it, conventional antibiotics didn't do the trick and the infection has spread into the bone. They are unsure how far it has spread but have a pediatric neurologist scrubbed and ready in the OR. Zadra just turned one a week ago and we were able to visit them on the 26th (they live in San Diego, not far from Mark's grandparents). Please keep Zadra in your thoughts and prayers that there is no lasting damage from this.

Getting back into the swing of things

That's always the fun part after a long time off, trying to get the kids (and *ahem* myself *cough cough*) back onto any kind of schedule. Late nights have led to late mornings and it's impossible to get everyone back on track without me losing my sh*t multiple times. So I opted to do things a little differently this time. I KNEW that we hadn't even had a day in advance of being on schedule and since technically Matthew and Jonathan don't start back to school until Wedn, I scheduled more like a 1/2 days worth of work and just concentrated on getting things moving in the right direction. I did one big thing for myself and that was get Matthew's guitar lesson rescheduled so it's right after Jonathan's therapy so we just have a crazy morning but then don't have to leave the house the rest of the day. Hopefully that will make our Monday's a bit more productive. We'll see but my fingers are crossed.

Right now I'm sitting in a fairly clean home with no kids asleep although they are all in bed. I have a gazillion things to do that didn't get done over the 2wk break so I need to work on that (little things like lesson plans, grading papers, you know nothing super important J/K).

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Quote for the day:
You get credit for what you finish, not for what you start. ~unkown

Dinner:
Crockpot Apricot Chicken (new recipe, well received)
Rice, Steamed Broccoli and Carrots

RIP Louise & Ticia

We've had a lot of sadness in the house in the last week. We came home from our trip to San Diego to find Padme in the heater vents. It took us 20min to coax her out all while Wednesday and Leia were trying to eat the canned food we were trying to coax her out with. We hadn't seen Ticia but since she comes and goes, we weren't terribly surprised and figured we'd see her the next day. We did but not as we had expected. Jonathan came into my bedroom telling me he had seen Lizzy (our cat that ran away at 4th of July). I asked where and he told me under his bed. I told him that wasn't possible but it was probably Ticia. He said she wasn't moving. Uh-oh. I sent Mark and he reported back that she had obviously died in her sleep a day or two previously. For those reading this who don't know, Ticia was Christopher's cat. She joined our family when he was 6mos old and they instantly bonded. She curled up on his lap when he ate and then licked the formula off his face when he was done. She slept next to him in his playpen for naps during the day. We had to constantly shoo her off the high chair when he was eating. She wouldn't eat his food while he was eating, but just wrap herself around him. Most of my pictures of him during his first couple of years include her. To the end, even when she was gross and drooling constantly, they remained close and Christopher was one of the few who would voluntarily touch her. She was 14½ when she passed. She was a wonderful friend and will be missed.

This was a week ago.

Today, I noticed that Jonathan's 2nd rat (Ruby died a few months ago) was showing labored breathing and looked sweaty. She has been slowing down a lot the last couple of days so I was worried about her but also knew, there wasn't a lot that I could do for her. He made sure she had food and water and gave her a treat before we left to take him to therapy. When we got back, I asked Matthew to take her some cheese that had gotten a little dry around the edges and he came back with that look in his eyes and said it was too late. Thankfully Jonathan was busy and I was able to put her in a nice box and dig her grave before I had to tell him. We had been telling him that she was getting old and showing signs that she wouldn't be with us much longer. He had been very attentive of her, giving her apple cores, giving her lots of attention. We reminded him that her original lot in life was to be snake food so she had had a much better life with him than that. She was almost 2 years old and was a very sweet rat.

The holiday season is finally over

We had our last holiday celebration tonight up at my dad's. I love seeing everyone during the holiday season but I'm also glad that it's come to a close. It was really nice going to my dad's tonight tho as it had given us a couple of days out of the Christmas stuff and with our tree being down, it was nice to see theirs up and have a nice family dinner there. We stayed a bit later than usual and after all our company and sleep-overs the last couple of days, I'm really tired but in a happy way if that makes sense.

This winter break has been less than productive for me in terms of getting any of my work done to catch up on stuff but it was very mentally relaxing and really good for destressing which is definitely a big plus. I'm hoping to get some sleep and wake-up ready to get a bunch of stuff done around the house. Chris starts back to school on Monday and I'll start easing the others boys back into it while I try to get a schedule together since I still haven't had one written down this year.

Happy New Decade!

Wow, I'm really not sure what happened to this year. When I was living parts of it, I was amazed at how slow the time was going so it feels really weird that all of a sudden it's over. Apparently I missed the last couple of months because they just flew by without my noticing but with the new year here, I want to do a quick review of my goals for last year and set some for this year.


2009 Goals
* To find an exercise routine that I can stick with. The goal is to find some way to actually be physically active in a meaningful way, 5 days a week. Happily, I met this one. On average I workout 30min 4-5 days a week in the morning and now I've added in 2-4 KSW classes a week as well.

* Get out of debt except for the house payment. This one needs a little bit of outside luck and a whole lot of discipline but it's doable and I hope to be starting next year with the start of a downpayment for a bigger house under way. Unfortunately we didn't succeed on this one for a couple of reasons. Our debt is down by about 1/2 tho!

* Get our routines in place. This is one place where I really fall down. It's that whole self-disipline thing. I would much rather kick back and read a book than exercise, get after the kids to do their chores, or do the housework. I know that sleep deprivation has had a lot to do with it and there too is a place where I need to be more disciplined. Making that schedule which gives me enough opportunity for sleep and sticking with it for all our sakes. Unfortunately this one fell apart when we brought in Jason and my lack of self-disipline hasn't gotten over it. :(

* Lose 10% of my weight. Yes, the obligatory weight-loss one. I didn't make one for last year thinking that would be better to just say I'd make smarter eating choices but you know what, I'm up 2lbs from a year ago. I yo-yo'd big time and I'm really miserable about it. I know I feel better when I weigh less but again, that self-discipline. I've got a couple of books on weight-loss that I'm going to be reading soon and then using those in conjunction with the new WW plan. I can see what I've been doing wrong even when I was sticking to WW so I'm working on formulating a plan that addresses that specifically. I'm also looking into trying to find a group, either WW or with some local friends, to get that necessary support on this journey. I'm very happy to say that I made this one as well! I lost it in late spring and summer and while I haven't been able to fully get back on track and lose more, I have kept it off the whole time with only minimal fluctuations.

* Find some ways to get myself and the kids more involved in volunteering and community service. We are so very blessed in all that we have and I want to give back and teach the kids that there are more important things in life than the next time they get to play video games. I found a couple of places where we were able to start volunteering and things that they cared enough about to donate to. I hope to continue building upon it.

* Stay in touch with those important to me. I keep getting so caught up in the kids activities and trying to do too much in other areas that I let slide the important relationships in my life with family and friends. I worked on this a bit last year and it's something that I want to continue to work on. I've gotten a little bit better about this with the help of Facebook but I need to remember that not all my friends are there and I need to be more proactive about those that don't remind me to contact them by updating their status messages.

* Take a few minutes each day to stop and smell the flowers. I tend to be in a frenzied rush of always going, going, going and even when I read, it's an escape. I want to take a few minutes to stop and count my blessings. I keep trying to do this but it's not as consistent as I would like to.

* Continue to blog often. I like the journaling and it's neat to go back and see what the kids and I have been up to. The big thing is I really want to work on blogging more often on the homeschooling blog as well. I've been really lax about that one. Um, well, I did for a bit and then got caught up with the craziness of life. *sigh*

* Continue to be more conscience of my choices and try to make the best ones I can, in parenting, eating, consumerism, life, and taking care of the Earth. I always try but I will be continuing to educate myself to do even better. Yep, it's a cut and paste of last year's but it's a good one and something to continue to strive to be better at. Again, I think I've done better this year than last but I still have a long way to go.


So now for this years goals:

• Continue with my exercise routine.
• Get out of debt except for the house payment. Going to need some luck with that (no major car repairs or appliance purchases) but it's possible.
• Get our routines in place.
• Work on decluttering our house and lives of unnecessary STUFF.
• Lose another 10% of my weight.
• Continue finding ways for us to volunteer and causes that the kids can get behind saving and donating to.
• Stay in touch with those important to me.
• Take a few minutes each day to count my blessings.
• Blog more often on both blogs.
• Read 104 books (again *big grin*)
  
• Continue to be more conscience of my choices and try to make the best ones I can, in parenting, eating, consumerism, life, and taking care of the Earth.

Yep, I know they look a lot like last years but that's okay. I made good progress in a lot of these areas but I want to continue to work on them as they are what is important to me.

104:104 Baby's First Mythos by C.J. Henderson & Erica Henderson

Okay, not the book I had planned on being the last book of the year but somehow appropriate. I'm only counting it because a) I've read 1/2 of 2 of Christopher's text books which I can't count because they aren't "done" and b) I'm 93% of the way through with Robinson Crusoe but had a ton of company today and enjoyed spending time with them rather than sticking my nose in a book so I'm putting this one in instead because, well, it's freaking awesome.

This is an Alphabet and counting book based on the Cthulu mythos created by HP Lovecraft. Every letter has it's own entry with a corresponding creature or person from his works. I read it to Nicholas who loved it and then I read the disclaimer that it could be disturbing to some children. Hmmm...is that why Nico was asking me to read it again and again? That would certainly make sense for him. If you like twisted children's books based on twisted adult books, this is certainly the one for you (and your kids).

Page count: 42p/31,889p ytd (sort of)

And that sees my challenge done for the year. I'll definitely be doing it again this year as I have plenty more on my shelves that need to be read and there are even more out there to be read. So many books, too little time (and storage space).

104:103 Doctor Who: Winner Takes All by Jacquline Rayner

I wanted to like this one a lot more than I did. The voices were there but barely. It was more like I could hear the characters saying those words but it was wooden, there was very little of the banter and character interaction that is necessary to really bring out these characters, especially if you are going to put them in print. The story itself is okay, a pretty typical Doctor Who type storyline, but nothing super special. In short, if you are dying for a 9th Doctor fix this will sort of work but otherwise, I would take a pass.

Page count: 245p/31,847p ytd

104:102 At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft

Okay, so I read the Kindle version of this which unlike the print version is just the one story with no additional tales. I considered grabbing the print version we have in the house but when checking it out, the additional tales are also included in some of the other compendiums that I plan on reading so I decided it wasn't necessary to do so. This review will simply cover "At the Mountains of Madness".

I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting from this book as it's the first Lovecraft I've ever read. I've had a couple of people tell me they put it down in horror 1/2 way through so I was expecting to be scared, shocked, something along those lines. What I found was an incredibly intricate and suspenseful writing style. I actually used the Kindle dictionary a couple of times as some of the words were very obscure and I wanted to make sure that my understanding of them from the text was accurate (it was close enough btw). I can't say I was ever "scared" or "horrified" by what I was reading. I kept waiting for the boogeyman to jump out the shadows but when it finally happened, it was sort of anti-climatic and without much incident but a chase. This story wasn't gross or gory. It was intense but didn't make my gorge rise. I admit to needing a break from time to time because of the complexity of the writing but that was it. I'm looking forward to reading more of his work to see if his style remains consistent throughout.

Page count: 110p/31,602p ytd

104:101 Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Set in San Francisco in a not too distant future, a terrorist attack has taken down the Bay Bridge and the BART tunnel linking SF to the East Bay. Marcus (W1N$T0N) and his friends are hackers caught in the wrong place at the wrong time by the Department of Homeland Security. Marcus can't let it go after he is finally released and goes on a crusade to bring the Bill of Rights back from those who would subvert it in the name of "keeping us safe".

I enjoyed the book but then again, I agree with how scary the loss of our freedoms have become and have no doubt that these measures make us not one whit safer but only serve to put greater power in the hands of our government which is not acting in our best interests but only acting to serve it's own aims. I don't think this is about Republicans or Democrats but simply the fact that our government has become too big and too in love with it's power and that it has no intention of giving back the rights which it has stolen. A revolution will be needed to get those rights back so that we can be safe in our persons and privacy, safe from unreasonable searches and wiretaps on our phones. I found a great article that shows your odds of being a victim of terrorist attack vs those of other disasters like car crashes. We don't stop driving because we may get in a wreck. We don't let them take away our freedom of speech or wiretap our phones because we may have an accident but it is statistically much more likely to die in one of those than to be a victim of a terrorist. http://reason.com/archives/2006/08/11/dont-be-terrorized

Is this the greatest book ever? No. It was a fairly quick read, fairly simplistic in it's execution and language but had powerful passages that made you want to stand up and applaud Marcus. Considering that you can download this book for free, I definitely recommend reading it and making your own judgment on it's merit. I will say, best of all is the fact that it sparked many interesting discussions with the boys since Mark read the first 1/2 of it on our car ride home. We talked about the Department of Homeland Security and the abuses that they have committed and how those don't make us any safer. But cuter than all that was hearing a little 3yr old voice ask "What's a Yippie?" and trying to explain these things to him because he kept asking questions too. Gotta love that!

Page count: 384p/31,492p ytd

104:100 Your Four-Year-Old: Wild and Wonderful by Louise Bates Ames, Ph.D.

I decided to actually get a jump on and read this BEFORE Nico turned 4 (instead of 6mos into that year like I usually seem to do). I definitely am seeing bits and pieces of what they talk to already with him along with some of the 3½yr old stuff still working its way out. It was nice to be reminded of what is coming and know he's right on track and that while his natural energy and enthusiasm is going to be at a serious high, we are on the right track to surviving it. I guess the last 2+ years of practice has helped. I definitely preferred the advice in this book to that of the 3yr old book since it was more along the lines of "get your kid outdoors and run them around to help them get some energy out" for four vs "send your kid to a babysitters, nursery school, or anywhere away from the mom" of 3. I much prefer the former to the latter and it's something I try hard to do as a matter of course because I know that my boys need to work off the energy, especially when they all start feeding off each other.

Page count: 136p/31,108p ytd

104:99 Kitty's House of Horrors by Carrie Vaughn

The latest in the Kitty Norville series. Kitty has been invited on a new supernatural reality tv show where the point at the start seems to be for a bunch of the more prominent and spotlighted supernaturals to convince a skeptic that there really are such things as werewolves, vampires, and psychics. Unfortunately, someone seems to have a hidden agenda for the show that looks a whole lot more like a massacre. Who has changed the script and will any of them be able to survive?

I really enjoyed this one as I have with the whole series. I like Kitty's snarkiness but her also her ability to take charge when necessary and do what needs doing. Ben doesn't play prominently in this one which is a shame but Cormac gets lots of mention as it is his instincts that Kitty needs to be channeling if she doesn't want to be on the primetime in a bodybag.

Page count: 292p/30,972p ytd

104:98 Grayson by Lynne Cox

This was one of Christopher's bookclub reads. A memoir of a champion swimmer who met with an extraordinary adventure during a typical training session one morning. A baby gray whale became lost from his mother and attached himself to her. This is the story of the hours they spent together in the ocean searching for his mother and everything she got to experience as a result during those hours. Short, quick read but wonderfully descriptive of her time in the water with Grayson. A touching story that draws you in as you hope along with her that Grayson's mother will be found.

Page count: 153p/30,680p ytd

104:97 Blue Fingers by Cheryl Aylward Whitesel

This was a book club read for Chris last year which he begged me to read. Matthew recently finished it and said I had to read it too so I finally broke down and did it. I enjoyed it for what it was which is a simple coming of age story set in feudal Japan. While the author obviously (and admittedly) weaves some of her own lore into that of the ninjas, she also did her research and added a lot of historical details on how they would have achieved their feats interwoven with the superstitions of the time. Cute, quick read.

Page count: 247p/30,527p ytd

104:96 The Early Human World by Peter Robertshaw an dJill Rubalcaba

This is the first in the series of The World in Ancient Times that we are using for Matthew's Ancient History class this year and was recommended by one of his friends who is 2yrs older. I really like the format of the books. They are told in a definite story form rather than a dry "here are the facts" that so many history books do. They keep it light, interesting, and entertaining while getting the information across. They pack lots of fun little facts in which help to keep it interesting as well. I definitely learned a lot and enjoyed it and even better, so did Matthew. I think that right there is the best compliment is when the 6th grader is happy to do history when it's not normally one of his favorite subjects.

Page count: 160p/30,280p ytd

104:95 The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

A Newberry Honor book and well deserved. I read this as it was Matthew's book for bookclub and I like to know what my kids are reading. I'm funny that way. LOL This story follows the boy Ranofer of Egypt who wishes to be a goldsmith but after his father died is now in the care of his half-brother who is a stonecutter and cares nothing for Ranofer except what he can get from him. As events unfold, Ranofer discovers that his half-brother is stealing in places best left undisturbed and the only person who knows and might be able to stop him is Ranofer and his friends but it will take an enormous amount of courage on his part to bring his half-brother to justice.

I enjoyed the tale. I found the descriptions well done and since we had just visited the Tut exhibit I was able to very easily see in my minds eyes the items that were being described. You do find yourself caring about Ranofer and wanting to justice done. Matthew also enjoyed the book tho he found it a little slow in the beginning but once the action got started, he didn't want to put it down.

Page count: 248p/30,120p ytd

104:94 Divine Misdemeanors by Laurell K. Hamilton

It is really showing how badly she is rushing these books trying to put out one Merry book and one Anita book each year. This one is the latest in the Merry series and it started out strong for about the first 125p or so. It had a real plot with a strange fey murder happening in LA where Merry and her guards are called in to give their opinions. There is political stuff going on with some of the new guards that she brought over. There is obvious caring between Merry and her men but once we get past that point it turns into massive sex scenes which are pretty much the same with only the names changing. I lost count of how many times she "painted her orgasm on his back" but it was every time she got laid. Seriously? There are no better metaphors? Nothing else she could have done? I'm personally surprised she can keep track of who she is with so she can scream out the right name each time since she always does that as well. So let's recount, she spent 125p (give or take) on building a real story line, another 150p having sex with the occasional scene pertaining back to the plot of the first 125p, and then 40 pages where she actually has the murderer basically blackmailing Merry and her and the guards dealing with it.

It's still better than several of her Anita Blake books but it's funny how she had books when she was trying to get pregnant where she had less sex than in this one where is already with child.

Page count: 333p/29,872p ytd

104:93 Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs

The 2nd book in her Alpha & Omega series which is set in the same universe as the Mercy Thompson books but takes place a little beforehand and has the main characters of Bran's son Charles and his new mate, Anna. In this book, Charles and Anna are heading to Seattle to deal with the European wolves about Bran's decision to come out of the doghouse, so to speak, and go public with the information that werewolves are real and have been cohabiting with humankind for centuries. This decision is not widely popular but one in particular, whom the call The Beast, is widely opposed to the idea and it seems he will stop at nothing to stop it, even possibly resorting to hiring vampire mercenaries to steal Anna to weaken Charles and his father's position.

Absolutely loved this book. At about 100 pages from the end, I couldn't put it down and zipped through it. I think I actually prefer this series to the Mercy Thompson books but that may also be that I've read these more recently and Mercy has faded from my immediate memory.

Page count: 286p/29,539p ytd

104:92 Don't Sweat the Small Stuff...and it's all small stuff by Richard Carlson, Ph.D.

A good list of 100 ideas to learn how to relax and stop stressing over all the minor stuff that gets to us day in and day out and keeps our back and necks tight and makes it difficult to find the life of peace and happiness that we claim to be seeking. He makes the claim in every "chapter" that we are ultimately in control of how we deal with everything and that we have the choice to go with the flow or let the idiot who cut us off in traffic stress us out for the next 20+min. There are no earth shattering techniques in here, they are all ones that we've heard time and time again in different ways but it's all put together in one book with personal examples of how it has worked for him. Now that I've gone through it once, I plan on rereading it next year focusing on two techniques a week. I know there are certain areas where I go with the flow nicely but there are definitely areas where I tend to let myself get stressed out when it's totally unnecessary and I want to work on that.

Definitely a recommended read.

Page count: 246p/29,253p ytd

104:91 Bound to Shadows

The 8th book in the Riley Jensen series. This one was a total rush and really brought back everything I loved about the first 4 and the last one. Fast paced, lots of action, a real bad guy for Riley to pursue and stop, and of course plenty of loving. *wink wink, nudge nudge, know what I mean* Riley's soulmate, Kye is back and no one can tell exactly what game he's playing or which side he's on besides his own. And what Riley and Kye want are worlds apart but only one of them can get their wish.

Absolutely loved this book and so glad to see that after the disappointments that were books 5 & 6, the series is really back on track again. Can't wait for the next one in the series.

Page count: 346p/29,007p ytd

104:90 Frostbitten by Kelly Armstrong

In the 11th book in the Women of the Otherworld series, Kelly returns to Elena's pov as she ends up in Alaska on the trail of a mutt only to find much more than anyone bargained for. So many surprises and twists and turns, some hinted at in previous books and others new. Elena seems to be really growing up in her reactions to things as is Clay and it's nice seeing their relationship continue to grow. The rest of the pack does make an appearance in the last couple of chapters and it was nice to at least see their names. They aren't integral enough for more than that.

In all, a fun quick read and I enjoyed going back into Armstrong's world.

Page count: 339p/28,661p

104:89 Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Well, I wasn't planning on counting this one but it's now the end of November and the kids school reading has been killing my pace. I looked back on last year and realized that I read a lot more YA books as well so hey, I get to count this one since it's my game (and it helps count for the 200+ pages in Art History and 300+ pages in US History that I've read and can't count as finished books until next year). LOL

Still a cute book and it was nice to share with Matthew and Jonathan. We all got a lot out of using the curriculum and putting ourselves more into the time period.

Page count: 238p/28,322p

104:88 White Witch, Black Curse by Kim Harrison

The newest of the Rachel Morgan series. This time Rachel is up against her toughest opponent ever, a mother banshee who will do anything to protect her child. Rachel is also being called to task for her judgment and actions and witches are not to be messed with when it comes to justice. And of course, what series dealing with demons, witches, werewolves, and vampires would be complete without a ghost. She's dealt with him before but will she survive dealing with him again?

Really a fun read. I had a hard time putting it down and I just really love this series. I'm so sad I'm going to have to wait for the next one to come out at all, let alone in paperback.

Page count: 564p/28,084p

And Another ER Visit ***Graphic Content Warning***

There once was a boy who was actually doing his chores because he wanted to go to his friend's house. While unloading the dishwasher, he was thinking about how much he detested this chore and would love to get out of it and managed to drop a butcher knife on his finger. Instead of yelling for help from a parent, he ran from the kitchen to the bathroom with the finger in his mouth and then stuck it under a faucet and yelled for his brother to get him a bandaid. His mother heard this and heard his explanation of dropping a knife on his finger and went to look. Blood was everywhere since he had water running over it and it was obvious that it was deep. Instead of a bandaid, his mother grabbed a rag and put pressure on it and had his father take him to the ER for stitches.

The stitch count was 2. The boy was Matthew. And he only got out of unloading the dishwasher for the one day.

104:87 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

I remember I read this ages ago but couldn't for the life of me remember much of it so when Christopher had to read it for his English class, I was happy to read it as well. The majority of it was sort of ok but once Tom shows up I spent the rest of the book shaking my head at the complete hilarity of it all and the fact that everyone went along with his foolery. It definitely lived up to the notice at the beginning of the book: "Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot will be shot." That really sums it up nicely because I didn't find any of those things in it but it was still a fun read.

Page count: 202p/27,520p ytd

104:86 The Tao of Meow by Waldo Japussy

"The Meow is Supreme,
Heaven's a dream,
Earth is mighty--
And the Wise cat always tries to cooperate
with the powers that be."

A collection of 81 reflections on life and the way to total self-gratification as only a cat can tell it. This really sums up the book well. What a philosopher Waldo is and we are blessed that he wrote down his wisdom to share with us and that his humans were able to translate it so that we could all know the wisdom of the Meow so we could find The Way.

Page count: 120p/27,318p ytd

Taking a few to catch-up here

Another crazy week. The kids really haven't had more activities than usual, it just feels that way for some reason. Maybe because I'm feeling overwhelmed with everything I feel like I should be getting done and am not? Maybe because Nico has been going through a clingy/trantrumy phase again where he is either doing one or the other and it seems impossible to keep him happy and not attached to me so I can get things done? Maybe because I haven't been getting much sleep due to the clingy thing? Just not sure the reason but it's there.

In good news tho, I've done two family classes with Nico this week. The first one was hard as he had already had swimming and bowling that day and none of us were sure how he'd do. He did remember all of the first 5 steps in White Belt Form 1 and we all got our white belts that night. He is sooooo proud of his white belt and tells everyone that he has it and loves to show what he did to get it. He did pretty well with the class all things considering and our instructor said that we could bring some quiet toys like coloring for him to do in a corner in the future if he needs to take a little break. I did that on Wednesday with some lacing toys, puzzles, and paper and crayons. They had him do some extra tumbling next to me while I was working on techniques and then he played quietly for a bit before the whole class did tumbling. That and forms are his favorite things. I'm really enjoying the classes as well and look forward to going again next week.

Today we are actually home most of the day which I'm enjoying since we stayed up late last night having an impromptu movie night. I've got a lot of laundry and schoolwork stuff calling my name especially since we have our last meeting of the year with our ES so I need to get our work samples pulled and my report written up since I have to leave early to take Nico to zoo class.

Crazy but productive weekend

Saturday was crazy busy. We went to the free community breakfast and then were supposed to take Jonathan to soccer but he forgot his soccer gear and KSW stuff at home despite us telling him to grab it and seeing everyone else grabbing theirs. We ran a few other errands instead and then Mark, Nico, and I joined Christopher & Matthew at the KSW trial class. Nico did okay but he gets bored about 3/4 of the way through warm-ups and then doesn't get interested until we are doing tumbling. It'll be a bit of work to get him used to paying attention for a whole hour like that but the instructor thinks he'll be fine within a few weeks so we went ahead and signed us all up. I know my class time will still be limited but at least now I can start and I don't have to wait until Feb of next year. Very happy about that!

We came home for a few hours and I did some desk work and got a few other things done and then drove Christopher up to the city to see Jeff Vandermeer do a reading from his newest book. Jeff is very instrumental in the Shared Worlds program and was the one who wrote to the kids a month afterward telling about what a pleasure it was and how he had watched them grow. I had no idea he was such a big name in the sci-fi/fantasy book genre but apparently he is and such a great guy too! He remembered Chris and spent several minutes talking to us when we got there and introduced Christopher at the beginning of his reading which really made Christopher's day. He has friended Christopher on FB and apologized for not having responded to his most recent note there. It's so rare to see a child's idol be so approachable and actually be willing to take interest in them and encourage them and I'm so thrilled that Christopher found someone like that.

We didn't get home til late so that was the end of Saturday. Today I've been getting a bunch of things caught up which has felt good. I got the boys' hair cut, rearranged all our canned goods and sorting everything so it's all easy to find, I cleaned out the fridge and organized that, made muffins, and did the lesson plans for the week. I'm hoping to get a little laundry done before finally heading to bed.

Right now I'm so very thankful for Mark being home for the next two weeks. It's been a long time since he was home for that long in a row.

35 Turns Around the Sun

That's how long I've been on the planet, for better or worse. It was a good day. I spent the majority of the regular day being mom, skipping breakfast so I could get kids to science classes and then art classes and then following Mark over Devil's Slide to make sure he made it over okay with some car issues before picking kids up from art class.

This evening tho, I was able to go out to dinner with Mark, Mike, the boys, and their friend Ian to Rainforest Cafe for dinner and then we walked over to Ghiradelli for an ice cream dessert. For the first time ever, the Earthquake defeated our combined efforts to bring it low and there was actually ice cream left on the dish when we all rolled out of there (for those not in the know, The Earthquake is 8 scoops of ice cream with 8 toppings plus whipped cream, nuts, chocolate chips, and cherries....it is not ice cream for the faint of heart).

I was thoroughly spoiled with well wishes which always feels good and I got some phone calls from friends I don't hear from often which really made my day. At this point, I'm very tired but very, very happy.

Now if I could get Mark to hand over my new Nerf gun before he loses all my ammo....

104:85 The Outlaw Demon Wails by Kim Harrison

Wow! I hit the half-way part of this book and then refused to put it down until I could finish it. There are several shocks in this one that come totally out of left field (tho when you look back you can see where very subtle clues were hidden). An absolutely wild ride that leaves you on the edge of your seat.

Someone has been summoning Al out of the ever after and setting him free to kill her but to find out who and why will uncover huge secrets that were probably best left hidden. To save herself, Rachel will have to go into the ever after, willingly, and hope to come back out alive. Not such an easy task.

I am soooo glad the next one is coming out in paperback in just 2wks. I really can't wait. And the short story at the end showing some of Ceri and Al's past was another "Wow!" moment. Don't miss this one!

Page count: 528p/27,198p ytd

104:84 Your 8-Year-Old: Lively and Outgoing by Louise Bates Ames, Ph.D.

Definitely showed that Jonathan is developing normally as again so much of it seemed to fit him perfectly. I continue to recommend the series in general as it does give a good idea of what is going on in a child's development and how that manifests itself physically and emotionally. I need to remember to read these BEFORE the child's birthday tho to get the most out of them but in some ways it's interesting to read them during that year and get the "yep, that is certainly true". It lets you see that it's taking place rather than you ascribing it where it may or may not be true.

Page count: 134p/26,670p ytd

A Very Merry Un-Birthday to Me!

Since it's officially a school holiday and the kids don't have super important activities to go to, I've declared today my "un-birthday" and am taking the day off as much as I can. My real birthday is Friday but Matthew has science class at LHS and Nico has zoo class in SF at the exact same time so Mark and I are already having to divide and conquer to make it all work so there will be no rest on that day so hey, I figured I should make the most of this one.

So I'm on vacation today. I'm not getting dressed. I'm not driving a single child to a single activity. I slept in til almost 7:30a when I chose to wake up. Chris made me tea and breakfast. Matthew made me a birthday card and set up the living room with a blanket and extra pillows on the couch. Jonathan made muffins from mix all by himself. I've already gotten to see the final three episodes of BSG: Season 3 and plan to watch some more later tonight. The bigger boys are getting some other chores done and catching up on a little schoolwork but otherwise, we are all lounging about.

So my plans for the rest of the day include finishing up two of the books I'm in the middle of as well as some school reading for Christopher, staying in my pjs, and not leaving the house. I'd love it if they would include not having to intervene in any sibling squabbles but apparently they didn't get that part of the memo and I've already dealt with several. Oh, well. I get the other parts and I'm thankful for that.

Taking time to be thankful

It's November and the month of Thanksgiving. I always feel sort of sorry for November and Thanksgiving, sandwiched as they are between the two more commercial holidays of Halloween and Christmas. It seems to so rare that people actually stop and think about all they have to be thankful for these days and even less so during this month as they are rushing around trying to get things ready for the all important "holiday season".

Today on Facebook, one of my friends posted a challenge to have us post in our status messages something that we are thankful for on each day this month. I think it's a great idea and beyond participating, I'm going to post those things here as well and may just post some more randomly as I think of them. I've always wanted this blog to be more a positive walk down memory lane but I know that all too often, I get caught up in the crazy stuff and don't take the time to stop and think about, and post, the small successes or fun things that are going on. I know that I always seem to be running at a million miles an hour trying to get everyone from one thing to the next and falling super far behind with the house stuff. I moan and whinge about it but I also know that if I really wanted things to be different, I do have the power to change them. One of the things I want to change is my mindset. I want to be able to look around and see more positive things and be more thankful. I don't think I do a horrible job of this on a regular basis but I'd like to do even better. Most days I feel like I'm reminding myself that I should be thankful rather than truly feeling it so I'm going to try this to help make a more positive outlook a habit rather than something I'm always reminding myself to have.

So a few fun things I'm thankful for today:

• I'm thankful that Cocoa Bella's had the Irish Coffee truffles that I love in stock after almost a years absence. It's a little thing but I was so excited when I saw them that I squealed in delight before buying a box of just them.
• I'm thankful that Jonathan made his own omelet this morning. He loves omelets and Mark taught him how to make them yesterday. He also knows how to make eggs over easy (tho he needs a little help with the flips).
  
• I'm thankful that even tho Nico only slept 6hrs last night, he's in a very good mood about it.
• I'm thankful that Jonathan's soccer team won their division and is going on to the area tournament. I might grumble about the extra practices when I thought soccer was going to be over but he's so excited about it since none of Matthew's teams ever went on and I'm happy he gets this opportunity.
• I'm thankful for Starbucks which I will be drinking a gallon of to make it through today thanks to Nico's lack of sleep. LOL

More to come later. :)
What are you thankful for? Think of a few things and put them in your own blog or post them here.

Please tell me this crap will end soon!

So as if yesterday wasn't a hard enough day emotionally, today had to try and go crazy financially. I got a call from our dentist office saying that the claim for Matthew's crowns had been denied again. We managed to get her better information and she was able to get them to pay their portion...which equated to less than 1/3 of the total. Now mind you, 2 of the 4 teeth that were crowned have now fallen out. I asked the dentist at the time about simply extracting the teeth since they were due to come out soon and after looking at the xray he assured me that the adult teeth were no where close to ready and it would be about 2 more years before they fell out naturally so this almost $2000 procedure was absolutely necessary. NOT! Now it turns out that they did not talk to the correct insurance company to get a pre-treatment estimate done and that we actually have no in-network dentists in this state so the insurance is barely paying anything. So we owe another $450 for these teeth that are no longer in Matthew's head. And they are now saying that we owe another $330 for some work for Jonathan and Christopher that has not been on any of the bills that I've been paying this year. They told me that we had discussed that I owed money and I had said I wouldn't pay until things were settled with Matthew but at the same time, I got bills with what looked to be the amount we had discussed on them and I paid those assuming that the bills were correct. Now all of a sudden I owe them all this extra money, the burden of proof to show that we paid what we were billed for is on me because all their billing is done through a third-party and they won't try to get back copies of the bills, and because of all their screw-ups, they want their money RIGHT NOW!

Excuse me?!

You give me bad advice regarding treatment, bad information on the estimate, don't bill me correctly and all of a sudden this is all my fault somehow and I need to pay up immediately?!

I think we are looking for a new dentist after the way this has been handled which totally stinks because I was really hoping to get in and start getting some major work done before the end of the year. *sigh*

Can tomorrow please not throw me any more curveballs?

How can you believe it's not personal?

I've never understood that line. "It's not personal" when talking about your actions, usually when you know that what you've done is going to or has hurt someone. If you know what you are doing is going to cause harm, than regardless of what you felt about it, it's personal to someone. Telling someone "it's not personal" is simply a way of trying to deny your own responsibility for your actions by belittling the hurt you caused them. It's not even an apology. You aren't telling them that you are sorry you are hurt them, what you are really saying is that you didn't give enough of a damn about them to care that what you did hurt them. You knew it would but doing it was going to get you what you wanted so it wasn't going to affect you personally, so "it's not personal". They just happened to be in your way.

Why do I bring this up today? Good question. I was contacted today by our ex-foster son Jason. He sent me a message on MySpace to tell me that what he did wasn't personal, he was just doing what he felt he had to do to get back with his family. That he never intended to lose friends because of his actions and that he hoped we could still talk. Well, first off, I'm not sure what he thought was going to happen when he treated us like that. That we would be happy after a couple of months to act like everything was okay? Jonathan and Christopher are still dealing with the aftereffects of the crap Jason did. I know he didn't feel it was personal but the reality is, it was. It affected all of us personally. Why he would want to talk to me now is not something I understand. I did craft a reply to him basically telling him what I've said here (tho in brief) and that while I wished him well I didn't want any further communication with him. The thing of it is, while he says in his message that he wants to be able to talk to me, he chose to message me through MySpace where he doesn't receive messages from people he hasn't friended. Yeah, I can tell he really wants to talk to me. I didn't feel all warm and fuzzy when I saw it and that basically confirms my suspicion that someone put pressure on him to do it and it wasn't his idea.

I've spent most of the day upset by the message and trying to figure out how to deal with it only to find out, it was for nothing because I can't reply to him. Yes, I do have his actual email address but I figure he choose the medium where I can't respond either because he didnt' think it through or because he was forced to write the message but doesn't actually want a response. I'm going to go with he doesn't actually want a response and try to get back to the state of numb I was at concerning this. I hope that's the last I hear from any of them. At this point, they've eaten up enough of my life and I don't want them to get any more. The problem is, the scab is still very soft and it doesn't take much to open the wound again and I think it will be a long time before it scars over and doesn't tear me apart.

It's November?!

How in the world did that happen? I remember starting Christopher's birthday post (which is still in progress *sigh*) and realizing that it had been a couple of weeks since I had posted and then laughed that my last post had been about how many activities the kids have. I told myself I needed to get the birthday post done and get back on track with my posting. Well, you can see how well that worked out...

yeah, not at all.

I'm really not sure what happened to the month of October except that Mark was gone for a good chunk of it and I was busy running kids to everything under the sun and usually ended up falling asleep on the couch while trying to get my little cling-on (aka Nico) to go to sleep. Things would happen during the day, kids would say cute stuff, we'd learn something fun, whatever it was but by the time I would get near a computer my brain would be in total brain-fried, core dumped mode and I would have forgotten it and just stare mindlessly at some Facebook game while my brain finished shutting down before I went and dealt with yet more kid stuff.

The highlights of October as I remember them:

• Pan Moin wrapped with Matthew's team in 5th place, Christopher's team in 3rd, and Jonathan's team in 1st. I'm very proud of all them for going every week and trying their hardest, especially Jonathan who would have to go right after soccer and would be tired but still worked hard.
• Pumpkin Festival: All three big boys marched for KSW in the parade and then Christopher and I spent most of the rest of the weekend at the YAW Haunted House talking like pirates.
• New computer for me. Well, still used but newer than the last couple. For those counting, this is computer #4 for the year. I'm heartily sick of reinstalling my software and finding all my favorite websites. (This may also have a lot to do with why my blogging has fallen off)
• We now have 3 Dahn Boh Nimhs in the house. DBN is the first full rank in KSW. It means that the boys have earned their 2nd black stripe on their brown belts and get the black-brown belt (a brown belt with a black stripe running the length of it). We filled out the paperwork to have them in the black belt program now which means that they will test for a new black stripe every 3mos automatically. It takes a minimum of 8 stripes on the black-brown belt to get their black belt so we are looking at 2 more years of KSW at least. It's good for them tho and I'm glad to see how well they are doing.
• First KSW Tournament! This was a big event for them, especially taking place the day after they became DBN. Jonathan and Matthew were both in huge groups so Jonathan didn't place in any of his events but he tried very hard and I'm very proud of him. Matthew got one 4th place medal in sparring due to a judge's error. Considering he had only really sparred once before, the fact that he got a couple of points in his second match was quite an accomplishment. Christopher took medals in all his events as he was in a much smaller grouping. I told the boys not to expect to bring home any medals but to look on this as a learning experience and a great opportunity to see what the higher ranks can do so bringing home medals was a huge bonus but really, I'm just so proud of them for going and trying their best and having such a great attitude about the whole thing.
• Halloween was fun as always. Christopher was Neku Sakuraba from one of his favorite video games, Matthew and Jonathan were ninjas, and Nico was Buzz Lightyear. They participated in Treats for Cici where they sold us some of their Halloween candy and donated part of that money to Cici to help with her medical expenses. I'm so proud of them that when talking about that, the three big boys all pulled out money from their savings to send in addition to what we would send for their candy. Another proud mommy moment.
• Christopher and Matthew are participating in NaNoWriMo's Young Writer's Program this year. All I really know is that Matthew's story has something to do with Cthulhu (he has really gotten into Cthulhu recently and is even starting to read Lovecraft) and Christopher's is going to have something to do with zombies.
  

As for me, October was the month I realized that I needed to be reading all of Christopher Art and History texts and doing the Algebra 2 in order to be the most help for him. I'm basically caught up on the Art and History but I've had a hard time finding the time for the math and I'm still very behind on grading all his papers. I also realized that I needed to read all of Matthew's History as well. With all of that and their activities, I've had very little time for my fun reading. :( I have managed to keep up with my exercise routine so that's good tho my eating habits still need work. I keep tweaking them but so far, no luck on getting the weight #s to head down. The BF% is moving down tho and so are the inches so it's doing something, just slowly.

In other fun news, I've been reconnecting with some friends from high school and it's been lots of fun. My friend Kat was up visiting in Sept and is coming up later this month so we'll try to get together again then. Chris and I went to see Zombieland (hilarious movie) with Luisa and Jen and then Luisa came up to work with Christopher on his novel and spent the night. We stayed up til 4am chatting and then ended up chatting at B&N for over an hour after missing her train (of course, that meant we missed several more trains but hey, we were in a bookstore with coffee and comfy seats LOL). It's been really nice for me getting to have time being me and not just the boys' mom.

October has also found us learning how to be more economical. My friend Melissa's parents have sort of taken us under their wings and are showing us a bunch of tricks of the trade as it were. They've told us about a free community breakfast on Saturday mornings and a couple of places that distribute food in the area with no questions asked. I make sure to get towards the end of the lines so that those who are really in need can get things first because we don't NEED it but it does help to reduce our grocery bill and every cent saved is a cent that we can put towards our debt reduction. We've also learned how to can and got a vacuum sealer off of Freecycle so we've been creating a huge stockpile of food. So far we have homemade applesauce and chicken soup canned and mashed potatoes, breadcrumbs, and croutons sealed. I'll be making split pea soup, lentil soup, chili, and spaghetti sauce to be canned in the next couple of weeks as well.

Speaking of that, we just went through the fun of switching banks again. Chase was finally really switching things over from WaMu and the second they had me start using a Chase debit card and I used it normally, they froze my card for possible fraud without informing me. I found out when the zoo calls me telling me my card was declined when they tried to charge it for Nico's zoo class. I was at the store when that happened and it was declined when I went to pay for my purchases. I called Mark to check that his paycheck had been deposited and there was plenty of money in the account so I call Chase and get hung up on when they tried to transfer me to someone who could tell me what was going on. When I called back, I was told that my card had been frozen for suspected fraudulent activity because I made my usual withdrawal at the new Chase ATM at the CVS I shop at. Their automated system was supposed to call and tell me to call them but it didn't. They didn't care. I talked to the manager. He didn't care. Now the funny thing is, just last week my Target card called me to confirm a couple of unusual charges. A real person called me to go over them. They were all mine and all was good. But Chase doesn't believe in customer service like that so we said F*** you and switched banks. Everything is finally switched so we are closing out the last of our accounts there this week. I really hope to never have to do that again as it's such a pain and thankfully the new bank looks good. Let's just hope they don't get bought out by some big corporate sh*ts.

As for right now I'm looking forward to the end of soccer. Jonathan's last game is this Saturday and I'm being a horrible mom and hoping they don't make it into the tournament. I need things to simplify a bit around here and we are both burned out on soccer. I'm still trying to find time to get a bunch of things caught up with the school and the house. I've still been unable to get a schedule going for us so I know we aren't being as efficient with our time as we could be but stuff is getting done and the kids are enjoying learning for the most part again so that's good. Now if I could just get them to enjoy doing their chores, I'd have it made. LOL

Sorry I've also been lax on the pictures. I've been forgetting my camera a lot and I just got the software reinstalled on this computer so I can download my camera. Look for pictures soon tho!

104:83 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

I absolutely LOVED this book! I read the original last year (see here) and enjoyed it but when I saw that they had added zombies to it?! I KNEW I had to read it as it should be. I laughed my way through it as they did such a delightful job of adding them in without really changing the essence of the story itself. There was really only a couple of sentences in the whole thing that I found to be truly out of place but otherwise it was very well done. Some of the characters really benefited from the twists that the zombies brought about and the literary discussion questions at the back were hilarious. If you are looking for a good, fun read and an interesting new take on a classic, this is definitely a must read.

Page count: 320p/26,536p ytd

104:82 Sole Survivor by Dean Koontz

This one moved even more slowly than usual for Koontz tho at least the "mystery" kept up for a bit before we hit the total supernatural, created by some uber-powerful corporation entities again.

Page count: 403p/26,216p ytd

104:81 California Gold Days by Helen Bauer

Read this with Matt & Jon while studying the California Gold Rush. It's actually from their great-great Aunt Laura and it was one of the books she used when she was teaching CA history back in the 80s. It was published by the California Department of Education specifically for that purpose. Lots of information and tons of pictures. It took us through the time when Mexico still owned the land through Sutter's coming out and his friend discovering the gold at the sawmill. We learned how miners lived, their entertainment, how they found gold, and how cities and towns were affected. It talked briefly about how the mail system developed from stage coach to pony express to the train and telegraph.

I can't say I learned anything a ton from it but I thought it was a good presentation for the two of them and it was neat that it had belonged to one of their relatives.

Page count: 110p/25,813p ytd

104:80 For a Few Demons More by Kim Harrison

The 5th book in the Rachel Morgan series. This one had it all. Rachel was seriously kicking some butt but in way over her head in so many areas like her relationship with Ivy and that lovely demon curse she's been trying to hide. Will making a deal with Piscary see her come safely through everything or will he just betray her unable to forgive her past trespasses?

This book just didn't slow down for anything and it felt like if you blinked, you'd miss something. So many thing going on, so many different characters twisting things around. It was a serious rollercoaster ride. I really enjoyed it for the most part (and the parts I didn't, well, I wasn't supposed to). I'm so glad I have the next one here ready for me to read. Just bummed that I have to get caught back up on US History and Art History before I can start it.

Page count: 536p/25,703p ytd

104:79 Midnight by Dean Koontz

Typical Koontz. I have yet to be super impressed with any of his books as they are fairly formulaic, the characters lack more than the most minimal of depth, and you can predict within 20 pages almost the entire ending. That being said, they are great bathroom reading because I can read a page or two and put them down without feeling that "I need to read just one more page" urge that gets me with better books. They are fun in small doses but after 2-3 in a row, I have to switch over to another author to break up the monotony.

Page count: 470p/25,167p ytd

Sometimes you get a glimpse of things to come

and sometimes that glimpse is a good one. Today has been one of those days with Nico. We've had a lot of issues with him lately. Temper Tantrums are the order of the day with multiple occurring at the slightest provocation. We had a week where I swear all I did was put him in the bathroom and hold the door closed while he was on timeout yet again for hitting someone. Today however, I got to see a glimpse of the child he is turning into and it was a nice change of pace. He listened most of the day when we were out and about. He has learned how to skip and practices constantly but was so good about minding me when I told him to stop and wait for me. He wasn't arguing about things just to be contrary but was accepting of the rules. We even had some fun conversations.

Me: You're a nutcase (I forget what he had done but he had deserved the moniker)
Nico: I not nutcase. I have feet so I can boing and nutcase doesn't have feet.
Me: That would be why you are a nutcase. LOL


Later on...

Nico: Mommy
Me: Yes Nick
Nico: I booty butt face.
Me: That's not a nice thing to say Nick
Nico: I LIKE being booty butt face!


and even later when he was playing ps3 and I was making dinner...

Nico: You stupid poopey head!
Me: Nick, that's not a nice thing to say.
Nico: But mom, I not calling my brothers poopey head, I just calling my guy poopey head. That's okay cause it's my guy not my brothers.


Gotta love 3yr old logic! But really it was a great day with him and it made me hopeful for what the future has in store with him. It was so nice to get that glimpse of hope that this phase will be over (and hopefully sooner rather than later) and he can act like a civilized human being.

So many activities!

(This is a cross-post from our school blog but it was important enough to me to post in both places. If you'd like to see what we do at school on a regular basis, check out the school blog on the side bar)

I think with guitar lessons starting on Monday and bowling starting on Tuesday that will officially signal the end of the adding in of activities. So here's what we have:

MONDAY
10a-11:30a Jonathan has Speech and OT (Chris & Matt hang at the library doing
schoolwork and I take Nico grocery shopping)

3p-3:30p Matthew has guitar lesson (Chris stays home while I stay at the park with the other two)

4:30p-6:30p Chris, Matt, and Jon all have KSW (Nico and I drop and run home)


TUESDAY
2p-3p All four boys bowl
5:15p-6:15p Christopher has Young Actor's Workshop
5:30p-7p Jonathan has soccer practice
(Matthew can go to KSW or stay home and practice guitar in peace)


WEDNESDAY
4:30p-6:30p Three big boys to KSW


THURSDAY
10a-11a Matt, Jon, and Nico have swim lessons
4p-5:30p Jonathan has soccer pratice
4:30p-6:30p Chris and Matt have the option of going to KSW


FRIDAY
9:30a-10:50a Matt and Jon have pottery
10a-11:30a Nico has zoo class
3p-6p Chris has biology lab which I teach at a friend's house
Also sometime on Friday, Jonathan's speech teacher stops in for another session with him


SATURDAY
10:15-11:30a Jonathan's soccer game
11a-1p Chris, Matt, and Jon have Pan Moin at KSW (yes, I notice the time discrepancy for Jonathan, he's late every week to his practice for the competition)


So this would be why I roll my eyes when people ask about socialization. I worry a heck of a lot more about trying to find time for academics with them than I do about their social skills. Academic stuff is getting done but it's been a challenge figuring out how to work it in around all the other stuff. I'm really, REALLY hoping to find time to work on that schedule this weekend to get a better idea of what may be able to just come out and where we can trim and/or combine things. At least now I have all the materials so I can hopefully do better than just guessing on the last pieces.
I have to say tho, they are so happy with all their activities. Yes, scheduling it all is a challenge and it keeps us on the go more often than not. Yes, it makes it harder some days to find time for things like the three Rs. BUT, they are finding their creative sides and exploring them and THAT is what I want for them. The basic academics we can get to but letting them explore and create is something that if we deny can be lost forever and that is something too precious to be discarded. I'm so thankful every day that I have the opportunity to open opportunities for them rather than close them away behind budget cuts and state testing needs.

104:78 A Fistful of Charms by Kim Harrison

Nick has shown back up in Rachel's life and this time, he's in way over his head. In this installment of the Hallows series, we see just how far Rachel has come in figuring out her own emotions and motivations for things and see many of her relationships undergo radical change. Many loose ends are left from this but that just seems like wonderful fodder for future books. There are definitely times when you want to slap some of the characters but it's more from a "hey, wake up and smell the Brimstone" kind of way rather than a "gosh, this is just the stupidest thing ever written and I just need to slap someone" kind of thing.

Having less time to read so that slowed me down a bit but continuing to really enjoy the books and watch the characters grow. I really want to start the next one right now but have to catch up on Art and History with Christopher first. Then I'll have more fun reading time again.

Page count: 510p/24,697p ytd

First 10% Lost!

Big milestone for me so I'm posting about it! I've officially lost 10% of my weight this year! That is 20lbs and I'm so happy. What makes me happiest is that I haven't done anything drastic to achieve this. I've tracked what I eat on SparkPeople, joined some groups there, and tried to fit more exercise into my life. I did great for about 2mos (May & June) and then the summer colds hit and I would jump back too quickly and mess up my back and then I would stop tracking. I would try again for a week only to have it happen all over again. BUT the biggest thing was that I did not gain back the weight I had lost when I wasn't tracking! I would fluctuate a little but even then, it kept trending downwards not up! This has always been the biggest problem when I did WW or tried anything else is that I would lose weight but the second I got bored with the program or stopped being super careful, I'd gain again. Not everything, but something and then usually I would get pregnant and it would all go out the window. Well, that is definitely not happening again and this time I haven't been following a program other than to eat sensibly and try to be more active.

I've been working on gradually making small changes here and there that will replace less healthy habits with healthier ones. Simple things like having a salmon burger and fresh peas for lunch rather than canned soup. More fiber, more vitamins, more protein, less sodium. Not a huge change. Not really any more work to prepare but healthier. Now we are working on finding alternative side dishes for dinner that can replace the boxed rice and pasta dishes to bring down the fat and sodium content. Simple things like using our new cuisinart to slice potatoes and doing a simple pan fry with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. Baking potatoes. Doing something with squash instead. Using a mix of brown, white, and wild rice (and starting to phase out the white until its gone and will be wholly brown or wild) or using just boxed pasta and using the sauce from our food to flavor it or making fresh pesto for it or cooking it with chicken broth and some seasonings for flavor. Again, simple things but they all add up to really reducing our caloric, fat, and sodium intake on a weekly basis. It's getting us away from foods with ingredients that are not found in nature and we can't pronounce and getting us closer to our ultimate of goal of primarily only minimally processed foods.

The other big thing has been working hard to find time to exercise. It's not always been feasible when my back is out or I'm sick but otherwise, I work hard to find a way to do something even if it's just stepping while I fold the laundry. I've been trying to find ways to get extra steps into my days. I've slacked off recently because I did something to my heel and my back but I'm seeing a chiropractor now on a weekly basis to get my back feeling better and I'm starting back slowly doing some yoga as I work into a more active exercise regimen. I made sure that as I'm making my schedule, I've included 45min for exercise and that does NOT get cut for anything! I've also included time for meditation and my cross-stitch. Hoping I can keep the cross-stitch in there as it's good relaxing time for me which I need too.

I guess that is the biggest thing is that I'm starting to make ME a priority. I'm not allowing everything else that has to get done become my excuse for not taking care of myself. It's slow going and I still have a lot of things I need to do to get myself where I want to be but I'm doing it and not just sitting on my duff saying "someday" or "when the kids are grown". I'm carving out the time now. Little chunks to start with, just babysteps, but working towards trying to figure out how to take care of the bigger things too. It's taken me a long time to not just hear the words but really take them to heart which is...

I DESERVE THIS!

And I do. Not because I'm some superwoman, not because I do so many other things, not because I homeschool or because I'm a mom or a volunteer or anything else. Simply because I am a human being worth and deserving of basic respect and taking care of myself is showing myself the respect that I deserve.

104:77 A Separate Peace by John Knowles

A story of growing up in a boys school during WWII, we follow Gene and his struggles with his friendship with Finny. We find in Finny, an intense character who seems to have little insight but is long on charisma and energy. His perceptions of the world are shallow but at the end we see that it was only by making things fit in his perception that kept him from fearing the unknown. Gene finds it impossible to have his own will when in the presence of Finny and much of the story is Gene's figuring out how to deal with his relationship with Finny, trying to categorize it and create reasons for Finny's behavior that are mostly only in his own head. When at last he breaks free of Finny, albeit unconsciencely, it is with dramatic consequences.

I liked the pace of the book in that it was neither too slow to be plodding nor too quick so that it lost it's believability. An easy read on the surface with a lot of deeper undertones.

Page count: 204p/24,187p ytd

Day 1 of the sort-of schedule

Well, it sort of worked. The big boys didn't make it to KSW but all the school work got done and the morning had the issues I was expecting but nothing major. We'll continue to work on the morning for a week or two, especially while I finish getting the whole thing down on paper and then move towards the afternoon and evening. I except a lot less problems with those as they are already pretty set-up. Mostly with how I spend my time to make sure I'm doing as much as possible and how I can get Nico to spend his time without him zoning out in front of the tv all the time. He is getting so much better about that tho. Still the occasional fit but he's finding a lot of enjoyment these days in painting and other art projects which is so nice to see. I think it's time to switch out the kitchen tho as he's not playing with it much these days and we can put the Duplos in its place for a bit so he has something new. That might be another week or two before we can do that tho because I think those are buried behind our garage sale fodder in the shed.

So on to Day 2!

Busy, Busy Weekend

Just a crazy busy 3-day weekend here. It started with Mark deciding he had the money to buy the new big screen tv he's been wanting and doing so Friday night. Of course, he's working a whiskey pouring gig most of the day Saturday and Sunday so he gets the majority of the stuff in and out on Friday but things are only sort of working in terms of what the kids can do with it. In fairness, we also knew that we didn't like pedestal that his parents loaned us for it and we'd be getting something else asap so that does take motivation away from putting everything together just right when you know you are going to tear it right down again.

The big thing for me tho was that this meant that other things I needed him to get done over the weekend didn't happen. Again. We've had some artwork waiting to go up in the boys room for over a month and it still hasn't happened and our next 3-4 weekends are booked solid so I really have no idea when it's going to get done now. *sigh* Typical. We had agreed that this was going to be our weekend to get stuff done but what he got done wasn't anywhere on my priority list. Maybe it wouldn't have been a big deal if he hadn't been doing the whiskey thing too but between the two, that killed most of the time he could have helped around the house.

I did get some stuff done despite it all tho not nearly as much as I wanted to. I got my desk cleaned off, the checkbook balanced, bills paid, budgeting done, Christopher's birthday invitations ready to mail, our calendar at least updated for Sept, and started working on our daily schedule. That and the bills were the two huge things I needed to get done and I'm not happy that I wasn't able to finish that one. In fairness to Mark, he did take the 2 younger boys to IKEA today to get them out of my hair for a couple of hours while going on a fruitless search for a better TV stand.

So it was labor day weekend and we labored, a LOT. And still there is way too much that needs to get done and doing the schedules has confirmed that we do not have enough hours in our days and it seems that every time I turn around, other people are trying to add more things in while I'm trying to figure out what we could possibly trim out. Seeing the schedule really hammered home just how many activities the boys have, especially the middle two, but they are all so good for them in different ways. It's so hard to say no when they are pursuing their passions tho there is no way I'm adding anything else in except the guitar lessons I already told Matthew I'd look into. He has such an artistic/musical bent that I want to make sure he has the opportunity to pursue that. I just need 1-2 extra hours in my day. That's not asking for too much is it?

Best Friends Forever

That's the latest phrase coming out of Nico's mouth. I like it much better than the last one (I'm going to kill you!). He came up and told me today "You and me nice each other mommy. Dat mean we bet fends fore'er!" (You and me are nice to each other mommy. That means we are best friends forever)

I can hang with that.

And the wheel keeps spinning out of control

I woke up stiff, sore, and more tired than I went to bed. The kids woke up shortly after me and started running through the house like the wild monkeys they are. The day went sideways from there. It took forever to get them to settle down and get some work done but once they settled down, things did get done.

I tried to make myself a hair appointment and succeeded in making one only to then realize that Mark had a whiskey thing this weekend and when I was able to find out the times, find out that there was a total conflict so I had to call and leave a message to reschedule. That seems to happen all too often which is why I so rarely make appointments for myself to get things done.

When it was time to get Nico and Jon out the door for Jon's soccer practice, Nico didn't complain about the clothes I picked out and put on him but then stripped himself naked and had a tantrum because I put the pants on first and this time he wanted the shirt put on first. Usually the tantrum is because I put the shirt on first. Apparently I can't win no matter which way I go and the most fun part is that he says nothing and helps get the clothes on until he's fully dressed when he then realizes that I've just given him ammunition for a temper tantrum. Ugh! This tantrum lasts 10min with him screaming at me to dress him shirt first and me telling him that no, since he got himself undressed he can put his clothes back on in any order he wants but if he doesn't do it soon, he's going to soccer practice in his undies. He then threatens to kill me, repeatedly. Now it's not like I take this threat seriously but it's the fact that this is unacceptable behavior that needs to stop. So I tossed him and his clothes out of my room and locked the door. He stood outside the door kicking it and continuing his tantrum. When he started slowing down, I opened the door and asked him why I should let him in if he was going to kill me. He said he wasn't going to do that and that he loved me and a bunch of other stuff I didn't quite catch but which was apologetic in tone rather than threatening. So I brought him back in and 10min later finally had him dressed again with him doing most of the work. Ugh!

But hey, at least we were ready and got to soccer practice only 10min late despite this. Not bad. I let Nico run around a little bit and then headed to the car so I could go home to work on dinner and laundry since Jonathan gets a ride home from one of the other moms. I get to my car, buckle Nico in, put my key in the ignition, turn it, and...nothing! Not the click or trying to turn over of a dead battery but absolutely nothing. Now I had driven it there less than 20min previously with no problems so I knew there was no way the battery could drain that fast but we've been having one of the standard problems with the battery which is the connections get wiggled loose after a while so I popped the hood and wiggled and sure enough, I fixed it. I also managed to trip the alarm. Now my alarm, when tripped, doesn't let the car start until it's been reset. The only way to reset it is to use the clicker thingy that has been busted for years. It still works but it's not in good shape and doesn't attach to anything any more. It last broke off in the house so in the house it had stayed. Which doesn't do me any good when I need it an I'm a couple of miles from home with a 3yr old and a car alarm going off. I figured out how to shut it up by making sure all doors were closed so I did that and just kept a window open so I could take care of Nico who was still strapped in happily snacking and watching a movie on the DVD player. Then I called my FIL who was out to dinner to see if he could help. They were on their dessert course but afterward, he was able to swing by my house and pick up the clicker and sure enough, right after that I was able to drive home, no problem.

After that, it was just the normal bedtime crapola getting everyone dressed and into bed. I'm sure hoping tomorrow goes smoother than today.

104:76 Every Which Way But Dead by Kim Harrison

Okay, this series just kicked it up several notches. A lot more going on in this book as the demon has come to claim Rachel's part of the bargain and now that she put the head vamp of the city in jail, the city is up for grabs and there are definitely those that should not be in charge. Rachel has to figure out how to weasel out of her bargain with the demon and figure out who the players are and what to do to keep the city from going down all while dealing with a ticked off pixie and a boyfriend who seems to have dumped her. Well, at least in answer to that, there is always that hot living vamp hanging around...

I really enjoyed this one a lot more. Some character development which is always nice, some more backstory getting filled in, lots more action both in and out of the bedroom, and not everything was wrapped up with a nice neat little bow at the end. Really looking forward to the next book.

Page count: 501p/23,983p ytd