Star Trek The Next Generation
11 months ago
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
I Owe Ben $5
I bet Ben $5 he wouldn't get all his spelling words right on his practice test. Whoops. He correctly spelled all his words, including "microcosm", "hyperbole", and "megalopolis". I had to ask Joel what a megalopolis was. Maybe I have a spelling prodigy on my hands (Did I mention I won the school spelling bee when I was in 8th grade...?)
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
And.. Now it's Spring Again
After being FREEZING and slushy late last week and over the weekend, the temps have now gone back up to about 70 degrees. Clara and I just finished a nice walk and I swear we were both confused that it must be springtime. Tomorrow it's also supposed to be around 70, and then it is supposed to drop back into the upper 40s. I'm not particularly fond of schizophrenic weather, but I'll take 70 degrees when it's offered ;)
In other not so great news, Ulysses has pulled one of his disappearing acts again. I haven't seen him since Friday I think, and have sent around an email to the neighbors inquiring if anyone has seen him, checked with animal control to see if anyone turned him in as a stray, put an ad in the lost-and-found on Craigslist, and printed up some flyers that I am getting ready to plaster the neighborhood with. Unfortunately the kids have not noticed that Ulysses is missing yet, and I'm pretty sure seeing his face plastered on lamp posts will clue them in, so I guess I better let them know. Sigh. Hurry up and come home, Ulysses!
In other not so great news, Ulysses has pulled one of his disappearing acts again. I haven't seen him since Friday I think, and have sent around an email to the neighbors inquiring if anyone has seen him, checked with animal control to see if anyone turned him in as a stray, put an ad in the lost-and-found on Craigslist, and printed up some flyers that I am getting ready to plaster the neighborhood with. Unfortunately the kids have not noticed that Ulysses is missing yet, and I'm pretty sure seeing his face plastered on lamp posts will clue them in, so I guess I better let them know. Sigh. Hurry up and come home, Ulysses!
Friday, January 25, 2013
Stupid Weather!
The forecast for this afternoon was for freezing rain, so before even a drop of anything had fallen from the sky Ben's school had announced a 2 hour early dismissal and Rebecca's school had announced a 1pm dismissal. Unfortunately this meant that Ben actually got off the bus *more* than two hours early, and I was still out getting Rebecca when he got home. He saw the note I left on the door (telling him to come inside and call my cell if he got home before me), and promptly ignored it and went to a neighbor's house. Who texted me fortunately to tell me where he was.
Caroline's day care eventually closed also, and we decided we'd better bag the plans we had to go out to dinner tonight so cancelled our babysitter - and then the restaurant we had reservations at called to tell us they were closing anyway.
To be fair we did get about an hour or so of sleet /freezing rain this afternoon. But it seems to have stopped already. Looks like we're staying in tonight though!
Caroline's day care eventually closed also, and we decided we'd better bag the plans we had to go out to dinner tonight so cancelled our babysitter - and then the restaurant we had reservations at called to tell us they were closing anyway.
To be fair we did get about an hour or so of sleet /freezing rain this afternoon. But it seems to have stopped already. Looks like we're staying in tonight though!
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Long Weekend
Joel was working this weekend, which made it an extra long long weekend ;) We got some errands done, had friends over for dinner/football Sunday night, Ben's team finally won a basketball game (!) and the kids and I spent the morning at Sports Connection followed by lunch followed by letting Ben and Rebecca rent a movie (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) while Caroline napped and I did chores (BEN: "Are you sure this movie is appropriate? I think there is some bad language in this movie." ME: "I don't want to hear anything about it! Nothing! I know nothing, you hear me? Just sit quietly and watch the movie!") Yes I was kind of at my wits' end by yesterday afternoon.
This morning Rebecca had a dentist appointment, which Joel took her to because he didn't have to go into work until the afternoon. Of course, when *I* take Rebecca to the dentist she screams bloody murder, but when Joel takes her she is a perfect angel - what's that about? Ben is off school again today for a teacher work day, but I signed him up for School's Out/J's In at the JCC, and Caroline went back to day care today after having explosive diarrhea all weekend long (at one point it shot out of her diaper like an erupting volcano, I am totally serious) so I am crossing fingers that she does not get sent home today!
This morning Rebecca had a dentist appointment, which Joel took her to because he didn't have to go into work until the afternoon. Of course, when *I* take Rebecca to the dentist she screams bloody murder, but when Joel takes her she is a perfect angel - what's that about? Ben is off school again today for a teacher work day, but I signed him up for School's Out/J's In at the JCC, and Caroline went back to day care today after having explosive diarrhea all weekend long (at one point it shot out of her diaper like an erupting volcano, I am totally serious) so I am crossing fingers that she does not get sent home today!
Friday, January 18, 2013
No Snow
But do not tell my kids that! Aside from the lack of school closure, they were not disappointed! Like the true southerners they have become, they were thrilled with the merest hint of white stuff on the ground this morning.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Winter Weather Guarantee
The guarantee is that if I am prepared for it, it will not happen ;) We are forecasted to get 1-3 inches of snow tonight, so I went out and bought a sled, hot chocolate K-Cups and mini marshmallows. The fact that I did that, and that I am reasonably certain where the kids' hats and gloves are, pretty much decreases the chances of winter precipitation down to zero. Now, I don't write that with particular satisfaction, because we have gone 2 years between snowfall here in Charlotte, and the kids are DYING for a chance to play in some snow! So... hopefully we'll get some, for their sake. Though I do not relish a snow day with all 3 kids home while I try to fruitlessly accomplish anything for work...
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Mid-Week Update
I am a week and a half into my new year's resolution of losing the post-Caroline baby weight and then some... Yes after a year of hoping the extra weight would magically disappear somehow, I finally decided it wasn't going to and I should start doing something about it.I am eating crazy healthy - protein shake for breakfast, egg white omelette for lunch, couple of healthy snacks in there, dinner of steak and veggies or some other meat-and-veggie combination with only one serving of whole grain carbs a day... though a couple of days I have skipped the carbs all together. Happy to report that I have dropped 5 pounds so far! 5 more pounds will put me back to pre-Caroline territory, and my ultimate goal is to lose an additional 10 pounds beyond that.
In other not so good news, I had a minor fender bender the other day, or rather a backing-out-of-the-driveway incident. I was coming out of the driveway closer to the left side than I normally do, and was too intent on making sure the front of my car didn't hit the mailbox on the way out, so I did not notice the car parked on the street across from my driveway. It is quite amazing how much damage the rear corner of a minivan can do to the side of a sedan when driving one mile an hour and not damaging the minivan at all beyond a scratch or two. I put like a child sized dent in the side of this car. Turns out it belonged to the cleaning lady who was cleaning the house across the street. She didn't speak much English but I gave her my information and apologized profusely, and hoped that my sincerity came across ;) Her like twelve year old daughter called me yesterday to clarify/get additional information (apparently the designated English speaker in the family). I resolve from now on to pay excruciating attention while driving in reverse. (And all other directions).
In other not so good news, I had a minor fender bender the other day, or rather a backing-out-of-the-driveway incident. I was coming out of the driveway closer to the left side than I normally do, and was too intent on making sure the front of my car didn't hit the mailbox on the way out, so I did not notice the car parked on the street across from my driveway. It is quite amazing how much damage the rear corner of a minivan can do to the side of a sedan when driving one mile an hour and not damaging the minivan at all beyond a scratch or two. I put like a child sized dent in the side of this car. Turns out it belonged to the cleaning lady who was cleaning the house across the street. She didn't speak much English but I gave her my information and apologized profusely, and hoped that my sincerity came across ;) Her like twelve year old daughter called me yesterday to clarify/get additional information (apparently the designated English speaker in the family). I resolve from now on to pay excruciating attention while driving in reverse. (And all other directions).
Monday, January 14, 2013
The Poop Incident
Last night Joel and I were rather exhausted after a full day of errands, Hebrew school, basketball, etc and were lying on the couch watching football, having told Ben and Rebecca they could get undressed for their baths and start the tub running in our bathroom and one of us would be in shortly... couple minutes after that Ben came tearing into the living room naked and yelling something about Rebecca having gotten poop everywhere...
Now Ben can be prone to exaggeration sometimes, but I struggled off the couch and followed him into my bedroom where he pointed out a large smear of poop on my bed, and then directed my attention to the bathroom, where I found Rebecca sitting in the tub happily playing. There was another large smear of poop on the side of the tub, one on the floor, one on the toilet, and to my horror, the dog was standing in the middle of the bathroom floor with a LOG OF POOP in her mouth. I screamed, she dropped it, and busied herself by trying to lick up the poop smears while I frantically tried to clean up. It was as though a localized poop tornado had hit, removing the contents of the unflushed toilet and smearing them all over the bathroom.
Rebecca was still sitting in the tub, completely ignoring the commotion. "Rebecca! What happened??" I finally managed to ask after shooing the dog and Ben out the door (who was howling with laughter and not helping the situation at all). She paused in her playing and answered not-at-all satisfactorily, "I forgot to wipe."
Now Ben can be prone to exaggeration sometimes, but I struggled off the couch and followed him into my bedroom where he pointed out a large smear of poop on my bed, and then directed my attention to the bathroom, where I found Rebecca sitting in the tub happily playing. There was another large smear of poop on the side of the tub, one on the floor, one on the toilet, and to my horror, the dog was standing in the middle of the bathroom floor with a LOG OF POOP in her mouth. I screamed, she dropped it, and busied herself by trying to lick up the poop smears while I frantically tried to clean up. It was as though a localized poop tornado had hit, removing the contents of the unflushed toilet and smearing them all over the bathroom.
Rebecca was still sitting in the tub, completely ignoring the commotion. "Rebecca! What happened??" I finally managed to ask after shooing the dog and Ben out the door (who was howling with laughter and not helping the situation at all). She paused in her playing and answered not-at-all satisfactorily, "I forgot to wipe."
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Overachieving
After Ben got back to school after winter break his teacher gave a spelling assessment, designed to re-evaluate the spelling lists for the class (not all the kids get the same spelling list, depending on skill level). For the first half of the year Ben's spelling words had been not-so-challenging. In fact he almost always got 100s on all his spelling tests and never had to practice the spelling of the words. The words were usually like, I don't know, "Stitch", words that are vaguely tricky but let's face it, not really.
He came home after the spelling assessment excited to tell me about how well he had done on it, but his enthusiasm has dampened by now because his first new spelling list (test tomorrow) now consists of words like "monologue" and "monotonous" and "unilateral" and he is expected to know the definitions now as well as the spellings.
That's what you get for over-achieving, I told him ;)
He came home after the spelling assessment excited to tell me about how well he had done on it, but his enthusiasm has dampened by now because his first new spelling list (test tomorrow) now consists of words like "monologue" and "monotonous" and "unilateral" and he is expected to know the definitions now as well as the spellings.
That's what you get for over-achieving, I told him ;)
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
White Rice
Not sure what is up with the hat or why she refuses to take it off (not hers obviously). Don't really know either why she refused to eat anything for dinner except rice straight out of the pot....
Monday, January 7, 2013
Weekend in Review
It was not a very exciting weekend, but here are the highlights--
Caved to Ben's daily demands for a sleepover, and allowed him to have a friend over Friday night. All seemed to go well until I checked in on them Saturday morning after getting the baby up. ME: Did you guys go to bed at 10:30 like I told you to? THEM: Yes! ME: What time did you get up this morning? THEM: 2:30! Yes apparently they woke up at 2:30 and played Madden football on the Wii until I checked on them at 7. Their orders were not to leave the bonus room until 7:30 and not to wake anyone up, so I suppose they behaved in that regard...
Got some minor stuff done around the house- cleaned out the coat closet, got our bedroom closet the rest of the way unpacked finally (there were still a couple of boxes in there), and installed a door knob on the laundry room door. The previous occupants of this house had some real issues with door knobs apparently. They also seem to have removed the strike plates from every door frame in the house. Weird. They also disabled the door knob on the storm door, meaning it does not turn and to open the door you just have to push on it. This is not good with babies and dogs around. Issues I tell you, issues.
Ben's basketball practices/games resumed this weekend after a break for the holidays. This was his second game, and the first one that I got to see. They play on a full court and keep score now. Ben scored 2 of his teams 8 points, but they lost by 2 points. It was fun to watch though.
Joel "forgot" Ben at Hebrew school yesterday. For some reason he had it in his head that Hebrew school ended at 1:30 instead of 1. At 1:20 they called me asking if someone was on the way to pick up Ben, who was the last kid there, and I called Joel but he had turned his phone off. I threw the girls in the car and sped to Hebrew school, got Ben, and sped over to the gym parking lot and was about to charge in looking for Joel (assuming that something horrible had happened or something) when he finally called me back. To make matters worse I woke up with a REALLY stiff neck yesterday morning and could barely turn my head so probably should not have been driving. I was a little bit peeved ;)
That's all for the weekend... now back to my Monday pile-of-stuff-to-do.
Caved to Ben's daily demands for a sleepover, and allowed him to have a friend over Friday night. All seemed to go well until I checked in on them Saturday morning after getting the baby up. ME: Did you guys go to bed at 10:30 like I told you to? THEM: Yes! ME: What time did you get up this morning? THEM: 2:30! Yes apparently they woke up at 2:30 and played Madden football on the Wii until I checked on them at 7. Their orders were not to leave the bonus room until 7:30 and not to wake anyone up, so I suppose they behaved in that regard...
Got some minor stuff done around the house- cleaned out the coat closet, got our bedroom closet the rest of the way unpacked finally (there were still a couple of boxes in there), and installed a door knob on the laundry room door. The previous occupants of this house had some real issues with door knobs apparently. They also seem to have removed the strike plates from every door frame in the house. Weird. They also disabled the door knob on the storm door, meaning it does not turn and to open the door you just have to push on it. This is not good with babies and dogs around. Issues I tell you, issues.
Ben's basketball practices/games resumed this weekend after a break for the holidays. This was his second game, and the first one that I got to see. They play on a full court and keep score now. Ben scored 2 of his teams 8 points, but they lost by 2 points. It was fun to watch though.
Joel "forgot" Ben at Hebrew school yesterday. For some reason he had it in his head that Hebrew school ended at 1:30 instead of 1. At 1:20 they called me asking if someone was on the way to pick up Ben, who was the last kid there, and I called Joel but he had turned his phone off. I threw the girls in the car and sped to Hebrew school, got Ben, and sped over to the gym parking lot and was about to charge in looking for Joel (assuming that something horrible had happened or something) when he finally called me back. To make matters worse I woke up with a REALLY stiff neck yesterday morning and could barely turn my head so probably should not have been driving. I was a little bit peeved ;)
That's all for the weekend... now back to my Monday pile-of-stuff-to-do.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Friday, January 4, 2013
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Checking Out Her New Kicks
Do I see a little smile of satisfaction? These actually are Caroline's first real shoes!
My Big Little Girl
Caroline is transitioning to the toddler room at day care. Despite my apprehensions about this (she is not walking yet, only has three and a half teeth, and she's a *baby* damnit not a toddler), she sure looks cute sitting at the big kid table! I am sure she fell out of her chair moments after her teacher texted me this pic.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Back to the Routine...
I must say that after having both Ben and Caroline off school / day care since before Christmas, I am kind of glad to have sent them both back today! Rebecca was only off 3 days, and they were all days that I was also off anyway so she was no problem.
Ben should not have anything to complain about re: winter break, considering that he had a sleep over, three play dates, three days at winter break camp where he went on field trips to Monkey Joe's etc, our Great Wolf Lodge trip, dinner and a movie with Papa and Mary on New Year's Eve, etc. I bet if you asked him what he did over break though he'd just look at you blankly and not be able to come up with anything ;)
Yesterday Joel took Ben and Rebecca to an indoor trampoline park called Sky High, which the kids gave two enthusiastic thumbs up. Apparently the walls are trampolines too, and you can throw yourself into them. And there is a foam pit that you can swing over on a rope and drop into. And something about dodge ball.... I stayed home to do housework and put the baby down for a nap.
Caroline visited the doctor this morning and got the "all clear" on her latest double ear infections, and got her vaccinations which she missed a couple weeks ago due to the ear infections. Now all 3 kids are at school / day care, the dog is at camp, the house cleaners are here, and I am going to catch up on work!
Ben should not have anything to complain about re: winter break, considering that he had a sleep over, three play dates, three days at winter break camp where he went on field trips to Monkey Joe's etc, our Great Wolf Lodge trip, dinner and a movie with Papa and Mary on New Year's Eve, etc. I bet if you asked him what he did over break though he'd just look at you blankly and not be able to come up with anything ;)
Yesterday Joel took Ben and Rebecca to an indoor trampoline park called Sky High, which the kids gave two enthusiastic thumbs up. Apparently the walls are trampolines too, and you can throw yourself into them. And there is a foam pit that you can swing over on a rope and drop into. And something about dodge ball.... I stayed home to do housework and put the baby down for a nap.
Caroline visited the doctor this morning and got the "all clear" on her latest double ear infections, and got her vaccinations which she missed a couple weeks ago due to the ear infections. Now all 3 kids are at school / day care, the dog is at camp, the house cleaners are here, and I am going to catch up on work!
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
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