Moving Angst

We had really hoped to move into the new building over the holiday break. It was *finally* happening, and we were going to be into our new beautiful home.

If only.

The city has denied us the occupancy permit for reasons that I missed, but the result is that we get to start school again on the 7th in the old upper-school building. The WHOLE school in the upper-school building. We're going to be running half-days for at least one week, and possibly two, with the lower elementary meeting in the morning from 8:30 to 12:30 and the upper elementary/junior high meeting from 12:00 to 4:00. The high school will meet next door in the city youth center.

It will be far less than ideal, and it is CERTAIN to freak Coio out. The consolation I get is that my class - while on the boarder between lower and upper elementary - will meet with the lower elementary, so I'll be on the premises at the same time as she will be.

Someday we will get to use the new building. Until then, we will make do.

Ho ho ho!

For Christmas this year I got just what I wanted: teething. Well, OK, I got a Microsoft Zune, but the teeth are what I was really looking forward to. And not just any teeth; no sissy incisors that slice their way easily through the gums. No, I'm talking MOLARS.

You know what I'm talking about. The inconsolable fussiness. The resistance of anything with more consistency than an overripe banana. The nights that go on and on forever. Being awake at 2AM.

Good times.

WFMW - Pretty Presents

It's been ages since I blogged, but I'm thinking I'm going to try again. I'm going to start slowly by posting just once a week as part of Works For Me Wednesday over at Rocks In My Dryer.

So here it is, my debut WFMW post: Pretty Presents. I've gotten several compliments on the stack of presents underneath my (tiny) Christmas tree this year (yeah, we just put up the little tree and have the whole display fenced off from señor destructo-boy, AKA C-Rex.) What, you ask, is my secret?

Drum roll please: Let's hear it for cheap-o brown kraft paper! Three bucks will get you a roll of forty feet that can get you through this year's mountain of packages and well into next year's too.

But brown paper is pretty boring, you say. Well, you have a point. Now it's time to make with the pretty, and I direct you to fancy fabric ribbon. It's sort of pricy, so right after Christmas, hit up your favorite craft store and raid the Christmas ribbon display. It ought to be between 75% and 90% off, so you can splurge and get ten or fifteen (or twenty) rolls. Put it away until next year, and you'll be ready to put together a beautiful pile of presents.

Don't despair if you don't have any fabric ribbon on hand, or if you run out of ribbon before you run out of boxes to wrap. I ran out this year, and I was able to pick up more at 50% off at JoAnne's in early December. Not quite the steal it will be after the holidays are over, but still not bad.

So that's it. Plain brown paper and pretty fabric ribbon. It Works For Me!

I'm Convinced

Being a stay-at-home-mom is not for me. I enjoyed being home with Coio when she was a baby - but I started working from home when she was one and a half and have worked ever since. Today was my first day home with the kids, by myself, since C-Rex was a newborn. My parents are out of town, so it was just us three, and I darn near drove myself mad. Being alone with two little people and my thoughts is NOT my idea of a good time. So, no, I don't want to be a SAHM. I'm seriously looking for work.

Today I called on a CNA job posting from the classifieds, and it's just not going to work. The available hours won't work for me, and I don't really want to change sheets. So I don't know about nursing school. I'd really like to do it, but I don't know if I can. Maybe I'll try to get a job at a bank. Part time if possible for now with the idea that when C-Rex is a bit bigger I could go back to work full time.

What would be really cool would be for Suzanne to be able to work her magic and get me hired on as a virtual whatever for her university. She's doing what she can, but it's anyone's guess how long it could be before I'd have a bead on whether or not it will work out.

I'm feeling desperate today, but it's probably largely due to the fact that I didn't have anything to do today but obsess about work and money. I'm hopeful that tomorrow - when things go back to semi-normal - I'll be able to relax a bit.

Catching up

Things have been a bit crazy in the past few weeks. We started school, and I ended up quitting the kindergarten and the junior high Spanish teaching gigs. Mornings were too much for C-Rex, and teaching junior high is just beyond my capabilities - I'm a preschool teacher, and my methodology doesn't translate well to junior high.

So I'm only doing Spanish for the elementary classes now. It's not much, and we really need more money. I've got to find something else.

I've been thinking hard about going back to school next fall - nursing school. I've always been interested in medicine, and since medical school is more school (and money) than I'm interested in, nursing school seems like a good idea. I'm looking into getting my CNA so I can have the experience nursing schools want upon application.

My friend Suzanne is also trying to get me hired with her university as a virtual something or other, which would rock, since - hello? University? I could go back to school in their dime. It would be awesome, and I've got everything possible crossed.

We've been enjoying a few days off here, so I'll crawl back into my stupor and try to check back in sometime within the next month.

Employment Outlook

I don't know if I'm going to keep up assisting in the kindergarten in the mornings. It's exhausting. I've got to drag C-Rex (formerly known as Taco) out of bed super early and sacrifice his morning nap so that Coio can follow me around at school going, "Mommy?"

I'm thinking I'm going to send out the fliers I made for Spanish classes. I'm going to go through the phone book and send a flier to every preschool listed. If I can get just four clients (at $50 per 30-minute session) a week, I'll be doing great.

Add to this befuddlement of mind and spirit the fact that my former employer has been telling people she's going to take me to court because I'm in violation of the non-compete agreement I signed with her. Forget the fact that I'm NOT COMPETING with her, but if she really wants to go there I'm sure I can convince her otherwise. Do you think she really wants her skeletons out of the closet? I'm inclined to Get Gephart.

School Starts TOMORROW!

Yes, it's finally here - the moment of truth. Coio is pretty excited, and I'm feeling anxious, so I guess everything is as it should be. I made sure she had a bath tonight (that's noteworthy in our home), and we picked out her outfit for the morning so we don't have to worry about that during the morning rush. We have to leave here NO LATER THAN 7:45AM, although for tomorrow I'm hoping to shoot for 7:30AM. Wow, that's early.

I'm still not positive that everything is going to work out for me. There's less time between assisting in the kindergarten and teaching Spanish in the afternoons that I had thought. Somehow I got it in my head that I'd have an hour and a half between the two, but it turns out I've only got one hour. It'll probably work so long as we're at the Freedom building in East Bay, but it definitely won't once we've moved up to the new building.

I'm really thinking it's not going to work, but I want to make a go of it. If it doesn't work, I'll probably take him with me in the afternoons, or maybe I'll try to do the contract Spanish classes in preschools like I was thinking of doing. If I can get a few clients at $50 for 30 minutes a week, then I could bring in maybe an extra couple hundred a month.

I can dream, anyway.

Wish us luck, ok?

Oh CRAP!

Literally.

Taco was enjoying his diaper-free time this morning, which is something we do frequently. We're EC-ers, so we've been pottying since he was born. He's in the middle of a long-running potty strike right now, though. Anyway, this morning, during his diaper-free time, he pooped on the kitchen floor and then spread it all over the place. Yuck.

At least it was on the vinyl floor and not the carpet, but I don't think we'll be having diaper-free time anymore. That's not a mess I want to clean up on a regular basis.

Ooooh baby baby!

Is it even possible to trademark a phrase twenty years after the fact? One would think that if the phrase, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner" were trademarked, that Lionsgate Entertainment would have done something about it before now. This part:

It also seeks a court order requiring the defendants to pay restitution as well unspecified statutory and actual damages, treble damages and punitive damages.

seems a little bit like grasping at straws.

Tick, tick, tick . . .

I'm procrastinating.

School starts in a little under two weeks, and I'm totally not prepared. Part of me is in denial, and the other part doesn't know where to start.



I've got to get on this.

Appalling

Fox News reported the other day that 1 in 4 adult Americans didn't read a single book in 2006. One of my favorite things about nursing my babies is the time I get to read. I go through fabulous non-fiction delights at a rate of two or three a week (depending on the depth of the subject matter). Why, just in the past four days I've read a beautiful book on beauty schools in Afghanistan and a thought-provoking volume on forensic handwriting analysis. And last night I started another about a medical student's experience in the human anatomy lab. I'm a voracious reader; I can't imagine life without books.

Yay Purgatory!

The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to Purgatory!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Extreme
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	High
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very Low
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Very Low
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Very Low
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Low
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Very Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

I took the Dante's Inferno test and landed myself in purgatory. Which I guess is good since there's no option for heaven or salvation. At least I'm not in hell.

FLIES!

Oh I hate them so much!

We had the whole family over yesterday for a barbecue. In a matter of a couple of hours, the doors were opened and (not) closed dozens of times, and as a result we've got an invasion of buzzing critters in the house today. Augh! With two little ones I can't spray (although I have clear memories of some pretty potent fly spray that we sprayed with abandon throughout the house when I was a kid. I probably lost several brain cells to that stuff), so I bought some of the sticky fly tape things. I got a few flies already, but the key to fly-riddance here at our house is Mr. T - the fly hunter. Crikey! Give the man a rubber band, and he can take down a half-dozen flies in a matter of minutes.

My hero!

Bring the Heat

We live in the basement, so it stays pretty temperate down here. However, we passively benefit from the central air conditioning upstairs as the cool air pours down the stairs keeping us comfortably cool.

When it works, that is.

Yesterday the AC went on the fritz. Dad told mom to call the repairman today, but then when he left this morning he said don't worry about it; he'd do it. Then he went golfing.

The repairman didn't get called, and mom got stuck all day inside an oven. I would have just called and been done with it, but that's not mom's way.

Friday was my last day of work

But I have been enjoying my summer break for almost two weeks.

When I gave my notice back at the beginning of July, I told my former employer I'd stay on until August 17th. Then I found out she was telling people I am not honorable and that I lack integrity. Wha huh? I guess giving SEVEN weeks notice and continuing to go to work and act professionally while on the job wasn't enough. Honestly I don't know what I could have done to be able to make an amiable break from that place - probably nothing. My former employer seems to believe that anyone who leaves her does so not because they have their own lives to live and their own needs to take care of but because of some moral failing on their part.

After I confirmed what she was saying about me behind my back (gosh, that sounds a lot like gossip, doesn't it?), I went in one morning, gathered up my things, and confronted her. She behaved very much like a child - trying to justify herself and deny having said the things I knew she had said. I stuck to my guns and walked out.

It felt great to be free.

I've got a great new job lined up, and I've got two more weeks of freedom until I get back to the grindstone. I'm coming out of the fog that had overcome me in my two years at MLC, and it's great to be back into the light.

Let there be LIGHT

I finally got my dad to buy us new light fixtures. It's quite stunning to flip the switch and turn on bright lights after living your life in semi-darkness. We got these funky florescent fixtures, and I'm quite pleased. We've only got one of them installed yet; I can't wait until we get the other one up.

How to Fix a Computer - A Parable on Discipline

So you've got a problem with your computer. You've tried everything. You've tried rubbing it with a feather, and you've tried hitting it with a brick. Nothing works.

Someone who knows a thing or two about fixing computers says, "Hey why don't you try these keystrokes?" or maybe offers you a book about computer repair.

NO! You insist. I'm going to fix this computer MY WAY; and you go back to the feather and the brick.

There are OTHER OPTIONS besides the feather or the brick. I'm a well-trained computer repair person. I really know what I'm doing. I've studied a lot, and I've tons of practice.

It's not that Mr. T isn't capable of repairing the computer, it's that he doesn't t know how. Why won't he let me teach him how to fix the darn thing?

___

Why is it that parenting skills are so disrespected? I'm GOOD at it. I've read tons of books and spent hours both online and IRL talking with other moms about strategies and problem solving methods. I've learned how to get an uncooperative kid to go to bed without resorting to yelling and threats (most of the time), and I know the importance of not micromanaging her eating habits. I know all of this stuff because I've worked at it for YEARS.

Mr. T seems to think that it's just a matter of personal style. The problem with this line of thinking is that it assumes that anyone can be a good parent just because they made a baby. Parenting takes work, and just like any other job there are skills one must master in order to do it well. I don't get why helpful advice from an expert in the field (if I do say so myself) is any more offensive than computer repair advice from the Best Buy Geek Squad.

But what do I know? Best I can hope for is that he'll try a different brick next time.

I ought to get back East more

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Sad thing is that a lot of that red up there is from just driving through or laying over.

Spaving

A few weeks ago I signed up for the four-week trial over at The Grocery Game. I don't think I'm going to keep it up, because I find myself buying things I wouldn't ordinarily buy because I've got a coupon. In other words, I'm spaving. I'm still going to watch the ads on my own and clip the coupons for things that are on my regular list (particularly health and beauty stuff), but I'm not going to worry about stocking up on stuff I don't use much just because it's a few cents cheaper than normal. $ .40 off of the chips I don't usually buy is still $ .50 more than I would have spent without the coupon. It's not saving me money.

Boo!

Halloween is coming.

Yesterday I went to the fabric store and bought the pattern (#3626) and all the fabric and notions for Coio's costume.

Yikes - $75.

Well, maybe we'll put it on ebay when we're done with it. In the meantime, I don't intend to tell Mr. T how much it all cost. He'd have a coronary.

Boy in a Cage

I've had to baby-proof. It took me by surprise because Coio wasn't interested in moving around much (ok, at all) until she was 13-months-old. Taco, on the other hand, has been on the go since he was around eight months, and he wants to get into EVERYTHING. My sanity saver has been the SuperYard XT. The SuperYard is so versatile! I have used it as an enclosure both at home and away, and I've used it as a gate on the stairs, but I've mostly used it as a wall closing off half of the living room. It's the easiest baby-proofing around. The SuperYard also has excellent resale value. You can get them off of craigslist if you're fast enough, as they're almost always snatched up right away. If you can't get one second hand, the $60 is more than worth it.

Why not Gramma Jo?

C'mon people, it's not that hard to pronounce. I've been walking around with this rather unique last name now for almost eight years, and I can't count the number of ways it's been slaughtered. My favorite and least favorite of the bunch is "Gramma Jo" - like I'm somebody's 80-year-old grannie with a knitted shawl over my lap. Haven't people ever heard of jalapeño peppers or San José? I'd expect most Americans to be more familiar with the Spanish "J," but that's probably asking too much. So I'm embracing and renouncing Gramma Jo at the same time.