A year later

Huh. Time flies right? Somehow I managed to fast forward an entire year. Let me catch you up to speed:

Everyone’s a year older. Life goes on.

Obviously, that means it’s the same old, same old. Which is pretty true. I now have a 9 year old who’s in fourth grade. A 6 year old in the first grade. And a 2 year old who’s potty trained and potty mouthed. Life goes on.

It’s funny how in the last entry I made mention of writing a book. Yea, I tried that. Didn’t go well. However, ironically enough I have that same urge right now and I’m about 10,000 written words into a novel. It’s never going to win a Pulitzer but it’s a start. I’m averaging a page or two each day and I’d like to think I continue with it. Even if I write it for my eyes only, at least I can say I completed it right? I’ll be sure and make an blog entry when I’m famous.

I go through spurts of creativity. I think that’s why I’m here blogging right now. Sometimes I just can’t get enough words on a page. I simply love hitting these keys and saying something. Anything. It’s refreshing and leaves me wanting to do something fantastic with my life. Published author? Not yet. Published blogger? But of course!

So here I am a year after my last entry and my life hasn’t changed much. I’m still nutty, surrounded by boys, and wishing I was sitting on a tropical beach, twenty pounds lighter, with a fruity drink in hand. Life is an ever evolving process. Yea right. More like, same shit, different day.

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A new itch

Now that the hair itch is over I have a new itch. I want to write a book. The last several months I have given it a lot of thought. A LOT. Every day my thoughts are consumed with what the book should be about. Would I enjoy writing a chick-lit feeling book? Or a more in depth, dramatic book? What would I be better at?

One of these days I’m gonna write me a book.

End of senseless thought. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Thought of the day

If bald people use less shampoo, does that mean skinny people use less soap?

I would say yes.

No wonder I have to buy the mega size bottles of shower gel.

Hooray for school!

My entire morning consisted of school orientations. Here’s a quick overview:

8:30 — leave for school
9:00 — Kindergarten orientation begins for C
10:20 — leave school
11:00 — hurry up and eat lunch
11:30 — leave for school
12:00 — 3rd grade orientation begins for B
12:45 — leave school

We survived. Thank goodness we live close to the school.

C’s Kindergarten teacher seems great. We’ll call her Mrs. G. She is currently on maternity leave after having a baby a few weeks ago. She’ll return to school the second week of October. C will have Mrs. H as his substitute for the first month of school.

This is not a perfect world. BUT in a perfect world I would not have it this way. He’d have ONE teacher for the entire school year. Instead, in our imperfect world, he’ll get accustomed to big boy school with one teacher and then finish out the rest of the year with another teacher. This will be a learning experience for everyone.

Then there’s B’s teacher. We’ll call her Mrs. W. She seems like a great teacher as well. Guess what? She’s pregnant! She is due at the end of October. Guess who her substitute will be during her maternity leave? You got it! Mrs. H!

Both boys will have the same substitute teacher during their “real” teachers’ maternity leaves.

Now, I have mixed emotions about all of this. On one hand I want my children to have the best possible education and that means having teachers that are ALWAYS there for them. I want my kids to be their kids and to care for them as if they were their own.

On the other hand I am a mother and I know how important those first weeks and months are with your new baby. You want to be there for their every cry. Their every nap. Their every feeding. Their every poopy diaper. It’s such a great feeling being with your precious baby. And I am one of those that could not leave my kids and go back to work. So I understand how hard it must be for these teachers to be put in this very situation. Leaving their babies and coming back to work.

I am sitting the fence on how I really feel. Am I putting too much emphasis on the importance of my kids being taught by only one teacher throughout the school year? Or does it matter who teaches them, just as long as they are being taught correctly?

As a mother in general, my heart aches for the teachers having to leave their babies. As a mother to my school age kids, my heart aches for my own children who will have to deal with changes in their classroom.

I’d love to hear from other parents who have been in this situation. Please leave me comments and let me know what you think. Am I being overemotional about my kids having more than one teacher this school year? Am I being fair or unfair to the teachers and their maternity situations?

3 strikes and you’re out

This is my 3rd attempt at this post. The first time I had a nice long post and D hit a button on the keyboard and it went POOF!

The second time I nutshelled the original post and hit the publish button and I lost my connection and it went POOF!

This is my last time, dagoneit. I’m sick of typing the same things over and over again.

Extra short and in a nutshell:

1. Don’t ever tell me NOT to do something. I will do it anyway. With vengeance.

2. My hair is cut. I have style. It looks like this (still minus the boobs):

3. I love it.

4. Even morning bedhead agrees with me.

5. I hate losing nice long blog entries.

6. I hate dial-up.

7. More later.

8. Hitting publish momentarily. Heaven help us all.

Banned Books Aplenty

I’ve been reading up on banned books lately. It’s quite interesting really. There is even a week dedicated to banned books. September 29 through October 6, 2007. That’s this years week, it’s the 26th anniversary of Banned Books Week.

There are many books on the top 100 that I’ve read. And there are LOTS that I have not. Hell, my 7 year old has read a few on the list! How’s that for irony?

The most challenged book of 2006 actually sounds very interesting. And Tango Makes Three written by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. It has even won awards. More irony… How can something be so horrible to be banned and also win an award?

I have not read And Tango Makes Three but it is on my list purely for my own curiousity. However I checked my library and it’s not available. Maybe I’ll have better luck at the local book store. Anyhow, this is a children’s picture book written for ages preschool through grade three. It focuses on a male penguin couple who want to become fathers. The zookeepers give them an egg and they lovingly care for it and wait for it to hatch. The book has been challenged, obviously, and been labeled as “anti-family” and “promoting homosexuality”.

Another book that interests me is Mommy Laid An Egg. How cute is that title? Another children’s book but this time it’s about the birds and the bees. Apparently when the parents of the book start explaining sex incorrectly to the children, the kids start setting the record straight and through cartoon drawings show the parents the truth about sex. Ha! I have just requested it from the library!

There are plenty more on the list that interest me. Here are a few that I have read:

1. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
2. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
3. The Giver by Lois Lowry
4. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
5. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (highly recommend!)
6. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
7. Beloved by Toni Morrison
8. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
9. The Pigman by Paul Zindel
10. Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
11. Cujo by Stephen King
12. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume (all-time favorite book from childhood)
13. Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
14. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
15. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

So my quest is to read more banned books. One question though….. Who would have thought that Where’s Waldo? would make the top 100? Huh?

The Hair Up There

At least once a year I go through a “I must change my hair” mood. I’m currently in the middle of this. Unfortunately I probably won’t be able to act on my mood until after school starts.

Until then I’m trying to figure out what I want to do. My hair is a pain in the rear. I hate it about 98.9% of the time. Funny how every hairdresser I’ve ever seen has said “You have such great hair.” Apparently I’m either stupid or blind. My hair is just “hair”, nothing more. When you see some people you are blown away by how great their hair looks. It’s the exact opposite for me. You see me, you see my non-hairstyle.

I have hair that needs a style. It’s boring. Shoulder length, semi-wavy and blah. I wear it up in a clip more often than not. The summer is hell on my hair because of the humidity. It’s frizzy AND flat. How can that be?

So, I’m thinking a short flippy style would be good. Something like Edie Falco…..

I’m not sure about the bangs though. Bangs look good on me, but I hate not being able to pull my hair back if needed. That’s the one thing holding me back from cutting it short. However right now I am disgusted with my hair 6 out of 7 days. Maybe if I had it cut right I’d only be disgusted 5 out of 7 days?

This style of Victoria Beckham is rather cute too. (ETA: If I had boobs like that I wouldn’t need to worry about my hair.) I’ve never had it cut like this before so I’m not sure what to think. Maybe my face is too fat?

Julie Pinson’s short cut is great too. Maybe a little too big headed for me though. I like the cut but I’m not much on the poof.

Frankly, I am confused. Short sounds good most of the time but I’m afraid of missing my long hair. But long hair annoys me so short sounds good. It’s a vicious cycle.