Introducing our new friend Link:

We've spent some quality time these last couple of days playing Zelda on our new "Contindo Wii" (As Declan calls it) Amazing game. Declan loves it. It's like an interactive action movie. Lots of interesting things to do; riding a horse, sword fighting, sling shot, boomerang, even fishing! Amazing how far video games have come.

Aside from letting my son run around in the snow nude, and play video games we have done some reading. I purchased a new book this year about snowmen and what they do at night:

I was reading it to him today for about the eighth time, and he knows the book. He can read it word for word. Wow, amazing memory...wish mine was that good.

Yesterday, I also introduced him into another American Tradition...what would Christmas be without a Grinch?

I've really had a blast with him the last two days. I think I've made up for missing him over the Thanksgiving holiday. (He was in Seattle). One more day of fun tomorrow as I'm doing childcare.

I also need to post pictures of my new kitchen, 1/2 of it is finished. It is wonderful to have a stove again!

We're Having a SNOW DAY

and we're not leaving our house! Hooray.

(Yes, I turned my son lose last night w/o clothing, one of those spur of the moment parenting choices.)

Cute conversation from 2 minutes ago:

Declan, holding a nozzle for a vacuum cleaner: "Mama, what's this?"

Me: "It's for Grandma's vacuum cleaner."

Declan: "Oh, I just wanted to know. I haven't lived in the world as long as you. So I need to know things."

The things they say :)

Getting SO exicted!

This is our hotel, and yes it is THAT close. Literally one crosswalk away from the "Happiest Place on Earth". A 1-bedroom suite for 78.00 per night - CRAZY cheap :)

Shhhhhh. Declan doesn't know, remember.

Thanksgiving Day Fun

with the Wii, of course. This system really delivers, as you can see even my mother enjoyed it!
Click below to see the video clips of our fun bowling and boxing:
Thursday, November 23, 2006

I Am Thankful...

for so many things, mostly my family and friends. And of course, I am most thankful to be blessed with being Declan's Mamma :

(at 18 months)

The Wii has arrived!

And we've had some fun this evening. Very cool controls especially for kids. Of course the easiest game on the sports disc had to be boxing...but he loved it as you can see. (And there is nothing sweeter than seeing you son jump with joy and shout "Hey, I killed him!")
Sunday, November 19, 2006


I have to say that it is shocking to see how much they have redesigned video game play with this new console. Much, much, much, more active which is fantastic. So sitting on the couch, playing for hours at a time doesn't seem possible with this system...well you'd have to build up some stamina first, that's for sure.

Declan quickly figured out why they named the system the Wii: "You know why they named it that Mama? It's because it's so fun, when you have fun you go "weeee" and when you hear that name, you'll know it's fun." That boy is so logical :)

I'm off

I'm heading out to spend a good deal of my Saturday taking tests. I'll be taking two different tests, that are each 2 hours in length. I'm taking them to meet the "highly qualified" standard, set forth by our president in an attempt to leave no child behind. Shouldn't parent's then have to take a test too? From what I can see in my limited experience, there isn't much we can do as teachers if the parents just don't give a rats tooshy. (Lots I could say here, but that's another whole blog entry or twenty) I need to pass these tests to teach in middle school (even though I'm endorsed by the state to teach in middle school, and I have my masters degree).

Also in three more weeks, we'll be on a plane headed for Disneyland! Shhhh Declan doesn't know :)

I call it herding puppies.

That is how I would describe Wednesday and Thursday. I spent both days with two different 1st grade classes (strange coincidence, I rarely see elementary jobs). Really a first for me I guess. I know people often talk about herding cats, but I think herding puppies is more accurate. Cats scratch and run from you in all different directions; puppies whine and jump on you and lick you...you can barely move at times from the weight of it all.

I walk into a class of these kids and sigh thinking "They are so sweet and sooo cute, I think I'd love teaching this age!" Ten minutes go by and you can't get them off you. I don't mean that physically necessarily, I mean emotionally and verbally. I suddenly remember why I'm NOT drawn to this age.

I'll call it the rule of 5's :

There are always at least five kids standing around you in five different directions, only five inches away. They all have at least five things to tell you.

"Teacher, my favorite color is blue."
"Do you like my _______(insert anything here)"
"Teacher I went to a circus once"
"Teacher, you need to _______ (insert almost anything here), like our regular teacher does"
"Do you like my _______(insert anything here)"
"I wore my Dora pajamas last night"
"My grandma's sister died, and my aunt's sister died too."
"I like apples"
"Do you like fruit?"
"What is your name?"
"Do you like my _______(insert anything here)"

"Teacher, jimmy just looked at me"

"Teacher, Jimmy just took my______"

Seriously, by the time I was off work, I felt like I had spent 3 days with those kids. Not that I doubted it, but I really believe in ADD after spending the day with Brad and Brandy. I can't even begin to image what's wrong with Jimmy, who when faced with having to write a sentence falls to the floor on his back, eyes closes, tongue halfway out his mouth. Completely unresponsive. (luckily the Principal warned me.."Jimmy has problems, we don't know what's wrong and we're trying to get Mom to take him to the Dr. He will often just go under his desk and not talk at all. Call me and we'll drag him out of your class if that happens.) Maybe the falling on the floor thing was new?

After those two days, I was wondering what Kindergarten is like. I don't intend to ever find out, all I can say is - God Bless Kindergarten Teachers!

Today I was back in my comfort zone -7th and 8th grade :)

What do you think?

This is my good friend Christy (which I think now days they call BFF :) who has just entered the world of blogging. These are some photo's she has posted recently. Does her older daughter look like a mini version or what? The younger one, Little SpitFire we'll call her, looks a lot like dad, if you can get past her red hair, especially with that smile :)

SpitFire is who Declan was kissing in an earlier blog entry..see here.

As for my life. The Hockey Game Date went well. We had another mini =adventure trying to find a place to eat on a Saturday night. The game was O.K., it moved VERY fast. For the first 30 minutes I could hardly find the puck on the ice. I'm such a wuss that we left when the final period started. I just really don't stay up late. Overall I'd say that in another time of my life, maybe I could or would have gotten into hockey...but I have so little free time as a parent, there is usually something else I'd rather be doing. No offense all you hockey fans!

He still seems like a great guy, very fun and easy to talk to I enjoy spending time with him. I guess I don't know what else to say at this point except we'll see where this goes. It is definitely different dating this time around as there is no way it can consume your life as I remember it doing way back when :) It's more compartmentalized as you go about your day working and taking care of your kiddo.

How Many With Your Name?

I was visiting a blog I read regularly, a wonderful education blog.

Anyway I followed a link from her site to another site that tells you how many people in the U.S. have YOUR name. Well, I only input my first name, knowing full well that there is no other person with my first AND last name (yes, I'm that unique)

Here are the results of the name search:

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

So.....does that mean I don't exist?

I'll update later on the date :)

And another thing

Casey's comment on my last post brings up another issue for me: MONEY. We were at the same bowling alley, but as Casey said it was crazy busy (no school on Friday) We had a 1.5 hour wait for a normal alley, or in a short 15 minutes they could get us a lane in their exclusive, by the hour lanes. FOR 37 DOLLARS AN HOUR...GAG! "CG" is like "great we'll take it", I'm like...it's 37 dollars for bowling. CG : "That's no problem I can cover it." Okay, nice offer but I can't let him pay 37 dollars for BOWLING!

We had two other much older alleys to chose from so we flipped a coin and drove 10 miles to a nearby alternative. There were only two other groups of people bowling there! It was old, but fun and we were constantly dealing with malfunctioning equipment.

O.K. so the issue is that whole...who pays thing. I'm so use to being frugal and paying my own way, it's weird to go out and have someone else just footing the bill. How does that work these days??? Don't men expect a woman to pay sometimes? When he recommended the German place, I was very hesitant. I was thinking we'd go for Thai food that is more affordable. He thought I didn't like the food. I replied that it was great food, but fairly spendy. He laughed (in a nice way) and said he'd love to treat me to dinner. We went. It was delicious.

So, tonight we're going out to a hockey game and he asked if I wanted to go to dinner first. Sure I guess...but I feel guilty. It's been a long time since someone spent THEIR money on me. It's very flattering and kind, but especially weird because we are in VERY, VERY different income brackets. (Computer Programmer vs. Substitute Teacher).

So, what do you guys think. Do I offer to pay 1/2 every time, do I insist that I treat him to dinner some time? How does it work.

Date Report

and other questions answered (Casey and Cristen)


On the whole "dating a guy" thing. My history is that I've always dated men/guys/boys with one exception, my X.

I've always been a Tomboy, and growing up in Elementary school all my friends were guys. I started 7th grade and suddenly wanted to start kissing those guys:)



I've had close relationships with women, but usually only one Best Friend. Well, that's changed as an adult, but that's irrelevant I guess.


In college everyone THOUGHT I was gay. I was irritated by the assumption. I became great friends with a lesbian (shout out Nel) and became O.K. with the whole gay thing in general. After a while I started to wonder I guess... I then realized I had a serious "Crush" on my best friend. (shout out to Christy) and thought maybe I was gay. Now I think that we just sometimes get "crushes" on people in general, and women can definitely form strong relationships with other women and early in a friendship, that might sometimes be described as an emotional crush. (Nicole and I were just talking about this--shout out to Coley).

So, I've had lots of boyfriends, and even been engaged once (I think Troy reads this blog, shout out to him). My issue was this: the men I was physically attracted to, I was never emotionally attracted to and vice versa. So I gave the whole relationship with a woman thing a chance and here I am 12 years later. By the way, I've broke up with many a man because they just were "too nice", now I wonder what my life would have been like had I married one of those "Nice" guys.

Why such a long relationship with a woman? My theory is that I happened to be dating a woman when I figured out what makes a relationship work - COMMITMENT. You just have to chose someone who you have fun with, who you respect and simply be committed. All relationships will ebb and flow for months or years at a time. You simply have to be committed to doing the work to make it last.

So, I hope that clarifies things. I still meet women who I adore, but if I could go out and have casual sex (which I can't due to my guilt/conscious/morals) it would definitely be with a man.

Now about "Crush Guy"

He is just as wonderful in person. He is a super nice guy, funny, and very interesting to talk to. (As a quality, funny is over rated in my book, but I can appreciate the positive, easy-going aspect of humor) Our date went 4.5 hours and consisted of a bowling adventure, a wonderful dinner at a local German restaurant, which even included a mini lesson on graphing linear equations :)


So far, the only thing I'm suspicious about is that the may have been less than truthful about his height, but I can definitely live with that:)

Next up, is a hockey game tonight.

So, I'm going to cancel my date with guy #2. He's nice, but just not a match for me. Even in the casual dating world I can't juggle 2 guys. Seriously I even get confused about whose parents are divorced, married, who is from where...how do serial daters do it?

Oh how you disappoint me

I can't believe how many people read my last post and DIDN'T respond. I will assume you're all still working on forgiving me for leaving you hanging. Please forgive me blogger friends :(

I talked to "Crush Guy" tonight on the phone at length: the update is that he is in fact interested in "dating" me. (He was too rash in his decision. If you meet someone you have a strong connection with, you shouldn't let something get in the way...)So tomorrow is actually a date rather then a friendly get together...should be interesting. I'll keep you posted.

You're in for a TREAT :)

Really, you're going to love this. The only catch is that you MUST comment if you read this entry :)

I've decided to cut and paste my last few emails with "The Crush". All four emails were sent today. We have remained friends (for what that's worth when you haven't yet met someone). We've been emailing and agreed it would still be fun to meet in person. Still seems like a very nice guy. What do you guys think:

(My Emails are in Red, Crush Guy's Emails in blue)

Just wanted to say hello. Life has been really crazy lately. It is so nice to have the extra space; I love our new room. It's been a long week though. Additionally, Declan is sick so that has complicated things.

How goes the job hunt? What else is new? Are you going to a Hockey game this weekend? Are you up for some bowling? It's my free weekend, as Declan heads to Seattle on Thursday. Friday is a holiday, so I'll have a longer than usual weekend :)

Working all 4 days this week, not much else to report. I've got to go, trying to finish up some legal documents during my plan time.

Jayne Doe

Yikes, I don't like hearing that Declan is sick. Seems like when that happens the kids and parents alternate being sick for a few weeks until they both get up enough immunities.

Glad to hear you are enjoy the newly created space though, I'm sure its nice. Of course, I would probably just manage to expand my clutter into it quickly and it wouldn't seem like extra space for long. :)

The job hunt hopefully is coming to a close. If I don't hear anything from XXX by tomorrow I will likely be taking the job at YYYY downtown. I won't like it as much, but I need to go ahead and get back to work before I start enjoying being at home too much.

This weekend is PERFECT! You get to choose, I've got tickets to a hockey game Friday night vs our arch-rivals from THAT CITY , and I'm free on Saturday and Sunday, so we can do whichever you'd like, or even both.:) Let me know how you'd like to work things.

Hope your day goes great, and that the documents don't drive you to madness. :)


Crush Guy

What time and where is the Hockey game Friday? I'd like to go...kind of a wuss about driving in traffic late at night (another reason I need a boyfriend:) Maybe I'd go for 1/2 a game :) It might be a weird way to meet...since I'm sure you don't talk at hockey games..are they loud? I do like that they are fast paced. I guess I was into basketball for a while in college.

Let me know. I'm also up for bowling on Saturday if you want. I forgot that I'm doing child care during the day...

Sunday is out, I actually have a "date" Sunday a.m. and then I go get Declan at Noon.

Jayne

I don't mind picking you up for the game Friday, especially since I flaked out on you about our initial meeting. If you'd like we can meet somewhere near your place for a quick dinner before the game, then head over there for 7:30pm.

The games are usually done by 10pm if not a hair earlier. Actually, we should get to talk quite a bit at the hockey game, there are two 15 minute intermissions where we could talk pretty much uninterrupted, and the game isn't that loud that we can't talk while its going on. It is a fast paced game though, very much like basketball expect that it has a bit of the violence of football as well.:)

Bowling Saturday sounds great too, how about THAT BOWLING ALLEY at 4 or 5pm like we were originally planning? Or does that conflict with your existing schedule? If so, just pick a time that you'll be free. :)

Crush Guy

Well Blogger Friends, was that fun or what? All names and places in caps have been changed to protect my anonymity for the general public :)

For what it's worth, I do like this guy, but the big crush is gone (okay maybe I still have a little bitty teeny weeny wisp of a crush left, but nothing like I had) . I think we might end up with a cool friendship, and I am great with that. But I'm wondering is he just interested in friendship...or maybe more. You've read the Emails, you tell me what you think is going on. (By the way, he lives 40 minutes away, so that seems like a long way to drive only to drive back for the game and then 40 minutes back to my house and 40 minutes home...you get the idea. Too much driving for me - I wouldn't do it) I'm pretty curious at this point on many levels- so it will be nice to finally meet him. And of course you noticed that I did have to let him know about the date on Sunday though, didn't I ;)

More on the date later :)

Can't believe

That Summer is gone and Winter is almost here.

We've Moved!!

Into our new space. It's HUGE. I really didn't think we'd make it in yesterday. I ended up doing more painting (added more color to the end walls), wiring the plugs and installing the lights, seaming the carpet. We were in at 9pm last night. Now the next step is to move up Declan's toys and some other furniture from downstairs.

Then of course there is the remodel of the main floor...but it's so nice to have so much more space.

On the down side, Declan spiked a fever in the night. He's had a bad cough for a week, so we went to urgent care this am. Bronchitis and infection in both eyes. Poor kiddo has been very mellow today. He was soooo sad because he couldn't go to church this morning and we cancelled a play date. He said the ONLY thing that would make him happy was a new Lego toy. Guess where we went after a visit to the Dr. and drugstore...

oh yeah

I forgot to mention that it looks like my X neglected to account for her yearly bonus which has consistenly been 10% of her income (this year it is suppose to be 15%). This while she accused me in her legal response of "inflating" her income. (which would mean she is actually earning 1423 more per month than she was 2 years ago, not 800 per month...yes, if you do the math on that you can figure out what she is earning)

I had to GUESS at her income as she refused to tell me what it was. Gee, do you think I'm gonna guess a little too high, or a little too low?? Guess what the court facilitator told me to do?

Yeah, I'm still a little disgusted. Maybe I'll feel better after I have some Swiss Chocolate for breakfast. Oh yeah, I also forgot to mention: I don't like chocolate. You'd think after living with someone for 10 years....

The Bad News Is

That cheap, self-indulgent, &*$%*^ who is my X just filed her papers and finally disclosed her income. She is making an additional 800.00 a month, and according to HER worksheets/ math she should now be paying LESS in child support. How does that work out?!?!?

Then again she also claims that I should be working as a full-time contracted teacher and attached a list of 20 jobs near her home town that she claims I am qualified to teach...I am actually only certified to teach 7 of those jobs, 4 of which are SUBSTITUTE TEACHER positions...exactly what I am doing for which she claims I am underemployed. The percentage of first year teachers that get a contract right out of the box is something like 50%.

Oh yeah she also states that if a person works full-time at the minimum wage of 7.63 per hour they would make 1,831 a month. Can someone explain that math for me? That figures to be 5.9 weeks..which month has 5.9 weeks in it?

BUT (you knew there was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow didn't you?) She DID bring me a little souvenir from her trip to Italy - Swiss Chocolate. Wow, she is SO considerate.

It's been a busy week

Insulation and sheet rock goes up with the help of Dad's retired buddies :)

Dad and I spend two days mudding and taping. No, we did not sand as this will basically be a play room...and I don't care if Declan's friends can see the seams in the walls.

One coat of primer and it's looking much better.

Tonight (after work) we put on the colors that Declan chose. One very bright, but fun room. Declan LOVED it. I think I'll do some dry brushing on the blue wall to mute it out and add texture and character. Maybe yellow on the other 1/2 of the window, but I like the slightly off kilter look. Fun. 400 sq ft of heaven for one lucky 4 year old boy (which will also be my bedroom at night).

So, now you know why it's been difficult for me to find time for a little blogging!