I'm not trying to be a slacker....

(whiner post.. you've been warned)
 
Sorry for the lack of anything lately.  I feel like that's my theme saying lately, all across the board in my life.  Things are just crazy at work and it's taking most of my mental capacity lately.  

We have what seems like a revolving door for the other two positions in my office.  3 weeks ago, our new scheduler left, then the next week the insurance girl left (while my boss was on vacation).  We had a new insurance girl start yesterday and she's already told us she won't be keeping the job, but she's willing to work part time to help out until we find a replacement.  We interviewed and hired a new scheduler today... only to find out that we can't hire her after all because she is ineligible for rehire at other jobs due to some drug issues.  Lord.  Drugs are bad...  mmmkay?

So, yeah... work is kicking my butt.  

I started taking Holy Basil this past weekend, though.  It's supposed to help your body deal with stress and fatigue and depression and anxiety.  Pretty much my life at the moment.  I do feel a lot better today, so maybe it working.  Only time will tell.

Olivia turns 9 on Sunday, so we're supposed to be having a "playdate" at the park with her friends... my solution to not having the time, energy, or desire to throw an actual party.  Come play, eat some cake, go away.  

My sister and I are going to a Bon Jovi concert in a few weeks.  Pretty stoked about that... mostly the getting out for a kid-free evening with my sister more than anything.  I like Bon Jovi, but I think I'd go sit in an elevator and listen to Musak for a few hours if it meant getting a night "off."

My half-marathon is in less than 4 weeks.  I've missed my last two long walks.... not good.  Hopefully when I get back to it on Sunday it won't be too painful.  I should have my new shoes by then, though.  

School is driving me batty... I have one kid who refuses to read and one who loves to read but is getting a D in reading at the moment.  And I'm getting really concerned about Zoe's weight.  So I'm trying to figure out how to balance homework, housework, getting the kids more active (can't just single Zoe out....), fighting over everything under the sun.... 

I may need to up my Holy Basil dosage.

Overload

I am overwhelmed right now.

We're having like some mass exodus at work.  It's only 2 people, but there are only 3 of us.  I guess you know who's left....

We're going camping Friday and I have done nothing to get us ready.  I have to shop and pack tomorrow afternoon/evening.  Because I may have to go into work some on Friday despite the fact that I've had it scheduled off for months.  I've been told to just not worry about it, but really... who else is going to?

My house is a wreck.

Being gone all weekend means no laundry gets done.

I won't get to go grocery shopping for the week.

How relaxing is camping going to be with all that waiting on me when we get home?  How relaxing is camping anyway?  Ugh.

When do I get to do my 11.5 mile walk?

When can I go buy new shoes so that my 11.5 mile walk doesn't leave me limping for days?

:::sigh:::

Sunday Currently 9/15

I'm slacking on blogging again...  

Currently reading:  Lighten Up by Peter Walsh.  Haven't been in much of a reading mood.  I let my Odd Thomas ebook from the library expire before I finished it and I have a Neil Gaiman book half-read.   

Current music:  Hair bands.  I'm in a total 80's/90's throwback mood.  I listened to Skid Row the entire 3 hours I was walking today.  Monster Ballads all week.  Firehouse.  I can't help it.  Guys with long hair are just hot.

Current guilty pleasure:  The TV.  I've watched so much TV this week it's pathetic.  BUT I make myself walk in place while I watch, so I don't feel too bad about skipping workouts for it.

Current drink:  Usually water, but today I'm indulging in a Diet Dr. Pepper.

Current food:  Chicken salad with craisins in it.  Holy moly, why didn't I try this long ago?

Current favorite TV show:  I was watching Orange is the New Black all week.  Finished it and I'm off TV for a while, I hope.

Current wish list:  A new employee at work.  Our new girl quit this week.  It's been hectic...

Current needs:  New shoes

It appears that I have walked the soles off my shoes.  These didn't even last 6 months, which is a total bummer since they cost me $120.  

Current blessing:  A gorgeous cool day.  It was 56 when I got to the BDB this morning to do my long distance walk.  I was chilly =)

Current outfit:  Black workout pants, a "Yoga Girls are Twisted" tshirt, and yellow Color Run socks

Current excitement:  Eye doctor appointment on Tuesday.  I have hated my glasses since the day I got them two years ago and I am ready to ditch them.  I'm even thinking about going the contact route.  I haven't worn contacts in close to 10 years.... they dried my eyes out so much I couldn't stand it.  Surely, in 10 years' time they've improved them.

***********

Things are fine here.... just trying to keep my head on straight with the craziness at work and all that jazz.  My long-distance walk was 11 miles today, so that means the half-marathon is creeping up!  I only have three more super long walks before tapering for 2 weeks.

We're going camping next weekend, so if I don't find something interesting to say before then, I should have some pictures for you at least!  Our 11 year anniversary is Saturday.  =)  And yes, to celebrate, we're renting an RV at a park and camping - with the kids.  Romantic, no?

Linking up @ siddathornton

 

That darn cat!

I know I don't talk about her much, but we have a cat that was a stray and adopted us about 2 years ago.  I'm not much of a pet person, let alone a cat person, but she stays outside most of the time, and we (barely) tolerate each other.  She loves Bill the best.  The girls generally are too loud for her and she spends most of the time they're home and awake outside.  Her name is Serial Killer, Killer for short.  She scared me half to death one night, making all sorts of noise in the carport.  I thought someone had come to kill me.  So I named her Killer, but usually she's just "the (expletive) cat."

This is the story of why she should love me best, though.

It started this afternoon.  I heard some dogs fighting... our neighbors have somewhere around 8 or 9 dogs, no joke, so I assumed it was some of their mutts.  But it was really loud, so loud that the girls were concerned.  I opened the door to the carport and there were three large dogs barking and snarling and trying like crazy to get to something under the van.... Killer.  I started yelling at them, then banging on the door, trying to figure out the best way to get the dogs away without getting mauled myself.  I distracted the big black dog and Killer took that opportunity to jump out at it and dash off into the back yard.  They chased her, I'm still yelling.... eventually the dogs took off down the road.

Worried that Killer had been hurt, I went looking for her.  I couldn't find her anywhere in the back yard.  I went back out a few minutes later, still couldn't find her.  Until I looked up...



She looked OK, no visible blood or anything.  I wondered if she could get down, but figured I would just leave her be for a while.  We got ready to go out for a bit and I looked out there and didn't see her, so I figured she had climbed down.

When we got back home, I looked out the kitchen window, and.... Killer was still in the tree.  And she looked visibly upset and was meowing her head off.  


That is her tongue... she doesn't have a bloody nose...

Now, the lowest branch on the tree is abut 12 feet off of the ground.  I grabbed a 2 step ladder (the only ladder we have) and even with that on the deck, I was too short to reach her.  About that time, the girls came out and freaked out over the cat being in the tree.  I texted Bill, who told me to call my brother-in-law.  I texted my sister, but before she could get back with me, I had an idea.  

I grabbed the long laundry basket and put an old pillow in it.  Why the pillow?  To make it a little more enticing?  To make the basket more shallow?  I don't know.  I climbed up on the ladder and stretched out the basket as far as I could and it was right underneath Killer.  Now, mind you, I'm terrified of heights.  2 steps or no, I was shaking and fairly certain that if I could coax the cat into the basket that I would topple one way or the other off of the ladder.  Or drop the basket with the cat in it and probably injure her.  She looked at me, looked in the basket, looked at me, moved around a bit on the branch, and then carefully stepped into the basket, which I managed to NOT drop as I managed to NOT fall over.  I got her down and the poor thing was just shaking. 

She's filthy from being under the van, but looks unharmed.  She refuses to go outside, though.  Which is about to be an issue because she needs to go outside before I go to bed.  She wakes me up in the middle of the night to go out and that just ticks me off.



She looks so pitiful and comfy that I kind of feel bad about it.

In other news...



This is a picture that Bill sent me this morning.  That's my short-legged Zoe.  She got to wear jeans to school, and her jeans are way too long for her.  Bill couldn't get them to roll up and stay, so this was his solution.

Duct tape.

Ha ha ha!  Surely he wouldn't send his child to school with duct tape on her pants, right?

Wrong.  He totally sent her to school like that.

And this is what she brought home....



She's "Character Kid" for next week.  Very appropriate.  To say she has "character" is an understatement.  She wore duct tape to school, for Pete's sake!

She said no one said anything at all to her about her pants.  Which I was relieved about.  I mean, she's kinda got enough going on that kids would be prone to pick on her about... she's a little chubby, wears glasses... do we really need to stick duct tape to her pants?  Next time he should just tape a "Kick Me" sign to her back.  Poor baby.

(Almost) A Week of Gratitude

I said I was going to start keeping a gratitude list here, and I didn't follow through. So, here I am trying again...

Tuesday 8/27

• Zoe's homework including instructions to give me a tight hug
• A walk around the neighborhood before the girls got home
• The girls being so excited to ride the bus home
• Down days because they make appreciate the up days more
• That Bill offered to take Isabelle to the doctor today

Wednesday 8/28

• Misread signs
• The Oatmeal's comic today, I laughed forever.
• No homework!!!
• Dancing spelling practice (whatever works, right?)
• The girls feeling so proud because they got to walk home from the bus stop alone (I can see the bus stop from the porch, it's 2 houses down)
• Being in a better mood today

Thursday 8/29

• Miss Thelma's comment about Dr. L.  I haven't laughed like that in a looooooong time
• That Dr. L didn't sneak up on me today.  He needs a bell or something.
• That days when I feel really low, random people pop up to check on me out of the blue
• My kids doing their homework without any nagging or crying.  It was like the heavens opened up and the angels were singing.
• Firehouse on repeat all. day. long.
• Isabelle's amazing memory for song lyrics
• A slightly (very slightly) smaller electric bill this month

Friday 8/30

• Sweet notes from Zoe's teacher
• That Bill had the foresight to ask me take him some Gatorade so he doesn't get sick in the heat tonight
• Friendly cashiers who think my kids are charming
• Aunt Lynne.... best in-law ever (not that they're not all great, she just always makes my day, though)
• A new "virtual" workout buddy
• Feeling like myself again
• Three day weekends =)

Saturday 8/31

• Finishing up the laundry marathon before the girls went to bed
• My laundry putter-upper, Zoe
• That I have Monday off and can put off my long walk until then, because it will be a bit cooler than tomorrow
• Snarky, sarcastic people
• That my kids have stopped asking for dessert every night
• The photo challenge because I really loved looking through my old pictures and remembering those times
• The creativity of others

The post full of TMI

Let's talk about sex, baby...

OK, not really.

But we are going to talk about puberty.  Because we're on the cusp, y'all.  And I never say "y'all" lightly, you know.

I guess it was about 6 months or so ago that I was talking to my sister and mentioned that I guess it was time to have "the talk" with Olivia.  She was just shocked I hadn't done it sooner.  The child is almost 9, and my sister and I were both really early bloomers.  I believe I was in the 4th grade, so only a year or so older than Olivia is now.  But you know, Olivia is just not all that mature, I don't feel.  Isabelle and she seem to be about the same maturity-wise and I don't think Isabelle is overly mature for her age.  So I just hadn't thought to do it yet.  Plus, it's not on my list of exciting things I can't wait to do with my kids.  

So I tried.  We looked at kidshealth.org together.  I tried to explain what a period is and that she will one day have one.  She looked at me like I was insane and asked if she could go play.  Well done, Jennifer.

Then, earlier this summer, we saw Olivia's BFF.  My jaw dropped.  She's already turned 9.  And is already in need of a bra.  Oh. my. word.  Big wake up call.

So I hit snooze.

I'm sorry, I know that it's silly.  I'm just not ready for this crap.  Hormones and periods and shaving armpits...  I have enough on my plate dealing with my own PMS roller coaster, thank you very much.  

But this past weekend, Olivia had on a tshirt and I was all like "are those breast buds?!?"  No, it can't be.  Then I went to help her in the tub and I just couldn't deny it any longer.  She's my broomstick child.  Super thin.  It's not like she's just chunking up in preparation for a growth spell.  It was obvious.

It's begun.

Crap.

So.  Someone suggested I get the book The Care and Keeping Of You.  I requested it from the library and picked it up today.  I didn't want to buy it without looking it over to make sure it was actually going to be helpful.  It looks really good.... it goes over far more than periods.  It's about, well, just taking care of yourself in general.  Which Olivia needs.  She hates any sort of personal hygiene.  Unfortunately, it doesn't explain the whole "how a baby is made" aspect.  I really need to just get it all out of the way at once, you know.  Not that I want to explain sex, but they need to know that they did not just always live in my tummy until I wished for one of them to come out.  Which is what they think.  (And they're convinced a little boy still lives in me, which I can only assume means that I still have far to go on my weight loss journey)

I gave the book to her and told her if she wanted to talk about anything she saw in there, to just ask me.  She looked it over for a while.  She got really mad at me when I walked in the room while she was reading.  Then she put it down and announced she would no longer look at the book, she did NOT want to read it.  I really think it just embarrasses her.  And she wants her body to change about as much as I want her body to change.  Meaning, not at all.

:::sigh:::

Isabelle picked it up, and of course, turned straight to the page talking about inserting tampons.  She doesn't read as well as Olivia, so I didn't intend for her to look at the book yet.  She pronounced it disgusting and walked off.

:::sigh:::

This is going spectacularly.

Later, as we were eating dinner at Newk's, they asked, "Mom, how did you get us?"  Ah, the "where do babies come from?"  I told them we would have to talk about that when we weren't in public.  I can only imagine how much the guy in the booth behind me would have enjoyed that dinner conversation.  "See girls, when a man and a woman love each other very much...."  Nope, not happening over dinner.

Another friend has given me two more books to introduce to my amazingly productive birds-and-bees repertoire.  

It's Not the Stork!, which explains where babies come from obviously.  I haven't seen it yet, but it is supposed to be very age appropriate, even for Zoe.  It's really going to be impossible for me to just do this with Olivia.  Isabelle's plenty old enough to know about it all, too.  And while Zoe is only 5, she is old enough for the basics.

Amazing You! Getting Smart About Your Private Parts is the other book.  Again, geared towards the younger kids and pretty self explanatory.

I'm going to pick them both up at the library tomorrow.  This should be fun.  "Come here girls, let's read a book!"  

So, that's how the birds and bees are flying around here.  Needless to say, we're all a little uncomfortable.  Bill is just absolutely thrilled about it all, I must say.  Poor guy.  He may need to talk to my Dad about how to cope with being the only male amongst 4 females.  My Dad survived somehow, I'm sure Bill will, too.

Oh, Monday...

I used to think people were just so dramatic with all their "I hate Monday" whining.

Then my kids started school.

I hate Monday.  

Monday is the day that my kids come home from school absolutely exhausted... and promptly melt down.  And that's before homework. 

Monday is the day that I start off skipping around in a field of daisies, singing about how magical the week will be.  And then I run face first into a tree.

Tuesday... now Tuesdays, I pick myself up and resolve to make the week a good week, instead of expecting fairies and butterflies to spit happiness all over me.  On Tuesday, I go back to a reasonable positive attitude.

But I have to do Monday before I get to Tuesday.  And by Monday nights, I'm a mess.

I am terrified of this school year.  My children are bright, intelligent, pleasant children.  Last year, I felt like the biggest failure at the end of the school  year.  They hated school.   They refused to do homework.  Olivia even refused to do class work.  They are bright, intelligent, pleasant children, so I felt like *I* had to be doing something wrong, that *I* was failing them somehow.

That was with TWO kids in school.  Now I have THREE.  I am terrified.

I'm not going to say that I've been a perfect parent, I know I have plenty of faults.  But I really can't and shouldn't take all the blame for school.  They have so much pressure put on them.  Our Kindergarten teacher told us that before she took time off to stay home with her kids, she was a 1st grade teacher.  When she came back and started teaching Kindergarten... she was still teaching the same material.  Kindergarteners are doing the work that 1st graders just 10-15 years ago were learning.  That's awesome, but scary at the same time.  How many of these kids are really ready for it?  Isabelle wasn't.  She struggled... I felt like a failure.

The next year, Isabelle gets a teacher who thinks 1st graders need homework every night.  We fought every. single. day.  She hated school.  Still does.  She is always tired when she gets home.  Always.  And to have to push her to keep going, to do homework, to not play... it's just not fair.  To her.  To me.

Fortunately, this year won't be a problem with Isabelle.  Her teacher doesn't like homework.  I don't really know about Olivia yet, though.  But I worry about her because she starts the gifted and talented program.  If she's out of the classroom 150 minutes a week, she's missing something in class.  Is she going to have to take it home to do?  I spent over an hour this afternoon to get her to copy her spelling words three times.  Whining, moaning, refusing, crying.

And Zoe just thinks that's how you handle homework.  Her homework was super simple.  Color certain shapes certain colors.  45 minutes of tears.

I had someone suggest that I just tell the teachers that we will not accept homework.

A little extreme, especially for me.  But I wish it could be that simple.

It's not fair that they spend all day in school and have to come home to do homework, too.  IF they would just do it, I'm sure it would only take up a few minutes of their time.  But they're tired, mentally and physically, so they end up fighting it for an hour or more.  They get no time to be a kid.  Relax.  Play.

I don't like it.

It's just the second week of school.  I'm supposed to still be on the "this is going to be an awesome year!" wagon.  But it's Monday, and I'm discouraged, and tired.

Tomorrow's Tuesday, though.  I'll be OK then.