Of course

I have an inner ear infection, it is in both ears. Me, the adult; ear infection.

Ahem.

Bryan is in Los Angeles, again.

I am of course still working which means taking Evie to daycare/preschool at 6:45 in the morning. Then I leave work earlier than usual to pick her up in time to go home and do all the things a mother does in the evening until bedtime. Then I get to grade papers, plan for the next day, eat my dinner (cereal tonight, in case you were curious) and clean the house until finally collapsing for a few hours until she cries out, or the alarm rattles me awake.

I tell you again, single parents have the most difficult job in the entire world. They don't get to count on a spouse's eventual return; this is their daily life.

Being nice

I'm being nice today. I don't feel nice, I'm actually quite annoyed, but nonetheless, I'm being nice. I'm being nice because it's the nice thing to do. But like I said, deep down inside, I'm completely and utterly perturbed. Why? Because I'm without a husband. Again.

He was gone most of the month of August. He has been gone this past week and as a result, there was the unfortunate fence incident.

This weekend, he went on a "Men's retreat," which I thought was an event sponsored by our church, but later discovered was in fact a group of around eight guys in their early 30s from our church, hanging out at a cabin and doing whatever men do when their wives aren't around to disapprove.

Because work has been horrible for Bryan, and because he was recently diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, and because life has, in the last few months basically sucked for him, I told him it was probably a good thing that he was going on a trip to the wilderness with other men to do man things.

However, the idea was that he would return today around 1pm so that we could have a few hours of daylight together as a family and so that I could have some time by myself to prepare for the upcoming school week. You see, he leaves at 5am tomorrow to return to Los Angeles. Again.

For those playing the home game, this means he will have been gone five of the last eight weeks, leaving me a single parent transitioning in my new job; a new job as a teacher; a first-year teacher, at a new school, at the beginning of the school year.

You could say things have been a touch tense. But I have been nice, because it is necessary to maintain.

This morning at around 10:45 am, after yet another sad night of no sleep as I was up and down with our child (who has yet another ear infection,) I texted my husband to confirm his mid-day ETA. He texted me back that he should be home around 4 or 5pm. I immediately questioned how 1pm turned into 4 or 5 and he informed me that there had been a scheduling/communication snafu with the other menfolk.

About an hour later, he called me to inform me that the men had again mis-calculated their time and had missed the ferry. They would now be on the 4:45pm ferry, meaning he should be home after 8pm.

He leaves for Los Angeles tomorrow around 5am.

I am rising above, and I being nice; it is taking all the power in my being, but I am being nice.

From Billy Ray Cyrus to Dennis the Menace in five minutes

Evie's hair had become pretty unruly. I wasn't really sure what to do with it; it still hadn't grown in on the sides, but the back and top had become long and well, truth be told, the child was getting a mullet. Never was the mullet more apparent than last night when she awoke from a late, antibiotic-induced nap:


Today I took matters into my own hands and gave her a trim. It was pretty traumatic for all parties involved, my friend Marti tried to distract her, but to no avail, she cried, and cringed and wriggled around. The result, a fairly choppy Dennis the Menace style:

At least the mullet is gone.

She'll be in nothing but pink for the next two weeks. I now understand why people pay money for their children to get a professional haircut, specifically their female children who cannot just have the hair cut shorter if the cut is botched by a cheap parent's DIY attempt.

How I injured myself...again OR My husband is paranoid

A word to all would-be home invaders, don't even try our house; my husband has watched way too many episodes of "It takes a thief" on the Discovery channel and has now fortified our house with such vigor that we have crossed over into the ridiculous.So ridiculous in fact that not only can burglars or other intruders not get in, but even we, the home-owners can't enter if we need to.

We have the kind of exterior door knobs that can be opened from the inside of the house without disengaging the locks. This means in the case of a fire or other catastrophe, we can run out of the house without having to stop and first unlock the door. Great idea, right? Well sure, except that every time you open the door, say to go out into the garage, you should make sure you unlock the door first, otherwise, you may find yourself in a very precarious situation; the kind of situation I found myself in last evening.

Last night, after putting Evie to bed, I went out into the garage to check on the dogs as Bryan is out of town and thus I have to tend to his animals. It was around 8:30/8:45 pm, it had just started pouring rain outside. I fumbled with the door knob to unlock it and walked through, the door shut behind me. I called the dogs into the garage, poured food into their bowls, gave them their evening treat, locked the exterior garage door to the backyard and bid them a good evening. I walked back to the door to the house and found myself locked out.

Instead of unlocking the door, I had apparently locked it.

"No big deal," I thought. "I'll just grab the spare." Except we don't have a spare in the garage, I soon discovered.

"Okay," I thought, "I'll just open the garage door." Yeah, it has a mechanism on it that won't allow it to open, some kind of security bar that my paranoid husband had apparently installed recently. As I stood there I remember him saying something about installing a new security bar on the garage door "just pull the lever and it will pop open, no problem," he told me. It was all coming back.

I examined the shiny silver apparatus, there was a large lever on it, so I pulled. Nothing happened. I pushed, nothing happened. "It's probably spring loaded," I told myself, "you have to do something just right to get it to open," so I tugged on it some more, I tugged on every piece of shiny metal I found, I pushed, I pulled, I kicked, I punched. I screamed at it. Nothing happened. I cursed at my husband. I may have called him a paranoid idiot, I cannot really be sure.

I then dug around through the boxes and found my ski jacket and an old pair of gardening shoes, opened up the back door and made my way out into the rain, to walk through the gate and around to the front, where I would get the spare key from the locked box we have bolted in the house. I tromped through the mud, arrived at the 6' high wood gate only to find it locked, with a padlock; a padlock that requires a key. "Freaking excellent," I said.

Around to the other side of the house, to the giant car-sized gate I went, surely this would not have a padlock on it.

I was right, it didn't have a padlock on it, it had two.

The rain had really picked up at this point, and my pants were sticking to me, my hair was dripping into my eyes.

As I was trudging back and forth through the yard, the dogs were next to me, jumping around with glee, oblivious to the rain, excited at my being with them. Puck jumped and pranced back and forth at my feet through the entire ordeal, unable to contain his happiness at a person climbing around his yard in the dark. "Oh my gosh I can't believe you're out here this is so exciting why are you here this is so exciting woo hoo!!!!!"

I snarled at the dog, saying something about his need to get a life and get out of my way.

I then looked back at the fence, I realized I was going to have to go over it if I wanted to get back into the house; I was going to have to go over a 6'-high wood fence, in the dark, in the rain. This is when I started cussing.

I am 5'3" if I'm being generous. Our fence was here when we bought the house; it's a really nice fence and aside from being 6' high, it's smooth on both sides, there are no parts on which you can stand. No cross beams, no lattice or holes to wedge a foot. We do have chain link fencing on the sides, but it goes to a ravine, no place for me to walk. And remember, it was dark and pouring rain, the ground was slippery, and soaking wet.

My neighbors both have keys to our house, but I had no way of getting their attention. So I plodded back through the mud, grabbed the iron and tile bistro table, dragged it across the yard, and pulled it next to the fence.

Then I grabbed a chair and stuck it next to the table.

I climbed up on the chair and then up on the wobbly table, the legs started sinking into the mud, as I put my foot on the top, the already fragile tiles began to slip away. With a deep exhale (and an expletive for good measure), I used my weak ankle and my numb right hand and hoisted my chubby self up on to the wood fence, catapulted myself over the top, and came crashing down on the top beam, right on my crotch.

I sat there perched like some kind of idiot in a bloopers video for a moment, stunned. Catching my breath, I cussed, then flopped over the other side, where I dangled for a moment, feeling my arm and stomach muscles tearing until I just dropped and fell down into a giant puddle of mud.

I stood back up, stomped up to the front of the house, found the lock box with the spare key and let myself back in the house, where I took off my mud-laden clothes, walked through the house to the garage in my underwear, propped the door open (just to be safe) walked through the garage, closed the outside garage door, walked back through the house, picked up the phone, while standing in my kitchen, still dripping wet, and called my husband, who is in Los Angeles on a business trip.

Calmly, in a smooth and tense tone of icy anger, I relayed the story to him, claiming responsibility for locking myself in the garage while informing him gently as to how I pulled and possibly tore the many muscles in my body after having to scale our fence due to his extreme fortification measures. There was much sarcasm and seething in the telling.

His response to me was, "you didn't pull the right lever" (on the garage door)..."it's really easy to open, I do it all the time."

I believe my exact words at that point were "bite me." I may or may not have also informed him that he is lucky I SCALED THE FENCE instead of taking his chainsaw to the gate, something I seriously considered in my need to
1) get out of the rain and 2) get inside the house to our sleeping child.

Suffice it to say, he is lucky he is in Los Angeles tonight, he would be sleeping in the garage otherwise.

The end.

That is NOT a hat

What I heard was uncontrolled giggling. What I saw (upon exiting the shower) was this:

Just a question...

I admit, I tuned in to the premier of "Dancing with the Stars" this evening. I have somehow been sucked in to the silliness.

I do have one question, however. Why is an athletic woman labeled "masculine?" Why is being "fit" masculine? Why can't being fit be a feminine quality? Why can't we just describe her as "athletic?"

Olympian volleyball player Misty May Treanor is one of the "celebrity" contestants on the show this year. She is an Olympic athlete and she thus has a well-toned, trim, muscular build. Instead of describing her as fit, or toned, or athletic, she was described in her introductory video clip as being very "masculine," simply because she has muscles. Apparently women can't have muscles. In 2008, even Gold medal-winning athletes, beautiful women who have husbands and children and complete lives outside their sport are still "masculine" because they play sports.

I don't know, but it just annoyed me. I guess it is just another of the many examples of unnecessary labeling and gender stereotyping that continue to permeate our culture.

Time Lapse

I tried to capture a time delay shot of our clock today for a photography assignment; I'm a member of a photography forum where we shoot a photo each week from a different topic.

This week the topic was time. I took the obvious approach and decided to shoot our vintage-looking clock, but I was going to shoot the clock on a time delay, so you'd get to see the hands swirling around as time passed.

Something went awry in the processing and I over-exposed the shot. However, I decided to mess with it for a few minutes to see if I could at all salvage it; this is what I came up with.

In the end, I decided I liked this shot far better than my original idea.

The hands are disappearing into the abyss...as is time.

Gives new meaning to "Big Bird"

(Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry)

Has anyone watched Sesame Street lately? It seems to me the writers might be a little "frustrated' what with lyrics in a song about brushing your teeth that go like this:

(Sung in a sultry Marilyn Monroe voice, to a stripper tune) "Ooh, I'm the yucky little back tooth. Come and brush me, Mr. brush! Brush me like you should, side to side, up and down!
Mr. Brush, you've got to brush us all around....oooh!"

Even Bryan looked at me and said, "what are you ladies watching!?!"

"Oh nothing honey, just some dental porn for toddlers."

Don't be alarmed

This is still my blog...I just "remodeled..." a bit.

Stepped right into that one

Each week we have a new "grammar of the week" topic in my class for our 5-minute opening routine. The kids work on a few quick questions/problems on the board after they enter the class while I take attendance, etc. It gets them right down to business and gives me a minute or so to take care of any clerical/management issues before I start teaching.

This week, we were working on nouns.

Scene: (Remember, I teach 7th grade)

Each student has a piece of paper with two columns. On the left side is a list of "common nouns," (restaurant, movie, city, etc.) On the right side are two blank lines for each common noun, they are to write down two "proper nouns."

For example:

Common Noun: Restaurant Proper Nouns: Olive Garden, Taco Bell

This list is from the teacher's workbook, I did not create it.

On the list for common nouns is the word "ballplayer."

The students ask, "Mrs. Scott, what is a ballplayer?" Many are asking, so I decide to answer them all as a collective class. I announce,

"Folks, if you are raising your hand because you are unsure what a ballplayer is, a ballplayer is an athlete."

A student then raises his hand, "can it be any athlete?"

"No," I say, "only one who plays with balls."

Yeah. Stepped right into that one.

Tuesday discoveries...

*It was after lunch, the final block of the day. I was teaching Washington state history; we were making state maps. I was assisting a student in finding the Cowlitz river in her book, when she looked up, looked at my shirt, and then very quietly, and very seriously she asked, "Mrs. Scott...what happened-um-there?"

"Where?"

"There," pointing at my chest.

I looked down, pulled my pastel pink blouse away from myself and saw at what my timid student was pointing.

Apparently the blue dry-erase marker I had been carrying around in my hand had no cap; I had in fact been unwittingly drawing all over my left boob for well, the better part of an hour.

Not only that, but before I had the blue marker, I had a red one. It seems I had colored on myself with it as well.

Nice.

*Question: How do you put an ice pack on the head of a wiggly, head-strong 14-month old child?

*Answer: You do not.

Instead, you try to put the ice pack on the growing bump caused by the face-plant into the wall, but instead the child takes the ice pack and sticks it in her mouth. After trying for a minute or so, you decide the child is no longer crying and will most likely live. You trade them the ice pack for a frozen teething ring.

So funny, so very funny

In case you missed SNL last night, here, enjoy:

Just hanging out at home.

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required. Visit www.apple.com/quicktime/download to download the free player or upgrade your existing QuickTime� Player. Note: During the download process when asked to choose an installation type (Minimum, Recommended or Custom), select Minimum for faster download.

Shower fresh

We waste water every morning, I admit it. The reason is that our hot water heater is in our garage and our shower is on the opposite side of the house on the second level. As such, when preparing to take a shower, in order to avoid frigid temperatures, one must let the water run a minute or two. I don't like it, but have yet to find a solution, so we make do, and try our best to do other things in our lives to conserve.

This morning, as I was getting ready for church, I turned on the shower as I do every morning, closed the shower door, and walked across the hall, as Bryan had requested help dressing Evie, who was still in her jammies. I quickly selected an outfit, and as I turned to go back to the shower, she took off running in front of me with the outfit in her hands.

She often runs between our two rooms, so this was no cause for alarm, however today, she apparently had ulterior motives. As I reached my bedroom door, I heard the shower door open and quickly slam shut.

This WAS cause for alarm as before today, she could not open the shower door.

I ran in to find a fully dressed Evie (still in pajamas) sitting under the shower head, soaked, with a confused look on her face. The selected church outfit was also soaked, sitting on the shower floor beside her.

I quickly pulled the soggy child and clothing from the shower, and handed her off to her father, who was standing behind me, laughing, towel in hand.

I'm sorry I have no photo, as I was ready to enter the shower myself, it was a camera-free zone. However, the image, and the moment will continue to make us laugh.


Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

How it happens...

Scene:
I technically have the day off, although I still have an appointment to turn in paperwork to the payroll office for my retirement, insurance, direct deposit etc. I then have to stop by the school to pick something up and pop my head in the class at the end of the day.

I plan to take Evie to work with me, as it should be a quick meeting, and really, I am just turning in paperwork.

I plan the day, she will take an earlier nap than usual, which should not be a problem, she is usually pretty tired around 11, but at daycare, they stretch and wait until noon to put them down. I'll have her up by 1:00 at the very latest, which will give me 30 minutes to feed her lunch before we have to drive over the bridge to the district office.

10:45- Evie goes down for her nap after throwing a massive fit.

12:45- Evie wakes up, very happy.

12:46- I change her diaper, get her re-dressed, fix her wild hair

12:50- We make our way downstairs, "Are you ready for lunch?" I ask, She seems excited, happy and well-rested.

12:51- I put her in the high-chair- she screams bloody murder. Fear strikes my heart.

I give her a sippy cup of water, this seams to appease her for a moment.

12:52-I offer cheerios as a snack while I prepare lunch.

Evie- "Nee-ooooo!!!" Followed by throwing said cheerios on the floor. I scold her for the throwing of the cheerios, but do not remove her, she just woke up, I give her the benefit of the doubt.

12:53- I offer goldfish crackers, but instead of putting them on her tray, I put one in my hand and hold it in front of her, "would you like a cracker?"

Evie- "Neee-oooo!!!" She signs "all-done" and then points to the pantry.

I walk away over to the pantry, open it, and ask what she would like, she points at the shelf where the raisins are.

I grab the raisins, pull them out, grab a couple, hold them in my hand in front of her, "would you like raisins?"

Evie, (crying, apparently frustrated) "nooo..."

It has now been several minutes and I too, am getting frustrated.

I offer her a sippy cup of milk, she bats it away. She is crying, I want to be crying. I wish she could tell me what she wants, instead of just screaming "no" and shaking her head, turning away from everything I try to give.

I offer a jelly sandwich, (a usual favorite) she refuses. I offer little smokies (a usual favorite,) she refuses. I take the noodles, chicken pieces and carrots from a chunky soup, drain the liquid for easier eating and put them on her tray, she has LOVED this every time before; she screams like I have just offered her glass shards, and throws them on the floor.

So, I tell her throwing food is NOT OK, take her out of her high chair, and send her on her way. She flops on the floor, crying. Then, gets up, runs back to the high chair and tries to climb back in, crying.

I bend down in front of her, place my hands on her little shoulders, and ask her if she is now ready to eat, she nods, quietly.

I place her back in her high chair, I hold three different foods in front of her and ask which one, she points to the goldfish, I give them to her, she eats two, and then starts crying.

I give her the sippy cup again, this time she takes it and drinks, and drinks and drinks.

I put the chicken, noodles and carrots back on her tray, I sit with her, I offer a noodle to her, she turns her head and cries. I take a bite, and say "oohh, yummy!"
She scowls at me and shakes her head "no." I tell her she needs to eat. She says "no."

So I get up and walk away, leaving the food on her tray in front of her.

The clock continues to tick, I am getting more and more worried. I have less than eight minutes to get food into this kid. On a normal day, I would just say, "whatever, you don't want to eat, fine with me."

But we have to go, I have to go to work for a quick meeting, and she has not eaten since breakfast; I know she's hungry. I can't take her to work without having been fed, she will be cranky and unmanageable. And as I have to go to work, I don't have time to have a stand off, or just let her "eat when she is hungry" as many suggest. I know she's hungry, this is just a power play. She knows it, I know it. But I don't have the time right now.

So I do what I thought I would never do...I look in the refrigerator for something I know she will eat...I grab one of her father's chocolate pudding snacks. That's right, the child is going to have a pudding snack for lunch.

And she does. Happily. She eats every single bit of that pudding; licks the thing clean.

She wins, I lose.

End scene


It was then that I realized this is how it happens. This is how so many of us resort to feeding our kids hot dogs, chicken nuggets and pancakes far too often than we care to admit. It isn't because we are lazy. It isn't because we are bad parents, it is because we are busy parents just doing our best to feed our kids, and sometimes we pick our battles, and sometimes we decide "today, dear child, I'm going to let you win this one."

I have to work this year because we need me to work to be able to make ends meet. We don't drive fancy cars, we don't go to movies or out to nice dinner, we don't take expensive vacations. We don't live above our means, but the economy is what it is and right now, we need both of us to work.

Evie is only 14 months-old, she needs a nap every day. I let her sleep for a little over two hours before she woke up. I then had 45 minutes to get her ready and feed her lunch. She decided that yesterday was not the day to eat. But I could not allow her to refuse food, because I knew, as her mom, that she had to eat. And so I found something that I KNEW she would eat. She needed something in that little tummy, and I knew this would work.

She's too little to really reason with. Had she been older and I had been able to have an actual conversation with her, things might be different. But I couldn't really say to her, "Evie, you have two choices here, eat what I am offering you now, or you are going to go hungry until we get back, and I don't want to hear any whining, do you understand?"

Yeah, that's not going to work with a 14 month-old. An older child, maybe, but certainly not a toddler who is just starting to say words.

I wasn't proud of the pudding lunch, I know I could have given her a yogurt, but she had already consumed an entire container of yogurt and an entire banana for breakfast. Her diapers were already questionable at best, so I didn't want to load her up with any more fruit. I gave her pudding instead because I knew she would eat it. And she did, and I was able to get to work on time with a happy, fed child.

And this my friends, is how it starts.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out, Mom

I have now been back to work for two full weeks. Evie has been going to daycare for a month at least part time. We started taking her at least a few hours each day, so the adjustment and transition would be as smooth as possible when I had to be away all day long.

Her daycare is not so much a daycare as it is a preschool for tiny people. Owned and ran by a former public-school teacher, the kids are in classes by age, are read to, taught songs, their colors and numbers. They draw and color pictures, play games and of course, they have a lot of time just to play.

All of the things I do with her at home, they do with her at school. And she has the bonus of doing all those things with six friends her age.

And thus, on the days that I work and we take her to "school," she all but leaps out of our arms to the floor of her class, or to her teacher. We were worried that she would cry or have a hard time transitioning, but instead, I believe if she could speak in complete sentences, Evie would say "don't let the door hit you on the way out, Mom."

This morning, I didn't have to go to school, and so, neither did Evie. I am only working part-time this year and I rotate every other Friday off. Unaware of my teaching schedule, Evie brought me her shoes and insisted I put them on her. I finally obliged her after a few minutes of her continued handing her shoe to me, trying to shove her foot in herself. When I was finished lacing them, she grabbed my hand, led me to the front door, and then stood there, reaching for the knob, saying "go?"

When I told her we weren't going anywhere, (it was 8:30 in the morning, there was no place for us to go) she collapsed into a pile of tears.

Apparently I'm not nearly as fun as the kids at school.

A day at the Park

I finally had a few minutes free from work yesterday, and as I'm no longer plagued with illness, I took the opportunity to spend the day playing with Evie. We joined Evie's friend Sage at the park and Sage's mommy Jill and I enjoyed chasing the girls around the little playground and trying to cajole them into eating on a blanket.

While I was unsuccessful in getting a decent picture with both girls, I did get a few shots of Evie, and as it has been pointed out, it has been FAR too long. My deepest apologies, I hope this will satisfy until I can take more this weekend:

Trying to make a big bang....

Today scientists have begun what is being called the "most ambitious experiment ever" as they shoot gaziollions of protons into a big tube and try to recreate the theorized "Big Bang."

Don't ask me to explain, I have a degree in political science, which means I can pontificate and theorize about political history; I have no talent for physics.

This whole thing reminds me of a joke our pastor told on Sunday, it goes something like this:

A scientist is having a discussion with God. He is explaining to God that as a group, scientists have figured everything out and God has become obsolete. He tells God, "we now know how you did everything, how you made the world, animals and people, and we no longer need you."

God listens very patiently, and when the scientist is finished, he says to him,

"Okay, I have heard what you had to say, and you make a compelling argument. Why don't we have a man-building contest?"

The scientist says, "No problem!"

But God replies, "But here's the deal, we're going to do this old-school, just like I did it when I made Adam."

And the scientist says, "okay."

And then the scientist reaches down and picks up a handful of dirt.

But then God interrupts him and says, "ah, ah, ah, get your own dirt."

My point is this, they may re-create the big bang, they may discover their theory is right. They may not. But if they discover that it happened, that their theories are right, that all those particles collided and mixed at just the right moment which in turn, created a cosmic reaction which then created this planet that we call earth, that does not mean the whole reaction was not caused by someone.

That is something that will never be proven, or dis-proven; it's simply a matter of faith.

Things I never thought I would say…10 thousand times a day

“Please sit on your BOTTOM.” (when she’s using the couch as a trampoline)

“No, those are MOMMY's Glasses”

“Please keep your hand out of the dog.” (Eye, mouth, ear, bum—dog in general usually works)

“Oooh, icky, let’s not pick our nose.”

“No hands please,” (while I’m wiping during a diaper change)

“Can I have mommy’s…(wallet, cell phone, glasses)….back please?”

“Hi." (I am “greeted with “hi” about every 20 minutes, with a vigorous wave.)

And my favorite:

“Oh, no thank you, let mommy flush.” (usually while I am still using the toilet)

Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies...

I guess the corn industry is really hurting. Hurting so badly they are now pushing high fructose corn syrup.

Seriously.

They have TV ads!

Isn't it great how spin works? You can spin anything to make it sound true...(as we have seen in the last few weeks...)

Apparently they now want you to believe that High Fructose Corn Syrup is good for you,; "it comes from corn and it's just as natural as sugar!" Of course, HFCS does not exist in nature, and anybody with a 5th grade education can figure that out in about two minutes. But don't worry about that.

They are counting on you, the American public to just listen to TV ads and trust what they tell you.

Coca Cola has a similar ad, proclaiming that it is made with all natural ingredients.

Well, cigarettes come from all natural ingredients too. And vodka, and cocaine and heroine. All start with something from nature, but then of course, they are blended and mixed and chemically altered to create a different chemical reaction in the human body than the original organic compound that came from the earth...the same thing is true of High Fructose Corn Syrup and Coca Cola.

But that doesn't matter. Like I said, they are counting on you not to pay attention, not to check the facts, or read the ingredients.

We need to be an informed public. We need to check the facts. If they say something, we need to check it. If it is a corporation, if it is a politician, if it is a reporter, check the facts yourself. Don't listen to the ads, or the pundits or the speeches and just decide it must be true. Look it up yourself.

We remain an uninformed populace, they will treat us like one.

No more blood in the ears

My ears are clean and dry, my mind is calm.

I will no longer fret about her...

Why?

Because of this.

So happy, I could skip to my loo

All this week, I wore dress trousers and blouses and/or sweaters to school, trying to look professional and adult-like.

And all this week, said trousers were slipping down my bum. I spent much of my time hiking them up, pulling them up and generally re-adjusting; feeling just a little sloppy.

I could not for the life of me, figure out what the problem was. These pants were relatively new, and to my knowledge, I had not joined a gym, a weight loss program or been running.

Still however, the pants, they were a slipping.

So today, I evaluated my clothing. Turns out, it's true. I've lost weight. And if I may be so bold to say, not just a little, a lot.

I've gone down almost two sizes, and I'm not really sure how. I was between sizes before, but now I fit perfectly like a glove, in a size much smaller than before.

I find this very, very strange.

There was of course, that horrible virus I just got over, I'm sure that had something to do with it. And I suppose I've been trying to be a conscious eater, but I have not been on a diet.

I guess most of the baby weight finally decided to leave me. They say it takes a year, I guess for me it took 14 months.

Lucky for me, I had an almost brand new wardrobe of dress pants sitting in waiting from when I became pregnant (unexpectedly the first time) they were all nicely tailored and pressed, sitting in a Rubbermaid bin for me. So when I discovered this weight loss this morning, I went and grabbed my pants, and lo and behold, they fit. Huzzah! And while some styles change, a basic black and brown trouser never really goes out of style; yay for me, I have new pants and I didn't have to get dressed, drive to the store and dig through racks of clothes to find them..there they were, waiting for me and already tailored for my short stubby legs!

And here's the best part- I can wear my wedding rings! I haven't been able to wear them since about the third month of my pregnancy. Evie is 14 months old....it's been a long time of people looking at me with my pregnant belly, or my baby, with those accusatory stares...it's nice to be able to wear my rings again. Not only because now I don't want to shout at those people "I'm MARRIED!" But also because I like my rings, and my hand was feeling very naked.

Now I am no skinny mini, I come from good solid German stock; put me next to most of my mommy friends, and I will always be one of the more round in the group. And I of course still have my baby ponch, but I'm closer to my normal level of curvaceousness, and for that, I am happy.

No words

I will respectfully abstain from comment tonight.

If I were to comment I fear I would offend those I love; those who I know disagree with my politics.

Because my thoughts are far too inflammatory tonight, and my language would be far too salty, I have no words.

But we watched, and I read the transcript.

It's best we not discuss it.

Blood coming from my ears

I can't stand it. I really truly, can't stand it.

It's one thing to disagree on policy. It's a different thing entirely to just completely make up facts and claim them as truths.

I have, in an effort for equality and open-mindedness, sat here and listened to the speeches of the RNC convention. Tonight, Sarah Palin gave her keynote address.

I believe my ears are now bleeding.

Not only was her speech filled with just pure nastiness and ugly speech (honestly, you are going to mock the service of a person who before serving as a state AND national senator, served as a community organizer and civil rights activist? Civil rights activism and community outreach is something to mock? Really?)

She mocked people with "Ivy League" educations and she mocked people in the news media, saying "Here's a little newsflash for all those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion. I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country."

Newsflash: people in hollywood, as well as liberals, "elitists" and those cranky news media types, (the same ones who went after John Edwards and Bill Clinton, yeah those ones...) They are all Americans, too. You may not like them, or relate to them, but they are just as much a part of this country as you.

And just a quick reminder, before she was the mayor of Wasilla and the governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin was herself, a member of that horrible news media. She has a journalism degree and was a reporter in Anchorage.

After she slammed all those horrible lefties with their fancy educations and their hollywood friends, she moved on to the main portion of the speech, which sadly, was mostly fiction.

She took credit for things she had nothing to do with, like when she said, "When oil and gas prices went up so dramatically and the state revenues followed with that increase, I sent a large share of that revenue directly back to the people of Alaska."

Yeah, that's the Alaska Permanent Fund, which has been in effect since 1976.

When it came to spending and earmarks, she said, ``I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending,'' she said. ``We suspended the state fuel tax, and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress.''

The problem is, under Governor Palin, Alaskan earmarks for spending are higher than any other state, something, ironically, that Senator McCain opposes vehemently.

And then there's that small issue of her being the head of the "Ted Stevens Excellent in Public Service, Inc." which was a 527 that could raise unlimited funds from corporate donors...another something Senator McCain has opposed.

(Alaskan Senator Stevens, by the way, is currently being indicted for financial corruption.)

She talked about opposing the "bridge to nowhere," although her opposition only began last month, before that, she was all for it.

She said Obama will raise every tax of every single American, which is of course, not at all true. Not even close to true. He will raise taxes of the top 1% of Americans, those making over $250,000/year, and he will raise their taxes by a percentage based on their income. He will then close loop holes so that people like Warren Buffet will actually have to pay his share, unlike now, when he pays a lower tax percentage than I do. As for small business owners, he will give incentives and breaks based on their income level etc. He will also give tax breaks to companies who keep all their employees in the U.S. and stop incentives for companies who outsource- that's how he's going to pay for those crazy things like providing basic services to all American citizens.

She said Obama opposes drilling for oil (actually, he said he would consider limited off-shore drilling,) and then she proceeded to lay out a plan for energy independence, which if you were reading the transcript, looked like a direct carbon copy of Obama's plan from last week's speech. He is for funding green color jobs and using Americans to power American energy independence by using American technology and harnessing American resources like wind, solar and natural gas...she said the same thing.

Oh and by the way, there is no such thing as clean coal. It's the same old coal, they just got new PR people and gave it a new name.

She then attacked Obama's record, saying "Listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform -- not even in the [Illinois] state Senate. ..."

Mrs. Palin, I urge you to do some basic research, it's easy you can go the the US Senate.org:

Obama's record:
SEN. BARACK OBAMA, 2005-present

• Collaborated with Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., in 2006 to pass a law (PL 109-282) creating a Google-like database of federal contracts and grants allowing users to type in key words that would bring up exactly how much money any particular recipient received.

• With then-Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Richard G. Lugar, R-Ind., won enactment of a 2006 law (PL 109-401) that allowed the United States to export nuclear fuel, technology and reactors to India for the first time in three decades. The law accepted India as a nuclear-armed power and was enacted despite concerns about India’s ties to Iran and past sanctions for transferring sensitive equipment to Iran.

• Chief sponsor of legislation signed into law in 2006 (PL 109-456) that authorized a 25 percent increase in U.S. assistance to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has been ravaged by civil wars since its independence from Belgium in 1960 and which received $33-million in fiscal 2006. The law called for a special envoy to help mediate an end to the conflict there and urged the Bush administration to strengthen the United Nations peacekeeping force now operating in parts of the nation.

• Co-sponsored legislation by Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., signed into law in 2007 (PL 110-175) that speeds the release of documents under the Freedom of Information Act by revising requirements for federal agency disclosures of requested information.

• Played a significant role in the 2007 overhaul of congressional lobbying and ethics rules. Sided with Republicans who wanted stronger rules for the disclosure of earmarks in spending bills and tried to set an example by releasing a lengthy list of requests he asked to be included in annual appropriations bills. His support is believed to have persuaded some other Democrats (there were nine total) to adopt the amendment.

• With Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., proposed requiring senators to make full reimbursement for the market rate of corporate jet flights. Under old rules, senators reimbursed for the first-class commercial rate of the flight. In some cases, that meant paying $2,000 for a private jet flight that actually may have cost upwards of $20,000 per seat. The proposal was incorporated into a broader package of reforms.

Number of bills sponsored: 272

Number of bills co-sponsored: 834

Number of bills sponsored or co-sponsored that became law: 16


So either she didn't know, or she was just lying. I'm not sure which is worse.


The thing that really makes me crazy is this, people will listen to the speeches, and they will believe it. They won't do the research, even though it takes five minutes.

Of course the speech concluded with a bunch of fear mongering and threats of imminent attack...that to not vote for John McCain was to vote for defeat. 911 was referenced oh, about 10 or 15 times. Whatever.

I really am trying to be open-minded, but after tonight, and what reminded me of high school shenanigans, I don't know if I can handle much more of this.

Evie dancing 2

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required. Visit www.apple.com/quicktime/download to download the free player or upgrade your existing QuickTime� Player. Note: During the download process when asked to choose an installation type (Minimum, Recommended or Custom), select Minimum for faster download.

Back to school

I successfully completed my first day of school today. My first day in my own classroom, as a real-live teacher. Not a student teacher. Not a substitute teacher. A real full-fledged, contracted teacher. Woo. A. Hoo.

The day went well. I think I sufficiently found the balance between scaring the poo out of the kids and making them think I'm just "strict, but loving."

Only time will tell if they think I'm Attila the Hun or actually pretty cool.

I have a really great mix of students from various demographics and cultures which I think will make for a really fun year.

They seem like a pretty good group of kids, except for some "chatty" tendencies, I didn't see any preponderance toward being malicious or overly mischievous, which is nice.

Of course today was only the first day, so we'll see as the weeks progress how things go.

Today was all about expectations and rules; going through the student handbook, and learning each other's names etc.

We practiced walking through the halls and lining up; we practiced classroom routines and we played games to learn names. It was an easy day for the kids but a busy day for me. I was at school at 7:30, I didn't get back home until 5:30.

I am better from the virus from Hades...still pretty weak, but eating normally again. I still get a bad cough every once in a while, but I'm told this is just going to be my reality for a while.

And so now, after a full day of teaching, the night before of no sleep and the weeks before of nasty sickness, I shall go to sleep...Evie and I will most likely have the same bed time this year.

Daddy is enjoying his new toy...

Sick but still photogenic

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

Bryan took this and posted it with his cell phone...as it true for the video posted below. He now has Verizon's version of the iPhone...it does almost all the same things, but without the extra fee.

Needless to say he's enjoying himself.

Evie Dancing

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required. Visit www.apple.com/quicktime/download to download the free player or upgrade your existing QuickTime� Player. Note: During the download process when asked to choose an installation type (Minimum, Recommended or Custom), select Minimum for faster download.

It's all just a ruse

I have a theory...let's see if it comes true.


She won't make it through the campaign process. She'll withdraw for "family" reasons.

This was always the plan; her nomination was just a ruse to appease the Religious right and win votes.

But with the revelation of an infant son with Down's syndrome and a pregnant teenage daughter, she, the good mother, will have to withdraw to put her house in order.


And then McCain will be left without a VP. And of course there's a hurricane to contend with, so there will be tragedy and chaos. Decisions will have to be made quickly.

And so, he'll finally get to pick who he really wants:

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

I'm thinking this is a page from the Harriet Miers= John Roberts playbook.