Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Motherly Failings

Lots of times I feel like this blog is a place for me to publicly brag about the good things I do as a mom. And that's fine, I certainly enjoy the "bucket-fillers" when people tell me how great I am :)

But, also, it's not that realistic. So, in the interest of truth, here is a short list of things I should do better at!

1) Sometimes I instruct Buddy to tell his teachers he did his reading homework, even though instead we read Roald Dahl/Dr. Seuss/Eric Carle.

2) I enjoy "Elf on the Shelf" not because of Buddy's joy at finding "Fuzzy" in a new place daily, but because of my sense of accomplishment that I didn't get caught moving him!

3) Sometimes when I'm late for work and haven't packed dinner, I steal quarters from Buddy's change jar so I can get vending machine food.

4) When my kid is being picky, I pack him "homemade lunchables" and gogurt. And refuse to feel guilty.

5) Cleaning the bathroom is worth $1, since I hate that job. Vacuuming, though more time consuming, is only worth $.50, because it's my favorite chore.

6) I use dessert as a bribe to force Buddy to eat new things for dinner.

7) Sometimes I let Buddy skip brushing his teeth at night, just because the fight is not worth it. I am begging for fillings.

None of these are the most horrible things in the world (I don't think, at least) but I definitely should work on these things! Do you have any small failings?


Thursday, November 29, 2012

Tired

Has anyone had one of those nights where they went to bed WAYearly? Like for some reason fell asleep at 9:30 instead of 12:30? And then...

All of a sudden woken up at 1:45am, and tried to look at the clock but been super sleepy so somehow thought it said 6:45am, and gotten all upset that the alarm hadn't gone off...

And then taken a shower and got dressed for the day, then tried to decide whether to wake up the kid or not so checked the time...

And realized it was actually 1:45am. And was super annoyed. And tired. And then wrote a blog and posted it.

And then went back to bed.

Like this guy, who didn't wake up. Cuz he's smarter than me.



Monday, November 26, 2012

11 Things


I've been in a... mooood. Which is just a dramatic way of saying that the sun has gone away, and for some reason I was in denial that it was going to happen, so now I'm suddenly having to scramble to do all my winter-mood stuff so I'm capable of being a nice, cheerful, fun person. So, as a side effect, I have been having a really hard time staying motivated to write here, and coming up with things I think people might want to read. So... since I'm out of ideas, I'm going to do one of those question-thingy-deals in hopes that it might bring me out of my mood.

1. When was the last time you cried? And why?
     Wednesday night. I was having a serious talk about family and love and life and... well everything with my                  dad, and I always cry when I have a serious talk with him! To be fair, he usually cries too, and my grandpa cries whenever he feels any emotion strongly (happy, sad, angry, anxious, excited, etc) so it's basically a family trait. We cry easily.

2. What are your 5 favorite TV shows?
     Currently I love: Supernatural, Doctor Who, Bones, The Walking Dead, and Teen Mom. I know Teen Mom is trashy, but I just feel so connected with those girls and their struggles because of everything I went through... the TV show started right after I had Buddy and was going through a whole lot of stuff so I will watch it through till the end!

3. What is your greatest accomplishment?
     I think probably raising my son. Obviously there are things I wish I had done differently, but my kid is usually respectful, kind, cheerful, creative, smart, full of faith, and unbelievably loving and accepting. Those are all amazing traits that I like to think I had a hand in nurturing!

4. Morning person? Or night owl?
     Night owl. For sure. Which doesn't work that well with my lifestyle! Generally, I get to sleep around 2am and wake up at about 6:30am. Then I'm tired and crabby ALL DAY until it hits about 6pm, at which time I'm all of a sudden AWAKE!!!! and ready to be productive until 2am again.

5. How much cash do you have on you?
     $6. I'm not a cash person.

6. Household chore you hate the most?
     Dishes. It's disgusting to have to stick your hands into old food. Yuck. Conversely, my favorite chore is vacuuming. Although I now live in an apartment with all wood flooring, so I never vacuum anymore!

7. If you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be?
   Currently, Hmong. Since I work primarily with Hmong students, and whenever they want to say something inappropriate or tell a secret or be mean they switch to Hmong so I don't understand them!
 
8. List 5 songs you know every word to:
     Lonesome Road by James Taylor, Wannabe by the Spice Girls, every song from the musical Rent, Bobby McGee by Janis Joplin, and Gravedigger by Dave Matthews Band.

9. Who was your first crush on?
     Haha! Dan Archiquette. He was in my class from 2nd through 6th grade, so when I started liking boys he was an obvious first choice. I grew out of it by Junior High, haven't seen him since high school, and haven't thought about him in years either. I wonder what he's up to these days?

10. What are three things you cannot live without?
     Food, water, shelter. Obviously. But as a less literal answer, my son, my cell phone, and my daddy.

11. Name one thing you wish you did better.
     Had confidence in myself and my abilities. I think it would really help me to be able to interact more comfortably with people if I didn't so often feel like everything I do and say is the "wrong thing".

Is there anything you are just dying to know about me? Leave me a comment with the question, and I will do my best to answer it :)

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Give Thanks

No words necessary.









Happy Thanksgiving everybody!



Monday, November 5, 2012

... you look like a monkey, and smell like one too!

The last week of October/first week of November is always a stressful one around these parts! It means that we have to do Halloween and Birthday within a span of 3 days, which is always tough on everyone.

So, Buddy decided (much later than usual, since he usually picks out his Halloween costumes by mid-summer) that he wanted to be a vampire. And it was really fun, since he was super excited about the accent and the fake teeth, and he kept fake biting everyone which was hilarious.


Also hilarious was the fact that there are apparently no fake vampire teeth that come in children's sizes. At all. So this was his face the whole time he wore the teeth! Also also hilarious, trying to spray paint a squirmy blonde kid's hair black. As you can see, it SORTA worked. Also also also hilarious, trying to put makeup on a squirmy kid. Anyway, the whole thing was just funny!


We went with his new "best friend" from school and the best friend's father. And oh man, that family is a whole 'nother blog post, because I'm having some serious issues with clinginess (theirs) and I don't know how to get out of it all! But again, that's for another day.

After Halloween (a measly 3 days after) comes Buddy's birthday, so he decided he wanted a costume party so he could wear his costume again. And I got all perfectionist-y and decided I had to have all sorts of fall themed treats, and fancy cupcakes, and cutesy organized activities for the kids...

None of which I needed to do. The kids showed up (sort of) in costume, then proceeded to run around the backyard playing "good guys vs. bad guys" and chaining each other to trees for the majority of the party. None of my preplanned activities happened at all! Basically, the kids ran around outside, the grown-ups sat inside drinking beer and gossiping, and great fun was had by all. Never again am I stressing that much about the perfect themed treats, since it obviously doesn't matter AT ALL!
The "vampire cupcakes" that Buddy begged for got finished literally 5 minutes AFTER the first guest arrived :)

Nice picture of the boys

Obligatory silly picture

Birthday presents! You have to wear the hat if you want to open the presents :)



Monday, October 22, 2012

Mani Monday


This is what I do while hiding inside my house. I do Sudoku puzzles, draw doodles, or paint my nails. Obviously, the longer each activity takes the better. Which is why my nails are ridiculous recently. Although actually I haven't even taken that many pics of the crazy designs I've been doing. Except today, in a fit of anger about all the stuff I want to accomplish but haven't, I CUT THEM OFF! It may not look like my nails are that long, but my stubby fingers kind of hide the length of my nails. Anyway, they are gone at least for a week or 2, which will hopefully help me concentrate on more important things. As will uninstalling Sudoku from my phone. And the 3 1/2 hours I spent writing (remedial) notes on old chapters in Statistics today, since apparently I only understand concepts for the time that I am totally focused on them.





Friday, October 19, 2012

Last Minute Crafting :)

What do you do when your kid (probably looking to stall bedtime) starts BEGGING to do art with you?

This:


I had no time to come up with anything good, so I just had him take white crayon and draw a pumpkin picture ("Push REALLY hard, Buddy! It's OK if you break the crayon this time!") and then we painted over it with watercolors.

Quick, easy, not very messy, and turned out cute! What more could a girl ask for :)

Drawing the 'secret picture'

Adding the first colors (I think it's hilarious that he was wearing his blanket on his head at this point!)

Starting to see the picture!

He takes after his mommy, and he's OBSESSED with his 'new' camera from Uncle Ryan!

Anyway, super easy, a great craft to do after a long week so we could unwind and have some fun without too much stress. I like it.
And I think he did too!



Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Fall

The weather has officially turned fall-ish here. Last weekend I had to go to Target and buy a new hat and gloves for Buddy, since his old stuff was too small, and it was lucky I did! That same day we got a few snow flurries and it was windy and cloudy and cold.

But we went out to Harvest Fest (a local kiddy fall festival) anyway, and enjoyed ourselves (mostly)!




Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Blah.

I'm having a tough time finding anything to write about. You all know me by now, know that I obsessively take pictures and document every moment of Buddy's life...

Well, I haven't been doing that. Honestly, I don't even see Buddy very much right now. I wake him up around 6:30am, drop him off for school around 7:45, and that's where we say goodbye for the day. Then I work until 7pm, so by the time I get him home from his dad's house or another babysitter it's at least 7:30. His bedtime is 8.

I feel like I don't have any idea what's going on in his life. I don't like it at all.

Added to that, I've been really depressed and anxious lately. It's hard for me to leave the house. Most days after I drop Buddy off for school, I crawl back into bed and just lay there for an hour or 2 before moving to my computer, to sit and do mind-numbingly easy homework for hours. I sometimes manage to do some housework, but not very often. Most weeks the only social interaction I have is at work, and that's with preteens.

Sorry if you've been enjoying following me here, but I just am not feeling the greatest and don't want to write a bunch of posts about how shitty everything feels right now. I'll pop back up in a few weeks I'm sure, and then you'll get crafts and field  trips and cute kids again.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

School is in session

Buddy started Kindergarten this year! It was a big deal. He is so proud to be going to a big-kid school, he loves that we walk there together every morning, and he is really hoping to learn new stuff SOON.


So far, he takes after his mother in schooling. It's only been a week of school, and he's already bored and has decided that I need to teach him at home, since he "already knows everything at school". Which is making me feel troubled, because I went back and forth between keeping him at Montessori or sending him on to regular school just because of that.

I remember being a Kindergarten-er and absolutely HATING school. My most distinct memory of it is that it was around Valentine's Day (so over halfway through the year) and our project for the week was cutting out hearts from construction paper, then writing the letters of the alphabet, in order, on them. I was pissed. I had known my alphabet for like 2 years already at that point, I was reading chapter books, and I was supposed to waste my time cutting out hearts and writing letters on them?

Anyway, I'm refusing to make any judgements on my schooling decision yet, as it's only been one week with his classroom (the first week of school all the Kindergarteners were together). But I really hope that there is some system the school has in place for kids like Buddy, because I don't want him to be frustrated and hating school like I was.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

I wish "hectic" wasn't the norm!

I was going to write a post here talking about how busy I've been since I finished summer session for college.

I've picked up a bunch of extra hours at work, I volunteered to help run a Vacation Bible School with my church, I took Buddy camping, and I am trying to get this next semester of school organized (WAY harder than it sounds, apparently most of my classes are only offered at night and... umm... that doesn't work for me).

But then I realized that this is my life! I don't know what I would do if I wasn't crazy busy and stressed all the time, and past experience shows that instead of going to the gym or reorganizing my closet, I would probably play Angry Birds in my pajamas all day. Or maybe watch an entire season of a cheesy CW soap.

Anyway, I have off until Tuesday, at which time I have 3 days of really intense training for the BGC and then on Friday have a meeting about the training. Immediately after the training I am leaving on my big vacation for the summer, my friends and I are going to Jackpine Jamboree which is going to be AWESOME and then immediately after that I start school again.

Hello, crazy schedule, I've missed you!

Also, just so this post isn't empty of pics, this is what it looks like when I inflict my scheduling issues on my son:

This is what happens when I overschedule my buddy. I should know this by now.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Blogging Edicate

Unwritten Rules Of Blogging:

1) Take pictures. Lots of pictures. People don't want to read posts with no pictures.

2) Make sure to be very crafty. If you are not, it means you are not a good mom.

3) Publicize yourself. Who cares if you're only writing this to have a record of this time in your life? Maybe you can make money off of ads or something, so it's totally worth it to pimp yourself out online.

4) Never write anything unflattering about anyone in your life. Every person that is in your life must be amazing, and even if they aren't... you must lie. It's unacceptable to write the truth if that truth might maybe injure someone's feelings.

5) Never write anything about being unhappy. Unless you can somehow make it "meaningful" or put a happy ending on it.

Follow all these rules, and someday you may have one or more comments on each painstakingly written blog entry, more than 10 people who "follow" you online, and you could even get a book deal. Ya know. Because that happens often.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Mani Monday, part 15 or something.

I'm in love with this new lavender color I got! I have been using it for EVERYTHING.


I also have new skinny brushes. That I may have gone overboard with.


And since I've been being so obsessed, my nails are turning yellow and looking horrible. So I have been doing a simple french mani just so it doesn't look horrible, but hopefully I can grow out my stained nails!

Monday, August 13, 2012

Mani Monday

Sparkly!

Geometric! I did this with tape, BTW, since a lot of people were asking.

That's all I've got for today, yay fingernail polish! I'm addicted, I know.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Shadows on the Wall

As usual, it was a lazy Sunday around these parts. And lazy days are always the days I can get Buddy interested in crafts, so we worked on a really cool one today!


This idea, as usual, was found online, though obviously the idea of paper silhouettes is a pretty common one. But to tie-dye the paper with markers and coffee filters was definitely a new spin!

Anyway, first I used a really bright lamp to help me trace the shadow of Buddy's profile. It took me a few tries to get right, so the paper got a little bit wrecked, but since I knew we'd be cutting it out eventually I didn't care.


Next we colored coffee filters with markers and then placed them on the profile, spraying them with water to transfer the colors. (Just a warning, I had to pre-select Buddy's colors for him. Otherwise he has a habit of using only black and brown and it wouldn't have been pretty.)



Once it seemed like the colors had successfully bled out of the coffee filters and onto the paper, we removed the coffee filters. It took about 10 minutes for the colors to bleed this well.


Finally I just cut out the profile, put it on some black paper for contrast, and wrote his name in the corner with some of the extra tie-dyed paper.


Oh, in case you didn't know, Buddy's real name is Shiloh. Guess the secret's out!

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

School's Out for (the rest of ) Summer!

I finished summer classes today! Hooray! If only there were more than a few weeks of summer left...

Oh well. I got A's this summer, which is great considering that I actually went into the school building and didn't have a panic attack and leave, and spoke in front of groups, and... well, I think this summer has been a huge step forward.

The doctors have me on new medications again, and I think I finally like this stuff. So hopefully that will continue to go well, and I'm very excited to spend some time with my Buddy with a little less stress for these last few weeks up until school starts again.

Anyway, yay!

Monday, August 6, 2012

Manicure Monday, part 2

This is still a bunch of old nail designs, I've done some cool things to my short nails recently but I figured I'd wait to post those until I (inevitably) get behind :)


This started as sort of a french manicure, I wanted to do the gray with silver tips. But it turned out looking really not cute, so I added more stripes of silver, then I added random pinkish dots... I think overall it worked!


Ooh, and this one was done when my nails were still short, but look how cool! I made a bumble-bee themed manicure! Also, please realize that this picture is of my LEFT hand, and I am left handed. so this is pretty impressive, since I was doing the design with my non-dominant hand! (Ok, truth be told I really screwed up the bee on my other hand, so I just used this hand since it was easy, but still!)


Sunday, August 5, 2012

Triath-lete

YOU GUYS. I usually post stuff here that's pretty self-centered, things about myself and my kid. Which, duh, is fine because that's the point of blogging... it's like a journal except you don't care if people read it.

And I'm never sure what my exact demographics are, I don't know if the 60 or so people who read my posts are friends, family, random strangers who find me engaging... and I don't usually care!

But today, I want EVERYONE to read this post. Because I'm writing about my daddy. And he ROCKS.

My dad is a pretty cool guy. He's smart, funny, musical, athletic... and most important to me, he is always there when I need him. So, this year he turned 50. And my little brother and I tried to do something special for him, but our family (who are all horrible procrastinators, as we are) didn't respond as we'd expected and so our awesome "50 letters for 50 years" plan that we tried for like 6 months to achieve ended up being like "23 letters for 50 years" which was still nice, but not as awesome.

But it doesn't matter at all! Because my dad, being the most awesome person ever, decided that as his present to himself for hitting half-a-century, he would participate in a triathlon.
After he swam half a mile!

Getting ready for the bike portion!

Here's my crazy cool pops (with "great posture") starting out the run!


AND HE WAS AWESOME. I'm not sure what his time was, I'm not sure how many people he beat, but YOU GUYS. My father, who turned 50 this year, swam a half-mile. After that, he biked 17 miles. AND THEN, ran a 5K.

And he finished running, with a smile on his face, in less than 2 hours! While I sat on the sidelines, not sure I could even do one part of the race. My pops is an inspiration, and it's lame to admit but every time he finished one event and moved on to the next I got all teary-eyed and was trying really hard to be not a sappy lady but he's pretty awesome. Anyway, watch him finish the race! This is after almost 2 hours of hardcore physical labor, and look at how he's actually running! (I would be limping slowly across the finish line, if I managed to get through it at all...)

So, seriously, click the link to watch him finish the entire triathlon! (Only because I can't figure out how to get it transferred nicely onto this page which is pissing me off, but I really want everyone to see him cross the finish line...)

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151969992575462