Breakthrough

We had some exciting happenings today! H. and I went to the mall to finish up our shopping and to visit Santa. For the last couple of weeks, I've been prepping her for the visit with Santa, hoping we could get her picture with him. All along, she's been saying that she would stand in front of him, but not sit on his lap. Okay, that's good enough for a picture. In the car on the way to the mall, we talked about Santa again and practiced what she was going to say when he asked her what she wanted for Christmas. After this, a few minutes went by and she said, "I want to give this to Santa." I turned my head to see what she was talking about and she was holding out her ninny (her pacifier, which she is extremely attached to). I asked her if she was sure and she said yes, even after I explained that she wouldn't have one when it was time to go to bed tonight and she would have to sleep without it. She said yes again and that she was a big girl.

So we got to the mall and waited in line to see Santa. When it was her turn, she walked right up to him and handed over the ninnies (there was another one in the car, so we gave him two). It was so cute! Santa said, "We do something very special with these," and he hung them on the Christmas tree. (There were a few others hanging up there, too.)

Then H. told him she wanted "Dora toys" for Christmas, but would not sit on his lap or even stand in front of him to have her picture taken. She was done, thank you very much. I think she was a little traumatized by giving up her ninnies, since as she was getting back in the stroller she said, "Can we go home now?" And seeing Santa was the first thing we did at the mall! But she was a real trooper and I bought her a Dora nightgown to wear tonight to celebrate her big accomplishment. Let's just hope I'm not up all night because she's crying for her ninny. (I did scour the house once we got home and found two other ninnies, which are now hidden away in the medicine cabinet, just in case, but hopefully this is the real deal and we can finally get rid of it.)

Winner!

The coolest thing happened to me on Saturday - I won an iPod Shuffle! Some time in the fall, I had filled out a tear-off card from a display in the grocery store (for some product I don't even buy) and voila, a few months later, a free iPod arrives in my mailbox. I haven't set it up yet (that will be my reward for turning in my last paper of the semester, which is due tonight by midnight), but I'm anxious to load it up and see how it works. Good thing I decided not to ask Santa for one.

2005 Reading List

Well, I guess it's time to post this, since I don't know if I'll able to squeeze in any other books between now and the end of the year. Maybe one or two after Christmas, since I have the week off. The return to school really put a dent in my free time and reading, but of course, I did finally get to read some classics that I had long neglected. Even though I didn't read as many books this year as last year, the total balanced out to a book a week, which isn't too bad, considering how busy it seemed like I was. Some highlights: I plowed through two new series that I love - see Denise Hamilton and Meg Gardiner below - and read quite a few sad books about 9/11. I finally started Laura Lippman's Tess Monaghan series (long overdue) and read one George Pelecanos book. The links below are to previous posts with my thoughts or comments about the books. (I really slacked off in this area, after getting off to a good start at the beginning of the year.)

1. The Jasmine Trade by Denise Hamilton
2. Twelve by Nick McDonell
3. China Lake by Meg Gardiner
4. High Country Fall by Margaret Maron
5. My Antonia by Willa Cather (English class)
6. Sugar Skull by Denise Hamilton
7. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (English class)
8. Garnethill by Denise Mina
9. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (English class)
10. The Big Sea by Langston Hughes (English class)
11. Entombed by Linda Fairstein
12. Suspicion of Rage by Barbara Parker
13. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (English class)
14. Most Wanted by Michele Martinez
15. Mission Canyon by Meg Gardiner
16. Drama City by George Pelecanos
17. The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams (English class)
18. Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan (English class)
19. Paradise by Toni Morrison (English class)
20. Hard Truth by Nevada Barr
21. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (English class)
22. Render Up the Body by Marianne Wesson
23. Cold by John Smolens
24. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
25. Missing Justice by Alafair Burke
26. 102 Minutes by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn
27. Jericho Point by Meg Gardiner
28. Night Fall by Nelson DeMille
29. Fade by Kyle Mills
30. Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson
31. The Wonder Spot by Melissa Bank
32. Shadows by Edna Buchanan
33. Rococo by Adriana Trigiani
34. The Hundredth Man by Jack Kerley
35. Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman
36. Devil’s Corner by Lisa Scottoline
37. Case of Lies by Perri O’Shaughnessy
38. Charm City by Laura Lippman
39. Absent Friends by S.J. Rozan
40. Blood Hollow by William Kent Krueger
41. The Innocent by Harlan Coben
42. Innocence by Kathleen Tessaro
43. The Death Collectors by Jack Kerley
44. If Looks Could Kill by Kate White
45. Rituals of the Season by Margaret Maron
46. To the Power of Three by Laura Lippman
47. Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare (English class)
48. Sweetwater Creek by Anne Rivers Siddons
49. Hamlet by William Shakespeare (English class)
50. The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (English class)
51. Close Case by Alafair Burke
52. Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner
53. Macbeth by William Shakespeare (English class)

Kidisms

Conversation with H. at 6am this morning:

H: "Tonight, I want to watch that movie with the bad witch. Where she tries to take the pretty red shoes. The Wizard of Oz. " (The Wizard of Oz was on TBS several times this weekend and we watched some of it before bedtime on Saturday night. Also, H. was a witch for Halloween, so she's keenly aware of witches right now.)

Me: "I know we watched that movie the other night, but we don't have that DVD. I think K&K have it. Maybe we can borrow it the next time we're over there."

H: "Or we can get it at the movie store. Tonight."

Please keep in mind that she's only 3!

I'm surprised she even wanted to watch "The Wizard of Oz" at all, considering that since last Sunday the 6th, we have watched E.T. every day, sometimes parts of it twice a day, without fail. She's obsessed with E.T.! She finally relented and watched some of The Grinch movie (which led to the E.T. obsession in the first place, since she saw a preview for it on the Grinch tape) on Sunday, so it was pretty much a whole week of E.T.

Also since Sunday, I think her thoughts haven't been able to keep up with her vocabulary. Suddenly, she's been using the word "something" (or sumpin', as she says) an awful lot, I guess when she can't find the word she's looking for to express herself. I'm pretty sure she wasn't doing this at all on Saturday, but there was the word "something" a lot on Sunday and every day this week.

Bad Karma

My bad day continued yesterday, even after the redeeming lunch. When we got home yesterday evening, I went to put some of the groceries in the downstairs fridge. I opened the door to the basement and heard a noise like the washing machine was running. It couldn't be running since we just got home. I went all the way down the steps to find that a pipe had broken in the laundry room where the water comes in from the well. The water was spraying upwards across half the laundry room. The whole basement should have been flooded, but by some miracle, I had left the lid on the washing machine up Sunday night and the washer was filled to the brim with water. That's atleast 15-20 gallons of water that should have been all over the floor! The five-gallon trash can full of dryer lint on the floor next to the washer was also full of water. It was truly bizarre how it was spraying almost directly into the washer. Otherwise, we would have had a huge mess on our hands. Mark shut the pump down and called his plumber friend, who arrived in 15 minutes and repaired the broken joint on the pipe.

This is the third plumbing incident we've had in less than a year, maybe even six months. Both of the pipes under the kitchen sink burst back in August, a pipe connected to the dishwasher was leaking down through the ceiling of the laundry room before that, and now this. I'm starting to wonder if we need all of our plumbing replaced before we have a major incident.

Oh, and I cut my thumb on a knife while washing the dishes last night, too.

Not A Good Start to the Week

I woke up as usual this morning, got in the shower, etc., then I was standing in front of the mirror about to dry my hair when I noticed something just above my left hip. I thought it was a mole that was irritated because it was really dark, but upon closer inspection, I realized it was a TICK and it was EMBEDDED in my skin. Of course, M. was already gone for the day, but luckily H. was still asleep. I was surprised at how calm I remained as I went to get a tissue and the tweezers, even though I was freaking out in my head. It was hard to see and reach, because it was just far enough towards my back instead of on my side, but with some maneuvering, I did manage to get the blood-engorged sucker (engorged with my blood!) out of my skin. This was followed by an all-over body check for any more. It was all I could do not to wake H. up and check her from head to toe. (Well, that paragraph should get me some interesting keyword hits from Google.)

Needless to say, I had the heebie-jeebies for the rest of the morning and since I couldn't get a good visual angle on it, I wasn't sure if I had gotten all of it out and whether or not it was a deer tick. Once H. woke up, I had her get dressed right away while I examined her. I was like a mother gorilla checking her for nits. She was clear. I can only guess that the tick found this host on Saturday when H. and I were playing in the yard in the afternoon, including lying in the grass. Which really gives me the creeps, because I changed clothes at one point on Saturday and took a shower Sunday morning. We were out in the yard Sunday morning, too, but just on the swing set, so I guess it could have found me then, too.

I dropped H. off at school, then headed straight to the doctor's office, which opens at 7:30am on Mondays, thank goodness. I pleaded my case and they were able to see me almost right away. The doctor I saw, not my usual doctor, was very nice. I did get all of the tick out, which was good, and it was a deer tick, a female, which was not good (I had saved the tick in a tissue and baggie to show the doctor), but better than if it had been a male. As a precaution, I have to take a course of antibiotics to ward off any potential Lyme disease. What fun! And no surprise, my blood pressure was through the roof when the nurse took it - 154/100! I think I was having a partial panic attack.

My day improved slightly at lunchtime. I dropped my prescription off at Walmart, then had 30 minutes to kill. While wandering around, I found that the Dora dollhouse I had on layaway was marked down $10 (!) and I found a copy of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas on DVD in the bargain bin for $4.88 (hee, hee!) (Note to Christian Slater: It makes me sad to see so many of your movies in the bargain bin.) So maybe I can salvage this afternoon.

Happy Halloween

H's New big Girl Room

Hayley's New Big Girl Room

H. is home sick today with some kind of stomach flu (fun!), but it gives me some time to update the site and add some photos.

Here is the bedroom as it looked when we moved in 6+ years ago. A good shot of the "Pandas Playing with Beach Balls."



And now, the new room. Ta da!



We still need to find some things to hang on the wall and I'm on the look out for a bulletin board, some picture frames and lampshades, but it's mostly done.

"On Their Own"

The Baltimore Sun has published a fascinating, four-part series called "On Their Own," which follows two Baltimore City high school students during their senior year. In addition to facing the challenges of attending an inner-city school, the two students are also homeless. The series is inspiring, heartbreaking, frustrating and hopeful. All of the problems that plague inner-city life are present - drugs, gangs, crime, absentee parents, etc. That these two young men could still get up and go to school every day without parents there to push or guide them is an inspiration. Neither of them would have made it without assistance from several very involved teachers as well as the principal.

As detailed and complete as the series is, it also raises more questions than it answers. What can be done to save Baltimore's schools (breaking up the overly large high schools was a step in the right direction)? What can be done for homeless teenagers who are in limbo between a foster-case system that caters to younger children and adult shelters that don't want to take in teenagers? What can be done to make students strive to envision a life beyond their own crime and drug-riddled streets, a vision that includes earning a high school diploma as the first step? It is well worth your time to read this very memorable series of articles. You won't soon forget the two young men profiled and many readers have already posted messages to the Sun's message board asking for updates on their progress.

Friday Funnies

For your enjoyment - How to Dance Properly. I like "Elaine Ripped Me Off" and "Hanging Out... Casual." Make sure you read the commentary at the bottom of the page, too. (link via groovygrrl)

I'm feeling a little more accomplished than I did last week, although I'm still majorly behind at work. (Hmm, I wonder why. Check the date and time of this post.) I've already finished my Shakespeare homework for the week and hope to do some more math tonight. And, as of right now, I'm completely on the ball with Christmas shopping. That's right, I said Christmas shopping. I went to Walmart on Wednesday and made a toy layaway for H., with a few other miscellaneous presents thrown in for K&K. H's big present this year will be the Fisher-Price Dora Dollhouse. It has a million accessories, so I thought that would a good answer whenever anyone asks me what to get her for Christmas. "Well, I got her the Dora Dollhouse, so any of the accessory sets would be great - living room, bedroom, swimming pool, etc." Nice and easy! And my mom has already bought her this for Christmas, so I put one game on layaway, but that's another good thing to be able to tell people as a present idea.

H's really into her baby dolls right now. She changes their diapers and puts them to bed and pretends that they're sick and need to be taken care of. She has lots of doll accessories, but not a decent crib, so I'm going to order her one that I saw in a catalog some time soon, so that can be another present to check off the list. Last night, I pulled my Cabbage Patch dolls out for her to play with and she loved them, maybe because they're a little bit bigger than her babies and they have hair. It made me feel really old when I saw the 1984 and 1985 dates on their bottoms.

I need to find a new hiding place for Christmas presents this year. Last year, I hid them in the dowstairs bathroom with the door shut, but now that H. is potty trained and actually uses that bathroom now, I need a new spot. Maybe somewhere down in the basement, but there's not a lot of room to manuever as it is.

Funky

I've been in some sort of a funk lately and I'm not really sure why. I'm starting to wonder if I have adult ADD. (Is that possible if you didn't have it as a child?) Or I'm just completely overloaded. I can't seem to finish anything I start or get started at all on some projects. And this is across the board - home, work and school. I've reached the point where I have so much to do, I don't know where to start, so I end up doing nothing. I have many unfinished projects at work (in addition to some other weird stuff that's going on there), I'm so far behind on my math homework I'm not sure when I'll be able to catch up, and I think I'm grouchy because I don't have any time for reading (check out the sidebar), or watching TV or other hobbies right now and I'm not getting enough sleep.

Part of the problem is that I need to stop overbooking myself so much, even if it is something I really want to do. (Even though I should start doing it now, maybe I'll make it a New Year's resolution.) After this weekend, things are looking pretty good scheduling-wise, so maybe things will ease up a bit.

Because of H., school and hobbies, I've significantly cut back on my TV viewing. I've only added one new show to my viewing schedule (Reunion on FOX, which is on tonight. And because I've only chosen this show to watch, I"m sure that it will be canceled and then I'll be too far behind on any other new, hip shows that I'll be totally out of the loop.). I can't watch any 8 o'clock shows, especially dramas, because we're usually finishing up bathtime, getting ready for bed and reading stories to be in bed at 8:30 (on a good night). Then it usually takes another half hour to pick up the mess from the day, straighten up the kitchen and do atleast one household chore, like a load of laundry. So that brings us to 9 o'clock to finally sit down and watch TV. But I've also had to cut out a couple of 10 o'clock shows (like Medium on Mondays, although we usually have football on now anyway until about 10:30) because I really need to go to bed before 11pm atleast a few nights a week. And in the middle of all of this, I'm supposed to be doing 30+ math problems every week and struggling my way through Shakespeare while participating online!

Okay, I'm glad I got all of that off my chest. So now I'll leave you with a funny toddler story before I sign off. The other day, as we were riding in the car, there was a motorcycle in front of us and the driver wasn't wearing a helmet. H. noticed and said, "He's not wearing a helmet." Then she paused for a minute and continued, "That's bad choices." And she was very adamant about it. This is something they have been learning about at school - not wearing a helmet, not buckling up, etc., are all "bad choices."

The work day is over and I'm off to the Goodwill Store to see if I can find something appropriate for The Awesome 80's Prom.

Just Another "Sine" That I'm Getting Old

The scientific calculator that I'm using for my current math class is the one I've had since junior high. I went online today to see if I could find the user's guide for it, since I've forgotten how to use some of the functions and it was causing problems for me last night while trying to do my homework on exponents. I don't think it's a good sign that my calculator is in the "Datamath Calculator Museum." Maybe I could sell it to this guy.

Get Out a Hankie

If you gotta go , this is the way to go. What an incredibly sweet story.

Out of Touch

Jeez! I take the day off from work, so I'm away from the computer and the Internet all day and I didn't really watch any TV today either, and Britney has her baby and Kenny & Renee break up!

Who Needs Pictures

I do! Here are some photos from last week and this weekend.

Tuesday was the first official day of pre-school, so here's H's "first day of school" photo. I do believe this is an all-Old Navy outfit - shirt, skort, shoes & socks!












N., W. & I went to see Brad Paisley Saturday night at the Baltimore Arena. The show was really good, a little short, but still good, since we finally got to see B.P. in concert. It was the annual benefit concert for Cystic Fibrosis, which always has a top-name headliner, but it's probably set up a little bit different from the regular tour show for whoever is performing. Brad Paisley was very entertaining and of course, easy on the eyes, too.









While I had my girls' night out, H. spent the night with her cousins, playing Bratz, painting, and other fun stuff.








Coming soon - before and after pictures of H's new big-girl room.

So That's How They Did It

My question about how the newspaper staff at the New Orleans Times-Picayune continued to publish the newspaper has been answered.

Study: Housework helps with hypertension

This must be some kind of cruel joke. I'm just going to pretend I never read it.

Dazed

I feel guilty going on with regular day-to-day activities when things are so atrocious and devasting in New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf. The New Orleans Times-Picayune is still publishing online (and how they are doing this, I don't know) and definitely has a more local angle you can't find with the national networks. I'm spending way too much time online, but the situation is changing so drastically every day and it's so overwhelming, I want to stay informed. I think it's easier to read the news reports than to watch the evening news coverage. I pretty much cried all through dinner last night, especially any time they showed a baby or small children.

Just my two cents - if you're having trouble deciding which charity to donate to, my sister felt that the Salvation Army was the most helpful organization to her after Hurricane Isabel, so I sent my money their way. First hand experience speaks volumes. (The money collected at Walmarts around the country (and ours already had a collection bucket out on Tuesday) also goes to the Salvation Army.)

My mom is coming over this weekend to help me paint the other bedroom. We bought H. "big-girl" furniture last weekend, which is on order, but should be here shortly. If it's here in time for her birthday, that would be great, so everyone can see it. You can check it out here. (We ordered the twin headboard (no footboard), the dresser with mirror and a nightstand. The sleigh bed version was gorgeous, but would have taken up too much room in the tiny 8 x 10 room. I'm already worried about fitting in the dresser, but we'll have to make it fit.) I've been trying to get a little bit more done in that room each night this week (when I can tear myself away from CNN), including packing up stuff that is mine that I have no where else to put (except in boxes in the basement) and removing the "panda bears playing with beach balls" border paper left behind by the previous owners. The plan is to paint the ceiling white and the walls with Kilz (to cover up the not quite Pepto Bismol pink currently on the walls) on Saturday, let it dry overnight, and then paint the walls half pale yellow, half peach the following day. Tonight I need to spackle in all the nail holes and M. needs to disassemble the daybed.

Keep New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in your hearts and minds and let's hope we see some positive stories coming from there this weekend.

There's One Born Every Minute

I just read this article from yesterday's Baltimore Sun and immediately wrote a check and dropped it in the mail to the assistant principal. I also included about $10 worth of "Box Tops for Education" that I had accumulated, but never dropped off anywhere. I think this is a situation where every little bit helps, so I hope it does. It's a shame that situations like this even exist to begin with in our public schools. (If you're interested in helping out, too, the mailing address for the school can easily be found online.)

Odds and Ends

It's already August 16 (Elvis Death Day) and I haven't posted at all in August. Shame on me! The usual excuse, we've been busy since returning from vacation. Lots of children's birthday parties to attend, plus I just started planning Hayley's for September. My new addiction to iTunes is taking up most of my computer time at home. I'm trying to cram in reading a few more books before my next round of classes (math and Shakespeare) start the day after Labor Day. I'm hosting a small scrapbooking workshop this Saturday. I actually went to the movies on Sunday, the first time in three years, to see Must Love Dogs. (The movie industry is right to be worried about declining attendance. On a Sunday afternoon that was pushing 100 degrees there were only about 10 of us in the theater. All women, by the way, and yet the usher felt it was necessary to walk up and down the aisle with his flashlight three or four different times.)

***

September is shaping up to as busy as June was - Brad Paisley concert, scrapbooking flea market, Hayley's birthday and party, back to school, various doctors appointments (easier to schedule when my boss is on vacation) and an open house at work (the first one in seven years).

***

Somehow, without even realizing it, I just read back-to-back books titled The Innocent and Innocence. They couldn't be more different. The Innocent is the latest from Harlen Coben. I've liked all of his standalones (I've never read the Myron Bolitar series), which are fast-paced and tightly written, usually with a slight twist at the end. This one wasn't one of my favorites. It required too much suspended belief on the part of the reader and you could spot the surprise ending well in advance. Innocence is the second "chick lit" book from Kathleen Tessaro, but I would say it's a little darker than most chick lit. I loved her first book, Elegance, which I thought was very creative, and her second offering didn't disappoint. Likable, well-drawn characters, with a happy ending, of course.

***

I still owe you a vacation round-up with photos. It's coming.