Don't Be Fooled.

I love Kindergarten!

This little cherubic face:


Is attached to the boy who brings his mama things like this:

Which I LOVE! This is up on my kitchen cabinet, along with the umbrella he brought me two weeks ago...

But don't be fooled by his seemingly angelic exterior!

He is poised to take over the world, if we don't watch it!

Timing is everything.

Yesterday, driving my son home from school, he asked if we could do such-and-such that evening. I said, "No, baby. I have to go to work." The poor little guy burst into tears. At first I thought it was a tantrum because I said "No." And then I thought maybe he was just being pouty.

But as he sobbed, and told me why he was so sad, I realized he really was desolated that he'd been at school all day, and now I-I-I was going to be gone all evening. "Will you be home by supper?" No. "Will you be home to start my shower?" No. "Will you be home for story and tucking?" No.

He was inconsolable.

When we got home, I sat down and typed a note to my boss. I told him that as a (newly) single parent, I have additional challeges from the average worker, and that I don't feel comfortable leaving my kids alone at night right now. I told them that beginning March 8, my availability would change to just when my kids are in school.

In retail, that's the kiss of death, because everyone has to work evenings and weekends--it's just the nature of the beast. I know that the store's needs come first, and if my availability doesn't work for them, they are free to say, "Eh, no thanks." But that's a chance I have to take, since they insist on scheduling me with all the worst possible shifts for my family. So we'll see what happens, there.

BUT!!!!!

The same night that I put that note in the manager's box, I got a voice mail from the US Census Bureau, to which I had applied and taken an exam a couple months ago. THEY HIRED ME as not just an ennumerator, but as a Quality Control officer, checking the ennumerators' work in my county. True, the job is only for 3 months, but it pays WELL more than my retail job, and it's for 40 hours a week.

That not only will look fabulous on a resume, but it will give me time, money, and breathing room to find something else full-time.

Amazing how these things work out, isn't it? :)

Regarding Tornadoes

Somewhere in Georgia:

Very unfortunate. :(

Heather asked me a good question: Where would we go if a tornado hit? Well, there are hurricane corridor signs around here, for people to get inland for those, but tornadoes, while there is some warning, there's not really enough to get GONE.

Essentially, you just have to take cover when you hear the siren.

Except on Wednesday, we didn't HEAR the siren, because the rain was SO loud! But my best friend's son (age 13) called me from his mom's house, worried that we'd be scared. He reminded me that if we heard a twister coming, to stay away from any windows. The only room that would be is the kitchen; it's interior, with house all around it, so we'd have to hunker down there and hope for the best.

I think it's still better than CA earthquakes; at least with tornadoes you know to batten down the hatches/brace yourself/prepare for impact kind of thing. No matter where you go, there's something...

You'd never know...

...that 18 hours ago, the eastern sky was black with clouds, and there was a tornado watch. Then we had some awesome lightning! But right now, it's picture perfect.

Almost reminds me of a California winter's day.

Almost.

Oh, and...

...The Prince also woke up Monday with Pink Eye.
(Not his real eyeball--somebody's, sure, but not his)

Luckily there was no school that day, but the photo of him taking over my bed is WITH his crusty crud! I had to boil all of that bedding. The pediatrician's office couldn't see him until almost 5:00; turns out he has a double ear infection, to boot, so I guess it's "lucky" I took him in when I did.

My poor little, germ-ridden, contagion carrying munchkin. I wish he'd stay offa my pillowcase.

It's Good To Be The Prince.

Yes, it's good to be the prince.



Bu-u-u-t...

It kinda sucks to be the displaced queen.

Text Bane

You send a teenager off with a bunch of other teenagers, away from her parents for a full 72 hours, and what does she do? You'd think she'd be ecstatic to be having a weekend adventure. But, no.

She texts her mother constantly, complaining of this, that, and the other thing.

Her head hurts. She has cramps. She's tired. She doesn't wanna ski. She fell down. Her gloves got wet. She feels nauseous. Oh, on and on, and onandonandonandon. I did my best to keep up with them, trying to encourage her...

...but I'm starting to get the feeling that I'm being manipulated. I finally texted her, asking if she'd like me to speak to one of the leaders, and maybe she could just go sit on the bus by herself.

I didn't hear back, after that. :)

The girl child went off on a snow retreat this weekend. I thought they were coming back Sunday afternoon, but it turns out they won't be back until Monday afternoon. I called my boss, and said, "Dude. I don't have childcare that day." I figured I'd get flack for weaseling out of working on a holiday, but he just said, "Okay, no problem." So that's cool. A Monday off; haven't had one of those in a while.

The boy child will be off school that day too, of course. I'm not sure what we'll do. Actually, if I didn't have to work tomorrow night (sure, make the middle aged divorced woman work Valentine's evening; she won't mind!), we might have made plans to go somewhere. Where? I dunno. But somewhere FUN, dang it!

However, I DO have to work tomorrow night, and I'm scheduled to be the on-duty Bridal Consultant, which would be the first time I've been alone doing it. Please, God, let all the couples go do OTHER couple-ish things, and stay outta my store. I'm just not up to it.

So I have a little time to think of something to do with the boy child on Monday. Or Sunday afternoon, for that matter. I'm open to suggestions...

Bad Idea, Boys.

Um... No.

I don't think so. Just for any male readers out there, I'd like to make it clear that it is NOT appropriate for you to buy your woman pajamas, (ESPECIALLY with a "Do Not Disturb" sign included!), for Valentine's Day.

No, no-no-no, no, nooooo.

Why? Because it's presumptuous. Now, you can't go wrong with jewelry; I don't care what kind.

But a Valentine gift should NOT include anything that YOU, the guy, can remotely benefit from. And I don't care who the woman is, when she opens a "gift" for "her" containing something like what you see above, she KNOWS it's not for HER. That's for YOU!

Oh, and no stuffed animals dressed up as your profession, either. Sorry, maybe that's harsh, but that's the truth.

NOT, mind you, that I have any experience receiving Valentines, nor do I expect to.

I'm just sayin'. Tryin' to look out for my guy friends.

Bait...

Guess what?

I'm not biting.

Chamber of Commerce

If this town were to pick a winter's day to put in the Chamber of Commerce brochures, today should have been it. It was so beautiful, today. Clear, bright, blue sky, perfect temperature, woodland creatures perfoming impromptu musical numbers, that kind of thing.

I'd have shown you a photo or two, IF I COULD FIND MY CAMERA!!! I suspect a certain blonde person with blue eyes. Mine are brown. The boy's are hazel. Who does that leave?!? Grrr. So this one will have to do.



Anyway, JT and I took advantage of the lovely weather, and the absence of his sister (she being at her dad's this weekend) to walk down to the elementary school (not his) near our house to play on the playground. It was a little farther than I'd thought, but it was such a sparkling day, it was fine. My one regret was taking the Pug along. Pain in the butt dog. As I sat on a bench and watched JT play, the stupid dog kept barking ...at NOTHING. Eventually, I figured out that, in the distance, you could see pieces of the road between the houses. HE WAS BARKING AT THE CARS AS THEY "FLASHED" in and out of sight. Dumb animal.



We had a nice time, and when we got back, the kids next door were home, so JT played over there for a while. THEY have a Wii, which makes their house infinitely more acceptable than our pathetic Wii-less house! But, we have a tree swing, which does seem to lure the offspring out into the sunshine from time to time.

And today was the picture-perfect day for it!

Moving Furniture...Again.

Alrighty, then. Yesterday was spent moving furniture around in the house...again. But this time the kids knew it was happening. :) I decided to make the under-utilized "book" (bonus-type) room into the master bedroom, give AJ the smaller, current master so she can have her own bathroom (it's frankly a little cramped for a master bath, if you ask me, but as a secondary or "junior" master room, it works). Then her old room can be a guest room.

Hint, hint! :)

Here is the result of the move, yesterday. Today has been spent finding a place for everything. I'm not finished, but it's getting there... The door next to the curtained door is the bathroom.


There's no closet in this room, so I'm using a bookshelf, temporarily. For a short term stop-gap, I'm going to get a portable closety-thing. Assuming I buy the house, in addition to having a shower put in the bathroom (it's just a powder room, now) I'll probably have both sets of bookcases turned into matching closet spaces, making it an actual master bedroom.


I really like the bed under the large window, like an extended headboard. The only thing is, I have to make sure I make the bed every morning, because it directly faces the door everyone goes in and out of. :)


There's still this whole wall of built-ins, so even giving up the other shelving, there's still storage and book/display area in here... I debated on whether to bring my desk in here, but the "breakfast" room/study/pc room directly outside (seen to the right), is much more spacious without my desk taking up the 3rd wall (4th wall is all a storage closet). Plus, if I do need to work at my desk, I can close the door, etc...

My desk used to sit against this wall, closing this room in. Try to ignore the piles on the table; eventually, that table will be a scrapbooking station...

...and the computer can still sit here. Note the plate on the floor from when the Pug got loose and THEIFED the boy's plate of grapes off of the coffee table. We rescued the grapes, but the plate went missing. Found it!

Here's the family room in it's current configuration, which is about the 6th or 7th. I think this is the winner, though. Several people can watch a movie together, or be able to chat. There's also a small area behind the sofa for JT to play, or color, etc...

Here's the front room, which has been tweaked a few times, as well. I think this is how it will stay for the foreseeable future, though. Dig those white walls! If I buy this place, I'm just going to have to paint! I don't do white walls!

That white chair was in my room, before, but this corner kept bugging me. I tried a table, I tried a tv, I tried a plant, but nothing worked. This little reading-corner set up feels right. It's a nice place to sit, away from the rest of the house.

You can see the dining room beyond this. I have never had a formal dining room, so it's a little weird for me. Haven't USED it, yet, but I very much hope to! :)

No-o-t Fu-u-nny!

There's a U.S. Air Base not too far from here. They fly sorties, of course. The jets, however, tend to break the sound barrier ri-i-i-ght about when they're over our town.
BOOM!
I'm telling you, it sounds like a truck has hit the house, the windows rattle, etc...

Now, what do you think a California girl thinks is happening when the HOUSE SHAKES?!?

The first time it happened, I called my friend and yelled, "What WAS that?!?" He laughed.

Yeah. He laughed at me. "You've never heard a sonic boom, before?"

"It's not funny. No, not that I can remember. Does that happen a lot?"

"Um...only about every day or so."

"Great. I wonder how long I'll instinctively duck and cover..."

Gotta hand it to 'em!

Somehow along the way, I have gotten on Chuck E. Cheese's email list. They send coupons every now and then, so that's alright. But this morning, I got one that made me laugh.

The reference line read, "Economic Stimulus Package..."

"...For Family Fun!"

I thought that was pretty clever. Way to capitalize on the nation's headlines! And, way to try to get folks to part with their coin, during a time when people are having to cut back. (Not that I don't ADORE Chuck E. Cheese's, what with the deafening decibel level, myriad unhinged waifs, and the aroma of dirty socks...)

I wondered when the proliferation of Starbucks, for example, would catch up. I mean, for HOW LONG did we expect people to shell out $4 (or more!) for a cup of coffee? Oh, there are those who just get the cheaper plain old COFFEE, I know, but of course where the addiction lies is with the espresso drinks.

But it was only a matter of time (and money) before consumers had to make a choice. Hmmmn... Do I pay the gas bill this month so the house will stay warm, or do I spend $80 on coffee? Personally, I've been cut from 20 hours per week to 12, so I'm afraid groceries and gasoline have to come before my (admittedly beloved) Grande Iced Latte (w/1 SnL, tyvm!).

And, unfortunately, the electric bill and the phone bill have to come before spending 40 bucks in one evening on Skeeball and Whack-a-Mole, even as much as my son loves those things (and as much as I love watching him shell 17 consecutive tokens into what essentially amounts to a gambling device).

The saving grace for me is where we now live. In California, we drove RIGHT PAST a Chuck E. Cheese's on the way to and from church. EVERY Sunday, and EVERY Wednesday, I had to have the, "Oh, please Mama, tan't we puh-leeze go to Chuckie's?!?..." conversation. Here, I don't even know where the closest location IS, which is my tactic: "Gee, honey, I haven't seen one here..."

And while I intend to keep it that way for as long as possible, I still have to award a kudo to CEC for their marketing. Well played.

One Word.

Using ONLY ONE WORD! It's not as easy as you might think! Copy and change the answers to suit you and pass it on. It's really hard to only use one word answers.

1. Where is your cell phone? Pocket.

2. Your significant other? None.

3. Your hair? Medium.

4. Your mother? Gone.

5. Your father? California.

6. Your favorite? Latte.

7. Your dream last night? Forgotten.

8. Your favorite drink? Diet.

9. Your dream/goal? Pending.

10. What room you are in? Study.

11. Your hobby? Surveys.

12. Your fear? Fear.

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Anywhere.

14. Where were you last night? Sofa.

15. Something that you aren't? Surprised.

16. Muffins? Please!

17. Wish list item? Architecture.

18. Where you grew up? Brea.

19. Last thing you did? Avocado.

20. What are you wearing? Fuzzy.

21. Your TV? Off.

22. Your pets? Superfluous.

23. Your friends? Distant.

24. Your life? Complex.

25. Your mood? Contemplative.

26. Missing someone? Yup.

27. Car? Woody.

28. Something you're not wearing? Gloves.

29. Your favorite store? Open.

30. Your favorite color? Red.

33. When is the last time you laughed? Forgot.

34. Last time you cried? Last?

35. Who will resend this? Bored.

36. One place that I go to over and over? Bathroom?!?

37. One person who emails me regularly? Tricia.

38. My favorite place to eat? Steakhouse.

39. Favorite shoe? Sexy.

40. Most visited website? MySpace?