Wednesday, September 26, 2007

shut down orkut

Hey y'all:

There is this website called Orkut. I won't go into what it is but read up on what's going on with it here: click here and click here

And then click here to sign an online petition to get rid of it: petition

It's about protecting our children, so please check it out.

Thanks.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

time off

So I just got back from my retreat this weekend, and I have just one word.

Aaaaaahhhhhhh.

I love my annual women's retreat. It comes right after the most hectic time of year at the Tragically Unhip household--right when summer is over and school starts and we're all trying to work out our new routines. Right around now is when I'm just about to go over the deep end--and then comes my weekend away.

Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh.

So yeah. It was fun. We had a speaker, as usual, but this time it was my favorite speaker so far, Priscilla Shirer of Going Beyond Ministries. She spoke the first time I went to this particular retreat too, three years ago. She's a very engaging speaker--nothing is worse than a speaker who has a good message to give but who loses the message through a haze of too-quiet mumbling and foot shuffling. So yeah, she's good. I want to check out one of her bible studies sometime.

There was so much other stuff to do. I climbed a huge new rock wall and almost got to the top of the hard, jutting-out side! I could reach around the ledge and grab on...but then what?! :)

I shot guns: a .22 and a shotgun. I'm pretty accurate with the .22 (at the mind-boggling distance of about 20 feet, hehe) but bad with the shotgun, which kicks. I mean, the guy said there are a hundred bb's in the cartridge, and I only managed to hit the target with two. Anyway, I do have to say that rifle ranges are a good stress reliever! And archery, which I also did and which I also stank at. :) I could hit the target (which, again, was a mind boggling TEN feet away) but that's about all I could say about that.

Lets see, what else. I was wearing my Zumba instructor jacket all weekend so finally my bunkmates asked what Zumba is. I told them and they wanted me to show them. Wouldn't you know I just happened to have my music and a CD player in the car, so w had a mini Zumba class in the bunk, and again after playing volleyball that night.

We were up SO late Saturday night, eating ice cream, dancing, playing volleyball with the group of girls that play every year, Zumbando, talking...til 3 am. I made some great new friends, which is pretty much my favorite thing to do! :)

After coffee on Sunday morning (one of my favorite things on this retreat--all the coffee, tea, and hot cocoa you want, 'round the clock. Genius I tell you.) I had to leave for work.

Hahaha! I laugh just thinking about it.

I was such a grouch at work that day. I'd had like 5 hours of sleep all weekend, and was tired and sore and dehydrated. At least it was busy, which means it went fast.

So that was my weekend. Oh, that and I killed a spider yesterday that was about the size of a small dog, and just as furry. When a spider is big enough to have FUR? That's scary. *shudder*

I hate spiders.

Now I'm off to catch up on all the housework that didn't get done over the weekend. Whee!!

Monday, September 24, 2007

quick post

I have a lot to write about--I just had a blast at my weekend retreat--but for here's something to tide you over until I get back from the bus stop with Devy.


Tuesday, September 18, 2007

some random observations from the tragically unhip household

  1. It doesn't matter how many Zumba routines, kids' birthdays, song lyrics, gossip details, or job prodcedures I can memorize--if it is a dentist appointment, I will forget it.
  2. The fake cobwebs we put up for Halloween are competing with the ones the spiders left...and losing.
  3. It doesn't matter how long or hard I clean the house all week long--after a weekend of me working and the rest of the family home, it will just look like it did before.
  4. Just because a diaper is cheap doesn't mean you should buy it. In fact, diapers are one of those things you should really splurge on. Unless, y'know, you like cleaning up that kind of stuff. Freak.
  5. Babies can't digest corn.
  6. Goldfish crackers make good last-minute coating for homemade chicken nuggets.
  7. I feel guilty spending $30 on fuzzy warm boots I will wear all fall and winter, but it's way easy to spend the same amount on a Halloween costume my kid will wear once for about two hours.
  8. I seriously need to hire some 12-year-old kid to teach me how to use my new cell phone. Seriously. How the heck do I text someone? Get my pictures from my phone to my computer? Change my voicemail message? Anyone??!

Monday, September 17, 2007

Craziness!

School is back in session, which means the Tragically Unhip household has been inundated with paperwork.

Cuz, y'know, it just wouldn't be school if they weren't sending home requests for volunteers for the school parent association (gag me), the library, the computer room, the school fair, the school store, the fundraisers, and the school walk; reminders to send payments for school lunches, school pictures, book fairs, and student magazine subscriptions (for which the teachers sign up the kids and then demand payment from the parents); memos on a thousand different school policies, and on and on.

Then, for parents stupid enough to provide their telephone numbers, there are the twice or three-times-weekly prerecorded telephone calls reminding parents of upcoming events. The upcoming events that we are also reminded of in the weekly emails we so foolishly provided addresses for.

When, exactly, do I start to just send my kid off to school without worrying about the homework she's going to bring me ?!

And now that two of the girls are in school, it's all doubled.

Sometimes I think those homeschoolers have got something.

Then the coffee kicks in. ;)

In other news...this weekend I am going away on my sweet, sweet annual women's retreat. Roughly 48 hours of no kids, no hubby, no chores, no diapers, no work...and I get to see my good friend Connie who, incidentally, I met on the retreat my first time there three years ago.

We always have such a great time--especially playing volleybally until the wee hours of the morning. Connie usually whoops my behind. I'm not too athletically inclined. ;) And there's crafts, a rifle range, archery, pedicures, quiet time, a talent show of some sort, and all the coffee and hot cocoa I can drink. All in the very beautiful mountain lakeside scenery of upstate New England in the fall.

Can't wait!!

Thursday, September 06, 2007

people like me shouldn't blog, redux

I posted this on my weight loss blog but thought I'd bring it over here too. It's two! Two! Two posts in one!

Why do some people just have to try to bring other people down? Are they SO miserable?

That's it. I'm way too sensitive for this internet crap.

I was on YouTube browsing through videos looking for choreography videos for Zumba class. There was this one chick who make a whole series of videos on how much Zumba sucks/is stupid/should tell people they look bad in tank tops before letting them up on stage. She was so mean! I couldn't help wondering what she was doing there if all she was going to do was make fun of people.

Oh. You mean, like, maybe that is why she was there? Do people really suck that hard?

Part of me really, really, wanted to comment and point out that she's no prize-winner herself. The better part of me argued that that would just make me like her. So I totally started a flame-war on her butt.

OK, kidding. I kept my mouth shut.

And then I commented on this other video to tell the girl how great a dancer she was and I would love to try some of her moves in my class. Someone replied and said "whatever, Zumba sucks anyway, it's not real choreography" except they said it in the too-cool-to-spell-correctly way that all the hip kids do (gag).

Like I freakin asked you?

GRR!

I would never dream of trying to cut down someone I don't even know. It's bad enough being mean to people in person who you might legitimately have some kind of beef with. But anonymously online? Pretty tough when you're just some empty faceless voice, right?!

Life is hard. Instead of making it harder for each other, how 'bout we go through life buoying each other up?

Just a thought. Oh, and have I told you I like your hair like that? You look nice. ;) hehe

And oh yeah!! School started today! I'm such a bad mom--I forgot the camera, so there are no pictures of my baby Devy's first day of school. I'm going to dress her up in the same outfit tomorrow and pretend it's today. I kid.

But oh my goodness did I CRY like a big freakin baby when she got on that bus! She just...ran up like she has been waiting for this day for three years or something. Oh wait, she has. I remember so well the day Jo started kindergarten and it was everything I could do to keep Devy from climbing up into the bus behind her big sister. She was only 2 but she didn't care. She wanted to go to school!

Uh...Oh, there I go again. *sigh*

But!! I had a Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino today from Starbucks and while I don't think I'll go the frappuccino route next time--too sweet--the pumpkiny flavor and chilly air and the leaves that are omg already starting to fall made me all fall-ish. Yum.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

i wanna be feared and despised when i grow up!

I had a dentist appointment this morning.

The good news is, not only did I actually go, as opposed to the last two or three appointments that I skipped, but only once did I get poked in a place that sent me jumping out of my chair. I thought it was going to be much worse. I credit God for listening to my desperate prayers while squirming in the chair waiting to start. Thanks God, you're the Man.

The bad news is, I have so many freaking cavities that the dentist's office has to call my insurance company to schedule the treatments. You know, so the insurace will cover them all? Yeah. That sucks.

The other good news is I got a prescription for Valium! Real live Valium! Because if it takes me three or four tries to go in for a cleaning, just imagine how nauseous I get when the words "root" and "canal" come into play!

Now I just have to get someone to take care of my kids all day so I can sedate myself before my Appointment with Hell.

In other news...T-minus 24 minutes and counting until Devy gets on the bus. Somebody hold me!

Saturday, September 01, 2007

colors of fall

Signs that I am not ready to send the kids back to school:
  1. I'm bothering to blog about it.
  2. I still haven't bought school snacks because looking at anyting vaguely back-to-school related makes me all teary.
  3. I'm pouting as I write this.
  4. I refuse to go to sleep because when I wake up it will be one day closer to back-to-school and don't bother trying any of that "It's coming regardless of whether you sleep" logic crap.
  5. There are large amounts of things not normally found in the Tragically Unhip household such as Pop Tarts (which suddenly come in delish ice-cream-y flavors like mint chocolate chip and cookie dough) and expensive sugary brand-name cereals and Oreos and five cartons of ice cream (although one is actually a box of ice cream pops, so there) partly because I want to give my children special treats--and we don't usually use food as reward around here, not healthy, don'tcha know--and partially (OK, mostly) because I'm all emotional and eat-y.

It isn't usually like this. Usually, by the second week of August I'm all, "Someone call the school! They've got to open early! Get these kids out of my house!!!" But this year I'm just not ready. I don't want my babies to leave me!!

Why? Well, I think there are a few things. For one, we had a great, fun summer. Last summer Bek was a little baby and I was overwhelmed and PPD and we didn't really do much or go anywhere or see anyone. This summer she's older, I'm healthy, we did lots of fun stuff, and I don't want it to end.

For another thing, this is the first year that Devy is going to school. She was my baby for four years before Bek was born, and now she's all...big. She's reading and writing and conversing and getting independent and where she used to be a little fraidy-girl princess, she's now braver and stronger and more sure of herself. And I put her hair up for the first time (ever!) today and I swear she looked 7, not 5. Not my baby.

...hold on...there I go...gimme a second...

OK.

And Jo, the oldest. She's 8. She's so great. I love talking to her, and she's not a little girl anymore. She's still young, of course, but you can see the young woman she's going to be. She's matured so much.

I am so, so thankful I get to stay home during the day to be with my babies before they're off to school. Cuz once they go to school it's like you're no longer their primary influence. Their number one concern is no longer whether they're pleasing you. The whole world comes into play. And it's wonderful, and I'm thankful that I can give our girls a solid foundation from which to launch them. It just stinks because sometimes it feels like that's it for me. I've done my job and now, because I work nights and weekends and don't get to spend much time with Jo during the school year, I have to release her to daddy and the rest of the world. Good thing hubby's there--what would I do otherwise?

Oh, the melodrama. I just had to get it off my chest. :)

Now I can concentrate on all the good things about school starting...like FALL!! My favorite season!! And pumpkins, ooh, and pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks, and sweaters, and tights, and boots, and crunchy leaves, and the smell of fires burning, and HALLOWEEN! and crisp apples and apple picking! and cider and hay rides and haunted houses and hot cocoa... I love fall! Fall fall fall, fall fall fall...