the secret to my success

is taking one benadryl at a time. if you take two, you will be retarded, but one will help quiet down your runny nose and still let you be understandable to others. 

you can see the trees spewing junk into the air, so my sneezing and running nose is not a big surprise.  it is still, though, annoying.  seasonal allergies are for suckers.  meaning, me.

lounge-o-rama

today the kids and i rented not one or two movies, we rented four.  i bought some flavored coffee creamer, which i never do (i like my coffee black) but today i was feeling like settling in for some serious film watching and knitting.  sweet coffee seemed appropriate.  i also bought a giant bag of chocolate chips, so tonight i can make cookies.  we had giant hamburgers for lunch at five guys, and at this very moment, both of the kids are sitting quietly with me in the living room, playing games and waiting for our lounging afternoon to begin. 

last night D and i went out and had drinks and saw friends, and we were talking about all the cool things the kids do, and how we think they'll have happy memories of us when they get older.  we don't know for sure, of course, but how can a memory of us all singing the same song and making up new verses in the kitchen be anything but a happy memory?  

working blues

i don't talk a lot about my job for a few reasons, one of them being HIPAA.  some of the most interesting cases i get are interesting because they're specific, and i live in a small enough area that if you were an interesting case and i wrote about it (and you somehow read this little blog), you'd know it.  which is a shame, because even though i'm not a trained medical professional, i've learned a lot at my job at and seen some cool stuff.   it's exciting to see how the body works around supposed limitations and how inventive people can be when faced with a body part that doesn't want to work in the right way.  i tend to meet a lot of different people with a lot of different and remarkable stories, and for whatever time i get to spend with them, i get to hear those stories.  that part of my job is the best, and i've been fortunate enough to meet some really amazing people.

baby booties

in one way or another, i've started this blog post a million times.  i never publish it for fear of sounding even more whiny or neurotic, but if you read my blog at all, you know that i am, indeed, both a bit high-strung and admit it often.  i feel like before i say or write something like this i need to preface it with a whole lot of talk about how i love the kids, i love my husband, i feel happy and secure in this family of mine, and that overall i do understand how fortunate i am.  i have a home i'm happy to come to every night after work, i live with people i love and moreover, genuinely like, the kids are old enough that D and i get to spend a fair amount of alone time together, and all that jazz.  while that's all well and true, that's not what i'm going to talk about.

back to school time

the kids started the new school year yesterday! they both had good days, which was nice to hear. neither one of them was whiny when they got up either, and i think even if no one would ever admit it, they were glad to go back.  this is the boychik's last year, meaning in a month or so we can look forward to getting fleeced by josten's.  i'm not sure why it because de riguer to buy a graduation gown; you wear them once for a few hours and then feel guilty throwing them away a few years later.  what happened to renting? did too many high school seniors get crabs? i'm going to try buying one on ebay. does that make me a cheap stepmother? probably.

the girlchild is in the 7th grade now, and i admit being more than nervous about the upcoming year.  last year her grades were terrible, her attitude was even worse, and we spent many miserable hours and months trying to figure out what was going on and what we could do about it.  this year she's enrolled in a program that is supposed to help her study skills and organization, as well as provide a little extra math and reading help.  when it comes to the girl and her grades, i admit that D and i approach it from very different points of view.  i think that's part of the reason i'm not looking forward to this year.  she's a bright kid, but if things are hard, she just gives up. she is also under the assumption that she's already "good" at math, and doesn't need to try anymore, and to be honest, she's not that good at math.  she doesn't consistently fail it, but she never aces it either.  she has a hard time finishing what she starts, keeping track of assignments, and on more than one occasion she's just flat-out lied to us about what she had to do/when she had to do it/what was going on.  i'm definitely more of the disciplinarian, which is a shitty role, but considering one kid does well and never needs much in the way of supervision when it comes to school, i guess it evens out.  my plan this year is to make things kind of hard to start with.  instead of taking away stuff like tv and computer time and going outside when things go bad, from the very start she's going to have to prove that she can do her schoolwork first.  meaning, no computer time until after 7:30, and if she wants half an hour of facebook and shit, she's got to give me half an hour of reading.  if she wants to be allowed to watch any tv (for us, netflix) or a movie, she's going to have to have all her homework done as well as her chores.  she has to tell us what is due and when every day, via her assignment log.  i know it sounds harsh, and it is, but last year she brought home a report card with three D's and 2 F's and didn't see anything wrong with it.  the way i see it, if things start out kind of gulag-y, then they can only get better, right? i don't necessarily want to punish her for last years grades, but i don't want her thinking she can skate until she gets caught again, either. 

just thinking about all of this makes my blood pressure go up.  i'm going to try to be optimistic, i swear, but if this year is like last year, i don't know what i'm going to do.  i'm not a very good tutor for her while sober, and this sort of thing makes me want a big old glass of boxed wine, and guess what? i'm worse at explaining fractions then.

good morning hair

when i woke up this morning and went to the bathroom to pee, i didn't bother putting my glasses on.  if i'm getting right back into bed, it seems silly.  when i went to wash my hands afterward though, i saw that my hair looked awesome this morning.  or at least, it did in a very blurry, there's-not-enough-light-in-here to really see, sort of way.  i said to D, "i know i don't have my glasses on, but i have a feeling that i have some amazing morning hair going on."  he agreed.  then i put on my glasses, and you know what? it really did look good.  in fact, it looks great.  unfortunately, that will only last about five more minutes, and then it will revert to it's greasy morning look.  dammit. 

lemon jelly

D likes dub, techno, whatever it is they call all those blippy poppy songs that kids high on E adore.  which isn't to say he wanders around the house in giant pants and blows a whistle when he gets excited, but he does like music that's a bit ambient and groovy.  the other night while looking at boat videos on youtube he stumbled upon a band that's new to all of us, lemon jelly.  specifically, he ran into this song, and was pretty excited to show it to us.  the past week has found us all singing it and goofing on it, changing the lyrics, looking up new songs and playing those too. 

the past two weeks have been like real summer break.  halcyon and warm, everyone in a good mood, playful and energetic.  it's a shame summer break ends always ends at this point; you spend a month getting things done, a month getting into a groove, and then right as you're actually having a fun time, it ends. part of me is ready for the kids to go back to school, part of me is going to miss the fist bumps and singing in the kitchen while making dinner.

we're brewing up our winter plans.  we'd like to build a canoe, which i know sounds crazy, but all of us are into it.  i want to build the hazelnut, the boys are into the prospector, and i think the girlchild thinks there is no way we'll get it done.  she does think building it will be fun, but doesn't think we've got the stamina to get it finished!  so far we've just looked at a lot of plans and talked about what to name the boat.  personally, i want to name it bollo, after the ape from the mighty boosh.  we're also unsure if we'll paint it red or blue.  or green.  these things are important!