Bloggy Photo Days - Saturday

My day on Saturday started out at 6:30 am with a little munchkin in my bed who thought it was an appropriate time to get up. I disagreed, so I crashed on the couch whilst she watched cartoons:

Thumbelina is practicing saying Hi in the background - this picture cracks me up:

7:30 am - Breakfast:

Ahhhhhhh...the Breakfast of Champions:

8:30 am - Time for morning nap:

10:00 am - Still napping (I dare not move lest she awakens):

11:00 am - Time to hang a picture I bought on one of my many shopping adventures this past week (this is the before):

And the after:

I really like this picture:

12:00 - Time for lunch:

Thumbelina enjoys a rice krispie square:

1:00 pm - Time to clean up the kitchen:

2:00 pm - Playtime

3:30 pm - Need to pick up the drycleaning:

Good thing I had me a helper:

4:00 pm - Groceries:

I truly hate grocery shopping:

5:30 pm - What do you do when you have a crabby baby who's had enough with supper and everything around her?

You stick her in water:

It mysteriously washes all your worries away:

6:30 pm - Too tired to cook...again, we're all about the healthy:

7:00 pm - Don't feel like cleaning the kitchen, so I practice instead:

While bathing the other offspring:

But alas, I can neglect it no longer:

7:30 pm - Playing a Hunting game with some more offspring:

8:00 pm - Time for dessert while I read some more blogs:

9:00 pm - Time to iron

My new iron (Husband thinks it's really sad that I'm this excited about a new iron that I would take the time to post a picture of it for you all to see):


We watched Taladega Night: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby last night, seeing as how we're huge NASCAR fans and all. Um yah. That's two hours of my life I'll never get back.

Photo Bloggy Days - Friday

My day on Friday started at 6:00 am. Unfortunately, I forgot that it was the start of PBD (Photo Bloggy Days), so I didn't get a picture of the baby in my bed or the shower. These pictures do not reflect my typical day, however, they do reflect my typical day during the past week. Shaggy had a week long training session for the Davis Program and we commuted to the city each day. It was a long week, but so worth it.

Saying goodbye to the children:


7:30 am - Leaving with Major Trouble:


Our commute is almost 90 minutes one way:


8:30 am - Coming into the city:


9:00 am - Where Shaggy spent his day:


Breakfast!


Where I spent my day:


But first I need coffee:


Because I have a lot of shopping to do:


12:00 pm - Lunch time at the foodcourt:


I try to make healthy choices:


1:00 pm - Back for the afternoon session:


*Friday was the last day for Shaggy's program, so in the afternoon, Husband drove up and joined me for a training session for us to help Shaggy continue with what he has learned.

4:00 - pm - Shopping at a Man store:


5:00 pm - Dinner:


I love this barn (we saw it each day on our commute home):


8:00 pm - Home again after being gone for 12 1/2 hours:


I missed my girl so much!


8:30 pm - Bedtime:


10:00 pm - Still have office work to do:


But it's more fun to catch up on blogs:


So my day ended around 11:00 pm, when I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.

The 80's

Your 80s Hunk Is

Kirk Cameron

Who's Your 80s Hunk?

Guess what! When your pinky finger slips off of the apostrophe key and hits the enter key by mistake, your post gets published whether you're ready for it to be or not!

I am taking part in Shanny's Photo Bloggy Days, so sooner or later I will have my pictures up.

I'm Tired

All this week Shaggy is doing the Davis Program for his dyslexia. We started today, so far so good. He really enjoyed it and Thumbelina and I got a lot of shopping done. She is such a great baby to take anywhere, she just goes with the flow. But I am tired and it's going to be a long week. It's a 90 minute drive, so we need to leave the house by 7:30, and with traffic, we didn't get home until 6:00 pm today. And I can't come home during the day and have someone else pick him up in the afternoon because Shaggy is on his own during lunch from 12 - 1 pm. There were a few tense moments of driving when I just wanted to close my eyes...rubbing helps, as does pulling off to the side of the road and getting a banana from the back of the tran to eat...oh, and did you know that although leather seats are uber great, they are uber slippery when you're trying to change a baby's diaper. Just thought you should know.

One day down, 4 to go.

And I googled Ikea, and the closest one to where we're at is like 45-60 minutes away...which doesn't give us any time to shop. Bummer.

It's becoming almost a chore to feed Thumbelina. Right now she is disgusted by anything remotely resembling baby food. Especially if it comes from a jar. So people food it is, but one day she'll gobble something up, and the next it's flung from her highchair with a giggle and a smile. And an 'uh-oh'.

Is it wrong of me to take something out of my assistant's desk drawer that she first took out of mine? I have a passion for all things post-it. It's a sickness, I know, and the 3-M company has made a lot of money off of me. I can't resist them. So I was looking all over for a particular post-it pad of mine, because even though I have an abundance of them, they are all used for different things. Different colours reflect my moods...you know...so as a last resort, I checked her desk and there it was. So I took it back. And I replaced it with a brand-new package or ordinary post-its so she wouldn't think I was stealing. I'm not about the ordinary. In case you hadn't figured that out yet. In our storage room, there is a whole shelf of ordinary post-its that she won't touch. She only goes after mine. My favourite little teeny tiny post-it pad that I use all the time was one day torn in half. The bottom half was in her drawer, so I took it back. I have personal space issues, people. Stay out of my desk. Today I found post-it's in the shape of my initial. So of course I had to buy them. Let's see her try and sneak those from my desk!

A Pictorial Essay

I never did tell you about my adventures last weekend, did I. Are you in for a treat! Last Friday we had quite the storm. Quite the storm. The boys were convinced there was a tornado coming, and for a few minutes, I was wondering that as well. The storm pretty much blew itself out after about 10 minutes of heavy winds and rain, and then it just rained for about an hour. In the meantime, our power went out. And stayed out. Zoomer went bowling with the youth group, so when I dropped him off, the remaining offspring and myself went out for pizza for supper. Husband was able to join us at the end of our meal...but when we got home, the power was still off.

And it stayed off all night. And even all the next day. In total, it was off for 29 hours. 29 hours. At least it wasn't the dead of winter this time. But it did bring on a whole new dilemma for me...Husband and I were supposed to go to the city for our agencies 10th annivesary celebrations. And Husband can't leave the farm if the power is off because he needs to make sure the generators are working okie-dokie for the livestock.

Which meant, I had to go it alone. To the city. The big honkin' city. I've been there a million times, just not as the person actually operating the vehicle...so this was huge for me to drive. Huge. You have no idea how huge. Seriously. Dolores mentioned a few weeks ago about beating her Goliath...well, this was my Goliath. When you grow up in a nothing little town where the big excitement is watching the traffic lights change colour, driving to the big honkin' city is huge. Huge people. I know you're tired of me saying that, but you'll just have to trust me on it.

Anyhoo, I took Zoomer and Thumbelina with me, of course, and we had such a great great time. We saw most everybody from our travel group, and we met RDC who was supposed to be in our travel group - Cassia and Lily are such darlings! Go check out their pictures...I'll wait...cute, aren't they! Did I mention we had a great time? Okay, enough chit-chat, pictures:

Mommies with their Daughters:


The city skyline:


Having a crawling race (no, Thumbelina didn't win...it just looks that way in the picture):


I really love this picture, even though I never wear my hair like this but I dind't have a choice because of the whole power issues (no blow-dryer, no curling iron), and I'm not going to point out to you all the things I dislike about myself, because I really love this picture:


Isn't this great? The babies' beatin' up on the big kid:


Dragon dancer:


Dummer:


Thumbelina wasn't too sure about the dragon nor the drummer...she was frozen and grasping on to me, so we went to the back of the room to watch...the drummer had been right beside us for quite awhile. Still had a great time.

Answers

My head is swimming; I don't even know where to start.

When last you left our heroine (that's me), she was crabby crabby. You remember the note I wrote to Shaggy's teacher? She requested a meeting with us on the last day of school. Husband wasn't too thrilled with me. I believe his exact words were You know, we're probably the only people in the world to meet with the teacher on the last day of school. Whatever. Let me back up and refresh your memory, in case you didn't read crabby crabby. I wrote a note to his teacher (Shaggy's, not Husband's) asking for an explanation as to why he got such a low grade in computers on his report card. And last Wednesday's note was the 4th such note, except this one, although I didn't mean it to sound sarcastic, sounded quite sarcastic. Turns out that Shaggy was throwing the notes away before the teacher even had a chance to read them. How do I know? Because I found a crumpled one in his backpack. Ugh. So at the meeting I apologized right away.

To make a very long story shorter and much more enjoyable to read, I told her all the grievances I had against her and she told me all the grievances she had against me. She thought I didn't care about Shaggy's academics and was so angry at me that she couldn't even look at me. For six months. And if I didn't care, then why should she. So that's really what all this squabbling and snottiness back and forth boiled down to. And in reality, nothing could be further from the truth. At the meeting in December that the teacher was referring to, I was upset and refused to cry, because at another meeting, I did cry, and she had such a look of satisfaction on her face, so in December I didn't want to give her the satisfaction and sat very rigidly and didn't talk very much. I hate it when people see me cry. Hate it. So this whole situation was a big, giant misunderstanding. And one where Shaggy ultimately paid the price. And yes, we are friends again, but with a bit of caution on my part. Because I'm not a very trusting peron by nature, and I usually think that most people have a hidden agenda. But not you, of course.

Which brings us to today. Today was Shaggy's assessment. And guess what! Go on, guess! He does have dyslexia. I knew it. Let this be a lesson to you ~ always trust you gut instinct. If Shaggy is wanting to, we will start the Davis Program, but it is completely up to him, because even though Husband and I want to move forward with this, if Shag isn't willing, then it won't work. So far he's wanting to do it.

I'm happy and anxious at the same time. Happy because I knew he was dyslexic; anxious because a part of me thinks What if this doesn't work either. We've been to the naturopath, who promised it was all diet related, but even changing his diet didn't fix it. It did, however, bring to our attention foods that trigger negative behaviors in him, and I'm glad we investigated that route, because we know what foods to keep him away from. We've also tried Hooked on Phonics with dismal results. We didn't even get past the first level. It was disheartening. I was told today that Hooked on Phonics won't work for most dyslexics because phonics isn't the way they can learn to read. It's too confusing to them. I also took him, a couple of years ago, to see a doctor for an assessment, or so I thought. The doctor gave him a list of words to read, which he did, and the doctor said to me, He's not dyslexic. Let's see if he's ADD and put him on Ritalin. I said no, the doctor said he couldn't help me, and that was that.

So Shaggy came away from the assessment pretty happy. And that's my day. My boy is happy and I'm happy.

My happy boy all ready for Jr. Band in September:




My happy girl:

Crabby Crabby

I am beyond irritable today. You really should stay away from me. I am confrontational, which is so totally unlike me, but it is also the 7 year anniversary of when my Dad passed away, so I guess I'm entitled to take a Crab Day once a year or so. Shut up, Melvin, it is so only once a year...

You can stay and listen to me whine if you want; otherwise you can scroll down to the pictures and enjoy Thumbelina in all her messy supper silliness.

So. Where to begin. I was a little peeved with my assistant...I had told her that she only needs to come in 3 days a week for the summer, unless we get busier (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday). She said she would start that schedule once the kids were finished school, which is next week. Except yesterday she didn't come in to work and didn't let me know she wasn't coming. What bothers me is that she said one thing and did another thing. So I said to her today, I didn't know you weren't coming in to work yesterday. That's me being confrontational. And she said Oh, I'm sorry. Totally not the answer I was expecting...not that I was looking for a fight...and then I said, You said you were going to start that when the kids were done school, which is next week, so I just thought you'd be in yesterday. And she said, Well were you busy? Ooooo, that's not the point. Yesterday wasn't the greatest of days because we were looking in vain for things she has filed. I'm not sure if we'll ever find what we're looking for. Cause she can't even find it.

And then twice today, she answered my extension when my phone rang. Not just my phone, but my extension. Everybody has their own phone and own extension, so when my extension rings, there's no reason for her to get up from her desk to answer it. It's not for her, so leave it alone. So after the second time, I told her not to answer my extension; if I'm not around to answer it, it will go to my voicemail.

Needless to say, she mostly ignore me today. Whatever.

But that's not all. I wrote a note to Shaggy's teacher. I know, I know, I know, I need to stop doing this because it only causes trouble. Shag got an extremely low grade in computers on his last report card (32%...in computers!) and I've written 3 notes (today was #4) asking why it was so low. And I just don't understand why she can't answer. Shaggy forgot his homework book at school, so I have no idea what her response was because I wrote I know you're extremely busy, otherwise you would have answered the previous three notes I sent, but if you could please just take the time to let me know why he got 32% in computers I would really, really appreciate it. Yah, I probably should have worded it differently, but I've been trying to find out for the last 5 weeks. And now in church, when we pass each other in the hallway and I look at her with a smile, she looks the other way. I find the whole situation childish and irritating.

So that's my day. There's more, but I don't feel like getting into it right now.

The end.

Oh, yah, here's Princess Thumbelina:







She is the highlight of my day, even though she was disgusted by everything I offered to her for lunch. She even rejected her beloved Baby Mum Mums. I guess sometimes a girl just isn't hungry.

I am Uhura

Shamelessy stolen from Roses at Ack!Thbbbt!

Your results:
You are Uhura

Uhura 65% Chekov 60% Beverly Crusher 60% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 55% James T. Kirk (Captain) 45% Geordi LaForge 45% Deanna Troi 45% Jean-Luc Picard 40% Data 39% Will Riker 35% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 25% Mr. Scott 25% Spock 24% Worf 20% Mr. Sulu 5%

You are a good communicator with a pleasant soft-spoken voice. Also a talented singer.

Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Test

Backyard Beach

Today was hotter than hot, seriously, so Zoomer blew up Thumbelina's new ladybug swimming pool. And outside we went. Except the boys were playing in it whilst The Princess was still napping, and rather than come to a pool with coolish water, we were greeted to a pool with cold water. Because they kept dumping the water to get the grass out. So she never did go swimming, because she is, after all my daughter, and needs sauna-like temps to even stick a toe in. Instead, we just hung out on a couple of towels, enjoying the shade.

Ooooo, is that a fly? I wonder if I can catch it:


What do you mean the water is cold??


I'm a Princess! I don't do cold water!


Hey kid! Stop putting cold water in my pool!


At least I have a cute bathing suit: