liza thinks

A rare day

What a difference a week makes, eh? Snow is rare in our neck of the woods but we got a good blast of it this morning. By mid-afternoon, I guess it was GONE but still it was a fun way to start the day. I walked into the kitchen to make my coffee and thought, "Wow, that rain sure is heavy . . . and white." What can I say, it was early in the AM. I woke up Mr Wonderful and the Boy Wonder (The Princess was at a sleepover in another town and missed it!). So fun!

Here is my gorgeous maple tree dressed for winter . . .

Maybe, just maybe . . .

. . . creating a list will help (or perhaps it will simply overwhelm me completely and I'll sink into an abyss of my own creation! :) )

Dogs
------
- return Gander to his breeder (sad but necessary)
- find a way for Rosie to sleep indoors without destroying the house

Kids
------
- make The Boy Wonder dentist appt
- get The Princess' teeth sealed
- set up chore list for kids
- get back to after-dinner schedule for bathing/clean-up/etc.
- take The Princess to get a present for KatKin

Home
-------
- go through pictures for Mr Wonderful
- get on top of laundry
- create and stick with schedule that is realistic and works for housecare
- get Quicken and Quickbooks back on my computer
- get household finances caught up and pay bills
- Party at the E's house
- Party for BG

School
--------
- get caught up on assignments
- get TPA done and turned in
- start working ahead on assignments so I can be done reasonably

BCE
-----
- workday at school tomorrow and again next weekend
- get website done!
- get all papers graded and returned to kids
- get grades done
- have conferences with each kid to explain grades and status
- give trimester awards (honor roll, etc.)
- get back closet cleaned out
- tidy up classroom decorations
- borrow alphabet line to hang
- do rainbow hands with kids and decorate wall in hallway with it
- get sheet protectors to hang student work on wall
- get beads to hang in doorway to closet
- get file boxes to organize my files
- file my work away and get rid of piles

SELF
------
- schedule blood draw
- schedule mammogram
- get haircut
- go clothes shopping (this happens Sunday!!!)

Did it help? I don't know. But, there it is.

SLV Foundation for Education Casino Night

Mr Wonderful and I went to this event tonight [click!]. This foundation is the reason I have a teaching job this year so I felt I really ought to go support it besides it benefits our school which will benefit my kids.

And, we had so much fun! Won some great prizes! Just a blast! Ate good food, had good drinks, played some fun games -- totally good luck too! Hung out with great people. It was super!

And, all for a good cause!

CTTS*: The Princess Edition

*Cute Thinks They Say

Driving over to pick up The Boy Wonder, The Princess notices a piece of trash stuck in a bush along the side of the road. She tells me about it in a very sad voice. "Mommy, when I'm old enough, can I create a 'Save the Whales' campaign for our town?" "Of course you can, honey." "Oh good. Then I'll make posters for all the stores, bumper stickers, and all kinds of stuff like that. I'll go to the schools and do presentations."

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

While watching American Idol, "Mom, I'm really glad I'm starting voice lessons next week. I plan to be on American Idol. But don't worry. If it doesn't work out, I have another plan too. I'm going to take two courses in college. I'm going to be a teacher and I'll keep taking music lessons with Ms. SunshineMusicTeacher, too."

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

The Boy Wonder while describing his book that he made . . . " This one he's a Bear Monster. This page is Batman and those are all his enemies. And, oh, that's a cock . . . no a caca monster . . . no a cock monster . . . no a crash monster"

"I like Crash Monster, that's cool." said Mother, trying to guide gently.

"Yea, a Crash Monster. And, he's crashing into all his enemies and that's the part that will blow up. And, there, that's a banana and it's chasing that thing. That's a blob thing that explodes -- it's a bad guy and those other things, they are it's enemies. They are the good guys. And this is just a big explosion."

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Okay, yea, if I leave out all the whining (and I mean my own, of course), this solo parenting can be okay. After all, I didn't miss those moments, did I?

Sweet Tidings

[click!]

Wish I'd taken a picture of them but my lollipop valentine's for my kids turned out so cute! I was really pleased. The kids were too until I forbid them to eat their lollipops at school. Snicker! They were so hopped up on sugar after our party it was a little scary. And, I didn't let them eat any candy -- just the cupcakes and cookies. Eeeeek!

And, all the candy I got! Wow! Stunning! I think it put me off Valentine's Day for awhile. Just too much! And, I got flowers from a Math Club student! And, I got a red rose from another teacher -- my students saw him coming into the building with a bunch of roses. That was a nice touch! But, best of all, I got a homemade card from one of my students that said, "To my favorite teacher ever!" Awwwww! And, my hardest core student got me a heart-shaped box of chocolates. A day of surprises.

But, still, it was really fun to make the kids' treats. And, to be inspired by Martha . . . well, that's just icing. I did improve on her design -- instead of cutting the hearts out, I used the school's die cut machine. Much better! So, that's my Martha Moment for the week!

As for home. Well, Mr Wonderful and I did not celebrate this holiday. We're both dieting so chocolate was out (thanks goodness given the amount of candy that flowed into our house). We're broke so roses were out and the card thing just didn't happen. I guess when you are coming up on 18 years of marriage little proofs that love exists aren't as important as the big ones like . . . keeping the toilet paper roll filled and buying tuna! :) Hmmmm, I'd better go to the store tomorrow! :)

Health and Love

Happy Valentine's Day.

As such, let me just state uncategorically that . . .

I love Greg - AKA, Mr Wonderful.

While at times that nickname may be snarky, he truly is a wonderful man. And, I'm lucky to have him and I know it.

Last week, I wrote about our diet changes that were urged by his visit to a nutritionist. In that post, I said that his blood sugar levels weren't dangerously high. Well, since then I've seen the note his doctor wrote on his labs. He wrote that Mr Wonderful is "pre-diabetic." Now, on the one hand, everyone who doesn't have diabetes is "pre-diabetic" and on the other . . . the doctor means that Mr Wonderful could become diabetic.

According to the nutritionist, diabetes is a turning point and up until that point, the sugar in your body problem can be reversed but once you are diabetic, there's no going back. So, we are taking this very seriously. The biggest thing Mr W needs to do is change his diet so that his carbs are balanced by protein. This seems so funny to us because we've always felt that he had an all protein diet but he does eat a lot of carbs too. Eating them together is the key -- it keeps the blood sugar levels from spiking and putting undo strain on the pancreas. The second key is to make the carbs he eats as complex as possible -- we've already done a lot in that regard by switching to whole wheat bread, baking with whole wheat flour, and adding brown rice to our white rice.

When we talked to my in-laws, my FIL had a high glucose level on his last bloodwork too. He's already got Prostate Cancer. We told them all the recommendations that the nutritionist gave us and they are implementing them as well.

FlyLady [click!] likes to say that "Nothing says I love you like a fresh roll of toilet paper" and I certainly agree with her. However, for me, on Valentine's Day, nothing says I love you like having tuna and cheese and peanut butter and peanuts and the like around to make sure that my Valentine lives a long and happy life with me!

AHHHHHHHH!

Hormones. Are. An. Ugly. Thing.

Must control.

Half way to the grocery store (a one hour round trip -- not counting the time in the store), I realized that we still had to do Valentine's for school tomorrow. Great.

Then the grocery store was ridiculously crowded (nothing says, "I love you" like last minute flowers from Safeway?????) and despite the fact that we were $37 in groceries, we had to wait 20 minutes in line. Then food for dinner -- fast food. Then home. I griped and moaned the whole way (see comment above on Hormones!).

My little darlings ran into the house and told me not to look while they proceeded to clean the living room. Now, they did it their way which meant that many things were missed and some odd choices were made but this was clear evidence that they a) recognized my grumpiness and b) wanted to do something to help and c) realized that cleaning up a mess they made was a good way to accomplish that. Evidence of higher thinking!!!

So, we sat down and cranked out a bunch of Ninja Turtle and Polly Pocket valentines. Then The Princess made two handmade cards (with a little help from moi) for her Big Buddies at school. And, then I finally herded them to bed . . . an hour late. Sigh. When I went to gripe at The Boy Wonder for not being asleep yet, he said, "But I wanted to show you something." I stifled a sigh and went into to see. He was writing in his journal and had written . . . by his little kindergarten self, mind you . . . the following: "I love u Mom. Gage." And, then he told me that he wrote his name in case I forgot. What a doll.

So, my babies are growing up. The Princess prances around here looking adorable with her long, leggy body that at 7.5 makes it all to easy for me to envision her at 14 and therefore scares the crap out of me. And, The Boy Wonder proves to me over and over again that boys are not inherently less loving and demonstrative but that our society must beat it out of them and I wonder how I can possibly keep him from turning out that way. His dad is pretty good and getting better so maybe there is hope.

And, despite all that, my hormones rage. And, when Mr W does come home, I'm sitting all grumpy on the couch watching the Olympics and not wanting to be touched.

Hormones suck.

It was a day . . .

Nothing too special. I mostly kicked back. Baked bread and cookies with the kids. Got my CalStateTEACH stuff organized -- scary how much I have to do. Shudder! Watched a lot of Olympics. Thrilled by Shaun White's performance in Men's Snowboarding. Totally awesome! Watched birds a little -- didn't see much though.

Today's Report:
Location: Home Feeders
Observation date: 2/13/06
Notes: Weather was alternating sunny and overcast. Still a nice day. Birds were scarce, however.
Number of species: 6

Anna's Hummingbird - Calypte anna 1
Steller's Jay - Cyanocitta stelleri 1
Western Scrub-Jay - Aphelocoma californica 2
Chestnut-backed Chickadee - Poecile rufescens 6
Pygmy Nuthatch - Sitta pygmaea 1
Dark-eyed Junco - Junco hyemalis 3

So, not very exciting but still -- nice to see that Pygmy Nuthatch again. They are so cute.

And, that's about it.

Diet Changes Ahead?

Mr Wonderful met with a nutritionist yesterday in his ongoing quest for a healthier lifestyle. The good news is that we are already making most of the changes she would have recommended -- yay us! The bad news is . . . well, there really isn't much bad news. She is suggesting some key changes for Mr Wonderful and we're working on implementing them at home. It will make all of us healthier . . . today, he gave the kids carrot sticks and grapes for a snack. The poor dears won't know what hit them. We're also working at balancing their carb/protein intake (as well as our own). Mr Wonderful had a high -- but not dangerously so -- glucose level in his bloodwork so he's making some changes to his diet as well. I guess one of the biggest changes is the need to add more fish to our diet. Mr Wonderful is all set with that though -- he's ready to start adding tuna back into his diet. So, our quest for health continues.

Poor little man

After teaching today, I had Homework Club. Then I went to pick The Boy Wonder up at his afterschool care. The teacher met me at the door and warned me that he had all of a sudden started having a hard time -- crying for no real reason, etc. Then she saw him put his hand to his ear about 10 minutes before I got there. She realized he had an ear infection and sat him down quietly with an icepack on his ear. I went into where he was sitting and the poor thing was sound asleep. I scooped him up -- he cried when he saw me :( -- and headed home. He was so sad and sweet. His ear was hurting him terribly.

On our way home, we drive right past our doctor's office. I took a chance and stopped in. They were able to see him. YAY!

One ear infected, the other on the way.

So, I took him home, loaded him up on Advil and left a note for Mr Wonderful (who was off running errands with The Princess -- the other sick child). Back in the truck and off to Scotts Valley to get his meds. Third trip to the pharmacy in as many days. Oh goodie.

As soon as that Advil hit is system, The Boy Wonder was like a new child. WOW!

Hopefully, he'll continue to feel better and can go to school tomorrow.