Saved by women

So... the phone rings at 6:30 p.m. A mom is asking about the homework tonight. Apparently, Z* and his classmates had to watch the debate between Obama & Clinton. When I said debate, (on the phone) Z* had a look on his face like, "I could've had a V8!" I had the impression that the assignment had laid dormat in his brain since 1:00 p.m. I was trying to find the debate on TV, so I called Lauri and got the information. So, if you didn't have cable there was a live feed on http://www.msnbc.com/. Anyway, Z* logged on and watched the debate, without a glitch. He was blissfully unaware how many people helped him complete his assignment. Thanks to all of the women.

I wanted to let my 5 faithful readers know that I am forcing myself to do my graduate stuff first, then blog (if I have time). I made the decision at 2:00 p.m. on Monday to push forward with my master's.
Since October, I have thought about the following possibilities:
1) Stopping the master's altogether, becoming a meter reader
2) Revising and/or changing my thesis because I have to interview my students before June 7th when the school closes
3)Postponing my thesis and taking a math class only this summer
4)Taking this summer off because my kids will say in 20 years, my mom spent too much time working on her master's and that they will be forever damaged/lost/depressed/___________.

I have talked to many of you, and I appreciate all of your advice, thoughts and suggestions. Louise in December told me that I should be interviewing students during my lunch hour, for god's sake and get it over with! So I have been mulling this information over for 60 days, give or take an hour. I called my advisor, Yuichi, at Chico State and he answered the phone at 2:00 p.m. on Monday. He told me to send him a timeline in 24 hours and he'll look at it, as long as it was detailed enough. (He should read my blog!) So the current thinking is that I am close to 1/2 way through and I should interview the students while I can. (The original plan was to interview students in the summer.) The first step is I need to get permission from EVERYONE (in writing). Of course, my immediate dilemma is that I can't find my graduate program that 2 committee members already signed off. So, wish me luck!

Thanks for visiting!

Quick Post

The first picture is of our old wall cabinet and the second picture is our new wall cabinet that Dale installed today. It's hard to see that much of a difference in the picture, but the new one looks great! That cute blue tile will be demolished too. Our next step is to meet with the floor guy (tomorrow!). Before we get the new floor, Dale will be installing a sliding glass door.

It was a pretty slow day... brunch at Cafe Coda, a nap, avoiding Winco, shopping at Winco, going out to dinner, watching the academy awards with my family, eating too many cookies, folding laundry with Dale. Now I am dying to see Juno (the movie). I am hoping the rain was making me sleepy because I was really tired all day. We did see a bit of sun peeking through around 5:00 p.m. I can't believe daylight savings is 2 weeks away! Z*'s little league practices started yesterday. I went to a school fundraiser and won 1 month of piano lessons at the silent auction. I hope S* is willing to give it a whirl!

Last night I made some quick, cute cards from a template from How About Orange. You just print out the template of the stems (2 to a sheet). You can find it here. Each card I did a little differently. The sample on the blog was with buttons only.

Well, Monday is lurking.... hope everyone has a good week, and thanks for stopping by!

Bloggin' USA

So... I picked this cartoon up from the blog, How about Orange. We have a busy, windy weekend coming up. Dale is demolishing another cabinet, so I'll take a picture of the next cabinet. This morning was the 3rd time this week that I walked with my mom at 5:30 a.m. in the morning. I keep mentioning this to my coworkers to impress them. (I don't think it's worked.) I got to work with the kindergarteners again. It's wild and fun at the same time. They all have mini white boards, and I try to ensure that the markers stay on the boards not on their neighbors. Dale made the pizza dough from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. This is the recipe. It was very yummy...

Turnin' Thursday

Well, Dale kept on trying to talk to me while I was checking out blogs... so he finally ended up reading a book that I got for him: Atlantis. I want to read it too, it's written by an underwater archaeologist. I always encourage reading in my family.

Speaking of reading, I am on page 236 of A,V, M... The latest information to note was that many wild turkey strains are going extinct because everyone buys butterball turkeys. So, when I was in S & S (a local non-chain health/organic store), I bought some Diestl turkey deli meat. It's from Sonora, CA. When the butcher was describing the meat to me, I asked him, "How much is it? A million a pound?" I was joking (of course). Apparently he must've thought I needed the extra cash because he only charged me the price of the ham lunch meat that I bought. BTW, the kids loved the turkey lunch meat!! It was still cheaper than buying sandwiches. I was also trying to buy local eggs at S & S. I was standing at the egg case reading the label...Arcadia, CA. I was pretty sure that Arcadia is in Southern California. So I asked the "young" cashier which was pretty much hopeless. She didn't realize my quest for local products! First, she seemed perplexed by my question. Then, in her sweetness, she tried to determine where Arcadia was. In the end, she went with the "Oh, Well! It's in California!"

So Z* is in the throes of the minor league baseball draft and a science fair project. He was drafted on the Rockies. I talked with the coach tonight. He has 3 practices a week scheduled (one is optional). I didn't say much, and he asked if I was OK. I guess I am still in shock (for other reasons, too). Z* original idea for the science fair was to explode a potato in the microwave. We said no multiple times, but it wasn't penetrating Z*'s enthusiasm. He finally got it!

S* is planning to sing "Lucy, in the Sky with Diamonds" for his share time, so every morning he serenades us with this song, he is in a major Beatle phase.

Finally, I am posting a quick card from scraps I did the other night. I want to make more cards tonight, but I better stop blogging!

Post Vacation

Well... the biggest news is that Dale and I went shopping and bought a sleep number bed yesterday. I thought I would get to sleep in it last night, but apparently you have to wait 2 weeks for the bed. I've been having back problems since August, so we have been discussing a new bed, even though Dale loves his waterbed. It helped that we slept on a sleep number bed at Tahoe for a week. I kept giving the salesman hints to Dale's heart at the sleep number store, so that Dale would be more likely to purchase.

I am still reeling from the relaxing/fun vacation. It was really nice to have Monday off. Only one person (a student) noticed that I got my hair cut at work today. I got the wispiest of bangs the Saturday before I left at SUPERCUTS. I was there with all of these men. I couldn't get in to see my hair dresser, and I couldn't go one more week with my heavy, long hair. So, I took the plunge. Quick and cheap and my haircut is OK!

And, did you know that you can get one annual credit report for free from all 3 consumer reporting companies? Yes, you can! Just log onto Annual Credit Report.

And... I helped my friend Amy start her blog Sunday night! My mom also started a blog.. Are you next? I would love to read your blog!
Thanks for stopping by!

Home, Sweet, Home

So... we are home. We had a wonderful day skiing on Friday. The weather was beautiful again. I was pointing out to S* the beautiful view of the lake when we were riding up the chairlift aptly named "First Ride," S* told me that he had already seen the lake, thank you very much! My favorite part of Friday was eating at Lakeview Lodge. We had a window seat right next to a heater with an astounding view of the lake. The scariest part was watching Z* snowboard up a hill and then flip over and fall on the other side. He's fine, but I had images of other snowboarders crashing down on him. The yukkiest part was carrying my skis AND S*'s skis down stairs to the car. Dale & Z* skiied down to our resort, whereas S* and I had to drive to our resort. We met my sister and family and her brother-in-law's and family at Chevy's Friday night for dinner. They are skiing until Monday.

Well.... we're unpacked and thankfully I don't have to go back to work until Tuesday! Yippee!

Back on the slopes!

On the way to the jacuzzi, S* told me that he wouldn't take part in the picture because he didn't want little girls seeing him on the internet. Well... luckily he forgot, and when a jacuzzi "neighbor" offered to take our picture, S* obliged. This jacuzzi is steps from our condo, and we met some people from Mass., Ohio, Illinois and California. It was very cold today. On the top of one of the ski slopes, the temperature read 17 degrees. S* and Z* did ski school again, and they gave me a full report. S* rode on a chairlift multiple times! Our plan tomorrow is to split up, and I'll be with S* on the bunny slopes, and Dale & Z* will be checking out the terrain parks.

So, to celebrate Valentine's day, I bought the ingredients to make cosmos! Yum! I spent about $27 on the supplies which balanced out the fact that we ate in the whole day. We were able to eat lunch in our condo since we are so close to one end of the mountain. It was nice to come in and warm up!

Here is a picture of us eating at the table at our condo, I would definitely stay here again. Did I tell you we have sleep number beds???!!! The kids have one too and have played with them incessantly, trying to find the perfect number.

Ski Break

Well, we had a wonderful time skiing yesterday, and the kids loved the ski school. Z* got to do a little of a black diamond run which was very cool for him. Dale & I ended up in an unmarked black diamond run and struggled through it. Everything went very well, except the morning was a comedy of errors. We set our alarm yesterday morning for 6:15 a.m. since we thought we had to be at the top of the gondola before 9:00 a.m. We got in line for the heavenly gondola at 8:23 a.m., then we found out that it didn't OPEN until 9:00 a.m. Then when we arrived at the ski school at 9:20 on the mountain, we found out that we could have dropped our kids off at the bottom and then had a cappicuno. Oh well, we signed them up for another day ($$$) on Thursday because S* does much better without mom or dad telling him what to do. (S* doesn't want his ski picture on the blog)

Today we are taking a break, kind of, the kids have done a tennis clinic, the pool, ping pong, snowball fight - I need to go, they are building a snowman, and I think I need to admire and take a picture!

Day 1 on the Mountain

So, our planned 3-hour "dry run" ended up being about 5 hours with S* & Dale being picked up by the snowmobile and taking a ride down the gondola at Heavenly. No one is hurt, but we were a little ambitious about what we thought the kids could do, especially S*. We just wanted to see how to get to the ski school (where they are going on Monday), and it was much more challenging in real life than it looked on the map. And I feel major mom guilt because Sean begged to go on the gondola after lunch, and we said no (because we thought it cost $$$$), but he got to go after all! Z* and I went down the hill together. Z* would fall about every 3- 8 feet. I think it's really hard to stop on a snowboard. BUT both of the kids got on and off their speedy chairlifts, and I crashed into Z* only once. I will have to say, we were very thankful to have our walkie-talkies since I was able to get help for Dale & S*. I kept promising Z* that he would get to swim today, but with all of the glitches, we didn't get home until after dinner around 7 p.m. We went anyway, since I was using the pool as a major carrot to get Z* down some hills. So the kids jump in the pool as if they could swim for hours. Dale and I can barely move we're so tired! Speaking of which, my sleepnumber bed is sounding fabulous right now!
Thanks for checking in.... Day 2 will be Dale & I traversing the mountain together while S* and Z* are in all day ski school!

We've Arrived!

We left at 1:00 p.m. today and arrived at Ridge Tahoe around 5:00 p.m. We will start our first day of skiing tomorrow. They have a really neat pool at the resort that is half indoor and half outdoor. Z* is nearly outside of his skin dying to go in that pool. (Since we had cable), we watched "house flipper" which luckily stopped the pool angst (for today). And.... Dale might have lost his kelly green beanie cap. If I could have lost it for him, I would have, but maybe he will have to buy a new one. Speaking of new items, I bought a new ski jacket which is a tinge too small, but SO beautiful. It's powder blue with a powder blue fleece. So I guess I will have to lose that 10 pounds after all.

I asked Dale to bring a cable for the camera and only when we were settling into our room, did he realize that I brought the cable for blogging!!

(Hey, Lauri, they have an indoor tennis court here!)

And, one more pic, I made some valentines for my coworkers and filled the mini ziploc bags with red, pink and white m & m's. I love that mouse!

Terrific Thursday

Well, last year was a bummer of a year for valentine's, so I gave Dale a HUGE hint about Theo Chocolate. (from their website, "Theo is proud to be the only roaster of organic cocoa beans and the first roaster of Fair Trade certified cocoa beans in the United States.") So, my gift arrived yesterday, and I thought that the sampling should began. I received the Aphrodisiac Collection (18 pieces). I wish I could say that he didn't mention how pricey the chocolate was.... Anyway, the collection comes in designer flavors, Z* had the ginger-flavored ganache. I had the Licorice ganache, YUM! Then I had S*'s Licorice ganache. (he didn't like it)

So, tonight, I'm on brain dead watching "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" Dale, apparently is. He knew the million dollar question. He also knew all of the lyrics on the next game show. Sign him up!!!

Few Thoughts

So... today was the big day, the first day of the high school exit exam for students across the state of California. I wore a pin all day that said, "I believe YOU can" (Nobody commented on it, except my doctor) I am keeping my fingers crossed for the students I have been tutoring the last few weeks.

We picked up some fast food and used baseball shoes for Z*. S* said that he never used a wood bat before, but maybe if he took steroids???!!

I was teaching 3 digit multiplication to 3rd graders today and the students asked me who I voted for. I told them that it was a personal question, and then all of those cute little boys and girls raised their hands and asked me, "Who did you vote for? Mharia toooooooold us." I can tell you, my blogger friend, I voted for Clinton. (I told them too!) Zachary wanted to vote for Obama. Of course, what I like about my job is "visiting" classes because at times I am like a friendly grandma who knows math.

So my doctor has joined a Primary Care Group. The friendly quiet office has changed into a bustling place with doors with signs "Employees only." I called today to get directions and was on hold for 5 minutes and then called back and was on hold for 3 minutes. I still like him, I just am having readjustment issues. So he used his laptop in his appointment with me and then, voila, he sent one of my prescriptions directly to Rite Aid. I asked him for the prescription and he tapped his head, as if he used mental telepathy to send it. I felt like my grandma, like I can't keep up!

Well, thanks for being an avid reader!

Scrapbook fever

Well, I got to scrapbook from 10:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. on Saturday with my friend Rosanna. Having that stretch of time made the first few pages a little slow. It took me about 5 hours to complete my first 2 pages. BUT.... big news, I started my new picfolio album! (see picture) I was going back and forth on Friday night, should I really switch? Will I miss the regular scrapbook album? (etc.) The picfolio album is a slide in album that is set up like a scrabook page. Each page has a pocket for 3 horizontal photos and 2 horizontal photos. (I'll have to take more horizontal photos from now on.)

My treats were supposed to be heart shaped brownies, but at 8:30 a.m., I just went with squares instead and put little hearts on them. EVERYONE brought cookies and valentine's (I skipped the valentines)

Kitchen Update:

The corner wall cabinets are up. S* & Z* painted one wall and S* helped assemble three of the cabinets. Now we just have to figure out the heights of the shelves. We are looking at a sliding glass door that has mini blinds in between the glass. Dale is taking a break until we return from our ski trip in Tahoe. We just bought our ski lift tickets and lessons for S* & Z*. S* & Z* will be in all day lessons on Monday which means that Dale & I can ski together!! The lessons are from 9:00 a.m. until 3:45 p.m. The resort we are staying at has racquetball courts, a ping pong table, an inside jacuzzi and even tennis courts. It also has a gondola that takes you right to heavenly so we don't have to drive to the mountain.

And we went to the batting cages today which was a huge step for Z* because last time we took him, a ball hit him, and we ended up at urgent care. Z* still refers to it as a "cast," even though it was a sling. We just wanted him to warm up for his tryout on Wednesday. The last 2 were cancelled because of rain.