Sunday, June 29, 2008

We spent a pretty lazy weekend. It's so nice having Darren work at home on Friday, because that means that our weekend can begin when he stops working at 5:30, instead of waiting for him to get home and be exhausted around 7:00. Friday evening, we went and met some friends at the neighborhood pool. The boys splashed around, the parents talked, and Zoe hung out in her float. It started to get cold, so we didn't stay until closing. Friday night, we scrounged in the freezer to find dinner, then the boys played Zelda until really late. I went to bed at 11:15, and they were still playing.

Yesterday, I had every intention of spending the day studying. I have two tests the day after we come home from Schlitterbahn, and I have to finish my test review, plus read and fill out the PowerPoint for Chapter 8. I think I spent about three hours on and off working on it, because there were constant interruptions. If the phone wasn't ringing, Zach or Zoe needed something. Darren made it his mission to get the toilet put in the bathroom, so he spent all day working there. There were two trips made to Sears Hardware, but besides that, we didn't leave the house. After dinner, which we ate at 9:45, we watched Camp Rock. It was cute, and Zach enjoyed having us do something together. Zoe woke up around 11:15, and I brought her downstairs and gave her a bottle. I started realizing that we have three months left of bottles, and she's not really a baby anymore. She eats table food, and wants to sit up instead of lying down. I know that before long, she won't want to snuggle anymore, and that hurts to think about it. I took Zoe back upstairs, and fell asleep with her in bed.

Today, Darren let me sleep until almost 10:00. We decided to go out for breakfast, and it was 11:00 by the time everyone was dressed and ready to go. After driving by the place we wanted to go, and seeing that there were so many people waiting that they were spilling out into the parking lot, we decided to try a new place. It's a fairly new Mexican restaurant, but they do an American breakfast. There was an older Hispanic man playing guitar and singing, but he wasn't singing Mexican music. It was strange to hear John Mayer coming out of him! Anyway, we enjoyed the food, and Zoe had pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs,watermelon, and tortillas.

After breakfast, we decided to make a quick trip to the mall, because I wanted sunglasses and Darren wanted a new pair of swim trunks. Three hours and one swimsuit and sunglasses for me, as well as ice cream for Zach, and a new shirt for my dad, we followed our original plan of going to Home Depot for bathroom accessories. We bought a mirror, towel ring and toilet paper holder for our newly remodeled half-bath, and finally headed home.

I spent quite a bit of time doing schoolwork this afternoon while Zoe napped, then she woke up angry. She either has a cold or ear infection; her nose is running with yellow mucous, and she is pulling on her ear. She spent quite a bit of time crying this evening, then the whole family went to the grocery store. I wore Zoe in her sling, and she didn't make a peep the whole trip. We came home, ate breakfast food for dinner, then put Zoe to bed. Darren, Zach and I watched Ice Road Truckers, and Darren made it through about 20 minutes before passing out. He's still on the couch now; he'll stumble upstairs eventually.

Oh, test update: I made a B. 9 people out of the 21 made an F, so I felt really good about it. I've made As on everything else, and think I made an A on the lab practical last Wednesday. I hope I can keep my grades up, and make at least a B for the semester. I have a nursing informational session tomorrow, and I plan to try to get credit for a psych class. It was a graduate class that I took for teacher certification, and the one I have to take for nursing school is a sophomore level class. I plan to take my syllabus and textbook tomorrow and see what happens!

Thursday, June 26, 2008

My good eater

Zachary is terrible at eating a variety of foods, and has to be seriously bribed to try anything new. lnevitably, once a new food hits his tongue, he declares it "disgusting" and that's that. As a baby, he was a great eater. When we were in the stage one and two baby foods, he would eat anything that Gerber made. Once we tried size three, which are the chunkier foods, the texture turned him off, and he refused to eat. For a baby who was previously drinking 48 ounces of formula a day, this was a big deal.

For a couple of years, Zachary lived on Schwan's French toast sticks for breakfast, and chicken nuggets for lunch or dinner. He would also eat French fries and peanut butter sandwiches. Today, as an almost seven-year-old, he drinks lots of chocolate milk, and eats Pop Tarts, hot dogs, pizza, yogurt, string cheese, chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, hamburgers, cheese quesadillas, rice, roast, and any junk or snack food that is made. The one vegetable that he will eat is edamame.

With Zoe, I vowed that she would eat what we eat, and so far, everything is going well. We started her on baby cereal at about four months, and she did not like that at all. Soon, we introduced the stage one fruits and vegetables, and while bananas aren't her favorite, she'll eat any baby food put in front of her. She's currently doing great on the stage three foods, and also loves all of the baby snacks like puffs, banana cookies, and Cheerios. Zoe has been eating table food off and on for a couple of months now, and she has tried and liked carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, zucchini, mushrooms, corn, bananas, blueberries, YoBaby yogurt, brisket, turkey, chicken, sausage, hamburger, bread, and many more things. At the age of almost nine months, and with two teeth, Zoe already eats better than her brother does. That's a shame!

I hope there's still hope for Zachary. He tried cereal with milk in the past year and liked it, and recently began eating scrambled eggs and bacon. We'll have to resort to some heavy negotiation to broaden his palate, or maybe the shame of his sister eating foods that he doesn't will do it. We'll have to wait and see...

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Friends

I recently had the good fortune to get back in touch with one of my closest friends from high school. He and I were only in school together for one year before he graduated, but we kept in touch after that, especially since we both went to the same university. He moved away while I was still in Baton Rouge, and I always wondered what had happened to him. None of the other people who I still kept in touch with knew how to find him, either.

Last week, I happened to find him on Facebook, and after e-mailing a few times, we talked on the phone late into the night. It was like we never lost touch, and it turns out that he is going back to school for nursing, as well. I hope that we stay in touch again, even though he's bad at e-mailing, and I'm not big on talking on the phone.

I realized that he and I have been friends for 19 years. I can't say that I have too many friends who I have known for that long, especially since I moved around a lot during college, and moved to a different state eight years ago. It's hard to make friends once you are out of college; it seems like neighbors and co-workers are the only people I am friends with now, and I wonder how many of them I will stay in touch with now that I am not working with them on a daily basis.

I am someone who needs a lot of friends, especially since we don't have much family here. I am an extremely loyal friend, and cannot stand having anyone mad at me. I've tried really hard to maintain all of my old friendships over the years, but it's gotten more and more difficult. With a lot of my friends, it always seemed like I was the one making the effort to stay in touch, whether it was through Christmas cards, phone calls, e-mails, or visits when we went back to Louisiana. Even though it hurts, I have finally come to the realization that I can't be the one making all of the effort anymore. It got tiresome to try to make plans with friends during the limited time we have when we are in Louisiana; we drive four hours to my parents' house, and friends who are an hour or two beyond that never seemed to want to come and see us. If we were in the same city, sure, maybe they'd have time for us to stop by.

Since we moved to Texas, friends here have come and gone from our lives. It's happened for many reasons: switching jobs, moving, or our children not having a class or activity together anymore. I have developed a few close friendships that I know I will keep, but have also lost many. Darren and I used to socialize a lot more than we do now; we'd rotate having dinner or going someplace fun with our friends. For the past couple of years, it seems like with a large majority of our friends, if we didn't invite them over, we weren't going to see them. Since having a baby in September, we haven't had anyone over besides New Year's Eve, and haven't been invited to do many things with anyone besides one or two of our closest friends. I am okay with it, because it is a lot of effort to get two kids out of the house, and most of the time, I'd rather just hang out here as a family. We play Wii, watch TV, go for a bike ride, or just hang out together.

What hurts the most is losing a friend who I used to be really close with, and we had so much in common that I thought we'd be friends forever. We went through job changes and having babies, but we always seemed to have time for each other. In the past couple of years, I realized that we are not as close as I thought we were, and maybe it's my fault that we are no longer friends. Who knows, maybe she still considers me a friend, and has no idea that I am hurt by her actions. My last few phone calls and e-mails have gone unanswered; maybe she doesn't realize that she blew me off. I really want to give her the benefit of the doubt and think that there is nothing wrong, but it's hard to do that.

I am already starting to make new friends in my class that I am taking, and most of them will be applying for nursing school with me in the spring. If we get in, we'll be together for three years. It's nice to have such a small class, and get to know my classmates and professor. I never had that in college. During teacher certification training, there was a core group who was really close, but we were all together for less than a year, and no one lived near each other. I would love to know how many of them are still teaching!

Time to go and get Zach from science camp...

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Recent Photos






I finally pulled all of our photos off our camera. Enjoy! There are some here from Zoe's first swim, and also our trip to Baton Rouge and New Orleans over Memorial Day weekend.

We are enjoying a fairly lazy weekend at home this weekend. I have done some cleaning, but there is so much stuff in our house right now that I am overwhelmed and don't know where to start. I need time to finish a project, but I get distracted and end up starting several projects, none of which I manage to finish. Sigh.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

You Know You're a Suburban Mom When...

You go to the grocery store as a welcome escape from your children. I was just in our friendly neighborhood HEB, after Zoe went to sleep, when I noticed all of the women customers. There were a few men darting here and there with their small baskets, but for the most part, the customers were women in their 30s and 40s, dressed in their comfortable "mom" clothes. They walked slowly, leisurely considering one item over another, and except for one woman I saw, were alone.

I don't generally like grocery shopping, but it's not too bad as long as I am alone. I tend to browse a little more and not race through the store.

When I went to the register to pay, the woman behind me commented on how much she likes grocery shopping, because that is the only reprieve she gets from her daughter. She also said that she was going to drive slowly, and take the long way home. I have to admit that I may have actually stayed within the speed limit on my way home tonight, after hearing her talk.

I have my first anatomy and physiology test tomorrow, and I don't feel like I can study enough to memorize all of the information that we need to know for the test. I don't think I ever put this much effort into a class in college! The professor gave us an extensive study guide, which I have probably spent close to 20 hours completing, but she also told us that the material on the study guide may not necessarily be everything on the test. WTF? I guess I'll spend tomorrow rereading the textbook and going over my PowerPoint notes. Another mom graciously offered to take my place at Cub Scout camp tomorrow so that I can stay home and study. We did have a pop quiz last night, and I made a 95, but I don't want to get to the classroom and freeze because I don't feel prepared.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

How I Rate as a 1930's Housewife

56

As a 1930s wife, I am
Average

Take the test!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Swamped

It's only the second official day of my summer vacation, and I am already overwhelmed. This anatomy and physiology class is going to prevent me from doing anything fun this summer, I am afraid. I spent all day yesterday working on my test review for next Wednesday, and only got through one of four chapters. I don't think my brain has the capacity to memorize as much as I need to for this test, and I think I need to use every waking second between now and next week to study. I guess that means I won't be going anywhere and spending money, which is a good thing, right?

I guess another bonus from my studying would be that my house will end up being very clean. In college, I couldn't study unless the apartment was spotless. Of course, it has been eleven years and two kids since then! My house is also way bigger than my apartment was. I am still trying to dig out from the massive amount of laundry that we have. I have about three to four loads left, and my dining room table is covered with clean, folded clothes. I'd go do something about it now, but I have a sleeping baby (I think) in her swing in there. She sleeps so lightly that if I even walk in the room, she wakes up.

I have started a system for Zachary to earn Wii time each day. He automatically gets an hour, and can lose time for various things, and can also earn time for doing things like reading to his sister, cleaning up his room, and trying new food. I don't want him to be a couch potato, and this way, he helps around the house without it being a punishment. He's very motivated to do this! The other part of the plan is that we came up with ideas of what he can do if he uses up his Wii time. So far, he hasn't needed that list, but I give it a week. Zach is going to VBS in the mornings this week, which gives me some free time.

The wind is blowing really hard, and it looks like we are going to have quite a storm this afternoon. It will be a good time to curl up and read; unfortunately not a pleasure book, but an anatomy and physiology book. Yay.

Sunday, June 08, 2008

To-Do List

Now that school is out, and I am officially unemployed, it's time to compile the annual list of way too many things that I want to accomplish this summer. Added to the mix this year is an extra, high-maintenance child, and a class that is kicking my butt. I love a challenge, but am not sure what I will have time to do this year. I have lots of homework for my class, and I need to make a good grade so that my chances of getting into nursing school next year are good. I also found out this week that I may have to go to school full-time in the fall to be competitive when I apply next spring. As of right now, I am planning to substitute for another teacher who will go on maternity leave in August. I'm not sure if that will still happen; I don't want to delay school another year.

It was so anti-climactic to leave school for the last time on Friday. I did cry a few times during dismissal Thursday and breakfast Friday morning, but I've gotten over it now. Tomorrow will be strange to not have to get up at 6:00, and to be alone with the kids all day.

Zach has VBS this week until noon, we have Cub Scout camp the following week, and Zach has science camp the week after that. Besides those things, I have allergy testing, we have a weekend at Schlitterbahn planned for July 4th, and I have sinus surgery scheduled for July 9th. We're armed and ready with pool passes, and will do a library trip soon. Zach has a new Wii game, Mario Kart, and I have homework for my class, which lasts until August 17th. We don't have any other plans this summer, so here's my over-ambitious list of things I want to accomplish:

1. Finish washing and putting away the laundry that is taking over my house. I also have to pack up kids' clothes that are too small for both Zach and Zoe. We have so much laundry that we've spread from the queen-sized bed in Zoe's room to the dining room table. You would think there wouldn't be any clothes left, but the linen closet is so full of dirty clothes that the doors won't close.

2. Clean out and find a home for all of the stuff I brought home from school. Those boxes are currently residing in the back of Darren's car and in the garage.

3. Write the curriculum for my childbirth class. I also need to get busy finding a place to give the classes, and find potential students. I do have a couple of potential opportunities there, I just need to follow up with both of them.

4. Organize photos and get everything into albums. I have scrapbooking stuff taking over the office right now, and it all needs to be tamed. Surely there is some stuff I can get rid of.

5. Go through/read the books piled up around my bed. Reading for my class and childbirth certification is cutting into my fun reading time. I am sure there are many unread magazines lurking somewhere, also.

6. Cook dinner for the family more. I need to get back on Weight Watchers and drop a lot of weight, and start cooking healthy foods instead of prepackaged crap!

7. Exercise. I have a new bike, we have Wii Fit, we have an expensive YMCA membership that we aren't using. I do have a sprained foot, so that has put a damper on what I can do right now.

8. Clean out the garage. Bad. really bad.

9. Finish the half-bath. It's so small that only one person can work in there at a time. There is no toilet in there right now. Darren has replaced the sink/counter top, and is in the process of tiling the floor. We've bought paint, and have picked out the new toilet and fixtures. We still need a new light for that room, and will paint the cabinet for the vanity.

10. Survive my summer school class and make a big effort to do well and study.

I guess that's enough for now. One of these days, I'll get back to posting about our weekend in Louisiana for Memorial Day, and all sorts of other mildly exciting stuff that we've done lately. While Zoe is sleeping, I'm off to tackle the laundry.