3 days down, 2000 to go

My son has completed the first three days of kindergarten. He seems to like it. The teachers seem to like him. I don't know if they'd tell me otherwise, though. I work at the school. I've asked him what he's done thus far. He gives the most common answer, "nothing".

I said, "They're teaching you nothing?? That's terrible".
He says, "no I learned to read".
"You learned to read? In three days? ...Really?"
"Yep."
"What did you learn to read?"
"Because".
"The word because?"
"yes, that word."


I haven't tested him, but of course it's totally untrue.

*edit - He got the kindergarten teacher he wanted! We found out today. The classes were over-crowded, so they divided again. He wanted a certain teacher, and I was very pleased with his choice. When asked why he wanted her his answer was simple: "She's the prettiest."

Great- little chauvinist.

Such as. The Iraq. The US Americans

So I work in special education. And it's been a rough week. I totally needed this.



And, such as, the children, I'm really not trying to make fun of her - snerk. All of us have strengths. She and I just don't share any. ;)

Scissors and glue, and .. wet wipes? Oh My!

So we did the school shopping. I WORK at my children's school. I comprehend school budgets. I've seen teachers spend hundreds of dollars of their own money per semester just to cover materials. I spend about a hundred a year myself and never ask for reimbursement, despite the fact my department has a good budget (can you say federal funds?)

But my kids' supply lists this year were something to behold. One child needed 36 pencils. 36! *per child*. That's a lot of writing. One child needed 4 boxes of crayons and *12* glue sticks. I bought what equaled to a half-gallon of hand sanitizer, more ziploc bags than I've ever bought for my own home, paper plates, baby wipes, brown paper bags, 4 huge boxes of Kleenex, Clorox wipes, high-lighters, 40 markers, two pencil sharpeners, a half-pound of rubber eraser, 8 bottles of glue, 2 pairs of scissors, a ream and a half of paper, and NOT A SINGLE NOTEBOOK. Daughter was so bummed she didn't get to choose a folder, binder, or notebook. The school's gone to "uniform" DOGS binders (Daily Organization Gives Success) and we purchase those on meet the teacher night.

School shopping is just not the fun it used to be. I felt like I was preparing for an educational disaster bunker. How bizarre!

Taste the fear of the naked chicken!

My children are so cool. I took my kiddos to Long John Silver's today. My son ordered a chicken plank. He likes to "peel" his chicken. Being the extremely laid back mother that I *can* be, I let it slide. I figure not eating the breading is a nutritional benefit of his wackiness. So he peels his chicken plank while wearing a paper pirate hat. I can tell he's not really hungry. Now I know he's playing with his food. So I say, "Quinn what are you doing?". And his response is to thrust the peeled chicken in my face and growl in his best pirate voice, "Arrgh! Taste the fear of the naked chicken!".

I about peed my pants. He's only 5. It made absolutely no sense, but it was the funniest thing in the world. If I don't write this stuff down, I will forget it.

Neglected Things

I've neglected a LOT of things this summer:

My workout plan
My organization plan
The children's bedtimes ( they have to move up! )
This blog
Myself (always, but I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing instead)


As usual in August, it creeps up on me that I need to dust of the elliptical, clear out the many pairs of 3.99 flip flops from the bottom of my closet, and get my kids to bed before 10:30 for at least 3 days before insisting that they go to bed at 8:30 the day before school starts.

And now I'm realizing I didn't do much this summer for myself. Didn't document what I *did* do in this blog. I did add myself to Myspace, despite my better judgment. My brother calls it "computer crack" and he's right. He also never reads this blog, no matter how often he's asked to. I have to post this all on Myspace in order to get responses. My mother says she is scared of the internet and doesn't know if she will read this blog. I think she thinks it's Myspace. I've haven't told her about that page.

So this blog has made me painfully aware of my lack of progress AND I've already gone back to work!

Yes, I've gone back to work (I'm not obligated until the 21st, but no good teacher waits until then) and people are asking "what'd ya do?" and this summer I can literally answer: Nothing. So maybe that was what I did for myself. I feel *really* rested, which may be the only thing I have to show for the summer.

So I wanna be a D-lister groupie

Yeah. We went on vacation (Kansas City, BTDT).

We saw some baseball, toured a cute museum, took the kids swimming some more, blah, blah. Family fun and all that.

BUT when we got back home I got to go see my very favorite TV star, comedienne, witty wonder, Kathy Griffin! Love her. Love, love, love her! She's so inappropriate and has such a high tolerance for: shocking, bombing, and offending. I got a second row ticket in Tulsa. My seat was so close to Kathy I could've spit on her. (not ever would I do that!) She is super adorable in person: teeny, energetic, quick, and gracious. She even pretended to NOT mind that the ancient Brady theater was about 120 degrees Fahrenheit. If I could afford to follow her around, I would. Yes you do have to be one of those shallow people who follows celebrity gossip, but it's worth it. Her insight on Celine, Oprah, Paris, and Lindsay just can't be missed. She briefly mentions her father, who passed away this year at the age of 90, going to Baghdad to perform for the troops, her divorce last year, and then everything else is 100% celebrity gossip/dirt/observation. Most fun I've had this summer. I've seen every DVD, television special, and guest appearance, and this was almost 100% new material to me.



I hope she wins an Emmy. She deserves it this year!