Teaching Mommy

Not gone forever

2011-04-26T23:48:00.002-06:00

I promise I'll be back. May will be AMAZING!!! And possibly revamped. Possibly.

Set your sights for Mother's Day!!

WILT 01/10/11

2011-01-10T23:41:00.000-07:00

I am despicably horrible at dieting. Lost 3 lbs. Great!! Gained back 2. Crap. Onward and upward, right? Hopefully once the semester starts Wednesday I'll be so busy I'll forget about eating and start shedding the pounds so I can get my skinny on. That'll be a good day.

WILT - 01.04.11

2011-01-04T21:13:00.000-07:00

I really don't care for the tantrums and defiant attitudes of 5 year olds.

When do Mommy and Daddy get a vacation?

What I learned today...01.03.11

2011-01-03T23:57:00.001-07:00

Moderately watching what I ate today and tracking every little bit resulted in 2175 calories, 625 calories over my maximum desired for weight loss (cause I want to be skinny again, dag nabbit). If I had left out those Dr. Peppers and drank water like a good little girl I would have only been 25 calories over.

Losing weight sucks...and Dr. Pepper is far too delicious to give up.

Darn you Dr. Pepper and your bubbly goodness!!

What I learned today...01.02.11

2011-01-02T23:03:00.001-07:00

This guy messes with my head...as does this video (watch it closely). In my husband's words, "I revel in the amazing genius of this!" Keep in mind when watching this: HE'S MAKING THE ENTIRE PIECE USING ONLY HIS VOCALS AND SOME (very expensive) LIVE LOOPING AND EFFECT PEDALS!!! Incredible...This guy is pretty much Jesus on a bun* to music people

* Only slightly sacrilegious, and totally joking...please don't send hate mail.

July 26, 2010

2011-01-01T23:51:00.000-07:00

That's the last time I posted a blog entry. Scroll down...you'll see it. July 26, 2010.

Sad...just sad...

I have a perfectly reasonable excuse for not blogging. KIDS AND SCHOOL ARE SUCKING THE LIFE OUT OF ME!! But I guess that's the be expected. They are both very time consuming endeavors, after all.

Despite my general lack of recent posts, I deemed this the moment to post a new blog. This, the same time I went into labor with my son two years ago. This, the start of a new year. This...a day...just like any other day...

Only I finally have time.

I have a multitude of subjects at my disposal which I could write about. But I will not bore what little readers may be left with information they have very likely already heard on Facebook. I will say this:

For the first time in as long as I can remember, I feel comfortable with life. Is it perfect? No. We're on government assistance and we're working to bring ourselves out of it to the tune of two college degrees and a significant number of student loans. My house is perpetually in a state of mess and I seem to be stuck in the lazy-and-exhausted cycle one too many days of the week.

But we're able to pay our bills. We're able to feed our family. We could buy real Christmas and birthday presents for the first time since...well...ever. We can even start rebuilding our credit and saving for a rainy day (AMAZING)!!

Are we doing things perfectly? No. We never will. But we have yet to enter into any major decision without concerted discussion and prayer. It doesn't always seem like it, but we do.

I have things planned out for the next two years and beyond, and I'm heartily looking forward to seeing how God throws a kink into it all to change those plans to be more like his.

Bad idea, Mom.

2010-07-26T20:59:00.000-06:00

Mommies shouldn't give their baby boys haircuts without the proper tools. 1/2 inch clipper blade is too short, and makes baby boy angry at his Mommy. Without the proper tools you go from cute little baby face:

To playground bully:

Next time Mommy will buy bigger guides...and give him a sucker so he stays still.

We learn.

Off on good behavior

2010-06-30T18:40:00.000-06:00

It works!! We finally found something that works!!

If you've been following this pitiful excuse for a blog, you've heard me rant about my daughter's lack of willingness to follow directions. We tried everything. Every parenting technique we could get our hands on were met with disdain and frustration on both ends. I was giving up hope of ever finding something that works with this child.

Then, after much prayer and tearful nights, I stumbled upon this at my local Target:

A chore chart! It's worth a shot, I figured, and so I bought it. We drew pictures for each behavior we wanted to see from her, and explained what each one meant to her. We let her pick the reward for having 3 stars, 4 stars, and 5 stars.

An interpretation of the chart above:
The top square is for picking up her room.
The second square is for no tantrums.
The third is for having a good attitude (i.e. no talking back).
The fourth is for clean underwear (she has a tendency to decide playing is more important than going to the bathroom)
And the fifth square is for staying in bed at night (rather than getting out of bed 50 times for a glass of water or potty breaks every 2 minutes).
There is an optional "dry night time diaper" underneath all of this. This is optional since we know it's normal for her to still wet the bed at night (genetics...yay).

Her rewards:
3 stars = a sucker
4 stars = stories at bedtime (she chose this, otherwise we would be doing it anyway)
5 stars = 3 suckers and stories

Every night she tells us it's time for stars. We ask her if she cleaned her room. If she didn't then she goes and does it quickly. We ask her if she threw any tantrums today, and she honestly tells us "yes" or "no". We ask her how her attitude was, and she says "good" or "bad". It goes on like this until she has the right number of stars for the day.

The first week she had 16 stars. Last week she had 31! Amazing!!!

I'm so glad we finally found something that works!! And I have a little girl who will clean her room on a daily basis. She's following directions better, throwing less tantrums, and is generally a more well-behaved child. Maybe it's just her age...she is almost 5 you know (and reminds us every day when she asks if it's October yet). Maybe it's the influence of the kids at daycare. I don't know. All I know is that I thoroughly enjoy having a child whose room looks like this every night:

***There was going to be a picture of her super awesome clean room here, but little girl decided to sacrifice that star tonight. Way to disprove mommy's post, hunny...way to go.***

I'm not "that" mom

2010-06-02T22:42:00.000-06:00

I am never going to be "that" mom.

You know the kind I'm talking about. The kind that makes me so ridiculously envious of their creativity/time management/organization skills/ability to make me super-jealous by posting a single picture or even a benign sentence. The kind of mom who makes everything from scratch, eats all organic, and knows how to plan weekly meals in such a way that their lives are easier. Ugh! I WANT TO BE THAT!!!

This is not a slam on all the moms I know who do this...believe me, I have the utmost respect and desire to imitate what you do! So please don't take any of this the wrong way.

But that's not me. I'm a convenience mom. You know what my kids' favorite foods are? Mac-n-cheese. Cereal from a box. Crackers. Corn dogs. Chicken nuggets. Pizza. Kid cuisine! DORITOS!! My kids eat a balanced diet...but a lot of it is processed.

Don't get me wrong, they eat some non-processed foods. Grapes. Strawberries. Carrots. Celery (with peanut-butter, of course). Apples. Bananas. Lots of bananas. But it's not locally grown or from the organic section. No, it's from the "cheap, I just grabbed one off the produce-covered shelf" section.

I have every desire in the world to create fabulous meals from scratch, all organic, whole-food laden, non-post-processed-extra-vitamins-enriched food to my family. I love cooking! I love baking! I love planning! But I can't do it. I just don't have the time.

In my ideal world I would have a couple of planters on my front porch filled with tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, herbs, yadda, yadda, yadda. In my picture-perfect scenario I would make meals in advance for the week, or at least prep them, giving myself just *that* much more time during the busy days to not worry about what's for dinner.

But I can't.

I'm refusing to apologize to myself for not being in real life what the picture in my head tells me I should be. I refuse to feel bad that I make boxed and pre-packaged meals for my family pretty much every night of the week. I will not feel that I am doing my kids a disservice because I don't buy everything locally, eat only whole foods, never buy name-brand, grow and process my own everything, and keep my kids away from whatever free-radicals (or whatever they're called now) scary-going-to-hurt-my-kids stuff is out there that I don't fully understand anyway.

I haven't read the studies to back anything up. I've heard a lot of hear-say for both sides, but nothing definitive. I do what I can to buy foods that contain ingredients I can pronounce and have a general idea of what they are. No they are not always locally made, but sometimes they're just too delicious to pass up! And yes, I lived off of this stuff growing up too, and I, having turned out fine, believe my kids will as well.

The way I see it, I'm a convenience mama. I do things to be fast (i.e. I'm lazy). I do things so that my kids will actually eat what I put in front of them (instead of having food thrown on the floor while a tantuming child shatters my ear drums). I try to vary their diet, but, honestly, so long as they're eating I'm pretty freakin' pleased!

This (most likely nonsensical) rant isn't in response to anyone or anything. It's more a plea to myself to not take what I feed my kids so seriously and to NEVER feel bad about how I'm providing my kids with sustenance. I love my kids. And I really should stop comparing myself to other mamas who have the ability to do these things I wish for myself when I can see that I am in the minority on whatever issue I feel bad about.

I love my kids. I do what I can for them. And that's all that matters.

Rant over.

DONE(ish)

2010-05-07T22:36:00.000-06:00

Spring semester is done...I'm tired...and far too lazy/in-the-mood-to-put-stuff-off to actually write a real blog post. I will say this: we ended the semester and the house wasn't *entirely* a sty. Win! Oh, and no classes were failed. Epic win! Now to just, oh, FindAJobRegisterRyanForClassesOrganizeMyFarToSmallForAllOfUsApartmentRelearnPianoLearnGuitarMakeAndEatHealthierMealsLoseWeightConvinceHusbandToLoseWeightSaveUpMoneyForAndBuyASecondCarFindADaycareForGavinSpendQualityTimeInTheGoodOutdoorsWithTheFamVisitFamilyAndFriendsNearAndFarTeachSundaySchoolDetailCleanMyFarToSmallForAllOfUsApartmentPlantFlowersWithLilasSignLilasUpForSwimLessons.

Oh yeah, and have fun/relax at some point.

This'll be the best summer ever, I'm sure.

Can't do this...

2010-04-17T19:07:00.000-06:00

I can't handle my 4 year old.

Tonight she took a bath. I left the room for less than a minute. Her giant bottle of kids shampoo/conditioner/body wash was up on a high shelf above the toilet. When I got back in there she had brought the bottle down, taken the cap completely off, and dumped literally half of it into the bathtub. We bought it yesterday.

She's started this nasty little habit of lying to us about every little thing she does. Doesn't matter if she's being accused of something or if there's even the slightest potential of getting into trouble. "Lilas, did you eat all your sandwich?" "Yes" "Then why is there 3/4 of a sandwich on the table?". If we ask her any sort of question, she lies.

Nearly every conversation we have with her turns into an argument. It could be something as benign as "Should we go outside today?" "No...I want to play on the computer inside." "Okay, let's play inside." "No...I want to play outside". I can't ask her anything...say anything to her...without facing opposition.

Oh, and she screams like a banshee! I swear, our neighbors must think we beat our child because of how horrifically she screams! It hurts my ears, I kid you not. And if you try to lift her up to put her in time-out or in her room to calm down, she throws herself on the ground in a limp mound of trantruming child. If she asks a question and doesn't hear our answer (even if it's the answer she wants), she screams. Her emotions flip so quickly I can't keep up with them, let alone successfully bring them back to level.

Time-outs no longer work. Taking away privileges is a failure. Taking away prized toys when she doesn't help pick up her room does nothing. We've tried positive reinforcement...negative reinforcement...even spanking (which makes me cringe just thinking about it). The only thing that worked for about a month was counting to "big numbers" when it was time to pick up her toys. It used to work. USED to.

I have to helplessly admit that I am at a loss when it comes to raising my eldest child. What the heck am I supposed to do? She bounces off the walls...is so relentlessly defiant...has no qualms with lying to my face...and literally follows directions about 1% of the time. I make sure she eats right (when I can get her to eat, that is, but even that's a struggle). She sleeps about 11 hours at night. At preschool we hear no reports of oppositional or otherwise negative behavior...if anything they praise her for always being so polite and funny, making everybody laugh.

She's a handful...and I feel like I'm grasping to hold on. I really don't know what to do with her...and I feel like I'm all out of ideas...strength...energy...I'm just so tired of this. So very, very tired of all this fighting. When do I get a 4 year old who seems to act somewhat "normal"?

Swimsuit giveaway!!

2010-04-08T18:57:00.001-06:00

I have this friend...her name is Surferwife...and she's ridiculously funny. And what makes her so amazingly awesome is the fact that she's have a super-mom-friendly giveaway.

The Surferwife has partnered with Hapari to give one of her lucky readers an $85 giftcard to their store. Now I know what all you moms are thinking...there is no way in God's green earth that you are squeezing my post-kid booty in some modeled-after-a-95-lb-teenager-supermodel swimsuit!

That's what I love about these suits...and why I'm so über excited about these suits! Look at this:

You know what that is?? That's a tummy-tuk panel ladies!! Ooh! Ooh! And look at this:

It covers the baby-belly stretch marks!! I seriously love these swimsuits...so in my endless love of free stuff, I'm shamelessly promoting this giveaway...and getting an extra entry by blogging about it (Shhh! Tell everyone!!)

Mission to menu plan

2010-04-05T20:53:00.001-06:00

I'm lazy. I'll admit it...I am. I have tons of ambition, but am perpetually convinced by the little procrastinator inside of me to put it off for tomorrow. Over the years I've gotten better (do I really clean my house every day?? seriously...) and I'm far closer to the mom I've always pictured I would be (cause life can be picture perfect, you know...for real).

My biggest vice by far right now (besides, you know, the whole folding the mountain of laundry in our bedroom thing) is meal planning. Most nights our menu-des-gourmands (making up fancy French words here) consists of sandwiches, cereal, pizza, or some other out-of-a-box-or-freezer creation. On über-lazy nights the husband fires up the grill and we get to sink our teeth into burgers or kabobs. We're 5-star here people.

We've known for years that we're horribly unhealthy eaters. We do keep some fruits and veggies in the house, and try to incorporate as many as possible into our meals, but, alas, it doesn't save us from our preservative filled menus. But now that I'm feeling sluggish (and we can't have mama feeling sluggish, you know), my kids' favorite meals consist of chicken nuggets and PB&Js, and my husband's weight is high enough that we're going to start having to special order his clothes, I figure it's time to start planning some healthy, family-friendly meals.

One problem.

I have no time.

Oh, and did I mention I'm lazy? As much as I love perusing Allrecipes, I simply don't have the time to count all the various food-pyramid attributes, count calories, and make sure that we're eating well-balanced meals that are okay for dieting parental figures and their mini-mes. And I don't have the motivation (see? lazy).

I searched the interwebbage for a free menu-planning site for busy moms. Who woulda thunk that it would be so hard? I guess all the busy moms who plan menus are...um...busy...

Then I found this site:

http://monthlymenuplanner.com/

I LOVE IT!! A whole month of meals planned out for me? Balanced meals? Utilizes leftovers in future recipes? Easy recipes that require as little work as possible? Grocery lists? You mean all I have to do is PRINT and COOK???

Someone upstairs loves me...and he enjoys indulging me in my slothian ways.

Ladies and Gents, I think I might actually become a little more domestic.

Sure this lady uses processed foods in some of her recipes, but I can easily modify that to used as few machine-created marvels as possible. And yes...I hate fish...and any other water-faring creature that most normal people, for some strange reason, find delish. But there are so few seafood meals that I can easily substitute a different meat or come up with a different go-to meal entirely (hello sandwiches, my old friend).

So I'll be using this for the rest of this month...hopefully...let's see if my laziness gets the best of me before month's end.

First ever photo shoot -- a little looksie

2010-03-26T21:22:00.000-06:00

Since I know this feeds into Facebook, I thought I'd play around with some of the pictures my friend Candice let me take of her brand new, totally adorable (and by "adorable" I mean "eat-up-able") little girl. This was the first time ever I got to do a "real" photo-shoot, my baby-shower gift to her. There will be a card to follow, but that's for her to see, and we haven't gotten there yet. So while I eagerly await her word which pictures she wants to use for said card, I decided to play with a few of my favorites and share them on here (and hopefully she reads my Facebook note). Enjoy!

Daughter looks like who?

2010-03-23T20:08:00.001-06:00

For the entirety of my 4 year old little bug's life I have had one question: WHO THE CRAP DOES SHE LOOK LIKE??

Simple question? Yes...but the answer is not that simple with my little Lilas. She doesn't look much like her dad (other than the tan skin and lack of a behind), and although everyone would always say "She looks so much like you, Karen!" I just didn't see it. Sure, she has elements of me...the eyes, the lips (combined with the massively pillowy lips of her father), and her sad excuse for hair...seriously, she looked like Curly until 2 1/2...not even kidding.

I've always been on the search for my daughter's familial genetic clone, until last week.

Last week we took a 3 hour drive to my dad's house, where I saw a picture of my great-grandmother. I freaked! It's my daughter! In...like...60 or 70 years...creeped me the crap out. So I had to share:

Great-Grandma

Lilas-Bug

Okay, so the pictures aren't the perfect comparison, but it's the best I could find...and you can still see it if you look closely enough. Still creeps me out.

Yet another Thetamom Giveaway -- Flirty Aprons!

2010-03-20T10:56:00.000-06:00

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Thetamom? She's having another awesome giveaway that I am hopelessly desperate to win! I mean, seriously, what woman wouldn't love a free Flirty Apron? They're ADORABLE!! They might even motivate me to cook something every once in a while...

Go over to Thetamom...follow the rules...and try to get your hands on this adorable aprons!!

Thetamom Necklace Giveaway

2010-03-08T16:27:00.001-07:00

In case you haven't heard about Thetamom (and I'm sure anyone who reads this has heard of her), you should go check her out. She's having an awesome giveaway right now for a GORGEOUS necklace from The Vintage Pearl. Here's a sample of their woek:

Doesn't that just SCREAM simple elegance? I'm all about that.

So if you feel like lessening my chances at winning and boosting your own (and who wouldn't?) then head over to Thetamom and get to entering! Who doesn't like pretty stuff that's free, I mean really?

Sickies

2010-02-26T21:50:00.000-07:00

So I was writing this enormously long blog for this, but I knew no one would really read it...if I'm getting sick of writing it, then it's too long. So I've decided to sum things up.

The past week and a half have SUCKED. In the course of a week all four members of this house have been on some form of antibiotic...one of us has been on two (YAY ME!!!).

So here's what went down:

Tuesday: my voice starts going
Wednesday: I'm congested, still no voice, and Lilas starts getting eye-boogers (though it just looks like sleepy-eye at this point so I don't pay it much heed).
Thursday: Ryan's congested, I'm congested, we both have no voice (and can't breathe), and Lilas has massive eye-boogerage all along her bottom lashes. We take her to the doctor...pink-eye. Fun.
Friday: Lilas's on antibiotic drops for her eyes (and hates them with a fiery passion), Ryan and I can hardly breathe.
Saturday/Sunday: Lilas's eyes are clearing up. Ryan and I are taking a triple cocktail of ibuprofen, psudoephedrine (Sudafed), and Robitussin to try and get our nasal passages/tonsils to not be swollen, our noses to stop dripping, and to try and gain the ability to sleep. Ryan has to sleep sitting up or else the golf-ball size, white-speckled lump that used to be called his tonsil starts chocking him (did I mention he has a sore throat? He has a sore throat too...a PAINFUL one). I stupidly do the "responsible" thing and go outside, braving 0 degree weather, in order to do laundry for my family (laundry that is still sitting in baskets on the living room floor waiting to be folded). That night I start running a 102 fever, and Gavin gets a runny nose.
Monday: Ryan tries to go to class, and ends up not being able to breathe when he goes outside thanks to that lovely tonsil. I'm still running a fever, have chills, massive muscle aches, night sweats, and a sore throat. He doesn't go to the doctor until 8pm, then decides to go to Urgent Care when he looks at his throat in the mirror and notices that said tonsil is literally taking up half the size of his throat. He's diagnosed with strep. I get a call from the doctor after he tells him that I am also sick, and after some questioning, the doctor diagnoses me with strep also and puts us both on penicillin.
Tuesday: Lilas has a cough. I'm still running a fever. Gavin starts running a fever (I blame teething). Ryan and I are quarantined at home for 24 hours. We both still have sore throats, no voice, a cough, fever (me), chills (me), aches (still me), night sweats (still still me), extreme fatigue, no appetite...probably other stuff, but I can't remember it all (we were pretty massively sick). We're taking penicillin, Robitussin DM, psudoephedrine, and ibuprofen. Oh yeah, and my chapped lips have turned into a massive cold sore at the bottom of my booger slide (you know, that dent below your nose? that thing).
Wednesday: Lilas's back at daycare with just a cough. Gavin still has a runny nose but no fever. Penicillin has kicked in for Ryan, but barely for me. Gavin's eyelashes are crusted over after his second nap (I'm hoping it's sleep-eye). That night I take my quadruple-cocktail of drugs, and by that night I feel better, but light-headed and dizzy.
Thursday: Gavin wakes up with eye-boogers and an appointment is made. By this point every member of our family has been on some form of antibiotics over the course of a week. I'm starting to cough more. Ryan feels much better, but still has a swollen tonsil. I'm still congested, but do feel a significantly better than the day before and so try going to classes. I take Gavin to the doctor and now he has pink-eye. Lilas had drops, he gets a cream because of his age. My cough gets progressively worse as it turns night. By the time the kids are in bed, I'm coughing literally every 30 seconds. At 10pm I call the after-hours nurse to ask what I can do for relief (I contemplate going to the ER but the sheer thought of spending that much money keeps me on the miserable side of the argument). It's a sad day when EVERY. SINGLE. THING. the nurse has in her arsenal to suggest you do for relief, you've already tried. Even a spoonful of honey and lemon juice...which is the only thing that helps...but only for 5 minutes, then I'm coughing again. I literally have to lay sleeping up on propped up by pillows in order to sleep.
Friday: Today...I go to the doctor. Oxygen tests. Lung capacity tests. Sinusitis and Bronchitis. I'm put on an inhaler, cough syrup with codine, and told to get off the penicillin and start a new antibiotic. Doctor said the strep was gone (could see the traces of it, but it's gone enough), and the penicillin wasn't the best for bronchitis and sinusitis.

To Recap: That's two kids with pink eye and colds, a husband with strep throat, and me with strep throat, bronchitis, and sinusitis after starting with an upper-respiratory infection.

That's been my week and a half. Somehow my genius immune system caught EVERY illness that was going around campus. I guess I'm just lucky.

~*~

On a hilarious side note...if you've never read about the Sleep Talkin' Man...go read it now. It's one of the funniest blogs I think I've ever read. It does have some swearing, so if you don't like that than steer clear...otherwise, go read...and laugh.

FIFTY!!

2010-02-24T21:13:00.000-07:00

One of my goals for this blog was to one day reach a whopping 50 followers. A piddly amount compared to the thousands of followers some other blogs get (nay, even millions!), but to me 50 was beyond to realm of possibility.

BUT...lo and behold...it happened!! Thanks to SurferWife (whose blog you should totally follow if you aren't already, by the way, because it's purely amazing), I am now at 50 followers! If you count the people that read via Facebook feeds, then I have even more...whodathunkit?

So what should I do to commemorate this occasion...hmm...a memorial post? A new blog theme? A giveaway or my semi-decent design skills while I shamelessly ask for everyone to have their friends come and bring my followers up to 100? Ruthless banter at the expense of my loved ones?

Hmm...that last one probably isn't the best idea...

So tell me what you'd like me to do! I'll do my best to satisfy all you bored readers (as I'm sure you must be thoroughly bored to be reading this crap...I mean, seriously...I ramble...a lot...).

I don't get it...am I unlikable?

2010-02-21T16:06:00.000-07:00

I'm a little bummed.

I've had two people in the past year who were in the same iVillage playgroup with me when I was pregnant with Lilas, who I thought were my friends, suddenly de-friend me. One of them I was twitter following and she blocked me, then Facebook de-friended me. Today the second one, who I had noticed earlier deleted a comment I left her on her blog a while back (which I figured was just a computer glitch), deleted a comment I left her on her Facebook status before de-friending me.

Now I try very hard not to offend anyone. I'm a wee bit uptight when it comes to wanting people to like me. I try to be as honest with myself and others as possible, and try to have as much tact as I can muster when saying ANYTHING.

So what did I do wrong? What is it about me that these women don't like? I know it's just two people...and it could be something as simple as we just don't mesh...but that doesn't stop me from being paranoid and self-defeating. Now I'm running the gamut of possibilities in my head, going over and over the things that I probably said or did wrong, and constantly asking myself if I'm just an overall annoying person. Or maybe I come across as a bitch or too needy or someone who's just trying to get attention and a hand-out.

I really hope no one things that last one. It's the most untrue of them all! Just ask my in-laws...we have a hard time asking for help when we actually need it. I'm morally opposed to hand-outs and try not to ask for them, let alone take them, unless I feel I have no other option. I hate having attention on myself or my family and clam up/shut down when it does. I have a HUGE amount of social anxiety and generally don't know how to act in social situations.

Maybe that's all it is...my lack of social skills have led to people starting to not like me. Unfortunately, instead of using this as a learning tool, I'll just stay paranoid and hate myself for a bit until something more needing of my time comes to devour my attention. I have more important things to worry about...too bad I'm too much of a people-pleaser.

Please know, if you are reading this, that this is not a post searching for compliments...I just needed a place to vent. That's what a blog is after all, right? Right. Off to do sicky-homework now. Yay sickies!

Who DOES this???

2010-02-19T20:12:00.000-07:00

So I'm a little (LOT) frustrated, and I have been for, oh...about 3 1/2 years now.

"Why?" you may ask?

Because I live in family/graduate housing on campus at the university we attend, and this particular set of family housing powers that be decided way back when that all laundry times in the communal laundry room should be scheduled. Scheduled, as in I can only do laundry during these times on these days (which we share with the apartment above us):

Sundays from 5pm-9pm
Tuesdays from 12pm-5pm
Saturdays from 7am-12pm
Wednesdays and Fridays first-come-first-serve
After 9pm every day (meaning I have to stay up til 1am sometimes in order to have clean clothes)

Now...in an ideal world...where fairies can carry my laundry outside in the freezing snow over ice-covered sidewalks and to the laundry room while my husband and I are in class or our son is sleeping...where we have no other academic, family, or work obligations...scheduling laundry times would help the apartments to get along...ideally...or at least it would for their fairies...

But has anyone ever really had life work out in a picture-perfect manner? In fact, I would argue that since the individuals living in FAMILY housing have just that...FAMILIES while they are in school...that life has pretty much thrown "ideal" out the speeding car window, had hit by a sewage truck, then left it to be used as a pillow by the dirty hobo sleeping behind Kmart. (graphic, I know...sorry...venting)

I'm personally opposed to the laundry times for several reasons, and I really can't keep quiet about them any longer. I've emailed family housing expressing my dislike of the scheduling, as well as the numerous conversations I have had with other residents both in my own apartment complex and others. I have stated the following reasons why these times need to be done away with

They're inappropriate for a Married/Parenting/Student lifestyle. We all have ridiculously busy schedules as it is with work and school. Often times our class/work schedules overlap the laundry time we have for that day which, of course, means no laundry gets done. We could have done laundry during other points of the day, but that would be going against "Family Housing Policy" and could result in eviction, and so we just let the dirty laundry sit in the house waiting to be cleaned.
They're inappropriate for students with children. If you have children, you get this...you HAVE to do children every. single. day. when you have kids. It's a must. If you notice the schedule for my apartment above, I'm not allowed to do laundry on Mondays and Thursdays. I could catch up on the other days, except that my lovely husband and I have classes straight through on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and aren't even here on Sunday evenings. So I do what I can to catch up on the mountain of messy shirts waiting for soap on Fridays and Saturdays, but, inevitably, I end up being perpetually behind on laundry.
They DO NOT breed friendliness among neighbors, like their original intent. Okay, so I don't know for sure that their original intent was to solve conflicts over laundry room use, but I can't see any other logical explanation for having scheduled laundry hours. In fact, I have seen nasty notes written on laundry left in the dryer past the designated hours, and even saw threats made! How is this being neighborly and solving conflicts?
They're unhygienic. Follow me on this one (because it's happened to me and some of my neighbors on several occasions). It's Sunday night and your laundry time has just ended, when your kid throws up all over their bed and clothes. You get them and the bed cleaned off, but can't start the bodily-fluid covered nastiness until your next laundry time. When is that? Tuesday...two days away. That's pretty bad. Oh, but wait...you have classes straight through during your laundry time on Tuesday! So you have to wait to wash them until Wednesday. Of course, then you realize that you and your husband have classes straight through all day Wednesday too, and you're required to go to an evening class that night from 7-9 when you would normally be able to wash them (by this point they've been sitting in a garbage bag, covered in filth and getting moldy/disgusting/RUINED for 3 days). That means you have to wait until FRIDAY to wash them. Why not wash them between classes? That's a good question...it's usually because you're switching the kids from you to your husband (or vice versa) between classes, coming home for 1-2 hours before your next class, feeding the baby and/or putting him down for a nap (and trying to remember to feed yourself), paying bills, doing grocery shopping (if the need arises), doing homework, or you don't want to wake/bundle up the baby just to waddle 50 feet with a 25 lb infant on one hip and a 10 lb laundry basket on the other, which is already covered in vomit. You try...but crabby baby + 25 degree weather + ice covered sidewalks + losing your center of gravity do not all add up to a good situation, and you're not about to leave your baby unattended in your apartment so that you can start a load of laundry (bad parenting 101 right there).

See why I'm mad? Angry? Horribly frustrated?

I was nicer in the email I sent. And I got an equally "nice" I-didn't-really-read-your-email-and-don't-care-about-your-complaints email back. Yay for form letters.

So I am now asking every member of family housing I see to send them an email. I'll be emailing them a couple times a week to express my disgust over scheduling already over-scheduled families for such a basic necessity such as clean clothes. I will be putting posters on the mail-boxes around here asking others who I don't know to email the head office over their hatred of or praise for the laundry times. I have yet to find a single person who feels they are benefiting anyone, let alone praises them (but if they're out there then, to be fair, I'll encourage them to send an email).

I'm seriously livid over this. I have yet to hear of a any other apartment complex in America, even those with more apartment buildings than my own, who schedule the laundry times of their residents. It's ridiculous, and I've had enough.

Shut up Morgan Freeman!!!

2010-02-15T19:36:00.002-07:00

Stupid Mr. Freeman with you're gruff, velvety, make-me-cry-at-a-freaking-commercial voice of awesomeness.

So I'm watching the Olympics, right? And this commercial comes on...the kind of commercial that women should never be allowed to watch...EVER!!

Stupid Morgan Freeman. STOP MAKING ME CRY!!

Busified

2010-02-09T20:55:00.000-07:00

HOO BOY!!!

I had every good intention of writing some helpful blogs for you all. The winner of the (pitiful) poll I posted (that only 5 measly people voted on...C'MON!!) was that that people want to hear how I save money and keep my grocery bill down. And while I hoped to write a comprehensive post documenting my frugal planning and efforts, I sadly just haven't had a single second to myself. Sucks. Even now, I should be typing up a major assignment I have due tomorrow.

Yay procrastination!

Instead of being responsible, I'll write...because I'm good like that.

First off, my amazing writer of a husband has a new blog that everyone should check out...he is a FANTASTIC writer, and even what he has written there is paltry compared to how he writes now (they're copied from his old myspace blog...which nobody ever reads...because nobody is on myspace anymore).

Second, I'll be trying to update my blog through my phone for a bit as I notice random crap. Be prepared for small, nonsensical blog entries that really don't have much of a point. Now won't that be fun??

And finally...a tip...

We all know about coupon clipping, matching coupons to sales, price-matching, yadda, yadda, yadda. What's the most expensive part about groceries? I'll give you a hint...it starts with an "M" ends with a "T" and isn't mutton...t....muttont....*ahem*.

MEAT!! Meat is ridiculously expensive!! And while I know that not everybody eats meat, and that some people eat organic and are ultra-super-picky about what they eat (as am I, but not for the same reasons...meat on a bone, BLECH!), I'm not going to be giving you this tip to help you buy whatever-free dead animal.

So here's what you do. The next time you're grocery shopping, check the dates on the meat, and make a note of the "sell-by" date. Try to go shopping next time on that day or, depending on the store, the day before. If there is surplus meat on that day most stores will mark it down as a "Manager's Special," making it ridiculously cheap.

Once you've figured out this little gem, look around at all your local stores and find out which one has the cheapest MS's. In my experience, it's usually the local stores that have the better prices, so I'd suggest checking there first.

Now you may be thinking, "But Karen...isn't that meat going bad soon? Why should I buy it?" Well, if you notice the finer print on that little label, you'll see it says "FREEZE or eat by..." What a novel idea! Freezing meat so it can be used later! Our forefathers would be proud.

So that's my little tidbit. Never accept buying meat unless it's on a manager's special or on sale. This has kept our monthly food budget down significantly!

Until next time...which hopefully will be sooner, rather than later, to all you single people...have a Happy Reminder-Your-Gonna-Die-Alone Day! (meant to be funny...not mean...)

Here we go, yo, here we go!

2010-01-22T21:20:00.001-07:00

Guess what bloggy readarinos! You can now become our fan on facebook! Isn't that just uber exciting? I feel so trendy and up with the times.

A small update about the whole blog thing...I will be posting again soon, I promise! Until such time that I do, here's a short little "What do you want to read next" poll for all y'all.

Running out of ideas

2010-01-14T21:32:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've been a bit of a crappy blogger.

I could blame it on the ridiculously busy schedule we have this semester, but that doesn't make up for the past month of class-free blogging I could have done.

I could blame it on my kids and their need for attention, but they pretty much entertain each other pretty well and could care less whether it's me or Daddy playing with them.

I could blame it on laziness...that works...but isn't true.

The real reason why I haven't been the best of bloggers is because I'm flat out of ideas. Seriously...what am I supposed to write about when I live in such drab mundanity? My life is dull...and I'm lacking creativity.

So I'm leaving it to you readers (all 60 or so I get a week on here...which is far more than I ever expected) and asking that you shoot me some ideas. What do you want to see me writing about? Weekly features? Something, ANYTHING, to keep me accountable and keep me writing...you say it, I'll (probably) do it. I'm easily persuaded.