Circle of Courage

Ms. R's school recognizes students who are particularly kind and hard working by having each class nominate one student per reporting period to the "Coyote Circle of Courage". I find it interesting to see that the same kids seem to be nominated year after year. It's good to know that there are consistently good kids out there. Looks like Ms. R is one of them:

It is my pleasure to nominate Ms. R Crabb for the Circle of Courage because she is responsible, kind to others and makes wise choices. She always does her work to the best of her ability. She is observant. She knows when a friend needs help or encouragement and helps them without causing a disruption or disturbance. I am please to know a fine young lady like Ms. R Crabb and to have her in my class.
-Mrs. Judy Font

Mosters vs. Aliens

After month of "Mom, can we go to Monsters Aliens?" (Can I just take a minute to express how much I hate marketing executives?) Monsters vs. Aliens was released to theaters on Friday. Since I'm all about getting my kids off my back ... I mean giving my kids a treat from time to time, we headed to the Movie Tavern that very day. I love the Movie Tavern; it offers you REAL food options for decent prices while you watch your movie of choice. Which means all the money I'd be spending on popcorn and candy gets spent on a meal instead. Brilliant!
The movie itself was pretty cute. The 3D version is kind of over rated, to be honest. I'd definitely suggest going to the "regular" version however.

Did She Just Tip Me?

I help out at Ms. R's school nearly every day in one way or another. Copying, laminating, coloring, grading, sorting ... you name it, I've probably done it. Today while Ms. R's class was off at "specials" I went to hand out some paper work and had to swim through several disastrous desks to find their homework binders. I'm proactive, so what do you think I did? I decided to clean out ALL of the kids desks. Ms. R's teacher was laughing at me. Yeah, I have issues, what's it to ya?
When the kids got back, she had them look in their desks, notice how nice they looked and reminded them to say thank you.
One of the little girls came up to me about two minutes later and handed me $1. A bit confused I asked her what she wanted me to do with it.
"It's for cleaning my desk."
"That's alright, Bree, I cleaned out everyones desk. You don't have to pay me for it."
"You did a good job, you can keep the dollar."
"Why don't you keep the dollar and as a way of paying me back, keep your desk clean?"
"Nah, you keep the dollar. I'm not going to keep it clean."
"Fine. Just put the dollar down and if you change your mind you can come back and get it from me."

I have no idea why getting paid by a 7 year old for cleaning her desk makes me feel cheap.

Texas

Ms. R's class is learning about Texas and they were asked to "brain storm" two lists: What I know and What I Want to Know.

These are the things she knows (about Texas):
cactus
dry land
Bluebonnets are the state flower
catfish
snakes
lots of big cities
good schools
warm weather most of the time
horses
long horns
lakes
armadillos
tornadoes

What she WANT to know:
Why do we call it "Texas"?
"Why do people ride bulls?"
Who is in charge of Texas?
Why is the flower called a bluebonnet?
Why is the land so dry?
Why are there so many land animals?
What is the state animal?

Some days Smarty McSmartypants makes me smile with the things she wonders about. Makes me wonder at the things she knows.

Boo-frickin-Yah!

I can say, at this point, that I am having a love affair with Melatonin and a son who is asleep by 9pm.
Yesterday morning he woke up at 6:57am with his sister. Stayed awake and stayed happy till I gave him another Melatonin at 7:48pm.
He was asleep by 8:48pm.
Slept till 7:33am this morning.

Immediate side effects I am noticing?

Jerry and I have time to talk in the evenings without me intermittently calling out, "GO BACK TO BED!", "STOP CLIMBING THE WALLS!", "IF I HAVE TO COME DOWN THERE, YOU ARE NOT GOING TO LIKE THE RESULTS!", "DO NOT WAKE UP YOUR SISTER!" ... It's bliss.

He's more thoughtful and helpful. While he's naturally so, he's starting to think outside the box when a situation arises. This morning he wanted me to lay with him a few minutes while he woke up, having already made Ms. R breakfast, packed her lunch and just waiting for her to be ready to do her hair I had time to oblige. So I lay down beside him. He immediately started covering me up with a blanket then noticed his dad had the majority of it trapped around his body. Instead of pulling and tugging and grunting as I expected him to do, he sat up, appraised the situation, grabbed another blanket that his father was not swaddled in (I kid you not, the man is a blanket hog) and proceeded to cover me with that one.

I'm going to try it for a week then take a break and see if he just needed to be put on a schedule. I'll let you know how it goes.

Melatonin

That's right.
I'm going all "Naturopath"
(lol... heck, I don't even know if I spelt that right!)
on you.
Me,
the captain of team resistance.
Me,
the kid who thought McD's was a haven of all that is good and right in the world (until I had kids of my own).

Getting B-man to sleep and getting him to STAY asleep has been an "issue" since ... let's say ... BIRTH.
Seriously, he stopped napping at like 6 months.
He nearly crucified me.
Stick a stake in me, I was DONE.
Apparently sleeplessness and night waking is a common issue with Autistc kids.
Say that all you want,
it doesn't help the parent who is up with the child and waking up with the child feel any better. Not at all.
Not even a little bit.
"Oh gee, other parents are also suffering sleepless nights and being woken up 4 times thereafter also. That makes me feel so much better."
HAHAHA
No, no it doesn't.
It doesn't make you feel any less alone.
Any less TIRED.
Any less frustrated.

Last week I hit my limit.
I could put up with him not going to sleep till 1am and sleeping (off and on) till 11am. He has afternoon school, so he had time to wake up, have breakfast and get on the bus. Figured we'd worry about the 7:15am wake up next year.
Later.
Much later.
Last week after the time change it was out and out ridiculous. He was staying awake, laying in the dark, singing, telling himself stories, listing off animals, letters, colors, people ... until 3am.
THREE in the MORNING.
Then I had to drag him out of bed just before the bus came, shove some apples in his back pack for breakfast and send him off on the bus.
Not so much working.
For him or me.
I have been contemplating Melatonin for ... months now.
However, the smallest dose I could find at the common grocery store was not advised for people under 12.
Problem.
I wasn't going to just cut it in half and take my chances.
The phsycologist who diagnosed B-man with Autism suggested either liquid or chewable, available at health food stores.
Intersting.
I found some 1mg Cherry flavored quick disolving tabs at GNC.
Last night was our first night.
Gave them to him at 7:45am.
He was OUT by 8:58pm.
Woke once to join me in my bed at 11pm.
Slept till 10am this morning.
Thought, "eh, it may have been a fluke.
He's been a wee bit sick, maybe his body is just recovering."
So I gave it to him again tonight.
One tab at 7:36pm.
Asleep by 8:48pm.
I'll let you know if he wakes up tonight.
Until then ... I'm going to
I don't know
go all crazy
and go to sleep myself!

Out with the Old

Several years ago, when Jerry and I were first married his mother, brother, sister in law and nephew were planning a trip over to Europe. I lamented how much fun that would be and pretty much left it at that.
To say that we were poor would be generous.
However, Jerry and his parents worked out some kind of deal that to this day I am not sure what all it entailed, and I was able to go along with them.
Being extremely aware of our money situation I only picked up one souvenir for myself in Germany, a set of hand made wooden Christmas decorations that were like $13. However, when we were in Paris, Linda and I went into a neighborhood convenience store for something or other and I saw a 12 inch Teflon skillet that was right around $5. I couldn't NOT get it. To this day, I have always had a fondness for that skillet because it represented the relationship Linda and I developed on that trip. Yep, went to Paris and brought me back ... a skillet. And a mother in law who is to this day, a dear friend.
However, most of my skillets have seen their best days. They are scratched and bent and cook unevenly.Yesterday I started the gradual process of replacing them. One by one.Good ol' "Paree" has warmed his last tortilla. Poached his last egg. Browned his last pancake...

Words

At my niece Terina baptism's my mom had a picture taken of my brother, sister, myself and her taken. To summarize what I saw in the picture ... it's not something I would post on the internet. No matter how much I like the people in it.
To encourage myself to eat better, drink more water and excercise harder I copied the picture out and posted it on my fridge with these words written under it:

GAK! Stop the Pain!
-Drink Water
-eat sensibly
-Exercise more

My son, the paper addict, couldn't let the opprotunity pass.

The first day I noticed these words added:

GAK! Stop the Pain!
-Drink Water (Rhiannon)
-eat sensibly (truck)
-Exercise more (Brogan)
(TO BED)

It's funny ... because Ms. R does need to drink more water. If you don't eat sensibly, you could become a truck. B-man would LOVE to exercise more. And I DO need to be in bed more! At least I need to SLEEP more.

But then he just kept adding ... and this is where the paper is at tonight:

Obscene

A side story to the previous post:

Jerry has asked relatively little of me our whole relationship. So generally, when he asks for something, I try to do my hardest to accommodate him. I'm just that awesome. Wait, does stating I'm awesome decrease my awesomeness? Bah! Maybe HE'S that awesome for being so undemanding. Whatever.

His first and thus far biggest request, was his wedding band. He asked me to get him an aircraft grade titanium wedding band. He even picked out the exact one he wanted. It cost me thousands of dollars. Thousands. Many many more than one. More than 20x's what he paid for my engagement ring. At the time, I thought, "This will probably be the last thing I ever buy him with my own money, so I can justify the expense. While, he on the other hand will spend the rest of his known life supporting me." (Wahahahahaha!!)

However, just now, out of curiosity, I looked into what titanium rings cost now.

The most expensive one I could find was $400.

Oh no, my friends, I DID NOT leave off any zeros.

Four HUNDRED. Dollars. Not Yen, Rupees, Rubles, Forint, Rand, Pounds, Francs, Afghanis, Leke, Dinars, Pesos, Shillings, Taka, Reais, Leva, Colones, Kuna, Koruny, Kroner, Marks, Guilders, Krooni, Markkaa, Drachmae, Rials, Lire, Won, Ringgits, Liri, Dirhams, Zlotych, Escudos, Lei ... (don't you just HATE IT when people go over board to make a point?)

Though it would have been cool if I could have paid in Rand.

So I could say I got a little Randy.

Poor joke, I know.

Apparently, I should have waited like 10 years to get married.

Well, That's ... Odd

Last night I started reminiscing about, of all things, shoes I use to have and love dearly. (I gave away 20 pairs of shoes before I moved to Texas. I was paying PER BOX and I already had 16 boxes filled with clothes, other shoes and memorabilia. More boxes just for shoes just didn't make sense financially to me, since I'd just spent my life savings on Jerry's wedding band. Dude, it's air craft grade Titanium, it cost a lot.) One pair in particular stood out above all the others and it caused an avalanche of other thoughts. Then some digging around in old pictures. Then some amazement. Then some speculation.

These shoes were Adidas (which stands for All Day I Dream About Soccer, not SEX Kristopher!). I was partial to Adidas, as I was a soccer player. I was a soccer player for 16 years. I also played volleyball, basketball and badminton. In essence, I was a jock. But I always identified myself as a soccer player, as I played that year round, while the others were just a few short months and filled up after school time. I was good at soccer, really good. Provincial-level-offered-scholarships good.

I started thinking of the teams I'd played on, the team mates I had, that I didn't know the "technical" terms (forward, half back, defense, striker, goalie, sweeper, ect) - just how to play for most of my soccer "career", how I was always terrified of "heading the ball" but let my poor chest take a beating, how my right knee still "clicks" when I go down stairs because that punk at the Taber tournament kicked out it out from behind so I wouldn't score - then I got a penalty kick and scored the only point in the game ... with my lame knee (I had a mean top right corner kick)...

Which in turn had me wondering if I had any picture of me playing soccer. I played soccer for almost 16 years. SIXTEEN Years. Do you know how many picture I have of me playing soccer? None. Zero. Zippo. Zilch.

Why? I guess the same reason I don't have any of me playing any other sport ... my parents didn't come watch me play. Not more than a couple times. Then again, they didn't go to watch my brother play his sports on a regular basis either. So I really can't be crying too loud they neglected the whole "supportive sports parent" roll, since it was an all round thing and not selective. It does make me wonder what the heck else they were doing, though.

Mom?

Dad?

Why didn't you love me?

Haha. Kidding!

I guess because I am raising my kids in a "soccer mom" enviroment where sports are HIGH on peoples agenda and getting kids to games entails more than making sure they know what day it's on - because they can't just walk there on their own; my parents lack of involvement and possible disinterest in our sports "careers" is odd to me. I am, in no way, critisizing the way the raised us. We all turned out to be mostly normal, fairly high functioning, rather emotionally stable adults. So they must have been doing stuff right.

Or we were just lucky to walk away relatively unscathed.

*winks*

Buster Sundae Pie

Crust
1	Pillsbury® refrigerated pie crust (from 15-oz box), softened as directed on box
Filling
4	cups (1 quart) vanilla ice cream, slightly softened
1/2	cup caramel topping
1/2	cup fudge topping
3/4	cup Spanish peanuts (4 oz)
	Additional peanuts, if desired DIRECTIONS Heat oven to 450°F. Bake pie crust as directed on box for One-Crust Baked Shell, using 9-inch glass pie plate. Cool on cooling rack 15 minutes. Layer 2 cups of the ice cream in crust. Drizzle with 1/4 cup of the caramel topping and 1/4 cup of the fudge topping. Sprinkle with peanuts. Layer remaining 2 cups ice cream over peanuts. Freeze 4 hours or overnight. Drizzle individual servings with remaining caramel topping and fudge topping. Sprinkle with additional peanuts. Cover and freeze any remaining pie.

Abraham Lincoln

As stated in the previous post, the first grade at Ms. R's school has been learning about presidents. They have been sucking up words and facts that are astounding and sometimes funny.

Here are a few of her answers (letter for letter) on the "Abraham Lincoln Test"
Where was Abe born? Kentuckety

Who did Abe marry? Marty Odd (Mary Todd)
How did Abe die? Someone got mad and shot him
What did Abe do that was very important while he was president? Abraham Lincoln is sometimes called the Great Emancipator or the Queen.
... I think she meant "Champion" and not "Queen". But heck, knowing her, probably not.

Are They Smarter than We were?

So today Ms. R's class got into a discussion about presidencies, what it takes to be one, what you would do to be one, what makes a good one, what others have done, ect. As they were brain storming, the teacher wrote their ideas on the whiteboard. Take a look at some of the things these kids said. I honestly do not think I knew this much information about what went on in a presidents life or what he/she had to do on the campaign trail till I was in high school. Maybe not even then.
It's a possibility that these kids are just more aware because the election run happened over the last year or so, when all of them have been of an age to understand and sometimes comprehend what is going on.
The struggle between woman and man. White and black. Good verses evil.
I was pretty blown away by the scope of presidential knowledge a bunch of 6-7 year old's have.

You WILL Be Mine

Oh, yes, you WILL.
So ... last month at the Dallas Auto Show I officially fell in love with a more practical vehicle. My true love, up to this point had been a Mercedes Benz CLS63 AMG. However, I lived up to reality. I would not be a responsible "sports car" owner. I'd get my license suspended in the first year from all the speeding tickets. Forget how nasty angry Jerry would become from the expense.
That, my friends, is where the Mercedes R320 CDI comes in. Jerry's not at all surprised I like it, it was one of the most expensive "family" vehicles featured at the auto show. What can I say, I'm a car snob. Well, in theory. Since I have driven very un-snobbish cars for the past 10 years.
The funny thing is, Jerry loves it too. Our tastes rarely, if ever, find common ground - a good reason we will probably never build a house together. It'd be battle royal. But on this, he agreed with me.
He started to look into lease take over possibilities and he found one that has 10 months left. Which, for me, is perfect. That means that if I don't love it like I think I will, I only have 10 months to not love it entirely. Or if I love it completely, in 10 months we can buy me one.
I like this whole "lease take over" idea. Practically genius.

Honorable Mention

Ms. R has consistently made the "A/B Roll" at school this year.
Including this report card.
Way to go Ms. R.
Way to go, Krista.
A fact that I personally take a little pride in, as the person watching out for her homework, pushing her a little harder, bringing home extra assignments to help boost her average in lagging areas ...
But since when did the "Honorable Mention" list become the A/B Roll?
Is that a U.S. thing?
Are they trying to make the kids who haven't quite made the "A Roll" list feel better?
Why not just the "B Roll"?
Or the "Try Harder Next Time" roll?
Haha. Kidding.
I know most of the kids on the a/b roll are trying their darnedest.

Have I Mentioned

I love Ryan Reynolds?In general I'm pretty blase about Hollywood "hunks".

Take 'em, Leave 'em.
Whatever.
Ryan Reynolds though.
Be still my beating heart.

Funny.
Hot as heck.
Can rock some serious facial hair.
And those "muscle veins" don't hurt either.

This post comes out of no where.
For no apparent reason.

6th

folder, 6th Picture. B-Man's interpretation of "Missing Santa"

Coreen

After the conference was done today my cousin Coreen and her friend Erin - who both live in Victoria, came to Vancouver to meet me so we could do some shopping and eating . That's four hours on either a bus or ferry. They're so dedicated ;)
I haven't seen Coreen in at least 10 years.
Yet;
there was an instant connection.
Between myself, Coreen and Erin there was chatter non-stop as we shopped, stopped for cupcakes, shopped, stopped for bigger cupcakes, shopped, looked for a place to eat, ate.
Erin took a couple shots of Coreen and I.
Both looking drowned from the rain that had fallen constantly as we walked up and down Robson and Denman.
Not really caring that our hair was rather ridiculous.
The first was was without the flash ... I am so jealous of Coreen's eyes. They are so beautiful and wide open.
I seriously cannot smile without my eyes squinting almost closed.
It was a great afternoon. I can't wait till this summer when I get to see her again!

For Michael

Those Irishmen.
Sure have a funny sense of humor.
This pub is about a block from the court house ...