Story #1: When we moved into this house, the kids were sharing a room so we designated the biggest room, aside from the master, as their room. Both twin beds, two small bookcases, a reading chair, a toy box, and a set of drawers fit in there with room to spare. I love the big rooms that houses have! It is so unlike our townhouse in Virginia where a twin bed would barely fit.\
A couple of months later we decided to splurge on a queen bed and set up a nice guest room so that older family members (read: grandmas and grandpas) would be comfortable when they visited. A short while later, Max eyed the big, deliciously comfortable guest bed and decided he wanted his own room. Even though it housed a bunch of homeless office boxes, Max was pretty happy to be in there.\
Now Brian has the bigger room, with even more space to himself since Max’s stuff has been moved out. The extra twin bed is still in Brian’s room, for when Max gets displaced by visiting relatives (which he agreed to before the move occurred). It just makes me laugh that somehow the youngest ended up with the big, pretty room. I thought that wouldn’t happen until Max’s college years.\
Story #2: Report cards were issued this week and awards handed out. The kids did really well on their report cards. When he handed me his report card, Max said, “I didn’t make the Honor Roll…” He kept a straight face and then said, “I made the High Honor Roll.” What a stinker.\
They both also received a citizenship award for embodying the different touchy-feely themes of the month, like Respect and Integrity. This award is only given to two kids per class and BOTH of my kids got it. Wheeeeeeeeee. I am more proud of this, in some ways, than I am of their academic achievement. I am also impressed that Max’s teacher awarded it to him since he has been abstaining from saying The Pledge of Allegiance. That she could see past his ‘not going along with the flow’ says a lot about her.\
Brian also received a Perfect Attendance Award, which is silly. At his age, he is not in charge of whether he goes to school or or if he stays cold/flu/vomit-free.\
Max also received an award for meeting his Accelerated Reader points goal. His goal was 10, which can be achieved by reading one book, but usually takes two. This goal was so beneath Max’s abilities, he completed it within the first two weeks of school. I told him I thought he could do better than that. However, I am not going to push him on this. He has enough going on, plus he reads way above grade level for fun and without any extra credit. I wonder what the procedure is for determining what a student’s goal should be, because I feel like a teacher or two got played by Max, ha.
Author: jclawver
Halloween Happiness
Kevin gets his Father Of The Year Award early this year for saving Halloween.\
We bought beautiful pumpkins to make jack-o-lanterns, but wanted them to be fresh for Halloween so we waited until Saturday to carve them. Only by then they were rotten! 🙁 Kevin went out in search of new, unrotten pumpkins but he didn’t have any luck. Instead the kids carved watermelon and the baby pumpkin that didn’t go bad:\
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The kids had funny dressing up, pretending to battle, and exchanging accessories:\
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You can see more pictures by clicking the “Photo” link above.
They won! Wooooohoooooo!!
The company Kevin works for, Music Intelligence Solutions, won a Savannah area award for something awesome last night! YAY! Everyone should email Kevin a hearty congratulations (and, erm, ask what the award actually is). I am really proud of Kevin. I know how hard and long Kevin works. Big congrats to all of the team over at MIS!
Trip Down Mom-ery Lane
I have a 10 year old kid. I have a 10 year old kid. Ahhhhhhh. Which is better than not having a 10 year old kid. But still, way to make me feel O-L-D. Half of the birthday plans were put on hold since Max has a fever. Boo.\
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Max
I’ve been sick the last couple of weeks and haven’t done anything other than the bare minimum to keep the household functioning. Sadly, blogging does not fall into the priority chores list. I did have to pop in to say, “Max made yellow belt in karate!” YAY for him. Hopefully Kevin will post pics soon from the graduation. Also, Max received all A’s on his first report card. Double YAY!\
Max’s 10th birthday is tomorrow, and hopefully Kevin or I will post about how awesome Max continues to be. Until then, just take my word for it.\
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TV Talk: Bitter-making moments
The Emmys were last night and none of my favorites won, booo. Instead of moping about what should have been, let’s talk about other times I felt like throwing a shoe at my tv, ok? OK!\
10. Virtuality– This was a great pilot about astronauts in space, similar to ABC’s seemingly canceled Defying Gravity but so much better. It was written by Ronald D. Moore and directed by Peter Berg. That alone should have guaranteed a pick-up. But Fox passed on it, blowing a chance at having both a successful and critically acclaimed show on its network.\
9. Smallville– The first couple of seasons were entertaining enough, but the show never lived up to its potential, which I found extremely frustrating.\
8. Dr Who– Nine leaving broke my heart and I have never forgiven the show for it, even though Ten completely won me over within minutes of his first episode.\
7. Veronica Mars– Everything after S1 left me unsatisfied. The S1 finale was so great and contained a wealth of material for a follow-up mystery, yet S2 and S3 were mostly meh. Well, it was still better than most of the stuff on tv, but not as good as it should have been.\
6. Alien Nation– The show ended in a classic cliff-hanger as a bomb was delivered to the Francisco home. Fast forward a few years to the made-for-tv movie where the bomb was never addressed. Come on! Reward your loyal viewers. A throw-away line would have sufficed.\
5. Jay Leno on Prime Time. I can’t even stand all of the reality programs that have sneaked into the lineup. NBC giving up three to four hours of scripted tv (depending on how many Datelines it airs) just irritates me.\
4. Beverly Hills, 90210– Brandon and Kelly call off the wedding moments before it is due to start. I get that Jason Priestly wanted off the show, so of course they couldn’t get married. However, it’s the given reason with which I have a problem. They decided to not get married after Steve talked about how “all of life’s mysteries are over,” that their lives were forever planned out and nothing unexpected would ever happen again. Steve then made some lame-ass remark about having a one-night stand later while Brandon would be stuck with the same woman for the rest of his life. UGH. Only someone never married [for love] would ever utter such complete nonsense.\
3. Twin Peaks– The revelation of who killed Laura Palmer. It’s clear the writers didn’t have a clue who the culprit was and were just making things up as they went along. While the journey was fun, the resolution left me completely unsatisfied.\
2. Queer As Folk:US– This is one of my favorite shows of all time. It is campy, gripping, soapy, poignant, funny, topical, moving. (Seriously, you try watching Ted check in to rehab without crying.) I want to recommend the show to everyone I know. On second thought, scratch that, since I only know family members and this isn’t a show to watch with your family. But you, you all in land of the internet, should totally check out the show. The show grabbed my attention when the three guys started singing, “I love the night life” and I was hooked a few minutes later when one of the guys complimented a drag queen on her outfit, “Not everyone can wear tangerine.” Ha. I love the editing and the music and the acting. The show is flawed, sometimes tries too hard, preaches too much, but it is just so damn entertaining I don’t care about any of that. The great thing about watching the show on DVDs is the lack of hiatus and no waiting months for resolutions after cliff-hangers! But this list now is about moments that made me bitter, so I’ll stop praising the show and get to the point. The ending of QAF definitely deserves to be on this list. The finale seemed rushed, important developments were glossed over, characters became OOC (out of character), and most egregious: the lead character’s entire arc was sacrificed for some ideal about queer culture. Or something. I still don’t fully understand the reasoning behind it, I just know that I thought it was a cheap choice. (But even still, this show is in my top three favorites of all time!)\
1. Gilmore Girls– Lane’s “good” behavior results in bad sex. Lane was the the nerdy/quirky/cool girl who rebelled against everything her mother taught her except the belief of abstaining from sex before marriage. She gets married and finally gets to be part of Sex-Is-Great Club only to have horrible sex once on her honeymoon; it’s so bad she doesn’t want to do it again. She accuses Rory of purposefully lying about the pleasure involved. Later Lane finds out that her one time resulted in a pregnancy. With twins. Without ever getting to experience the good part. WTH? Nice message there, writers.\
Hey, internet: What are some tv moments that left you feeling bitter?\
Next time on TV Talk: Does an unhappy and/or unsatisfying ending ruin the whole viewing experience? (Think Sopranos, Quantum Leap, Angel, Seinfeld.)
Traumatized
OMG, these Disney-esque, kiddie movies just kill me. Why are the babies always taken away from their parents?
Maybe next time I’ll post the good things
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Christmas in Mississippi 2006\
I want to complain some more about Max’s school. All of my complaints are sort of minor, but things I find annoying.\
I’ll just refer you to the post below to see my traffic-jam rant.\
The clubs have switched times from after school to the last 45 minutes of school. This happens to overlap with Max’s Gifted class. BOOOOOOOOOO. I really appreciate what Max learns in Gifted, but is that more important than what he could learn in The Philosophy and Art Club? The Robotics Club? Or the fun, friends, and self-esteem he could gain in Chorus?\
The parking lot is set up so that you have to walk a couple of hundred feet to get into the school, even though you can park a mere 10 feet from the building. It’s just a badly thought out design. One time when I needed to pick up Max from school because he was sick, he was too weak to make it to the car. 🙁 I left him at the curb and brought the car to him. Poor guy. That made me grumble for awhile. Actually, I grumble every time I have to go to the school when I see how badly it’s designed.\
Max has Gifted five days a week, where he is pulled from his regular classroom. The regular class is, of course, continuing their lessons. Last year Max missed Math. Everyday. No wonder he got his lowest grade in Math, claims it’s hard and is his least favorite subject. Ugh. This is the same problem that kids in ESL and other pull-out programs face. I think I need to talk with someone at the school about this.\
There is a club that is only open to girls- WTH? Discrimination! Discrimination! It’s a robotics club. I guess girls are still considered “behind” when it comes to this sort of thing.\
ETA- The Gifted teacher is canceling Gifted classes on Mondays and Fridays to accommodate kids joining clubs. Yea, that’s the solution. Oy.
Bullet points!
- Max has started reading this blog (hi, Max!) so I need to stop with the adult or subversive posts. I’m not sure what else there is to write, ha. I haven’t been feeling ranty lately which is a good thing given my new posting restrictions. The Hofstra case really has me irked though.
- Max has been settling well in the 4th grade. He is still in the Art and Philosophy Club and is trying out for chorus. (What normal elementary school requires tryouts?) We also try to make time for karate twice a week. Later in the year, he will add Robotics Club. So many cool new opportunities! We decided to skip soccer at the Y, heh.
- I still spend 30-45 minutes each day getting my kids to and from school, most of which is spent in the parent-created traffic jam. The system is ridiculous. I freely admit to adding to the problem. I don’t want to have my kids ride the bus in the morning because pick up time is 55 minutes before school starts. Considering how late school gets out and how busy Max is afterward, he could definitely use that time more advantageously at home (usually sleeping).
I saw something nasty in the… freezer section
I spied with my little eye Christmas ice cream in the store today. Ummm, can’t we wait at least until summer is over? Jeeze.