Category: family

I am going to ask him for help on my taxes

I was finally able to get someone to test Max’s reading level. Remember, this is the kid who taught himself to read when he was 1. He used to figure out atomic masses of compounds for fun when he was 3. For years he has been reading his uncle’s old science magazines. I can’t describe the ways in which his brain is so much better than mine (and probably yours, no offense). So……… Max is reading at a 12th grade level.\
Holy cow.

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Categorized as Max

Friday Five

Another mom asked me out for coffee and I felt scandalized.\
This has been a rough week for us and I irrationally want Kevin to be here, suffering too. And/or I want some sort of reward. I am shallow that way.\
Brian has toy show-and-tell at school on Fridays. Today he chose to take an empty tape roll.\
Max is working on two big school projects and I am irked at how much oversight I have to do. When he becomes a big, fat, fucking success, I am going to lap up any praise people choose to bestow on me. (Before I always claimed it wasn’t me who made Max so great, but no more of that!)

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Categorized as Brian, Jen, Max

25 Things About Me

Because I’m now been tagged three times for the 25 things list on Facebook, and twice for the seven things list, I figured I had to do it… so here I go.

  1. I am horribly addicted to caffeine. I’ve tried to quit in the past, but when work pressure/stress increases, so does my caffeine intake.
  2. I love clementines. I can go through a case a week, easily. I don’t like regular tangerines or oranges, because the seeds are a pain, but clementines are fantastic.
  3. I have an over-developed sense of guilt. I don’t know why. I’ve tried to figure it out and get over it, but nothing’s worked so far.
  4. I’m allergic to shellfish. My allergy developed in my twenties, and I hate it – because I love shrimp, crawfish, crab and lobster. Stupid allergies
  5. I’m snobby about TV (hate most broadcast TV, all my favorite shows get canceled, etc), but still watch some horrible rubbish. But, thankfully, I think I’m finally over my addiction to the various nationalities’ Big Brother‘s
  6. I miss the people I worked with at AOL, but I don’t miss AOL’s management at all.
  7. Aside from my allergies, I really like living in Savannah, but I wish there was more of a tech community there.
  8. I’m very organized at work, but a complete mess at home. Thankfully, Jen keeps things in order.
  9. I’m in awe of my kids most of the time. Sometimes, I want to drop kick them, but most of the time, I’m in awe.
  10. Sometimes, I wonder what it would be like to be drunk, but not enough to try it.
  11. I don’t understand pet people – dogs, cats, whatever. My mom and I are both allergic to dander, so we never really had dogs or cats when I was growing up. We had a dog for a little while, but that really didn’t work. I don’t understand how people get so attached to things that will basically always be toddlers. My kids eventually stopped crapping on the floor and putting things in their mouths. Like I said, I just don’t get it.
  12. I know I’m not normal, and I’ve decided that I don’t care. The only time I really feel like I belong is at home, work, SxSW or Mashup Camp.
  13. As I’ve gotten older and seen more of the world, my political views have moved farther and farther to the left. I’m pretty sure I’ll never enter Hippie-ville or buy a beret and grow a scraggly revolution beard, but you may hear me muttering “revolution” under my breath from time to time.
  14. I think funny trumps pretty much everything else. If it’s funny, I don’t really care how offensive it might be.
  15. I miss doing Tech X every week. It was a long time ago, but having that weekly goofy performance was a blast. I put an episode up last year. It wasn’t the first, because it took us a good 10-12 episodes to find our “stride”, which feels ridiculous to say, but I said it anyway.
  16. I’m afraid of what will happen when I get tired of writing code.
  17. I love building things and solving problems. I don’t write code for the sake of code. I’ve got to be trying to solve something for it to be fun.
  18. I swear a lot. I keep catching myself and trying to cut back, but I’m really good at it, and the Bible says we’re supposed to develop our talents, right?
  19. I’m not handy. I’m not good with tools or fixing things outside of a computer.
  20. I’ve always wondered how I’d do at standup. Once, in high school, a friend’s mom offered me a gig doing stand up on Saturday nights. I turned her down, but I’ve always regretted it. Of course, I don’t regret it enough to do anything about it now.
  21. I’m inherently lazy. I’d much rather watch TV or play video games than do something productive. I’m not much for creating my own inertia. You wouldn’t know it by how much I work, but once I’m done with work for the day, I’m really done.
  22. I suck at setting and keeping goals outside of work.
  23. I can’t help it, I really really like The Polyphonic Spree. Sometimes, it’s good to be without irony or sarcasm.
  24. I like Thanksgiving more than Christmas. Let’s give it up, people, Christmas is no longer religious, it’s just a stressful gift-giving tradition with ever-mounting expectations for expenditure. I like making Thanksgiving dinner and just hanging out. That’s my kind of holiday.
  25. The manliest thing I do is grill. I love grilling stuff. I’d grill breakfast cereal if I could figure out how.
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Categorized as Kevin

Kids!

Max’s school requires a uniform, but every couple of months they allow the kids to dress in t-shirts if they bring \$1 for a local charity. I think this is a neat idea and so far the school has raised \$1400, but Max has never been able to participate. These casual days have themes and we’ve never had the right shirt. Once the theme was “favorite vacation shirt.” Since the grandparents have stopped going on vacation, we don’t have any for Max. (Brian has Max’s old ones, so he is ready!) Another theme was “favorite sweatshirt.” Which, no. We don’t do sweatshirts. I feel lame that my kid can’t participate in these casual days.\
Brian has had pizza six times this week. Oops.\
Max received his ITBS scores this week. This is a standardized test that compares students to other students of the same grade (nationally, I think). Max got the highest possible score.\
I have been trying to teach Brian to read, which isn’t going well. I am not trying to push him, nor am I worried, and his teachers say he is at least where he should be, but I don’t want to assume he isn’t ready and just ignore the reading. (Wow, that sentence.)\
Max’s school’s website vexes me. I can never find the info I need. Today he has a half-day, woe, but the site doesn’t say what time school gets out. What’s up with that?\
Don’t tell the kids that there is snow in Virginia. They’d be heartbroken that they are missing it.\
Max is on his third backpack of the year. The school requires see-through backpacks, which are either plastic or mesh and they don’t hold up as well. Boo.\
Once a week, Brian has pizza at school for \$2. Sometimes coming up with \$2 in cash is really difficult. Does that make me sound poor? All of the woe!economy media coverage is starting to seep in my brain. Last week I bought mini brie to fancy-up my lunch salads and I was all, “Brie! We can’t afford no stinking brie! Woe.” I bought it anyway. Heh.

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Categorized as Brian, Max

I Got Rocked By Christmas

Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots... Blue got rocked

We’re back. I survived another Christmas. My in-laws got two new dogs, little shitzus named Dixie and Dolly who supposedly don’t shed. Well, they had something (or I’m allergic to the entire state of Mississippi, which is entirely possible). So, I’m returning with what I’m pretty sure is a sinus infection. But, I only gained 2 pounds while eating all kinds of amazing food.\
We had a good Christmas – much more laid back and sedate than Christmas usually is.\
Yeah, I’m still drowning in sinus pain right now, so I don’t have anything else to say right now except “ouch”. Maybe Jen will write something more comprehensive…\
(oh, and until Jim pointed it out, comments were broken. They should be fixed now… oops!)

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Categorized as family

Epic Post of Life!

Brian says things incorrectly, like, “S starts with scooter, ” and “B starts with balloon.” He also says, “I need to wear socks for my feet to not get cold.” I don’t know how to fix this. I’ve read that you shouldn’t correct kids sentences, but instead should repeat the sentence back to them correctly. He also refuses to use “I” at home, instead saying, “Me want juice,” and “Me want to go, too.” He does use “I” at school, so I know he is teachable. Maybe I just need to be more firm (about everything, I am sure). Of course he also says, “Why you dood that?” (The past tense of do, of course.)\
I am happy to report that Brian will now wipe his own butt. WOOT. This was facilitated by the kiddie flushable wipes left behind at Babba’s house by Kevin’s brother’s family over Thanksgiving break. Babba stuck them in the back of our van and told us to take them home. Score for us! (Hello, TMI. Hope he doesn’t want to be president someday.)\
Max was invited to join the Philosophy and Art club/class/thingie at school. He is the only 3rd grader to be asked, as it is only open to 4th and 5th graders. Whee. I am really excited for him.\
Kevin said that he wanted to eat less meat, so I gave him a dinner of a baked sweet potato, broccoli, and hard boiled eggs. That is the last time he’ll say anything like that, I bet. 🙂 Tonight is meatless spaghetti sauce with pasta. That he won’t mind.\
I have been feeling much better since starting the new medicine, which was also about the time Brian started school (no coincidence, I am sure). And it shows: the house is clean, the laundry is done and put away, and I have been cooking.\
Speaking of cooking: Cookie rec time! My grocery store oatmeal, cranberry, walnut break-and-bake cookie dough. It is soooo good. Run to your store, tomorrow, and check it out! We like to make homemade Christmassy cookies, focusing our energy on the cool stuff, and then fill in the platter with cookies from premade dough, since they are available in more typical-cookie flavors.\
Today is A Day Without Gays, which I forgot about until I signed on this morning. Supporters are asked to not go to work, not go shopping, and not use the tv or internet. I couldn’t keep my husband home from work, even though I wanted to, but I did manage to send him off with a brown bag lunch. I sent my kids to school even though I could’ve kept them home. It made the decision between going Xmas shopping and doing laundry really easy and I stayed away from the net for half of the day until I caved. Have you seen any difference today?\
It’s kind of sad that I couldn’t stay offline for an entire day, right? I even took a two-hour nap solely to facilitate this! I have a book that I was planning on curling up with, in between loads of laundry, but really? I need to be online. It’s a drug. An obsession. A vital part of my daily life, ok? OK!\
Good thing I caved though because when I checked my email I found out that our landlord has declared bankruptcy and the bank is now trying to sell the house. I am not sure this puts us in a more precarious position than before, since we were always in a precarious position, but it feels more imminent and there are now new people with which to coordinate things.\
Poking around Craigslist, I found this house for only \$50 more a month:\
Photobucket\
Kevin is in love with the kitchen:\
Photobucket\
It has 3200 sq feet, 4 bedrooms, formal living room, family room, sun room, and bonus room (and of course all the other necessities, heh). The inside is full of upgrades like wood floors, cherry wood cabinets, and built-in book shelves. It has a fenced, corner lot. AND IT IS IN THE RIGHT SCHOOL ZONE!! The problem is that after living in a house like that for a year, it would be really depressing to buy and move into the type of house we could really afford. But WOW. What a house.\
I have inside information, ha!, that Paula Deen is moving to our island. Maybe I will see her at Kroger? We have a local restuarant that serves better food than her “Lady and Sons,” according to Kevin. Maybe I will see her there? Wouldn’t that be a hoot?\
The weather here has been really weird lately. It is warm outside, but cold inside. Someone explain that to me, when we aren’t using the air conditioner. I’ve been thinking about taking the kids to the beach. It’s been over a month since we’ve been!\
This is my last edit, I promise. It started with one little error and then ballooned into a monster, I know. Sorry. But not really. Hee.

Have you heard?

There is a national protest against Prop 8 on Saturday, November 15, being held in almost one hundred cities across the nation. This is, at heart, a civil rights issue and it is unconscionable that we are still treating some people as second-class citizens given that this is “the land of the free” in the 21st century.\
We’re roadtripping down to Jacksonville for tomorrow’s protest. YAY for roadtrips! Ooh, I should make a couple of new mix CDs. I bet Kevin would love that. Our power will be out tomorrow, so I’ve put off grocery shopping and we are out of milk (the unopened jug in the back was from 2 weeks ago- oops), which means no cereal, no eggs, no pancakes, no toast for breakfast. I am going to make “breakfast” bags of pb and j sandwiches, apples, and juice boxes that we can eat in the car.\
Kevin suggested I blog about tv shows you should be watching, so here it goes. Watch Friday Night Lights! This season feels a lot like the first. It is so heart-warming and just wonderful. It’s unlike anything else on tv right now. So, watch it! For those without the special Direct Tv hook up, you can watch in January. Also watch How I Met Your Mother! It’s funny and also heartwarming. Apparently I am in the mood for warm fuzzies lately, though I do have to admit that the Terminator show was totally KICK ASS this week. Umm, that is all, continue about your business [making plans for tomorrow’s protest].

Talk about burying the lead

I want to blog, except I don’t really have anything to say. So, mundane details it is!!\
Max received his first quarter report card. He got all A’s and E’s (exceeds expectations) except in music where he got a ‘meet expectations.’ He has school until almost 4, which doesn’t leave a lot of time for more than homework, dinner, and a bit of down time. I want to get him into sports or music, but most of them start too late and keeping everyone healthy for more than 2 weeks in a row has been a challenge.\
Brian has school three days a week and really enjoys it. He gets a little bit of Spanish, music, and art. Considering how inexpensive it is and the fact that they had openings, I am surprised of the quality of care. He had a check up last week where he was pronounced mostly healthy. He has slight allergies and eczema, which we are treating with OTC allergy meds and fish oil. He was really well behaved for the almost 2 hours we were there. Several of the staff commented on it. :)\
Kevin works a lot. He also grills a lot and listens to music. I think that is all I have to say about him.\
The doctor upped my dosage of anti-crazy medicine. YAY! I love not being crazy. I’m not sure if it is working yet. Kevin could probably tell you though.\
We went to a bbq over the weekend that was set here: iconic Savannah. It was really beautiful, like a movie setting.\
Since we have family just outside of DC, I am thinking of taking the boys up for Obama’s inauguration. It’s the day after MLK Day. Imagine all of the fun parades and festivities! The 10-hour drive is kind of daunting though since it will be just 3 weeks after our last 10-hour drive and Kevin won’t be coming with us.\
On Saturday, Nov 15, there is a national protest against Prop 8 in almost a hundred cities across the country. Check for a location near you here. We’re taking the kids down to Jacksonville to participate since it is closer than Atlanta. It also seems like a better choice since Florida just passed a similar measure.\
Last Friday I took the boys to the beach because I thought it would be the last nice day. But nope! The boys have today off for Veteran’s Day and the weather isn’t bad, so we are going to the beach again. YAY for living so close to the beach.