It's hard enough being an adult and dealing with nasty folks. I know when someone doesn't like me that issue clouds my mind with anger and hurt and prevents me from seeing the myriad good things in my life. One mean person and my day, my week, my however-long-until-I-don't-have-to-see-them-again is ruined.
So when the bullying happens to one of my children, I feel not only angry and hurt and derailed, I also feel a loss. A loss for another part of their childhood and a loss in my own abilities as parent. I can't DO anything to wipe that nasty, insecure, rude, violent child out of my own baby's life. And I know that my kid has to go back to the same place, see that same person and deal with the same cruelty day after day after day.
If we were overseas I'd know all the kids or at least recognize them in the hall. I'd talk to the teacher, the counselor, the principal and arrange a meeting with the offending child AND their parents and things would be changed. I know that, because I've been on the other end of bully dealings too (thank you Jonathon and your lack of self-control in Kindergarten). But here, what can we do here? In the land of "say anything and you might get sued.... or worse" what can be done to protect a child who is rammed into lockers in the hallway and called vile names in passing, who has rumors and lies spread, who has to wade invisibly through 450 kids to get to the next class safely? And who has had this slowly escalate since the first week of school as a new kid with no history!? Who is watching out for her?
We've always told our kids to be the better person. Ignore the nasty kids, they will always be there but how we behave matters more. Stick with your friends, those kids who support you and are good people. Trust that the truth is stronger than whatever dirt they choose to throw at you. Stay strong, believe in yourself, keep your head up.
But sometimes that's not enough. It's definitely not enough when periodic snottiness turns into bruises. No one lays a hand on my kid and walks away with a giggle and a sneer. Today the counselor gets involved. Tonight we make a plan. I have no clue what that plan will entail but something will have to happen, and I'm open to suggestions.
This little parasite doesn't get keep hurting my kid with no repercussions.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
*tap tap tap* is this thing on?
Moveable Type moved our site from a server in Hong Kong to one in the U.S. It seems everything is still around. I should really back it all up, huh?
We're here, that's all that matters.
It's interim time at school. Second quarter report cards were delayed a few weeks, it's hard to see that there's enough material to warrant interims already but it's on the schedule so it must be true. Both girls made honor roll last quarter again, and last week Rebecca earned a positive referral from her science teacher. Each quarter there's a referral day where kids get to take a bit of time out from their class, get a snack, play some games and just be recognized as good kids. Rebecca's referral read: "Rebecca is an outstanding student. She is always upbeat and happy. She is willing to help others. She has great ideas and is wonderful to have in class." Well no surprise there. Her grades are one thing, but it's always nice to be told that you're cool to have around.
Speaking of grades, Jonathon earned straight Bs last quarter and last week a recommendation for Signet came in the mail. His biggest educational issues are of the handwriting/spelling/getting-thoughts-on-paper variety. He reminds me of Katherine in so many ways, he's disorganized, he reads a ton, he catches on to everything, he figures out complicated problems in a distinctly Jonathon way, and his latest round of standardized tests were way up there. This year's tests so far for him (every school we've been to seems to use different ones.. so far we've been through IOWA, MAP, CogAT, NNAT, SOL, and soon we'll be heading into the ACT, SAT, etc. realm too) were the CogAT and the NNAT. Have you ever heard of a stanine? Well I hadn't so I looked it up. A stanine looks like a bell curve broken into 9 sections with 6-9 above average. In both tests, Jonathon got scores of 8-9. His grades are one thing, and he has issues with fairness and some emotional outbursts, but it seems like the inner tickings are moving along pretty well. I'm excited for him and hope he gets into Signet because I know he'd really do well. Nicholas started Signet last week and says Wednesday is his favorite day. He was chosen to be weather man on morning announcements for a few weeks (if you know Nicholas, that is a big deal since he doesn't like to speak in public) on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and now much of Wednesday is spent in Signet too. Add to that guitar lessons that start up on Friday mornings before school (both boys will go) and the year is going to wrap up on definite high notes.
The boys will be in a chess tournament this coming Saturday as well. They haven't played chess in a while, not since we moved here, but we've pulled out a board and Ian has been playing with them. This is a non-elimination tournament, just for fun, no pressure. I enjoy playing chess but I'm terrible at it so I can't teach the boys anything.
Summer is coming, and I cannot wait. This week is springlike, mid-50s to mid-60s, sunny, wonderful. I have a single crocus blooming and plenty of green stuff coming up just waiting to explode into color. I know this week's weather is a tease, but I can't help feeling hopeful that winter is done done done. Please let it be done. Bring on spring. Better yet, bring on summer. Summer plans are starting to come together. I've signed up Rebecca for a 2-week "Showtime" camp, and the boys are doing a week long Civil War camp. The Civil War camp reads: "Kids will re-create a camp site, prepare authentic rations, drill with wooden muskets and find out how the soldiers enjoyed spending their free time. There will also be a live fire demonstration." If you're going to live in the South, by Manassas battlefield and Yorktown battlefield and Fredericksburg.... Civil War history is the name of the game this summer. Since the camp isn't until mid-July, we'll spend the earlier weeks reading up.
Frogs Swim Team is also on the schedule. That runs May-July, I haven't received an e-mail about it yet but Rebecca and the boys all need the hard exercise it provides. Katherine does too, but for her we have something else currently in the works. Keep your fingers crossed, it's a long shot but would be totally wonderful if it worked out. Flute lessons for Katherine through Arts&Music will be once a week for half an hour to keep her practicing every day and fixing her method before she starts band in high school. She's willing to try marching band next year, I think she'll have a blast.
It's really nice to see the calendar filling up. We'll take some days to do local things, go to the zoo, bowl, see a movie, walk around the museums, play tennis in our neighborhood, and spend plenty of time at our lake beach. There's the 4th of July and the Folk-Life Festival. Sometime in August we'll go to the beach. The beach is the highlight of my summer, honestly any vacation I ever want to take. This winter has really made me miss Chennai and the daily wash of heat, the beach at Fisherman's Cove, the pool at the school. I'd take being able to work around the house and in the yard, windows open, painting, gardening...
The heat pump breaking down last week didn't help my distaste for the cold. I'm so thankful it didn't happen earlier in the season with the howling winds and the outside temps in the teens. Last week was mild, reaching the 40s and 50s during the day it only dropped to 57 in the house at the coldest so it could have been far worse. The heat pump went out Monday evening. The first guy on Wednesday morning said the capacitor was dead and it was the fault of poor maintenance and an accumulation of dirt in the machine. He replaced the capacitor and left, it quit working again a few hours later. The second guy on Friday morning said the motor died and was due to the original parts being 24 years old. He came back with a new motor and the insurance picked up the tab, though it was less than $300 to fix. Thank goodness. No problems so far and we'll schedule a cleaning soon, just letting the machine work for a bit to ensure that was the real issue. When can we stop using heat please?
Spring is coming, I keep reminding myself of that. My mom and I went to the Dulles Home and Garden Show and saw so many wonderful and expensive ideas for renovating homes, it's nice to dream.
Around my homework and family time, I'm scrapbooking again. My mom had me over last Friday to scrap, and now I'm on a roll. I might finish last summer! Have I done Togo? No. India? No. Any time here? No, just last summer. But it might get done! My biggest hangup right now is not supplies, but photos. All my photos are digital and the longer I wait to print them the more there are to print and then I get all worked up about the cost of hundreds of photos. I know I know, one subject at a time. I should just do Togo. A friend of mine gave me an album to slide photos in, some are already done, and it was only a year tour with no trips (my medevac album is done) aside from one side trip to Accra. Finishing that would be wonderful. I should look into it. Once I finish last summer. See, like everyone else there are only so many hours in the day, and when I get into a project all else falls to the wayside. Right now I should be doing homework, every day I should be doing homework until my classes end in June. But in my downtime I go through shifts... for months it will be reading, then it'll be crocheting (winter months for that, like the tree skirt I started and put aside), then scrapping, then French, for a while it was piano but now we don't have a piano. What that means is that when I do all the other things for consecutive months other hobbies are neglected. Now I'm years and years behind on my photo books, but I will catch up because it's something I enjoy and do want to accomplish. If I get around to it I'll take photos of the pages I've been working on. Photography, that's another hobby I've ignored of late. Easter and the cherry blossoms are around the corner. Cherry blossoms are one of my favorite times in DC so I'll bring my good camera and new Macro lens.
Maybe cherry blossoms will break the photographic funk.
Rebecca's favorite hobby is drama, music and singing; she has a wonderful choral teacher. I hoped she'd learn an instrument this year, but she wanted to sing, so she sings. She does want to continue learning the piano, but see my earlier problem with that. The SaundersMS production of "High School Musical Jr." is scheduled for the 24th to 26th of March. They'll perform once each day for each of the grades, and then Wednesday and Friday nights for parents. She's nervous about it, the kids aren't taking it seriously and it's a mess. There are 2 weeks to go and she says it's nothing like where it should be, like Madras Kids (she has different memories than I do!). Keep your fingers crossed that the kids buckle down and they all make a show to be proud of. This summer her "Showtime" summer camp will be 3 hours a day for 2 weeks to put on a production down at Locust Shade Park. She's excited, I'm excited, it's all good.
I know I've mentioned this before, Katherine is in the process of being Confirmed in the fall. She has classes, volunteer hours, reports... an assortment of preparatory tasks. Two weekends ago she attended the Confirmation Retreat, a two night program at Prince William Forest Park. She was hesitant, she didn't really know anyone and didn't know what the point was. She came back exhausted and happy and plans to be a teen facilitator for next year's retreat. I honestly don't know the details, she says they were up from 8 to midnight, sang a lot, made a banner, ate, had "gift buddies," ate, watched skits... but something happened, something good. The fact that she wants to go again speaks volumes. I'm not signing her up for summer camps this year due to that thing I won't write of (fingers still crossed?) but also because the youth group does a number of activities over the summer, from white water rafting to amusement parks to bowling. She'll be plenty busy.
I'll be plenty busy. All these activities + Ian not taking any summer vacation = hello minivan-mom. Bring it on.
We're here, that's all that matters.
It's interim time at school. Second quarter report cards were delayed a few weeks, it's hard to see that there's enough material to warrant interims already but it's on the schedule so it must be true. Both girls made honor roll last quarter again, and last week Rebecca earned a positive referral from her science teacher. Each quarter there's a referral day where kids get to take a bit of time out from their class, get a snack, play some games and just be recognized as good kids. Rebecca's referral read: "Rebecca is an outstanding student. She is always upbeat and happy. She is willing to help others. She has great ideas and is wonderful to have in class." Well no surprise there. Her grades are one thing, but it's always nice to be told that you're cool to have around.
Speaking of grades, Jonathon earned straight Bs last quarter and last week a recommendation for Signet came in the mail. His biggest educational issues are of the handwriting/spelling/getting-thoughts-on-paper variety. He reminds me of Katherine in so many ways, he's disorganized, he reads a ton, he catches on to everything, he figures out complicated problems in a distinctly Jonathon way, and his latest round of standardized tests were way up there. This year's tests so far for him (every school we've been to seems to use different ones.. so far we've been through IOWA, MAP, CogAT, NNAT, SOL, and soon we'll be heading into the ACT, SAT, etc. realm too) were the CogAT and the NNAT. Have you ever heard of a stanine? Well I hadn't so I looked it up. A stanine looks like a bell curve broken into 9 sections with 6-9 above average. In both tests, Jonathon got scores of 8-9. His grades are one thing, and he has issues with fairness and some emotional outbursts, but it seems like the inner tickings are moving along pretty well. I'm excited for him and hope he gets into Signet because I know he'd really do well. Nicholas started Signet last week and says Wednesday is his favorite day. He was chosen to be weather man on morning announcements for a few weeks (if you know Nicholas, that is a big deal since he doesn't like to speak in public) on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and now much of Wednesday is spent in Signet too. Add to that guitar lessons that start up on Friday mornings before school (both boys will go) and the year is going to wrap up on definite high notes.
The boys will be in a chess tournament this coming Saturday as well. They haven't played chess in a while, not since we moved here, but we've pulled out a board and Ian has been playing with them. This is a non-elimination tournament, just for fun, no pressure. I enjoy playing chess but I'm terrible at it so I can't teach the boys anything.
Summer is coming, and I cannot wait. This week is springlike, mid-50s to mid-60s, sunny, wonderful. I have a single crocus blooming and plenty of green stuff coming up just waiting to explode into color. I know this week's weather is a tease, but I can't help feeling hopeful that winter is done done done. Please let it be done. Bring on spring. Better yet, bring on summer. Summer plans are starting to come together. I've signed up Rebecca for a 2-week "Showtime" camp, and the boys are doing a week long Civil War camp. The Civil War camp reads: "Kids will re-create a camp site, prepare authentic rations, drill with wooden muskets and find out how the soldiers enjoyed spending their free time. There will also be a live fire demonstration." If you're going to live in the South, by Manassas battlefield and Yorktown battlefield and Fredericksburg.... Civil War history is the name of the game this summer. Since the camp isn't until mid-July, we'll spend the earlier weeks reading up.
Frogs Swim Team is also on the schedule. That runs May-July, I haven't received an e-mail about it yet but Rebecca and the boys all need the hard exercise it provides. Katherine does too, but for her we have something else currently in the works. Keep your fingers crossed, it's a long shot but would be totally wonderful if it worked out. Flute lessons for Katherine through Arts&Music will be once a week for half an hour to keep her practicing every day and fixing her method before she starts band in high school. She's willing to try marching band next year, I think she'll have a blast.
It's really nice to see the calendar filling up. We'll take some days to do local things, go to the zoo, bowl, see a movie, walk around the museums, play tennis in our neighborhood, and spend plenty of time at our lake beach. There's the 4th of July and the Folk-Life Festival. Sometime in August we'll go to the beach. The beach is the highlight of my summer, honestly any vacation I ever want to take. This winter has really made me miss Chennai and the daily wash of heat, the beach at Fisherman's Cove, the pool at the school. I'd take being able to work around the house and in the yard, windows open, painting, gardening...
The heat pump breaking down last week didn't help my distaste for the cold. I'm so thankful it didn't happen earlier in the season with the howling winds and the outside temps in the teens. Last week was mild, reaching the 40s and 50s during the day it only dropped to 57 in the house at the coldest so it could have been far worse. The heat pump went out Monday evening. The first guy on Wednesday morning said the capacitor was dead and it was the fault of poor maintenance and an accumulation of dirt in the machine. He replaced the capacitor and left, it quit working again a few hours later. The second guy on Friday morning said the motor died and was due to the original parts being 24 years old. He came back with a new motor and the insurance picked up the tab, though it was less than $300 to fix. Thank goodness. No problems so far and we'll schedule a cleaning soon, just letting the machine work for a bit to ensure that was the real issue. When can we stop using heat please?
Spring is coming, I keep reminding myself of that. My mom and I went to the Dulles Home and Garden Show and saw so many wonderful and expensive ideas for renovating homes, it's nice to dream.
Around my homework and family time, I'm scrapbooking again. My mom had me over last Friday to scrap, and now I'm on a roll. I might finish last summer! Have I done Togo? No. India? No. Any time here? No, just last summer. But it might get done! My biggest hangup right now is not supplies, but photos. All my photos are digital and the longer I wait to print them the more there are to print and then I get all worked up about the cost of hundreds of photos. I know I know, one subject at a time. I should just do Togo. A friend of mine gave me an album to slide photos in, some are already done, and it was only a year tour with no trips (my medevac album is done) aside from one side trip to Accra. Finishing that would be wonderful. I should look into it. Once I finish last summer. See, like everyone else there are only so many hours in the day, and when I get into a project all else falls to the wayside. Right now I should be doing homework, every day I should be doing homework until my classes end in June. But in my downtime I go through shifts... for months it will be reading, then it'll be crocheting (winter months for that, like the tree skirt I started and put aside), then scrapping, then French, for a while it was piano but now we don't have a piano. What that means is that when I do all the other things for consecutive months other hobbies are neglected. Now I'm years and years behind on my photo books, but I will catch up because it's something I enjoy and do want to accomplish. If I get around to it I'll take photos of the pages I've been working on. Photography, that's another hobby I've ignored of late. Easter and the cherry blossoms are around the corner. Cherry blossoms are one of my favorite times in DC so I'll bring my good camera and new Macro lens.
Maybe cherry blossoms will break the photographic funk.
Rebecca's favorite hobby is drama, music and singing; she has a wonderful choral teacher. I hoped she'd learn an instrument this year, but she wanted to sing, so she sings. She does want to continue learning the piano, but see my earlier problem with that. The SaundersMS production of "High School Musical Jr." is scheduled for the 24th to 26th of March. They'll perform once each day for each of the grades, and then Wednesday and Friday nights for parents. She's nervous about it, the kids aren't taking it seriously and it's a mess. There are 2 weeks to go and she says it's nothing like where it should be, like Madras Kids (she has different memories than I do!). Keep your fingers crossed that the kids buckle down and they all make a show to be proud of. This summer her "Showtime" summer camp will be 3 hours a day for 2 weeks to put on a production down at Locust Shade Park. She's excited, I'm excited, it's all good.
I know I've mentioned this before, Katherine is in the process of being Confirmed in the fall. She has classes, volunteer hours, reports... an assortment of preparatory tasks. Two weekends ago she attended the Confirmation Retreat, a two night program at Prince William Forest Park. She was hesitant, she didn't really know anyone and didn't know what the point was. She came back exhausted and happy and plans to be a teen facilitator for next year's retreat. I honestly don't know the details, she says they were up from 8 to midnight, sang a lot, made a banner, ate, had "gift buddies," ate, watched skits... but something happened, something good. The fact that she wants to go again speaks volumes. I'm not signing her up for summer camps this year due to that thing I won't write of (fingers still crossed?) but also because the youth group does a number of activities over the summer, from white water rafting to amusement parks to bowling. She'll be plenty busy.
I'll be plenty busy. All these activities + Ian not taking any summer vacation = hello minivan-mom. Bring it on.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Percy Jackson and the Olympics
It's been awhile, again. Apologies. The kids have been home pretty much non-stop for the past 3 weeks, stuck in the house, bored, getting on my nerves and basically sucking away any and all time to myself when I'd normally write a blog entry. Thursday this week was the first time I'd had any quiet Me Time, and that was filled by an attempt to catch up on homework. How I'm looking forward to Monday when there are no more snow days and no more 2-hour delays. Right? The Farmer's Almanac had better be wrong. My mom mentioned it claims March will be our snowiest month this year.
The first day we could really get out without too much worry over roads, parking lots, etc., we went to Potomac Mills and saw "Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief." I won't spoil it, but it is not the book. Major characters are missing, the main characters act differently than expected, and the storyline is changed. Aside from the general theme - lightning bolt is stolen, Percy must return it - the details are 80-90% different than the books, not just cut for time but different. Now, I do have to say that the movie is good, if you take it on its own. Katherine was the only one of our group who hadn't read the book first and she liked it. We all enjoyed it, and it was worth going to see at the theater, but it's hard to get past the disappointment that it wasn't what the story we enjoyed reading together.
The Winter Olympics hasn't disappointed at all. Our viewing of "Fringe" from Netflix has been put on hold as we watch skiing and luging and hockey and speed skating and snowboarding and all the rest of the death-defying sports that winter holds so dear. It's so much more fun than most of the Summer Olympics, and I far preferred Canada's Opening Ceremony to China's. Show of hands who thought the whales were amazing and the circus kid was awesome. If you missed it you can read about it on wikipedia or EW's best/worst blog. I wish there was an on-line video of Thomas Saulgrain's aerial performance but I can't find one on youtube or nbc.com. This is the first time I've really paid attention to the Winter games, beyond the ice skating, in fact this year we've hardly watched any pairs or singles skating at all. I've finally begun to enjoy (from far, far, afar) the craziness that winter sports entail. Aside from curling, every winter game has an element of danger you just don't always get in summer games of running and swimming and biking and throwing stuff. Even cross-country skiing, an exhausting but comparatively harmless sport, can get paired with shooting a gun. Skiiers plunge off a mountain top. Lugers and skeletons shoot down a tube of ice at 90 mph with blades under them. Ice hockey with blades, big sticks, speed, and a puck that can crush bones with the force slapped into it. What's not to enjoy? And to think there's only another week of midnight excitement.
Once the Olympics are done we'll go back to our normal programming. "Amazing Race" is back on Sundays, yay! "Lost" is back on Tuesdays, yay! Katherine and Rebecca have started "Lost" from the beginning this week and pepper us with questions after each episode, which of course we won't (or can't) answer. We'll continue with "Fringe" though I'm not that invested in it, and Ian bought the first season of "Glee" for Valentine's Day so we'll give that a whirl. What are you all watching nowadays? And what are you reading? Aside from my texts, I picked up Vampire Diaries and Vampire Academy. Vampire Diaries was far too similar to Twilight for me to care to continue past the first portion, The Awakening. Vampire Academy seems to have a different slant, so we'll see how that progresses. Out loud we're reading The Hunger Games and then we're on to book 3 of the Percy Jackson series. My plan to go go through all the Harry Potter books this year got waylaid.
All the kids are above grade level in Reading. That seems odd to me somehow. Nicholas is working his way through the Lloyd Alexander books, Jonathon hops around to everything from Diary of a Wimpy Kid to Spiderwick to Harry Potter. For a kid who can't write well or spell hardly at all, it's amazing how quickly he reads. Report cards finally came home and everything was either at or above expectations. Katherine pulled out 5 As and 2 Bs for the semester, Rebecca got straight As again, Nicholas got all As and one B+ for 2nd quarter, Jonathon is in the solid B zone. I'm pleased with their grades, but it does cause me some concern that they won't be ready to reintegrate to our next American/International School. Because guess what, we bid this year. Crazy. We'd better start packing in the fun U.S. stuff.
So, I have to mention a couple tidbits.
Last week we took the kids to KFC for a break from home cooking. It took us 45 minutes to get our food and for waiting patiently we got a free chocolate cake. Nifty.
As I was checking out at the grocery store, a lady came into the line behind me who knew the cashier. They started chatting when the cashier asked where person X was. Lady behind me said X was in the hospital, and she looked on the verge of tears. Cashier asked why so Lady said "Cancer." *uncomfortable silence as I'm still standing there getting checked out* Cashier breaks the silence by saying "Was it the drinking?" *um, I don't want to stand here anymore* Lady says it was. Cashier asks what stage he's in, Lady says they don't know he just went to the hospital on Friday and they're still running tests. Cashier asks what symptoms he had, Lady says he was having pain. They continue and I finally get to pay and gather my bags as Cashier starts checking out Lady and her 3 items. As I pick up bags Cashier asks Lady if there's anything else she needs.
Lady asks for 2 cartons of cigarettes.
The first day we could really get out without too much worry over roads, parking lots, etc., we went to Potomac Mills and saw "Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief." I won't spoil it, but it is not the book. Major characters are missing, the main characters act differently than expected, and the storyline is changed. Aside from the general theme - lightning bolt is stolen, Percy must return it - the details are 80-90% different than the books, not just cut for time but different. Now, I do have to say that the movie is good, if you take it on its own. Katherine was the only one of our group who hadn't read the book first and she liked it. We all enjoyed it, and it was worth going to see at the theater, but it's hard to get past the disappointment that it wasn't what the story we enjoyed reading together.
The Winter Olympics hasn't disappointed at all. Our viewing of "Fringe" from Netflix has been put on hold as we watch skiing and luging and hockey and speed skating and snowboarding and all the rest of the death-defying sports that winter holds so dear. It's so much more fun than most of the Summer Olympics, and I far preferred Canada's Opening Ceremony to China's. Show of hands who thought the whales were amazing and the circus kid was awesome. If you missed it you can read about it on wikipedia or EW's best/worst blog. I wish there was an on-line video of Thomas Saulgrain's aerial performance but I can't find one on youtube or nbc.com. This is the first time I've really paid attention to the Winter games, beyond the ice skating, in fact this year we've hardly watched any pairs or singles skating at all. I've finally begun to enjoy (from far, far, afar) the craziness that winter sports entail. Aside from curling, every winter game has an element of danger you just don't always get in summer games of running and swimming and biking and throwing stuff. Even cross-country skiing, an exhausting but comparatively harmless sport, can get paired with shooting a gun. Skiiers plunge off a mountain top. Lugers and skeletons shoot down a tube of ice at 90 mph with blades under them. Ice hockey with blades, big sticks, speed, and a puck that can crush bones with the force slapped into it. What's not to enjoy? And to think there's only another week of midnight excitement.
Once the Olympics are done we'll go back to our normal programming. "Amazing Race" is back on Sundays, yay! "Lost" is back on Tuesdays, yay! Katherine and Rebecca have started "Lost" from the beginning this week and pepper us with questions after each episode, which of course we won't (or can't) answer. We'll continue with "Fringe" though I'm not that invested in it, and Ian bought the first season of "Glee" for Valentine's Day so we'll give that a whirl. What are you all watching nowadays? And what are you reading? Aside from my texts, I picked up Vampire Diaries and Vampire Academy. Vampire Diaries was far too similar to Twilight for me to care to continue past the first portion, The Awakening. Vampire Academy seems to have a different slant, so we'll see how that progresses. Out loud we're reading The Hunger Games and then we're on to book 3 of the Percy Jackson series. My plan to go go through all the Harry Potter books this year got waylaid.
All the kids are above grade level in Reading. That seems odd to me somehow. Nicholas is working his way through the Lloyd Alexander books, Jonathon hops around to everything from Diary of a Wimpy Kid to Spiderwick to Harry Potter. For a kid who can't write well or spell hardly at all, it's amazing how quickly he reads. Report cards finally came home and everything was either at or above expectations. Katherine pulled out 5 As and 2 Bs for the semester, Rebecca got straight As again, Nicholas got all As and one B+ for 2nd quarter, Jonathon is in the solid B zone. I'm pleased with their grades, but it does cause me some concern that they won't be ready to reintegrate to our next American/International School. Because guess what, we bid this year. Crazy. We'd better start packing in the fun U.S. stuff.
So, I have to mention a couple tidbits.
Last week we took the kids to KFC for a break from home cooking. It took us 45 minutes to get our food and for waiting patiently we got a free chocolate cake. Nifty.
As I was checking out at the grocery store, a lady came into the line behind me who knew the cashier. They started chatting when the cashier asked where person X was. Lady behind me said X was in the hospital, and she looked on the verge of tears. Cashier asked why so Lady said "Cancer." *uncomfortable silence as I'm still standing there getting checked out* Cashier breaks the silence by saying "Was it the drinking?" *um, I don't want to stand here anymore* Lady says it was. Cashier asks what stage he's in, Lady says they don't know he just went to the hospital on Friday and they're still running tests. Cashier asks what symptoms he had, Lady says he was having pain. They continue and I finally get to pay and gather my bags as Cashier starts checking out Lady and her 3 items. As I pick up bags Cashier asks Lady if there's anything else she needs.
Lady asks for 2 cartons of cigarettes.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Just because we got a ton of snow doesn't mean global warming isn't real.
We're not exactly in permafrost or a new ice age. Snow is a result of moisture, excessive moisture in our case this winter. Do as many people doubt that something is up when massive hurricanes hit? When our latest blizzard finally made it offshore the satellite images captured a Category 2 strength hurricane shaped storm. Just because it happened in winter and took on the form of snow actually continues to display how crazy the weather has become. Don't get caught up in semantics that global warming means everywhere around the world has to be roasting all at once. Our poles are melting, our jet streams are off line, our weather is getting harsher in all climates during all seasons.
Look at Vancouver... the Winter Games are starting up and Canada is having a too-warm no-snow kind of winter. They are trucking in snow from mountains hours away so the skiers have something to ski on. Wow.
Here's what Repower America has to say about it. And The Daily Show clip is well worth watching.
Look at Vancouver... the Winter Games are starting up and Canada is having a too-warm no-snow kind of winter. They are trucking in snow from mountains hours away so the skiers have something to ski on. Wow.
Here's what Repower America has to say about it. And The Daily Show clip is well worth watching.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Now I'm just angry.
Yeah. I hate winter. Live with it. But I'll suffer in relative silence as long as winter just sucks. But when winter gets mean, I get angry.
Yesterday was Katherine's birthday. She's 14. It's her favorite number, she says, and she's acting more and more like a young lady. Oh she has her moments, believe me, but on the whole there are now more days when I like her than want to toss her out the window. But you know, no matter how difficult a year might be (and this has been an easy one by far), birthdays are special. You want your child, your spouse, your friend, to feel loved and appreciated and, well, special.
Then winter and snow hit.
Katherine's birthday fell on Friday, February 5th, a great way to have a complete birthday weekend. She was supposed to go to school, have Happy Birthdays tossed at her from every direction and her locker decorated. She was supposed to stay after school for an SCA sponsored Activity Day dance/games/snacks deal. Basically, a party on her birthday. My mom (who shares a birthday with her, so her day was messed up too), was supposed to come down to our house and celebrate with cake and presents. My mom was supposed to bring Katherine back up with her and to a metro stop so Katherine could train downtown and meet up with Ian for a Caps/Thrashers hockey game at the Verizon center. She opened her gifts which included ice skating lessons starting next Saturday for a month, along with passes for open skate times.
Want to know what happened? Winter happened. Snow happened. The threat of snow was enough that school was canceled on Friday even though we had barely a dusting stick by 5 p.m. No locker decorations, no SCA party. My mom couldn't come down for fear she'd get stuck here for days. Snow picked up at sundown and was gathering quickly, Ian (who had worked from home, just in case) knew it was too dangerous to make the 50 minute trip downtown because who knew what weather conditions would really be like 4 hours later. But... the game wasn't canceled, so the tickets are lost. They watched it on TV. A huge bummer. At least the skate lessons were still on, right?
Then today we read this: Prince William Ice Center Collapses. I kid you not, the center for her lessons collapsed. Thankfully no one was hurt, they were having speed skating races but when the roof started groaning they evacuated everyone.
[And my dad was supposed to get back in town last night to at least see my mom on her birthday. He's stuck in Chicago.]
Katherine is taking it well. She went sledding with her friends today, and played Rock Band with them too. I don't see school opening on Monday, so I'm guessing she'll do a sleep-over tomorrow night.
I'm just done with winter. I'm done with it interfering with life. We haven't lost power, which is a total blessing, because you know we don't have generators here.
If we do lose power, I'm moving back to Chennai. OK, don't hold me to that, but right this very second it's awfully tempting.
Yesterday was Katherine's birthday. She's 14. It's her favorite number, she says, and she's acting more and more like a young lady. Oh she has her moments, believe me, but on the whole there are now more days when I like her than want to toss her out the window. But you know, no matter how difficult a year might be (and this has been an easy one by far), birthdays are special. You want your child, your spouse, your friend, to feel loved and appreciated and, well, special.
Then winter and snow hit.
Katherine's birthday fell on Friday, February 5th, a great way to have a complete birthday weekend. She was supposed to go to school, have Happy Birthdays tossed at her from every direction and her locker decorated. She was supposed to stay after school for an SCA sponsored Activity Day dance/games/snacks deal. Basically, a party on her birthday. My mom (who shares a birthday with her, so her day was messed up too), was supposed to come down to our house and celebrate with cake and presents. My mom was supposed to bring Katherine back up with her and to a metro stop so Katherine could train downtown and meet up with Ian for a Caps/Thrashers hockey game at the Verizon center. She opened her gifts which included ice skating lessons starting next Saturday for a month, along with passes for open skate times.
Want to know what happened? Winter happened. Snow happened. The threat of snow was enough that school was canceled on Friday even though we had barely a dusting stick by 5 p.m. No locker decorations, no SCA party. My mom couldn't come down for fear she'd get stuck here for days. Snow picked up at sundown and was gathering quickly, Ian (who had worked from home, just in case) knew it was too dangerous to make the 50 minute trip downtown because who knew what weather conditions would really be like 4 hours later. But... the game wasn't canceled, so the tickets are lost. They watched it on TV. A huge bummer. At least the skate lessons were still on, right?
Then today we read this: Prince William Ice Center Collapses. I kid you not, the center for her lessons collapsed. Thankfully no one was hurt, they were having speed skating races but when the roof started groaning they evacuated everyone.
[And my dad was supposed to get back in town last night to at least see my mom on her birthday. He's stuck in Chicago.]
Katherine is taking it well. She went sledding with her friends today, and played Rock Band with them too. I don't see school opening on Monday, so I'm guessing she'll do a sleep-over tomorrow night.
I'm just done with winter. I'm done with it interfering with life. We haven't lost power, which is a total blessing, because you know we don't have generators here.
If we do lose power, I'm moving back to Chennai. OK, don't hold me to that, but right this very second it's awfully tempting.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
The search for a sled (or four)
Can't be done. They don't exist anymore. I've looked everywhere and kicked myself for not buying the 2-pack from Costco a few weeks ago. I checked Costco, ToysRUs (sign in the window: no sleds), Target, Wal-Mart. I decided rather than traipsing around to more places I'd look it up on-line. Sold out, everywhere, unless I want to wait a couple weeks. Snow is coming tomorrow, can't wait a couple weeks.
Today I figured it was time to get creative so I went to Lowes. I looked at heavy duty floor mats. I looked for large round flower pot bottom things (you know, so water doesn't run all over the ground), I looked at metal tubing to see if it could be cut to something useful, I looked at rubbermaid box tops, I looked at trash can lids and found something that I figured would work pretty well but I didn't need the $17 trash can that went with the lid. Up and down aisles, seeing bathroom things I'd like (oooh, a rounded shower door! French doors for the deck! a storm door for the front! and this way cool stuff for the kitchen counters, a do-it-yourself kit to resurface countertops).
And then I found this. What do you think, will it work?
Today I figured it was time to get creative so I went to Lowes. I looked at heavy duty floor mats. I looked for large round flower pot bottom things (you know, so water doesn't run all over the ground), I looked at metal tubing to see if it could be cut to something useful, I looked at rubbermaid box tops, I looked at trash can lids and found something that I figured would work pretty well but I didn't need the $17 trash can that went with the lid. Up and down aisles, seeing bathroom things I'd like (oooh, a rounded shower door! French doors for the deck! a storm door for the front! and this way cool stuff for the kitchen counters, a do-it-yourself kit to resurface countertops).
And then I found this. What do you think, will it work?
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Oh look, snow.
And guess what, more snow.
I'm tired of winter and cold and snow. More snow is expected Friday to Saturday, possibly another 12-20 inches. Don't believe me? Check out http://www.weather.com/newscenter/stormwatch/ Enough already, this is Virginia, this is the SOUTH. Did the weather systems not get the memo? Ugh. We didn't make it to church on Sunday because we were digging out from the 6-inches that fell Saturday night. Yesterday all afterschool activities were canceled which were drama and flute, and included Katherine's R.E. class at church in the evening.
And to make it all worse Katherine's birthday is Friday, she has an SCA-sponsored afterschool activity day scheduled, and then was supposed to celebrate at our house with my mom who shares the same birthdate before hopping a metro to go downtown and attend a Caps game with her dad. Everything is completely up in the air now, and looks more and more like it won't happen. This is so not fair. I'd better make a really great cake tomorrow.
Of course with family home all weekend, then kids home Monday for a teacher in-service, today Ian worked from home and the kids had a snow day, when am I supposed to get all my school work done? Tomorrow I have to return library books (can't renew them, arg), go to Costco, and bake a cake, it all really eats into my study time while the kids are in school. But it has to be done. I guess I'll try to finish studying tonight so I can take a quiz first thing tomorrow and log into my second class (which started on Monday and I just haven't gotten around to it). I'm really trying to exercise each day too, shoveling snow counted for me today, and follow my calories for a bit with http://www.mydailyplate.com to see what I'm really eating. Wow, the sugars are off the scale!
There aren't enough hours in the day.
Last Friday I did spend the early part of the day with my parents and the latter half with Ian at FSI for Flag Day. I didn't know anyone getting their flags, but it was fun to hear where all these folks new to the FS will be spending the next few years. Tajikistan anyone?
Oh, and has anyone seen my watch?
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