Working

Yesterday we went and saw the upper school's presentation of the musical Working. Sam insisted on wearing his suit, sans dress shirt and tie--he replaced them with his argyle sweater. He really loves "that look." He stood in front of the mirror looking at himself, pushing up his sleeves. He would have been a huge fan of Miami Vice and the 80s in general.

We bought a bunch of things to begin a modest garden. Although we're excited to garden we're reluctant to dig up the yard when we'll be selling in a couple of years. Not to mention the fact we'd like to enjoy the tiny fortune we spent last year getting the grass purty. We bought a bunch of herbs, a rose bush, berry bushes, hanging tomatoes and hanging strawberries. It'll be cool. We plan on buying more once the weather gets better, it's still early to do much here.

Yago had his "procedure" done Friday, I'm proud of the lil' buckaroo. That's all I'll really say about that.

Church didn't go well this morning. Schmitty and I got in to at the end of mass. It started with the nonstop tinkering of his velcro watch and snakeskin bracelet. After two warnings I demanded both items, he wasn't a happy camper. He tossed the bracelet at me which I wasn't happy about. I followed him up to receive the Eucharist and he was just leisurely strolling back to the pew swinging his arms like he owned the place. I told him his hands were supposed to be folded but apparently he didn't hear me. I won't even talk about the kneeler. By the time I got to the car I was pretty annoyed. I threatened him with staying for the 1100 mass that started in 25 mins. He threw a fit worthy of Ralph! I found it interesting that staying for the second mass was apparently viewed as a punishment worse than... Well anything else I can think of. I'll have to file that away in the ol' brain.

conquest

Ralph figured out how to open his bedroom door this afternoon while he was supposed to be napping. I'm less than thrilled. There was no nap today, needless to say.

I was flipping through channels this today and found a Gordon Ramsay show I hadn't seen before. (He's not yelling and cursing.) He's raising two pigs on his property with the intent to eat them. He showed us their pens and what they eat, then they showed industrial pigs. It was basically what I read about in The Omnivore's Dilemma but on film. They showed the pens, filth, tail-docking and castration. It was disgusting. I'm glad we don't eat as much meat anymore.

(I don't have a problem eating meat but eating animals raised in decent conditions.)

shy?

So I don't know why but I've been avoiding talking to people I used to work with. I see random people and try to ignore them or avoid eye contact. I saw Dudley and Purdy at the promotion party Friday and didn't say, "Hi." I did see Luz at Baker's and said, "Hello," but he didn't react at all. He just said, "Hi" and went about his shopping.

i'm it

I discovered something Sunday: Playing tag is hard, playing tag at 36 in sand is just begging to be humiliated. My eight-year-old tagged me and I wasn't ever letting him win. Just to make sure I knew he yelled, "I got your left cheek!!" at the playground. Not cool.

How do kids spend hours playing tag?

partying

Friday afternoon was Yago's promotion party at the club, here's a rare picture of all of us together. I was surprised by the food, they had freshly carved roast beef sandwiches, turkey, shrimp cocktail, etc. I thought it'd only be deep-fried appetizers.

Saturday we celebrated the midget's birthday. We had family over for hot dogs, hamburgers and Elmo cake. (See the poor house post.) I was pleased with the cake until I looked at the pictures and Elmo appears to have a harelip.

After all that "partying" we spent today just kind of laying around. Schmitty and I went to church early while Ralph and Yago went to Whole Foods but otherwise I've been hanging out on the couch.

or 26th street

I bet the "poor house" is located somewhere on Sesame Street.

I've been trying to figure out what we're going to do for Ralph's birthday and I decided to do an Elmo cake. I saw those cake pans everywhere and figured he'd love it. (Elmo is one of the few words he says. Still no mom but he says Elmo.) Ever notice how when you're not looking for something it is every damn where and when you want to buy something, it cannot not be found any damn where? That is the case with the Elmo cake mold.

After searching local Walmarts, Targets and the BX, I finally drove about half an hour across town to a specialty store. They had all kinds of molds, I found a cat mold that I considered for a few minutes. (Cat is another word he says, still not mom or momma or mommy.) The cat mold was less than $5. I found an Elmo mold, albeit not the one I wanted, but Elmo nonetheless. I hussled to the register and that darn thing came to almost $16 with tax. What the heck?

happiness

The HUGE news of today is I got an email from Schmitty's biological father, a snide one at that. But, it did serve to verify where he is since it was sent from his work account. I've been emailing and calling every number I've had for him over the last eight years looking for him. He finally responded to read me the riot act for having an attorney contact him. I don't care, I'm just thrilled that we can serve him now!

The weather was in the mid-70's today. It's so nice to see people out walking their dogs and playing with their kids. It makes you happier just seeing other people! I took Ralphie for a bike ride to the park and we played outside for a while. It was great. Now the boys (including husband) are all out kicking a ball around the yard, I'm supposed to be doing dishes. It's so much fun watching them play though, it really makes me happy.

Friday is Ralphie's second birthday, he's a lot more fun now than he was a year and a half ago. He cracks us up every day. We're going to celebrate his birthday on Saturday instead of Friday. Friday afternoon/evening is the majors' promotion party, plus I think it'd be easier for my family to come over on a Saturday than on a Friday night.

mmm, pie

It seems like a lot is going on right now. Today is Pi Day at school, because Saturday is 3/14. They're having a contest to see who memorized it the furthest. Yago found a website with a song but we didn't dedicate any time to it, he only got as far as 3.141592. There were other things going on this week, it was a struggle to get the homework some nights.

I made lunch for Ralphie, whole-wheat spaghetti with pesto sauce and steamed broccoli. I finished mine and started dishes only to catch Ralph trying feverishly to stuff a floret up his nose. It was so funny I couldn't yell at him, I mean I did tell him to stop but while laughing. What is wrong with this child?

Jessica emailed that it was funny I refer to him as Ralph over email. Fact is, I call him Ralph in person. Coworkers sometimes got confused. :^)

Well, I guess there's not really much going on after all.

bad waldo

I woke up this morning and weighed myself, 139. I was pleased, that's three pounds in a week. I haven't been starving myself or anything, just eating mostly vegetarian and exercising a bit every day. Then, I had to go and make homemade blueberry pancakes. I haven't made a good breakfast in a while... At first I thought I'd just make them for the rest of the family but of course I had to eat some too. I think we're going out to dinner tonight so that won't be a low calorie meal either.

I'd better get going if I'm going to run any errands today.

dear jcrew,

When you send me an email entitled "Private Sale" I expect something very wonderful. When I see that I have to spend $175 to get 20% off, I don't really consider that special or wonderful.

Kisses,
waldo

time crunch

This morning was a bit of a disaster. I forgot it was Tuesday which means Schmitty has to be to school 45 minutes early for choir practice. I remembered about 15 minutes after we should have left. We tore out of here hoping to get there before it was over. On the way Schmitty remembered it was also chapel day which means a different uniform. We had to come back home, search for the sweater and eventually pull it out of the bottom of the dirty clothes. He's a wrinkled mess but I'm really off my game. This is the first "normal" week I've had in a long time where I'm not working. It was a mess.

Also? Notice how everyone drives like an idiot when you're in a hurry? Yep. It took twice as long as usual to get to school. There was an accident where I had to merge right and some retard woman in her HUGE suv wouldn't let me in after I conscientiously signaled and started merging. She was being a total jerk and I finally started nudging over when she honked. That just annoyed me, I looked and she was talking on a pink sparkly cell phone. I hate cell phone drivers. Really.

I'm up to 142 so it's time to start the diet again. I've been working out for about a week but it's time to watch what's going in too. Ugh. I hate that since I've gotten older I really have to keep an eye on my weight. It's annoying.

Last but not least: My super-duper husband just found out he made major and got picked up for school!! I'm so happy for him. I'm excited he got school too, he's so cool.

not gettin' it

I'm just really not getting it. I can't hang with the myspace, facebook, texting, and whatever twittering is. It's all too annoying and a total timesucker. I'm just really not that interested but then feel like I should be interested because everyone else is. I'm just not.

what a trip

We went to Oklahoma last Friday night and got back Wednesday afternoon. The trip down was terrible because of Ralphie. He screamed and cried, basically drove us nuts. There's only so many renditions of Itsy Bitsy Spider I can go through before I give up.

I picked Schmitty up from school Friday afternoon, the last day before his winter break. I was talking to Schmitty and his friend when they said good-bye to Charlie. Schmitty's friend called, "Have fun in Hawaii!" Hawaii?! In third grade? Are you kidding me? Then I realized who we were talking to. I asked the friend what he was doing for winter break and he replied, "We going to our house in Colorado." Another house? In Colorado? What the heck? Craziness.

I'm done working for a while and it feels great. I got to work out and do stuff around the house.

I think I'm taking the kids to the Children's Museum today. We'll see. Maybe I'll even take a couple of pictures.

dumped via voicemail, kinda

We're heading to Tulsa tonight, we'll be back Wed night. I'm finally off today, yippee! What have I done today? Let's see... I made bacon and eggs for breakfast, washed dishes, got on the treadmill for a few minutes, took a shower (with a midget), made lunch, cleaned up lunch. Very exciting stuff but it's better than getting up at 5:45 and sitting in an office all day.

Oh, and I answered about five telemarketing calls today. I hate them. They're recordings so you can't even get them to stop calling. I guess I could sit through the five minute schpeel and then wait on hold for an actual salesperson but who has the patience? Very annoying.

I called to try to fire our lawyer today but he hasn't called me back. How's that? I can't even fire the guy because he won't take my call! I told the receptionist that I wanted to talk to him about getting the remainder of our money back. I foolishly thought he would call. Silly me.

and so it begins...

Schmitty spent Friday night at his friend's house along with a couple of other boys. The family has more money than I can imagine. Schmitty came home with an orange wristband and when Yago asked about it he explained it was given to him to remind everyone that Schmitty is the youngest, shortest, and poorest of the group.

I found this to be extremely mean and hurtful but Yago's response was, "He'll have to get used to it and figure out how he's going to deal with it." I was at first offended by his matter-of-factness but realized he's right. Schmitty still loves his school and he's going to have to deal with it.

penguin poo

I went to the zoo with Schmitty's class today. It was fun but it really stressed me out. I had Ralph BUNDLED up in a t-shirt, thermals, sweatshirt, winter coat and we spent the whole time inside! I thought we'd be wandering outside for four hours but NO! We were in an indoor jungle, an indoor desert, looking at penguins inside! My God, I was a sweaty mess with a grumpy baby. I'm glad we went, I'm just still trying to destress.

Schmitty's President's Day presentation at school was super! I was so proud of him, it was the cutest thing ever. I can't even describe it except it made me teary eyed to watch.

Schmitty's spending the night at his friend's house tonight, he couldn't be happier. It's the first time he's been invited to someone's house since we moved here. We'll pick him up for a basketball game in the morning and then he's spending Saturday night at Grandma's. We won't see him hardly at all this weekend but he couldn't be more ecstatic. Hmph.

Also? Three more days of work for FY09, thank God. I'm done next week!

quickly

I must hurry, I'm supposed to be in the shower so I'll be ready to go get our taxes done when Yago gets home from taking Schmitty to school.

The transition is going... Ralph was up for a long time last night crying. He'd pause for a few minutes, long enough for me to relax and think about sleeping, then start crying again. He's not what I would call excited about his "big boy bed." It's okay though.

Yago and I had a fabulous evening on Valentine's Day. We got a babysitter and dressed up for a night out. We saw, "He's Just Not that in to You." (Mostly because it was the only movie that fit in to our babysitter and dinner schedule.) Yago complained that his balls were still in the theatre after watching that chick flick but it was a decent movie.

We had reservations at Sullivan's, a valet parking and coat check kind of place. We sipped our martini's at the bar then were seated. We ate some oysters on the half shell, for entrees I had scallops in spicy Thai sauce with asparagus and Yago had a bone in ribeye topped with gorgonzola butter and horseradish mashed potatoes. Dessert was delicious. We had espresso, creme brulee for two, with a glass of dessert port that complemented the creme brulee. It was seriously the best creme brulee I've ever had. Mmm, just thinking about it!

Well, I'm off to the shower.

transition

We started today on transitioning Ralph to a "big boy bed." As you can imagine, it's going very well. We have a baby that really relishes new experiences and change. Not really. He was outgrowing his other sleeping arrangement so it's definitely time and he will eventually adjust.

We got a very cool snow day here. Schmitty was released from school early and the base closed at 9:30. Since I was on my annual tour orders I got to get out of there half a day early and don't have to make the time up. When I got home we walked to DJ's Dugout for lunch and a couple of beers with the kids. Trying to get there in 6-8 inches of snow with the jog stroller was fun, really. (Probably not as much fun for Yago who actually had the job of pushing the stroller.) We all came home and took a nap, well, Schmitty played multiplication games on the computer and read.

I'm so happy to be done with my annual tour! I have six more training days to complete for this fiscal year, they'll be done before March. I can't wait to get back to pulling clothes out of the dresser instead of the dryer. We have several loads of laundry that are washed and dried, just not folded or put away. Our bed hasn't been made in a week and I've gained about five pounds from the incessant eating out or eating quick (unhealthy) meals.

Maybe tomorrow we'll post a picture of a snowman!

opinion

I get annoyed when people refer to daycare-mates as classmates. When your kid is two years old they are not in a class, they don't have teachers, and they don't have classmates. They have all day babysitters. Sorry.

recital

This afternoon is Schmitty's first piano recital. He's only playing two songs and he goes first so after about three minutes I'll lose interest. I asked if he was nervous and he said no. He said getting nervous only makes bad luck easier to come by. The midget is standing by my side hollering, he hates it when I use the computer.

Yago has spent the weekend doing tedious chores. He has organized all my official paperwork, filled out our taxes, done the financial aid paperwork for 2009-2010, and planned the meals for next week. He's out buying groceries now.

My father-in-law left Thursday, it was a good visit. He cooked for us on the days I worked and watched the midget so we didn't have to take him to daycare. I think he changed his first diapers ever last week and he did it happily. While he was here Yago and I got to go out for a grown up dinner. It was the first time in a long while that we went to a restaurant that didn't have corndogs on the menu and we didn't feel the need to rush. We sat at the bar to wait for a table to become available. That's right, the bar. I was nervous that Yago wouldn't like Lo Sole Mio as much as me but he loved it too.

My blog entries will be rare this month because I'll be working, trying to run to all the after-school activities, and catch up on chores during the weekends. Like normal people. That'll stink.