Aug. 9: Daybook

Today…

Outside my window... it’s overcast and not very sunny. It was breezy (chilly) during our PTO board meeting at the park this morning. That was not very fun. The meeting was productive in spite of the cool weather, though, because we are awesome.

I am thinking... that out of the corner of my eye, the pencil holder thing I just set on the floor looks like my dog sitting and staring at me. She totally does that, and I hate it and I’ve almost yelled at my pencil holder three times since I sat down.

I am thankful for... Victor’s day off today. He was on call, but home, for the first day in a long time. It was nice to see him! I’m also thankful for my mom being here. She’s fun to hang with, and she does good things like take Jack to swimming lessons and run to the grocery store for us and cook for our kids.

From the kitchen... we’re at one of those stages where the pantry contents are totally unappealing, the refrigerator’s mostly empty, and we definitely need to do some menu planning and grocery shopping. I hate when we get like this. It makes every meal such a chore.

I am creating... a new format for the PTO budget, and it’s taking every last brain cell. Don’t tell anyone, but I don’t think I’m smart enough for this job. Or, possibly, any job.

I am going... to chemo tomorrow. Mom’s my chemo buddy.

I am reading... very inconsistently lately. I started a new book last week and when I picked it up a few days later I had to start from the beginning again because I couldn’t remember anything I’d already read. What’s with my concentration these days? I think the PTO budget ate it.

I am hoping... this dandruff shampoo friggin’ works. Why it was behind a locked barrier in the store, I don’t know, but I wasn’t about to go ask someone to open it for me. Can you imagine? “Cootie-skank on Aisle 4 has dandruff! Key-holder to Aisle 4 where we store the dandruff shampoo and STD creams behind locked barriers because only skanks have dandruff and STDs and everyone knows they shoplift!” Fortunately, Mom has long arms and she just reached right in there and grabbed what I needed. It was embarrassing as hell buying dandruff shampoo, though. I hope the 20 glue sticks I bought at the same time distracted the cashier.

I am hearing... the neighbor kids yelling outside. This doesn’t bother me; I love living where kids can play safely at dusk. I’m also hearing Gilly bark at every one of those kids’ sounds. This kinda does bother me. His bark is MONSTER, and I pee a little every time.

Around the house... Mom is doing lots of our chores, including cleaning up our pee puddles. Thanks, Mom!

One of my favorite things... is new school supplies, which my dining room table is full of right now. I’ve got tons for my own kids and a bunch for donating too.

A few plans for the rest of the week: chemo tomorrow, work (hopefully) on Wednesday, Moms’ Night for Jack’s new football league, the end of Jack’s swimming lessons, and a trip to Salem on Saturday.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

Want to blog your own Daybook? Here’s the info: The Simple Woman’s Daybook.

Aug. 2: Daybook

My bloggy friend Jen E has been doing this Daybook thing for a while now. I like that it makes it (seem) easy to sort out one’s week before it really gets going, so decided to give it a try too.

Today…

Outside my window... it is sunny and beautiful. Bright blue sky. Not too hot yet. I am going to be out there in it soon. This is not a day to stay indoors.

I am thinking... of taking some water aerobics classes. I asked about them this morning at the aquatic center; when I explained my health situation the woman said, “You’d probably feel comfortable in the 11:00 class because there are mostly handicapped people in it.” I’ve never been called ‘handicapped’ before. Not sure I liked it. But I could probably out-aerobicize all o’ them wheelchair folk! I’m so in!

I am thankful for... my family. My good kids (today, anyway). My incredible friends. So many wonderful people in my life. Happiness.

From the kitchen... there’s not much going on. We might attempt cookies this week. I found a recipe for those delicious chocolatey cookies with the dusting of powdered sugar—my friend’s mom made them with us a bunch of times when I was little and just seeing the photo of them brought back happy memories.

I am wearing... jeans and a shirt. I’ll put on a scarf and shoes before I leave the house.

I am creating... an even bigger mess in my attempt to clean and sort closets. It’s wearing me out, but if I stop now, it’ll never get done. And I’m kinda cursing the fact that we recently downsized our garbage can, because we could really use the space right now. Thank goodness the recycle bin can be used for a lot of what we’re discarding.

I am going... shopping with the kids this afternoon. Katie needs a new lunchbox, and Jack needs shirts. Maybe a little something for Mommy too???

I am reading... nothing right now. The next book on my list, though, is by Pamela Ribon. Of course.

I am hoping... to get a nap this afternoon. My sleep during the night has been very tossy-turny and I’m not getting enough.

I am hearing... the kids fight over Vic’s birthday cake downstairs. I am not intervening because I don’t want any for myself. Otherwise, though, I’d be ‘punishing’ them for fighting. (Punishing = Mommy gets all the cake.)

Around the house... we’ve been finding more and more evidence that Casey is losing bladder control. It’s sad, but so very frustrating, too. I want to put a giant wee-wee pad down in every room.

One of my favorite things... is the fountain in our front yard. It makes a lovely sound, and it’s calming. When birds come to drink, all the better. It’s a sure sign that I’m getting old, isn’t it, when I can sit and watch water for long periods of time? Gah.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Jack’s swimming lessons, possibly some water aerobics for handicapped Jen, Mom and Gilly’s visit, blah blah blah. I wrote about this in my last post.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing:

Want to blog your own Daybook? Here’s the info: The Simple Woman’s Daybook.

Aug. 2: Day 2 of 31DBBB—my weekend

I’m combining today’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog exercise with my weekend summary post. You don’t mind, right?

Using ‘lists’ has always been a popular and effective technique among bloggers wanting to write content that gets spread from one person to the next. Just look at pages like the front page of Digg, TweetMeme and Delicious and you’ll see that many of the ‘hottest’ content on the web at any given time are written in this style.

So… I’m supposed to write a list post. I already write a LOT of list posts, so I’m using the exercise as an excuse to sum up my weekend in a list format. It’s sort of like what I do on Fridays. I don’t expect this list to get spread from one person to the next, so in that way I guess I’m not writing the ideal type of list for the exercise. Am I being a bad 31 Days to Build a Better Blog participant if I say I don’t care and I’ll do it the way I want?

(Because I really don’t care and I’m going to do it the way I want.)

• We were at Darlene and Wellington’s almost every one of the past five days for one reason or another. We celebrated Vic’s birthday on Thursday, enjoyed a visit with Chris and Sonya on Saturday, and said our goodbyes on Sunday. Sally and Presley were there most days too, and we had a ball catching up with them. Happy, happy family time. I loves it.
• However, I do not like the saying goodbye part of our visits. Sonya and her family will be back for Christmas, so it won’t be long until we see them again, but I still hate our goodbyes. The kids get so sad to be apart again; it’s a bummer to watch.
• We got some new annuals for the yard and planted them yesterday. When I say “we,” of course, I mean that I arranged the plants beautifully and then Victor dug holes to plant them. He be my yard boy. There are now even more lovely bright spots in our yard. Yay!
• Jack starts swimming lessons today. He whined about it all day yesterday, but I think I was able to reason with him and hopefully he won’t be a total poop about going. I’d really like him to pass two levels this summer, and his incentive is Theo’s pool party in a couple weeks and a Great Wolf Lodge trip later this month. Fingers crossed for us all, please.
• We did a little bit of school shopping today. Jack got skinny jeans, which he’s been begging for since I don’t know when. He tried on the smallest pair at Macy’s last year and they were too big, so he was quite happy to find that now he fits into the smallest pair of skinny jeans they make for boys. When Stephen said that it’s easiest to buy girls’ skinny jeans, Jack suddenly thought his rockstar cousin was a little less cool. (Don’t worry, Steve; I think he’s gotten over it.)
• The only thing Katie can talk about is her upcoming trip to Colorado to spend a week with Appie (Auntie Kathy). Kathy asked me to send her with a mostly empty suitcase so she’ll have room for lots of new stuff. I’ll make sure it has room for a new Coach bag for me; if there’s room for a few of Katie’s things I don’t mind sharing the space. Me:   Kathy: and
• (What do you want to bet one of the 31 exercises is going to be something about NEVER USE ANIMATION ON YOUR BLOG BECAUSE PEOPLE WILL HATE YOU FOR IT?)
• After many years of trying to get an easily shared electronic calendar for the family, I finally did it! I use a Google calendar two-way sync with my Outlook calendar, I’ve given access to Victor to view and modify my Google calendar, and he made a Google calendar icon on his phone. He can make changes on that calendar and I can see them in Outlook, and vice-versa. Ta-da! Whew.
• Coming up this week: swimming lessons every day, a little bit o’ work, some PTO stuff, more school shopping, a visit from Mom and Gilly, a birthday party and a wedding. Busy-ness.

Have a great one!

Jun. 23: Tuesday morning business

• I thought I had our network and Internet connection all fixed, but now it’s giving me grief again. The network randomly stops broadcasting, it seems, and if it is broadcasting, the Internet connection doesn’t seem very stable. There has been much cursing ‘round here while I’ve been trying to fix it.
• We went to Great Wolf Lodge this past weekend. It was a lot of fun and I plan to publish my thorough trip report later today.
• The kids are in their second week of swimming lessons now. Katie’s in Level E and loves it; when I told her she didn’t need to take any more lessons after this, she was disappointed. I’m hoping she’s not going to purposely fail the class just to be able to take it again. Jack, on the other hand, thinks swimming lessons are a complete bore. Although he’s doing better now than he has in years past, it’s still a challenge for him to keep his face in the water for more than three strokes. Yesterday he asked what “treading water” meant when Katie mentioned it. I hope the reason he doesn’t know is because they use a cuter name for it in class, because he’s taken enough lessons that he ought to freakin’ know how to tread water by now. The kid’s definitely going to have a major water mishap someday, to be sure.
  
  The pool we go to has a zero-entry. If we’re watching Jack swim in after his lesson, he loves to repeatedly fall down and act like he’s struggling to get to shore. Ultimately he lays down in the inch-deep water and moans. It’s all quite amusing, as you can imagine, but having an audience is the key—and the huge grin on his face is the giveaway that he’s goofing off. Yesterday he told me “I like to pretend all the water is blood and I’m laying in blood and I’m all bloody and almost dead of the blood.” All of a sudden this whole routine seems way less neat-o to Mommy. Boys are so weird.
• Katie went to a sleepover birthday party yesterday and it’s time to pick her up. It ought to be fun dealing with a grouchy girl who didn’t get much sleep last night with her friends, nor the night before with her cousins. Wish me luck.

More later if I can get this Interwebby thing working.

June 27: Happy Happy Happy

Yesterday was a good day. Katie and Jack spent most the day with their cousins at Grandpa & Grandma’s while I worked from home. (Psst… I also took a nap. Shhh…)

We took the kids to their last day of swimming lessons. I think I’ve mentioned before how lessons go. Katie is a fish; she knows several strokes and swims the width of the pool over and over, with all the precision an 8-year-old can muster. Jack, on the other hand, does fine in the water until it gets on his face. If he gets splashed, we have to wait ten minutes for him to stop freaking out. If he is told to put his face in the water to practice blowing bubbles, he does it very reluctantly and then takes ten minutes to get every last drip off his face. And then he goes back to swimming and then we start all over again. So I have to admit I was a little surprised that Jack passed Level A. I’m thinking maybe his teacher just wants to get him the hell out of her class.

Katie passed Level D with no problem.

Now that they’re both more confident in the water we feel a little more comfortable when we swim at friends’ houses. My next step is to teach them MY rule of swimming:

“Now remember kids… no running, no diving, and no salt on my margaritas.”

The day ended especially well because Victor and I went to our last show of the Broadway in Portland 2007-08 season, Avenue Q. It was, without a doubt, one of the funniest shows I’ve ever seen. It was basically an R-rated version of Sesame Street. Who couldn’t love that? If you go, just be warned: there is full puppet nudity.

More later. Gotta drive to Cottage Grove this morning.

July 19: Swim champs!

Today was the last day of swimming lessons. The kids think the coolest thing about the last day of swimming lessons is that they get candy from their teachers. Parents know it better as the pass/fail day.

Drum roll, please... (thanks, Jack)...

I am very proud to announce that both Katie and Jack passed their swimming classes! This is, of course, not a huge surprise in Katie's case because the girl loves the pool and has zero fear. But Jack was a bit of a question mark. As I wrote earlier, he's made great strides over the course of these nine lessons, and I'm oh-so-proud of my boy.

Being a completely fair mom, though (or at least attempting), I've made a big deal about both of their successes. They didn't really care, as the Dum-Dum lollipops from their teachers were apparently much more meaningful than Mom's bazillion hugs and high-fives and "way to go!"(s). Oh well, I tried. Sometimes you just can't compete with candy.

Next week Katie will start Level C and Jack will go on to Level B. Hooray for my swimmin' kids!

Smell ya later,

Jen

July 9: My little trooper

Jack has never liked getting his face wet. During his first bath at four days old, he was fine until we started to wash his face. Things have not improved over the years. Although he enjoys our little backyard pool, he goes in freak-out mode if someone dares to splash him.

At two years old, Jack (and Vic) did a two-week Daddy & Me swimming lesson. Jack insisted on being held the whole time. The next summer, when he was old enough for regular swimming lessons, we knew on the first day that it wasn't going to go well. One of the few things they learn at that level is how to blow bubbles in the water. That necessitates one's face is in the water, of course, and as soon as Jack realized he would have to get his face wet every day, he was out. Last summer I didn't bother registering him for lessons because I didn't feel like the daily struggle. Instead he sat and watched Katie in her lessons for a month. I hoped it would make him wish he was in there. It didn't.

So this summer I had to make a deal with him. He wants to go to Safety Town, a program that Katie attended a couple years ago. I told him he could go ONLY if he went to at least one session of swimming lessons (they're two weeks long). At first he said he would do it. Then he decided he'd only do it if he didn't have to put his face in the water. I told him no, that wasn't going to work. It took a few weeks but he finally agreed to the deal. I have to admit, though, I wasn't sure if he'd follow through.

Swimming lessons started this morning. Katie's like a fish. The only thing I ever have to remind her about is to pay attention; otherwise she won't stop doing underwater somersaults. But I was extra concerned about Jack today. He seemed nervous and he looked so little next to the other boys in his class (they're obviously several years older than he is, so who are the real delinquents, hm?).

About ten minutes into the lesson Jack's teacher was having them blow bubbles. OH SHEET. I stiffened, knowing what was about to happen. Jack's face came out of the water and his fingers went straight to his eyes and I thought for sure he was going to cry. He turned around and paddled back to the wall and stood there for a second. I just knew he was planning his escape from the pool. But then he put his face in the water again, for a good five seconds or so. I was amazed! He came up and rubbed his eyes again, but then he went back underwater again, over and over and over! My sweet little boy; he was trying so hard and he hated it, but he also knew he had to just get it over with.

I expected him to complain about the class but when we got in the car he said, "That was SOOO fun!" I went on and on about how proud I was of him. I really am. He was so brave. For Jack, this was really a big accomplishment.

One lesson down, eight more to go...

--Jen