We went to IKEA again. Spent about one million dollars.
We threw out the mattresses for our double beds (guest bed and Baby's new to her bed). One we tossed before we left Ann Arbor the first time, knowing we didn't have room for these beds in Asheville anyway. The other we tossed before leaving Asheville because I thought it had become moldy in the basement and it was 15 years old anyway.
So we got a cheap memory foam one from IKEA for Baby's bed. Now we can get her settled in her own room and start unpacking that room and not having it look like a giant tornado went through.
We just got the one mattress for now. It was $225, which is pretty good for a double but if it sucks I don't want to have 2 of them. Baby's not going to be too picky. We'll give it a good couple of months before we double down and get another for the guest bed.
We still haven't ordered our carpets... but... we've just about given up on the elusive 10% off coupon we've been waiting for (of course the one piece of mail to apparently get lost in the delivery... seriously?!!!!) and just have to unpack and move in.
Our bedrooms (except Kid's.. pictures to come soon... I'm almost done) are really the worst parts of the house.
We've only just been here a month. Seems longer. I feel pretty good about what we have accomplished in such a short time. We really aren't living out of boxes, which I'm fairly certain at this point in Asheville we were. We're just living off the floor ;) I just haven't wanted to fill up dressers, etc... only to have to empty them and move everything out for carpet installation. But... enough is enough... it's grating on me now.
I'm waiting on some new carpet samples (now that we're paying full price I need to take this extra seriously!). They all seemed too light for our living room and I really don't want to have to replace it in a couple of years because it got too much foot wear or stains. Once we get those we'll make our order. 5 rooms... it's going to be something like $3500! I really wanted that coupon, damn it !!!
In other fronts, I'm almost ready to start exercising for real. I've been walking 3-5 miles a day taking Kid to school and Baby around town... but I need to get a little more hardcore now. I also need to just man up and do something about my eating. I'm not out of control by any means (although I haven't weighed myself in months)... but I'm not where I want to be and some dieting will have to be involved in getting back down to my low weight. Which I would like to do. Soon. I only have one pair of pants that fit... and I'm not buying any.
Also, I'm just a little overwhelmed by all the extra curriculars I just signed Kid up for. I don't like to do that. It's not really my style. Kid didn't do any in Asheville (partly due to poorness, though). I do really think 8 hours at school is enough. But she doesn't have any friends here yet (the nice girl from the open house?... on the 2nd day of school told Kid "I can't play with you every day!"... so yeah... she's a #%^&*), and I'm trying to get her to have some fun social opportunities.
This week she starts dance & swimming which she'll do all semester. We're waiting to hear back from the local Brownie troop, we've got library after school story times, and a 3 day intensive "Cheer Camp" taught by the high school varsity cheerleaders in October (Little Miss Hot... is as excited as you imagine her to be about that one!). On top of that we've now got spelling test to study for (ugh!!! Kid is not a fan of the memorization! And I am not a fan of the afternoon breakdowns!). So it's an adjustment. Obviously we will drop any of these activities should they be too much or not fulfilling... but... she really needs to make some more peer connections so that kids at school will actually talk to her .... she eats lunch by herself :( , and has more than once been told by kids on the playground that they won't play with her :(... , and when I come to pick her up I can see her wandering around the playground alone :(.... BUT she still likes school and wants to go and KEEPS ASKING them to play. So I give her mad props because I couldn't do it. In fact I don't do it. No one has talked to me at drop off or pick up either...
Keep in mind that doesn't count Baby's activities which start this week too.
Okay that's all. Off to Trader Joe's for tomato soup!
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16 comments:
I know how you feel. Mykaela dealt with the kids shunning her for the first TWO years at her school, and we can't afford a lot of extra curriculars. This year, she says she is making friends with a few different people and isn't eating or playing alone. I hope it's true. Kids can be such brats, and in this school's case, the parents are alot of times as well. I'm not a social person to begin with, and meeting new people actually makes me physically ill, but it doesn't help when 95 percent of the moms are snobby as all get out.
Anyhow, I hope both you and Kid make lots of new friends soon!!
she eats lunch by herself :( , and has more than once been told by kids on the playground that they won't play with her :(... , and when I come to pick her up I can see her wandering around the playground alone :( Oh, that got me in the gut. Maybe it is a good thing that my boys tell me nothing...for all I know they sit at lunch alone, too.
WTF is wrong with those kids? If I ever, ever caught wind that my child told someone that they won't play with them, I would be all over them. Oh shit, wait. That's right, Murphy did tell a boy that he hated him and then backed it up with "no, really I do." But he was in preschool. Isn't Kid in 2nd grade? What a bunch of bitches.
Oh it's hard for me to hear/see/know! It takes a lot for me to swallow how it would make me feel and not project that onto her. She isn't upset. I think she is so overwhelmed by the whole thing... all of it.. that she doesn't isolate out the friend thing yet. She does say she is sometimes lonely at school. I encouraged her to approach a girl that sits by her who seems nice and shy... AND she told Kid she couldn't play with her she was busy! Kid said she didn't understand it since she wasn't doing anything. At recess lots of classes go out at once and Kid gets confused and can't find kids from her class... then when she does she is often told she can't play. She is used to such a small school (12 kids in her entire grade... 80 in the school) where everyone played a game together. Plus she said there isn't any down time in class where they are allowed to talk to each other or play so she really has no opportunity to get to know anyone. I'm hoping (though it might not work) that some kids from class will be at these extra curricular activities and she can get to know them then.
i absolutely love that children are resilient...Kid is showing that by not being "upset" about it and still wanting to go to school! as a teacher, i never allow any of my students to sit alone at lunch or recess. i start that on the first day of school by reading books and talking about differences and including everyone. so far it has been a great way to NOT have to say to a student, a couple of weeks into the school year, "hey, could you go sit with him so he is not alone?". i would do that if needed, but that could make the student alone feel worse. hoping Kid finds a great group of friends soon! so glad that you are settling in and am loving your "back to blogging"!
Maybe Kid can get herself noticed by knocking some of those little A-holes off the swings...
Julie, that really got me too. Since I'm not in on the walks to/from school, I wasn't getting the full debriefing from Kid. And when Mrs F told me the other day about it, I was pretty quickly in the "if she doesn't have friends in two weeks—let's pull her the fuck out of there!" camp.
Nobody deserves that shit.
Kid's birthday is in a little over a month, that could be make-it-or-break-it time.
(For me.)
It breaks my heart to hear this kid eating alone why are kids such brats.My four year old was called a freak the other day by a much older kid at the park due to the fact that she was neighing like a horse and pretending to ride one, what the fuck it pissed me off yet she laughed it off and sid "I know" probably means when she does weird shit like lick me or wipe her mouth on my shower curtain I shouldnt call her a freak lol. I hope kid makes friends quickly this whole post has freaked me out do we have to start school next year homeschooling is sounding better already.
Send Baby on over there to kick the shit out of some of those mean girls.
She does say she is sometimes lonely at school. As much as this stuff is killing me, I am also very impressed at her ability to express herself. That is awesome.
julie,
yes, expressing our emotions is pretty much a family strong suit ;)
unfortunately the learning style at school (lots of memorization) is also NOT going working for us. It's just the complete opposite of what she needs to do to keep her anxiety in check. It's like a kind of torture for us to have to spend hours after school trying to memorize 5 spelling words. It's not that she can't... she can... but she is unable to present knowledge she isn't 100% certain about. So it would take us a year to practice a word enough that she believed she knew it with 100% certainty. She can get the word right 20 times in a row than she crumbles and it's almost like she intentionally gets it wrong then she freaks out and has a massive tantrum. There is no creative thinking/writing (her strong suit) it is all desk work and all memorization (anxiety provoking) or direct copy work (boring). Coffee is not going to be enough to get me through our homework ....
andrea,
um... I have been known to whisper at night to her that she can go somewhere else or homeschool if she isn't happy. And still she says she likes it enough for now. My goal would be to go a full year and have a really good assessment of how it is in every aspect. But Mr F and I won't be able to live with sending her somewhere that she just can't fit into. Life's too short to have to feel left out. I just don't believe in that.
Rah,
I'm extremely surprised and impressed by her resiliency and tenacity. She has always been very shy and she is really outside of her comfort zone and still trying.
does she have actual spelling HW or is the homework to just memorize the words?
if it is just to memorize them, you could do some "fun" things...you may already be doing this anyway. with my class, they get an aluminum tray...i get them at dollar store. i put salt or rice in it and they use an un-sharpened pencil and "write" their words in it. i've put shaving cream on their desks and they write it with their fingers...this may be a little much for your house. i do rainbow writing where they write the word and go over it and over it again in other colors. just an idea to make it less...excruciating!
Rah,
It's just memorization for the weekly test. This whole concept (plus the testing) is all new for her, and she doesn't trust herself.
Last week: metamorphosis and Schwartzenberger were her words (how about that for a start to the year?!) She had to recite them and it was a lot of pressure. She did it.
This week the words are more normal 2nd level and there are 5 words plus the unknown element of any word from two basic word families. She such a perfectionist and has so much anxiety that even though we've got the 5 down (she can still talk herself out of 3 of them though) she just doesn't trust herself and 2nd guesses and then the added stress of the unknown words! Gah! I'm thinking of touching base with the teacher if next week's list is similar and explaining how nervous she is and seeing if she'll give me the set word list. I know having confidence is key for her.
I will try the rainbow writing tomorrow... that will be more engaging for her.
holy crap...that is intense. i teach 3rd grade and feel as though i challenge my students but that sounds crazy. plus, i am totally against memorization but i guess there is not way around that in spelling. hope the school year gets better!
metamorphosis and Schwartzenberger were her words wth?? Murphy is in 3rd grade and some of his words are 'basket' and "pennies". He thinks it is totally easy, but I say build them up at the beginning of the year and let the kids gradually step up to the harder words. I would be the same way as Kid. I may know how to spell those words, but I would clam up from the pressure.
And you know we live in Massachusetts in a very well rated school district. When do you get to get in the classroom and see what's going on? Like at a Back to school night or a conference? Or can you meet with the teacher prior to a conference?
Kid is such a cool kid. Smart, witty, adorable. I know she will find her way.
I would have to think pretty hard about how to spell Metamorphasis...even right now I'm not sure I've got it right. That's a crazy word for a 7 yr old!
I am so thankful we have never had to deal with spelling words because I just know it would send my son over the edge too. Now that he is aware of homeschooling he makes a pitch for it almost every other day.
Kid totally rocks and I am so amazed at her self-awareness and resiliency. Those girls don't know what they're missing!
And I DID spell it wrong. Tell Kid she has one up on me!
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