"I have this thing,
if there are holiday creatures coming into the house,
I am wearing underwear...
END OF STORY." Kid proclaims
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Updates
Well, try as we might, we did not win half a billion dollars last night. We are not lottery people, but considering our run of luck in bad odds of late, why not see if we could get a streak going?
So much for funding a million wells in Africa. Can't wait to see what idiots win and go bankrupt within 5 years.
Particularly disappointing since we just got our repair estimate. FORTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS. That doesn't even include landscaping, people. We're still waiting to see what of that insurance is going to cover. We know that at least 8000 is definitely not covered.
On top of that, I'm super excited to file our taxes this weekend. You remember how well that went last year? Mr F forgot to give me his largest 1099... causing me a YEAR of IRS paperwork issues to deal with. That's even though I had corrected the problem, filed amended returns & paid the difference BEFORE April 15th. So, this year, I am not filing early! And Mr F has vowed not to do this to me again!
***************************************************
Before the tornado, we had been eating a strict Paleo diet for 3 weeks. There were positives and negatives to this diet. It was a lot of work, and was very expensive. Mr F and I often felt extremely unsatisfied with our choices, and extremely bored of nuts! However, Mr F lost a TON of stomach fat super fast. I never had cravings of any kind, and also lost stomach fat (not as much). I had more energy and found working out much easier to fit in and follow through on. But I did have different digestive issues (TMI but things swung too far the other way, and that was getting problematic). We had been hoping to do a full 30 day challenge and really see how we felt at the end. But once the tornado hit, we dropped this diet like it was hot. It was just too much work to maintain while things were so up in the air and stressful. And for a week, I felt fine. Making me really wonder, whether pursuing Paleo was something I wanted anything to do with anymore. But this week all of my old digestive issues came back, along with fatigue, insomnia, headaches, and nonstop sugar cravings. Last night Mr F and I were talking and both said we definitely feel like shit now that we're off Paleo, but we need to make it easier to follow and cheaper. It's pretty hard for me to not do something all the way, I'm thinking on it. But I did get up and bust open this big bag of almond flour that came right before the tornado, and has been sitting in the pantry ever since. I ordered this off of Amazon, and if you are doing Paleo... hop to! It is much finer ground and much cheaper than store versions.
I made some Paleo banana muffins, and the batter came together so much more smoothly than the other brands. I'm really excited about this stuff! I think it might help me do more grainfree baking, which might make this diet easier to follow. Right now, we're thinking Paleo breakfast, snacks and desserts. Regular lunches and dinners (focusing on using rice and potatoes as starches)... I don't think that I have a problem with either of those, and think it will help make dinners a bit easier to throw together and keep me from making Paleo and non-Paleo meals for the kids. I also think a little rice might help with the Paleo digestive issues I was having. I'm also not going to stress about what kind of sweetener I use (again I just don't think this is worth the trouble and cost... doing Paleo you already reduce your intake so much). I'm thinking the end result should be a low sugar, whole foods diet, with a small amount of grain. I'll be interested to see if this take on it will have the same immediate results that we had when we did it the first time. I have a strong suspicion that I have a certain carrying load for grains, and I just need to work to figure out what that amount is.
So much for funding a million wells in Africa. Can't wait to see what idiots win and go bankrupt within 5 years.Particularly disappointing since we just got our repair estimate. FORTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS. That doesn't even include landscaping, people. We're still waiting to see what of that insurance is going to cover. We know that at least 8000 is definitely not covered.
On top of that, I'm super excited to file our taxes this weekend. You remember how well that went last year? Mr F forgot to give me his largest 1099... causing me a YEAR of IRS paperwork issues to deal with. That's even though I had corrected the problem, filed amended returns & paid the difference BEFORE April 15th. So, this year, I am not filing early! And Mr F has vowed not to do this to me again!
***************************************************
Before the tornado, we had been eating a strict Paleo diet for 3 weeks. There were positives and negatives to this diet. It was a lot of work, and was very expensive. Mr F and I often felt extremely unsatisfied with our choices, and extremely bored of nuts! However, Mr F lost a TON of stomach fat super fast. I never had cravings of any kind, and also lost stomach fat (not as much). I had more energy and found working out much easier to fit in and follow through on. But I did have different digestive issues (TMI but things swung too far the other way, and that was getting problematic). We had been hoping to do a full 30 day challenge and really see how we felt at the end. But once the tornado hit, we dropped this diet like it was hot. It was just too much work to maintain while things were so up in the air and stressful. And for a week, I felt fine. Making me really wonder, whether pursuing Paleo was something I wanted anything to do with anymore. But this week all of my old digestive issues came back, along with fatigue, insomnia, headaches, and nonstop sugar cravings. Last night Mr F and I were talking and both said we definitely feel like shit now that we're off Paleo, but we need to make it easier to follow and cheaper. It's pretty hard for me to not do something all the way, I'm thinking on it. But I did get up and bust open this big bag of almond flour that came right before the tornado, and has been sitting in the pantry ever since. I ordered this off of Amazon, and if you are doing Paleo... hop to! It is much finer ground and much cheaper than store versions.
I made some Paleo banana muffins, and the batter came together so much more smoothly than the other brands. I'm really excited about this stuff! I think it might help me do more grainfree baking, which might make this diet easier to follow. Right now, we're thinking Paleo breakfast, snacks and desserts. Regular lunches and dinners (focusing on using rice and potatoes as starches)... I don't think that I have a problem with either of those, and think it will help make dinners a bit easier to throw together and keep me from making Paleo and non-Paleo meals for the kids. I also think a little rice might help with the Paleo digestive issues I was having. I'm also not going to stress about what kind of sweetener I use (again I just don't think this is worth the trouble and cost... doing Paleo you already reduce your intake so much). I'm thinking the end result should be a low sugar, whole foods diet, with a small amount of grain. I'll be interested to see if this take on it will have the same immediate results that we had when we did it the first time. I have a strong suspicion that I have a certain carrying load for grains, and I just need to work to figure out what that amount is.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Construction Begins
(or pre-construction construction begins)
They're tearing into our interior wall today to assess the structural damage.
I kind of always assumed if we were going to have real construction crews in and out of our house, we'd be getting something cool like a new kitchen or bathroom.
Not just to restore our house to it's original bland 60s-ness.
Oh, well. At least it's the one room we hadn't painted yet.
They're tearing into our interior wall today to assess the structural damage.
I kind of always assumed if we were going to have real construction crews in and out of our house, we'd be getting something cool like a new kitchen or bathroom.
Not just to restore our house to it's original bland 60s-ness.
Oh, well. At least it's the one room we hadn't painted yet.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Perfect Score
The kids went in to the private school today for their placement evaluations.
Baby, not surprisingly, kicked it out of the Kindergarten park.
Not just coloring in Jesus, but also adding a picture of herself, in diamonds and roller skates.
It really took the "My Best Friend is Jesus" coloring page to a whole other level.
Kid, on the other hand, I actually had to drug last night to get her to stop the stressing and fall asleep.
We didn't know what was going to be on her placement test, so we couldn't study and that was almost too much stress to bear.
You may recall test anxiety was one of the reasons we took her out of school.
So, when I found out this school experience was going to start with a test? I was more than a little apprehensive.
People, she got a perfect score!
She even answered math question on topics we haven't even covered yet.
She didn't freak out, or shut down, she just said she didn't know how to do them. The principal explained the concept and she then turned around and got them all right.
I think she sealed the deal when she off the cuff told him about George Washington's life story on the walk back to find me.
I'm so happy for her. She wanted this so badly, and I wanted it to be a real viable option for her.
She sat down with a strange man, in an office by herself, and took a test on topics we haven't even studied, and not just lived through it, but aced it?!
She amazed me (and herself).
We are both so confident that she can do this, now.
And she is so happy and proud of herself.
The public school had made her feel that she was stupid, and now she's starting to believe that they were wrong.
Baby, not surprisingly, kicked it out of the Kindergarten park.
Not just coloring in Jesus, but also adding a picture of herself, in diamonds and roller skates.
It really took the "My Best Friend is Jesus" coloring page to a whole other level.
Kid, on the other hand, I actually had to drug last night to get her to stop the stressing and fall asleep.
We didn't know what was going to be on her placement test, so we couldn't study and that was almost too much stress to bear.
You may recall test anxiety was one of the reasons we took her out of school.
So, when I found out this school experience was going to start with a test? I was more than a little apprehensive.
People, she got a perfect score!
She even answered math question on topics we haven't even covered yet.
She didn't freak out, or shut down, she just said she didn't know how to do them. The principal explained the concept and she then turned around and got them all right.
I think she sealed the deal when she off the cuff told him about George Washington's life story on the walk back to find me.
I'm so happy for her. She wanted this so badly, and I wanted it to be a real viable option for her.
She sat down with a strange man, in an office by herself, and took a test on topics we haven't even studied, and not just lived through it, but aced it?!
She amazed me (and herself).
We are both so confident that she can do this, now.
And she is so happy and proud of herself.
The public school had made her feel that she was stupid, and now she's starting to believe that they were wrong.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Awesome
Just got our first post-tornado severe thunderstorm alert for our town.
This is going to be stressful.
On everyone.
Let's hope the tarp really is waterproof.
And that I don't have a nervous breakdown.
This is going to be stressful.
On everyone.
Let's hope the tarp really is waterproof.
And that I don't have a nervous breakdown.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
They're Not Sleeping; They're Crashing
When we bought our house, Kid got an unusually long bedroom with amazing closets. Partly, because she is a hoarder collector.
When the movers delivered our stuff a lot of it was just placed on the floor to ceiling shelves in one of her closets. And so her closet has been mostly useless as a functioning space, due to the overwhelming project of sorting what all was placed in there and why.
I always wanted to turn that into an amazing built in desk. The simple construction of the shelving, just two boards placed front to back placed on side supports meant we could theoretically knock off the front board leaving book shelf width shelving floor to ceiling and leave one double board shelf as a desk. You follow? Mr F didn't. He always wants to overcomplicated projects, which means they stagnate. It stayed like that for 18 months.
Kid is not so much a hoarder as much as she is sentimental. Having two major moves at so young of an age, meant that a lot of little things carried a tremendous amount of meaning for her, reminding her of certain houses we've had, or friends, schools, etc. Which is all totally appropriate ways of dealing with transition and loss.
So this closet was filled with weird odds and ends, her boxes of stuff she didn't want to let go of, books, curtains that don't work in this house... stuff.
Finally, I convinced Mr F to just try it my way.
That meant we had to clear everything out and sort it. Which made Kid's room impassable. We did find tons of age appropriate books for Baby... bonus... and kind of sad that they are growing up so quickly. So then we carted it all to my room where I thought I'd have more space to sort. Which made my room impassable.
Mr F obsessed over the shelves for a weekend, trying to decide which individual ones were flattest and smoothest for the desk.
Then I went to IKEA and spent $20 on storage boxes.
And my dream came true...
Kid and I sorted all her momentos into specific boxes, one for Ann Arbor, one for Asheville, one for Disney World, one for Brownies, one for greeting cards, a current one she can put stuff in.
It's totally awesome. If she wants to think about Asheville she can get down the box and go through it and then put it back.
There was also plenty of trash mixed in that we sorted through and got rid of last night.
Kid was sitting on my floor reading an airline safety brochure.
"You don't need that." I said.
Yes, I do." Kid replied firmly.
"No, you don't, they have them on every plane." I said, kind of concerned that she might start obsessing about airplane safety.
"Yes, I do, I need my own." Kid said.
"No, you don't, every seat has one." I tried.
"Well, I took this one, so what if someone took the one for my seat." Kid explained.
"Fine." I gave up.
About an hour later Kid comes into the kitchen holdling the pamphlet.
"Why do they tell you how you have to sleep? I mean why do you have to hold your kid in your lap or hold onto the other seat?" Kid asks.
"Um... they're not sleeping." I reply, laughing nervously.
When the movers delivered our stuff a lot of it was just placed on the floor to ceiling shelves in one of her closets. And so her closet has been mostly useless as a functioning space, due to the overwhelming project of sorting what all was placed in there and why.
I always wanted to turn that into an amazing built in desk. The simple construction of the shelving, just two boards placed front to back placed on side supports meant we could theoretically knock off the front board leaving book shelf width shelving floor to ceiling and leave one double board shelf as a desk. You follow? Mr F didn't. He always wants to overcomplicated projects, which means they stagnate. It stayed like that for 18 months.
Kid is not so much a hoarder as much as she is sentimental. Having two major moves at so young of an age, meant that a lot of little things carried a tremendous amount of meaning for her, reminding her of certain houses we've had, or friends, schools, etc. Which is all totally appropriate ways of dealing with transition and loss.
So this closet was filled with weird odds and ends, her boxes of stuff she didn't want to let go of, books, curtains that don't work in this house... stuff.
Finally, I convinced Mr F to just try it my way.
That meant we had to clear everything out and sort it. Which made Kid's room impassable. We did find tons of age appropriate books for Baby... bonus... and kind of sad that they are growing up so quickly. So then we carted it all to my room where I thought I'd have more space to sort. Which made my room impassable.
Mr F obsessed over the shelves for a weekend, trying to decide which individual ones were flattest and smoothest for the desk.
Then I went to IKEA and spent $20 on storage boxes.
And my dream came true...
Kid and I sorted all her momentos into specific boxes, one for Ann Arbor, one for Asheville, one for Disney World, one for Brownies, one for greeting cards, a current one she can put stuff in.
It's totally awesome. If she wants to think about Asheville she can get down the box and go through it and then put it back.
There was also plenty of trash mixed in that we sorted through and got rid of last night.
Kid was sitting on my floor reading an airline safety brochure.
"You don't need that." I said.
Yes, I do." Kid replied firmly.
"No, you don't, they have them on every plane." I said, kind of concerned that she might start obsessing about airplane safety.
"Yes, I do, I need my own." Kid said.
"No, you don't, every seat has one." I tried.
"Well, I took this one, so what if someone took the one for my seat." Kid explained.
"Fine." I gave up.
About an hour later Kid comes into the kitchen holdling the pamphlet.
"Why do they tell you how you have to sleep? I mean why do you have to hold your kid in your lap or hold onto the other seat?" Kid asks.
"Um... they're not sleeping." I reply, laughing nervously.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Yay!
Found out our driveway repair will be covered (most likely).
Awesome!
Not awesome that when the adjuster came last Friday, they didn't notice the tree on the house (?!!!?!?!?!). WTF?
Which means it's going to be a while before we can start to get the house rebuilt/repaired.
Awesome!
Not awesome that when the adjuster came last Friday, they didn't notice the tree on the house (?!!!?!?!?!). WTF?
Which means it's going to be a while before we can start to get the house rebuilt/repaired.
Monday, March 19, 2012
There Are So Many Things I Want To Say....
One is... WHAT THE FUCK?!!!!
It's hard. It's hard to wrap your mind around something so violent yet so short lived.
Something so localized and selective.
The world wants to move on so quickly, when I want to yell
"AN F3 JUST TORE THROUGH MY LIFE!!!!"
If you didn't live in it's direct path, it's like it didn't happen.
Our neighbor's? Not a twig was moved by it. Not a fucking twig. The vacant house in foreclosure across the street... that could actually afford roof damage?... Not a thing. The vast majority, even in our small town, is completely in tact.
But it hit us.
And it's hard to deal with.
Things are getting cleaned up, but it's still so traumatic.
Emotionally.
And every time we look out the windows there are huge reminders.
Huge holes.
It happened. And you remember. The terror. It was real.
Yes, it could have been worse, but right in your face, right across the street, is the reminder that it also could have been better.
It's hard. It's hard to wrap your mind around something so violent yet so short lived.
Something so localized and selective.
The world wants to move on so quickly, when I want to yell
"AN F3 JUST TORE THROUGH MY LIFE!!!!"
If you didn't live in it's direct path, it's like it didn't happen.
Our neighbor's? Not a twig was moved by it. Not a fucking twig. The vacant house in foreclosure across the street... that could actually afford roof damage?... Not a thing. The vast majority, even in our small town, is completely in tact.
But it hit us.
And it's hard to deal with.
Things are getting cleaned up, but it's still so traumatic.
Emotionally.
And every time we look out the windows there are huge reminders.
Huge holes.
It happened. And you remember. The terror. It was real.
Yes, it could have been worse, but right in your face, right across the street, is the reminder that it also could have been better.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
The Aftermath
Our Yard Before:
(obviously from summer)
AFTER 3/15 Tornado:
That tree in leaf you see in the above photo is what you see now against the house:
House after Clean Up:
Yard After Tornado:
Yard After Clean Up:
A HUGE thank you to all of the wonderful, generous, community volunteers that donated their time, effort, & food yesterday. We are overwhelmed and amazed at both the response and what was accomplished in such a short time. We anticipated that we'd be digging out of this for a long time coming. Now we are all set for the professional crews to come in and pull out the root balls, fill in the holes, take down the shorn off trees, and fix our house! This clean up effort saved us thousands and thousands of dollars! We are so grateful to everyone that came out. We REALLY couldn't have done this on our own. We thought we'd be lucky if we got the tree off the house this weekend... I can't believe the kids can actually play in their yard again. Such a gift of normalcy for them that they really needed. They were scared to come home, and begged me not to make them, for fear of what everything would be like. Things are weird, for sure, it will take time, but not seeing the trees all over the place helps them to forget a little of how scary & terrible it was. So, thank you, you made a difference.
(obviously from summer)
AFTER 3/15 Tornado:
That tree in leaf you see in the above photo is what you see now against the house:
House after Clean Up:
Yard After Tornado:
Yard After Clean Up:
A HUGE thank you to all of the wonderful, generous, community volunteers that donated their time, effort, & food yesterday. We are overwhelmed and amazed at both the response and what was accomplished in such a short time. We anticipated that we'd be digging out of this for a long time coming. Now we are all set for the professional crews to come in and pull out the root balls, fill in the holes, take down the shorn off trees, and fix our house! This clean up effort saved us thousands and thousands of dollars! We are so grateful to everyone that came out. We REALLY couldn't have done this on our own. We thought we'd be lucky if we got the tree off the house this weekend... I can't believe the kids can actually play in their yard again. Such a gift of normalcy for them that they really needed. They were scared to come home, and begged me not to make them, for fear of what everything would be like. Things are weird, for sure, it will take time, but not seeing the trees all over the place helps them to forget a little of how scary & terrible it was. So, thank you, you made a difference.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Tornado Clean Up Information
For all who are interested or planning to come out and help, THANK YOU. Matt will be there onsite. We finally got called by a volunteer crew with trucks that are coming by tomorrow afternoon to help haul the trees out. If you are planning to come, and can come tomorrow AM and early afternoon, the more we can get cut before they come the more they can take. We will also need as much help on Sunday as possible to clean up after them, and continue clearing. We have heard that insurance will not cover any of the tree/yard damage and we are looking and thousands of dollars worth of tree removal & landscaping to fill the huge root ball holes, regrade our yard, fix our driveway, etc. In fact, our home owner's insurance will only pay to remove the part of the tree on the house... unbelievable! Any help we can get that can help us reduce those out of pocket bills would be GREATLY appreciated.
Address and phone contact in comments.
And a big thank you to everyone who has reached out and plans to come. I'm sorry that I won't be there to meet you and thank you personally. The girls are having a really hard time and I don't think I can leave them, right now.
Address and phone contact in comments.
And a big thank you to everyone who has reached out and plans to come. I'm sorry that I won't be there to meet you and thank you personally. The girls are having a really hard time and I don't think I can leave them, right now.
video of damage
This video was shot by someone in our driveway, that's me you hear and it opens looking in our front yard then spans around to the street and the house across the street. This does not show our house which is a fair ways up behind me... but I think you get the gist of the destruction.
Tornado
We were hit by that tornado that tore through Dexter, MI yesterday. Hands down most frightening experience of my life. We are all safe. Our yard is filled with huge mature trees (why we bought the house, of course). Unfortunately the majority were shorn off or uprooted. What house damage we have is from a massive Maple being thrown against it. Only exterior house & yard damage, thankfully. Well.... And psychological. I mean, I literally felt it go over the house as I held the basement bathroom door shut. It was surreal, I thought ... "So this is what it's like, it's happening". But nothing could prepare me for what I saw outside it was apocalyptic.
Pictures to come... I don't know how to do this from my phone.
We are at my mother's until we can get power back & assess the safety of everything.
But I will say, thankfully, we bad a prepared tornado safe room & a practiced an with the kids. Including getting on their boots & bike helmets... Believe it.... Those save lives & prevent injuries from flying debris & ground debris after the storm. Thank God I had signed up for the emergency weather alerts on my phone. Because the tornado hit our house AFTER the sirens shut off. If not for the weather alert warning to stay down longer I might have let the kids up. I barely made it down in time, when I saw that the wind was blowing one way out of the west side of the house and the other way out of the east. Probably 15 seconds later it hit.
Not sure we'll be able to afford private school now...
Pictures to come... I don't know how to do this from my phone.
We are at my mother's until we can get power back & assess the safety of everything.
But I will say, thankfully, we bad a prepared tornado safe room & a practiced an with the kids. Including getting on their boots & bike helmets... Believe it.... Those save lives & prevent injuries from flying debris & ground debris after the storm. Thank God I had signed up for the emergency weather alerts on my phone. Because the tornado hit our house AFTER the sirens shut off. If not for the weather alert warning to stay down longer I might have let the kids up. I barely made it down in time, when I saw that the wind was blowing one way out of the west side of the house and the other way out of the east. Probably 15 seconds later it hit.
Not sure we'll be able to afford private school now...
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
I Should Say...
So much stuff, other than paleo, is going on around here, these days.
We've been applying to schools.
What?
Yes, you read that right.
This has been STRESSFUL, but also exciting.
Homeschooling has been great during this time, but it was never our forever life plan.
With Baby starting elementary school, it is a good time for us to find a great school for BOTH girls.
Kid is very excited (and nervous) about it, she always loved school, and she does miss having kids around her all day.
I think, I've done right by her these last couple of years and it's time to move on to a new challenge.
I know she's at a place academically where she can preform in a traditional school setting, and we're hopeful this can work and be a fulfilling experience, academically and socially.
We've been all over the board on this, and finding a good fit for both of the girls has been challenging.
But I think, as of this afternoon, we've (I've) made one.
Out of left field, though it may be, tomorrow we're submitting an application for a conservative religious school.
Believe it.
(some of you could probably see this coming a million miles away)
Sure, there is some stuff we would not choose (like daily devotional & weekly chapel) but what I KNOW is that every school has something you would not choose.
(Like her old hippie school where a mom swore to the kids that there were werewolves. Thanks.)
Having a superior playground is all that mattered to the girls.
Baby looked out at it while I was in the office finishing up our tour, and when we walked out she said...
"I am definitely going here!"
Also, the greatest Kindergarten room set up I have ever seen. Awesome. Awesome. Baby's mouth fell open.
It's amazing what a whole bunch of church funding can do for a school.
Awesome, fully stocked library & computer lab? Check.
Huge brand new gymnasium? Check.
Music room... like a REAL one with stands for the choir? Check.
Art room... foreign language (this has gone missing almost everywhere else)... small class size, only one class per grade... did I mention the playground?... holy crap it was nice... yearly musical.... the whole nine yards.
Gym EVERY day.
and UNIFORMS.
Did I ever tell you how much I love uniforms? Love 'em.
Oh, and it's the cheapest private school I have ever come across. Both kids can go for LESS than one at any other area school. Half of one. It's insane.
After looking at weird hodgepodge programs, and bizarro charter school wackiness... this place was like a gift from God.
hahahahaha.
Anyway, I thought it was interesting how the girls had really hated the other schools we saw (you could feel the disorganization) and then they walked in here and everything was structured and organized, and you could see what everything was and how it would be, and they were both totally into it. Which I suppose isn't too surprising, since that is how I felt as well.
Having gone to private schools, this school finally felt like a real school to me.
The downside is that I will have to drive 1/2 hour & back to pick up Baby from Kindergarten at 12 (oh yeah, half day!!!!!! the driving is worth it) and then a 1/2 hour there and back at 3. But if all goes well for Kid there, the next year they'll both be full time.
And I can get a job.
I've been kind of yearning for one, for quite some time.
I just try to keep it on the down low.
So this coming year, I can hopefully get my feet wet with some volunteer work at an agency I'd like to work with later.
We've been applying to schools.
What?
Yes, you read that right.
This has been STRESSFUL, but also exciting.
Homeschooling has been great during this time, but it was never our forever life plan.
With Baby starting elementary school, it is a good time for us to find a great school for BOTH girls.
Kid is very excited (and nervous) about it, she always loved school, and she does miss having kids around her all day.
I think, I've done right by her these last couple of years and it's time to move on to a new challenge.
I know she's at a place academically where she can preform in a traditional school setting, and we're hopeful this can work and be a fulfilling experience, academically and socially.
We've been all over the board on this, and finding a good fit for both of the girls has been challenging.
But I think, as of this afternoon, we've (I've) made one.
Out of left field, though it may be, tomorrow we're submitting an application for a conservative religious school.
Believe it.
(some of you could probably see this coming a million miles away)
Sure, there is some stuff we would not choose (like daily devotional & weekly chapel) but what I KNOW is that every school has something you would not choose.
(Like her old hippie school where a mom swore to the kids that there were werewolves. Thanks.)
Having a superior playground is all that mattered to the girls.
Baby looked out at it while I was in the office finishing up our tour, and when we walked out she said...
"I am definitely going here!"
Also, the greatest Kindergarten room set up I have ever seen. Awesome. Awesome. Baby's mouth fell open.
It's amazing what a whole bunch of church funding can do for a school.
Awesome, fully stocked library & computer lab? Check.
Huge brand new gymnasium? Check.
Music room... like a REAL one with stands for the choir? Check.
Art room... foreign language (this has gone missing almost everywhere else)... small class size, only one class per grade... did I mention the playground?... holy crap it was nice... yearly musical.... the whole nine yards.
Gym EVERY day.
and UNIFORMS.
Did I ever tell you how much I love uniforms? Love 'em.
Oh, and it's the cheapest private school I have ever come across. Both kids can go for LESS than one at any other area school. Half of one. It's insane.
After looking at weird hodgepodge programs, and bizarro charter school wackiness... this place was like a gift from God.
hahahahaha.
Anyway, I thought it was interesting how the girls had really hated the other schools we saw (you could feel the disorganization) and then they walked in here and everything was structured and organized, and you could see what everything was and how it would be, and they were both totally into it. Which I suppose isn't too surprising, since that is how I felt as well.
Having gone to private schools, this school finally felt like a real school to me.
The downside is that I will have to drive 1/2 hour & back to pick up Baby from Kindergarten at 12 (oh yeah, half day!!!!!! the driving is worth it) and then a 1/2 hour there and back at 3. But if all goes well for Kid there, the next year they'll both be full time.
And I can get a job.
I've been kind of yearning for one, for quite some time.
I just try to keep it on the down low.
So this coming year, I can hopefully get my feet wet with some volunteer work at an agency I'd like to work with later.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Guilty Conscience
"I noticed you bought yourself a couple of bags of almonds." Kid says.
"Yeah." Mrs F replies.
"I wonder what they taste like?" Kid asks.
"You've had almonds before; I think you like them. You can try them." Mrs F answers.
"Okay, good, because I felt bad about it, but I did try one." Kid clarifies.
"Oh, that's fine, they're healthy." Mrs F returns.
"I also noticed you bought some dark chocolate covered almonds..." Kid adds, then bursts out laughing.
"Yeah." Mrs F replies.
"I wonder what they taste like?" Kid asks.
"You've had almonds before; I think you like them. You can try them." Mrs F answers.
"Okay, good, because I felt bad about it, but I did try one." Kid clarifies.
"Oh, that's fine, they're healthy." Mrs F returns.
"I also noticed you bought some dark chocolate covered almonds..." Kid adds, then bursts out laughing.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Cookie Caper
Someone stole our troop's cookies from our town's cookie cupboard.
Equal parts hilarious and infuriating.
Equal parts hilarious and infuriating.
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