Common Mom

Princess had her first grade music program last night - she was so excited! It was her first program at her school. They were sooooooo cute! They sang the cutest songs and got to play xylophones and sang together and actually watched their music teacher direct them and kept each other in line and giggled and smiled at their parents. Soo cute! Why don’t I have any pictures of my daughter’s first music program?

Because they pulled down a movie screen in the middle of the stage. Screen, big. First Graders, small. Screen covered up half the first graders. I asked the administrator if they could raise the screen because we couldn’t see half the kids behind it, and she said “No. The screen is there to show the kids’ illustrations.” Um, but we can’t see the KIDS . . . I’d much rather see the kids than the illustrations that we all saw them bring home last week anyway. Nope - no raising of the screen - what (pause for dramatic effect) EVER! Good thing is, Princess is small, so we could see the middle of her head down to her feet and actually saw her sing - and HEARD her sing - with 71 other first graders, I could actually hear my little Princess’ voice.

QT and I were looking at the program and noticed this on the bottom of the list of songs . . .

The music in this program may be derived from religious traditions.
It is included here for its educational value and does not imply
that the school district endorses any particular religious viewpoint.

So we kept listening to the songs, and you want to know what the “religious” reference was? It was when they were singing “This Old Man” and got to the part about “Seven up in Heaven.” Yup - that was the all terrible dangerous religious reference they were singing about. While I love our kids’ school and I firmly believe in our public school system, all I could do was shake my head and say “Seriously? That was it?”

I’d hate to see what would happen if someone heard that we talked to the Daisy Scouts about the Pledge of Allegiance last week and talked about the “Under God” part and why the sign language for that is what it is.

We had fun with Grandpa Mike here! He got here Thursday afternoon, so the kids were way excited to get home and see him. Princess had made him a fun banner for the front entry way that said Welcome Grandpa! It was so cute They had fun jumping all over him and playing games. Princess even got some alone time with Grandpa while Hubby, Dude, and I went to the Boy Scout Blue and Gold banquet. She talked him into taking her to McDonald’s for dinner and playing some games . . . how awesome that they got to spend some alone time together! We were sad when he left on Sunday morning, but he had to start heading home so he could get repacked for his trip to Europe with Hubby’s middle brother - lucky!!!

Speaking of the Blue and Gold Banquet and Lucky . . . Dude is the luckiest person I know! We had a small raffle for a DVD player, kid sized sleeping bag, and kid sized 2 person tent. He wanted the tent so badly - as did all the other scouts. But of course, Dude WON it! He was so excited . . . he brought it home, and we set it up in the basement to check it out. He and Princess decided they wanted to sleep in it, so I dragged it upstairs to the living room and there they slept - camping out in the living room Back to Dude’s luckiness . . . that kid has NEVER lost a coin toss - I’m not kidding. When we can’t remember who’s turn it is to choose the movie or whatever, we’ll do a coin toss. Princess refuses to do them because “But Dude ALWAYS wins!” We make her do it anyway because it’s the only fair way and she has to win some time, right? Nope - she NEVER wins . . . and it doesn’t matter if she calls it or he calls it or I assign heads and tails . . . he still wins! Should take that kid to Vegas.

We’ve had absolutely beautiful weather here the past week - mid-50s and sunny - awesome! We took advantage of it yesterday and went hiking. It was a bit icy and snowy, but we had a great time. We loaded 3 geocaches into the GPS, but didn’t find any of them 2 required too much scrambling on huge boulders that we weren’t willing to do with the snow and ice. The other we were right at according to the GPS and clues, but just couldn’t find it. I’m guessing that when all the snow melts, we’ll have a better shot at finding it . . . we didn’t want to get too close to the water with the snow and ice because we weren’t exactly sure where the reservoir started. So we had a great time, but got skunked on the geocaches Oh - but Dude, Grandpa, and Hubby DID find Dude’s 4th geocache on Friday after school . . . it was extra exciting for Dude because the clue said “Bring a Tall Friend.” Turns out, it was up in a tree! Dude had to climb the tree to get to the pulley to let it down - he of course LOVED that . . . and ended up with a “European” Match Box police car . . . the doors open and the steering wheel is on the right side - he thought that was super cool.

Alas . . . it’s now Monday again - and thankfully it’s cool and dreary out so I can actually sit her and work. Anyone who knows me knows how hard it is for me to sit inside on a nice sunny day And thanks to Hubby for rescheduling the accountant so he could go to Princess’s classroom this morning and I could stay home and work.

Happy Monday to all!

Yup - the Boedies are still here It’s been a while since I updated my little blog here. Since last week I have . . .

 . . . written “For Deposit Only Girl Scouts of Colorado #############” on the back of approximately 50 checks for cookies. I’ve also written our service unit number and troop number on the front of all those checks. Yes - I’m annoyed. My co-leader typed this wonderful “how to” sheet for each of the kids for delivering their cookies, yet not ONE of the 11 parents followed them. They must’ve been too busy - or lazy - so Becky and I get the carpal tunnel. We have some wonderful girls and some wonderful parents, but it’s become obvious why each of the girls is who they are

. . . taught 15 Daisy Scouts about respecting themselves and others - it was actually fun!

. . . explained to one Daisy and her mother why we aren’t just going to give her the petal the other girls earned on a day said girl was absent. Mom was mad. Girl was sad. I was sympathetic, but had to explain that they EARN the petals . . . they don’t just get handed out. Mom did not want to do the work at home with the girl. We told her girl would not earn the petal. Mom is still mad. I don’t care. The work is one of the easiest . . . it’s World Thinking Day - all Mom has to do is read the sheets we gave her about Girl Scouts Around The World and talk to her daughter about it - she’ll earn the petal. We’ll see if they do it. It would be a shame if they didn’t.

. . . answered approximately a bazillionmilliontrillion emails from baseball parents who can’t read an email. Seriously - I get emails that say “I received your email, but can’t figure out how to register my son for baseball.” Um, the other 385 parents had no issue at all . . . I’m guessing you didn’t actually READ the email. Yes, it annoys me.

. . . got to watch my Dude do his first baseball tryouts. He was so nervous, but he did great! I told him all he could do was his best and not to worry about what any of the other kids were doing. Once he relaxed, he had so much fun. We’re all really looking forward to the season.

. . . did a happy dance when tryouts were over because my Inbox has seen about 125 fewer emails each day since then - yay!

. . . put two different test colors of paint on my bathroom wall and the family room wall. I’ve decided on the bathroom wall color, but not the basement. Hubby needs to give input on those before I go ahead and buy them. But the bathroom is MINE and I’m so excited! Now to clean the walls, take the crap off the walls, tape, and paint Kids like to paint, right?

. . . cleaned my house - FINALLY! I’ve been so inundated with Little League stuff that my house has slipped terribly. I’m so much happier in a clean house, so today is a happy day

. . . shooed Tonks the Princess Cat off the counter countless times.

. . . yelled at Tonks the Princess Cat for lapping chocolate milk out of my cup on the counter while I went to help Princess put her earrings in.

. . . took down Duma’s indoor kennel - it’s just one of those collapsable wire ones. Now that we’ve figured out the litter box thing, I’ve been leaving her out in the house when we’re gone. She’s doing great. Not sure how Hubby will feel about the kennel being taken down, but it’s down - and the office is CLEAN and clear . . . which makes me happy. And you know what they say - if Momma ain’t happy . . . well, I’m HAPPY

. . . clicked a bazillion times (no, I’m not joking) while converting a help system to a new source. Seriously - there’s no typing, it’s all click click click click . . . carpal tunnel, here I come! I was getting annoyed, but felt much better about it when I sent them my invoice yesterday - PLAY money - yay!!! About 100 more hours and I’m finished with that contract.

. . . SCRAPBOOKED! Yes - for the first time in a year (yes I’m serious) I scrapbooked this past week. I was so relieved to be done with Little League registration and tryouts, have completed all the current editing projects for Hubby’s company, and gotten so far on the help conversion, that I took a break for ME and scrapbooked - ahhhhhhh.

. . . washed my vehicle about 5 times. They say it’s going to be nice, then it snows one day, then get warm, so the roads are all nasty. Then it melts and gets dry, so I wash the car. Then it snows. You get the picture . . . welcome to March in Colorado!

. . . cleaned the snowboards . . . man were they dirty from the drive home from our last boarding trip! That’s the only bummer about having a hitch rack for the boards instead of a roof rack, but the roof rack would be too much of a pain for me to get into when Hubby isn’t there.

. . . bought groceries.

. . . Manned a Daisy Scout cookie booth with my daughter. No, we did not have enough of the 11 parents sign up to fill the 6 thirty minute time slots for the booth. Ya - you read that right. Becky and I were there with our daughters for 2.5 of the 3 hours (did I mention it was about 20 and snowing?). We did have 4 other families come help, but seriously - only 4 out of 11? Sheesh. The girls did great, though - I think their bundled upness got them sympathy points . . . they sold 104 boxes of cookies!

. . . delivered 32 boxes of donated cookies to Tri-Lakes Cares. Yummy!

. . . sat in the recliner and watched a movie with Princess, Tonks the Princess Cat, and Duma the insanely jealous yellow lab all on my lap. Yes, the chair was full, but us girls need to stick together!

. . . spent the last few evenings doing what the kids wanted to do withOUT my computer on. Relieved to finally have some deadlines past so I could relax a bit.

Today - I’m home with a sick kid - well, semi-sick. I can tell she doesn’t feel well - she’s just not herself. But she’s also not “sick” as in temperature or runny nose or cough of flu or anything. And she’s apparently well enough to play on Webkinz while I work . . . errrrr update my blog.

And GRANDPA comes tomorrow for a couple days - we can’t wait!

I’m annoyed. I’m all for someone telling me that my stuff isn’t right. I always acknowledge their position and welcome any suggestions.

What I can’t STAND is when someone gets all worked up about something and gets all righteous. Without details, yesterday someone suggested that maybe I hadn’t chosen the best way to do something. I acknowledged that he was correct, but also stated that we did the best we could with the resources we had and that I’d forward his email to the people who could help him.

Then he responded and BLASTED me . . . telling me how awful it was and how awful I was and how could I even think that was OK blah blah blah and if he sent his information to those people would they just put it where he didn’t want it to be anyway blah blah blah.

Um, OK . . . when that happens, I stop listening. I accept the criticism, I acknowledge it, and I welcome suggestions. But when you have no suggestions for improvement and continue to blast me, I won’t listen.

And BTW dude? I’m VOLUNTEERING for this position. We’ve asked for help a bazillion times. If you don’t want to offer your services, you can’t continue to complain. We’re doing the best we can.