Decorating on a (ridiculously tiny) budget...
These were from Kohl's. Aren't they cute?
Thrift store find! This cute little trivet.
s I was inspired by this post but I had no marbles. I grabbed the frames at the dollar store and used pink scrapbook paper I already had. Just ran the paper through the printer and cut them to size.
My new collection.
Also, see my new paint color? Although you can't tell from this particular picture, I did do the whole living room. I inherited a gallon of that color leftover from my brother's house. We bought one more and went crazy. It makes the whole room so much more cozy. The stairwells will eventually be done in a complementary color.
I'm joining in this week (albeit a little early)
* My four year old did NOT clog up the upstairs toilet with about half a roll of the thick expensive toilet paper I recently bought. And I did NOT wait and let my brother deal with the toilet when he called to say he was five minutes away.
* I did NOT watch the Lifetime special The Pregnancy Pact two and a half times this week...
* I do NOT put things on my to-do list that I have already done simply for the pleasure of seeing them crossed off. Nope, never.
* This is NOT the pile of clean laundry I must fold and put away (along with the two more loads in the basement, and now the bathmat [for the second time today] which was flooded with toilet water less than an hour after I pulled it out of the dryer and placed in back on the bathroom floor) .
*I did NOT take my bra off in the living room the other day when I was watching TV and throw it behind the couch because I was too lazy to take it upstairs. And Isaac did NOT discover it and pull it out when my brother and his girlfriend were over today. And if that were to occur, I certainly would NOT blame the cats and make up a story about them dragging my laundry all over the house...
*Neither this week, nor any other week have I taken the laptop into the bathroom with me... no, not me... NEVER!
* I do NOT occasionally give in and let Isaac put on some of my make-up.
*Isaac did NOT start singing "Yeah" by Lil Jon and Usher in front of PDH. I did NOT have to try to come up with an explanation while PDH looked horrified that I would let my son listen to that song often enough to memorize the chorus... (for the record, he has a photographic memory, for real). Nope. Not me.
I don't think I should wish for things.
Do you ever wish for something, and then you get it and you realize it's exactly what you don't want?
I don't think I really know what's best for myself sometimes.
Feeling nostalgic tonight.
Most cryptic blog ever, but I'll leave it at that.
So I went on a great date last night to the lovely Academy of Music to see the touring broadway show of Wicked. An when I say date, I mean, my dad and I went together. Somewhere along the line we have fallen into the tradition of seeing musicals together, just the two of us (sorry mom). We met up in KOP and then drove into the city together and had a nice dinner before hand. My dad works such long hours I rarely see him, so it was fun to catch up, just the two of us.
I am on the Kimmel Center's preferred person e-mail list, so I bought the tickets before they went on sale to the general public. We were in the fifth row and it was pretty much amazing. This was especially nice because the last time I was at that particular venue we had snatched up discounted tickets to see White Christmas and we were in the absolute last row of the highest balcony and we were basically watching the show between our knees. Anyways, the Academy of Music is such a beautiful venue and everything from the set and stage and costuming was so incredible.
I had ganked the soundtrack from a friend in preparation and pieced together bits and pieces of the plot based on the music. But there were so many little details that were pulled from the Wizard of Oz that we learned the back story too: the ruby slippers, her hat, the broomstick, how Dorothy got to Oz, the winged monkeys, etc. Although I wasn't a huge fan of the music before hand (none of it is terrifically catchy, compared to, say Les Mis) in the climax of the first act when Elphaba is souring above the stage as pictured left, the energy the whole performance was so amazing that I had to bite my lip to keep from belting out "Defying Gravity" with her.
My favorite part of the play was how it made you challenge your own definitions of what was good and what was "wicked". How often do we try to force people into boxes of being 100% good or 100% bad and how everyone is really a shade of grey? "Are people born wicked or is wickedness thrust upon them?" is one of the opening lines of the play. At what cost does popularity come? There is a really great lesson about making assumptions about a person when you don't likely have the whole story.
Week without Internet
I didn't survive seven days. I decided a work week was good enough. I discovered I really, really miss Blogger and Google, but Facebook wasn't too hard to live without. I was surprised though at how often a random (and trivial) thought would pop into my head and I would find myself with the urge to log into facebook and share it or make it into a quick blog post. It's weird how social networking makes us feel the need to broadcast mundane aspects of our lives. Anyways, I have been inspired to try to keep my Facebooking time to a minimum from here on out because it really wasn't that hard.
Isaac
Is pretty much the most hilarious kid on the planet and I am in denial that we have about a month left in the year of being four. Four has definitely been my favorite age to date. Three was very volatile but four is just independence and personality. We will see what five brings. =)
Today he and I were laying on my bed and he picked up a hairbrush and started reinacting this scene... Clearly he was Glenda and I was Elphaba. I guess I have had the soundtrack on heavier rotation than I realized in preparation for next weekend.
Oh yeah
I guess I should come clean on my blog about the fact that I am dating someone now. :-) I don't plan on making him a regular topic on the blog but I'll address what I anticipate are the FAQ's...
* How did you meet him? E-harmony. Way better than LDS dating websites. Yeah, I said it.
* Tell us about him? He's 31. from central PA, went to PSU (oh the horror for a Pitt alum such as myself!), lives in North Wales. He works in a retirement home overseeing all of their foodservice stuff. I don't understand the details really, but he wears a shirt and tie to work and is not a lunchlady. We have pretty much nothing in common, but we get along very well.
* Is he Mormon? Nope. Lapsed Catholic.
* Are you okay with that? Yup. I live in the middle of no where on the East Coast, I attend a family ward, and have probably met every single LDS guy in the tri-state area. I'm unwilling to relocate to Utah or some other Mormon Mecca. I'm a ripe old 28 which we all know is Mormon old-maid-menace-to-society-territory and throw in the fact that I am an (unmarried!) mom to a mixed race child and it's not like LDS guys are lining up to date me. I'm fine with dating someone who is not LDS.
* When did you meet him? E-mailed back and forth all summer, met for the first time in August. Started dating "for real" in like, mid-September.
* Do you have any pictures of him? Not ones where he doesn't look terrifying. But he looks sort of like the guy from Hitch, Kevin James.
* Can we get a name? How about initials? PDH.
New Years Goals Update:
Ride my bike to work at least once
Organize office, craft, sewing and scrapbook supplies and start using the office as a functional craft space
Finish painting the rest of the house ------>my brother is coming Monday to repaint the Barney purple bathroom and hopefully the living room.
Make a loaf of bread from scratch
Go one week without the internet I'm counting it. --->Completed 1/15
Take at least one mural tour in Philly
Fly a kite
Scrapbook 3 pages a month
Work out twice a week ---->Yeah... ummm...
Start composting
Take Isaac camping
Drink 8 glasses of water a day ------>Doing pretty well with this one actually
Take a class on something hobby related
Make progress towards getting my elementary certification (right now I am highly qualified in elementary ed, but it is more desirable to be dually certified)
Floss daily I have yet to floss in 2010.
Read three books before I head to the beach ----->I did finish the Time Traveler's Wife today. Although I started it last year, so I dunno if it should count.
Eat more homemade meals and less frozen stuff and fast food
Grow something edible and eat it
Write a blog post when each of these is completed
What's new in your world??
Sunday, January 10, 2010
One of my resolutions is to go a week without using the internet. I find myself endless sucked into facebook and surfing blogs and... it eats up a lot of my time. I used to be such a huge reader and I have found that I am still working on my beach book from August (The Time Traveler's Wife-- which, in my defense is over 500 pages long). Anyways, I thought a computer hiatus might free up time to get a jump start on some of my other goals and if nothing else will give me some momentum by having one thing crossed off the list before the end of January.
So it will be a while until the blog is updated. Keep strong loyal readers (all three of you!)
The rules:
Internet free week starts tomorrow, January 11, whenever I wake up and ends January 18th when I wake up.
I am allowed to use the internet at work. I can check work e-mail (if you need it, lemme know) and go on other work related websites (IEPWriter, Edhelper, whatever).
I'm also allowed to check my bank website.
No chatting, no Facebook, no Blogger, no Hotmail, no yahoo maps, no youtube, no googling recipes, addresses, phone numbers, etc.
I'll be back in a week to report. Wish me luck! I'm not terribly disciplined when it comes to denying myself anything I enjoy but I am excited to see what I can get done this week if I am cutting down on my screen time.
Visually stunning. 3d effects were really cool. But the storyline was cliche (white man goes native) and full of holes, the dialogue was cheesey and the whole thing (pushing three hours) was unbearably long. I took a 40 minute nap in the middle of it and didn't really miss anything.
Sherlock Holmes
Saw this with my sister and parents and I wasn't really sure what to expect. There was lots of action which wasn't really how Holmes was in the books but also a lot of witty dialogue which kept me engaged (I have a very low tolerance for action). RDJ played him just right and Jude Law kept me salivating.
Alvin and the Chipmunks - The Squeak-quel
I thought it this very cute. Isaac loved it and I'm sure sooner or later I'm sure we will add this one to our DVD collection. I predict a third Chipmunks movie.
Almost Famous
Yeah, I know I'm pretty late on this one. I just saw this recently and really liked it. My friend recommended it as his "all time favorite movie". I don't know if I would take it that far. It did have a fanastic soundtrack and it did sort of make me want to travel the country in a big tour bus.
The following write up was in the paper this morning. The seven year old was one of my students. The school is the one that called Children and Youth based on reports my assistants and I gave my principal and school nurse. I did remove her name from the article because I still feel pretty uncomfortable blogging about my work and students, but I mean, this is in the paper.
I still can't even process it all. Somedays it's just too hard to wrap your head around how children could be mistreated so badly.
POTTSTOWN — Her home allegedly infested by flies and bed bugs and littered with dirty diapers, feces and rotting food, a Pottstown woman faces charges she endangered her four children.
NAME REMOVED, 27, of East Second Street, waived her preliminary hearing before District Court Judge Thomas Palladino on charges of endangering the welfare of children and recklessly endangering other persons in connection with a December incident that authorities described as a serious case of child neglect.
"It was a real-life horror to see what the kids were living in. It was horrific. It was a self-imposed squalor by NAME REMOVED. No child should have to live like that," said Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Nathan Schadler.
"To call the conditions deplorable would be giving them an upgrade. I've never seen a case of such squalor and disgust," Schadler added.
Thompson remains free on bail pending her formal arraignment on the charges in county court later this year.
An investigation of NAME REMOVED began in December when borough police received a report of alleged child neglect occurring at the home. Police, accompanied by officials of Montgomery County Children and Youth Services, went to the home on Dec. 3 for a check of the house and to remove four children, ages 1 to 7, from the home, according to court papers.
"The house was infested with flies that were in every room of the house. There was also what appeared to be human feces on the doorway," alleged Pottstown Detective Rebecca Moletzsky, adding an open bag of tobacco was on a table within reach of children.
Police also found a bucket of dirty water that posed a danger to the children on the kitchen floor and an overflowing bag of garbage.
"There were bowls, plates and containers with old food with flies in them or flies going in and out of the food. There was no edible food in the refrigerator, and it was completely filthy. Also there were dead flies in the refrigerator," Moletzsky alleged.
Beer bottles, trash, old food and dirty diapers were scattered throughout the house and dirty mattresses were discovered in the children's rooms, authorities alleged.
"The mattresses were flipped up because they were infested with bed bugs. The children have bites all over them. A pile of feces was in a corner of the room. One of the walls had the drywall ripped off and there were pieces of drywall and dust all over the floor," Moletzsky wrote in the arrest affidavit.
In the bathroom, authorities found mold forming on a bathtub that did not appear to be used for a while, a dirty toilet and a sink filled with junk, including a stereo and electrical wiring, according to the criminal complaint.
"No child should think that's the norm growing up living like that. It should be human conditions. These conditions were inhuman. Anytime children are forced to live under such conditions we must protect them," Schadler said.
If she is convicted of the charges at trial, NAME REMOVED faces a possible maximum sentence of 4½ - to-nine-years in prison.
This is my friend Britney
Although she is currently Sister Boyd serving a Mission in San Antonio Texas.
When she was living in PA as a nanny we would often trade book recommendations.
I was cleaning out my inbox and came across this forward she sent me a while back.
Never Argue with a Woman.
One morning, a husband returns after several hours of fishing and decides to take a nap. Although not familiar with the lake, the wife decides to take the boat out.
She motors out a short distance, anchors, and reads her book.
Along comes a Game Warden in his boat. He pulls up alongside the woman and says, 'Good morning, Ma'am. What are you doing?'
'Reading a book,' she replies, (thinking, 'Isn't that obvious?')
'You're in a Restricted Fishing Area,' he informs her.
'I'm sorry, officer, but I'm not fishing. I'm reading'
'Yes, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment. I'll have to take you in and write you up.'
'For reading a book?' she replies,
'You're in a Restricted Fishing Area!' he yells.
'I'm sorry, officer, but I'm not fishing. I'm reading!'
'Yes, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment. I'll have to take you in and write you up.'
'If you do that, I'll have to charge you with sexual assault,' says the woman.
'But I haven't even touched you,' says the game warden.
'That's true, but you have all the equipment.. For all I know you could start at any moment.'
'Have a nice day ma'am,' and he left.
MORAL: Never argue with a woman who reads. It's likely she can also think.
Organize office, craft, sewing and scrapbook supplies and start using the office as a functional craft space
Finish painting the rest of the house
Make a loaf of bread from scratch
Go one week without the internet
Take at least one mural tour in Philly
Fly a kite
Scrapbook 3 pages a month
Work out twice a week
Start composting
Take Isaac camping
Drink 8 glasses of water a day
Take a class on something hobby related
Make progress towards getting my elementary certification (right now I am highly qualified in elementary ed, but it is more desirable to be dually certified)
Floss daily
Read three books before I head to the beach
Eat more homemade meals and less frozen stuff and fast food
So is make up.
And matching socks.
Blah.
Firstly, it was brought to my attention that I had somehow disabled comments. I think I fixed that. Sorry about that. Feel free to comment away.
Today was one of those horrible days when you just want to throw in the towel and pull the covers over your head. Just one of those totally thankless days when all you do is for other people and you just want to scream "I'M RUNNING AWAY AND YOU CAN ALL DEAL WITH YOUR OWN PROBLEMS!" and you can't even get a shower without something horrible going awry.
I woke up today to see another pile of puke and about six more of the mystery streaks that yesterday I assumed were urine streaks. Today I decided they were too brownish and streaky to be urine stains and I began to worry it was blood from Saffron's incision (she was just recently spayed). So I called the vet, loaded up Isaac, headed over to Banfield and found out... she is fine. Her incision looks great. I come home from the vet, do Chuck E Cheese with Isaac (which in case we've never met is my personal hell on earth. Especially on a Saturday). Then I come home and try to tackle the house I go down to the basement to move the laundry along and see another pile puke down there. I go to clean it up and I realize that this pile of puke has something weird in it and upon closer inspection and realize it is about five inches of skinny christmas ribbon. At this point I am concerned and I call the vet back. The vet is now closed for the weekend and they refered me to Metropolitian, a hospital.
SO I call Metropolitian and they think it justifies coming in and they sound really concerned. So I load up Cody (who is miserable, howling and hissing) and Isaac (who was also rather miserable at the thought of sitting around a boring doctor's office for the second time in one day) and head out to Trooper. The doctor was very nice but they pretty much tell me that he probably has ribbon still inside him which is super dangerous and will probably cut his intestines all up. His abdomen is tender and swollen and he is dehydrated from all of the puking. There is no way to know for sure if he puked all the ribbon up without an x-ray (which even then the ribbon won't be visible but it will see if his gut is in the right shape) which runs around 745 bucks. Ideally they would like to open him up and make sure the ribbon is all the way out. This procedure runs about 2800 bucks.
Yeah
2800 bucks.
Obviously I had to decline. I have handraised Cody from the time he was a tiny baby on his way to the SPCA. I love him as much as anyone could ever love a cat. But that is an obscene amount of money and I absolutely cannot afford or justify it in any way. I opted for them to give him an IV of fluids to keep him hydrated and to take him home. If he keeps puking I will know the ribbon is still there. If he can keep from puking tomorrow I can offer him water and then eventually this super bland stomach friendly cat food they gave me. He did puke up some more stomach bile on the way home in the car. I'm terribly concerned.
Oh and even this cost a pretty penny. I won't say how much, but let's just say it rhymes with rue-hundred dollars. Emergency pet medicine is not cheap my friends.
In light of all of this, I felt like I should cancel my plans to go iceskating in the city with some girlfriends I haven't seen in forever, because I need to keep a close eye on Cody and monitor him for more puking, heavy breathing, etc. That was terribly disappointing, especially considering the way I have felt lately and the stars had actually aligned and I had a sitter and everything.
So then I am upstairs scrubbing cat puke out of the carpet and Isaac decides he is too lazy to get up to go to the bathroom (the game was playing on the computer didn't have a pause option he later explained) and so he peed all over the kitchen floor. And didn't discover it until I stepped in it.
And I flipped out.
It was the absolute last straw of the day.
And I spanked him which I rarely do.
I felt terrible afterwards and we were both crying.
Just no more bodily fluids please.
Blah. I didn't even have a chance to get a shower today. Now I am sitting on the couch eating raw cookie dough (a gift from a student) and drinking diet coke (discovered an unopened can in my car when I was cleaning-- see, I'm sticking to the budget!) and savoring the History Channel because tomorrow the cable gets turned off. I cancelled my cable and landline. I love TV. I have never been one of those people that says snidely"Oh I don't even own a TV" or "I hate watching TV". I love it. Give me Bravo Reality shows. Give me medical oddities (I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant anyone?) Give me the History Channel. I love it all. But, even with my newly negotiated price it is still a total extra and still a want and not a need, and in my current financial state, I can't justify it any longer. It's part of being a grown up and being self reliant. This quote by Julie B Beck pretty much outlines my goals for the new year (and this past year too) Emphasis added:
“‘Self-reliance means using all of our blessings from Heavenly Father to care for ourselves and our families and to find solutions for our own problems.’ Each of us has a responsibility to try to avoid problems before they happen and to learn to overcome challenges when they occur....How do we become self-reliant? We become self-reliant through obtaining sufficient knowledge, education, and literacy; by managing money and resources wisely, being spiritually strong, preparing for emergencies and eventualities, and by having physical health and social and emotional well-being.” (“The Welfare Responsibilities of the Relief Society President,” Basic Principles of Welfare and Self-Reliance [2009], 4-5).
Self Reliance in 2010! Here I come! Without cable!
Anyhow, onto THE LIST:
Figure out which library I am supposed to go to now since the closest library is in a different county. Check out books and movies for me and Isaac. Order camera cord from ebay Bring bags of donated clothes to GoodwillFinish putting away all Christmas decorationsMake car appointment. Figure out how to pay for new tires/brakes.Organize downstairs coat closet.
Tidy/organize garage.
Clean/vacuum car. <--- okay, so I still need to vacuum. I totally drove by the carwash and then decided it was just too bitterly cold. Maybe tomorrow...
Call student loan people. <--- not open on the weekend. Duh. Will call Monday
Get hair dye and go back to brunette. Once again, the highlights are going by the wayside in the name of cutting expenses.
Figure out how to clean the inside of the oven. <--- well I found out that I don't have a self cleaning button or anything. I guess I will have to buy some oven cleaner. Don't see this happenning before next weekend.
Go swimming at the Y with Isaac. <-- this got put on the back burner for today with all of the cat drama. Will try to go sometime this week. Maybe Tuesday.
Plan menu for the next few weeks.
Finish up Season 2 of Big Bang Theory and return. <--- finished this up. Will return next time I see my friend who loaned it to me.
Write out goals for the new year. <--- began this
Overall, it was a pretty productive week, although I didn't get to everything on my list. And there's still tomorrow for menu planning and goal writing.
I think I was crazy to think I could accomplish EXTRA things this week when the normal upkeep of the house (laundry, cat boxes, vacuuming, surfaces tidied, etc, etc, etc) seems to have quadrupled with us both being home all day. I'm downstairs trying to find homes for all of the new stuff we got for Christmas and he is upstairs dumping bins of toys and grinding cookies into the carpet. Bags of holiday things with no homes keep appearing. Christmas ornaments are still being discovered randomly all over my house. Used cups are multiplying on our nightstands and counters. In addition one of the cats inexplicably had three urine accidents in my room and then today I discovered a puddle of cat vomit behind the couch. Thanks for helping the cause guys... Lovely... For a while there this place looked like one load of laundry away from an episode of Hoarders.
Although I'm certainly enjoying my vacation (and I am definitely in no way prepared to return to work, but that's a whole 'nother incomplete to do list), there is something comforting about the regular routine of life. It is certainly easier to keep up the house when niether one of us are here to mess it up.
Anyhow, onto THE LIST (Not like any of you care, but it does sort of make me feel accountable):
Figure out which library I am supposed to go to now since the closest library is in a different county. Check out books and movies for me and Isaac. Order camera cord from ebay Bring bags of donated clothes to GoodwillFinish putting away all Christmas decorationsMake car appointment. Figure out how to pay for new tires/brakes.Thanks to Tom the best brother in the whole wide world this is mostly done and for about as cheap as humanly possible. Big shout out to Carfagno Chevrolet who totally hooked me up.
Organize downstairs coat closet.
Tidy/organize garage.
Clean/vacuum car. <--- started this one and it was horrible. When I moved his carseat out and found a graveyard of decomposing french fries and half melted crayons I pretty much started dry heaving. I can cross this off tomorrow when I go to a carwash to use a more powerful vacuum. The dustbuster wasn't cutting it. All of the random trash, toy wrappers, crayons, empty water bottles, Chuck E Cheese tokens, crumped up socks, wayward junk mail, etc have been removed so it shouldn't take long.
Call student loan people. <--- not open on New Years. Duh.
Get hair dye and go back to brunette. Once again, the highlights are going by the wayside in the name of cutting expenses.Sad but true; all of the little golden threads are gone. I'm back to my mousy natural self. >
(the circles in the above picture make me look like Uncle Fester's long lost cousin)
Figure out how to clean the inside of the oven.
Go swimming at the Y with Isaac. <-- discovered the Y is closed today. Will do tomorrow
These were from Kohl's. Aren't they cute?
Thrift store find! This cute little trivet.
I was inspired by this post but I had no marbles. I grabbed the frames at the dollar store and used pink scrapbook paper I already had. Just ran the paper through the printer and cut them to size.
My new collection.
Also, see my new paint color? Although you can't tell from this particular picture, I did do the whole living room. I inherited a gallon of that color leftover from my brother's house. We bought one more and went crazy. It makes the whole room so much more cozy. The stairwells will eventually be done in a complementary color.
My new collection.
Also, see my new paint color? Although you can't tell from this particular picture, I did do the whole living room. I inherited a gallon of that color leftover from my brother's house. We bought one more and went crazy. It makes the whole room so much more cozy. The stairwells will eventually be done in a complementary color.
*I did NOT take my bra off in the living room the other day when I was watching TV and throw it behind the couch because I was too lazy to take it upstairs. And Isaac did NOT discover it and pull it out when my brother and his girlfriend were over today. And if that were to occur, I certainly would NOT blame the cats and make up a story about them dragging my laundry all over the house...
*Neither this week, nor any other week have I taken the laptop into the bathroom with me... no, not me... NEVER! 
