Teacher Time...

So, this is one of those rare post when I give away my true daytime identity. You may remember that I wish I was a stay at home mom, but I'm not....

Instead, I work full time and go to school. I have taught children for many years in many different settings and I finally got the perfect opportunity to go back to school and obtain my Bachelors and Certification. Finally, when I am finished I can get paid a respectable salary to do what I love. And I have loved learning even more about children and teaching and all the ways I want to put my thoughts, ideas and beliefs into practice.

So this week I was super excited to go to a training event on Math and Science Activities. I also teach adults through my job and a local trade school so I am always happy to get more ideas for that as well.

It was a really good day of training and I wanted to share some of the things with you.

Start to finish style....

My FREE breakfast! By far, the best breakfast I have ever been given at a conference or training event! YUM.

The first part of the day was spent on Math and I liked the way we focused on showing how math is constantly around us. This is one of the graphing activities that we did...with M&M's. Now as a mommy...I don't break out a graphing paper each time I want my kids to graph something, but I do ask questions that get them to think about it. Just the other night Clark was eating M&M's and we grouped them together by color. He didn't even realize we were doing math...he doesn't even know what that words means. But, at four years old he can count items, group and sort. He knows one to one correspondence and he hasn't just "memorized" the numbers for rote counting. So at home this would be a good activity and it can be done during almost any meal. It's called scoop and graph. So say you are having cereal one morning...let your child scoop out some cereal and then graph it. How many marshmallows versus cereal? How many raisins verses cereal? How many green clovers, yellow moons, pink hearts and orange stars? See, instant math and they don't even know it. Point out math at lunch by asking math questions...do you want your sandwich cut in half or left whole? Do you want it cut into rectangles or triangles? Then discuss what makes that shape what it is...

Another idea she gave us that I am certainly going to use because it is cheap and easy....placemats! That's right, those cheapo plastic placemats at the dollar store and Walmart....you can do so much with them. She showed us how she cuts them up into easy puzzles for the kids and cuts them into sorting games. As soon as I make one for Clark, I will post the photos.

She showed us alot of other cool stuff...I took exactly 16 pages of notes on top of her powerpoint notes...Then we had LUNCH. YUM! This is my FREE lunch!

Fettucini with basil sauce, grilled chicken AND grilled shrimp, grilled zuccini and squash, with garlic toast. It was as good as it sounds!

Then we moved to science. I love science and I think that the one mistake many people that work with young children and moms make is that they make it so much more difficult than it is. Science, like math is all around us. And, it is so easy if you let your kids take the lead...

How many of you play with bubbles with your kids? How many of you blow the bubbles for them? How many of you, occassionally give your kids the wand-but never the bottle? How many of you -grit your teeth while you give them the bottle and the wand and just count down the minutes until they spill it all?

Have your children ever made bubbles that look like this?

Easy to do-check! Mess free-check! Art project when done-check!

Simply pour some bubble solution on a placemat or plastic table and give them a straw. Don't tell them what to do...they will figure it out on their own. And let them go to town! *safety note* Do make sure they are old enough to know the difference between blowing through the straw and not sucking...but a little bubble solution never killed anyone! Ask them things like-what is happening? How did you do that? Can you get a bubble inside a bubble? Can you make one giant bubble? Should you blow hard or soft to make a giant bubble?

When they are done....and trust me, it could be awhile. Let them add a drop or two of food coloring to their solution and lay a paper towel on it. It will look something like this....

I didn't have any food coloring with me or I would have done that part, but you can see how interesting it becomes as you watch the towel soak up the solution. Once dry, this would be really awesome if you laminated it. There are usually "teacher stores" in most towns that will laminate for fairly cheap. Paper towels have the amazing ability of looking alot like rice paper when laminated...it's one of my favorite effects.

I'm going to stop here for today, but believe it or not that isn't all I got out of this workshop!

Tomorrow...How to set up engaging centers that will draw children in! At home or in a classroom!

Friday Confessions....

My confessions for this Friday are short and bittersweet....

#1 I am too tired to write much and I have a headache.

#2 I am sad...my baby crawled and sat up last night. Yes. S.A.D. She's still a baby-she really must stop all this development nonsense.

#3 My oldest, the beautiful teenager that she is, went to her first boy/girl party tonight. I told her "no kissing and no dark areas where parents couldn't see her". Secretly, I thought..."I'd already kissed by the time I was that age". But, that doesn't mean she can!

#4 When strangers say that my son who is clothed in very "boy" clothing looks like a girl...because of his long hair...I want to ask them "is hair length really the only thing you are looking at when you determine the gender of my child?" "Do your biases not carry over into his clothing at all?" "Or better yet, are you completely ignoring the fact that he is bouncing off the walls like a maniac talking about Star Wars and Batman?" "Oh, I see...those stereotypes you are happy to ignore.."

#5 Again, I am tired...so that's all you get this week.

#6 My Friday Confession tradition is kind of taxing my brain. It's hard to remember all the bad mommy, crazy wife, absent minded woman moments that I have in a week.

My Monday...

So, generally speaking Monday is kind of a blah day! I mean for most of us suckers grown-ups it means going back to work for the week.

A headache kept me home today and it turned out to be fairly interesting....

Here, I give you... My day in pictures. I'll have you note that my day started at 3 a.m. when a certain little tot fumbled his way to my room and into my bed. I don't have a picture of that though.

First, I took this sweet angel baby and her sister to the babysitter and school. Upon arriving at the babysitter I realized that I forgot the can of formula I was supposed to bring so that she could eat this week. Oops! So I drove back home and got the formula and took it back to the babysitter. This was annoying, but actually ok because I also had to go to the money sucker drugstore to pick up my headache medicine and some other pills. So I did that and came back home.

This was little man's first day of his first summer break so he was home. That is when my day became interesting. I had a brief nap on the couch and then the rest of our day turned in to what I like to call "Transformer Hell".

This is Bumble Bee. I love Bumble Bee, mostly. My hubs, great man that he is, and lover of all toys circa 1980's...bought Clark his very first real Transformer toy. I should also note that we don't really believe in those warnings about how old children should be when they play with things. I think those are just guidelines.

Said Transformer is a pain in the ass rump to actually transform. The directions, yes directions, have 20 steps for transforming him from vehicle to robot. So since he got it, we have been asked (since he can't do it himself) to transform Bumble Bee exactly 44 times. Today, when he wanted to watch the movie...great idea we thought...NOPE. Not for us. Everytime Bumble Bee transformed from one thing to the other...Clark wanted HIS Bumble Bee transformed! F.U.N.

The next shot is when a strange man that I have never met before came to my house and wanted to hang out for awhile. He was nice, but I was happy when he left and it was us and Clark again.

Clark had a rough afternoon and evening. Something about him has always been triggered whenever another person is added to the equation. I don't know why, but he can be completely calm all day with one of us and then the other one comes home and he's a maniac. It also happens when we go to pick him up from the grandparents. I don't know why...but having me home today just threw off his groove. A few thousand Clark tantrums later I found myself alone with my pre-dinner snack....

Ahh, cheesecake. It really can turn a frown upside down and make all right with the world again. And possibly allow mom enough time to hatch an evil plan to hide lose Bumble Bee. I promise one day will find him again...

Argh Matey....

Well, we made it to see the Pirate Ship! It was fun. The festival we went to was free and the Pirates only took $2 of our loot to go aboard the ship. Daddy and Clark went up while us girls stayed on dry land....

At first, Clark was a little on the shy side. But then he got into it and had a good time. It was neat to watch him take it all in. These particular pirates can be hired for shows and what not...I see a possible birthday party in our future.

We also got to see a lot of really cool art work. Made me wish (once again) that I was as artistic as I think wish I was. I think I can safely say that we may be able to visit this festival every year. The hubs even admitted that he had a good time and was (gasp) "glad we went".

All in all, a great time was had by all. Tell me about your favorite free/cheap family events in your town.

Come What May...

I am so excited!

I think I have successfully talked the hubs into going with the children and I to a local arts festival tomorrow.

We don't get to do things together very often.

Even less often it is stuff that I want to do.

So, I am so EXCITED!

I love art. I think I was an artist in a past life.

AND....there is going to be a Pirate Ship there! A PIRATE SHIP!!!!!

I can't wait! I will let you all know how it goes!

Today we had a good day at home. Clark is in love with the movie Tangled. We rented it last night and I am afraid to take it back...he sat through the whole movie the first time. Then we watched it FOUR more times. He played the other times but he really liked it.

Lexi is trying so hard to crawl :( I mean I guess know it's good that she is developing and growing...but I am so not ready for her to get bigger. It reminds me of that song Just Stay Little. I just want to freeze time with all my kids where they are.

What age would you freeze your kids at if you could?

Friday Confessions....

Is it Friday already? Where did the week go?

So now it is Friday and I need to continue my tradition of doing my weekly confessions on Friday. Hmmm...Let me try to remember all the things that I did this week.

I run the battery down on my phone every night playing Mahjong on it. Is there a 12 step program for that?

I finally took Lexi to her 6 month Dr. appointment this week. She turned 7 months old this week. OOps...

I collect cook books. I adore cook books. I've only made a recipe out of a couple of the more than fifty that I have. Why again do I collect cook books?

I went to the store today specifically for bread. I came out with one box of mac and cheese, three bags of chips, deoderent and soap. Nice, very nice. Here are your sandwiches children, please imagine that they have bread on them.

I have never read Catcher In The Rye. Have you?

My hair is falling out. By the handful.

I know it isn't safe, but I could lay in the sun and tan everyday for the rest of my life and never get tired of it. I can actually feel it seep into my body. Sunshine. Vitamin D. Pure Bliss. Maybe it's all the rain this week, but I really want to lay out and tan.

Um, I got whistled at by a boy man today. Seriously he was probably barely legal. He pulled his car up next to mine at the stop light. Took one look at me and whistled. I blushed! Then this is the exact conversation I had in my head with myself.
Wow! I've still got it.
But really he's a child.
What does he know?
Nothing! That's what!
He's probably looking for a cougar.
What? Am I a cougar?
Am I old enough to be a cougar?
Maybe I'm a Puma. Or a Bobcat?
Surely I'm not a cougar.
What the what am I talking about. He wasn't even cute and he's a child!
I wonder what we should have for dinner?
And that was it. My internal psyche coming to terms with my status as an attractive woman. The truly sad part, for him-not me, is that I looked like bird poop on a horse turd today! Yep, I said that!

And lastly, I saw this car on my way home tonight....

It's hard to see in the picture. But it is a black Camero with PURPLE headlights. how cool! My first thought....

Holy Moses! It's the BatMobile! That is so cool!

I've gotta get me one of those!

My Wish List....

You know how some people have a bucket list? I don't.

I'm not sure why I've never felt the need to come up with one. Does it actually help you accomplish things you want to do? I don't know.

I do have a wish list.

And it's very short.

It goes something like this....

1. I wish I was a stay at home mom.
2. I wish I could have farm animals.
3. I wish I was a stay at home mom.
4. I wish I could afford to have as many kids as I want.
5. I wish I was a stay at home mom.
6. I wish my grandparents had lived to see my children.
8. I wish the hubs and I got to spend more time together and do more things as a family.
7. Did I mention I wish I was a stay at home mom?

Maybe someday I'll get to travel to some other countries...but honestly if I don't, it won't make my life any worse. Maybe someday I'll get to take a helicopter ride to look at Christmas lights...but if I don't, oh well.

The things that would completely change my life....are the things on my list. And they all revolve around my children and my family.

After all...they are the MOST important thing. They are my legacy.

Who needs a bucket list when you have a legacy?

Shave your legs, find your uterus....

So, I am sure with that attention grabbing title you are like "whoa, what is she talking about?"

Well, let me tell you about my day. It actually started yesterday.

I looked at my calendar at work and realized I had a Doctors appointment today. With the good ol' ObGyn. Gotta love them, right?

Actually, I do really like mine. So on my way to work this morning I thought about all the things I needed to talk to him about. I've been having some problems with my ovary due to cysts, having trouble getting my birth control all worked out, want to talk to him about my depression medication, etc...

This thought leads me to wonder why this appointment was made. I mean I didn't call to make the appointment, it's been set like since I had Lexi. So why was I going? Hmmmm....pondering, wondering, thinking out loud....AHA! I got it!

This appointment is for my annual exam. Oh Shite!!! It's an exam visit and I haven't shaved my legs in F.O.R.E.V.E.R....(sorry hubs)!

This thought brought my car screeching to a halt on the highway. Ok, I'm kidding, but it did send me straight to the drug store to buy a razor and shaving cream.

You got it. I shaved my legs in the bathroom sink at work.

This lead me to realize that my feet were UBER STINKY!!!! Oh my gosh!!!! He's gonna pass out from my feet stink. What am I going to do?

Well, I'll tell you what I did...I disrobed and put on my lovely gown (open in the back, please). Then I proceeded to wash my feet with soap and water in the little sink in the exam room.

That's right. I am that crazy! Or maybe I just really like my ObGyn and don't want him to drop me as a patient. You be the judge.

Then, during my exam...he says "I don't feel anything weird on your ovary but you do have a large uterus" Me: "Uh, ok..." Him: "Well, you did just have a baby, that's not abnormal" Me: "Uh, (look at the nurse awkwardly) ok"....If it's not abnormal....why bring it up? Weird!

So the moral of the story...if you shave your legs, you may find your uterus. Big or small, it is what it is.

So spill the beans...what embarassing thing have you done when life has presented with you a moment like this? Well, I admit life has probably never presented you with a moment quite like this...but you must have something to share!

Versatile Blogger Award....Ahh!

I feel beyond adored! Admired! Loved! Revered! Is that too much? Ok, that might be too much. Anywho...I was awarded the Versatile Blogger Award by Angela over at www.angela-mommytimeout.blogspot.com

Thank you Angela! I love her blog so I feel very honored.

The rules of this award are:


1. Thanks the person who gave you the award...done

2. Share 7 things about yourself

3. Give this award to 15 newly discovered bloggers.

My 7 things about myself are:

1. I wish I could make a living as a photographer.

2. I think DisneyWorld really is the happiest place on Earth.

3. I have a scar that wraps around the entire circumference of my body.

4. I just learned that despite Google saying hot water and vinegar would work...poop just doesn't come out of carpet.

5. I don't think Batman should be considered a SuperHero. (He's just a rich guy with cool toys).

6. My favorite book of all time is To Kill A Mockingbird.

7. I wear Burberry perfume everyday and all my jewelry is silver. I heart silver jewelry and Burberry!

So, the fifteen new blogs I have been hooked to are....they might not be new to you, but they are to me and I am addicted to all of them!

www.henryhappened.blogspot.com

www.vermontwhitneys.blogspot.com

www.katieballa.blogspot.com

www.littlemissmomma.blogspot.com

www.flowerpatchfarmgirl.blogspot.com

www.kandjstaats.blogspot.com

www.whoknowskatie.blogspot.com

www.angelbabymacie.blogspot.com

www.memeandmonkey.blogspot.com

www.theunglamorousmommy.com

www.4mahoneys.blogspot.com

www.stealingbabykisses.com

www.readalouddad.com

www.hedingrowingfamily.blogspot.com

www.1cheapmama.blogspot.com

So those are just fifteen of the great blogs I check in on daily. Go show them some bloggy love too!

Confession Friday.....

Again, I don't know why but Friday sounds like a good day to have confession! So here goes....

When I see a trash bag on the side of the road...I automatically think "body". Is that weird to anyone?

I watched 11 of my strong, amazing, wonderful friends celebrate one of the most important moments of their life this week. I sobbed uncontrollably all the way home.

The 4th of July is my favorite Holiday (in the summer). It reminds me of my Daddy!

I think the most romantic thing in the world is stopping to kiss in the rain but I've never done it.

I am the most adventurous eater in my house. It gets annoying. Trust me.

I wanted to be The Incredible Hulk or the Fall Guy when I grew up. (If you don't know who these people are (Nichole Jones) then google it)!

I'm going to market a bumper sticker soon, but I can't tell you what it will say. (You might steal my idea). Where does one go to market bumper stickers?

I was sucking red wine out of the bottle at 10:30 on Mother's Day morning....I"ll save the full story for another day.

So, there you have it for this week. Now, I want to know atleast one of your confessions for the week. Bad mom moment? Social mishap? Wifey duties left undone? No problem, spill the beans! This is a safe zone...no judgement allowed :)

Shhhhh...we won't tell!

Birthdays, Bonfires and Invisibility Cloaks.....

Well we did it! We made it through Clark's 4th Birthday. Our boy is big and he got a big boy bike to prove it. And a Spider-Man helmut! What more could a boy ask for? Well, actually he could ask for EVERYTHING he sees in a commercial. And he could say things like "Whoa, I definately need THAT". But thank goodness he was very happy with all the things he got. He had approximately 2 bites of his cake, but ate all his ice cream. (He promised this would be the year he would eat his cake).

Here are some highlights from his special day...

So, that brings us to Mother's Day Weekend.
Let me start by saying that to me, Mother's Day is all about mommy sleeping in, getting homemade cards and macaroni necklaces. I love everything homemade and heartfelt. Keep that in mind!

Saturday I had all the kids paint pictures for the Grandma's and despite my asking for it...only Lexi (who I physically held and had control over) painted me a picture. She painted me a gorgeous picture with her feet and I adore it! I also had Skylar write each of the Grandma's a letter telling them how they are special to her. I instructed her to "make it personal".

We ended the day with a bonfire. I heart bonfires! Daddy cooked us hot dogs over the open flame and we had a picnic! Super fun.

Halfway through our Bonfire Clark disappeared. We knew he was still there because we could hear him...but we couldn't see him. You see, he decided it was time to put on his Invisibility Cloak. Good times, good times!

So that brings us to Mother's Day. The baby woke up at 7:15. She didn't get my sleeping in memo. But, that's ok because she's on formula now, so technically I don't have to feed her. I got up and made her a bottle. Put her in bed with Daddy and said I was going to the restroom. She also didn't get the memo that she was suppposed to pester him until he really woke up. I came out of the bathroom and politely (that's where I made the mistake) asked him to feed the baby. He said "why". I said "I want to go back to sleep". He rolled over and went back to sleep.

So that is how my mommy day started. Also, please note that Skylar said that she made me a gift at school...it is now Monday night and I have yet to see that gift. She also did not bother to write me a letter telling me how great I am....hmm! I know I was like this when I was thirteen and I am formally apologizing to my two mommy's.

I did get a lovely key chain from Clark that he made at school. Thank God for school and teacher's that understand that they might be the only hope that a Mom has on Mother's Day! AND I got to see my mom, stepmom and the hubs mom. All in all, we had a good day! But damn, I wish I could have slept in!

I hope you all had a Great Mother's Day!