Monday, November 26, 2007

Moo's Letter to the Tooth Fairy - 11/22/07

Moo's tooth came out on Thanksgiving day. I always have her jot down the date her tooth came out for the tooth fairy's records. Since she has become a first grader, she is quite the little writer. Here is her Thanksgiving letter to the tooth fairy. I will use her spelling and her lack of punctuation to recreate it for you.


Dear Tooth fairy
I lost a Tooth it came Out at Uncl Es on Tanksgiveing day I love you Tooth fairy I am sorry that I Have to Bother you on Tannksgiveing and I am sorry that it is cold out Please I am sorry That I tricked you with the rock my frind M tricked you with a rock to so what I was saying I am veary veary veary sorry But then I went to Aunt S's I playd a game with my Cusins I playd a Hamberger game it is rely fun and on the wai Home my dad sawed me He's wrok But I allredy saw it.
love Moo
XOXOXOXOXOXO
XOXOXOXOXOXO
XOXOXOXOXOXO

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Internet Withdrawal

Last Sunday, hubby decided that it was time to find out what happened to the sound on our computer. As long as I had Internet access, I really didn't care. He ripped the computer from my clutches and gave it to my cousin to find out why we didn't have sound.

My wonderful cousin figured out the problem and took care of it, along with several other problems. I now have my computer back and I can go back to looking at cache maps, reading e-mail, and blogging. Having no computer access was not completely horrible, but I must admit to borrowing my a friend's computer and another cousin's computer during those seven days.

I guess now that my computer is back and I have sound, it was all worth it. Special thanks to my cousin - and my hubby, who more than once heard how horrible he was for "taking my computer away!"

"If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it's yours. If it doesn't, it never was."

Okay, so I don't LOVE my computer, but it is really intense like! And it came back, so it's mine!

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Home All Day

With the exception of a 30 minute excursion this morning to deliver a pie for a fundraiser and get the mail, I have been home all day. This is a very rare thing for me and after a busy week like the past one, it was quite nice.

I worked on cleaning the house, while J, my husband, and our friend, E removed the leaves from our lawn. Both the inside and outside of our house look quite a bit better than it did 12 hours ago! The inside definately needs more work though. I made a pot of chili and baked a pineapple-upside down cake. I listened to Moo read, took an afternoon nap, played some Nintendo Wii, and visited with my brother and his friend. We played Hand and Foot and Apples to Apples. I lost both games, but enjoyed the company.

If only weekends could have one more day! That way I could have one day to work on cleaning, one day for geocaching, and the other for church and resting!

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Busy Weeks Bring Clutter

What a busy week!

Besides teaching all week, I stayed busy in the evenings as well. Brownies with Moo on Monday, visiting a college friend I hadn't seen in 15 years on Tuesday, going to the chili and cake cook-off at church on Wednesday, going with our friends to ballet class on Thursday, and craft night at my aunt's Friday. (I graded school papers, until my cousin convinced me to make a couple of cards. And they turned out pretty cute!)

Of course, coming home tonight comes with a horrible feeling. I am behind on everything. Besides being tired, I look at everything and think that I probably have some sort of hoarding disorder. I know I don't need all this junk. I use very little in my life. So why can't I give it up and why do I have anxiety about it?

I am looking forward to this next week. I think I will be able to be home a bit more and be able to take care of a few things around the house. Last weekend, we did clear some clutter out of our extra bedroom. We got rid of one large bag of trash and found a medium size box of stuff to sell or give away. We have a long way to go, but I do want to make a change.

Well, maybe I will set a timer for 15 minutes and start clearing off the table. I know that a lot can be accomplished in 15 minutes and I'll feel better with even a small amount of progress.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Something's Giving Me a Headache

An actual overheard conversation... (Okay, you can call it eavesdropping if you like!)

Teacher: Something's giving me a headache. Mrs. Z has one too. I think it's something in the school.

Secretary: The kids?

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Totally Worn Out


I found this quote today.


Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming--"Wow! What a Ride!"

-- Author: unknown



Living a life like that takes effort, goals, purpose, and risk. Totally worn out is how I feel most evenings, but at least I know I'm living to the best of my ability.


Thursday, November 8, 2007

What Would Jesus Wear?

The other day I had a glimpse back at my childhood. I was talking to Moo and I accidentally tipped her baby doll over onto its face. She quickly "scolded" me and turned it back over on its back.

This reminded me of when I was younger. There was a period of time when I made sure that I could see all my stuffed animals faces. My reasoning behind this? I had to make sure they could all breathe.

I am glad to see Moo engaged in imaginative play. With video games, computer, sports activities, and the general busyness of life, I wonder how many children use imaginative play anymore. (Although, I did catch my students at school, during indoor recess, a couple weeks ago "playing school." How hilarious is that?)

This morning, when I took Moo to my mom's house, she lugged along her doll with the doll's diaper bag. (Grandma takes Moo to school in the morning.) When we go there, she began to unpack the clothes. Obviously, I thought she had doll clothes packed. To my surprise, she begins to pull out 2T, 3T, and 4T clothing from the diaper bag.

Chuckling, I asked, "What are you doing with all of these?"

Remembering her part in the Christmas program as Mary, she sincerely and adamantly replied, "I need to find something for it (the baby doll) to wear for the Christmas program!"

Still chuckling, I said, "Umm... a blanket should work."

Perhaps I should explain to her that there were no Baby Gaps or Wal-Marts around when Jesus was born!

My 3 year old niece was also at grandma's during this time. I quickly sorted through the clothing and gave her more than half! Yeah me!

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

I Dressed up as Super Mom!

I dressed up as Super Mom and I didn't even have to wear a cape, tights, boots, a leotard with a big letter on the front, or have to wear my underwear on the outside of my clothes.

Here's my story...

I work full-time as a teacher and stay pretty busy. I also like to be as involved as I can with Moo and what's going on in her life. That means that at times, I'm running around like a crazy woman. An example would be volunteering to work at Moo's school's fun fair this Friday, even though I really don't want to. (WHY did I do that? *banging my head on the computer desk*)

So last week, Halloween week, I was really, really busy. First I had the regular hustle and bustle of the fall season - making sure I had candy for the THREE parties Moo would attend, getting her to each of the parties, making JELL-O Jigglers for one of them, and taking her trick-or-treating on the appropriate night. I also had work responsiblilites - grading papers (and I was behind), doing report cards, and getting ready for an evaluation. I also volunteered, along with my friend M, to introduce geocaching to Moo's Brownie troop. In the middle of that, I'm sure I did a couple loads of laundry, made a couple of meals, and washed a few dishes.

It was exactly a week before the famous October date that I admitted that I put off getting Moo's Halloween costume. So enters Wal-mart. But, a week before Halloween, an angel costume - in size 7 - could not be found. So I start thinking, "Maybe I can find a white dress and we can add wings and a halo." I go to the girl's section and come back to the reality that this is FALL and white is NOT a popular color at this time of the year. Next is a visit to the sewing section. You read me right - three days before she would need the costume for the first time I went into the sewing section. I looked at the material and even found a pattern for an angel costume. Did I mention that the last sewing project I did was when I was in 4-H, almost 20 YEARS ago? Well, looking at the pattern I realized the complexity of THAT situation. Then it came to me! White shirt from the girl's section + a big piece of cheap, white fabric from the sewing section made into a skirt = angel costume! (I'll get to the wings and halo.)

That's how it went. We found the best, white shirt adorned with silver sequins around the neck. I sewed a skirt from a $3.00 piece of material. (I cut the material in circle, cut a hole in the middle, and sewed a makeshift waistband.) I bought a stretchy sequin thing to make a headband for the halo. My mom, (the actual Super Mom), made the stretchy sequin thing into an actual halo and found some angel wings she made several years earlier. Voila! Angel costume. We later added a white feather boa she had used in a dance recital when she was three.

Of course, I wanted to know if I did "good enough." Moo liked the costume, so that was the main thing. After our town trick-or-treating came the costume judging. She won! "Wow! I guess I did do okay!" I thought. Moo was happy with the $5 prize. Next was the costume judging at our church. Pictures were taken and winners would be posted the following Sunday. Sunday morning, we checked out the winners and there she was again! She and her angel costume had now won a t-shirt!

I was happy and a bit proud that "I" had made the costume. Thinking back to the crazy week I had, I knew that I had dressed up as Super Mom!

Moo


From here on out I will refer to our daughter in the blogosphere as "Moo". This is a nickname that has been tacked on to her real name by some friends of ours. It also reminds me of our cuddley "cow blankie" that we snuggle in, and the adorable little girl in "Monsters Inc." named Boo. Hence the nickname, "Moo."

Moo is seven years old and in the first grade. She loves to read and write. The exciting news today is that she gets to be Mary in their school Christmas program. How fun! I know that has nothing to do with the nickname thing, but I just had to say it! Yeah Moo!

Monday, November 5, 2007

The Overwhelmed House and Me

I'm a pretty busy person, but so is everyone else these days. This is one reason why my house has become a dumping grounds. Clutter and cleaning is the one thing I consistently struggle with. I think it is now worse than it has ever been. It's embarassing and very overwhelming, but keeping it a secret won't do any good. I do have people over and they love me, even in spite of my mess. I don't want to keep it this way though.

This summer, I went over to a couple of friend's houses. The visits must have been within a week of each other, because I know it grabbed me pretty hard. Their houses were perfect! I know perfect is a strong word, but they were REALLY good. And both of them had not one, but TWO children. I would need those people from Clean Sweep to come over for my house to even get close to that clean!

So, I'm going to work at it. I think I will write about my successes here. Anybody for some boring cleaning stories? I know it's cheesy to blog, "Guess what! I cleaned my toilet," but nothing else has worked, so why not try this!?!? I'll start with my success last night. I cleaned the surfaces of our computer desk. I moved stuff and dusted and everything. Yea me! It's still not great, but it's a start. Now just to keep that momentum going!

Geo... what?!?!?

At the side, in my little about me thing you probably see that I have the word "geocacher." So, what is that? It's my new thing. I love it. I admit, I'm addicted.

Geocaching is the process of using a GPS unit to find containers hidden around the world, signing a log book, maybe trading an item or two, and rehiding the container for the next geocacher to find. After going home, cache finds are logged at www.geocaching.com and stats are kept to show how many the cacher has found. I started geocaching with my family about a year ago. We have now found 384 caches. My caching goals include reaching 1000 finds and finding a cache in each of Ohio's 88 counties.

Our caching experiences may be a source for some of these blogs. Here is an example of one of the logs I wrote for a find this weekend...

By the Brook
10th of 12 caches today. It was nice and dry when we found it, but as I handed our daughter the GPS and told her not to drop it in the brook, the log fell and tumbled in. I fished it out quickly and dried off the wet parts with the car heater. It looked pretty good when I replaced it. Sorry! TFTC!

By the way, TFTC means, "Thanks for the cache!" Thankfully the owner of the cache thought the situation was humorous and wasn't upset about the water damaged log!

So now, if I talk about that geo thing, you'll know what it's all about.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Third Time's a Charm

Okay - this is my third time starting a blog. The first one was going pretty good, but I went through some very uninspiring times and quit. The second one never got a very good start. Now, here's the third. I want to keep this one going, but with everything else going on, who knows how it will go.

The name has not changed. In my last blog, I explained the name. Maybe at some point I will do that again here. For now, just know that the main idea of the title means that you never know how someone will affect your life, whether they are in your life for a day or many, many years.

One change I want to make this time is I want to blog at least 4 out of 7 days a week, inspired or not. It could make for some very dull reading, but maybe there will be enough to keep people coming back for the stuff that is semi-good.

Wish me luck!