Today I had a Home and School Meeting to go to (sort of the Catholic School version of the PTA, I think), so Dragon picked up the boys and got them situated with dinner (they had a picnic! in the backyard!) while I sat in a church hall basement and listened to a summary of fundraising efforts. Good times. And good cookies. Anyway, I made it it home before sunset, and, as I pulled into the garage, I noticed something colorful (not a bat! whoo!) flapping merrily against the garage window. Further investigation revealed a red, white, and blue windsock, in the style of Modern Kindergarten Art Class.
After hugging each of the children about six thousand times, I said to Boy Wonder, "Honey, did you make the red, white, and blue thing outside?"
"No." he replied.
"What?"
"I didn't make it outside. I made it at school."
And to think, a large company pays me to edit its documents.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Sunday, May 18, 2008
(Another) non-Kodak moment
Brought to you by Gross Moments in Parenting, Volume MCXLD, Chapter 57: Noses and Their Contents. Anithe & Co., var. dates from 2003 to present.
Entirely normal parenting moment: hearing the two-year-old cry in the middle of the night. Picking him up, comforting him as he buries his face in your shoulder, and carrying him back to your bed to cuddle for a while.
Slightly unnerving parenting moment: realizing, once it gets light out and you can actually see said two-year-old's face, the blanket, and the shoulder of your nightshirt, that he was crying because he was having a nosebleed.
Entirely normal parenting moment: hearing the two-year-old cry in the middle of the night. Picking him up, comforting him as he buries his face in your shoulder, and carrying him back to your bed to cuddle for a while.
Slightly unnerving parenting moment: realizing, once it gets light out and you can actually see said two-year-old's face, the blanket, and the shoulder of your nightshirt, that he was crying because he was having a nosebleed.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Where have all the sandals gone?
Many matters have been weighing on my mind recently, including but not limited to finances, both Charming Bungalow-related and other; relationships with family members; the nature and logistics of being a working mother; and how to introduce more variety, and health, to the household dinner menu.
So I'm going to blog about footwear. Specifically, sandals.
Last summer, once the weather started getting warmer, I spent quite some time looking for my sandals. Not of the flip-flop variety; if one loses those, one can buy another pair for $1. Not of the Rugged Outdoor Casual variety, either; my pair of those, which Dragon purchased as a gift for me about six years ago, are easy to find and in good condition to boot. (Er, sorry. No pun intended. Really.) I was looking for my office-appropriate sandals, consisting of, as far as I recall, a pair of flat strappy slip-ons and a pair of low-heeled slip-ons. I didn't find them right away, though, and, as last year was rather eventful, before I knew it, autumn had arrived and I was looking for the office-appropriate boots. (Those, I found.)
Warmer weather has arrived again, though, so I once again decided to look for the sandals. And I looked. And looked. And today, I looked some more. I looked in the basement. I looked in the attic. I even looked in the garage. And I have NO BLOODY IDEA where on earth they are. I can't exactly retrace my steps now, since we moved into Charming Bungalow going on two years ago, but here are my efforts so far.
We moved into Charming Bungalow over Labor Day weekend, 2006; I'd been wearing my sandals a lot (while house-hunting, actually), and decided that the moving efforts would require sneakers. So, figuring it would be getting cooler soon anyway, I packed them away. Where? Don't know. I remember throwing all of our shoes into a cardboard box, as they were shoes and didn't need careful packing treatment, and then transferring the ones we weren't wearing regularly into a plastic storage bin.
And that's where the trail ends. I have found plastic storage bins containing clothes, toys, table linens, holiday decorations, purses, winter hats, and winter boots. One of these bins did contain a pair of sandals that fits Action Hero; I found various items of clothing that I'd forgotten about, so it was sort of like shopping; and I've been meaning to change purses as the current one has a big hole in the lining that swallowed $1.25, two tubes of lip balm, and the flash drive with all of my schoolwork on it before I noticed (all items were easily retrievable, but still), so now I have a fine selection of different purses to choose from. So the search wasn't a total loss. However, St. Anthony (patron saint of lost things, who has assisted me in finding various household items) has not seen fit to reveal the sandals.
Still, I hope to find them one day. They were plain, black, conservative sandals, and those seem to be rather hard to come by these days what with all the patterned, pointy-toed, wedge-heeled, cork-soled deals filling the stores these days. (At least, last summer, when I briefly considered replacing the sandals and couldn't find a darn thing that was similar.) I can't imagine that I would have inadvertently tossed them out with something else, as I'm pretty sure there are two more pairs of sandals that were with them, and that would have made for a pretty heavy bag to inadvertently toss. But I've looked in every available plastic storage bin, and I don't think there's anywhere else to look now.
Perhaps I ought to appeal to St. Jude, patron saint of lost causes.*
*Who probably has as many--more, really--weighty matters to consider as I do, so I ought not trouble him with finding missing shoes. I will continue appealing to St. Anthony.
So I'm going to blog about footwear. Specifically, sandals.
Last summer, once the weather started getting warmer, I spent quite some time looking for my sandals. Not of the flip-flop variety; if one loses those, one can buy another pair for $1. Not of the Rugged Outdoor Casual variety, either; my pair of those, which Dragon purchased as a gift for me about six years ago, are easy to find and in good condition to boot. (Er, sorry. No pun intended. Really.) I was looking for my office-appropriate sandals, consisting of, as far as I recall, a pair of flat strappy slip-ons and a pair of low-heeled slip-ons. I didn't find them right away, though, and, as last year was rather eventful, before I knew it, autumn had arrived and I was looking for the office-appropriate boots. (Those, I found.)
Warmer weather has arrived again, though, so I once again decided to look for the sandals. And I looked. And looked. And today, I looked some more. I looked in the basement. I looked in the attic. I even looked in the garage. And I have NO BLOODY IDEA where on earth they are. I can't exactly retrace my steps now, since we moved into Charming Bungalow going on two years ago, but here are my efforts so far.
We moved into Charming Bungalow over Labor Day weekend, 2006; I'd been wearing my sandals a lot (while house-hunting, actually), and decided that the moving efforts would require sneakers. So, figuring it would be getting cooler soon anyway, I packed them away. Where? Don't know. I remember throwing all of our shoes into a cardboard box, as they were shoes and didn't need careful packing treatment, and then transferring the ones we weren't wearing regularly into a plastic storage bin.
And that's where the trail ends. I have found plastic storage bins containing clothes, toys, table linens, holiday decorations, purses, winter hats, and winter boots. One of these bins did contain a pair of sandals that fits Action Hero; I found various items of clothing that I'd forgotten about, so it was sort of like shopping; and I've been meaning to change purses as the current one has a big hole in the lining that swallowed $1.25, two tubes of lip balm, and the flash drive with all of my schoolwork on it before I noticed (all items were easily retrievable, but still), so now I have a fine selection of different purses to choose from. So the search wasn't a total loss. However, St. Anthony (patron saint of lost things, who has assisted me in finding various household items) has not seen fit to reveal the sandals.
Still, I hope to find them one day. They were plain, black, conservative sandals, and those seem to be rather hard to come by these days what with all the patterned, pointy-toed, wedge-heeled, cork-soled deals filling the stores these days. (At least, last summer, when I briefly considered replacing the sandals and couldn't find a darn thing that was similar.) I can't imagine that I would have inadvertently tossed them out with something else, as I'm pretty sure there are two more pairs of sandals that were with them, and that would have made for a pretty heavy bag to inadvertently toss. But I've looked in every available plastic storage bin, and I don't think there's anywhere else to look now.
Perhaps I ought to appeal to St. Jude, patron saint of lost causes.*
*Who probably has as many--more, really--weighty matters to consider as I do, so I ought not trouble him with finding missing shoes. I will continue appealing to St. Anthony.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Dude, where's my rebate?
Have you gotten your economic stimulus check today?
We haven't! And we didn't get it yesterday, or the day before, or the day before, either. Or the day before THAT. You get the point.
I was getting quite concerned, actually. I read all of the intial press releases and news articles, and got all excited: we e-filed way back in February and received our refund as a direct deposit, and Dragon's SSN put us in Group 1 of the direct-deposit-rebate receivers. I did the online rebate calculator thingie, and it looked like we were available for the maximum. More excitement abounded. Surely, I thought, we would have our rebate by May 2! The day after, at the latest!
Only (as mentioned above) we didn't, and I suddenly realized that we had never actually gotten The Notice explaining that we would be getting one. I visited the eligibility calculator several thousand more times, checked the Reasons Why You Might Not Be Eligible, and got a bit worried, especially when an informal survey revealed that several acquaintances had received notices.
So I finally broke down and called Them. You know, those people. Who are, as it turns out, required to immediately identify themselves by name and employee number upon answering the official Rebate Hotline. I guess they must get, oh, I don't know, a lot of complaints, or something?
Anyway. Mr. Rebate Answer Person was quite nice, considering that he's probably had to answer variations of my post title eight hours a day for the past month, and said, "Oh, I think I understand now. Did you have your taxes done through a preparer?" Why yes, we had. "And you had them take the cost of tax preparation out of your refund?" Indeed. "In that case, the direct deposit was routed through THEIR bank first, and then they wired the refund to your account." Oh. "In those cases, we issue a paper check; yours should be on the way in a couple of weeks." But we are getting one? "Oh yes, I don't see why not. All of your SSNs are valid, and you're certainly within the income guidelines." Duh; if the income was higher, I wouldn't be so darn concered about this here rebate thing.
So that's settled. Weeping and obsessive online balance-checking may endure for a week, but joy (and a tax rebate) cometh by Memorial Day weekend. At least according to Mr. Rebate Answer Person. Let's hope he's correct!
We haven't! And we didn't get it yesterday, or the day before, or the day before, either. Or the day before THAT. You get the point.
I was getting quite concerned, actually. I read all of the intial press releases and news articles, and got all excited: we e-filed way back in February and received our refund as a direct deposit, and Dragon's SSN put us in Group 1 of the direct-deposit-rebate receivers. I did the online rebate calculator thingie, and it looked like we were available for the maximum. More excitement abounded. Surely, I thought, we would have our rebate by May 2! The day after, at the latest!
Only (as mentioned above) we didn't, and I suddenly realized that we had never actually gotten The Notice explaining that we would be getting one. I visited the eligibility calculator several thousand more times, checked the Reasons Why You Might Not Be Eligible, and got a bit worried, especially when an informal survey revealed that several acquaintances had received notices.
So I finally broke down and called Them. You know, those people. Who are, as it turns out, required to immediately identify themselves by name and employee number upon answering the official Rebate Hotline. I guess they must get, oh, I don't know, a lot of complaints, or something?
Anyway. Mr. Rebate Answer Person was quite nice, considering that he's probably had to answer variations of my post title eight hours a day for the past month, and said, "Oh, I think I understand now. Did you have your taxes done through a preparer?" Why yes, we had. "And you had them take the cost of tax preparation out of your refund?" Indeed. "In that case, the direct deposit was routed through THEIR bank first, and then they wired the refund to your account." Oh. "In those cases, we issue a paper check; yours should be on the way in a couple of weeks." But we are getting one? "Oh yes, I don't see why not. All of your SSNs are valid, and you're certainly within the income guidelines." Duh; if the income was higher, I wouldn't be so darn concered about this here rebate thing.
So that's settled. Weeping and obsessive online balance-checking may endure for a week, but joy (and a tax rebate) cometh by Memorial Day weekend. At least according to Mr. Rebate Answer Person. Let's hope he's correct!
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Taking things literally
Like many two-year-olds, Action Hero (currently weathering an ear infection, poor tiny dear) has a very busy schedule and considers time spent sitting still time wasted. Thus, he is not thrilled with having to remain still long enough to have his diaper changed, and he fusses a lot during this process. Sometimes, he wiggles; other times, he tries to kick. So I try the time-honored tradition of presenting him with a toy to distract him. Usually I give him a toy that belongs to his brother, so it is New and Special and Distracting.
One day he was being particulary wiggly and fussy, so I picked up a Spiderman action figure and said, "Here, buddy. Tell Spidey all about it." Meaning, of course, "Here, have a toy and stop fussing already."
And of course, since he is two and does not yet grasp all the vagaries of the English language, he happily grabbed the action figure and said, "Hi, 'Pidey! I stinky. Mommy chane my diper! (pause) No kickin Mommy."
This technique works pretty well, actually; so far, Action Hero has cheerily informed Spidey, his twin action figure, various stuffed animals, several Happy Meal toys, Buzz Lightyear, and a number of toy cars about what happens when it's time for a change.
Fortunately, they have not seen fit to respond.
One day he was being particulary wiggly and fussy, so I picked up a Spiderman action figure and said, "Here, buddy. Tell Spidey all about it." Meaning, of course, "Here, have a toy and stop fussing already."
And of course, since he is two and does not yet grasp all the vagaries of the English language, he happily grabbed the action figure and said, "Hi, 'Pidey! I stinky. Mommy chane my diper! (pause) No kickin Mommy."
This technique works pretty well, actually; so far, Action Hero has cheerily informed Spidey, his twin action figure, various stuffed animals, several Happy Meal toys, Buzz Lightyear, and a number of toy cars about what happens when it's time for a change.
Fortunately, they have not seen fit to respond.
