Spin Cycle - Changes

When Jen from Sprite’s Keeper announced that our Spin Cycle assignment this week was about change, the first thing that came to mind was diapers. After 11 years of changing diapers it’s hard not to associate the word change with the word diaper.

The last time that Luigi wore a diaper was the day before he turned 3. All of the others took a couple more months. To make things easier, I’m going to use “3 years” as the cut off date in my math problem.

Also, to make the math problem a little more simple, we’ll just use 6 as the average number of diaper changes per day. I know it’s more like 8 (12 for some of my poop monsters) but… we’ll just go with 6.

3 years = 1,095 days

1,095 days x 4 kids = 4,380 days

Frogger was born 102 days ago

4,380 days + 102 days = 4,482 days

4,482 days x 6 diapers a day = ………….. Are you ready for it?

Seriously?? You ready??

Twenty-six THOUSAND eight hundred ninety-two diapers!!

And just think… I still have another 5,000 diapers to go with Frogger.

(Is anyone else thinking about the episode of Spongebob where Patrick & Spongebob raise the baby clam??)

(Is anyone else really jealous of the parents who use cloth diapers? I wish I had that sort of control over my gag reflexes. Kudos to you guys!!)

You Capture - First Installment

Beth, at I Should Be Folding Laundry, has come up with a new carnival called You Capture.

Our first assignment was to take a picture of something we love, without using flash. I immediately started snapping pictures of Frogger. She’s the only one that holds still long enough for me to take a picture without tracers.

Imagine my surprise when she decided to pose for all of you and show you her “I.Am.Rotten” look. This can also be referred to as the “I have you wrapped around my little finger” look or the “Watch how I make my mommy stop everything she’s doing just to come play with me” look.

Frogger is only 3 months old and look at this face!!! I am SOOOO in trouble!

ETA: I think I’m gonna have to sign up for a flickr account. I feel bad for not leaving comments on the pictures that are being hosted there (rather than a blog) for the carnival.

For those who ARE only submitting using flickr… I didn’t leave my mark, but I promise I looked. =D And so far, all I see is awesomeness!!

Long Rant About Ignorance

The whole thing started off yesterday, when Luigi, my 3rd grader, told me about a spelling game they play in class. The students line up, the teacher says a word and as a group, the students spell out the word, each taking their turn at the next letter. If you get the letter wrong, you sit down and you’re out of the game. The last person left standing is the winner & they get a prize. Cool beans! Makes sense & it’s a good incentive for learning.

Now, here’s the catch. If you’re the person who says the last letter of the word, you’re also out. How is that fair? How is that right? You correctly answer the question and you’re punished for it? Yeah… okay then…. And then Luigi informed me that they play this game 2 or 3 times a week and so far he’s been one of the “winners” a grand total of 3 times. There are only 6 kids in his class so this number is outrageous to me.

Apparently Luigi shares the same enthusiasm over losing and missing out on a prize. He was being stubborn about something and his teacher had the nerve to say “You’re just mad because you didn’t win the game.” Yeah… well I’d be mad, too. And actually… I am.

After that discussion, he handed me a note. It was a letter that he had written to me as part of his punishment for his atrocious behavior at school yesterday. In addition to having to write this letter (and have it signed) he wasn’t allowed to play at recess. Care to guess what he did? You’ll never in a million years guess.

Luigi…. was holding his breath. Yeah… that’s all. Just holding his breath. No apparent reason. Just sitting at his desk… minding his own business & holding his breath. Here’s how our conversation went:
Luigi: Are you mad?
Me: No. Just don’t do it again if she has such a problem with it. What exactly did she say to you?
Luigi: She said “do you think that’s funny?!?!?”
Me: What’d you say?
Luigi: *shrugs*
Me: You should’ve just been honest and said yes.
Luigi: *giggles* I did.
Me: Well good. She shouldn’t have asked such a stupid question.

Okay… so that’s all fine and good. Maybe something about what he was doing was disrupting the class. I don’t know. The recess thing kinda ticks me off, too. But what really makes me mad is this letter. It said something like “Dear Mom. I am writing to tell you that I got in trouble today for holding my breath. I should not do this. I could pass out and have to be taken to the hospital. I could also die. Now I know why I should not hold my breath and I will not do it again.”

It was at this point that I realized that he was lectured about how dangerous it is to hold his breath. It was also at this point that what I’ve been saying this entire school year was confirmed! His teacher, is an idiot!!

Hello!! McFly!!! You absolutely cannot die from holding your breath. Not unless you were to pass out and hit your head on something. And in that case, your death would be caused from a fall, not from holding your breath. If he were strangling himself, totally different scenario! But your body is equipped to say “Alright, you’re being an idiot. I’ll take over from here.” And at that point you will either gasp for air or you will, in fact, pass out. (I would bet $1,000 that 95% of the people in the world do not have the will power to hold their breath to this extent.)

Next up came his math homework. “The school has 14 books. There are 3 classrooms. Divide the books equally between the classrooms and give the left overs to the library.”

So, being the math whiz that he is…. He says “That’s 4 books per class and 2 for the library.” Good job. Problem solved. Move on.

No. No. No. First he has to draw a picture and separate the books into groups. When I see him drawing these pictures, I always imagine him being an accountant and drawing a thousand little pictures of dollar signs on his notepad, dividing them into groups and counting them. It’s just ridiculous!!

So, after he draws the picture, he has to write sentences to explain the steps he took to figure out the answer. THEN he has to explain WHY he took those steps. BTW, this caused a 5 minute discussion about why it’s not okay to simply write “Because it’s the right way to do it.” LOL

That simple little math problem, the one he answered in 10 seconds, took 45 minutes. Fifteen minutes were spent on him trying to explain to me how his teacher wanted him to do the problem. (Which was TOTALLY jacked up) Another fifteen were spent on me trying to explain that mathematics is the one and only universal thing on Earth with a couple “Your teacher is a moron”’s thrown in there for good measure. Five minutes explaining the polite way to tell his teacher that she can feel free to give me a call!!!!!!!! And the rest of the time trying to come up with a reason besides “Because it’s the right way to do it.”

This isn’t the first time that he’s come to me with math problems and explained the genius way his teacher wants him to solve the problem. My biggest issue is that the things he’s learning NOW are just the basics that will be needed in the future. It ticks me off to no end to know that she’s teaching him the incorrect way to figure out problems and he’ll have to relearn all of those skills, the right way.

Okay… Last part of this rant. There are MANY more examples that I’d love to share with you but at this point, my post is already way overdue for an ending.

This year, they’ve started learning cursive handwriting. Now, think back to when you were in school. Do you remember the big letters that they put above the chalkboard? The ones that demonstrated the correct way to write letters? The ones that, even though it’s been 20+ years since you stared at those letters for 7 hours a day, the image is still imprinted in your brain?

Okay… now… imagine that I told you that even though you see those letters all day, every day, you are NOT allowed to write the letters in the same manner that you’re seeing them. No. No. No. You must refer to the handwriting book that you’ve been given.

To me, that’s the equivalent of putting a huge poster on the wall that says 2+2=5 and then expecting the students to just remember that the answer is incorrect.

Why???? WHY would you do that????????

End Rant…

Oh hey — BTW — I put up the new Site of the Week & Post of the Week at Text Imps yesterday. Make sure you check it out. And pay VERY close attention to the Site of the Week. It’s important!

ETA: I should also point out that I love teachers! I think they’re under appreciated and under payed. I’m just saying….. this one….. Luh-who-zuh-her!

Anatomy of a Meltdown

A tantrum is like a snowflake. Every one is different and both can change your day’s plans, leaving you to question why you made plans in the first place.

However, I have been studying the inner workings of tantrums and believe I have identified about 95% of them correctly. (This result has a 95% margin of error.)

Please note: neither the subject nor the researcher were harmed during the course of this experiment. Safety goggles were utilized.

The hot flash: As soon as you tell her “no” to a request, spoken, grunted or pointed, she takes a face plant or a back dive to the floor without warning, trying to make contact with something on the way down so her cries of pain and frustration will increase to an almost banshee level.

To read our Post of the Week in its entirety, please visit Sprite’s Keeper — Home of The Spin Cycle.

Subscribe to Jen’s Feed –> Atom | RSS 1.0 | RSS 2.0

Violence UnSilenced

We are going to switch gears this week.  We won’t be talking about one particular author.  Instead, we will be featuring a group of people.

These people have found the strength to speak out about domestic violence and sexual assault.  They have more courage than most of us could ever hope for.  They are the men and women of Violence UnSilenced.

This blog was created with the sole intention of shedding light on the epidemics of domestic violence and sexual assault by giving their survivors a voice.

This blog, like domestic violence, is not limited to opposite-sex relationships. The intent is not to limit anyone at all, in fact. Domestic violence and sexual assault affect everyone they touch in myriad ways. The idea here is to enlighten the blogosphere on just how pervasive this problem is.

Please help support these brave men and women by visiting Violence UnSilenced and by taking the pledge to hear and honor what they have to say.

Subscribe to Violence UnSilenced’s Feed –> Feedburner | RSS 2.0 | RSS | Atom

It’s Interview Time

Some Screenshots

Nothin’ goin’ on around here lately. The Ol’ Man has been gone since Monday and right now, he’s 20 miles up the road & sleeping at a truckstop. How horrible is that!?!? 20 itty bitty miles and I can’t see him. If the yard wasn’t all mushy from the rain he’d just pull the semi up into the yard and sleep at home… but nooo…….. dang rain!!!!!

Since I have absolutely nothing to talk about tonight (other than whining that I miss hubby) I figured I’d post some screenshots that I’ve taken over the past month or so.

First up…. we have the stats from one of my website counters.

That wasn’t very impressive but… look what happened when I just tried to upload it to blogger. This is kinda creepy….

(picture goes here but I lost it in an integration)

Alright… this one’s better.

As if the BIG WORDS weren’t bad enough… they go and add ‘Roid LOL

And here’s the last one (because I just realized how bad these pictures look when I use this blogger upload stuff)

Grrrr You can’t even READ that.

What it says is Ticker: Raccoons attack the White House.

When I read this for the first time, I spit Coke On My Keyboard!! Thoughts of Forrest Gump and “Mama just chased them away with a broom” came flooding in.

*** ETA — I feel like I ripped ya’ll off with this post. So I’m going to add more junk to it. See how nice I am. LOL

My cousin just sent this to me a couple minutes ago. I’ve seen it before, but it’s still funny. Thought I’d share in case YOU haven’t seen it.

Barbara Walters, of Television’s 20/20, did a story on gender roles in Kabul, Afghanistan several years before the Afghan conflict.

She noted that women customarily walked five paces behind their husbands.

She recently returned to Kabul and observed that women still walk behind their husbands.

From Ms Walters’ vantage point, despite the overthrow of the oppressive Taliban regime, the women now seem to walk even further back behind their husbands, and are happy to maintain the old custom.

Ms . Walters approached one of the Afghani women and asked, ‘Why do you now seem happy with an old custom that you once tried so desperately to change?’

The woman looked Ms Walters straight in the eyes, and without hesitation said, ‘Land Mines.’

Moral of the story is (no matter what language you speak and where you go):
BEHIND EVERY MAN, THERE’S A SMART WOMAN

Spinning My Wheels And Looking For A Tow Truck

**Warning — Just turn back now…. seriously… By the time you finish reading this, you’ll hate yourself (and me) for wasting your valuable time. **

I have a million and one things going through my head right now. I have tons of projects that I could work on and 2 tons of projects that I’d like to start. Problem is, I just don’t know WHERE to start.

I feel like my other blog needs a complete overhaul. Also, I have a game site that I’d love to redesign. On top of that is this blog. I love that header up there, but it’s not mine. Do you know how nuts it makes me to use someone else’s layout? I shudder every single time I open this thing. It drives me absolutely bonkers.

I’ve also been thinking a lot lately about starting some sort of blog design business. I’ve talked to a few other designers and they’ve given me lots of great tips but I just don’t know where to start. Maybe the first step would be to set myself up with a design. *laughs*

Another problem I have is the fact that, with my luck, anyone who would want to use my service would like “pretty”. I am SO not into pretty! Black is my thing. I love black. I’ve designed things in the past that were pink and purple and frilly and I wanted to gag every step of the way. The customers were happy, but I hated it!!!

(Sidenote — Who are these weirdos that keep finding me on Twitter? And… when I message all ya’ll, do you think the same thing about me? LOL “Who’s this weirdo??” ?? )

What about these pictures that the other designers are using? The mommy cartoon characters. Do they draw them on their own or is there some secret society of underground cartoon sharing sites (that made no sense) where they just swap cartoons back and forth?

I’m just thinking outloud right now. Ya’ll feel free to find something else to read before this jibber-jabber causes brain damage.

Still here? Alright, well… answer me this. Do any of you do design work? Do you have any tips? Would you like a lackey? Do you have any tips? Did I say that already?

I seriously need to find SOMETHING to do!!!

Anyone want a new layout? Anyone need some functionality added to their wordpress blog but just can’t figure out how to do it?? You can find a link to all of my contact info over —->> there, up at the top.

Dooot-dee-doooo La-la-la

Bored Bored Bored….

Anyone online and just want to chat? LMAO!!

Bueller….. Bueller…….

Yeah Okay Nevermind

I totally changed my mind on that whole carnival idea from yesterday. I decided I need to do a little more thinking on it before I try and use it. Meh… Oh well… One of these days.

Not much going on at the moment. It’s only 7:30 in the morning though.

Lots to do today but the first thing I’m gonna do is go back to bed!!!!!!

Pictures And Stuff

You know what I call this? A crying shame!!

Do you see it? Right there? In front of the dog?

Right there!!! The brown thing!! Yes!! That’s chocolate!! On the floor!!!

Someone wasted a perfectly good piece of chocolate and I am NOT happy about it.

And if you look closely, you can see that the rest of the chocolate is already gone from the heart-shaped box. *sigh* Such a tragedy.

LOL - Someone was apparently running around half naked during this picture. I just spotted a pair of pants, too.

I can’t wait for the dog’s molting too be done! The house is covered in hair. If you think the rug looks bad, you oughtta see my black bed spread. It’s gray now, from all of the hair.

And this picture? This one is a true testimate to a few of my many skills. That’s right. Skills I say.

First, we have the skill of being able to serve meals for days without the need for the dishes that are piled in the sink.

And, if you don’t count being able to stack 12 plastic bowls, 3 glass bowls, 3 saucers, 8 glass plates and 1 plastic plate in a single dish drainer as a skill… well… then I suggest you show me what passes for talent ’round these here parts.

And when you’re done with that, head over to Text Imps. I finally got the Post of the Week and Site of the Week added a couple of hours ago. Sorry about the delay.

Oh.. AND…. There’s a new post up at Christian’s Kingdom, too. He had his stuff ready for posting over a week ago and I … well… I kept forgetting to post it for him. I finally found a program to make his recordings quieter. I thought his last recording was going to make my ears bleed!!!! So I HAD TO find a way to fix that.

Make sure you come back tomorrow. I think I’ve come up with a new blogging game (or maybe you call it a carnival) that ya’ll might like.

Well look at me. I’m just little Ms. Bossy today aren’t I? Visit this, visit that, come back tomorrow.

Why are you still here??? Move It Mister!!!!!!!!

Next Page »