Happy Hag

Was delighted to attend a few of son’s classes. I especially like his Language Arts class. The seventh grade L.A. classes are divided into three groups: Advanced, Average and Slower than average (I’m sure they have different labels for them than mine!). Son is in advanced, and his class is using a new curriculum this year: instead of the whole class reading the same book, the kids have a choice of one of four books. Each book then has a group of 4-5 students who take turns reading it aloud in their group, then discussing it chapter by chapter.  It’s very dynamic and far cry from my classes of (gulp) thirty-seven years ago when the whole class read the same book, quietly to themselves. I was a voracious reader and would secretly read far ahead, then be bored, as the class only moved as fast as the slowest reader. So, these kids get a choice and work together swapping ideas back and forth. The class sped by.

Next was French, taught by a wee fireball of a woman with a passion for teaching French and has a great relationship with her students. I was totally lost as c’est’s and la’s flew over my head. It was Greek to me.

In the French class, there was another teacher working quietly at a desk in the back of the room, where son and I were sitting. She was “hot” ~ slender and shapely, dressed in a cute black and white hounds tooth jumper with black hose and high-heeled black boots. In other words, every school boys fantasy. About two or three times she got up from her seat and crossed in front of us to go to another table and I watched my son’s eyes scan her top to bottom and back up again. I don’t even think he was aware he was “checking her out” and would probably be horrified if I brought it up.

I skipped out before lunch ~ the siren call of Coldwater Creek was calling. It was a disappointing shopping trip though, as they did not have several of the items I had been coveting from their catalog. “We can order it for you” just doesn’t do it for me. I did get two shirts: a red suede-look zip front shirt (that I really wanted in the chamois color) and a pretty black velvet cami to wear under a few things. I’m disgruntled that I have gained a little weight and no longer slip into all of their mediums, yet the large are a tad too big. Hummm… eat my way up or diet my way down?

got this  and this in red.

(Patty, I envisioned you shopping by my side~ they had some pretty jackets, but they didn’t look good on me.) 

A bad day shopping beats a good day at work, though!

Filed under: General on November 20th, 2008 | 2 Comments »

Yep, a wee blanket of snow quietly appeared over night.

Not enough to raise hopes that school would be delayed. Just one of those early soft whispers of what is to come. DH HATES snow, so I have to subdue my glee. He sees only headaches at work: parking lot plowed, sidewalks cleared, delivery driver woes… 

Son and I see it differently. I see: walks in the woods where I can track animals and see what they have been doing and where they live. Son sees: Snow Day.

This morning at breakfast with son, I fessed up that I wasn’t going to shadow him all day at school. He had the good graces to laugh and said he hoped I’d eat lunch with him…

Filed under: General on November 19th, 2008 | 2 Comments »

(Sing to Simon & Garfunkels Sound of Silence)

Hello oatmeal, my old friend.

I’ve come to eat you once again,

Because my weight was slowly creeping,

Leaving pudge while I was sleeping,

And the vision that was planted in my brain.

Was scary.

Within the bowl of oatmeal.

Blew the dust off a box of oatmeal and had that for breakfast this morning. (The oatmeal, not the dust.) Slowly getting back to healthy habits: easier now that the only candy son has left are the chewy taffy ones that I worry about losing a filling on.

House is nice and quiet. DH ran son to school, as son had to transport his “cell model” in today. His science project, “The Cell”, is a honkin’ big hunk of clay molded over a styrofoam ball, with gummy worms, jimmies and other assorted objects representing all the creepy stuff that makes up a cell. I actually managed to keep my hands off it and let him do it himself. Back in Second Grade, he had an assignment to make a shadow box showing a native american tribe. Boy, was that fun! I got an A on that one. All the projects were on display and you could definitely tell the ones where us moms couldn’t keep our hands off of. There was one with an igloo made out of sugar cubes ~ a feat of engineering beyond even me! Now I restrain myself to merely pointing out spelling errors and grammatical mishaps.

This is National Education Week at our school, and all parents are invited to come to school tomorrow and go to classes with their kids. I did it last year and there was only a hand-full of parents. (Working for husband has its rewards, as I can have off to do these things.) Son’s apprehension is growing… “Mom, you don’t have to stay all day, you know.” followed later by “Mom, you’re NOT going to stay all day, are you?” Let’s see, you mean a thirteen year old boy doesn’t want his mom trailing along with him all day in school, with his peers?

I had not intended to stay all day, as I have an appointment to get my long-neglected locks colored and cut in the afternoon, and I thought I would go to the mall before hand and do some shopping at Coldwater Creek. After seeing his rising panic though, I have asked him if I could sit with him at lunch and what were his classes again for the afternoon? I’ve been suggesting all kinds of outlandish outfits I could wear and sighed that I finally get to see who “Sarah” is and chat with her. Heeee! O the torture.

Two of our employees are pregnant~ both due around the same time. Both young and unmarried. Both in relationships that are relatively new. Sigh. Today, my SIL and BIL, who have tried for years to have a baby, are to be present at their adoptive daughters birth. Funny how life works out. 

Filed under: General on November 18th, 2008 | 7 Comments »

I was scrolling through the “ICanHasCheezeburger” funny kitty site when I saw this captioned picture…

I lovs dis song!

T’was many a year ago when we would go down to South Street (where all the hippies meet) in Philly to watch the 12 o’clock showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show. What an event!

I’m in the process of cleaning out a little room upstairs that used to be son’s nursery, so I can move my computer out of the cellar, away from kitty litter boxes, spiders and unsettling little rustlings in the walls. This is so I won’t smoke so darn much, since its the only place I light up. Of course I got side-tracked. Had to look through all son’s adorable bits of art work and school work from his early days. Moved some books back to son’s room and ended up cleaning out his drawers and closets from clothes that no longer fit. As a bonus, I found three brand new pair of UnderArmor underwear son swears he couldn’t find, and had me scratching my head, wondering what he was doing losing underwear at his age. Also a brand new football jersey from WVU that had slipped off its hanger to disappear in the black hole that is son’s closet floor. Fortunately, when it was given to him, it was way too large. It ought to fit perfect now, two years later…

Happy to report I did not find any Playboys ~ not that I was looking.

Did find “Mr. Bean Bear”, a once beloved little stuffed bear that went to bed with son every night for many a year. He went in the “keep” pile. Time warp, indeed!

Hope you all haz a gud weekend!

Filed under: General on November 15th, 2008 | 4 Comments »

(Actually, by the pounding of my sinuses, I can tell)… something wicked this way comes.

Dang! I looked at a national weather map here of the U.S. and see a huge front moving in from the west. Let’s see a show of hands for how many of you are suffering from sinus pressure right now?

I fully understand why ancient tribal people picked up a rock and pounded a hole in their heads to let the evil spirits out. Tried Tylenol Sinus, then later, Sudafed. I even water-boarded myself with my nifty little sinus rinse. Next resort: rock.

Can’t concentrate on tv, book or stimulating spousal conversation, so I thought I would come on and whine a bit. 

that is all.

Filed under: General on November 14th, 2008 | 2 Comments »

I had a wonderful sister-in-law who we lost to breast cancer several years ago. She was the Organizer of the Family. She was the one who booked the beach house, planned different events and pretty much instructed us other SIL’s on what to do. Early on, she divided up the holidays as to whom was to host which. I had Easter, other SIL had Thanksgiving, & she had Christmas. Since she’s been gone, things have gotten wishy-washy. I still “do” Easter, but other SIL now has a big dog and doesn’t want to do Thanksgiving, so my MIL is doing it. I felt kinda bad about it because, although still very capable, Mom moves at a much slower pace, & even though us DIL’s bring all the sides, etc…, it’s still a lot of work, as you all know. 

So last night, with this weighing on my mind, I mentioned to DH that I would do Thanksgiving here. He and son jumped at that idea (guess they like my cookin’). I must confess that I am an uneasy entertainer. I just can’t relax, even though it’s family, for cryin’ out loud. For a few days beforehand, I will be a cranky harridan, muttering as I re-clean and re-straighten things around the house, using about 1000 Clorox wipes in the bathroom, damning the dog and cats and just generally being a pain in the ass to my beloved husband and son. Plus, I am a schedule freak and a stickler for events unrolling as I timed them to on my master list which I will rewrite several times: what time to put various foods in the oven, what time guests are to arrive, etc… This list is made for about a week out, listing shopping needs, what I can do early, when to clean what.  

Here’s how it will play out (from past holiday experiences): Mom and Dad will either arrive a half hour early or a half hour late. They will slowly teeter out of their car and I will race out of the house to grab a huge tray Mom will be carrying, and help them up the steps with the rickety handrail that we never seem to remember to fix.

I will never get a true head count until half-way through dinner.

Different young family members will arrive late or not at all, or maybe with friends half way through dinner. The family with the two college kids will be vague on what their kids plans are. The one branch of the family who moved away and won’t be with us this year was the one with three busy little boys who stayed and stayed while their Pop watched TV.  

Dad will begin to get watery eyes and start sneezing about half way through dinner because he is allergic to cats and always forgets to take his allergy meds before coming. The fact that I clean like a banshee doesn’t seem to stop this. The cats will naturally gravitate to Dad first thing and I’ll have to herd them to the cellar. Have you ever herded a cat?

Everyone will be too full to eat the wonderful pies I have made, except in “just a tiny sliver” amounts. I will end up carving out slabs of pie for everyone to take home. (Note to self: just two pies this year.)

All in all, its always a good time once things get rolling (and I have had several honkin’ big glasses of wine). I have wonderful In Laws & everyone always gets along with each other.

It’s just me ~ The Uneasy Entertainer.

Filed under: General on November 14th, 2008 | No Comments »

I’ve been lax on my blog lately. Halloween sounded the death knell on my feeble dieting efforts. A part of me wants to drift through the holiday season fat and happy, (O the wine! O the homemade butter cookies!) then climb back on the wagon January 1st, with everyone else. The store has also tempted me, as we are trying out new rolls for our hoagies and cheesesteaks, and man, are they good. The combo of carbs and candy has not been kind to my waist line or complexion!

Bags of salad are turning into green liquidy mush, and the head of cauliflower is growing grey hair in the veggie bin of my frig.

The bad thing about drifting diet-wise is that I can pile on a shocking amount of weight in a short time leaving me with nothing to wear, as I am too vain to buy larger size pants. (Okay Stacy and Clinton, “pant”.) As it stands now, clothing is getting a bit snug. Since I can’t go to work in my comfy robe and fuzzy slippers, I really have to start toeing the line NOW, not tomorrow, not Monday.

Patty has touched on this in her blog: at what age can you say the hell with it and slip gradually into the “Grandmotherly Figure”? I saw an ad on TV last night featuring an 80 year old woman water-skiing. Dang! She looked pretty good from afar on the water, kicking up plumes of spray ~ then they did a close-up of her face. 

So! Please forgive my rambling thoughts as I try to collect myself for another go at it!

Filed under: General on November 13th, 2008 | 4 Comments »

… are all telling me to get back on the stick! I don’t have to get on the scale to know that the needle would be pointing in the wrong direction. :O

So here’s some more pictures. Looking at them, I think I should follow the Doggie Diet: Eat what’s given to you, snack sensibly, be happy at all times and run around madly with a big stick in your mouth!

Woof softly, but carry a big stick.

   i promise i wont run…

 Love these bushes! No matter how dim the light, they have an amazing pinky glow, plus red berries on them.

 
Fungus among us.
Find myself looking closer at things now that the whiz-bang major fall colors are fading away.      
The silvers, grays and browns are appearing.

Filed under: General on November 9th, 2008 | 5 Comments »

Diggin’ the time change ~ always did like “falling back”. It’s starting to wear off already though and I am once again bargaining with the alarm clock. “Jusss five more minutezzzzzz…..” 

Son made the Odyssey of the Mind team at school again this year. It’s a creative thinking team of 7 kids that compete with other schools solving a problem given to them. The eventual goal is to go to “Worlds”, which is where the winning teams from all over the world compete. It’s a pretty cool thing and I’m glad he’s involved with it. It’s a major time commitment, as they meet after school on Friday and every Saturday, then even more days as their first leg of competition draws closer, “Regionals”, in February. If they place 1st or 2nd in that one, they go to “States” and the winner of States goes to Worlds. 

My husband, trying to explain it to someone started off saying: “Imagine a room full of kids all wearing glasses…” LOL! It is kind of nerdy, but son has a knack for it. All us team Moms want to get tee shirts with “Odyssey of the Moms” on it… We are always the ones waiting in the hallways, providing snacks, uplifting spirits, etc…

Here’s a link for all you teachers out there… http://www.odysseyofthemind.com/

Filed under: General on November 6th, 2008 | 8 Comments »

 Woods are losing their colors, but if you look close, you can still find some.

  Here’s some pics from today’s walk.

Filed under: General on November 2nd, 2008 | 5 Comments »