If it's not One Thing, It's Another.

I swear. It's impossible to get anything done around here!

After hosing out a basement rug, I made my mid-afternoon cup of tea. I got out the cream and big clumps fall into my tea.

Ack. I just drank that this morning! After a few brief moments of hysteria I realize it's not rotten cream (after all, it's CoffeeMate. Which is non-dairy...non....everything. I don't know what that stuff is...but it sure is good in tea!) it's frozen cream.

Something is going very wrong with our fridge. I've been noticing normal things (like the ice tea) getting some ice in them, so I've been turning the temp down. As of this morning, it was on 1. That's as low as it can go and still be on. When I got my frozen cream out, it was still cooling. I turned it off, then back on....and it stopped cooling. Hopefully it will start up again when it needs to.

That fridge is not very old either. Maybe 6 years? Worthless junk. I have a chest freezer in the basement that is at LEAST 40 years old. It works great. I guess they just don't make things like they used to.

We also had another impromptu project this weekend. The bathroom fan part of the fan/light fixture in the upstairs bathroom (the only usable one for just a few more weeks!) burnt up. We were afraid the motor might still be working and it could start a fire.

So off we went to Lowes to pick up a new one. I was a little excited, because I've secretly always hated that ugly thing. Chris wasn't so excited. He knew that he's be installing the thing since I don't deal with electricity. Plus I'm too short for overhead work.

We make our way to the "Bathroom Light and Fan" aisle and Jordan commenced pushing ALL the buttons and giving his opinion on which sounds best. The baby was amused. Chris and I then had to argue over a fan.

He wanted one just like the fugly thing we were taking out of there. There most basic model costs $36, but was no use to us since it was a low flow fan. That window has no window, so the fan is the only ventilation. The next fugly model was $56. The very nice modern fixture I was eying up cost $88. Chris said there was no way he was spending that much money on a bathroom light, we would get the fugly one. I said that there was no way I was wasting almost $60 on something that looks like it had been pulled out of a double wide when for $30 more we could have something that looked decent. He saw reason in that statement and we got the nice one. Understated and modern. Not trailer trash.

Later in the evening I took the kids out in the yard to garden and he got to work. 90 minutes later (after only one consultation from me!) we had a very nice, new, working bathroom light and fan. And three gouges in the vinyl floor. Chris has no clue how those got there. They definitely did NOT get there when he threw the old fixture to the floor in a manly display of anger when he finally wrestled it from the ceiling.

In any case, I'll be shopping for some new bathroom rugs this week. I'm going to re-do that bathroom in jungle frogs for the kids(mostly because the Frog Pod that I can't stop thinking abot!), so I'm thinking Lily Pad rugs. The search is on!

I Hate the WESTEST!

I'm not fond of standardized testing by any means....but I do see a purpose in things like the ACTs, SATs, those kind of college prep tests.

I seriously hate the WESTEST though.

First off, my kid stopped learning anything new as of the end of March. That's where the WV school year effectively ends now. From that point on, everything it "reviewing for the WESTEST". No new stories are read, no new vocabulary words, no new math applications, nothing.

Plus, I feel like they really rush through some concepts (uh, like fractions!) in order to finish learning everything early. I mean, the WV CSO's are designed for a 9 month school year. If you squeeze them all into 6 months, then you're going to rush through something. That's if you don't miss almost the entire month of February due to City water problems.

Lastly, when this test is over on Thursday, my kid is done. No matter that school isn't over until June 11 or something like that.....the WESTEST is over, so there will be no more learning this year! This last month of school, traditionally spend on an end of the year review so that kids retain knowledge for next year.....nope, it's break time baby! Recover from the WESTEST time! We really don't give a crap if they actually learn it or retain the knowledge, just that they meet AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) on the WESTEST.

So they start reviewing in April. They re-arrange the class schedule so that they have big block of review time. They hold assemblies and pep rallies to tell the kids how important the WESTEST is (ie, stress them the crap out!) I mean, it does go on your PERMANENT RECORD. It stays with your the REST OF YOUR LIFE!

Students are told to be in bed BY 8:00 each night (okay, no biggie, his bedtime is usually 9:00). To get up early and eat a healthy breakfast (not that crappy cereal your mom gives you on regular days...and I thought Life was healthy...). To wear school colors every day to encourage everyone to do their best (like mornings aren't crazy enough without finding out at 8:10 that my kid needs a yellow shirt). To take their time on the test (first on done gets detention).

From a teacher's perspective, I still hate this stinking test. They whole school year revolves around it. A teacher's success is found in not how well they teach or inspire their students, but how well they teach to a test. How well they teach kids to TAKE a test. And frankly, by the quality of kids in your classroom.

You can read all the inspirational books you want. Watch Lean on Me a million times. But there are still going to be kids that don't give a crap. They won't participate in even the most fun assignments. They won't complete classwork even if you do it together. You can forget about homework. And tests, they are just random fill in the dot coloring pages. If they even take the time to do it at all.

I'm not talking about kids with learning disabilities. I'm talking about plain old lazy, I don't care about school kids. They get younger and younger each year. And don't bother talking to a parent about it, because YOU are the teacher, it's YOUR job to teach them. Not the parent's fault if they won't complete home work. I mean, parents can barely control them the 6 or so hours they are at home, now they are supposed to care what's going on when they aren't at home. Not very likely!

If we want to talk about kids with learning disabilities, let's talk about how they are hurt by our "New and Improved" educational system. There are NO levels of classes any more. Everyone is lumped together in one class. You know, so they can receive a fair and equal education. Except, I don't think we're looking at this the right way. Sure, every student is given the EXACT same experience. But I don't view that as fair OR equal. Because some kids require more attention from a teacher to learn certain things. Which is easier to do in a classroom with 10 kids than it is in a classroom with 32. This goes for students with learning disabilities, gifted students who need more advanced work, and completely normal, nothing different about them at all students who just need some extra help in one subject or another.

So now we put them all in the same room. We have your Special Education (we call them Title One here in WV) teachers come into the classroom and assist the classroom teachers. Sounds great, right?

Two reasons why this doesn't work. First, there aren't enough Title One Teachers. They rotate between classrooms, teaching a class here and there. It works okay up to the 4th grade (when kids are with the same teacher all day) but after that, they rotate classes. Since there is not a Title One teacher in every classroom all of the time, there are often students who need extra help who go through the whole day without a single class where there is extra help. That's the way the cookie crumbles.

The other reason is scheduling. Not only are there not enough teachers to go around, but these teachers are expected to team teach with the classroom teacher. Only due to the schedule, they don't have the same planning period. Plus the Title One Teacher has to teach in 6 different classrooms throughout the day. 6 different teachers to collaborate with. Can you see how this doesn't work? It ends up being 45 minutes of the classroom teacher teaching math, then 45 of the Title One teacher teaching math (because we now have 90 minute blocks of math and reading, but the Title One teachers rotate in 45 minutes intervals so that they can get to more kids.

So take any kid (with a learning disability or one who is just struggling in general) stick them in a classroom with 32 other kids, throw in a handful of behavior problems (read, kids who have never been disciplined in their life and aren't about to start behaving now!) for 6 months. Then give them a huge, hyped up, standardized test. Show me how No Child gets Left Behind.

Now, my kid will do fine on the WESTEST. He's a smart kid. Reads well above level (which is a huge part of the test). Does okay on math. He's a good test taker. He'd do a heck of a lot better if it were not for our education system just about giving him an ulcer over it.

Curb Appeal!

Okay guys, I need some feedback! I need some ideas.

I've spent a lot of time this spring working on the outside of the house. I think it's finally starting to look decent!

Now I need to do something about our deck. It's a great deck, was a big selling point when we bought the house. It's basically like having an extra room on our house during the summer months. I haven't gotten all my cushions and curtains out because it's been a workshop while finishing the bathroom. Tile saws are messy, but we're almost done with that portion of the project!

I spent a good amount of time figuring out how to get my morning glories to climb our wooden fence. I love the look of hanging baskets and flowers on a fence....but let's face it...those can be pricey. I'm really trying to save money this year. So I got a $1 seed packet of morning glories, wrapped the posts in string (which will hopefully get hidden quickly as the vine grows!). Then I noticed we would have a problem when trying to trim around the fence.....no way to weed eat the grass, but not the flowering vine. So I cut plastic planters and attached them to the posts with tack nails, then planted the Morning Glories inside of those. They have no bottoms, to the roots can grow down and out, but the vines won't get cut with the trimmer. Here's what I ended up with:




My new conundrum is what to do around the deck. The lattice is old and falling apart....plus it's a pretty dated look. I need things that are relatively inexpensive, and pretty maintenance free. Kind of impossible, but here's that I'm thinking. Also, I must get rid of the dirty white stone. I don't like them around the porch at all. Depending on how I'm feeling, I may scrub it up nice and use if to fill the center of the driveway. Maybe. I'm not really fond of it.

Front of the porch. The porch is off to the side of our house, this part is visible from the street. I'm thinking some more of my tall grasses here, and more daisies. I just love that stuff. Plus, one day, far into the future, we hope to have a hot tub out there. Sorry, but this deck is just MADE for a hot tub. The grasses would offer a little more privacy most of the year.


Side of the porch. This side borders on our crabby old neighbor's house and gets NO direct sunlight. I'm thinking hostas here. The big, dark green ones, with just a few of the smaller, more ornamental ones throw in.


Back of the porch. Here's where I need your help. I just don't know.



As you can see, there's really not a lot of room between the porch and the swingset. So I can't have anything (like those big green hostas) that takes up a lot of space.

This is also the part of the porch that has the most lattice. You can see under it, and it's nasty in there. They covered the small, old (brick and tile) porch with plastic before building the deck over it. The plastic is disintegrating. There are also a few strange pipes sticking out and a rusty old dumptruck way under there. Both of my kids have wanted that nasty thing, I have no clue why. I'm not real into crawling under there myself to get it and trash it, so it's stayed under there. And don't get me started on the Virginia Creeper. THE CREEPER.... (sorry, you must have watched Scooby Doo as a child to really get that one)

I'm thinking I'm going to have to replace the lattice here. And maybe just mulch. If I can find a vine that can be well contained (ie, doesn't try to take over my whole porch) maybe I'll put some of that in, or maybe just some sturdy ground cover. But I don't know. It gets very little sun. What do you think?

** Sorry about those pictures! I didn't get around to taking them until twilight.

Sausage Roll

Over on the WV Bloggers board we've been having a discussion on what it THE WV food. Since the board is overpopulated by southerners.....they are saying bean and cornbread. (Ewww)

Sorry guys, no matter what the polls say, it's Pepperoni Rolls. Invented in WV still can't get them anywhere else. I'm not giving out a recipe, because it's pretty simple. Take some pepperoni, roll it in bread dough, bake. Your product will only be as good as the ingredients you put in it.

Today, we're talking about Sausage Roll. My family loves this stuff. It's an idea I got from my mom, but have adapted a little to make it easier.

You will need:

Some breakfast sausage (browned and crumbled). I don't know how much. Whatever comes in a normal size tub.

A can of French Bread Dough

6 slices cheese (We like Velveeta, but also do cheddar. Any cheese will do though).

Okay, so you've crumbled and browned the breakfast sausage. Drain it well.

Open the can of dough. Unroll it (just look for the seam, it's rolled up jelly roll style). Lay flat. Cover with cheese, leaving about an inch at the end clean for sealing.

Put the sausage on top of the cheese. Try to make it a pretty even layer. Again, leave that inch at the end.

Get that inch at the end slightly wet, roll the whole thing back up and pinch closed. Back seam side down according to the french bread dough directions.

Let cool slightly.

If we're having this as a main course for a meal (it's great for breakfast with eggs, or dinner with macaroni) then I slice it about 1 inch thick. If we're having it as a snack or I'm putting it out as a party appetizer, I slice it more thin.

Hmmm, I'll have to add some pictures to this post so you can see just how yummy this thing looks. I guess that means we'll be having sausage roll for dinner soon!

He'd forget his head, if it wasn't attached.

This is what I tell Jordan's teacher as I drop his forgotten lunch off for the 47th time this year.

"Yeah, we've figured that one out too" She smiles and replies. Seriously, he'd be walking around like this:

Instead, he just takes funny pictures of himself with my MacBook camera and runs around forgetting some very important, non-attached things. Lunches, homework, money, socks...

Celia has a great time taking the lunch to his school. She feels like a real big girl. We don't stick around long though, because we had important stuff to do.

Like sit in my fancy smancy lawn chair and take pictures of Celia running around the yard and playing with the hose.


I know, I know, big waste of water. Not an environmentally friendly activity. In my defense, I only turned the water on a trickle and turned the hose on mist. Mostly so she couldn't spray me, but it did also help conserve water.



Oh, but my fancy smancy chair....boy do I love that thing! It's a cross between a folding camp chair and a lounge chair. It's heaven....in aluminum and mesh. We bought it when I was about 4 month pregnant with Celia. We were walking through Sams Club, and I spotted it. After 4 months of battling a rather wretched case of morning sickness (that lasted all dang day) in front of equally wretched middle school kids......I wanted nothing more than to sit in it. I gave Chris my "I really need that chair" eyes and told him my summer plans entailed sitting in THAT chair, in the shade, and not moving for 3 months. I think I even gagged a little, just to get the point across.

So we bought the chair, and I did sit in it all summer. We even took it to the beach and he carried it down there for me every day. And it's been sat in every summer since.

Okay, I have to rant about shorts. I just want to buy a nice pair of shorts. No one sells nice shorts this year.

Well, that's not true. I found some really nice ones at Banana Republic, but I'm not paying that much for a pair of shorts. Especially ones that may not look that great on me. I'm not quite as tall and leggy as the models they use....plus I sure won't be wearing heels with them!

Because I did go try on some shorts. The breezy cotton gauchos that look so comfy and cute. They made my butt look to be the size of New Hamphire! it was awful. I was embarrassed to be wearing them in front of my toddler in a locked dressing room.

I looked at some other shorts. They were so tiny I could have tanned my butt cheeks while wearing them. No thanks.

So I'm stuck with my breezy skirts....which I really like. I got two last year form Gap that I love. They are reversible....so it's really two skirts in one! Stretchy smocked waistline....very forgiving of the extra ice cream I might like to eat. Casual enough to wear over my swimsuit, still dressy enough to wear to church.

They do have a really irritating habit of flying up and (hmmm, how did Dave Mathew's say it...) showing my world, well, to the world at large. In the parking lot of Burger King nonetheless, while trying to change my toddler in my friend's Suburban as she is doubled over in laughter at my backside flashing all of Sabraton while I try not to drop my squirming toddler in an effort to cover my own butt.

Thank goodness I've never been one of those trendy, thong wearin' mamas!

I guess I'll just make sure all my panties match my outfits again this year....or at least until I can find some good shorts.

Thanks Mom, Marrow Donor Drive!

Here's your chance!

If you missed it last time I blogged about becoming a marrow donor, now you have a another shot!

This is a big deal folks....you could save someone's life!

How many chances do you have to do something that big for another person? Unless you're a doctor, policeman, paramedic, fireman, or one of those other lifesaving professions that I'm forgetting, not too often.

It takes no skill, so special training. You don't have to spend years in medical school or jump into a burning building.

All you have to do is register to be a marrow donor. This week, in honor of Mother's Day (this Sunday, get me something nice, hint hint) you can register for absolutely free! Some nice person somewhere is paying all the lab costs for you to get registered. Isn't that nice of them?

So come on, do it for me. As your Mother's Day gift to me (no, I don't need bone marrow). I know, I'm not your mom, or the mother of your children (except for Chris, who does read this, but I already made him sign up. So he actually has to go out and get me something. He'll tell you how painless and easy it is to register.) But it's important to me. So do it already!

All you have to do is go HERE to register. Somewhere in that process (near the payment end) it will have a field for a promotional code, so here it is:

thanksmom0507e

Get everything filled out and in a few weeks you'll get some more information and some extra large Q-Tips. All you have to do is wiggle them around on the inside of your mouth, send them back, and go on with your life.

You'll probably never hear from them again.

But one day, you might get a call, and you could save the live of someone's mother. Or their child, father, sister, brother, boss, friend, or crabby neighbor. And you will feel really good about it.

So do it!!!

Woozy at the Dentist's Office.

Jordan had his big dental appointment this morning, the one to get his mouth all ready for braces. He had an extra tooth that needed to be removed, plus some cavities (he inherited my weak, deeply grooved teeth...poor kid). Anyway, we knew he was going to need to be sedated for the tooth removal and decided to all the unpleasant things (molds of his mouth for braces, a cavities, etc) at once.

We're kind of doing it step by step because, well, it's costly. We have dental insurance, be we still can't afford to do all of it at once. And the biggie that the insurance won't cover is sedation. But my little guy has worked up a serious case of anxiety over this....plus....no way would I get a tooth pulled while wide awake. I'm not going to expect my kid to do it. So we got all the nasty stuff taken care of while he was drugged up.

We scheduled it first thing this morning because he couldn't eat for 12 hours beforehand. He wakes up ravenous each day, so we figured the sooner we get it over with, the better. That meant all of us had to be out the door at 6:50 this morning, a full 40 minutes before we're usually awake.

He did great though! We admitted afterwards that he cried some during the shots, but that he didn't even feel anything else. He's still pretty dopey, and starved. He's done nothing but eat. And drink Coke. He never gets it, but the dentist recommended it and said to give him as much of anything he wanted to drink, so he's working his way through a two-liter. And loving every minute of it.

But the wooziness....oh it was awful. We went in the little consultation room for post-op instructions and such. She started talking about oozing and clots.....oh my. My ears started ringing, my face was tingling.......I had to ask her to stop talking and put my head between my knees for quite awhile. (What, you thought I was talking about the kid being woozy? The one who just had 2 hours of dental work and is doped to the gills? No, he's fine....)

So fine in fact that when I told the girl I was feeling woozy, he scooted fast as a cat to the other end of the bench, just in case there was some puking. No one wants to sit next to their mom when she pukes (though I wasn't feeling like THAT at all, just like I was about to hit the floor), even if they are floating on cloud nine!

Celia also had her very first cleaning. I made it through that one fine (as did she).

We're done with the dentist now for at least a month.