Mother Nature is on my sh*t list!

Yeah, had to cancel my daughter's 2nd birthday party, school has been out all week (that puts 9 kids in my house!)- probably the rest of it too and my son has a cast on his arm.

Mother Nature is on my "naughty" list this year!

Happy Birthday to my Baby, uh... I mean Toddler!

Oh my gosh, I can't believe 2 years have gone by. I can't believe she isn't technically a "baby" anymore. Can I at least still get away with calling her the baby for 8 more years or so?

This are the things I've learned over the last 2 years:

• I STILL hate the terrible 2's... even after 8 and a half years.
• Little feet are so fun to play with in the wee hours of the morning.
• I enjoying doing little girl hair! Who would have known?
• Shoes are a wonderful thing. Collect as many as you can.
• Same goes for hair pretties.
• And baby dolls.
• I must be a good mommy because When Jaizy plays with her baby dolls she is the bestest baby-doll mommy ever. Monkey see, monkey do, right?
• I can still read "How Do Dinosaurs Say Good-night" by memory.
• Same with "I Love Your Forever"
• And "Where The Wild Things Are"
• And "Quick As A Cricket"
• And "Oh The Places You'll Go"
  
• All in my teacher-mommy-desiree way of reading books.
• Chocolate Milk is a requirement for good behavior.
• Mommy and Daddy's beds must be far more comfortable than big girl beds.
• A smile is a good way to get out of trouble. (Man! She learned this one YOUNG!)
• Little girls + pencils = very artistically decorated dining table chairs.
• Big brothers all have their special place in little sister's hearts. They all have a certain purpose. Matthew is for entertainment. JoNathan is for playing with. Caden is for cuddling with. (see pictures below)
• All Daddys should have a little girl if they want one. (See pictures below)
• That Mommys should too, even if they didn't know they wanted one.

12.16.08 25 hours old.

7.3.07 Mom can't make me laugh! But Bubba Can!

9-15-07

12-15-07

5-9-08

12-14-08

9-17-08

4.27.08

6.27.08

9.25.08 Yes Jason is IN the Rose Petal Cottage with Jaizy

12.15.08

12.15.08

Bleh...

I woke up this morning not feeling very good. Bleh.
I asked Jason to take the kids to school and he wouldn't. Bleh.
I have a doctors appointment to have a nerve conduction test done on my leg at 10:40 this morning. Bleh.
I won boobie prize at bunco last night (that's LAST PLACE! lol) Bleh.
I want to eat, but I don't want to throw up. Bleh.
Oh yeah... I really wish I could have some coffee... maybe later?

Failure

I've enrolled my son in a brick and mortar school today.
What? you may ask is a brick and mortar school? Well, I was not happy with the neighborhood school after we moved to the OC. I pulled them out of their great charter school for convenience purposes and I was not happy. When I called them at the end of the school year last year there would be room for Nathan to come back but not Caden. Poo. Really. Well at the risk of enrolling him into a different school just to have him switch to Sojo if there was room the following year I decided to just home teach him. But with help, so we looked into various virtual academies. Found the one we decided on and enrollment was fairly painless and away we went.
Well, it was frustrating to say the least. They based Caden's placements on pre-tests. Well, he doesn't read at level, so they placed ALL his core classes besides math at below grade level, so a lot of it is repeat, including math since he was in a charter school, he really is ahead in that subject. I could totally understand having literature arts at below grade level, but why science, history, social studies and etc? Why? So now he feels like a failure because he is literally repeating everything he's already learned. I've brought this up several times to different people at the VA. Their answer? Well, he can pretest and skip it if he passes. um... how is that going to help him learn things AT grade level?
So... we initially set a date (last Wednesday) to evaluate the VA (virtual academy) subject and he could decide to go to a local public (ai: brick and mortar) school or keep going at the VA. He chose back to school.
So I went and enrolled him at the same school my child care kids go to, so at least he'll know kids there and a bonus? It'll help with transportation purposes!
He's very excited to go. He came home and grabbed his backpack and then started playing the computer that will be leaving us soon. (it belongs to the VA).
Wow... I'll get my work space back... that's a good thing!
Plus maybe I'll get some other things done during the day besides schooling. That'll be nice.

To all the cars I've loved before...

ok, so I was thinking about this the other day and thought to myself "I need to make up a list of all the cars we've owned... oh my goodness, there are so many!"

So here goes!
Year acquired year, make and model year de-quired!

1. 1993 1981 Chevy Chevette Baby! 1994 (My first car)
   
2. 1994 1984.5 Nissan 200 SX 1995 (Jason's first car)
3. 1994 1984 Ford Mustang 1994 I was gonna buy this but I wrecked it instead
   
4. 1994 1978 Toyota Celica 1995 I really loved this car
5. 1995 1992 Ford Tempo 1996 I really hated this car
6. 1996 1973 VW Bus 1996 I really like this car
7. 1996 1986 Nissan Stanza 1996 (ugh)
8. 1996 1972 GM Suburban 1996 we owned this for 3 days, it blew up
9. 1996 1982 Suburu ?GL? 1997 we had this for about a month
10. 1997 1991 Nissan Sentra 1998 Liked this one!
11. 1997 1988 Hyundai Excel 1999 what a trooper!
12. 1998 1993 Chevy Astro van 1999 eh...
13. 1999 70 Chevelle Malibu 1999 moved and had to sell :(
14. 1999 90 Isuzu Trooper 2000 4 months owned, 4 times in the shop!
15. 2000 1986 Mazda 626 2002 great car!
16. 2000 1992 Plymouth Gr.Voyager 2004 built in car seats Yipee!
17. 2002 1994 Dodge Intrepid 2003 I wrecked this... bummer
18. 2005 1992 Dodge Spirit 2005 Someone gave it to us, and we gave it away
19. 2004 1994 Dodge Gr. Caravan 2006 love this van...
    
20. 2005 2003 Kia Rio Still have!
21. 2006 1998 Dodge Gr. Caravan Still have! Told you I loved this van lol!
22. 2008 1989 Ford Bronco Still have!

So... how rediculous is this list!

this, that or maybe the other?

ok, so I'm decisive. Go figure, I'm a girl! It's not sexist, I truly believe that girls, ladies, women (whatever!) have more that they deal with so sometimes they (we) make the wrong decision first but quickly realize (or not so quickly) that we have to go another direction.
For example:
About a month and a half ago I decided that we were going to move Jaizy out of her room permanently (she didn't sleep in there anyway!) and put her bed in our room. All of her toys are in the living room, so that wasn't an issue. We moved the computers into her room along with the weight machine.
Well.... I HATED the computers in there! It was too difficult to homeschool Caden (he needs a lot of my attention) and keep an eye on the little girls, one of whom is pottytraining. I can NOT be in two different rooms at the same time, no matter how much I try.
SO today the computers went back into the dining/family room. Problem solved, right? Jaizy's room is now storage/exercise and "business center" ie: photocopy machine, storage cabinet, homeschooling books and supplies, j's armoire... lots of different "stuff". Is that so bad?

So I feel like I made a wrong decision when it really just wasn't a "right" decision, right?

I'm mean

yes, I am. I sent my 8th grader to school today when he thought he was taking the day off. He had plenty of opportunity to get his missing (and current!) assignments turned in and he is missing a few, resulting in a poor grade. So I didn't let him take it off, even though Dad has vacation and was thinking of taking his boys hiking or something.
So... I'm mean today and he is sooooo pissed off at me!
Oh well... I guess that means I'm doing something right.

Google Calendar

ok, so if you didn't know I love cozi.com... until recently.
Yesterday, yes yesterd, I discovered google calendar. It is everything cozi isn't and better yet, it's very compatible with my blackberry. Oh, it gets better every time I mess with it!

I can color code by person, I can only look at one "topic" and I was able to add different calendars, such as US holidays and lunar cycle on it. It even has a daily forecast.
It emails or texts reminders to me as I request and I can send reminders or invites to others by email.

I am going to delete my cozi account. I haven't been using it as much. Since I got my blackberry I have been doing my shopping lists, menus, calendar, really everything on it. I was only frustrated with the inability to sync the calendar on my handheld with my cozi calendar. Well, problem solved.

Thank you phone tech wizard who has made my life so much easier... if I wasn't already married with such a busy life, I would be hunting you down.

I highly suggest you check it out. Yes, you do have to have a google account, but if you don't already have one, you really do need to get one anyway. Picasa is wonderful and now google calendar. Now all I need is someone to cook, clean, chaufer, and shop for me and I'd be eternally happy.

This is a new experience

Here goes...
I don't want to be left in the dust and be the only one not "blogging".
However I have nothing to say at the moment, so stay tuned...