Less Broken Than Before

After four weeks in a toe to crotch cast, Thing One (formerly known as broken boy) is now in a shiny new smaller cast that only goes from his toes to just under his knee.  The best part is that when we got home from the doctor this morning he was able to submerge almost all of himself in a nice bath with lots and LOTS of soap.  He's cleaner than he has been all month.

Smells better too, Thing Two (formerly known as unbroken boy) was able to get close to him without passing out from the fumes.

He's got one more month in the cast before it comes off.  Just in time for school to start.  Bummer Summer Dude.

Uterus Vase

Is it wrong that I want to buy this and put it on my coffee table full of red flowers just to freak people out? I am a sick, sick person.

Found on cribcandy

Auntie Rocks

I love being an Aunt. Spending time with my nieces and nephews is one of my favorite pastimes. Unfortunately most of them live out of town or out of state so I don't get to see them as often as I'd like. The two newest additions to the family are my brother's little girls who are 2 years old and 3 months old. They were in town over the weekend and I made a complete fool out of myself talking baby-talk and smooshing their cheeks with kisses.

Aren't they adorable?!? I will hug them and kiss them and squeeze them and call them George. 2 yo. niece has recently started sucking on her fingers, quite probably in response to the small pink animal her parents brought home from the hospital and refuse to return. Luckily she has not forgotten how to smile for the camera...

Can't start reading to them too young. I hate reading aloud except for books that rhyme. (Weird, I know.) So I read Go Dog, Go by Dr. Seuss to them. My kids heard a lot of Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein when they were small because that's all I would read to them. I'm a mean, selfish bitch of a mother.

I took non-broken son and 2 yo. niece to a little park that is within walking distance of my Mom's house and they had a great time on the playground. 2 yo. had to do EVERYTHING her big cousin did and he was incredibly patient and gentle with her from going down the slide with her on his lap to helping her climb the ladders. She called him "silly boy" and they had such a good time goofing around together. I think of the twins as being my babies but watching them with their baby cousins makes me realize how big they are getting.

The best part about being an aunt? I didn't have to deal with 2 yo. niece's temper tantrum before dinner or 3 month old niece's dirty diapers and nursing AND I got to go home and sleep through the night.

Nirvana.

Six Random Things

The Girl Next Door tagged me for random six things. My first tag! Here are six random things about me:

1. When I make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich the peanut butter has to be totally even and go all the way to the edges of the bread and I put peanut butter on both pieces of bread so the jelly won't soak into it and make it all soggy.

2. I love cars and would buy a new car every year if I could afford it. Jay Leno is my hero car collector. (My husband has no interest in cars at all, they're only a means of getting from point A to point B and nothing more.)

(This is a lot harder than I thought it would be.)

3. I hate to iron and won't do it. My Grandmother irons the few shirts of my husbands that need it because she doesn't want people to know that I would let him go out in a wrinkled shirt. THE HORROR! (Or he irons them himself. I don't care, I refuse to do it.)

4. I don't care what kind of wild and crazy hair my kids have. Daughter's hair has been purple, red and orange streaked and she's got her eye on even weirder styles. Whatever.

5. I love history and if I could meet someone from the past I'd pick Catherine DeMedici. Or maybe Mozart - he'd be fun to party with.

6. While weeding my garden the other day I found a dead bunny that one of the animals had killed and buried. (In a much too shallow grave I might add.) I left it there.

THE RULES:
Link to the person who tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Write six random things about yourself.
Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
Let your tagger know when your blog entry is up.
Who’s up? Let’s see…

Shelly because she irons every fucking thing she owns and she's the best stepmonster in the world.

Brittany because I almost peed my pants when I read the post about her pet tick

Christy because I love 80's trivia too

Embee because I aspire to her kind of creative and flexible parenting

Ok, so that's only four people. I broke the rules. Whatever.

Stupid Filter

What a great idea, a stupid filter!

Now if they could only make stupid appear as an obvious physical characteristic so stupids could be easily and readily identifiable...

Paying for School

Making the decision to return to school full-time was not an easy one for me.  After getting married at 19 and catching pregnant on our honeymoon (THANK YOU birth control pills + antibiotics!) I was not the average student on campus at my local community college.  Officially I am - I think it's in my file somewhere - a "non-traditional student".  Standing in line with a bunch of 17 and 18 year olds to see the advisors was a humbling experience.  And in some of my classes I've had classmates only a couple years older than my daughter because they are Running Start students and are only in high school.  Everyone at the school has been wonderful though and I am getting an amazing education.

So the hard part?  Spending all that money on myself.  My tuition for community college ran about $900 per quarter plus books which were anywhere from $175 to $500 per quarter depending on the classes.  We've been lucky enough to be able to pay as we go and last year I won a scholarship that paid for $1200 of tuition over the whole year which also helped immensely.  However 4 year universities are much more expensive, even the state schools.  So I will be meeting with a financial aid counselor to find out what I need to do to get a loan.  We don't qualify for financial aid but these counselors are great about helping students figure out how to get their education paid for and I will be taking full advantage of their expertise.  But I have been dragging my feet to make the appointment and trying to figure out what my problem is with the whole concept.  It came to me last night...spending all that money on ME.

My brain is fully on board with the fact that this is money well spent.  I will come out the other end of the education chute with a degree and job potential far and away better than what I entered it with.  I can return to work full-time and my husband can scale back his construction business to have time for his passions instead of working so hard to be the sole support of our family.  I want him to be able to relax and enjoy himself because he has spent so many years working his butt off for us.

But my emotions/heart/whatever...not so happy with spending that much money on me.  Funny how I don't have any issue with the idea of paying for (or at least helping) with our kids college educations.  My daughter wants to spend a year in Australia as an exchange student in high school and I'm all over that opportunity for her even though it will be expensive.  The boys have dreams of acting and M.I.T. so a large portion of our earnings will go towards helping them make those dreams come true.  Spending money on myself though?  This much money?  It's hard and I don't know why, especially since I know it is the absolutely best thing for our whole family.  My husband is more than supportive, he encourages me at every turn and does the lions share of the housework and cooking when I am up to my eyeballs in mid-terms and finals and stressing out about school.  The kids pitch in and we all do our homework together, they're learning about college from my example and even get to come to classes with me.  So I have some work to do on my emotional/heart/whatever side...

I have to be selfish.  I have to make this dream of mine, to become a high school history teacher who passes along a passion for history and the lessons we can learn from the past to her students, a reality.  I have to focus on myself more than I am used to.  I have to say no to a lot of the volunteering opportunities that I love to help with.  I have to ask for more help from my family in caring for my kids and my Grandmother.

I have an appointment with the financial aid counselor on Wednesday.

Broken Kid

Having a kid in a cast that goes from his toes to his crotch has made me realize that our decision to stop breeding after the twins were born was the 100% correct one.  I didn't get an unbroken night of sleep for three and a half weeks after he fractured his leg and I'm back to serving breakfast, lunch and dinner to him along with numerous snacks throughout the day.  Bathing him is an exercise involving plastic bags, duct tape and strategically placed washcloths to prevent my eyes from accidentally seeing his junk.  (The same junk I wiped and diapered for three and a half years and that he was happy to waggle around in the fresh air for God and everyone to see for days at a time during the nudist years of three to five but will now apparently wither up and fall off if it comes into my line of vision.)

I'm tired and cranky and can't wait for him to be able to get himself to the bathroom and bathe the stinky 12 year old smell off himself properly.

Of course the broken kid is the one who asked his father to teach him how to make coffee and how I like mine fixed so he could bring me coffee in bed on Saturday mornings.  (Is my kid awesome or what?  He knows how to ensure the weekend is a good one!)  Saturday just isn't the same with him broken.

Nope, no more newborns for us.  I like self-sufficient 12 and 13 year olds.  Is it selfish of me to feel sorry for myself when it's my kid who has a broken leg?

Whatever.

I hate pharmacies

Why does the person coughing up a lung always sit right next to me?  Even though there are numerous other empty chairs in the waiting area NOT close to other people?  I don't want whatever disgusting lung disease you are suffering from old man!!!

I got up and moved to another chair.  Now I'm going to go bathe in purell and rinse with bleach.  

blech.

Will I lose interest?

One thing I have always had trouble with is sticking with things long term.  Yes I've been married for almost 15 years (OMFG could it be that long already?!?!) and the children seem to be sticking around for the long haul despite my best efforts to drive them off but I am a fickle person and flit from one interest to another with all the deep commitment of a gnat.  So I am beginning this blog with the attitude akin to an observer of human nature - can I stick with it?  Do I want to? Does anyone even care?

Whatever.