Happy Leap Day! This is the first Leap Year Carter is old enough to grasp that we have an extra day and why. I mean, if his teachers give him a good explanation today, that is.
Daddy and Mommy gave him the simplified version this morning: It takes 365 1/4 days to rotate around the sun each year. So every 4th year, we throw in an extra day to even it out and keep Daylight Savings Time on track, etc.
Then Carter responds with something like: "Did you know the Earth's rotation slows down 10 seconds every decade?" Clearly, the future scientist is more entrenched in Solar System facts than Mom and Dad.
I suspect in general Leap Day is far more interesting to scientists (and wanna-bes like Carter) and those who actually have a birthday or anniversary of sorts on that day. On the way to work, hubby says, "Twenty years ago today I started working at the newspaper." So technically, he only had 3 work anniversaries while employed there 15 years. That would explain why he got so few raises.
Although it seems like just another day, wouldn't it be great if we could stop time, have no requirements to work or go to school, and say: "Here's an extra day for you. Do what you want!"
Wouldn't that be cool? 24 extra hours to scrapbook or golf or play Madden '08 with Carter (just kidding on that one -- I wouldn't know the first thing about operating PS2). If we could pick (and I don't mean to be selfish), I would rather have that extra day in the summer naturally, since I'd rather curse over a missed putt than trudge through the woods on snowshoes.
What would you do with a Leap Day like that?
Friday, February 29, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Does 'young at heart' count?
We shall not regret the past nor close the door on it...
You know you're getting old when you are technically old enough to be the mother of one of your co-workers. Yikes.
Today is my friend Katy's birthday. She's 24. That means she was born in 1984. And that means she was born the same year I got my driver's license and was learning to type on those fancy electric typewriters in Mr. Lake's class.
Some of the older people at work (and I qualify) say they'd love to be 24 again. I'm not so sure. If I went back, would I be smart enough not to get my heart broken that summer? (And the few times after that?) Would I still be a party girl? Would I be more financially responsible?
As much as there are some moments from my wild, young and single days that I wouldn't mind re-living, I wouldn't go back and change anything -- even the mistakes. Some made my life hell at the time, but now I can say I learned from them. I wouldn't change my life decisions either -- professional, geographic or emotional. They all had to happen for me to meet and befriend some of the neatest people on the planet along the way and get me where I am today -- married to my best friend and the father of three incredible boys.
Nope, other than the gray hairs my "hair artist" makes disappear every other month, I wouldn't go back to being 24 for anything. Besides, 15 years later, I'm actually a few pounds lighter now. You don't hear me say that every day! Now if only they'd extend this Biggest Loser contest over a few years, I might have chance.
You know you're getting old when you are technically old enough to be the mother of one of your co-workers. Yikes.
Today is my friend Katy's birthday. She's 24. That means she was born in 1984. And that means she was born the same year I got my driver's license and was learning to type on those fancy electric typewriters in Mr. Lake's class.
Some of the older people at work (and I qualify) say they'd love to be 24 again. I'm not so sure. If I went back, would I be smart enough not to get my heart broken that summer? (And the few times after that?) Would I still be a party girl? Would I be more financially responsible?
As much as there are some moments from my wild, young and single days that I wouldn't mind re-living, I wouldn't go back and change anything -- even the mistakes. Some made my life hell at the time, but now I can say I learned from them. I wouldn't change my life decisions either -- professional, geographic or emotional. They all had to happen for me to meet and befriend some of the neatest people on the planet along the way and get me where I am today -- married to my best friend and the father of three incredible boys.
Nope, other than the gray hairs my "hair artist" makes disappear every other month, I wouldn't go back to being 24 for anything. Besides, 15 years later, I'm actually a few pounds lighter now. You don't hear me say that every day! Now if only they'd extend this Biggest Loser contest over a few years, I might have chance.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Pre-March Madness
Before March Madness begins, there is February Frenzy (well, there must be some clever name out there) for those of us who follow high school basketball.
My friend Julie emailed me that the boys from our alma mater, Luck High School, have advanced to sectionals. We shared a painful memory of when we (as in our high school boys team -- not the 2 of us) made it to sectionals our junior year and we lost by 1 stinkin' point.
The heart-breaker was that it was on a technical. It was a tie game and down to a few seconds. One of our guys (name withheld) was asking the coach through a hand signal "Do we have any timeouts left?" The ref saw it and thought he was actually signaling for a timeout. We didn't have any left so we got a technical. The other team got to shoot and we had a long, quiet ride home from Spooner.
It's amazing the clarity of that memory. I guess at that point in life, that was the most important thing going on. So much emotion was tied up in school loyalty. It could be a wonderful thing. And a heart-wrenching thing.
The last time the Cardinal boys actually made it to state and played in that championship game was way back in 1973, when some of my older sisters were in high school. They lost by 2 points. One of the players on that team, Rick Giller, is now the coach of our boys team. I hope with a little Luck, he can finally bring that championship home.
Go Cards!
My friend Julie emailed me that the boys from our alma mater, Luck High School, have advanced to sectionals. We shared a painful memory of when we (as in our high school boys team -- not the 2 of us) made it to sectionals our junior year and we lost by 1 stinkin' point.
The heart-breaker was that it was on a technical. It was a tie game and down to a few seconds. One of our guys (name withheld) was asking the coach through a hand signal "Do we have any timeouts left?" The ref saw it and thought he was actually signaling for a timeout. We didn't have any left so we got a technical. The other team got to shoot and we had a long, quiet ride home from Spooner.
It's amazing the clarity of that memory. I guess at that point in life, that was the most important thing going on. So much emotion was tied up in school loyalty. It could be a wonderful thing. And a heart-wrenching thing.
The last time the Cardinal boys actually made it to state and played in that championship game was way back in 1973, when some of my older sisters were in high school. They lost by 2 points. One of the players on that team, Rick Giller, is now the coach of our boys team. I hope with a little Luck, he can finally bring that championship home.
Go Cards!
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Carter Joseph Stallin'
Without fail, bedtime is the most drawn-out part of the day at our house. As soon as we approach 8:34, Carter starts stalling for time.
Why 8:34? When Carter was in kindergarten, his bedtime was 8:30 p.m. We said we'd add a minute each year. So this school year the fourth-grader can stay up until 8:34. So far it's worked. Well, not really. We are lucky if he is even in his bedroom by 8:34.
Something always comes up -- like he forgot to pack something in his backpack. Or forgot to feed the cat. Or forgot to floss. Or forgot to do his push-ups and jumping jacks (that's the new one).
Once he is in bed, then he suddenly has news to tell us. "Mom, look at my knee. I scraped it during recess. Can you put a Band-Aid on it?" or "Mom, is there a lump on my head where I got hit with the soccer ball?" or "I had to go to the office today because I wasn't feeling well."
Wow. All these emergencies. All this news and he waits until bedtime to bring it up, knowing a conversation will ensue and it won't be "lights out" until closer to 9. We try to rush it along but don't want to appear cold and uncaring -- especially when there is an injury involved.
Last night's "injury" was hurt feelings. That was a tough one. You can't restore someone's self-esteem in 15 minutes (despite what you might see on TV). There's also the fact that kids don't care what their parents think. We can tell Carter he's not a dork or idiot -- he's cool -- until we're blue in the face, but it does no good when kids say something to the contrary.
So we kiss him, hug him and wipe away the tears and tell him he's awesome anyway. Then we go to bed and lose sleep, too, wondering how we as parents who "don't know anything" can convince our stalling, bedtime-delaying son that he is the bright spot in the center of our universe. That's one thing we do know.
Why 8:34? When Carter was in kindergarten, his bedtime was 8:30 p.m. We said we'd add a minute each year. So this school year the fourth-grader can stay up until 8:34. So far it's worked. Well, not really. We are lucky if he is even in his bedroom by 8:34.
Something always comes up -- like he forgot to pack something in his backpack. Or forgot to feed the cat. Or forgot to floss. Or forgot to do his push-ups and jumping jacks (that's the new one).
Once he is in bed, then he suddenly has news to tell us. "Mom, look at my knee. I scraped it during recess. Can you put a Band-Aid on it?" or "Mom, is there a lump on my head where I got hit with the soccer ball?" or "I had to go to the office today because I wasn't feeling well."
Wow. All these emergencies. All this news and he waits until bedtime to bring it up, knowing a conversation will ensue and it won't be "lights out" until closer to 9. We try to rush it along but don't want to appear cold and uncaring -- especially when there is an injury involved.
Last night's "injury" was hurt feelings. That was a tough one. You can't restore someone's self-esteem in 15 minutes (despite what you might see on TV). There's also the fact that kids don't care what their parents think. We can tell Carter he's not a dork or idiot -- he's cool -- until we're blue in the face, but it does no good when kids say something to the contrary.
So we kiss him, hug him and wipe away the tears and tell him he's awesome anyway. Then we go to bed and lose sleep, too, wondering how we as parents who "don't know anything" can convince our stalling, bedtime-delaying son that he is the bright spot in the center of our universe. That's one thing we do know.
Monday, February 25, 2008
News to me...
Chicken Little: Good news in the "sky is falling" department. The Pentagon said today it has a "high degree of confidence" that the missile fired at a dead U.S. spy satellite in space (remember the one the size of a bus?) destroyed the satellite's fuel tank as planned. Apparently, a space operations center in California is tracking some 3,000 pieces of debris, all smaller than a football. Well, I still think an object smaller than a football, falling thousands of feet from the sky, could hurt, don't you? Think: baseball, Coke bottle, telephone...
Tooth Fairy: I got Scott and Jana's take today on Carter's weekend visit. He behaved quite well and was patient with their almost 4-year-old (for the first 12 hours anyway). If you recall, Carter lost a tooth on Friday so they got to play Tooth Fairy that night. Carter put his tooth in his little snack-sized Ziploc bag and put it under his pillow, where he found two presidential dollars in the morning. One tiny detail Carter was quick to point out to the fairies-in-training: "She (as in the Tooth Fairy) doesn't usually doesn't take the baggie." Oops. I think he still believes -- especially since the ante has been upped to presidential dollars now!
Oscars: I'm glad I didn't bother staying up for the Oscars. Looks like No Country for Old Men took home a bunch. I didn't see that movie (yet) so I wouldn't have been excited or impressed. Sort of like the year Titanic won everything and I was the only person in the western hemisphere who hadn't seen it yet! (Yes, I've seen it since. What's all the fuss?) Of course, now that I am typing about it, the Celine Dion theme song for Titanic is starting to play through my head. I hate when that happens!
Winter Break: We got a reprieve from the arctic air yesterday and today. The mercury moved up beyond the 30 mark! The joy is short-lived, naturally, and temps will dip down to single digits again by tomorrow night. Did I mention I am going somewhere warm for spring break (tee hee)? Three weeks from now, I'll already be in toasty Texas -- where it is 93 degrees as I type this. Whoo hoo!
Concession Stand: We'll be signing up Carter for baseball this evening, which means Mommy and Daddy will have candy bars for sale at their desks for the next few weeks ... or until the box of 50 is gone. Even if you gave up chocolate for Lent, buy one and stick it in your freezer. If we don't sell them, we get stuck eating them ... and I don't think my Biggest Loser team would appreciate that.
(What? Don't all newscasts end in a commercial?)
Tooth Fairy: I got Scott and Jana's take today on Carter's weekend visit. He behaved quite well and was patient with their almost 4-year-old (for the first 12 hours anyway). If you recall, Carter lost a tooth on Friday so they got to play Tooth Fairy that night. Carter put his tooth in his little snack-sized Ziploc bag and put it under his pillow, where he found two presidential dollars in the morning. One tiny detail Carter was quick to point out to the fairies-in-training: "She (as in the Tooth Fairy) doesn't usually doesn't take the baggie." Oops. I think he still believes -- especially since the ante has been upped to presidential dollars now!
Oscars: I'm glad I didn't bother staying up for the Oscars. Looks like No Country for Old Men took home a bunch. I didn't see that movie (yet) so I wouldn't have been excited or impressed. Sort of like the year Titanic won everything and I was the only person in the western hemisphere who hadn't seen it yet! (Yes, I've seen it since. What's all the fuss?) Of course, now that I am typing about it, the Celine Dion theme song for Titanic is starting to play through my head. I hate when that happens!
Winter Break: We got a reprieve from the arctic air yesterday and today. The mercury moved up beyond the 30 mark! The joy is short-lived, naturally, and temps will dip down to single digits again by tomorrow night. Did I mention I am going somewhere warm for spring break (tee hee)? Three weeks from now, I'll already be in toasty Texas -- where it is 93 degrees as I type this. Whoo hoo!
Concession Stand: We'll be signing up Carter for baseball this evening, which means Mommy and Daddy will have candy bars for sale at their desks for the next few weeks ... or until the box of 50 is gone. Even if you gave up chocolate for Lent, buy one and stick it in your freezer. If we don't sell them, we get stuck eating them ... and I don't think my Biggest Loser team would appreciate that.
(What? Don't all newscasts end in a commercial?)
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Happy Camper
Some of those who don't scrapbook have likened my hobby to a cult. So going away for a whole weekend to scrap must be considered a group seance to communicate with the scrapbookers from beyond. Granted it did take place at a camp, but I think all that funky stuff only happens when teenagers are there in the summer.
This was my fifth year at the infamous Camp Crop-A-Lot. For the non-scrappers, we call a scrapbooking workshop a "crop" (derived from cropping photos, etc.). Many of our hubbies have often inserted new words for crop and scrap, so anything you have to say here, trust me, I've heard it all before!
It's really just a weekend to scrap -- uninterrupted and with the opportunity to steal and share layout ideas. We say fun is mandatory but sleep is optional. Yes, we are corny and I love it!
My scrapbooking projects involve chronological family memory albums. I started with 1998 -- when Carter made us a "family." I am currently working on my 2006 book. My goal for camp was to get most of that done if I could. I completed 36 pages and got as far as December so I feel pretty good about that progress. I've got about 10 more pages to do and I am done with that album. (Yay!) Then it's on to the 2007 one...
It may sound like I am almost caught up, but I'm not even close. My stepson graduates in 2009 so I only have a little over a year to do a book just for him. I also only got as far as getting a kindergarten book done for Carter (who's closing out 4th grade). Then there's the Sister Weekend book and all that genealogy stuff Jim and I have going. So there is always some memory to preserve in an album.
Going to camp gives me the opportunity to power scrap once a year and make some headway. We also get to wear "scrapbooking clothes" and talk about things like "power layouts" that only scrappers would understand. The 2-inch mattresses are a pain to sleep on but the "camp food" is much better than I remember. And the pajama parties still make us giggle.
I did manage to get some sleep but not enough to keep me up for the duration of the Oscars tonight. I was going to say you'll have to let me know how they turn out, but our email is still in a Black Hole. Thank goodness the Internet still works. If all else fails, I could blog all day about being a happy camper. (Fine, I know. Who needs to hear about that scrap?)
This was my fifth year at the infamous Camp Crop-A-Lot. For the non-scrappers, we call a scrapbooking workshop a "crop" (derived from cropping photos, etc.). Many of our hubbies have often inserted new words for crop and scrap, so anything you have to say here, trust me, I've heard it all before!
It's really just a weekend to scrap -- uninterrupted and with the opportunity to steal and share layout ideas. We say fun is mandatory but sleep is optional. Yes, we are corny and I love it!
My scrapbooking projects involve chronological family memory albums. I started with 1998 -- when Carter made us a "family." I am currently working on my 2006 book. My goal for camp was to get most of that done if I could. I completed 36 pages and got as far as December so I feel pretty good about that progress. I've got about 10 more pages to do and I am done with that album. (Yay!) Then it's on to the 2007 one...
It may sound like I am almost caught up, but I'm not even close. My stepson graduates in 2009 so I only have a little over a year to do a book just for him. I also only got as far as getting a kindergarten book done for Carter (who's closing out 4th grade). Then there's the Sister Weekend book and all that genealogy stuff Jim and I have going. So there is always some memory to preserve in an album.
Going to camp gives me the opportunity to power scrap once a year and make some headway. We also get to wear "scrapbooking clothes" and talk about things like "power layouts" that only scrappers would understand. The 2-inch mattresses are a pain to sleep on but the "camp food" is much better than I remember. And the pajama parties still make us giggle.
I did manage to get some sleep but not enough to keep me up for the duration of the Oscars tonight. I was going to say you'll have to let me know how they turn out, but our email is still in a Black Hole. Thank goodness the Internet still works. If all else fails, I could blog all day about being a happy camper. (Fine, I know. Who needs to hear about that scrap?)
Friday, February 22, 2008
The Black Hole
By some strange coincidence, the same night as the lunar eclipse, our company email system shut down. I know (or do I?) that it was merely a coincidence, but I feel like it was something cosmic, sending us into this Black Hole of no communication that lasted all day Thursday and may not be resolved until late this afternoon.
What a strange vacuum we're in without email! We actually have to pick up the phone or walk all the way across the building to someone's desk to talk to them. Imagine that. Can we keep that up for another whole day?! (I'm not too concerned as I have off today and am packing for Camp Crop-A-Lot -- my yearly scrapbooking getaway!)
Despite the Black Hole effect, Carter and I did enjoy the lunar eclipse. At our house, the sky was perfectly clear so we had a great view from our sub-zero front deck. We set a timer and would go out and look at it every 5 minutes or so because that's all we could handle in the cold. (Why don't these things happen in the summer?) We used his telescope a few times, but could clearly view the "color transition" with the naked eye. Neat experience!
Speaking of Black Holes (talk about transition, ha ha), Carter has another one in his mouth. He had a super loose tooth last night but I just couldn't pull it out. Admittedly, I am the ultimate in squeamish about that sort of thing, but I did try. I told Carter to tell me if he lost it during the night so we'd make sure he didn't get blood on his pillow.
Really, I just didn't want to screw up the Tooth Fairy delivery again! Just to be safe, we've hired the job out. Seriously, someone else will play Tooth Fairy tonight. Since Jim is out of town and I am leaving town, Carter will be staying with our friends Scott and Jana. I warned them this morning about the big job tonight. This will give them good practice, though, for their son Will, who's almost 4 and has awhile to go before losing any teeth.
My fear is that they'll do such a good job (and who wouldn't compared to our debacle last time?!), that Carter will want to stay at their house every time he loses a tooth going forward! Whatever gets him believing again...
What a strange vacuum we're in without email! We actually have to pick up the phone or walk all the way across the building to someone's desk to talk to them. Imagine that. Can we keep that up for another whole day?! (I'm not too concerned as I have off today and am packing for Camp Crop-A-Lot -- my yearly scrapbooking getaway!)
Despite the Black Hole effect, Carter and I did enjoy the lunar eclipse. At our house, the sky was perfectly clear so we had a great view from our sub-zero front deck. We set a timer and would go out and look at it every 5 minutes or so because that's all we could handle in the cold. (Why don't these things happen in the summer?) We used his telescope a few times, but could clearly view the "color transition" with the naked eye. Neat experience!
Speaking of Black Holes (talk about transition, ha ha), Carter has another one in his mouth. He had a super loose tooth last night but I just couldn't pull it out. Admittedly, I am the ultimate in squeamish about that sort of thing, but I did try. I told Carter to tell me if he lost it during the night so we'd make sure he didn't get blood on his pillow.
Really, I just didn't want to screw up the Tooth Fairy delivery again! Just to be safe, we've hired the job out. Seriously, someone else will play Tooth Fairy tonight. Since Jim is out of town and I am leaving town, Carter will be staying with our friends Scott and Jana. I warned them this morning about the big job tonight. This will give them good practice, though, for their son Will, who's almost 4 and has awhile to go before losing any teeth.
My fear is that they'll do such a good job (and who wouldn't compared to our debacle last time?!), that Carter will want to stay at their house every time he loses a tooth going forward! Whatever gets him believing again...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
