I'd Like to Thank the Academy....

I've been given blogger awards before, but I've never been quite sure what to do with them. I can never pick and choose blogging buddies to pass them along to, so I don't usually post about it. (Sorry to all of you who have given me awards...) But, today I got an award and I know EXACTLY what to do with it!

You see, Wynne over at Muskadillo Dreaming gave me an award.

Literally (yes, I really do mean literally).

Today, in the mail, I got a frog of gold from the lovely Wynne!

She also blogged about this fantastic award (and about yours truly). Then she presented me with a button for my blog!

And I knew just what to do. As soon as Blogger is cooperating, I'll place the button in my sidebar. And the golden frog? I placed him on top of my computer! Now, each and every day I will have the opportunity to look at my trophy and remind myself, that yes, I do indeed, have a frog of gold!
Thanks again Wynne for the Good Mail package and the award. The kids haven't walked off with any of the cool stuff you sent, but it's only because I'm being stingy... I'll share with them... eventually.

Olympic Hangover
The last two weeks have been fun. Lots of exciting events. Lots of cheering. Lots of staying up WAY past my bedtime. And now? Well, now I've created a habit. I've got my body set on an 11:30 bedtime with a 7:30-8:00 wake up. I know... 8:00?? How could that be? I get up, get the kids breakfast and then crawl back into bed for half an hour. Mother of the year - right here baby!
ANYWAYS... I can't seem to go back to a "normal" bedtime. I've always been a night owl, but school starts next week (OH YEAH!) and I need to get into a better routine. You see, lack of sleep is not a good thing for me. I am cranky, sarcastic and over the top obnoxious when I'm tired. Everyone suffers when I don't get enough sleep. On top of that, we just found out that Little Bug's bus will be here at 7:30 to pick him up each day. Which means that getting out of bed at 7:30 just isn't gonna cut it.
You'd think I'd try a little harder to get in bed on time. But I just can't seem to do it. Somehow I've got to stop the madness. Maybe I should start with turning the computer off .... because blogging at 11:40 p.m. doesn't really seem to be a good solution to my problem...

Update: Red's neck was much better today. It's still sore, but he's able to move it more and more. Hopefully by the time school starts next week he will be back to 100% - thanks for all the well wishes

A Wii Warning
I let my kids have video game time every day. It's limited to half an hour (unless I get into blog reading on the computer and then... well... sometimes they end up playing a little longer... ::hangs head in shame::). Today Red played the PlayStation and then Baby Girl wanted to play some of the Wii Sport games. She bowled for awhile (6 strikes... 5 of which were in a row!), then she played baseball and I think she attempted golf for a minute. Then she asked if Red could have the rest of her time because she wanted to watch him do the boxing game. I was in the middle of paying bills and she only had a few minutes left, so I said, "Sure - go ahead."
Now, I don't know if you've ever done boxing on the Wii. You've gotta really throw those punches to get it to register for the game. And Red? Well, he's undefeated. He really goes wild and throws his whole body into it.
Literally.
As I said before, I was here, on the computer paying bills when I heard him yell. I assumed that he had been defeated for the first time and went on. Then I heard him gasp and then cry out in pain. I ran in to check on him. He was bent over holding his neck and unable to move very well. He couldn't bend his head to the left or to the front. We alternated cold and hot packs and tried to keep him still... it's doing better, but still sore. We'll watch him really close tomorrow and if he's still in pain, we'll probably take him in.
But I wonder... will our insurance cover an injury that occurred whilst playing a video game?? Hopefully we won't have to find out.

Book Worm
I recently explained how I had rediscovered the love of the library. Not long after that, I was introduced to GoodReads. I love looking at the lists of what everyone is reading. And so, I was wondering, are you on GoodReads? If you are, would you mind if I added you as a friend? Or would you be willing to add me? My email is mejojac at aol dot com. I have found some really great books through the people that I'm already friends with. And I'm looking for more books to read... if you're not on Goodreads, do you have any book suggestions? I'm plowing through books at a rather fast pace right now and would love to hear what you've read and enjoyed!

Sidenote: (idea of the sidenote stolen from Yvonne) This weekend I had the opportunity to meet up with a fellow blogger! Flip Flop Mama came to town and I met her for a fast shopping trip. Hubby took the kids to the library while I visited and shopped for a little while with this fantastic gal! She was so easy to talk to and I was sad we didn't have more time together. I'm headed towards her hometown in September and we're hoping to meet up again! And remember, if you're ever coming to Southern California, let me know and we'll see if we can meet for lunch somewhere!

Update
Okay, if you read my last post, you'll know how completely annoyed I was with the school... but we got it worked out. Here's the scoop...
Last year he went to R. Elementary as a kindergartner. They still have him registered at R. Elementary in the kindergarten program , even though he will be going to F. Elementary this year as a 1st grader. I have to go in on Monday and fill out a bunch of paperwork to get him switched because the district is weird and can't just send the info from one school to the other. I have to physically take it from one office to the other. You'd think that in this day and age of such great technology that it wouldn't be a big deal to send an email or a fax with the info. Whatever. I'll drive around and get it done.
For some reason on one part of his file it said that he would be going from 9:00-11:30. In another area of his file it listed him as a full day student. Not sure why it happened that way, but it did. She corrected the time in the file and hopefully after I get him registered at the right school, we'll be set.
Except for the transportation... his class starts at 8:20 and the bus is supposed to be here at 8:30 to pick him up. Make sense... if you work for the school district. So, we'll clean up that mess and THEN everything SHOULD be okay.
Basically it was a clerical error. I'm glad they sent that letter out so we could fix this BEFORE school starts. I suppose I should apologize for the things I said about the district in my last post.
Dear School District,
I'm sorry I was so angry. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. I'm afraid that my past dealings with you have made me weary and a tad defensive.
Respectfully yours,
A calmer (for now) Mama Bear

The Squeaky Wheel
Little Bug was 5 years old when we moved to California. We got him in a kindergarten class at the school down the street. We were hoping to get a one on one aid like we had in Oregon. It wasn't working well for Bug or for the class. The principal approached us and asked if we would like Little Bug to be in a classroom for kids with autism. We were delighted at the thought of having him surrounded by people who worked autistic kids day in and day out. So, we got him in the class. And it was great. When we got to the end of the year we were informed that this had NOT been a kindergarten class as we had thought... it was PRESCHOOL. So, he had to go to kinder the next year. It ended up being a blessing in disguise because his teacher last year was amazing! He learned so much and she was truly a gem. We will miss her terribly...
Little Bug is entering 1st grade this year(should be 2nd... grr...). We had a meeting last spring where we were told that it was a full day program. Yeah. Fast forward to today. We got a letter explaining a bit about the program for this year...
Program hours: 9:00-11:30
Two and a half hours.
The kindergarten program was three and a half hours.
Does this make sense at all? Why? Why do they think that they can try and pull this crap with the special needs kids? They didn't cut any of the "regular ed" 1st grade classes to two and a half hours - why this program? I'm hoping that there is some kind of supreme typo going on, but I doubt it. This is just how school districts seem to deal with these kids. Shove them in a corner and hope that no one notices that they are getting the short end of the stick. Again.
Phone calls will be made.
Letters will be written.
The mama bear in me has reared her ugly head... it's not gonna be pretty.
I'll post an update as soon as I know anything...

Randomly Random
It's time once again for me to spout off about the crazy things that are going on in my life and the bizarre thoughts that are bouncing around in my head.... ready... set... go!

• I have found a new and FANTASTIC use for sticky notes! I have always used them for reminders for myself and the kids, but now, they have a higher purpose: bookmarks. They don't fall out if I drop the book or hold it in an awkward way. And they're much harder for my kids to yank out. Something that Little Bug rather enjoys. I'm not sure if he just likes to pull the paper out of the book or if he loves watching me scramble afterwards to find my spot again... either way, it's frustrating. But not any more... Post-it's - the bookmarks of tomorrow!
• I love the t.v. show Psych! Have you ever seen it? We have to watch it online because we don't have cable. But every episode makes me laugh. I'm not talking about a slight chuckle here. I'm talking full on belly laugh, brings tears to my eyes kind of laughing. I was going to put a clip in here, but I couldn't pick a favorite. So, go to this link here and watch a few episodes...
• TWO WEEKS! I can survive for two more weeks... right? Then school starts and I can be sane again... right? Please tell me that I'm right... please?
• I've decided to kick the addiction... yes, that's right. I have an addiction. The Olympics. I start watching each evening and suddenly it's midnight... or later. My headaches are back. I'm completely exhausted. I need sleep. The swimming events are my favorite and now they are done (woo-hoo Mr. Phelps!). I think I'm going to return to a 10-10:30 bedtime. For my own sanity and the safety of my children.
• I've been reading "The Kingdom and the Crown" series by Gerald N. Lund - I'm loving them! I highly recommend them to anyone. They are really fantastic books.
• Have you ever been to Southern California? What is your favorite thing to do here? My parents are coming in October and I'm trying to plan some really fun things... but I'm drawing a blank. I know... how dumb is that? I LIVE HERE! Sigh... thoughts? Ideas?

And that concludes another randomly random post about the tidbits of my life. Until next time...

ACK!!
No! NONONO!! Have you heard? Did you see? Warner Brothers has decided to torture me! For some unknown reason, they hate me. HATE ME! Sigh... okay, so maybe not me in particular, but they did push back the release date for the Harry Potter movie from November of this year to JULY 17 OF NEXT YEAR. Stupid! The one article I read said, "Blah blah blah... writers strike... blah blah blah... need more scripts... blah blah blah... good opening weekend... blah blah blah..." Basically, from what the article said, they want to wait because they think they can make more money off of the movie next summer! Greedy jerks!!! I'm half tempted to not go at all!
Okay.
That's a lie.
BUT STILL!
The other article I read said that the November release date was right in the middle of Daniel Radcliff's run of "Equus" here in the U.S. and Warner Brothers didn't want to deal with the nightmare of having their movie come out at the same time as their star will be running around naked on stage. It's bad publicity and all...
Either way, I'm in mourning. I'm usually not a cursing kind of a gal, but this sucks!

Sidenote: I thought about trying to replace the zipper, but the way it was set into the seam would have made it an extremely frustrating task. So, I drug my kids all over town and found another skirt!! I messed with the zipper before I bought it making sure it was a-okay! Tonight I will get all dressed up in my new duds and have Hubby take my picture tonight so you can see this skirt that caused such stress!

Searching
I have a hard time buying things for myself. I tend to get things for the kids and Hubby. So, tonight, when I bought clothes for myself, it was quite a moment! I found a really fun skirt and matching top at Target. Tried them on and they fit great. When I went to get the zipper down on the skirt it stuck a little, but I didn't think much of it.
I brought my lovely parcels home, modeled my new attire for Hubby and then went to change into my p.j.'s. The zipper wouldn't budge. I pulled and pulled and finally got it down far enough that I could get the skirt off. The zipper that was kind of stuck is now broken. It wouldn't be so bad, except the skirt was on clearance and it was the last one in my size.
I've already checked online to see if they had it - no such luck. So, I'll go back to the store, torture my children by making them sit still while I dig through racks and racks of clothes. If I can't find it at the first Target, there is another one across town. I'll drag the kids there. If they don't have it there... well, then I'll drive to another Target till I find it!
Sigh. I really liked that skirt!!

Mosaic Me
Randi, of "Is It Just Me?" bloggy fame, had this up on her blog the other day. I thought it was fun, so I gave it a whirl. Here are the rules and the questions... let me know if you play along!


a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using ONLY the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker. Choose 3 columns with 4 rows.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush? (okay, I have to explain this one... I really don't have a celebrity crush... I thought and thought and thought and no one came to mind. But, I do LOVE Harry Potter - not Daniel Radcliff- Harry Potter as found in the books)
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name. (kid version: favorite animal?)(again - I have to explain... for some reason, mejojac isn't in the database files in Flickr. Go figure! So I used a college nick name instead... can you guess?)

Credits for pictures used...
1. Happy birthday, Melissa!, 2. Las Chicas Brekky Burrito, 3. Village Hillcrest Complex, 4. oh... the blues, 5. camera and harry potter love, 6. A&W Papa Burger, 7. I'm heading anywhere but here, 8. I forgot about lunch and ate the cinnamon roll instead., 9. Tropical bench, 10. New family on Garda lake...., 11. Growing up, 12. Moose in the marsh

My Dearest Partner in Crime,

Today is your eleventy-first birthday! Okay, so maybe you're not quite that old... but your getting closer every day. May your day be filled with unicorns and rainbows and the change we must change and the change we hold dear. Or not. Perhaps Super Mario Brothers 3, a steak dinner and some chillaxin would be better. Oh, and I hope you enjoy the pineapple!

love always,

me

(who did you expect?)

Psychic
I recently joined GoodReads and have enjoyed finding new books to read and rating the ones I've already read. It's also fun to see what my friends are perusing in their spare time. But I am wondering about an odd phenomenon I've found on the site...
You see, I have Brisingr by Christopher Paolini on my "to be read" shelf (third book in the Inheritance Series - first book is Eragon, second is Eldest). It makes sense to put it on that shelf because the book doesn't come out till September 20th. But, somehow this book has already been rated... 4.63 stars out of 5 to be exact. Now, maybe it's just me, but isn't it rather difficult to rate a book that's not published yet? Maybe they've somehow stolen a copy or perhaps they have psychic abilities that allow them to see things that my mere mortal mind just can't comprehend... either way, I hope the book is as good as they've rated it. I am really looking forward to reading it.
What about you? Are there any books coming out in the next little while that you can't wait to get your hands on?

And the Rain Rain Rain Came Down Down Down
It doesn't rain very often here in our lovely Southern California desert. But when it does? It POURS. The streets fill up fairly quickly. Our neighborhood is set so we don't get flooding right by our house. Just some nice sized puddles.Which is a good thing since my kids like to go out and play in the rain. Well, not all of my kids. Red and Baby Girl take little to no coaxing to get them outside splashing in puddles and running up and down the street with their umbrellas (yes, we're still in our p.j.'s at 10:30 in the morning).
Little Bug on the other hand... well, he doesn't like getting dripped on. He doesn't like the noise the rain makes as it falls. And he hates to be wet, unless he's in the pool or the tub. So his adventure was a little different today. He stood in the doorway for a long time trying to decide if he even wanted to go out.
I finally got him out the door, but he wouldn't go out in the rain. He sat with his fingers firmly in his ears and refused to take them out.
I did get him to take his umbrella half way out into the rain. He scowled but went a long, up to a point. Then he dashed back under the entry way. I eventually got him to get his feet wet and smile a bit. He MIGHT have even enjoyed being outside just a tad. But I could tell it was hard for him. It was a sensory overload, but still, he went out and explored in his own way.
I love how each of my kids inspire me.
Red was out there running up and down the road splashing and singing as he went! He soaked up every minute and was so disappointed when the rain came to a stop.
Baby Girl was a little more timid. She's more cautious, but once she discovers something she loves, she puts her heart and soul into it.
Little Bug went outside. The sound of the rain obviously bothered him, possibly even hurt him. He let the rain drip a little on his umbrella. He got wet. He could have stayed inside where it was comfortable, but he ventured out.
Some of you may have noticed that I haven't been blog hopping lately. I apologize for that. You see, being a mom doesn't come naturally to me. It's something I really have to work on. And so, I tend to hide out and be a little lazy. But, there's a problem with that.
My kids are growing up. I've missed so much sitting here in front of the computer. I don't want to miss anything else.
So, I hope you can forgive me. I've cut back on computer time. I'm going to read blogs twice a week. I won't get to all of your posts, but I'll try.
Now, I'm off. I going to go paint butterflies, play games, and hopefully learn a few things from my kids.

Opinionated
Apparently, I can't think for myself. I'm always turning to you guys for help... I want to make Red a Star Wars quilt for Christmas. Yes, I'm already thinking about Christmas. There is a method to my madness, I promise. I found this icon online for a Nintendo DS...
Does it look enough like the Millennium Falcon? I'm going to make a few adjustments to it, but what do you think? It will be an easy pattern (all squares and triangles), but also a very time consuming one (hence the reason I'm thinking about it NOW). I don't want to get half way through and think... "RATS! This isn't working!" Any thoughts or ideas would be very helpful. As always, I thank you!

Cell Service
We are looking at possibly getting a new cell phone service. We're currently with AT&T and service is... well, okay. I'm still annoyed that I couldn't get emergency help this summer when I tried to report an accident. What if I had needed an ambulance and hadn't been able to use the cell phone? Isn't that the point of a cell phone? Anyway, I'm curious... who do you use? Do you like the plan you're on? What do you like? What don't you like? Have you ever been with a company that was really bad? I'd appreciate any input you can share!

Have you ever...

... got online to do something, but then couldn't remember what it was, so you blogged instead?

... fed your family cold cereal for dinner because you were too lazy to come up with something else?

... had a pile of books to read and not been sure where to start?

... bid for something on eBay and PROMISED yourself you would only go to a certain dollar amount... but then someone outbid you and you just couldn't let THAT happen... so you bid again?

... had a child get the flu in August?

... wondered what would happen if you didn't add water to your microwavable Easy Mac? (Thanks for helping me figure this one out Red!)

... tried to cover up a horrible smoky smell with some Lysol, only to discover that now your home has a "fresh scent" smokey smell?

... driven out to a business that was supposed to have it's grand opening a week ago only to find that they postponed the opening for another 2 weeks?

... gone past a gas station and thought "WOW! Gas is ONLY $4.09! I should stop and fill up!" and then realized how sad it was that you were excited about paying $4.09?

... written a "have you ever" list on your blog?
I rather enjoy these posts... just kind of random fun stuff. I won't be around this weekend. I'm going to dejunk and read. The end. Wish me luck... and have a great weekend!