I guess I spoke to soon- apparently I jinx things!

Would you give your references to someone who emails you and say that she has a 1 year old and a 4 year old and is looking for a Saturday night sitter? Without knowing where she lives or anything? I didn’t! I told her that I’d prefer talking to her in order to get a feel for whether it may work before passing out references. I just feel that if I share my references with every parent I talk to, without getting to know them first and whether it may be a fit or not, those whose numbers and names I share are going to be overwhelmed slightly.

K’s mom and I had a long conversation yesterday about schedules and my not wanting to take that other job, especially with a couple others looking so good at this moment. I have yet another interview on this afternoon, hopefully that’ll go well. I have over a month before I have to find something for the summer, and finding a position that will allow me to work 1-1.5 days a week for now and extend the hours in the summer would be perfect.

I really wish that it would stop snowing just long enough for me to get over that stupid mountain. Baseball’s tomorrow, but the pass could get 18 inches of snow tonight. Why is it that every. single. time. that I attempt to go over the mountain it has to snow. C’mon, it’s April- or it will be tomorrow morning when I leave my house. It’s ridiculous and I’m tired of it.

In other news, I got a paper back with a 195/200 grade. Which shocked me incredibly, because I really thought it sucked! I was ready to be super upset, but then she handed me back my paper and I had only missed five points on her rubric. Yay for me!

In my parenting class, I have gotten almost the exact same grade on every assignment so far. A 93 on one test, 94 on the other, 22/25 points on one paper, 23/25 on the other and a 93 on our only big paper so far. I think I can tell what my grade in there is, what about you? Right now, I should be working on a take a stand paper, where she gives us a rather controversial topic (or it could be anyways depending on how you look at it) and we have to defend our opinions using the information in the book. The last one was “should parents and/or teachers use physical punishment? Does it cause any lasting harm to a child?” I knew that I very adamantly disagreed with the professor- especially considering that smacking a child’s hand and telling them no was put on the same level as spanking and not much lower than abuse throughout the class. I’ve never had a parent who told me never to grab their child’s hand when they’re in danger; however, I have had many who’ve given me that permission. In the long run, she also put grabbing a child out of the street when a car is coming in the category of ‘physical punishment’ and I didn’t agree with that either. Disagreeing openly with the professor made it really hard to write that paper- so I was incredibly happy with the 22/25.

Dilemma Time #2

So, blogging world, I really need your input right now (and I know you're out there since my average hits per day has gone from 5 to 30 in the last week!).

The mom at the new job I thought I had hands down and that I could bring K just called me and told me that bringing an extra kid makes it more like daycare instead of a nanny position. I'll save my opinion on that until I hear from some of you. I really want the job, but I really want K at the same time- giving her up has me in tears right now.

If you were me, what would you do? It may be helpful to look at the last post. I'd write more but I'm pretty shaken up right now.

Thanks!

Job Hunt= Fin

This has the potential to be long, we’ll see how far I make it before K gets up from nap. I put her down early, because we’re picking up B from latchkey and then have a playdate (I think) with my new family.

So, I had an interview on Thursday with a mom who has a 20 month old, R, and a 3 ¾ year old, W (don’t tell him he’s three! It won’t go over well.) W wouldn’t even look at me, but I think that he knew something was up when I walked through the door and it wasn’t his nanny that he’s had for the last18 months. Mom and I talked about all sorts of stuff, like her children’s lack of a schedule and how she wants that to change and her preferred method of discipline, etc. All of those good mom-nanny conversations. I played with R, which surprised me, because not many 20 month olds will go to a new person as easily as she did, it seems like a good sign to me.

We talked for about 30 minutes, and I told her how I’ve already committed to having K and B the first week of June while mom and dad are on a cruise, and I told mom, but if it’s okay with you we can combine that week. She was so okay with the idea that I then felt comfortable mentioning that I’d love a position where I could have K for one day a week to, and she instantly was okay with that- as long as the kids get along well. I don’t anticipate many problems on that front since K loves to play with just about anyone and W seems the same way.

She asked for my references, and I called K’s mom right after I left to mention that it looked like I could still take K on Mondays, and that she would be getting a call. She called me back on Friday afternoon after talking to my references, and told me that she would be happy to give me the position if I was interested in it. I’m so happy- I finally talked to her again this morning (I was out of town all weekend, but that’s another post) and it sounds just about perfect.

It’ll be about 27 hours a week for now, growing to more once school’s over, at $3 more an hour than I make with K, so now I finally feel like I can stop stressing so much about money- heck, I might even get to go to more baseball games this summer.

Interviews

Three days, three job opportunities. Neither one looks like I’ll be able to combine with K, but I guess that’ll be okay. And anyways, come fall I might be working with her again because most of the opportunities are looking for full-time or very close thereabouts.

I have two interviews this afternoon, one for a mom who’s looking for someone one day a week- all day long with her two children ages 2 and 3 (they’re fourteen months apart). They’ve never had a nanny/babysitter or anything and the children are super shy according to mom. Those are probably my least favourite words from a mother- she hasn’t left her children with anyone and they’ve developed into shy-I-need-my-mommy-at-all-times people. I think that there’s harm in raising children without exposure to other adults, for both parents and children. Children need to be socialized in order to function properly, especially by the time they turn 3 or so. When kids who haven’t been left without mommy before start kindergarten those are the ones who struggle the most.

The other interview is for a mom who’s nanny gave her notice yesterday (nothing like perfect timing, eh?) because she’s moving to the city where I go to college, and doesn’t want to commute. Her children are almost 2 and almost 4 and she sounds really nice. They live in one of the nicest parts of town, and she runs a business out of her home while her husband in an attorney. The last nanny was working about 30-35 hours a week but she said that she can be flexible with the hours. Right now, I can’t work that many hours and go to school but in a month or so, I’ll be able to work that easily. And, if it all works out just right maybe I can do something T/Th/F for the summer (which can easily equal 30 hours a week) and still be with K Mondays and Wednesdays.

It’s hard to know what’s right for me just by talking to moms over the phone, but I’m hoping that I’ll know if either one of these families is right for me after meeting them. The waiting game is the hardest part. Well, right behind having a family tell you that they like you and then never calling you back. I think that often those are the moms who aren’t ready to leave their children with anyone, so they go back on the idea that they could use some help and/or free time once or twice a week.

*Edited to add:* I wrote this post on Thursday, and haven’t connected to the internet since. I went to one of the interviews, the other one cancelled on me- any bets as to which one followed through? I’ll have an update about the experience and the new opportunity that seems to have come my way. */Edit*

Welcome visitors! And job hunting part deux...

Um, so I signed up for BlogMad a long time ago, and finally managed to log in yesterday- today I've received 55 hits from their surfing function according to my Sitemeter (their site says I've been viewed 72 times). However, eXTReME Tracking has nine hits, mostly referred by MIM (thanks MIM- in the last week almost everyone has come to me via you!). 9 is about my average and I'm happy with that- I'm not here to see if I can get a certain number hits in a day, but to me 9 or 10 or so is good. Yesterday's 26 was shocking and cool, but at least they all made it here through blogs I actually read (well, other than those random next blog hits)!

When you receive a hit from BlogMad it takes away credits, I'm not even sure what credits are or why they're so important, but this is interesting. Right now, I'm thinking that I won't mind if I stop getting referrals through their site. I like the idea of having a rather small contingent of readers, plus in my attempts to stay semi-anonymous, it doesn't seem like a good idea to attract as many visitors as possible, right?

In other news, in the last two days I received two possible job offers. First, there's the mother I mentioned last night who needed someone full-time starting April 10. When I told her that I couldn't be full-time until after mid-May she still seemed very open to meeting with me regardless, even if only for on-the-side jobs, which will work for me. She has a 4.5 year old, a 6 year old and is due with her third child April 13th.

Today, I had mother call me because of the email sent to a lot of moms in our town who's looking for someone at least one day a week. I'm going to meet her tomorrow afternoon, after my job with M. She has a two-year-old and a three-year-old and I think I may watch them on Fridays from about 8-3. They live rather nearby K, which is nice, because it's a close to my house you can get when you consider I technically live 20 miles from the town that I work in most often!

Half way to 100

My last post was #50, and in that time I've received 62 comments. That's exciting because when I first start this I didn't know if I'd get any hits, let alone comments. I don't get a lot on any given day (except for today when I more than tripled my average, hm, I wonder why? It wasn't like that last post was so exciting or anything).

In about 3.5 months, I've learned quite a bit about blogger, and in a way myself. I know that I'm way to obsessed with stats, and I'm not even sure why. I've learned blog etiquette, and that I really like it when I can reply to a comment through email, as soon as I learned that was possible in some cases. I know that according the bloglines both Andie and I do not exist (at least on my feeds page), which is immensely frustrating because I love reading Andie's blog, and I decided to check mine when I received 0 hits two days in a row. Most of the exclamation marks from last week are gone, all that remain are those two. Is anyone else still having the problem? Let me know!

I've met a lot of new "friends" although I sometimes have a hard time using that term when I haven't met anyone. I've gotten a lot of advice about a variety of situations, and learned that having a parent's opinion can ease my concerns about decision I make.

I really need to post about K's IEP and why my hours are being cut. I got an email today from a parent in our town who is looking for someone fulltime starting April 10th, I emailed her back and told her I'm not available full time until mid-May because of school- we'll see if she even responds. I know that she has three children, an infant, toddler and school-ager. I don't think I've ever taken care of three children from one family before, but I've watched up to 4 kids from different families many times!

Prospects

My name and information just went out to 62 mothers in our town looking for summer work and/or part-time nanny work. This is exciting and kind of nerve racking at the same time. I have no idea how many parents may call me in the next couple of days, I just know that they’re all going to know that I have 8.5 years experience with children of all ages and that I’m CPR certified and some other information that I don’t remember at the moment. The leader of the mom’s club in our town is the mother of B’s friend who comes over when they have partial days from school, and she told me that she’d send out the email last night.

So now, I sit here, waiting for the phone to ring, hoping that they don’t all call me, but that there’s one perfect family out there for me. Preferably one that will let me combine with K, because I really don’t want to give up that job- I’d be devastated to lose K right now.

One thing I do know, I will approach any family with a contract- I’m done working without some kind of regulations on how a family can treat me.

I’m really wondering what someone was searching for when they hit this site by searching for “his leg skiing” “March 2006” with quotation marks just like that. What about his leg skiing, whose leg are we talking about? I know that they got here because of my post that mentioned my professor’s son who fractured his leg. It’s the first time I’ve gotten a search hit that didn’t include the word nanny, which is kind of exciting I guess.

Sick Days

I have two sleeping kids today. K’s finally better after a bout with pink eye and an earache last week. Now, B has an earache, and a doctor’s appointment at 3:30. Last week I had K on Monday with pink eye (that I somehow managed not to catch!), I had a little girl from the daycare that I worked at a couple years ago on Wednesday because she had a 105 degree fever Tuesday, so she couldn’t go to school, then I had K Friday because she had her IEP on Wednesday so mom missed a lot of work during the week.

So, the first week that I feel okay in a long time I watch not one healthy kid. Makes for some fun times let me tell you. This week is spring break, but I’m not having much of a break. I’ve got K my normal hours, then I’ve got M on Thursday, I’ve got to go up to the college at some point tomorrow, and Friday I have to be at the college by 8am in order to leave for Woodland Hills.

It just started snowing again, which wasn’t supposed to happen this week. I’m so done with snow, make it stop! Isn’t it technically spring?

I’m searching for a part-time nanny job for the next several weeks, possibly through the summer, as my hours with K are going to be cut significantly. Another option is finding something full-time after the first week of June through the end of August. I should try to find something in the Bay Area during this time frame- I could work and go to ball games which would be marvellous!

Weather, please cooperate!

This weekend the weather has been completely crazy. First, it snowed on Friday, enough for there to be chain controls over the mountain, then it stopped and when my parents headed over they had no problems. Last night I swear it only snowed at my house. I drove to get pizza for dinner (a 9 mile drive) and I could see the cloud hanging over our house. This morning I went to church and when I came out it was kinda snowing, then on the drive home there was not a cloud above me but it most certainly was snowing. I'm really tired of snow and hope that we're done at least for a while, especially considering that next weekend I'm heading to Woodland Hills which is like a 450-500 mile drive from here.

It'll be my last Circle K event, because I'm done dealing with our club. How does it make sense for me to drive to the University in order to drive 9 hours the other direction? Seriously, we're meeting in front of the student union at 8am and I'll be driving everyone 500 miles the opposite direction from the school. It would make so much more sense for me to meet everyone in the town that's between the school and me!

Not to mention the inconvience of driving, but the last time I drove no one reimbursed me for gas. I'm so incredibly broke that I can't afford to get lunch most days, and yet there's no reimbursement for lunch in order to get the club where they need to go. I'm only driving because I really want to visit family while we're down there, and we'll be like within a 15 minute radius of almost every member of my family on my father's side.

Footprints

CATEGORY ACRES FOOD 5.4 MOBILITY 3.7 SHELTER 4 GOODS/SERVICES 6.9 TOTAL FOOTPRINT 20
	IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON. WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.
	IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 4.5 PLANETS.

This is actually better than my freshmen year of college. At that point we were living in this huge house that was not efficient at all. The reason the food one is so high is because we live so far from anything out here. The nearest big city is at least 200 miles away (not counting where I go to college) so transportation costs a lot. Mobility and goods/services also have to do with location. If you live in an area without public transportation you're going to drive a lot more than others, using more resources.

I had to write a paper for a class I had my first semester and she made it seem like we had to defend ourselves. To me, there's not a lot I can do to change the fact that at the current time I use so many resources. In the future, once I'm working I'll be using less, especially when you consider I plan to work less than three miles from my house!

I just looked at my last one (I have the report saved on my computer) and at that time I was using 27 acres or the equivelency of 6.1 planets. It's seems pretty good that in less than 2 years I've reduced so much of my resource usage. Check it out and see what it says about you!

I so love this family!

For all the complaining I do about the little things that bother me about K and B's parents, I must say that after yesterdays conversation it all feels better.

Starting next January, I will not be able to work, due to the fact that I'll be student teaching- a five day a week "job" without pay, and for the past couple months I've been stressing about how I'm going to make my car payment. I considered that I may have to turn to my uncle/godfather, who I've never asked for anything from but my relationship with my father's side of the family is a rocky one and I honestly don't know if he'd help me.

Then I was talking to K's mom about how our new schedule is going to work once K starts preschool in a couple weeks (I'll post about that later) and she asked when I'd know my fall schedule, I told her by mid April, and that I'd probably be available M/F but would have class T/W/Th but that come January I won't be able to work and that stresses me a little.

And then she tells me that they'd always be willing to give me a no-interest, pay-back-what-you-can loan! And I'm seriously thinking that I'll take them up on the offer. It feels good to know that I can count on someone when I need to.

In other news, I need to find a family who would be interested in a nannyshare for the next several months at least- I'm free every morning until I have to pick up K at 11:15 from preschool and then in the summer she'll have five weeks off where I'll have her full time. I think I'll post on craigslist.

Luau in the snow?

I belong to an organization on campus that focuses on service. I used to love it, but this year I’ve been through a lot with the club, and I’ve back off on my participation which makes me sadder than anyone can realize. However, once a year or so, the club volunteers at a halfway house for kids who have been taken out of their homes for various reasons, but are not placed into foster homes for a list of other reasons. Saturday night was one of those nights. We threw a luau party for them, and there were about ten of us who volunteered to participate. One can volunteer in three different houses, each specializing in a different age range. First, there is a house with infants up to age five, and then there are six to twelve year olds, and finally teenagers. Keeping in mind that these children have been through a lot many of them are angry and can be aggressive. For this reason, I prefer to stay with the little ones, ones who need hugs and understanding, but haven’t yet hit that out-of-control-I’m-going-to-hit-anyone-who-comes-near-me stage.

I started out with the preschoolers, making leis out of Foamies, as well as little tiki men, who the kids called snowmen. Hey, it was snowing while we made them, and they did resemble snowmen! We had dinner and drinks and stuff, and then I went back to see the babies. There were two babies there, a two month old and a twelve month old. They were finishing dinner, and afterwards, I got to play with the older one. I found out that she’d been there with six of her siblings for the last four months. That means that this poor little girl was taken away from her mother when she was eight months old, and has been stuck in a shelter for the entire time. It’s really sad, and really easy to become attached to these children.

Every time I go my mother gives me the warning, don’t become attached, and every time I’ve gone, I’ve become attached, it’s a bad thing, but so worth the time and effort. These kids just need to have some fun and feel loved by those around them!

A couple questions- but mostly some rambling

I finished my papers for the week, and it feels good. In fact, I don't think I have a paper due until the end of the month after spring break. I'm slightly concerned about the one that was due today, but only because of the disagreement on the topic compared to the professor. It might work out okay though, she did say that her opinion didn't matter and that we should just write what we felt.

I'm babysitting tonight for one of my former teacher/coach's girls. They're 4.5 and 8 and some of the most low maintenance children I’ve ever worked with. We played some games on the computer (Barbie.com is a big hit), I was slightly disgusted by one of the “dress up Barbie” games. It seems that not only can you own a Bling Bling Barbie, but you can dress her up even worse on the internet. I was happy when C (the 7 year old) was just as disgusted as I was with the choice of so-called clothing. After computer time, we put a movie on the Disney channel and all was right with the world. However, this movie lasts until 10pm, and usually bedtime is between 830 and 9, I don’t think I’ve ever extended it past 930. Yet, tonight I sent the 4-year-old to bed (she’s also K, in fact both of my K’s have the exact same name, first and middle, what are the odds?) at 9 and told the older one she could stay up and finish the movie. She just moved to mom and dad’s room and put the movie on there. I’m thinking she’ll either fall asleep or else I’ll put her to bed at the end. I kind of feel like I gave in, but at the same time I figure that one day out of her life it won’t hurt if she stays up. In fact, mom and dad didn’t give me any instructions at all for the night- I had to pick the girls up after finishing with K and B and mom and dad were all ready gone. They went to watch my college team play in the basketball tournament- I haven’t even gone to see them play this year!

What do you think, is it a big deal to let a kid stay up on a night that her parents are gone?

I've got to go attempt to figure out what is wrong with my bloglines. Almost all of the blogspot accounts have a message that says " The server hosting the feed returned a Forbidden message. If this error continues, you should check the feed URL and, if it is wrong, subscribe to the correct URL." Is anyone else having this problem? It's been like that since about 1 this afternoon but this is the first time I've had time to try to fix it.

Have you ever noticed...

that when you make a new post, you end up with all these random hits from weird referrals? Why does that happen? Is that what determines the “next blog” option? Just something I’ve noticed in the last couple of weeks or so!

Yesterday I stayed late with B and K like always on Wednesdays, but usually mom has dinner prepared with the exception of maybe throwing some noodle on the stove for spaghetti or something. However, yesterday we had to wait until dad got home and made dinner. That was finally ready at about 630 or so. The kids are usually in bed by 730, baths start at 7, but we were all still at the table at 715 yesterday. I decided to forego baths (hey, I have that prerogative right?) and just get pyjamas on, brush teeth and wash hands and faces!

We had a “race” to be done first, which the boys immediately were disqualified from due to running in the house- something B and I go over. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Usually more than once. So as B and dad ran upstairs, K and I were at the bottom telling them “no running, house” Even with the massive head start K was ready first! B can take years to get anything done, so it was nice to have pj’s on so quickly.

After pj’s we came downstairs, played for about 15 minutes and then it was definitely time for bed. Dad read to K, which is different, ‘cause usually I get K and he gets B. I read to B, tucked him in, despite protests that dad doesn’t read to him while he’s in bed, and then I went in to say goodnight to K. If there was any doubt that she’s going to catch this cold, it should be gone now. The kid insisted on no less than three “kiss” and “ugs” and I turned on her heater and music (c’mon dad, common knowledge, turn the dial three times for the music box, and hit the heater switch!) and left.

I got home at 830 or so, worked more on my concept map which is finally done, after a quick panic attack this morning. Now all I have to do is print it out at noon so I can hand it in at one. Then, I finish my physical punishment- does it harm children? paper and email that to the professor tonight after I get home.

WBC

Is it entirely wrong that I’m really rooting for the Canadian World Baseball Classic team? Last night when I got into the car the radio came on with the Canada/South Africa game in the top of the seventh inning, because I had left the U.S./Mexico game when I got out of the car at about 2:30pm. I listened to the game the entire way home, cheering and yelling (well, silently as I’ve lost my voice this week!) for the Canadian team. The only game that I see posing a real problem is today’s when it’s US/Canada. However, as an Americanadian (as my mother so lovingly calls us) I think that I can manage to root for both. The only member of the US team that I see really having a hard time rooting against is Huston Street, the closer, my absolute favourite player in the WBC. I must say, it’s too bad that Rich Harden was injured and couldn’t play, because a Rich Harden/Huston Street match-up would be great fun, especially considering they roommates all of last year!

Anyways, at one point, Canada went up 7-4 and I was super happy and excited, especially considering that it was the seventh inning and the South Africa team is rather inexperienced. So inexperienced in fact that only 6 of their 30 members have any professional experience, none reaching above AA ball, 5 have only made it to A ball! And then, lo and behold, the team scores one run in the seventh, and three in the eighth to go up 8-7! So, I finally get home (wow those were long innings, an hour to play barely two innings?) and Canada has tied the game, the took the lead as I got out of the car and carried the radio inside and managed to score 2 more runs before the inning came to a close. YAY! Canada then went on to win the game by shutting down the South African team in the bottom of the ninth (they may or may not have scored a run; I’ll have to go check and get back to you).

Today’s game is going to be very interesting. I’ll have to remember to grab the radio’s base for inside the house and B and his friend and I will have to listen at least for a bit, while I finish my homework (I still don’t have the concept map due and it’s due on Thursday! But I’m getting there slowly but surely). On the days that B gets out early, he knows that I’m not always done with homework and the boys do pretty well occupying themselves. I’m skipping volunteer that I usually do this morning due to the fact that I have hardly any voice because of the nasty cold that’s making rounds- that’ll help with homework issues. How hard is it for a professor to email an assignment you’ve asked for more than once? Because it’s been a week, and I have no idea what I missed last week in one of my classes that I missed due to snow.

My concern...

which one did I miss??

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 9/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

Um, okay?

You Were a Parrot

You are a master of language, and you use your wit to mock and tease others. But you are also wise, and you often think carefully before you speak.

What Animal Were You In a Past Life?

I don't know about the languages thing... although I did manage to communicate with the little girl my practicum class who speaks only Spanish today, and I seem to pick up signs relatively quickly. But still, being only competent enough to know numbers in a language definitely does not make me a master of language!

Speech, birthdays and bedtime

Okay so I don't have anything specific in mind to talk about, which may make this a rambling post. Let's see where it goes.

I have to write my stance on physical punishment for my parenting class. This is hard because my opinion is almost the exact opposite of my professors, and even though she's told us that it doesn't matter if our opinions agree, I'm still worried about the tone of my paper. However, I may post bits and pieces of it here in the next couple of days. As long as I can back it up with information from the book it should be okay, and I may even look for outside sources for this one, just because it seems like I should do more when I know that the professor isn't going to like everything I write.

K had speech therapy this morning. It's her third to last speech therapy before she turns 3 and no longer has the same speech therapist. In fact, after she turns three she'll start going to school in order to work on her speech. This is kind of frustrating to me, because she has most of the letter sounds that she should, her only problem now are the nodules that I mentioned a couple posts back. Sending her to school 4 mornings a week isn't going to really solve anything. However, this frustration might also stem from the fact that I have no idea if I will still have a job after the 24th of this month, and let me say that I won't know for sure until the 15th or later, making it difficult to find a new job on basically no notice. If I do still have a job, it will be for less hours, meaning I don't know where the money from my car payment is going to come from anymore.

In speech, K is learning blends and digraphs that the average child doesn't have until age 6-9, which surprises me when you consider that she's not quite three. Of more concern to me right now is that fact that every since she was scoped she's been whispering at least for a good portion of the day. This bothers me because whispering isn't very good for the vocal cords, as you push so much air out of them that it can lead to more scar tissure forming. It seems like she has been listening to us talk about her voice so much that she's decided not to use her voice right now. I had better luck with her this morning after the speech therapist left, but more often than not I was telling her to speak up because I couldn't hear her.

When it was time to put her down for nap, she told me "anya, night-night too" and I asked her where I was supposed to go to bed. She told me "anya room" which is really the guest room but she's only ever seen me sleep there, so it's equivalent to my room to her. And then she told me "me seep anya bed" and I told her that she could after we brushed her teeth. I put in the bed with the warning that if she wasn't asleep when I checked on her it would be off to her room. She wasn't asleep so we went to her room, where I put her in her bed facing the wrong direction which earned me a "wrong way, dat way" response! I turned her around, picked up bear (her favourite stuffed animal) and she says "my bear back please." I tucked her in, gave her a 'ug and a kiss like she asked turned on music and I haven't heard from her since. Monday mornings are busy!

Okay done rambling now.

Invitations and extra hours

I'm making invitations to K's birthday party right now. Why? Because mom is "too busy and they have to go out this weekend." So here I sit while K naps, typing on my computer and trying to decide what to do for the last invitation. I refuse to write in them, because I don't know details. Is the party at home? Judging from the calendar it's from 10-12 on the eighteenth, but that could have changed. What else am I supposed to write anyways? Luckily I only have to make three- the twins and their bigger brother who live next door get one, the little girl who lives across the street gets one and one other little girl gets one.

Mom is so busy in fact, that she left K with me for 11 hours on a Saturday, to go skiing with B and their dad and a couple of friends who came over from the Auburn/Sacramento area. She's lucky I have no life, otherwise I might be a little frustrated with the hours- I probably could have worked two other jobs today, I had to get up at 615 this morning which is like 45min earlier than on a weekday, and I feel like crap. Usually I only am with K on Mondays and Wednesdays, however, for the next two weeks or so, I'm here late every Wednesday night (through April 26th), all day on Friday and most, if not all day Saturday. Oh well, I took K shopping and to the Children's Museum and considered going to the library but decided against that. I love that I have that freedom, I can take K just about anywhere with me and mom doesn't care.

However, I don't so much appreciate the comments/looks that people give me when I'm out and about with K. Just because I'm spending time with a little girl, does not automatically make me the mother. And if you catch me on the wrong day and tell me that my daughter is adorable, I just may break! Most of the time I've learned to smile and say thank you, but other times I get very aggravated. In order for K to be my child I would've had to have given birth less than 3 months before I graduated third in my class from high school. Nope, I don't think so!

Anyways, K's party is going to have a spring theme with ladybugs, butterflies, and dragonflies. Kind of comical when you consider that it snowed six inches in less than two hours yesterday morning. Yep, it's spring alright!

I think I'm going to go take a nap while K finishes her nap!

I've been there!

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

I apparently live a very sheltered life.

Arizona, Colorado and Michigan only count if you count airport layovers!

EDIT: I found a Canadian provinces map, yay!


create your own personalized map of Canada
or check out ourVancouver travel guide

On this one, Alberta only counts in terms of airport layovers, but it was a long layover- and I can remember thinking that the airport was very cool when I was there when I was about 4 years old. My poor mother had a 1 year old and a 4 year old at the airport in the middle of the night, all by herself!

BASEBALL'S BACK!!

I'm very happy right now! I love satellite radio, I get to listen to baseball today, Sunday and the following Saturday- and that's all it's telling me right now, but they're will be plenty more. I got to listen to a grand slam by my friend's favourite player and a 2 run homer by one of my favourites- what a way to start the season!



I took this picture in September when we sat right behind the dugout, it's one of my most favourite pictures that I've taken at a ballgame, and I've taken a lot. I love Huston! He was last years Rookie of the Year, and he's an honestly very sweet person. Huston took the time to stop and say hi every single time we were there, and I can't wait until April 1st which is my first game of the season, although technically an exhibition game. My first official game will be Huston's bobblehead day on April 16th and I'm so very excited. Now that the games are actually beginning it seems so close, and yet I have like 7 papers due between now and then!

I attended 14+ games last year in Oakland (a 270 mile one way trip!), 2 games in Sacramento (200 miles one way), and I wouldn't trade a single second of any of these games. I feel so at home over there and if I hadn't commited to a lot of time with K and B this summer, I'd be actively seeking nanny jobs in the Bay Area. I suppose that technically I could after the second/third week of June, but I'm not sure that there are many who would hire me from mid-June through mid-August, that's barely two months!

Power Shortage

I’m sitting here with my computer power cord jerry-rigged together, since it died once and for all about ten minutes after that last post. After skipping my practicum at a school that I don’t wish to attend, in a county/ school district I want nothing to do with, a “quick” forty minute visit to Best Buy, and one phone call to Best Buy’s parts department (your call with be answered in approximately four minutes, twenty minutes later), I have a new one on the way. The guy over the phone said that it could take eight business days, but then he pointed out that it’s only coming from California so it probably won’t take that long. In the mean time, my father stripped the wires, twisted them together and put some tape over top, which allowed me a full charge, and I added an extra piece of tape so that I feel confident that I can, in fact, type this entry and work on the paper that I really should be right. Actually, there are three papers I should be working on, especially if it is really going to take 8 days to get a new power cord.

First, there’s a paper about an article that I found entitled “Lessons in the teaching of vocabulary from September 11 and Harry Potter,” which if I do say so myself, is probably the most interesting article anyone found in that class. It’s kind of a cool idea about how adults have had such a hard time learning the names of people and places related to terrorism, while children don’t struggle to learn so many interesting names found within the pages of Harry Potter, it even makes some comparisons that I didn’t think of before. It all boils down to the idea that people relate better to words which they can (1) pronounce, (2) find common morphemes and (3) are playfully engaged with, rather than exposed to in a time of fear.

Secondly, I have to take a stand for or against physical punishment, (I’m beginning to get the feeling that MIM would have fun in my Child Guidance and Parenting). I think that I’m going to have a hard time with this one, in that giving a child a quick tap on the hand while saying no about an unsafe item, is put on the same level as spanking. I want to take an “in-between” stance but I don’t think we’re supposed to do that!

The third paper is called a “concept map,” which is actually just a fancy way of stating research paper. It’s supposed to be on the topic we’re teaching in the practicum class next month, and our topic is measurement- a much more difficult topic to find research on than you’d think. Everything I can find is about measuring a child’s intelligence, and comparing that to their capacity for knowledge. Not exactly going to help me teach children about the volume and capacity of containers!

Monday night, we were put under a “snow advisory” for the entire day Tuesday (after spending all day Monday under a flood watch, small stream/ creek advisory and wind warning), making me very nervous, as I drive through one of the most dangerous valleys in the state in order to get to class. So I emailed the professor who teaches the math practicum class and told her that I was concerned about getting there, and hoping that I could make the day up, all while worrying about the fact that an absence can result in the lowering of our grade by one whole letter grade. This morning she emailed me back to say not worry about it. I drove to school this morning, and about the time I was supposed to head over to the school, I was stuck in the middle of a blizzard so I drove home! Oh well. It’s supposed to be worse on Thursday making my long day a ton of fun, and I really want to last until Intervarsity. This weather’s beginning to drive me crazy.