Tired, oh so tired.

Wow, I can't believe how tired I am tonight, and I only worked for 5 hours with H and S. And S wasn't really fussy or anything. I did do a lot of driving to get to them and then to the park and back home again, but not even all that much more than usual. I think I need a nap! I've been rundown lately, which is strange because usually during summer I have tons of energy. Something about the sun being out instead of clouds and snow like we get all winter. Oh, maybe it's related to smoke and clouds that we've had lately. That makes sense I guess.

We spent time at the river today, which makes me nervous because S has started toddling and likes to lunge for the water and the river is moving really fast this year because of the high amount of rain and snow last winter that is still melting in the mountains. When we got to the playground and there was a little stream that wasn't deeper than his ankles I was much more relaxed about the situation. They leave for vacation on Monday, I start housesitting on Friday because dad has to work for most of the week. So, it'll be a couple weeks before I see them again. The break will be nice, the loss of income not so much. I hope that they leave me a check for the housesitting, after all I've got bills to pay before they return!

People bug me sometimes

So, I have a myspace account. And I know every single person on my friends list. Well, except for Rascal Flatts, but that doesn't count. And in my profile I list very clearly that I'll only add people whom I know. And yet, every couple weeks or so I'll get a request from someone who I've never met, who there is no connection whatsover between my interest and theirs. It's super frustrating, but then I realize that I can ignore them. Hey, I didn't even send the one today a nasty note saying that if she'd even bothered to read my page she'd know I wouldn't add her.

The same goes for annoying instant messages. Of which I seem to be getting a lot lately. Usually I say something before pressing the spam button but not today. Either I'm in a cranky mood today, or just so annoyed I don't want to deal with these people anymore.

I'll be back for this. I have to go help my aunt with her new camera. And I have a little more to say.

Okay, I'm back - so now I'll say more about my day - although the title isn't applicable for this part.

I spent the afternoon with H and S at their house. On the way I drove past countless horses. And took some pictures that I'll share later. I spend the afternoon tomorrow with them in the city where I go to college. Then, my mom and I will hit the new mall. Yay! I can't wait. I begin my housesitting adventure at their house next Friday, going for 10 nights. Should be interesting, and long. They don't have a television set which means radio only for baseball games, and a quiet house at night. They have two dogs that I'll be taking care of, I've dogsat for one dog but never two before. But, they have wireless internet. Which is incredibly exciting. Expect pictures!!!

I spent part of the morning working with Granny to fix her page. Unsucessfully I might add. I couldn't figure it out. Suddenly, I didn't feel quite so smart about things. But, I'll keep coming up with theories and hopefully someone else can figure it out! Update 11:20pm, I got it to work. Yay, yay!! I kind of cheated to do so, and there are a couple things that still need fixed, but for now, she has a blog and she can post again. Or you can read it anyhow, she's been posting the whole time. Good night!!

Okay, done now. Going to "bubble" (as we refer to sitting in the hot tub!) with my best friend.

Calming down

This is the view from K and B's backyard. It's quite a bit zoomed in, so it looks closer than it really is. Although, it's getting smoky again so the wind must be picking up. I can hear helicopters and airplanes flying to drop retardant and water on the flames. Everything black burnt, mostly last night. This one has no zoom whatsoever, so you can see how close the fire actually came last night. However, they were not aware of the evacuations on the next block over. Even if you don't choose to watch television, I think this might be an exceptional circumstance. Wouldn't you want to know that your neighbours were being evacuated?
It's also begun raining, which is a very good sign. Rain will help squelch the flames, but at the same time it could hamper efforts. Most of the roads they are using to access the fire are dirt, meaning that they'll get muddy and travel with be difficult.

K knows something is up, after all mommy's been packing for two days, ready to run if necessary, but doesn't seem to have the words to say she's scared or worried. Instead, she looks out the window and points out the "big 'moke" which it certainly was this morning about 10am. I think she's been having a hard time sleeping, so before nap I showed her the "little smoke" and told her it looks like the fire's almost all done. However, since they're not expecting any kind of containment for at least four more days, that's probably a lie.

More to come.

Smoky day

Thanks for all the concern yesterday! Today, the air is thick with smoke. But, it appears that there isn't any imminent danger to homes. The largest of the fires has grown to about 6000 acres (probably more, I haven’t seen any updates in a long time; the television went out last night and hasn’t come back and the internet hasn’t updated since this morning, I’m going to do some more searching). It’s burning along a ridge right about K and B’s house – if I was there I’d see flames – and stretching a fairly long distance to threaten homes in a relatively poor community where some of my former classmates live(d). 300 homes have been evacuated, 150 are still “threatened” but they’ve been threatened for several hours (like since last night at 930) so it appears they may have some kind of handle on the fire.

For those of us who’ve lived here forever, we know that fires come with the changing seasons, but it doesn’t make it less concerning. At least for me, the worrier. I was evacuated one year from summer camp where I was a junior counsellor and the next year we had to close the daycare because of a fire burning in the hills right above. That fire was huge, and some of the students at the daycare lost their homes or came really close. We actually had parents angry with us for closing, when the air was so thick that ashes were falling on the playground and we had several children with asthma related breathing problems. When I was about eight, there was a fire that burnt through a canyon all the way to the ocean (we were living in southern California at the time, we moved up here about 2 months later!). I remember my parents sending me to school with a mask so that I didn’t breathe in the smoke and ash that was falling on the playground.

Within the next couple of hours, the thunderstorms are supposed to start again, meaning more lightning strikes (dry lightning, the worst!) and probably more fires. Hopefully, they’ll stay far enough away from us that we won’t have to worry. The resources are already stretched thin, very thin. There weren’t enough firefighters to fight all the fires that broke out yesterday (something like 14 or 15 all-together, four in this county, several more farther north.)

Edited to add at 9:45pm: So, I talked to K and B's mom about 1.5 hours ago. She said that they're packed and ready to go, having already moved the motorhome to a friends house. She also commented that dad sat outside last night watching the fire while she packed. At least someone was dealing with the situation at hand. She doesn't expect to have to leave, she'll call me in anything changes. If I'm uncomfortable there she'll give me things to do to fill the day. I think we'll be okay tomorrow. Hey, if they're staying, why can't I? The wind has picked up incredibly in the last hour or so, like enough so that we worried about things blowing away in the yard, but seem to be pushing away from their home, which is a good thing. I'll let you know more, when I know more!

Edited again 5 minutes later: Okay, so I just went online to check updates and the fire is within 200 yards of the kids home. 200 yards. Do you know how close that is? Way to close. Now, I'm going to worry about them and their home. Keep them in your thoughts tonight, please.

F is for Fire

At this current moment there are three fires burning within about a five mile radius of my house. The air is so smoky that I can’t go out, because I won’t be able to breathe. My lungs hate changes in the air. This includes humidity, smoke and smog. Luckily, I don’t often have to deal with anything like this. Just during the summer time (and, even then, only when there are thunderstorms and lightning strikes) or on trips to visit family, that’s about it. I’m concerned about my uncle who lives next door, there is no way that he can handle the smoke in the air. After all, he’s on oxygen all the time regardless of outside conditions.

It’s almost bad enough that I’m being reminded of the year that I was taking care of two small children (about 3 and 6 at the time, I’d guess) and their father dropped us off at the park on a day much like today. Despite my protests about the air quality. And, he wasn’t concerned at all. The most shocking part of this? He fights the fires – meaning that he has to breathe in the fumes all the time during the summer. I didn’t like having the little one (who was the first baby I ever held, from the first family that I ever babysat for, I’ll have to write about them sometime) out there, I think we only stayed for a very short amount of time. Heck, if I'm not comfortable breathing the air, why would I expose a 3 year old to it??

Wow, I just checked online, and one of the fires is burning way too close to K and B's house for my comfort. Last year, one burned like 2 blocks from their house, when the kids and mom were out of town, and grandpa was the only one home. Grandpa who didn't have the ability to do much on his own. I stressed majorly, but had other kids and couldn't get over to see if he needed help. Luckily he was okay.

My quiet weekend is about to end

I finished Glamorous Disasters today after church, while watching the ballgame. I was disappointed by the ending, but it made sense in the grand scheme of things, I suppose. I was glad that Noah made it through the struggles and found something more fulfilling than the families that he had been working for. I’ll pass the book along the my best friend and she what she thinks about it – she’s much more vocal than I am so it’s possible that she’d have more to say. I’ll share her reaction when she finishes the book. I also know that Mary is going to read the book soon, and definitely don’t want to ruin anything for her by saying more than is necessary. Not a terribly good book, but try it if you’re looking for something to read this summer. It went quick and was easy to read at least. *Edit* Oh, thank goodness for Susan at Friday Playdate. She so put into words what I could not! About why the book rubbed me the wrong way. But, I still don't want to say much as I don't want to spoil anyone who may be reading the book. But, if you haven't read it, or have, or don't plan to, or whatever - check out here review over here. */Edit* Now I need to get to work on the John Holt book that I borrowed from H and S’s mom about 2 weeks ago. But, since they’re going out of town soon I figure I have plenty of time to finish it!

Wow! I looked out the window and the trees were almost lying sideways because of the wind, and just as sudden as it started, the wind stopped blowing (well, at least that strong). I just let the outside cat in, just in time for her to avoid the wind and rain. She came running to the door at the first sign of thunder and lightning. I think the dog is probably under the deck so she’s fine (or at least I would guess so).

Baseball was satisfying (Betty, his batting average is higher than Bobby’s and really close to Chavvy’s, wow, talk about a turnaround!). My parents should be home soon, at least I’d guess so, they were about a 4.5-hour drive from here and I’d guess that they would have left in the noon to 1 o’clock range. As for the brother, who knows? He was camping like ½ hour from here and I haven’t heard from him all weekend. They probably stayed at the lake all day, but should be home soon as well. Meaning if I plan to eat my leftovers I should do so now, before anyone else walks in the door hungry. I’m now watching the ‘stros/White Sox game. Yes, I know, neither one of those are my team. And yet, I’m addicted. I feel like I have to watch.

A day at the Lake

Seeing as how I had nothing to do, because the parents are out of town and the brother is camping. I decided to upload pictures from today. I went to the Lake with my best friend and had a great time.Yes, that is SNOW on the mountains in the background. The water is always super cold, but I think today was the warmest I've felt it be in a really long time. I even managed to get in all the way at one point. And, lying in the sun felt good (well, mostly shade since I don't tan, just burn so I'm always super careful about it).
Lots of people swim out to the rocks and jump off them. I, however, am a wimp and did not choose to do so. Getting wet was enough for me. It was so deep today, I couldn't believe it. The lake is like 6 feet above where it was last year, so many beaches are covered in water. And, the one that we went to was quite crowded, maybe do to lack of space?
That's a really cool cloud, and it just kept growing and growing. And right now, it looks like it's going to be turn into a storm overtop of me any minute. Boo! I don't want thunderstorms today, but it will probably happen. After about 3 hours lounging and getting wet every so often we decided to head home, with a quick stop for a snack along the way.

Then, I charged the battery for my camera (why does it always have to die when I really want to take pictures?) and uploaded pictures. That's been my day. Anyone else experiencing major issues with bloglines the last couple of days? I keep having red exclamation marks and new updates don't show up. This isn't the first time it's happened, but it's no less frustrating. I've got to go bloghopping now to see if I've missed anything from those who have warnings after them. Enjoy the pictures.

Books, science and storms

I finished my Jodi Picoult book (Vanishing Acts) yesterday during my day off of everything. It was good, up there with the rest of them that she has written. Perfect timing too, as Glamorous Disasters came today. However, shouldn’t people know that if you are sending something UPS you cannot use a post office box? Especially if you work in an office that ships things out daily? Luckily, the UPS guy knows my family fairly well so I actually received the book – but it definitely took longer than it would have had the person shipping it asked for my street address because she was shipping UPS. I went to the post office thinking “how long can it really take for something to come from New York?” then decided that maybe it was shipped media mail which can take up to fourteen days and that is why it had not come in 6 days. Then, I got home and it was here. Yay!

I am on chapter 6. I like it so far. It is eerily similar to the Nanny Diaries, which I have read approximately 60 times. Or so. It is my fall back book, when I do not have anything else to read I pick up the Nanny Diaries because I know that I will enjoy it. Every time I read that book, I end up mad at the situation Nanny is in, right now, I am mad at Noah's situation. That is probably why I am enjoying it so far. It makes me feel sympathetic towards the character, even though I will probably never be in the same situation. Although, maybe as a schoolteacher I might face similar circumstances as Noah, and as a nanny I do face some of the circumstance in the other book.

K’s test results came back. She does in fact have the infection the doctor thought, but not to the extent he wants to do X-Rays, so obviously he is not too concerned and thinks it will clear up if we keep giving her the medication that we hate. Seven more days and she will be done with the nasty medicine. At least, she is pretty good about taking most medications, if it were B there is no way we would make it through the ten days. At least not with how mom lets him get away with things.

I went to see the results of B’s science camp this afternoon. I probably was supposed to go to X’s, but you know what? Mom never talked to me all week and I was not going to drive all the way up there to have no one be there. I know I could have tried to make contact, but I really did not want to offer her time because I wanted to go see the kid’s inventions. So I did. And, some of the creations were really cool, while others were hard to decide what they were. It was easy to tell what the older kids created compared to what the younger groups worked on. B’s was so exhausted after this week, it is a good thing he is only going to the summer latchkey next week, which will allow him to recuperate.

It has been thunder storming for the last two hours of so, I think it finally moved on but you never can be sure. Oh, wait, looking at the pond it is definitely still raining even if the thunder has moved along! Driving home today I passed a sign that read 104 degrees, I don’t know if I believe it but I did use the air conditioner in the car all day long. Usually I can open the windows and save the air conditioner, but not today. So, it must have been hot!

Hmm, what's a good title??

I don't have anything to say, so this probably won't make any sense (maybe I didn't do so bad after all, it should be comprehendible, if unorganized. That's what happens when you are tired and had a long boring inside the house day.

K and I played outside for about 20 minutes today. She played at her sand table - which basically means that I sat in a chair and watched her. She's fine to play by herself, and I didn't think about the fact that I could have been reading! Her medicine could cause hypersensitivity to the sun, which considering how fair she already is, could be dangerous! Hence, the quick visit, mostly in the shade at 9am.

I put her down for nap at about 11:30, because I had to get her up to get B by 2:30. If she hadn't gone down easily then mom would have had a friend pick him up. But, since she did, I got her up and we went and got Slurpees at 7-11 as a special treat. K spilled more of hers than she drank, but I think she enjoyed it. B's was gone before we made it home!

My best friend and I got tennis rackets and went to play look ridiculous while pretending like we knew what we were doing. It was great – we spent an hour chasing after balls when we hit them entirely the wrong direction. And, listened in on the conversations that were happening at the tennis lessons behind us! We got some good advice. And decided that we may try to do that three days a week. Then, we came home and sat in the Jacuzzi.

Tomorrow is a highly uneventful day. I have no plans, which is nice. I plan to sleep until noon (yeah, right, I’ll probably make it until eight if I’m lucky). And then Friday I’ve got H and S and possibly X in the afternoon. If I don’t have X, I’ll go see the results from B’s summer camp this week. They’re having a presentation for family and friends in the afternoon and I’d really like to go.

Antibiotics and books

K is on a super powerful antibiotic, which I had to give her the first dose of. Each dose is 2 teaspoons. For a three-year-old, who weighs 25-27 pounds, possibly less, as she hasn’t really eaten much in the last three days. Do you know how hard it is to get a kid to take that much medicine (I know, most of you probably do)? The side effects of the medicine seem pretty extreme (and kind of scary, I shouldn’t have read them, I should have stayed in the dark about it all) – hopeful she does well on it, and doesn’t have reactions. We'll have to keep a close eye on her for the next couple of days.

After I gave her the medicine and she finished lunch I put her to bed, where she stayed for 3 hours (she was still down when I left, so who knows how long she really was asleep). I had to go check on her at 2 ½ hours, because that’s usually her limit but she was still sound asleep. Despite me checking to see if she felt warm or anything. This is a nasty whatever-it-is that she has, hopefully the tests will come back tomorrow and tell us what’s up.

We went shopping for my brother’s birthday today. I got him a video game, and bought a very plain bag to wrap it in. I let K decorate the bag with stickers, as well as the envelope to the card. I think she enjoyed that a lot.

In other news, I have gotten two search hits for Eliot Schrefer today. That’s the author of the book that should be arriving in my mailbox any day now. It hasn’t yet, but I’m looking forward to it. Of course, I could get started on the Jodi Picoult novel that I bought last week, or the John Holt book that H and S’s mom loaned me over a week ago. But, I love books, and I bet I’ll be reading all three at the same time when it gets here. Once the book arrives I'm sure there will be more that I can write to appease the searchers, but for now, I've got nothing!

Home, sweet home.

I cannot believe how many hours I spent at the ballpark last weekend. I think something like 20 hours in two days. There was less than an eight hour break between the end of Saturday's game and being back at the ballpark the next morning. The game(s) was incredible. I had almost no voice for the entire game, but that didn't stop me from attempting to yell. 10 in a row is fun.

Yesterday, K's mom took her to the emergency room with a fever. Today, I watched her for about 4 hours in the afternoon. She's probably okay, but they ran a bunch of tests because of the fever that wouldn't break.


I watched H and S this morning (before heading to K's) and saw a lot more wildhorses. I took some pictures which I may upload tomorrow if I get a chance.

I had to get a new phone today. My old one finally broke from being dropped far too many times. Or something. So I finally got my pink Razr phone. Yay! Now, I just have to figure out how to use it. And make some ringtones. Because defaults are terrible.

I'm going to go watch Supernanny (I know, I know, but it just came on and looks like it could be a good one.) And then, I'm heading to bed. I've got K at 8 tomorrow morning. It's going to be a long week.

Welcome, to all the new visitors - most of whom I know in real life.
And, I'll leave you with this search (one of three yesterday), perhaps someone could explain it to me: nanny bed m/f - I have no clue! And nothing else to say!

Seventeen innings. Seriously, seventeen innings? And it ends in a walk off walk. Not a home run by Dan Johnson as I called in the 11^th, 13^th and 16^th innings. Nor one by Eric Chavez as my friend called in the 10^th, 12^th, 15^th and 17^th innings. But, a walk off walk by Bobby Crosby in the 17^th inning. It’s after 12:30 am as I type this early Sunday morning (it won’t get posted until later tonight, or even tomorrow due to the fact that there is no wireless within range). The game started at 6:06, 1 minute late, and ended at 11:15 or so. 5 hours and 10 minutes. I thought it was never going to be over. I have about a million pictures (okay, 157) to sort through, but right now I need to go to sleep.

(Finally posting at 6:30am, I realized that free local calls could be used to connect to AOL! Now, I'm getting ready for the ballpark. Think anyone will be awake today? Think that one of the five boys I still need to sign my yearbook will stop? *cough* DJ *cough* Swish *cough*)

Horses and ducks

So, X is sleeping and I decided to post some photos I took on the way up here this morning. Those are wild horses - last time I was up here I saw a group of about 40 of them, this time only about 10. I wonder where the rest are?

And now, some birds/ducks from my yard. The robin hung out for a while - I haven't seen him in a couple days, but then again I wasn't home for a week. The ducklings, of which we now have 20-25 (they move to fast to be sure), have grown a lot since these pictures were taken.


*Edited to add* Off to Oakland tomorrow morning, which will explain lack of posts over the weekend. Although, I probably will log on to whatever wireless network my hotel has, so there may be something tomorrow night late. */Edit*

Why me?

Today I got an interesting email, which I'll repost in its entirety here:

Hello,

My name is Michelle Jasmine and I am a marketing intern at Simon and Schuster Publishing. Today I am writing to tell you about a new book called Glamorous Disasters.

Written by Eliot Schrefer, a former SAT tutor of the young elite, the reader is given an insider perspective into the world of privilege from first-hand experience. From anecdotes about both parents and their children, Schrefer weaves a web of amusing, shocking and socially relevant stories that have led his writing to be compared with novels such as the Nanny Diaries and writers like Edith Wharton.

If you are interested and would like a free copy, please send me your mailing address and I will get the book out to you right away.

Her signature

Mailing address

Email address

Hmm, why did I of all people receive this email? I asked her, let’s see if she responds. I’m always up for a free book – but my internet trust issues make me hesitant to get to excited about this one. Especially when you consider that I can drop $50-75 at Borders in the blink of an eye. I actually was more disciplined than usually and put books back today. Usually, I’ll just buy whatever I want or think looks interesting.

Have any of you gotten an email from someone offering you free products due to your blog? I can only guess that it’s from the blog, because I had a hit from New York this morning who chose to view my complete profile, which is the only place on the web where you can find my email address posted.

And yay! Thanks to Granny, I have officially reached 200 comments on the blog.

A couple memes before I head to bed

This first one's from Granny:

You Are a Boxer Puppy

Energetic, playful and good with kids. You've also got a wild spirit that can't be trained or tamed.

What Breed of Puppy Are You?

Interesting, I don't know if I'd agree 100%, but most of it's true!

And then, because I was there anyhow, I did this one (and it kind of went along with what Granny and I were talking about earlier tonight):

Your Linguistic Profile::

75% General American English

10% Yankee

5% Dixie

5% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

That's all for tonight - I'm going to bed!

Searching? Yeah, that's a good title!

So, I took that job I said I wouldn’t. Why? I don’t know. I don’t think I have the ability to say no. And know they are officially later than they said they would be. And, they left their three-year-old at bedtime for the first time ever. Leading to much tears and comforting of the child. All I’ve got to say is that they’d better pay me well. They didn’t even make sure there was somewhere for me to park in front of their house. Which made me so angry it isn’t funny. If you hire a babysitter – please make sure she can park in front of your house when she gets there. Okay? Thanks! Then mom was late getting back with the kids. I was ready to leave before this job started!

In the mean time, since I can’t for some reason get my computer to connect to the only nonsecure wireless network around I decided to comment on some recent searches. Oh, and I should work on putting together the booklist I promised L.

Recent searches:
Angela mom to twins born in 2002 – nope not me, gosh, can you imagine? I would have been a 16 or 17 year old mother of twins! I don’t think I could have done it, I don’t think I could do it now! Hope you found what you were looking for, elsewhere!
how much do nannies charge for staying a night – way more than I do. So don’t rely on the information that you found here. And since, generally us nannies don’t mention the amount of money that we earn on our blogs, perhaps your search would be better directed towards a message board, like craigslist or babycenter.
nanny bad family – I don’t work for the best families, but I wouldn’t classify any as bad. I don’t know where I ranked on this search, I’ll have to check again. Hopefully not high. But, I’m sure there are some rotten families out there.
how much to charge for nanny over nights – similar to the one above, but not quite the same. In fact, if you actually read the order of the words it sounds like they want to charge their nanny for overnights, instead of the other way around. Hmm. I bet they had a hard time finding what they needed.
nanny sick days – I, personally, have never taken a sick day and don’t technically have any accrued with a family. But, that’s me and I know that plenty of families offer sick days and vacation time. I just don’t have much need for it. Heck, I’m a college senior who has only missed like 6 days of class. And two of those were because I was in Canada and thought the semester started a week late! (I didn’t tell that story? Oh, that’s a fun one!)
rich harden blogspot – #3, that’s me. And considering how much I love Rich that’s pretty awesome. However, unfortunately it looks as though Rich will be missing the remainder of the 2006 baseball season. This makes me incredible sad, however, I will cheer for Huston as strong as ever, and Dan way more than before. And, it’s always possible to pick up new players to be intrigued by.
things to tell nanny – when? Are you leaving your child for a long time with the child, or just a few hours? Overnight? Naptime? Seriously, the list changes depending on time of day and length of time. In general, let your nanny have contact numbers and let them know where any supplies they may need are. If the stay will be longer than working hours, there is a lot more important information to share.

One thing I have to ask, is why do people never capitalize words when searching for things? In all the searches, only one capitalized a single word!

Apparently, I'm far too kind!

I have hereby decided that if I get a call from a certain family asking me to babysit tonight, I’m going to say no. This mom asked me about a week ago to write them down for “5 or 6, on the 13^th” because “it’s our anniversary” but that dad hadn’t asked her to do anything yet. She said she’d call me back with a confirmed time, but it’s now almost 1pm and she hasn’t. And, I want to go to the hot springs with my mom, her best friend and my best friend. Sounds so much more fun than spending an undetermined amount of time with kids whom I’ve only met a couple of times. Plus, I’m still recovering from last week. I could really use a day off.

On my post about the agency lady, I got a comment from Chelsea Vanderkeller. Interestingly enough, Chelsea has the same blog as my first snarky commenter, Marge Ingersol. What are they up to besides messing with me? Nothing good, I bet.

I emailed X’s mom and told her that she needs to let me know what time she wants me on Friday, considering she told H and S’s mom that she’d prefer morning over afternoon, and yet never bothered to tell me, you know, the one doing the actually child care? In other news, I took H and S to the park yesterday while their mom worked, we had fun and I may have ended up with another family to babysit for! There was a grandma there with her grandson who must have been impressed by watching me play with S and she asked for my number to give to her daughter. Who knew the park would be such a good contact place? H and S have rather unique names, you should have seen the looks I received while calling H over to us, or asking her to stop doing something! Why can’t I watch children with common names? G, H and S all have names I’d never heard of before, even K and B don’t have very common names (K’s is much more popular than B, but only recently). And this new little boy, nope, yet another unusual name!

Oh, and survey time! I wanted to check, is this colour purple easy to read? Or do you prefer the dark one a few posts back? I like either, but I'm not sure that this is super easy to read. Let me know! Thanks!

This is my 100th post - do I get to have a party?

I’ve made it to 100 posts. That seems like a lot, when you consider I’ve had the account just slightly more than 6 months. In that time, I’ve received 189 comments and met countless people to whom I really enjoy talking (seriously, as I started adding links, I was thinking, but I don’t want to leave her out, or what about that person? If you’re not linked don’t feel bad, I didn't mean to exclude anyone). The blog underwent a makeover this week, one evening before the exhaustion sank in while I was working with the kids. I’ve been through the ups and downs of a job hunt, completed my junior year of college and come to the realization that it would take an extra semester to be done with college and in a teaching position.

I’ve completed my first week as a full-time “mommy” in the sense that I have no one to fall back on, and no adult conversation at the end of the day (actually K and B’s aunt commented on the trip that it was like I was a single mom all week). It’s exhausting and I can’t wait for tomorrow when it’s done. B was driving me crazy the last two days and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I’ve never been so happy when parents came home. I got really frustrated at the end of the week – every little thing make me angry, I felt bad but I think B understood when I apologized saying that I was tired and cranky much like them.

I found out that I’ve received a scholarship for next year that I wasn’t expecting. That’s really nice, because it puts me at $6420 for the year, and tuition only costs about $3000, meaning the school will be paying me to attend, which has happened every semester but never to this extent. Yay!

I don’t know where else to go with this post. But, I have a lot more to say about my week, maybe tomorrow I’ll get around to posting it. I’m going to stop know with the rambling, which I feel like I’ve been doing an awful lot of lately. Oh, but wait - you in Boiling Springs? Who are you? Seriously! It's driving me crazy! Whoever was in Cumberland hasn't visited since I called them out. And the Conyers person who commented wasn't the Conyers person I knew about. Hmm. What'll it take to make you say hi?

Seriously?

The other day I got an email from a lady who has a nanny agency around here, as well as providing services in two locations that are not so close by. I read the application and the contract that she wanted me to sign before hand, as well as her webpage. I had three issues/questions that I addressed to her before deciding to fill out any paperwork. Her phone number is out of state, which made me think that she probably would not even provide care anywhere I would be willing to drive. She made no mention of rates paid to nannies/babysitters. And, there was a clause in the contract stating that a nanny could never be in competition with her.

So, I sent her an email regarding whether or not she placed sitters in the town where I usually work along with the follow questions:

Secondly, what kind of rates would I be paid? I couldn't tell by your application or your website.

Third, in the contract, it stated that I could never be in competition with (agency name here), does that mean that I can't continue working at the jobs I've been at for the past 3-9 years?

Plain and simple right? Apparently not so much. She sent me an email back – it simply stated, “I cover your area too.”

Um, thanks but what about the other questions? Did she just ignore them? I responded, “I’m glad to hear that – but you didn’t answer my other questions. I will not fill out an application if those are not answered.”

Her response to me was “You can still work with the families you have now and you can pick up new business to. I just don’t want you to take anything away from me, if you understand.” No! I don’t understand, what does she mean? Wouldn’t advertising in the same area as she provides care technically be taking away from her? Oh, and the best part “The pay starts at 12.00 an hour in most cases.” Good pay, but when you consider that she charges $18/hr for one child it’s really not. So, I have to pay her $6/hr out of my pay? When she’s not doing anything, and she’s charging a placement fee?

I almost want to place an ad – offering the same services, but at a much lower rate to all the vacation families in the area where this agency serves. Maybe I’m overreacting, but it seems like she’s charging an awful lot of money and often unfairly to these parents (100% payment on cancellation, even if the roads are closed to do inclement weather, with less than 48 hours notice). I could understand if maybe she charged the placement fee every time someone cancelled, but leave it up to the nanny about charges upon road closures. Oh, and I think this is what “taking away from her” might mean: her website clearly states that families can never be in direct contact with nannies, without first going through her.

Update - should have been day 5, but instead most of day 6!

So, last night after I returned from the brother’s graduation I was going to post but Blogger was down. Granny said that it had been down almost all day. This makes most of two days in a row during which Blogger was down, very frustrating! I was then going to type in bed, but by the time I got there, I was so exhausted that I fell asleep almost instantly!

I had to have a babysitter yesterday. That seems somewhat funny to me – the babysitter hiring a babysitter. I was so worried that she wouldn’t be here, or would be late and then B’s ride cancelled on me so I was really stressing about getting to the graduation when I had to first go the opposite direction. Then, the person who was watching K brought her husband and he took B to the game. Yay for dodging that bullet.

We just finished dinner (pizza and carrot sticks), B’s watching a movie and K’s drawing on her MagnaDoodle (“I draw my name, K, skip a letter, right letter, right letter, letter that follows previously letter when saying ABCs” It’s cute because a week ago, every other letter was right, but the one’s in between were the ones that following when saying the alphabet). While they hang out quietly, I am watching baseball and typing this. I need a break, I have been kind of snippy all day and I know it. It does not help that K got up twice last night (once because she wanted a baby doll that had fallen off her bed, the other time I have no idea why).

B had a field trip today and K and I joined him for the second half. We had a nice picnic in the park and went on a small train ride. K slipped because the train jerked to a stop at one point and got rust all over her nose, knee and arm and now has a nice bump in the middle of her forehead (that should be okay, right? She is not acting differently or anything and she took her normal nap today.) I was frustrated because the train driver should know better than to do that with small children on the train.

K-isms for today (I should do this more often, because there are a lot of them):

What so funny? (as I can’t help myself from laughing while reading something or seeing something she does)

Dat no mike (when I said Go Mike! a new call up on the A’s who’s having an awesome game so far, it wasn’t a Mike she knew)

Rouse mouse house (trying to get her to say Mike’s last name, let’s make them rhyme)

No, I love you K (when I told her I loved her, every now and then she’ll tell me “you K, I Anya”)

That not how say yay, that all done (when I signed yay after something today, it is very similar to all done, I understand the confusion, she looked at me like I was crazy!)

Hi to Katherine from Conyers (you are right, I have another visitor, your hit actually came up as Atlanta not Conyers) and Carolyn (from Antioch, I’m pretty sure) whom I knew visited every now and then.

Is day four really over?

K has become reobsessed (yeah, I know, not a real word, but what do you call a rekindled obsession, one that went away and has suddenly return?) with binkies. I thought we were done with these conversations a long time ago. But it appears that there is a child in the class she’s supposed in at daycare who has a binkie. Since he’s only probably barely 2 that’s not a big deal, but to a child whose binkie “broke” about a year ago it is a huge deal.

I talked to the mom of the little girl who lives across the street and she is really upset that K got put into the new class. She just pulled her daughter out of that class after the child was so devastated that the first and last words out of her mouth every day are “I don’t want to go to school” Not a good sign. In addition, this mom has counted 25-31 children in the room with one teacher at various times of the day. Not only does that bother me, it’s highly illegal. I can’t report it, but she certainly can and I encouraged her to, especially since she knows the dates on which the transgressions occurred. I’m kind of tempted to pick K up tomorrow and not send her to daycare until this whole situation is fixed.

Blogger was down all afternoon, and even before that it wouldn’t let people post comments. Hopefully that’s all fixed, it’s really annoying when it doesn’t work. I had things to say to people today. But, now I couldn’t tell you what.

K and I talked to mom this morning, I forgot to mention the whole daycare issue, but they were supposed to call back about 6pm (it’s now 640 and the phone hasn’t rung. Update: the phone rang approximately 3 seconds after I’d settled myself on the couch to finish typing this before logging onto the internet, B got to talk to mom and dad and so did K I thought K looked kind of upset after the conversation, but really who could blame her?) I really would like to start baths and bedtime routine, but you know if I do the phone will ring. B and I just discussed “correcting” K’s speech. Instead of telling her that what she’s saying is wrong, we’re supposed to repeat the phrases that we understand so that we can reinforce her words. I asked him how it would feel if someone told him everything he said was wrong, would you like to talk then? He agreed that it wouldn’t be very much fun. I think he gets it, but sometimes is frustrated that he can’t understand things.

If your three-year-old picks the same three books every night and she has them memorized, would it be wrong to hide them from her? I swear if I have to read The Napping House, Green Wilma and/or Goodnight Moon again tomorrow I’ll go crazy. Green Wilma is the only one that is kind of worthless. The only two K repeats with me, or fills in words if I leave them blank so she really is expanding her vocabulary. At least that’s what I keep telling myself! Our copy of Green Wilma no longer has a cover or an ending, as it has been read that many times!

Today was a pretty easy day, although B didn’t get such a great behaviour mark at school. He did well when we were home and that’s all that matters to me. His teacher’s been crabby lately and the only comment she made was that he was rough at his last recess. If that’s all that went wrong that means he had an almost all good day and only struggled at the very end. Not a big deal, he was probably tired and wound up from end of the year activities.

I'm almost a nerd

Dropped K off at school and now I'm hanging out until I have to go pick her up at 11. I finally went into a little coffee shop that has free wireless internet. It's great, I can download itunes, and I think I may upload pictures. So happy! Last night was great, Granny and I changed her blog colours and I found a new template for mine. K slept all night, I took a shower this morning and then let her come cuddle for 15 minutes or so until it was time to get B up.

I have now officially edited this post four times (or more). A short post like this seems perfect for asking whoever is in Conyers, Georgia, Cumberland, Maryland and Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania to please say hi. Along with anyone else who wants to. Those three have been visiting multiple times a day for a while now not saying anything. So, I'm officially calling upon them to delurk! What captures your attention about my page? I'd guess if you keep visiting something must be interesting!

I can deal with that a lot better

K got up at right before 6 this morning yelling. I’m okay with that, kind of. It’s her loss of more than an hour to sleep in. When she woke up, I brought her to my room to lie down, because I definitely was not ready to start my day. After dealing with being kicked, laid on and various other forms of abuse, I stuck her back in her room hoping to get a shower. Yeah, right! She woke up B with all the fussing that she did. And it takes a lot to wake him up.

I got them up, ready for the day, sent B to the bus stop, and sat with K on the couch to french braid her hair. I haven’t gotten to do that in a long time, like since before she started at the preschool. We got to her school a little bit early, but not too much and I hung out for a while and watched her make the first craft of the day. I am not jealous of the position that those teachers are in. Would you like to be in a classroom of about 20 children all with special needs? Not I, and I’ve worked with several children over the years. I don’t think I could do it all day long.

I went to my mom’s shop and visited/worked for a while. Basically the rule there is, if you show up, you work. I ended up working with her and the other girl she works with from like 930 until 2, at which time I went to get K. I like her new teacher at the daycare a lot. I’ve never seen her yell at the kids or anything, I wouldn’t be too unhappy if she stays in that classroom but I have a feeling it won’t happen.

Mom and dad still haven’t called. That may be because they are docking in Canada, but I’m not sure. And seriously? Call your children every three days even if it costs you a fortune and you only have a couple minutes. *Edited after some googling of the ship they are on* They spent all day yesterday at sea and it doesn't seem likely that phones were accessible where they were today. Tomorrow, however, they do not have an excuse. They are in a large city all day long meaning hopefully they'll take the time to call, I bet they will */Edit*

B had another excellent day at school, so we all went out for ice cream after dinner (the amount of junk food that mom left behind or gave me permission to allow is astonishing in this usually organic, low sugar house, can we say mommy felt guilty for leaving her babies?). I’m impressed by him, have I said that enough the last couple days? Everything about his behaviour shocks me. Did I mention that he has not had one timeout in three days? Usually I have to send him to his room about once an afternoon (sometimes more) if he’s being too loud or obnoxious or just not following directions. Anything I ask, he does. If I remind him to use nice words (because we could all use that reminder at least once a day) he stops to think about what he’s said and doesn’t talk back at me trying to defend himself (almost always unsuccessfully).

And so ends day 2

K and B have been in bed for well over an hour, after both had long busy days, as did I. I dropped K off at 845 this morning, B walked to the bus stop – he left by 735. K went to daycare where she was moved up to the three-year-old room, without parental notice, after hesitation from the director and mom deciding that she’d rather keep her down. The class size is significantly smaller in the two year old room, and the teacher in the threes room has been stressed and yelling lately, which mom didn’t like. So imagine my shock upon arriving at daycare and not being able to find K’s name on the sign in-out sheet. And then with the wrong kids.

I spent four hours with H and S today, while their mom worked. We walked to the river and played and S didn’t get fussy amazingly. Usually by the time mom is back he is crying uncontrollably and I can’t do anything to Make. It. Stop. Today however, he was a happy camper and H was the difficult one who didn’t listen and had several time outs for being incredibly mean to her brother. Like knocking him over while he practiced walking (he’s up to about 8-10 steps at a time before falling to his bottom now!) and just being overall mean.

B watered plants with me and boy are there a lot of them. It took him forever and he was majorly tuckered out by the time we were done. So, we had dinner, played a little bit, had bath time, story time and bedtime. 740pm again. I can’t imagine not getting the kids in bed on time because I’m so tired by the end of the day.

I packed K’s lunch for tomorrow, B will buy hot (hopefully it’s not the wrong food again tomorrow, today it was something he would eat when it was supposed to be something that he wouldn’t eat). If he comes home starving I’ll know why. I think I’ll go visit my mom for a while tomorrow between drop off and pick up. I also may go visit my favourite teacher at the high school. It’s been a while and school’s out on Friday so I may not have another chance.

I’m tired but watching the finale of a show that I like a lot. I swear if K gets up at 230am or 4am tomorrow I’m not going in. And I told her that. Because, that took so much out of me, especially when it felt like I’d just fallen back asleep when she was screaming again. Not cool. Neither was throwing a fit when it was time to get up and yelling for mommy while refusing to try to go potty. Although if that's the only whining for mommy that occurs I probably can handle it. Ask me again Thursday or Friday!

Oh, and could whoever is spending hours a day on my page without saying anything please say hi? I know that you're here, my stats show me your hometown and length of visit. I'd like to hear from you!! Thanks!

One down, 6 to go!

Day 1 was a total and complete success (unless you count late naps and B complaining of a toothache at bedtime as a failure, and I most certainly do not).

K got up approximately 3.5 seconds after I got out of bed to hop into the shower, so I told her to play in her room and I’d come get her. Surprisingly, it worked! The kids had breakfast and played for a bit and then we went to church (my first time in like a month and a half or more). I got to see my friend who has a little guy who is now 19 months old, and found out that she’s pregnant and due 7 days after he turns two! They won’t have the same birthday because it’ll be a scheduled C-section, and his birthday falls on a holiday this year!

After church, which lasted 25 minutes longer than it was supposed to, we headed to a birthday party for a little girl that I’d met before, but a really long time ago. We got there just in time for lunch, presents and cake along with some time in the bounce house for the kids and left at about 2pm. I had the kids in bed by 2:35, not bad when you consider that we walked in the door about 2:25! B tried to get up after 40 minutes (the deal is an hour resting) and I made him lay back down. He fell asleep and neither child woke up before 4:40, oops! We had dinner, dessert, some play time and I had the kids in bed at 7:40. I knew they were tired, and bedtime is usually between 7:30 and 8 so it worked out well. Especially when you consider that they both have school tomorrow. Lunches are packed, except for fruit which I’ll add in the morning, and snacks which go into backpacks and the kids get to pick in the morning.

I’m impressed – instead of asking for mommy, K told me ‘I love you Miss Anya’ at naptime today. You’d think that maybe she’d be wondering where mommy was or when mommy might return. Let’s see how far into the week we get before those questions start arising. B asked if we could call mom and dad tonight while they are on the ship, but he knows that their phones may or may not work and I told him that we’d try, thinking mom would probably call before bedtime (but she didn’t, and we didn’t try, oops!). It’ll work out – hopefully they’ll call from wherever they stop tomorrow (Victoria or Vancouver, B.C., maybe? I don’t know for sure!)

Tomorrow I drop K off at 8:45 and then have H and S from 10-2, meaning I’ll be back around just in time to pick up the kids at 3 or 3:30 (the time that I’m back in town will determine who gets picked up first!)

I feel the need to defend myself – and I didn’t say or do anything wrong.

What kind of person has the nerve to search for “nanny” and then leave a snarky comment on my page about my last entry? I seriously hope that it was made in sarcasm, but I’m betting not.

You’re telling me that I don’t have the right to charge for gas, when I’m the only nanny that will come to your house that’s located out in the middle of nowhere on dirt roads that can’t be good for my car? Ha! I drove 35 miles to this house, and if I wasn’t up there for another reason you can bet that she’d owe me for gas money and/or driving time. The only reason she doesn’t is because like I said, I was there for another family first.

At no point did I state that I was interested in imposing a professional therapists no show- late cancellation fee. In fact, I think one of my commenter’s, who is a mother, not a nanny, made a comment about feeling so guilty upon missing an appointment with her therapist that she paid without being asked. So, if you’re going to make nasty comments, make sure that you’ve actually read the entry that you are talking about!

Done with that for now – I’ll write about K and B later. They are napping, but I feel like I need one too, so I’m going to relax and watch the ballgame (Betty, I just sent you an email, I’m so happy for him today!)

Random bits of information

I have hereby given up attempt to upload pictures on AOL dialup connections. The process takes much too long and I don't have the patience for it.

I was going to post a picture of the ducklings, but it won't work - so I'm done. Right now, we have 19, we should have about 36 but one of the moms was drowning those that did not belong to her. There are three separate groups of ducklings on the pond. They all get along fine - it's just the mom that had the problem.

I bought a new camera yesterday - because Best Buy has an 18 month, no interest on all digital camera/camcorder purchases sale going on. And, I figure a $400 camera at the rate is less than $25/month. Considering that I've been paying Best Buy $50-75 or more a month for my computer for the last year, I can handle budgeting in $25 now that my computer is paid for.

I leave here in about 3 hours to begin my stay with K and B. The construction on the roads in apparently very bad again today so I have to give myself extra time. Or figure out a way to go around. When there really isn't one. That's okay, I said I be there between 6 and 7, at least I saved myself that hassle.

My rate ended up being about $150 more than their mom was thinking. I have to say that I'm a very cheap babysitter/nanny and this house pays me less than anywhere else. So when mom told me her amount I was disappointed. But, I justified my reasoning and I think she could see where I was coming from. I chose to charge for the hours that I'll have the kids and they'll be awake, and $25 for each overnight. We'll see what happens when she writes me a check tonight.

X's mom didn't bother to tell me that she wouldn't be home yesterday. Luckily I had H and S right down the street from their house or else I would have been angry - and charged the mom at least my driving/gas time. I'm okay if you have to cancel (and she did have a good reason) but let me know about these things ahead of time!