This week

This week has been one of the longer weeks I've had lately. Liam's been sick and he isn't fun when he's sick. He's been pretty miserable lately and doing a good job of making me miserable with him. His nose has been rashy and he's been all stuffed up. Now that he's better, Rebecca's sick. So I have a week of this to look forward with her I guess.

On top of that I have had loads of paperwork to complete with interim grade reports and especially my mentoring paperwork. It does not end. And now that I finished one section I have even more to do in the second section. But, I am grateful to have a job.

I just finished filling out the "American Community Survey Form" for the census bureau. That was fun. I like filling those out. I also like taking standardized tests. I guess I like filling in bubbles. It's an exciting life I lead, but somebody has to do it.

Camoflage

Camoflage is very cool to Liam right now. He drew a picture to send to Michael. I couldn't tell what it was, and when I asked him he indignantly replied, "Camoflage!" He was right. It clearly was camoflage. Rebecca usually draws pictures of birds and people and stuff and so far Liam's drawings have been, what Rebecca so rudely calls "scribble-scrabbling." But this was camoflage.

He asked me for some camoflage clothes. Apparently it's not cool this year. I went to the BX, which should have it, but they only had camoflage pajamas. Which defeats the purpose. He wants to wear it to school. Right now he only wants to wear superhero clothes. He wears other things also, but very reluctantly.

Also in fashion is his mind is layering. If he dresses himself, he often wears three shirts. I don't usually realize it until we're at day care and his teacher tells him to remember his other two shirts. I guess he strips down as the day goes by. In my mind though, I'm pretty pleased because he dressed himself.

And Michael, the coolest shirt of all is his Power Rangers shirt you found at Goodwill. It's a little on the large side so the layering possibilities are endless there.

The heat is done...

For now anyways. Momma Kitty went into heat about four days after we got her. What a pain! Meeeeyooooooowwwwwwww! Constantly. I've never been through that before. She also started marking in the house, which according to most people I've talked to isn't that common in a female cat. I was worried maybe she wasn't happy, but I'm hoping spaying her will help. For now, she's in my room. I have everything for her in there and in the smaller space she isn't marking. Thank goodness. I take it personally when something pees on my floor. But she's been great with the kids and she is a loving and snuggly kitty.

This week has been exhausting. I am sooooooo done with Michael being gone. Emotionally it is hard and he's a handy guy so there's a lot he does around here. I have hired someone to clean my house every other week starting next Friday. I'm really excited for that. I just need to take care of my clutter now.

The kids are doing better. Liam stayed dry this morning and I tried to praise him a ton. Rebecca is able to express when she missed Daddy so at least I know. Liam tends to just go into baby talk and peeing his pants which I have no patience for and then we don't get along. But this weekend we're just hanging out around the house and they are doing well.

Momma Cat

We got a cat! I've been wanting one for awhile. A few weeks ago, a beautiful orange and white cat came to our door. I let him/her in and it was the friendliest cat. It genuinely wanted to be at our house and I would have kept it. Rebecca loved this cat. However, I had seen a moving van two days prior two houses down. So I begrudgingly brought the cat to their house to see if it was theirs. It was. But the idea of a cat was there.

On Saturday we went to PetSmart to see what the SPCA had there. The lady that worked there was genuinely busy and she asked us to come back on Sunday. She didn't seem all that anxious to adopt her cats, but I did have both kids with me and I guess they don't want to give the cats to just anyone. But we went back on Sunday. I told her I wanted a friendly cat who would be ok with the kids and wouldn't poop all over our house. She recommended Momma Cat. Momma Cat had been with them since November. She was previously a farm cat who was given up because she was too fertile. God forbid they spay her I guess.

She's been a really good kitty so far and is transitioning well. Rebecca wants to play all the time. But so far the kitty will play, sleep, and cuddle. She has yet to eat. I bought really good food and I think she prefers the other stuff she was fed. Any advice? Just buy her the cheap stuff?

Oh, and they think she's 1-2 years old. I'll post pictures later.

Coraline

The kids and I went and saw Coraline today. It was really really good. I haven't read the novella yet, but I really enjoyed the movie. It was creepier than I thought it would be. The 3D was pretty good, although not as dramatic as The Nightmare Before Christmas. Being the first weekend it played, the theater was packed. I was glad we got there early. I just love watching the people that get there 10 minutes after showtime and expect everyone to move for them to sit together. Ha!! I definitely saw the movie for my benefit. Liam snored loudly through it, and Rebecca followed the basic plot pretty well but the final scene was a little scary for her. I expected it to be a little creepy, but she really enjoyed Nightmare Before Christmas, so I thought she'd be okay. There were tons of little kids there which I thought was weird, given the subject matter. I thought maybe I'd be the only questionable parent (ha!) taking my little kids there. I thought the movie was worth the ticket prices, even if I'm the only one who enjoyed it fully.

Kung Fu and Preschool

I'm not sure the two should really go together. I picked the kids up today. The weather was beautiful here (finally) and they played outside for a lot of the time they were at school. This made me happy - I'm glad they were outside and they are completely sacked out right now. When we got home though, I noticed a slight injury under Liam's chin. If you're reading this, you probably know about Liam's track record of minor injuries at day care. This wasn't major at all, but I asked him about it. He said:

Mathaniel (Nathaniel) and I were playing Kung Fu Panda. I was the Tigress and he was the Tigress. Mathaniel is a much better fighter than I am.

I asked him:

Are you okay? Did you tell a teacher?

He said:

I'm fine. We were just having fun.

Lovely. I guess this is what boys do??

Virginity/Gender

The other day at school, my sixth graders read an article about Lucy Hobbs, the first female in America to graduate from dentistry school. She was denied admittance from one school because she was female. She perservered and finally got her degree. The students were asked what the main idea of the article was. One boy raised his hand and said, "She didn't let her virginity get in the way of graduating." Half of the class burst into laughter and the other half had no idea. The student was clueless so I told him to look virginity up in the dictionary later.

It's Me

Today my father-in-law came to pick up the kids. Thank you, Bob! I made no attempt to clean up my house before hand. He was welcomed to a house with Legos on the floor, random scraps of colored tissue and the blankets from our sleepover last night. Oh well. You might think, well, Sara has a deployed husband, a new job, and two kids. It's almost understandable. Nope. This is me everyday.

And I am better than I used to be. If you come to my house and it is clean, don't look in my drawers or closets. To me, clean is a vaccuumed living room floor, clean bathrooms, and a really clean kitchen and dining room. I give a damn about bedrooms and closets and especially drawers.

I am not easy to live with. I do not file things appropriately. I put papers in a big box in case I ever need them. Usually this works for me. I saw something on Oprah once about compulsive hoarders. I felt like I needed therapy after that because she said the first sign of a hoarder was the disorganized mail. I still might need therapy, but I feel quite functional.

I have the whole day to clean my house. When it is done, the Legos will be picked up, my floor vaccuumed, and my kitchens and dining room will be spotless. But, beware! DO NOT go into my bedroom or closets or especially my drawers. They might bite.