Saturday, January 26, 2008

creative writing 101

We had teacher conferences today. First was Jordan's and then came William's conference. Both seem to successfully march to the "beat of their own drummer" and we had mostly positive comments. In the package of papers the teacher gave us was some insight into how Jordan thinks. I found it hilarious.

The assignment was to write a persuasive letter. No instruction was give to the content, but the form had to be 100% correct no matter who you were writing to or what your cause was in the letter. Most letters contained pleas to parents to vacation at Disney or a request to the teacher for more recess time. Here is what Jordan wrote for her persuasive letter:

Monday, October 29, 2007

Dear Mrs. James,

I need to get rid of my horrifying fleas. There are way too many of them, and I get more each day. Please help me get rid of my fleas!

Constant exposure to fleas is proven to have consequences. For one, I have seen rotting dog carcasses with fleas climbing over to eat them. I hate to say it, but fleas carry disease and are quite gross. They have been known to carry West Nile Virus to people all over the world. There might be over one million fleas on my body, and they could all be carrying disease!

My friends have turned their backs on my fleas and me. There is no way that I can survive without them. I am becoming lonely, and there is no one to play with. I wish that I could get them to come back!

The fleas have conquered me, please help! The fleas hurt badly, and I can't get up! The fleas have bitten my fur coat to shreds. I can't move, and I want to die. They are always on my case and I can't get them off my tail.

I hope to be on my way to the vet soon, and to be well and home again.

Please feel my urgency,
Sugar Cookie (a handwritten signature)
Sugar Cookie


Confused? Grossed out? The letter is from a dog to it's owner asking to go to the vet. I immediately asked what books they had been discussing in class and the teacher assured me that this was a totally out of the blue sky idea for Jordan. Can anyone guess which Jordan enjoys writing about more -- fiction/fantasy or reality??? Bueller?

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

just a little snow

This afternoon it began snowing. Not the heavy duty Maryland type snow, but snow nonetheless. The kids were pleased beyond belief. The hope that maybe school would be cancelled tomorrow. We actually made it to midweek services tonight and then they got to have a snowball fight with their friends there. No matter what happens tomorrow I think tonight was a good one. To be honest, I really didn't want to drag out in the mess. Dave is in Seattle and I am a one woman show this week. I'm glad I went. Nothing like a little good fellowship and a snowbattle.

Basement update: The tile floor is done! I cannot believe the amount of work that has been done in just a few days. By Friday I hope to have all the drywall and painting finished. Then we have a six week wait for the cabinets. It's so exciting to see it come together after the mess. 

Monday, January 14, 2008

hooray

Hooray indeed. Today was the first day of contractor invasion for our basement. Remember the catastrophe which happened after Halloween? Well it's finally being repaired. We started out with one contractor who seemed like a great guy, but we had to chase him all over the place to finalize our dealings. The holiday distractions (His, not ours) seemed to be the final straw. It was during that time that we decided to contract the work out ourselves piece by piece. We are generally good at home improvement projects, but the scale and need to get this area back in working order after the initial mess caused us to realize that it would take a looooong time for us to do the project for about the same cost as the sub-contractors could do the job. In reality I think we are going to end up with a much nicer basement area for us to enjoy.
  • Drywall is being repaired.
  • Tiles are replacing some nasty carpet and should solve our kid and cat mess issues.
  • The old bathroom tiles are being replaced with the same ones in the playroom.
  • The bathroom mirror comes down so we can paint behind it and replace it with a framed mirror.
  • New cabinets and countertops are going into the bathroom and also in the new kitchenette wall we created in the playroom.

The cats are totally freaked. Dave is hearing about all of this long distance since he is on a business trip to Seattle this week. Finding work time may be a little rocky this week, but I'll be thrilled to have the majority of the yuck out of our basement. Now, does anyone have an idea of what kind of sofa material works well to ward off cat hair?

Sunday, January 06, 2008

me and my mii



It's a week into the new year and we are only two days away from the start of school again. We've had a good break together...and played a lot of wii. A lot. It is so much fun. Dave and I have been sneaking around to play more while the kids are sleeping at night. Apparently we are able to get our record breaking scores after we have no distraction. The active nature of the wii gaming is so much fun. There are not many games where you can sit and relax. That's good. (Jill, you inspired that mii photo...does it look like me?)

This afternoon our house is alive with kids. For days I've been trying to reorganize the girl's room and do catch up on all the things that get pushed aside during our normal schedule. I've still got light years to go, but there is a load of clothing and other things I've sorted through which will have new homes. My motivation was to have the house in good order so that Jordan could easily have a friend over at the spur of the moment or we could host friends for a casual dinner without too much fretting. Today I finally resigned myself to the fact that the break would be over soon and my kids needed to play with their buddies here at the house -- clean or not. Funny thing is that the kids don't seem to notice either way. I'll keep trying to complete my projects, but I'm reveling in the fact that Jordan and William are enjoying their neighborhood friends today.

I've had a lot on my mind lately. I got a diagnosis from and endocrinologist right before Christmas which has sent me reeling. We are still in the middle of testing, but it seems that the blood loss which occurred during Grace's birth did permanent damage to my pituitary gland. Right now I have more questions than answers and to be honest I've been in a fog since the news. It's really a good thing to be on the path to an explanation and yet if I think too much about it I become overwhelmed. I'm drawing on my faith and friends to pull me through this one. Say a prayer to give me some mental strength right now. I feel blessed to have found a doctor with the tenacity to search down my problem. Now I need strength to deal with the answers.