Some days.....

Today I had Abi over (okay I have Abi over every day during the week, but I DON"T do daycare). She and Isaac were happily playing upstairs (yeah right) and I was cleaning downstairs. I was in the kitchen on the phone with Jason and swoosh, I slip on something wet and fall on my back side, breaking the phone in the process (can still talk and hear, it just now rattles). I'm lying on my back, assuring Jason I'm okay and I feel a drip on my face. I get up (thankful, for once, for my ample tush which helped break my fall) and run upstairs. Adorable Abi and Incorrigible Isaac have flooded the bathroom. After quite a bit of lecturing on my part with some guilt trips thrown in, I clean up and make them lunch. After lunch I tell them to clean up Isaac's room. Every so often I call up to them, "Are you cleaning" they answer "yes". About 15 minutes have gone by and I decide to check on their progress. They are both, head to foot, BLUE. And proud of it. Oh my GOSH. At this point, I'm at a loss for words. I get them one by one into the shower, clean them all off (only washable markers in this house, thank goodness). On the upside, I did get to blow dry Abi's hair and use a round brush and put in some Barrett's---something the boys won't let me do. So after both are dried and dressed I proceed to tickle them while exclaiming that "They drive me CRAZY" They just laughed and laughed. Really, they're 4&5 what should I expect of them?

They did get the room cleaned up though.

this and that

I found out yesterday that it's 'teacher appreciation' next week. As co-room mom (and other co-room mom is in Monte Carlo this week, hate her), I had to scramble to write a letter to the other parents asking for donations, pictures and cards,written by the children, for the teacher gift (a scrapbook with messages and pictures of his students). So I was chatting before my Micro class last night about this and then mentioned that the only reason I knew this was coming up is I happen to be on the hospitality committee at school and got an email regarding the change of 'teacher appreciation' week. It was at that moment when facing the raised eyebrows and stares of my fellow Microbiology students that it's no wonder I'm getting only a B in the class. I didn't even mention that I also volunteer in the nursery two Sundays a month at church. And I thought I was being so good at dropping out of the community Social Committee. Me-thinks I will have to drop my volunteering, socializing, coffee drinking with neighbors even more during nursing school---well maybe not coffee time with the neighborhood mommies. This will be a very hard sacrifice for me. I have to keep reminding myself that the field I am choosing is one of service and it's OKAY that I stop being of service (outside the family) for a brief two years in order to accomplish this. right? right?

Now on to the real important matters of life, what shall I make for dinner tonight? We have a freezer full of stuff I could thaw, something with shrimp maybe? Ooooh, shrimp scampi over rice noodles with fresh asparagus and broccoli tossed in? I guess I do know what I want to make for dinner --- love the rice noodles, they're so much lighter and the taste of the scampi comes out more then with regular noodles.

Spring in the Rockies

Today

A couple of days ago

Yesterday, I sent Jake to school with a rain jacket, boy was that a mistake, it was snow boot, heavy coat, hat and mittens weather after school. He made it to the car okay though. Although, and not related to the snow, he did 'toss his cookies--um okay Cheetos' in the back seat of my car. My first thought, "thank goodness this wasn't Jason's brand new car". He's feeling much better today and actually begged to go to school. Woo hoo, that's not his normal state of mind when it comes to school.

My personal opinion, and I'm not sure why the superintendent DIDN'T call me for my expert 'mom' opinion, but it should have been a snow day. Maybe I'm a wuss but it would have been fun to snuggle in and watch the snow melt, drink hot cocoa and have a free day, it's not likely we're going to get another chance at a snow day this year.

Planning forecast....80 this weekend. Where else can you get four seasons in a WEEK.

Doing an Olympic Triathlon

NOOO, not me. LOL. My brother and his wife are doing an Olympic Triathlon to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. The mom of one of Gina's friends recently struggled with a blood cancer and both Gina and Jose wanted to do something worthwhile in her honor. As well as have a reason to train (you can read more about it on her blog). Any how the reason I'm writing about it is because, A. I'm so freaking impressed that both she and my brother are able to do this physical challenge, and B. I think it's a worthwhile cause and thought if anyone should like to donate I'd put the link on my blog too. Oh and it's, of course, tax-deductible:
Gina's team page
Okay, big sister duties done for the month, at least for older-little-bro', younger little bro' and little sis' will have to wait their turn.

The things that kids say

The other day the girl that I watch, Abi (and NO I DON'T DO DAYCARE SO DON'T ASK) says to me, "My mommy takes showers" I answer,"I'm so glad, it's an important thing to do" I'm wondering where she's going with this. Then she says, "Sometimes with my daddy" OHHHH. And I reply, "Yes, sometimes mommies and daddies do that, it helps save water", she says, "they won't let me in" HMMMM, eyebrows raised, don't know what to say, she continues "But this morning they didn't" I wanted to say, "oh was your daddy in a bad mood the rest of the day" But I just changed the subject. Ponies, with little Abi, always a good choice.

Which reminds me of a time when my own son, Jake was having a conversation with his grandmother. She came over so Jason and I could go out. When Jake asked why she was over she said so we could have a date night. Jake said he thought we already had one that day. We looked at him puzzled and asked why he thought that. He said (in front of the grandmother), "You know mom when you and daddy told us to watch cartoons then went upstairs and locked your door." UMMMM, color me red.

Nesting

Jason has been busy cleaning out the garage. There's a crawl space above the garage where he has put down boards so that we can use it as storage and he's moved our Christmas stuff, camping stuff and other stuff up there. He's cleaned off a bunch of shelves. Today he's going to move the freezer to the basement and will rearranged the work bench and shelves. It's been awhile since he's been motivated to do anything around the house. Everything seems to be such a big project, no real one weekend deals. We were talking about that one day and he sheepishly said, 'I'm nesting" OOOOOHHHH, he's preparing the 'nursery' for his new 'baby'. I'm so proud that he's sooo in touch with his feminine side.

growing up

I was reading another blog and she mentioned how adulthood has creeped on her slowly. It was just a small blip in a post about something else entirely but it resonated with me. I have these moments when I look around my life and think, "I'm a grown up." It's hitting more at home right now because after 18 years, Jason has finally gotten a new car. And it's a grown up car, a bit of a man-toy, but grown up none the less. Not his small, Honda civic that was so 'cool' in a geeky kind of way while in college, first job, first house. It stopped being 'cool' but Jason held on to it. Why? he said finances, but was it holding on to that time in his life when the realities of adulthood weren't as prevalent?

You'd think that at almost 40 (a year and two months away) I would have figured out that I am indeed an adult. You would think given my childhood where I took the adult role, more often then not, I would be used to this whole adult thing. I drink coffee, have children, am married, pay the bills, cook, drive a safe car for which I provide maintenance, keep a home , have a retirement plan and paying into college funds, and yet I feel like I'm waiting for adulthood to start. And it struck me, it's not that I don't feel like an adult, I don't feel like I'm living the life I imagined I would while I was in my youth.

I'm not sure I want to live that life either because it looks a lot like a television show (my childhood dream/assumption of what a family should look like). I'm not sure what I want it to look like. Maybe I should be okay with how it is NOW and learn to enjoy the experience of not knowing, not planning, not imagining and just be content with the now. I think I've spent many years not worrying about now, because something better was going to be around the corner. What if 'better' is now.

No, my house is still mid-remodel and will most likely be that way for a few years until I finish nursing school. I'm not the weight I'd like to be. I'm not driving the car I want. BUT, my kids are great, they are bright, friendly, active, talented boys who make my eyes light up when they come into the room. My heart swells with the unsolicited hugs and kisses. My husband is a great father and loving, caring man. I am blessed that we've been together 22 years and married almost 15 (high school sweethearts) I am so enjoying my class, even though it is hard as hell. I enjoy learning, enjoy the challenge of understanding a subject so foreign to me. I have a good life. Being an adult is good. The life I have is good, even if it isn't the one I set out to have.

by the way....

I just got our tax bill, and I hope you all forgive me, because I'm about to sound like a Republican...
Shhhhh.....Don't tell the IRS about my last post, they may find a way to tax me!

Look how much I'm worth a year

I was looking up something else entirely on salary.com and found this mom calculator and check this out, a stay at home mom would make 140,000 dollars per year if she was paid based on what she did on a daily basis for the kids, the house, her husband, et al (I think they include overtime).

Now, where do I pick up my check?

A Realization

I pride myself on my humor, particularly the self-depreciating zingers I can often use. I love laughing at myself. I guess you could say, I'm my most favorite subject to ridicule. Most of my friends laugh along right with me, knowing that I'm really NOT an idiot, I just play one for fun.

However, complete strangers don't know this and I think I've done myself a disservice. Here's why -- Some of my class mates don't take me seriously. One of my lab partners had a question, she asked everyone but me. And I knew the answer. When no one else could answer, I told her mine. She reread the question and realized that yes, I was right. She was a bit perplexed at my being right. More importantly, this was not the first time. Yowzaa. What a light bulb moment for me. My feelings weren't even hurt, I did this to myself.

I'm glad I learned this lesson now, because once in the work force, particularly as a nurse, the appearance of confidence is going to be very important. The patients will be looking to me for help, not for a good laugh. I do think at the right moments my sense of humor will be helpful, but mostly confidence and caring should be at the forefront of my personality.

It's identified....

Last night in study group we went through Bergey's manual to identify our unknown bacteria. I got my culture from the vending machine. Should I tell you, should I? Or the better question: are you going to keep reading from this point on? I was hoping for some normally benign form of say, Staph. epidermidis, which is only a problem if it gets in your blood stream, it's part of your normal flora, everyone has it. But NOOOOO, It's Staph. auereus, a particularly nasty one, responsible for a whole host of nasty diseases (if you click on the word it'll take you to Wikipedia).

Cheers to our normally healthy immune systems!

School Now vs. Then

A couple of days ago I took son #2 to Burger King, so he could play and I could study. Every time I heard an energetic gleeful shriek (someone else's child, MY child wouldn't be so rude -bwahahah), I had to retrace my reading steps. It was then that I realized college this time around is sooooo different from the first time around.

Before:
Studying? something you cram in right before the test because you were sleeping off a 'late' night in class and couldn't take notes. Instead of reading you were enjoying those 'late' nights.

You studied, in coffee houses, out on the lawn, school cafeteria, school commons room, anywhere where a friend might happen upon you and you had a great excuse not to study anymore.

The library was a great place to take naps, and there were too many tables and chairs and not enough of those comfy 'reading' chairs and couches.

An entire semester's worth of books equals one book for one class now.

You really thought what you said mattered and you could change the world.

Now:
You have a chart when everything is due and you tape it to the fridge so that you can maneuver all of that around your family's schedule.

You want, crave, must have, peace and quiet when you study. If someone you know happens upon you when you do, you chat for a minute and excuse yourself to finish your studying. The library has way too many comfy chairs and should invest in more tables and chairs. The obnoxious guy sitting at the table next to you, having a cell phone conversation and a conversation with his table mate, simultaneously and LOUDLY, should be shot and killed.

You feel guilty about the time it takes away from your family, about the loads of laundry not done, about more fast food and convenience food, about the money you are not only NOT contributing but you are taking away from the family. blah blah blah, this list can go on and on, but let's not dwell!

You don't ditch, because if you do, you'll miss something, and gosh darn YOU PAID TO BE THERE. (a LOT).

Day care....Holy Cow, who can afford that!

Less beer, more coffee.

Guys don't want to buy you beer anymore, or coffee for that matter (which by the way is okay, since I'm happily married).

When you exclaim at the school bookstore that when you were in college the first time this cost would have been for a whole semester of books, they guy looks at you and says "Whoa, that was a long time ago" (OUCH).

And, you realize you can't change the world, but you can effect people's lives in your chosen career, and if you're a mom you are shaping the lives of the mini-human(s) left in your care for such a short period of time, and these things are priceless.

Grammar Police

I'm really not one to poke fun at people's grammar mistakes (notice the proper use of apostrophe). Particularly, because I know I use commas way too liberally. I enjoy run-on sentences; it's how I speak. I love dashes. I don't always get my verb/plural/tenses matching. I can't spell to save my life. And lots of other lazy, stupid things. All that aside, I don't think I would have made THIS mistake:

Painter's in lobby, please be careful

The sign was taped to the inside elevator doors at SCHOOL.

wooops!

If anyone wants to read a fun grammar book (and I think this book should be used in high schools around the country) pick up Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

Another Quiz

You are 90% Smarter than a fifth grader.

You are smarter than a fifth grader. no doubt. There is no need for you to retake school. Keep on doing your brain excersise like sudokus and crossword puzzles, and you'll soon be smarter than a sixth grader! Good work!

are you smarter than a fifth grader?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

The one I did get wrong....yup a math question, I even asked my 7 year old for help...yup, that desperate, but it does show me we have to work on his geometry skills.

I wonder how a fifth grader would do on that stupid nursing pretest?

Punchy Answers to Micro Assignment

I was getting a bit punchy yesterday after working on a Microbiology assignment for a couple of hours. It's crunch time, I'm getting a solid B in the class and I still feel like there's hope to squeak out an A. I'm already admitted to the nursing program, and at the associates level (still will be an RN, will take the same NCLEX as the BSN graduates) you only need to average 2.5/4.0 GPA. But noooo, I want an A, especially because this is such a freakin' hard class. It's almost like someone said 'NO' to me, or told me I couldn't.....I can get a bit stubborn that way (ask my parents, husband, anyone) I'm pretty sure the teacher has a sense of humor so I answered a couple questions, correctly, but with a bit of, well, punchiness.

First one is a drawing. We had to draw out the steps of phagocytosis --in general terms, the cells released to help get rid of nasty microbes -- So as I'm drawing the macrophage engulfing some bacteria, I drew a little cartoon cloud above it saying, 'yum'. Now after the cell, chews the microbes (and/or foreign object) all up it releases the debris into your system...I almost, but didn't, draw a little cartoon blurb about being bulimic. Yes, I realize at times you can go too far...and have been known to stop myself---sometimes.

Second, and I'll just copy and paste here:

27.List Three fomite, for each, write a statement instructing a friend, child, co-worker or patient how to avoid infection transmission by that fomite. Tell who you are informing and use a distinctly different method of prevention for each fomite.

a. Public bathroom door handles. Telling a friend. After washing your hands, keep a paper towel to open the door with, then throw the towel away.
b. Shopping cart handles. Telling a child. Ok, in my case it’s usually, “Stop licking that” with a tone of disgust and dismay. But when I’m in ‘good mommy’ mode it may sound more like this, “let’s wipe this up with some of the soapless germ stuff, then feel free to lick it up” Oh, wait, I forgot, ‘good mommy’ I would just tell him he’d get a cookie if he didn’t lick, and/or touch anything….ok never mind, you just can’t tell a kid anything because they don’t understand.
c. Pen. Co-worker. “Wow, did you see the green stuff coming out of his nose…wouldn’t use that pen if I were you”. (wink wink, nudge nudge), “but if you really want to I’ll spray it down with some Lysol”.
d. Scalpel. Patient. “Oh, sweetie, don’t touch that, I just used it to debride some rotting flesh from a person with Necrotizing Fasciatis. I will first auto-clave it then you may use it.”
(I’ve been working on this way too long and think I should get the point for humor).

You guys would give me the point, wouldn't you?
Ok, off to write up my labs. And then poop patrol in the backyard. I live a full and productive life.

4 am conversations with a 4 year old

Jason and I wake up to crying, the inconsolable kind.
"What is it Isaac?"
"Jake won't let me play with them"
"Jake's asleep honey"
"No, he's not, he's playing with my monsters and I want to play with them"

monsters?

"Honey, you're having a dream"
"No, I'm not, Jake is having fun with MY MONSTERS"

SIGH

Get up and show him that Jake is indeed asleep. Isaac calms down and wants to snuggle, I cringe at the thought of his bed, so we go back to our room and all fall back asleep, he and Jason more quickly then I.

Leave it to the quirky one to have a dream about monsters, but instead of being scared, he's upset they're not playing with him -- this is the kid that insisted on wearing a turtle costume and snow boots (no snow right now, just beautiful Colorado Spring weather) to Chipotle last night for dinner -- and to be fair, because we're quirky parents, we let him.

Parents moving back state side

I'm so excited, my mom and step-dad are moving back state-side. They live in La Coruna, Spain right now and have been for a couple of years. But, Jose is missing his family a lot. My mom, although misses us, REALLY likes it over there. Jose wants to move back to Miami, we have one brother there and Jose loves the Cuban community there. My mother has a sister and niece in Naples and a bunch of cousins in Miami. And then there's the weather. But I want them to move here! Yeah, the weather may suck to them (I'd take it over the sweltering tropical heat of Florida ANY DAY) but they have two daughters here and grandchildren (my brothers have yet to reproduce...Jose and Gina..get on that by the way, and Luis, get married). Luis, the brother in Florida should move here anyway and who knows where the Navy will send Jose and Gina next. Not to mention, Jose, Sr. (step dad) is related to most of the tiny Cuban community in the Denver area. Oh and it's cheaper. Don't you all think they should move here rather then Miami?

I promise I won't ask them to babysit ---- that much.

This is the view from their apartment now. I know it would be hard to give up, it really is beautiful there!

Photos...

King of the Mountain

What a view, Jason took the boys hiking a couple Sundays ago (Elk Meadow, near Evergreen). They had a great time, I had to study (poor me).
Hiking in the mountains, in March, wearing shorts....Jake is so 'Colorado'!

Jason and Jake went Indoor skydiving with their buddies. You probably can't tell, but Jake had a BLAST.