Matt's no-good, horrible, very bad day

It started out with an argument with me, the evil computer nazi. Then he messed up making his photograph in photography class, then he found out his picture is scheduled to be taken while he is at CDC. Next, he got a government assignment which requires him to take a laptop camping and he ended the day with a trip to the dentist. Good news there is that his brushing is better. Bad news and this is very bad for all of us-he needs his impacted wisdom teeth removed. This same child pulled the needle out of his arm a year ago during an immunization. Call being made to oral surgeon tomorrow morning(Matt started to tear up upon reading the word Surgery on the business card). My poor little boy-I ungrounded him despite the name he called me this morning.

Nothing much to say-my life is boring

Picked Kris up at volleyball, ate dinner, watched TV. Fought with kids to get off of computer. Watched Kristen do homework. Listened to Randy complain about his employer. Same old stuff. Tonight, have to do laundry for camping this weekend. Tomorrow night is back to school night for both kids. Thursday is dentist appt for Matt. Kris has volleyball all week. Randy may be going to California in the next few weeks. Maybe Singapore too, who knows. Kids love when he is gone, because we have food that they like, but he doesn't like fondue. Next fondue will be a cheese one. Based on this post, my life is so incredibly boring. I will have to do something exciting soon that hopefully does not involve kid or husband drama. Hmm, what to do, what to do...Skydiving instructor-Nah, don't like heights. Professional scrapbooker-Nah, have not felt motivated in months. I can't be Susie Homemaker since I have tried this and failed miserably. I think I need a weekend away-Reno and Pittsburgh can not come soon enough.

Teenagers: the good and the bad

Matt had his job interview. He was actually nervous. He had to take a test and did not do as well as he would have liked. He now is nervous that he did not get it-the bad.

Last night Kristen HAD to watch the teen choice awards. For those of you unfamiliar with teenage girldom. This is an award show where teenagers vote for their favorities in virtually every category in entertainment including cell phone videos. Kristen giggled uncontrollably and clapped her hands loudly whenever her favorites were mentioned, appeared, or spoke. Who are her favorites you ask?
1.Miley Cyrus
2. Zac Efron
3. Ashley Tisdale
4.Anything to do with high school musical 1 or 2.

Oh yes, the winners got surfboards-the good.

Chores

I had class all day and I wanted the kids to help out a little bit. This is what they had to do:
Take out trash and recycling
Unload and Reload the dishwasher
swiffer the kitchen and entryway
Vacuum Living room

It should have taken them 30 minutes top if they moved slow. My children? It took them 5.5 hours. Matt's comment-I thought we did not have to do anything when we went back to school!
My response-Did you make any of the dirt, did you eat, etc?

Today we HAVE to go get clothes for Kristen(her idea not mine). This is my only day off and I want to go see Becoming Jane. Kristen won't go unless I buy her candy.

Good tasting, bad for you-Jimmy Dean's pancake/sausage on a stick. Kristen and I love 'em and Sabrina goes insane for them. She almost knocked the trashcan over to get to the sticks that had been dropped on the floor and not picked up.

The first week of school

Well the 1st week of school is under their belt. All seems to have gone as smoothly as possible. Lots of long hours for me and the house has suffered. I am in an all day project managemement class today. Matt has a job interview Sunday for a job as an inlinehockey referee. Kris starts volleyball Monday. Matt will be doing drama club and foreign media club. He said Algebra is going to be a struggle. Sorry so short, but life is crazy busy as it will be with two teenagers. Matt's friend Scott is coming over to teach him Karate. Hopefully I will not be getting a call to go the ER.

The worst yard sale ever and it is that time again

This past Saturday the kids and I held the worst yard sale ever. Our street always has tons of traffic-not Saturday. We advertised and this usually brings throngs of yard salers-not Saturday. We don't have a good track record for yard sales and we kept our record intact . It was so incredibly hot-about 90 by 8am, it was horrible to be outside. We sold a few puzzles, got rid of the free tv and microwave and sold a few items of clothing and shoes. I donated the rest of the clothes and will donate all the books to a local library. After the yard sale, Matt's teacher Mrs. Coniway came to pick up the bass. She is not happy and Matt is unhappy. She wants him to stop in and visit and come to all the concerts. Maybe next year it will work out. Who knows. Kristen wanted to go swimming so dropped her at the rec center where she went down the water slides "a million times". After that we went and got the stuff for beef fondue, corn on the cob and ice cream. After that, we watched Wild Hogs. Matt actually went to bed at 9:30, he was so beat.

Today we spent doing last minute school shopping and combined it with Matt practicing driving. He is getting better and better. We need to practice parallel parking. It is 10:20 and both kids are in bed. Kristen has to be at school at 6:45 and Matt has to be there by 7am to pick up the final version of his schedule. He is going to resist big time, but I insist on taking his picture for the 1st day of school. Kris will have her picture taken Tuesday since that is actually the 1st day for her. Tomorrow she is a WEB leader for "the little guys" as she calls them!

The contents of Matt's backpack:
a portfolio binder
a legal pad

The contents of Kristen's backpack:
calculator that does square roots
5 binders
composition book
graph paper
notebook paper
pens-12
pencil-about 50(enough for the 1st week)
3 colors of highlighters
colored pencils
scissors
glue sticks
4 spiral notebooks
folders
erasers
2 sizes of sticky notes

This does not include carrying the flute!

7.5 minutes of free writing

I read on another blog that to get students to concentrate in school they need to download their brains by writing about what is in their heads for 7.5 minutes so I am going to give it a try. Here Goes:
I am very relieved that Matt's issues with his schedule got resolved. He got the CDC classes, he has guitar, photography, US govt, English, Algebra and physics the first semester. It looks like he did not get the afterschool job that he interviewed for. Bummer. Kris was so brave at the doctor when she got three shots yesterday. Looking forward to getting rid of all of the junk at the yard sale this weekend. I want it all gone, gone, gone. Connie is taking on too much and I am feeling her lack of attention to the library side of thing. Today will be the first day that I will spend the entire day in my office this week and also the first day that I will get to take a full lunch hour. What to do, what to do? Probably will go to Borders and get another book to read. It has been 6 minutes. I got a new camera and have even put batteries in it or looked at it. Hopefully tonight. Randy is going camping solo this weekend. I have no desire to go back to the Cameron pass area and I have so much to do . Matt picked out jeans when we got Kristen's new glasses. 4.00 for jeans at walmart. I expect them to hold for maybe one or two washings. I so am looking forward to the new Sams club opening but will probably be another year.

OK, my 7.5 minutes are up. Questions anyone?

Nothing like getting angry to get your house clean

Once again Randy pissed me off royally. Apparently that is the only thing that motivates me to clean. I think I need a new vacuum cleaner. This is the one I think I shall buy.

http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=385986&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch%2Eyahoo%2Ecom%2Fsearch%3Fei%3Dutf%2D8%26fr%3Dslv8%2D%26p%3Ddyson%2520animal%2520vacuum

Our weekend in the mountains

I started a big long post about the weekend, but even I was bored. SO, here are the highlights:
The Good:

• Finding parts of Grand Lake we never knew existed
• Great dinner at the backstreet cafe at the Daven-Haven Lodge
• Seeing a glimpse of how the rich lived-boat garages! I want a house that NEEDS a boat garage.
• Seeing a coal powered-steam powered boat on Grand Lake.
• Finding a new campground that Randy and I actually agree on.
• Discovering there is a lot more to Lake Granby that we ever knew about.

The Bad:

Bluebird Motel

The Bear's Den

Glen Cove Restaurant

The Cafe in Granby-don't stop in for lunch after 1pm in a town where going postal means bulldozing your cares away. A little scary!

Now-off to have coffee with one of my best friends from MEMS-Michaela!

Trains

Tonight on my way home, I had to wait for a train. Nothing unusual in this town. I was at the crossing with the gates down and no train. The gates go up after a minute or two and just as traffic begins to proceed across the track, you hear this loud Blare! The train was right there and was right there. Fortunately, the guy hightailed it in reverse and avoided a collision. Heart stopping. Then to further irritate everyone in line, the train kept the crossing tied up for 45 minutes. This kept me from getting home at a decent time which meant hurry and make dinner so Randy could have dinner before his weekly conference call. Because of all this rushing around, dinner was not to Randy's liking and he stormed out to get mcdonald's. He came home and ranted and raved and then joined the conference call. I went back into work. 3 deadlines looming. Lovely evening.

Hairspray

This movie was outstanding. Zac Efron was better in this than High School Musical. I hope the outtakes are on the dvd. It is worth the admission price to see John Travolta and Christopher Walken dance together. Fun times!

New pictures on Flickr

I uploaded the Jackson Lake pictures to Flickr. Take a peek. It is quiet here. I should be taking the time to get some work done, but not motivated in the least. So Matt and Kris, relax-your rooms are safe for another day. Sabrina does not know what to do with herself. She has been stalking a few flies. Freaked out when she saw a long haired black kitty-cat in the next yard. The cat taunted her by strolling across our yard before crossing the street and watching her freak. Major storm here last night. Glad to have the rain, but it is hard on the doggie.

Their bags are packed, they are ready to go

They are leaving on a jet plane! Everything is looking good for their trip tomorrow. Zack is excited to play video games with the gaming master. Kristen is looking forward to beating Heidi and Nana at SPIT(insert maniacal laugh). The computer is going to go through withdrawal without Kristen's constant attention as will Sabrina. Sabrina may have a chance to catch up on sleep. Going to bed soon. 4:30 is going to come mighty early.

My favorite things by Sabrina

1. Riding in the car with the window down going 42 mph so my ears look like the flying nun.

2. Sleeping on furniture(preferably Mommy's bed)

3. Sauerkraut

4. Kristen

5. Central Air

The end of another week

Well another work week is over. Not nearly enough done. Working 10 hours plus another 2 or 3 at home. Randy's Singapore counterparts feel he should be accessible 24/7 which is why he desperately needs to get away. Hopefully the temps will not be as high as predicted. We are camping here:

http://parks.state.co.us/Parks/JacksonLake/

It looks beautiful, hopefully it will be.

Matt applied at Snow Mountain Creamery last night. He would be starting sometime in August if he gets the job. Evenings and weekends. Of course we had to get some icecream then. Kris got chocolate, Matt espresso choc chip and I got Peanut butter fudge. Then we played a game of Pennstateopoly. Very entertaining when you are bone tired and one teenager is laughing at the other one. Kris won. I am sure there is more going on, but can not think of anything.

Law and Order:SVU

What an unexpected surprise to find a TV show teach a very important lesson. The episode on last night focused on teen age drinking. It incorporated elements of social networking as well as some of the harmful effects of alcohol-not just drinking and driving, but the effects on your brain and liver. It also focused on the repercussions for breaking the law in this manner. We watched it with both kids. I hope more parents did the same.

Headed to Reno in October

My director approved Norm and I going to the American Association of School Librarians conference in Reno, NV in Oct. Tremendous speakers and workshops. We are staying at the Circus, Circus casino/hotel. Hopefully Norm and I will be going to the CODI conference in Pittsburgh in November. This is about the library automation system that we have.

Walgreens is taking over my city

Currently we have three and now they are building a 4th. The good news is they are tearing down a strip club to build the 4th one, but how many Walgreens can one medium sized city support? I would much rather have other retail go in there. Maybe a CVS or Medicine Shoppe? Other than grocery store pharmacies, Walgreens is it in this city.

Movies, 42mph,volunteering,

We recently saw Ratatouille(wait for the dvd) and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix(race to your closest theater and see this one-it is that good!)

The dog likes to ride in the truck-with the window open-going 42mph, Any slower and it gets ugly.

Matt helped out at the St. Vrain State Park this morning. He and Randy volunteer there once a month. Apparently the moose is still hanging out there.

Really, I can not think of anything else to say. It is warm again here, but then again it is summer. Off to play with some more Web 2.0 tools.Stay tuned.

OK, i have updated a few things

On the right side of the the blog is a flicker thingy where I have some random pictures loaded. 12 I think. I will try to update more later. I also have something called twitter there also. I can type in comments as to what I am doing and you can follow my comments by clicking on it. These are both considered Web 2.0 tools and I am dabbling a little bit. Flickr is not new but twitter is.(relatively).