Master Manipulator

Andrew hit me with a new one today. I made popcorn and he wanted me to share some with him. I teased him telling him, no that it was mine. He then looked up at me and with all sincerity said “But I’m your only child”. Man he is getting good at that.

New Hair

Here is the picture of me with my new hair. I totally love it.

Bad news, Good news, and Fantastic news

Well, first the bad news. I have developed a skin condition called guttate psoriasis. “It often shows up after a sore throat, with many small, red, drop-like, scaly spots”. About 8 weeks ago I had a really bad sore throat which I think was strep as Wayne was diagnosed with strep a couple of weeks later. I was given an antibiotic and a cream to treat this and was told that it usually clears up completely in 4 to 6 weeks. I truly hope so because it ‘aint pretty.
Now on to the good news, I got a new haircut yesterday. I went to Angela at Hot Box Salon, my sister Lauren found her and she is soooooo good!! I have not been this excited about a haircut in many, many, many years. I love it!! (I will post the picture as soon as my mom e-mails me the one she took afterward.) It feels really good to be very excited about my appearance, it’s been a while.
And now, the fantastic news, Wayne applied for an Architect position at his current job at McCarran Airport, and he got it! I am so very proud of him. There is one condition, he needs to get his architecture license within one year or there is the possibility that he could be fired. For the last year he has been working on getting his architecture license, there are a series of 9 tests involved. Wayne has taken and passed the first 5 tests, and is about to take the 6th test on the 31st. So he only has to take 4 tests in the next year. I know he can do this without a problem, he of course is cautious and concerned as ever, poor guy just can’t help it. I on the other hand, am not worried at all. He has passed 5 of the tests on the first try, and I have no doubt that he will be able to do the same for the rest. As an added “yay” he will receive a raise as well as his annual raise. That is a very happy thing indeed.So, all in all things are looking pretty good in our lives and it feels great!

I'm branching out

I have started another blog. I have wanted to write about my experiences with being bi-polar, but I just couldn’t seem to make any fit and just deleted the posts.
I am not shy, nor am I embarrassed by what I feel like I need share it just felt to “heavy” to put in between posts about Andrew, and other fun stuff.
So I am adding it as a sister site where I can just let it all hang out. Give voice to the “other” side of me.

My kid cracks me up

We have become big American Idol fans over the years. By the time Carrie Underwood came around I even started (gasp) voting. Never thought I would get that into it. So we have been watching avidly and last night was the first top 12 show. They were singing from the Lennon/McCartney songbook. It was great, loved some and was disappointed by others. But one girl sang "8 days a week". We got through half of the song when Andrew turns to me and says "There aren't 8 days in a week, she's singing it wrong". He was totally serious, I love my son.

Andrew is a poet

I found this poem that Andrew must have done in school a while ago. (because I excavated it from the bottom of my desk). It reads

Friendship

You are tall

You are little

Friends are nice

like some mice.

I love it! Of course I love it even more knowing that I will be able to use this against him someday. Hey! I need all the help I can get.

If I had only taken a shower

Here is the conclusion of the scrapbook saga. The scrapbook was to be presented at the retirement party, Thursday at 4pm. The due date for the entries was set for that Tuesday by the end of the day. There were 3 entries turned in at that time. Yes I said 3, out of 80. Sooo, needless to say an inter-office e-mail was sent out Tuesday with an extended due date for Wednesday (which I had totally planned on from the beginning, as I am clued into reality). By Wednesday after school there were a total of 26 entries, and that does include the 3 previous "early" entries. Now I would like to veer off track for a moment and tell you about the entries I did receive. Now the plan as I understood it was to have each person write a note of congratulations, thanks, remembrance, etc. to Linda on a 7" x 9" piece of white card stock and I would scrap those into the 81/2" x 11" book. Apparently that was not clear and even though I had attached my phone number and e-mail address no one had the guts to ask me what was up and did their own thing. I personally did not have a problem with this, some had done up their own complete scrapbook page on the provided 7x9 paper and some had just written their note and left it plain. Now here is the problem with this, each entry was a different color, theme, or orientation. I had purchased all the materials in a coordinating theme and had planned on creating basic page layouts that I could simply add the entry to and I would look fabulous (naturally). Now I have 26 different entries that are all over the place. Now back to Wednesday, I take home everything I have and start scrapping, I worked for 3 hours and then go to bed. On Thursday I started scrapping at 7am. I do not pass go, I do not take a shower, I stopped for 1 hour to have lunch and refocus. Now this may seem silly but I can't just slap a note on a page and go on. I am not capable, it does not compute. I had to take each individual entry and create a page that would complement the design they gave me and still flow with the rest of the book. So needless to say it took me 3 times as long to get this done. 26 pages, plus 11 blank pages for people to sign at the party, may not seem like that much and if I had one more day to work with it would have been fine. At 2:40 I am just starting my last page, when get a call from the office that there are a few more entries that have been turned in if I wanted to come pick them up. That totally threw me over the edge. I was so stressed and so not done (and by the way had to leave in 10 minutes to pick up the boys after school), and be finished with the book in an hour, and now I was so mad. How rude can you be? Seriously! So I pack up all the rest of the materials, the book and rush to the school looking like crap I remind you because I haven't showered, put on make-up, brushed my hair or teeth. I slap together the front page, take the 5 entries that were turned in and put them with the supplies. Then I found the vice principal and told her (very nicely) that I was done, here are all of the supplies and if they wanted to anyone that wanted to add to the book could stick theirs to a piece of paper and stick it in the book. I told her I was sorry but I did not want to be scrapping this for the next week as things trickled in. Then I left. Well, I tried to leave. I got Andrew and Peyton, and went to the car and found that my battery had died. I had to call Peyton's dad and he came and jump started my car so we could get home. So I am convinced that if I had taken 20 minutes and showered that morning the universe would not have decided that it was a good day for some kidding around.

New Look

So what do you think of the new design? I've been trying to learn how to create my own blog templates. I did not make this one, I haven't figured out the technical stuff yet. But I did find some sites with free templates. The one I have is from pyzam.com (see the link below the banner) They have lots to choose from.
I am very busy this week I "volunteered" to make a scrapbook for the office manager at the school. After not scrapping for the last year it is very difficult to get started again. This will be a good thing though, it will kick start me. Hopefully I will be able to retain the motivation. Wish me luck!

Andrew's Awards

Tuesday was the award assembly, Andrew received the A-B Honor Roll and the 100% Attendance awards.

I am so very proud of him.







Andrew with his two certificates








Andrew and his teacher the adorable Ms. Stone









Here are some of Andrew's classmates. left to right. Sean, Andrew, Victor, Janetsa, and Andrew's best friend Peyton.

Proud Mom

Week 2 Day 1
Andrew came home with exciting news today. For the first time he has made the "A-B" honor roll. I cannot tell you how great that feels. It is a testement to his teacher Ms. Stone. Being happy and comfortable in his classroom environment has made such a difference. Even knowing that there is so much more that I could (should) be doing to make sure that he is doing his best in his school work, I am relieved that he is doing so well.
Happy happy day.

Learning to FLY

I have started a fabulous program that promotes cleaning and organizing your home with baby steps. This link http://flylady.com/pages/beginbabysteps.asp will send you directly to the baby steps page.
The key to this system is forming new healthy habits with baby steps and a great support system. I have gathered a group of friends and family who like me are lost in the clutter and chaos of our homes.
I started the program yesterday. Yes I know it is only the second day and I haven't had time to burn out yet. But the steps are easily controlable just remember slow and steady wins the race. Do not jump ahead thinking "I've got to get more done."
I truly had a significant impact on how I spent my day today. Those who know me know that I am bi-polar and some days just getting out of bed and washing my face seem almost insurmoutable. I was able to easily talk myself out of the sludge and improved my day.

So any of you who are interested please come Fly with me.

Why did I start this blog?

Week 1, Day 1

Sooo, basically I only started this blog because I wanted to post comments to my sister Erin's blog http://www.ncwoodys.blogspot.com/. And since I had to sign up I figured I would make my own. Erin's blog btw is amazing, she truly has inspired me.


The problem is what do I say? I mean I have never been good at keeping a journal and that's private. What can I write about that anyone can read? What if I sound stupid (which is my biggest ANT (automatic negative thought) I'll get into that later) And truly my life is totally boring. But on the flip side everyone thinks they may be stupid or boring at one time or another so why should I leave myself out?

I also love being able to check out what's happening with my sisters as they all have blogs now (check the links) so of course they would love to check out what's happening with us.

So what it really boils down to is peer pressure, yup my sisters have one so I have to have one too! How mature is that? Just kidding.

When I really sit down and think about it there is at least one thing that is funny or interesting that happens everyday. Most of this of course comes from Andrew the nut. Here is the most recent.

The other morning Wayne was up (horribly early as usual) and heard Andrew talking so he checked on him. Andrew was talking in his sleep and said "I was the first person to taste it on Mars." I would love to know what he was dreaming!

What the?

It has been 14 months since I started this and then did nothing. How lame-o.

I am going to post every week and see if that gets my creativity flowing. So hang on they might start out boring, but I'll keep on trucking so please stick with me.