Sunday, May 31, 2009

My trusty old friend

I knew something would eventually happen to my computer's hard drive. After all, it is older than my princess by a few months. That would make it 6+ years. The computer has seen me have another child since then. It has seen us buy a new larger flat screen monitor for it. It has seen us evolve with newer programs for preschool children that will only tax it's memory and processor speed. Two older boys would now do their homework on this computer that used to be just mine. It's been through thousands of downloaded photos. It never failed me, ever. Sure it's slowed down over the years and has caused me to reboot many many times but I felt loyal to it. I never looked to replace it. Yes I knew one day it would die. I knew I would have to back up my files. I kept postponing that process hoping that it would come more later than sooner.

But just last week I opened up my own account on igoogle and google docs. I got out of my denial and purchased a few jump drives and emptied all of my photos onto a jump drive, just in case. I started uploading my important files to google docs and also downloaded my outlook calendar to google, just in case. I was going to work on email and contacts this weekend. I was going to do the rest of the files today, just in case. But last night while working on my trusty Dell in the midnight hours while everyone else had gone to sleep, something went terribly wrong. The screen froze. But that had happened before and maybe I had too many windows open. I rebooted and then got the message that this might be the end. It was the blue screen of death. The one where it gives you the message that some important looking and too long sounding file is corrupt. What was I going to do. I had not yet completed my documents backup. I rebooted. It didn't help. I rebooted again. Nothing. The tower started making funny noises. This wasn't good. I knew it. My just in case moment came and I felt panicky. I lost my internet access. I lost my email. All of them. I could not get to my blogs or my reader. Nothing.

I went to my closet where I have carefully stored all of my computers disks and backups. The only thing I knew was to reinstall Windows and pray. I found the disk, put it in, and hope that something can be saved. It rebooted, reinstalled, but everything was lost. My internet access, drivers, files, email, applications, programs, and my bookmarks. I turned it off and went to bed. I couldn't sleep. I felt like I lost a special friend.

When I awoke this morning, it felt like a sad day. No computer. I was going to have to start shopping around for a new one. Initially I thought of just starting from scratch on the trusty old Dell but I have come to the realization that 6 years to a computer is like 90 years to a human. I am going to retire and bury my trusty Dell and replace it with another Dell, a newer and improved model. I am sure I will get to love my new Dell, once I buy it and set it up. But I know that it will never be the same as my old best friend. RIP my old Dell and I hope that the new Dell is as good to me as you were.

Friday, May 22, 2009

So Much Going On

There is just too much going on but for some strange reason my brain likes being on overload. I have always been that way but never could explain it. A lot of times people say to me "Where do you get all of your energy" and I tell them I have no clue. I can no longer blame it on the caffeine from my daily diet cokes (jumping for joy). But the strange thing is that the more sedentary I am, the more tired I am and the less productive I become....ie, lazy...and I hate that. I guess I will never fully retire.

I cram a lot of things in my one day. It's like a personal challenge to try to get as much done but a lot of things that I do are just plain fun to me...like playing with my kids, polishing my daughter's nails, cooking my family dinner, making brownies, playing on facebook and catching up with old friends and relatives, sweeping up the mud and dirt that the kids drag in, working out with my husband, organizing, decluttering, cleaning, yada, yada, yada.

I feel compelled to tell how I do all of this every day. Take my 4 kids to 4 different schools and then manage to get myself to work, take on the demands of my job, pick the 4 kids up from the 4 different schools, make dinner, do laundry, get at least 2 of the 4 kids to some sort of sport or extra curricular activity, get baths done, homework done, get the kids to bed, and then get myself to bed. I swear seeing it written down on paper makes my head spin. I forgot to mention that I pay the bills, clean up, prepare for the next day, and countless other things. I have a husband who helps A LOT..thank goodness for that because I know people who don't have that support...but even with his help, I seem to be the one driving the train. I am ok with that because I am a bit of a control freak in that respect. Do you kind of relate to that because I think a lot of us moms do.

I love this life. I wouldn't slow it down at all because it keeps me fit, physically and mentally. One of my goals in life, god willing, is to be active, fit and healthy enough for my future grandchildren. I want to be a hands on mother and hands on grandmother. I can't imagine retiring because even if I retired from my working life, I would still find some other ways to occupy my time like spending time with my kids, babysitting grandkids, traveling with my husband.....

the list goes on and on and on and on and on......

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

My New Hobby/Blog

I have a new blog and I am so excited. I have been busy researching content and drawing on personal experiences to fill the blog with all kinds of fun stuff. If you get a chance please visit it and I would love it if you would subscribe to my feed and follow me on this exciting journey. And if you are so inclined, please pass me along to other friends or tweets. I would really appreciate it.

The Mommy Organizer



And if you are ever in need of a blog makeover, this girl is a gem.

Teacher Conference

This morning we went to our end of the year teacher conference with our princess' kindergarten teacher. We have really been very pleased with this particular teacher and the school in general. The school is so well run and organized. Her growth has really exceeded our expectations.

I was particularly happy to learn that the system by which she is evaluated for her reading level is very thorough. I don't know all of the metrics that the teacher is looking at but she did explain it on a high level. At the beginning of kindergarten they are usually reading at an "A" level and by the end of the year the school expects them to be reading at a "C" level. Our teacher's goal is to read at a "D" level. Our princess is reading at an "H" level so I am particularly happy about that. The one thing that the teacher explained to us was that the school has a really great resource center that allows the children to use materials that suit their individual learning levels, not necessarily the level of the other students. So if there are children that fall above or below the average level of the rest of the kids, the teacher can provide materials to each kid at that level. So that made me feel very good.

Her evaluation of her math skills went really well too. She knows how to tell time but now we are going to work on fractions of hours like half hour, 15 minutes past the hour, etc. She understands most denominations of money except for the quarter (but she sure knows how to spend it!). We will work on her money skills too. She also can add and subtract single digit numbers and can count to 100 by 10s and 5s and can count to 20 by 2s. So exciting.

One skill that I have been working on is money. I try to give her every opportunity to understand money because I think it is important to know these skills early on. When she got $5 from the tooth fairy a few weeks ago I took her to the toy store and helped her pick out something that was within her price range. I also let her pay for it at the counter and let her receive the change. We counted the change together. She has a piggy bank and we put our change in the piggy bank. Whenever she gets money she puts some of it in the piggy bank.

It will be bittersweet when we end the school year because I am going to miss her teacher very much. Hopefully we will still stay in touch.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Picnic Fun

Yesterday was such a great day with my two little ones. First stop was at the daycare where they had a special breakfast treat for all of the moms. Donuts and juice. I was so glad to have some time to spend with my little man while we drank juice and ate donuts together.





Afterwards it was off to my princess' school where they had a special Parent Picnic filed with fun and games in the morning and then a picnic lunch. The games gave me great ideas for future parties here at the house with my little ones.

Bouncy Ball Races



Bubble Making Station



Sack Races



Eating our lunch together



Time to go back to class



The whole class together



Time for a goofy picture



Even though I was so hot and sweaty and exhausted from all of the activities I really enjoyed making friends with some of the other moms. We exchanged phone numbers and email addresses. It was so nice to be in a circle of friends.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Lost First Tooth

The other day my princess lost her first tooth. I have to say though that I have been through this with my two older boys so the novelty of this has worn off a bit. Even so, she's my princess and this is yet another reminder that my little girl is growing up.

She looks so different.






She is still my precious princess.


Wednesday, May 6, 2009

A Very Special Princess Birthday

I am not a big believer in going somewhere expensive and overpriced for birthday parties. I have done this in the past like the bowling alley or Chuckie Cheese but it has been rare and everytime I have done it, I remind myself that I can put on just as good of a party at a fraction of the price right at home. This year I did just that for my princess...it was a pool party with lots of games and swimming right in our backyard. Even the cupcakes were homemade. A Dad of one of the girls who came told me that he really enjoyed just relaxing in a backyard home party instead of those over-stimulating, headache inducing, game room type of parties. Here are a few photos that commemorate the occasion.

First we had to make the cupcakes....



I made them with a regular chocolate store bought cake mix and lined the cupcake tin with pink liners. I frosted them with a vanilla buttercream frosting that is so easy to make. The recipe is below. After frosting the cupcakes, I sprayed a pink color mist food coloring on the cupcakes to give it a slight tint. I then sprinkled on some ice cream sprinkles to give it a party look. Play around with the food mist colorings and decorations for a fun cupcake.

Buttercream Frosting:

1 lb. confectioners' sugar
1/2 c. butter, softened or Crisco
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 tbsp. milk

In large bowl, beat together sugar, butter, vanilla and milk until smooth. If necessary add more milk until frosting is spreading consistency. Mix everything well.

Chocolate buttercream frosting - add 1/2 cup Hershey's cocoa.


After the guests arrived, we jumped into the pool with some pool toys and rafts.



More Swimming



Even the little guys played together



After getting out of the pool, we played a few games such as egg race, sack race, and fill up the jug with water (I was having so much fun with the last one that I didn't get a photo of it). For the egg race, get two hard boiled eggs and two large spoons. Make teams. Each person has to walk around a cone and back balancing an egg on a spoon. If the egg falls off the person has to pick it up and put it back on. The team that finishes first wins. Fill the jug up with water is also fun. You need two empty jugs, two buckets of water, and two scoops. The object of the game is for the first person on each team goes to the bucket of water, scoops up water in their scooper and goes over the jug and drops the water into the jug. They run back and the next person does the same thing. The first team to fill the jug up to the top wins. Because the kids were smaller I used a half-gallon empty jug to fill up and a small paper cup as the scooper. The kids had loads of fun with the games.


More Egg Racing



Sack Race...we recruited the teens to make this game more interesting and believe me, this was the most fun to watch



Slide



Happy Birthday 6 year old!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Willpower

For as long as I can remember I have been a diet coke addict. It's been so long that I don't remember when it started. My habit usually took me to anywhere from 2-3 cans a day. I tried to stop so many times but it never worked. I even blogged about it.

But 11 days ago on a Saturday morning, in the midst of my big workout regiment, I admitted to my trainer/friend that I felt sluggish because I had not had a diet coke yet. She looked at me curiously and we started talking about it. I admitted that I had a hard time breaking the habit and I felt I needed it to get me going in the morning. Just talking about it made me feel better about wanting to do something about it. She asked me to try hard to stop this time and if I did drink a diet coke I would have to admit it and then she would work me out 200% harder on our next workout. I think that worked because it got me to stop and now I am 11 days clean of diet coke.

Definitely I think about it a lot. I think about how good it would taste right about now. That's when I turn my thoughts to something else and grab my bottled water. People are asking me "are you getting headaches" or "are you going through withdrawal" and the answers are surprisingly NO. Which led me to wonder how much of my "addiction" was physiological or psychological. I think it is the latter.

I don't think I could give any good advice on this subject since it took me so long to cure my own self. But what worked for me was an objective third party to give me a good challenge that I could not pass up. For some reason, this time, it worked.
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