Tomorrow concludes my month long grad school extravaganza. I managed to make it through alive and now I am only three courses away from completion. Not much exciting happened in these four weeks other than reading, writing of reflection papers, and attending eight hours of class three days a week. Now the really hard work begins. Mothering in the summer.
D has not coped well with the non-structure of summer. As of last night we have had to increase his meds twice. The Dr. informed me that if things settle down when school starts up again we can decrease the dose. I feel so badly for him. Today's obsession is Halloween. I know, it's July 1st. I think he may have a future in retail. I am sure by August 1st he will be making his Christmas list. In addition, to his daily obsessions he has fixated on a play date with K's kids that will take place on July 7th. Everyday there is a list of activities and food menu. Cupcakes need to be baked for this event. As I type he reminds me we need to go noooooowwwwww for plain brown bags to decorate for trick-or-treating. Each child will have a bag on this play date, because that is just how D rolls. My heart breaks for the endless running that goes on in his mind. The other day I gave him one of those big exercise balls to bounce on so he could get the wiggles out. He bounced for 20 minutes straight.
J has been going to daycare which every morning he says, "I doe wanna go to daycare." We get there and he sees his friends and I am but a memory. Today was water day so all was right with the world. Tomorrow is J's last day at daycare until I go back to work in August, so there will tears; mine not his.
In honor of finishing these many days of class, I have a very important appointment this evening in which I will have to make a critical decision. Should I pick Kreme de la Kremlin or Cosmo-Not Tonight Honey for my toe color?
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Monday, June 30, 2008
It Only Took One Week
I grew up in a house with a Northsider father and Southsider mother. In terms of baseball in Chicago you know what this means. Being a daddy's little girl I tended to gravitate towards the Cubs. My brother being a Mama's boy, a Sox fan. If I have to hear my brother talk about how they have 9 fingers left and we have 10 (in reference to championship rings) I will literally smack him! However, I choose not to lower myself to such childishness.
A few years ago during the Cross Town Classic I remember a friend commenting on the number of Southside fans with shirts insulting the Cubs. It makes me wonder, why are you spending money on shirts with "our" team name on it? Support your own team and move on. While I am not finger pointing, because I know it happens on our side too, it always seems whenever I talk to a Southside fan they comment on how bad my precious Cubs are. STOP! Worry about your own team and let me continue to be disappointed every October.
I mention all of this because today in grad school we had a guest speaker who made me think of this jaded relationship with North and Southsiders alike. He was a policeman from the town in which I teach giving us information on gangs. He went through Gangs 101, why they join...blah blah blah....In his presentation he had several photos of gang member memorabilia collected by the 5-O over the years. One in particular item caught my eye. It was a hoodie with several rival gang member symbols either turned down or cracked. To those of you not up on gang culture this is a way to "dis" the other gang. For example, let's say I am a member of the Hammerston Gang. Our logo is a Hammer, many of my hoodies would have hammers all it. Well, on the other side of the river is my rival, the Axe Gang whose logo is an axe. In an attempt to "dis" me they would have graffiti all over town with my Hammer logo pointing down. Yes, intimidating and reason to kill someone, I know.
Anyway, as I looked at this hoodie marked with "dissed" logos all over the place I leaned over to my classmate and said, "This gang is like the Chicago White Sox fan of gangs. They spend all their time making a hoodie in an attempt to talk smack about their rivals. Make a damn hoodie with your own logo and support your own gang!"
A few years ago during the Cross Town Classic I remember a friend commenting on the number of Southside fans with shirts insulting the Cubs. It makes me wonder, why are you spending money on shirts with "our" team name on it? Support your own team and move on. While I am not finger pointing, because I know it happens on our side too, it always seems whenever I talk to a Southside fan they comment on how bad my precious Cubs are. STOP! Worry about your own team and let me continue to be disappointed every October.
I mention all of this because today in grad school we had a guest speaker who made me think of this jaded relationship with North and Southsiders alike. He was a policeman from the town in which I teach giving us information on gangs. He went through Gangs 101, why they join...blah blah blah....In his presentation he had several photos of gang member memorabilia collected by the 5-O over the years. One in particular item caught my eye. It was a hoodie with several rival gang member symbols either turned down or cracked. To those of you not up on gang culture this is a way to "dis" the other gang. For example, let's say I am a member of the Hammerston Gang. Our logo is a Hammer, many of my hoodies would have hammers all it. Well, on the other side of the river is my rival, the Axe Gang whose logo is an axe. In an attempt to "dis" me they would have graffiti all over town with my Hammer logo pointing down. Yes, intimidating and reason to kill someone, I know.
Anyway, as I looked at this hoodie marked with "dissed" logos all over the place I leaned over to my classmate and said, "This gang is like the Chicago White Sox fan of gangs. They spend all their time making a hoodie in an attempt to talk smack about their rivals. Make a damn hoodie with your own logo and support your own gang!"
Monday, June 23, 2008
Motivational Posters
I am sure many of you have seen these posters in e-mails. They make me chuckle for sure. There are a few that some might feel are offensive, so I put one of the tame ones here. However, there are a few with some overweight people that while humorous, I can't help but feel bad because they are after all people who, either knowingly or not, have their picture floating around in an unflattering picture with words like Mooseknuckle written underneath.
Anyway my point is this. You know how sometimes the news has stories about obesity, heart disease or any other ailment associated with overweightedness and they show people walking down the sidewalk from about mid chest down? This, I suppose, is to illustrate that overweight people walk down the street everyday and we live amongst them because if they did do a news story without a graphic of overweight people I am sure many of us would not be clear as to what "they" look like.
Back to my point... I seriously worry that one day I will be watching the news and one of those stories will come on and I will be like, "Holy Shit, that is me walking down the street!" I don't know if that would kick my ass to workout a little harder but until then I will happily sit here on my computer doing nothing to avoid that ever happening.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Hail To A Possible Chief
Those of you who know me know my aunt who lives in NJ. Today she sent a photo packed e-mail. She happened to be driving through this quaint little town in NJ and look who she saw. Here are my observations/comments.
1. Who names these buses? Straight Talk Express? Considering who's inside isn't that an oxymoron?
2. Look at that HOT Secret Service guy! Not sure but he might be the one in the sunglasses.
3. No sunglasses but just as HOT. I think he is saying to himself, "Look, the lady with the camera and silver fox hair, isn't she the one with the gorgeous niece in Chicago I would love to meet?"
4. He does look kinda old. I mean I always thought Ronald Reagan looked real old but when he was in office I was 8-16 so a little perspective.
While I might not be voting for this particular man come November, I do think it would have been neat to meet him. Please don't tell my future husband John Cusack who needs my help.
1. Who names these buses? Straight Talk Express? Considering who's inside isn't that an oxymoron?
2. Look at that HOT Secret Service guy! Not sure but he might be the one in the sunglasses.
3. No sunglasses but just as HOT. I think he is saying to himself, "Look, the lady with the camera and silver fox hair, isn't she the one with the gorgeous niece in Chicago I would love to meet?"
4. He does look kinda old. I mean I always thought Ronald Reagan looked real old but when he was in office I was 8-16 so a little perspective.
While I might not be voting for this particular man come November, I do think it would have been neat to meet him. Please don't tell my future husband John Cusack who needs my help.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Co-ed, Mother & Wife
Tomorrow begins a fun-filled four weeks of grad school from 8:00-4:00. Back when I was working on my first Maters I took classes in the summer of '03 and '04. I was the mother of one back then and Grammie so kindly took care of D so we could save money on daycare. Though not my first choice of things to do in the summer it wasn't so bad. It was only three and a half hours and three days a week. I was able to finish my Masters in two years; graduated 7.5 months pregnant and thought, "Good for me!"
While home on my maternity leave in the Fall of '05 I thought I could go back for my Type 75 (the type you need to be a principal). I put it off and last March began my quest. I decided not to go for another Masters because really there is no benefit, monetarily or otherwise. The nice thing about where I am getting my Type 75 is they are on trimesters. I can get 3 classes done a year and I only need 10 classes total. As of today, I am half way done.
Summer would bring more classes. Last summer I took School Law. For those of you who love this movie...boraphyll! Grammie watched both boys, but I think it was a little much. J is active to say the least and keeping up with him outside of his own environment is difficult for a woman in her ______years.
This summer I am taking two classes. While I am dreading it, on July 2nd I will be only 3 classes away from my Type 75 and will have done so in less than 2 years. D does not do well at daycare. One of the teachers he just doesn't jive with and him being there all day could be a recipe for disaster. We have been asked to leave two daycares because of his issues and I can't put any of us through that again. I asked him to go to camp at our gym. There were tears about mean kids and camp counselors who don't care. I could have put him at the Special Ed park district day camp but I don't know if that is exactly what he needs either. So off to Grammie's he went this afternoon. Grammie and Pa bought him new bike and hopefully he won't fight them too much on that front. J will be attending the daycare for the next few weeks. On an up note he is pretty much potty trained there...home he just can't be bothered he says, "No thanks. No potty". Fast forward 10 minutes to Diego or Transformer underwear with a mud pie. This is one phase that I would love to just skip!
Which leaves me to how I feel at 9:26 the night before class. I am dreading it. I just want to get it over with! The anxiety about what I will have to read, write, collaborate with and all the other crap that goes along with grad school is killing me. I can guarantee a Super Big Gulp Margarita in my future on July 2nd!
While home on my maternity leave in the Fall of '05 I thought I could go back for my Type 75 (the type you need to be a principal). I put it off and last March began my quest. I decided not to go for another Masters because really there is no benefit, monetarily or otherwise. The nice thing about where I am getting my Type 75 is they are on trimesters. I can get 3 classes done a year and I only need 10 classes total. As of today, I am half way done.
Summer would bring more classes. Last summer I took School Law. For those of you who love this movie...boraphyll! Grammie watched both boys, but I think it was a little much. J is active to say the least and keeping up with him outside of his own environment is difficult for a woman in her ______years.
This summer I am taking two classes. While I am dreading it, on July 2nd I will be only 3 classes away from my Type 75 and will have done so in less than 2 years. D does not do well at daycare. One of the teachers he just doesn't jive with and him being there all day could be a recipe for disaster. We have been asked to leave two daycares because of his issues and I can't put any of us through that again. I asked him to go to camp at our gym. There were tears about mean kids and camp counselors who don't care. I could have put him at the Special Ed park district day camp but I don't know if that is exactly what he needs either. So off to Grammie's he went this afternoon. Grammie and Pa bought him new bike and hopefully he won't fight them too much on that front. J will be attending the daycare for the next few weeks. On an up note he is pretty much potty trained there...home he just can't be bothered he says, "No thanks. No potty". Fast forward 10 minutes to Diego or Transformer underwear with a mud pie. This is one phase that I would love to just skip!
Which leaves me to how I feel at 9:26 the night before class. I am dreading it. I just want to get it over with! The anxiety about what I will have to read, write, collaborate with and all the other crap that goes along with grad school is killing me. I can guarantee a Super Big Gulp Margarita in my future on July 2nd!
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Reading Corner
It is so weird to me how I can have two children that are at times so much alike and other times so different. For about two months now J has taken a liking to this Dr. Seuss favorite. Always asking us to read it to him. J has always been of a fan of reading. He will sit in the corner and "read" lots of books at a time. Today he sat down on the recliner grabbed his favorite book and said, "Dr. Seuss's A B C book". Turned the page and on the inside cover is the same thing and he replied, "Dr. Seuss's A B C book". It was so cute he then began to read the first three pages up to "Donuts and a duck dog D...D...D..
D was never a fan of sit and listen to this book I will read you. I would often read and he would meander around the room. However, he was our little computer baby. He memorized the entire Dr. Seuss's Cat in the Hat by reading it on the computer and then found the book on the shelf and read the entire thing cover to cover at age 3.
I am quite lucky to have kids who enjoy reading in some way. They certainly did not get that from me. When I was a kid my mom practically had to force me to read. I absolutely hated it. As an adult I love to read but with grad school I don't seem to have the time. Well, perhaps I could stop watching reruns of shows I have seen but that just isn't as fun.
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