2nd Snow day part-Dingn

At 9:00 I made a decision- instead of sitting around on the computer or thinking of the house and homework things I could be doing or listening to the siblings bicker-which was just starting, I called my partner in crime for fun mom days. Suree lives just up the hill and was snowed in. I picked her and the kiddos up with my trusty four wheel drive (I love plowing through big drifts, makes me feel very omnipotent, ungirl like), while Karen was out on her back deck. And we sledded, crashed, romped in the snow and ended with pb&j for the kids and warm spiced wine for us. I don't know who had more fun Suree or her kids on the sled. I even managed to get some pics just for Karen. Now that is the way to spend a gift we call "snow day".

Karen-my passwords are pretty funny, today was dingn-it fits

&*(&^%%$$$# Snow day

OK, I won't complain too much about the snow day (ok just a little) June 15th people, June 15th.

BUT, as Karen so nicely pointed out yesterday (thanks again for the facebook chat) her boys go until June 16 and they started before us. Soooooo off to make some early morning muffins and now that the wind has died down break out the sleds later.

ANOTHER SNOW DAY

OK, so my summer wishing has been dumped on by ANOTHER snow day. Here is my ode to snow days (even non consecutive ones):

Snow day #1-Wahoooooo, fun, exciting, lots of sleeping in, playing outside, baking and coziness
Snow day #2-Ummm well ok, do some coziness and laundry along with some bickering but still pretty good
Snow day #3 and 4-I am missing work, have to make up IEP's that were missed, too windy to be outside and kids getting that glassy eyed bored look.
Snow day #5-NO WAY-I think we should toughen up and get the heck out there-really who cares if the interstate is closed, I USED to wear breadsacks in my boots and WALK to school in crud like this (uphill both ways too, I am sure). At this rate we will be getting out closer to July 4th then Memorial Day:<

My next step...

As always once April hits I start to think about summer!! And this is a summer without classes whahooooo. This summer is already shaping up to be busy. Q wants to to do baseball and BMX and piano and invention camp, and throw in some art classes. A is much more laid back, maybe bmx, art classes, and strings camp. I don't know if I am ready for all this running around. I read what Karen does on a daily basis and just grimace. I ferociously guard my family summer time and want it to be full of unstructured fun time, margaritas, the lake, fishing, and kick ass homemade sangria on the back patio. But I will get over it.
On my personal agenda is of course the reunion and hopefully a fun time with old friends. But the thing I am looking foward to the most is this volunteer project below, I happened to see it in the paper and am really pumped. Volunteering hasn't been on the top of the priority list but this one is. Anyone want to come help? I have bunk beds, and sangria of course:)

http://www.vppark.com/volunteer.php

Silly facebook...

Ok, so now that homework is winding down, what do I do? Get on facebook, and while I am on there I find all these silly (stupid really) quizzes you can take. The statistical probability of them being accurate about me in anyway is nil-most are a measley 5 questions- but so far I kind of like the outcome. Lets see....

What superhero am I: Iron man (I prefer Iron woman)-hence the next quiz result..
What type of woman are you: Feminist
What type of mom are you: June Cleaver-I think I got that by default-Joan Crawford (you know "NO wire hangers") wasn't available.
I even took the stupid IQ test....
By they way my stripper name was pretty interesting to

May I introduce myself as Lulu Spankrazor-Hey I think that fits

By the way some of these I DID NOT publish-really don't want a future boss seeing it!

Really, really almost done

This is the first weekend in a LONG time I have started to feel relaxed and not in a frenzied pace to juggle everything and get two million things done. 6 days and counting until the 8:00 kick off time for orals. The end is so close that it feels like weight is being lifted off me every day. I ran through my presentation with my advisor yesterday and just a little tweaking. Now if I can stay as relaxed for the whole thing we will be doing good. I have the day all planned out, orals at 8:00, hour long massage at 12:00, still debating to go for the gold and do a pedicure to. 3:30 meet people downtown for a celebration, coworkers, friends, and of course hubby. I still have some course work and intern stuff to catch up on, but it will feel like a cake walk after Friday is done. Of course I have to go and pick up a cap and gown-ick being 38 and back in a graduation cap-even if it is for a hooding ceremony, feels weird-like being back in high school. The best thing about it is having the boys there. I really want them to see that at any age you can be a learner and do something new. I hope they recognize all those long nights without me, at class or glued to my computer, and all those nights with lame spaghetti or *gasp* happy meals are worth it. Worth it not because of the money or promotion, but taking a risk and challenging yourself for something you love and believe in is so worth it, and knowing you can make a difference.

Pics

The drift is in front of Hubby's garage door-it is way over my head, the small peak on the left side was waist deep. It is the same drift he said nonchalantly as he took off in MY car-"If you just shovel it out enough so I can get out that should be okay." Umm yeah, this was after I had lifted weights and had spaghetti arms. I lasted a whole half an hour and didn't even make a dent. Just so you know it looks deceptively short-it wasn't

Official blizzard report for Karen

I don't have any pics yet, I am a wimp-waiting for the wind to go down. We are home from school AGAIN. Hope to start shoveling soon, not so much snow as really, really high wind. Yesterday got a little home work done-emphasize little, made homemade slime, watched a movie complete with snacks, played clue a couple of times. I think the areas around us are much worse. Pics coming soon

A PS to Bobbi's SD weather

Here it is, sunny and hot out (hot is relative after below zero the last few months) and we are having a "skin" game outside. In 24 hours lets see what pics I post if the weather man is really right this time.

By the way I was the pitcher, so none of these pics are mine that I took. I usually do really close ups but am loving the blue sky against the prarie, maybe because it has been gray for so long.

Before the big event...

Last night was busy and an example of extremes-two events at polar opposites. 6:00 was the all city strings concert for older child who had to get dressed up in shirt and tie (with only mild grumbling-secretly I think he liked it), to perform at the civic center. Then a mad dash to the car to get changed and head over to the last hockey game of the year. Younger son was decorated with face paint and ready to scream his head off and dance around like a maniac. Of course didn't get a pic of younger son due to the arguing by older son about pictures, and time ran out:) so just imagine him in the pic above but with face paint for 3 hours

crab, crabby, crabbier

What is worse than a crabby me?
A crabbier child-I don't know if the age of 10 is going to be a good age, the closer we get the more moody someone in this house gets. I am hoping it is the never ending cough he has had or a phase, or something-some kind of excuse for the snippity, moody, drama that hangs over him like a cloud. Weird part is the next minute he is nice as pie grrrrrrrrr and double grrrrrrrrr

Mysterious Smell

I hate when I walk in the house and immediately smell something "weird". I have this "thing" if I can smell it and it offends me I must find it. So I start "smelling", walking through rooms sniffing, pausing, sniffing pausing-I narrow it down to eldest son's room. I assume it is the lizard cage so I open the window-maybe fresh air will help. I come back a while later, mmmmm no that isn't it and I know I just cleaned that ^**^^%% cage anyway and it can't be THAT bad. As I close the window I see a ziploc bag (hanging from a trophy) with cotton balls, murky water and some kind of seed (a bean growing experiment from the YMCA). There IT is-gotcha!

An experiment gone bad....incredibly, smelly BAD.

Oh to be the mom of scientific, nature loving boys.

Seeing the light

I am finally realizing I am on the down hill slide of homework:
I just hit the "save" button for my orals presentation
On Sunday I completed a 7 page paper on boys and education
Completed 4 article reviews for this weeks class
Got my graduation ceremony letter in the mail

I won't kid myself, I have put off all my internship and will need to get caught up, but for right now just enjoying the realization that I am almost done.

I am now hoping I make it through the hour oral presentation-I had a different interview tonight and could feel my mouth get as dry as sandpaper and words start to escape my brain-and that was only 10 minutes-Uh-oh, better take some water with me.

Sarcasm is genetic...really

I have come to the realization that my 9 year old listens much better than I thought he did and very well when we think he isn't listening AND he has inherited this strange sarcastic humor-from where I have no clue. Our younger son had a sleepover last night with the cutest little friend-who happens to be vegetarian. Well the night before hubby and I were joking around (sarcastically) about what to make for dinner, had a good laugh and went to bed. The night of the sleepover arrives and I am getting ready to make dinner, older son gets this gleam in his eye and says, "Hey mom, what are we having for dinner, turkey?". Poor little guest gets this weird look and says "What?". I promptly assured the little guy we were having spaghetti with vegetable sauce-then turned and sent older son to his room for a firm reminder of how to be polite to guests. Aaggggg, nurturing humor with a "filter" is so hard:)

Reaffirmation

I have mentioned before that someone from somewhere sends me a "sign" just when I need it the most. It happened just in this last hour. I have been at wits end with oldest son this week for multiple reasons-too many to go in to. I had been racking my brain and worrying myself with all those questions of self doubt. Why am I parent? What the heck am I doing? What the heck is my kid doing so on and so forth. So after reaching a peak with significant and logical consequences we are hopefully back on track. This culminates tonight when younger son finds out he is not able to stay home with his brother part of the day on Friday when they don't have school. He is heartbroken-literally. A comes in and asks me if Q can sleep in his bedroom to make him feel better, he says, "I know he is my little brother and I get annoyed, but I do feel really bad for him when he is sad and care for him alot." So they gather the blankets and we set up a bed on the floor and get out a story...guess what story... The Lorax-we read it together, we talk of the animals, the earth and loving all we have around us. A finishes by offering to rub his brothers back until dad gets home. The sign of all things good is there, snuggled in fleece blankets giggling and goofing around-which I will have to go back and squash but for now I just want to listen and enjoy to the sounds of something done RIGHT.

some better pics

Ok, so these will be the last ones I post. My jumper friend is spider woman, the coworker I have talked about with MS. We were still all reliving and enjoying the fun again today:)

link to some pics

I am next to the spiderwoman-blue cape!

http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4e7a6b324e7a67314d5877784e7a4d7a4d6a6b324d773d3d0d0a&sb=1&campaign=email_receipt_directurl_makeyourown

There is also a movie posted on my facebook site