Wednesday, August 18, 2010

One more week

There is only one more week until school, give or take a few days depending on which  of the kids I am talking about.  Jessie has  an open house Monday when she will get her schedule and find all of the rooms for her classes.  I am SO glad that we only have to go through that stress once in our life. Well, you know what I mean anyway, she has several years of it.

    I  went to Catholic school, so it was a lot different for me than it is for the kids in public school. I went through K-8 with the same  30 kids.  We switched classes in 8th grade, and that meant all 30 of us went accross the hall to another room for math! I didn't go through  the type of adjustment she will  until ninth grade.  And let me tell you, I was THAT freshman.   The Highschool I went to freshman year had three levels, plus the basement where the cafeteria was, and my locker was down there too.  :(  I was the kid who was afraid to be late for the class on the third floor, so I carried  umpteen books around with me .
What was worse, I was desperate to be liked, so when a classmate asked me to carry their books, while they schmoozed with other friends, I likely did it. Yes, I was also the one who dropped said books while going up the stairs!

Josh starts school Thursday. Bless his heart, he is anxious about second grade because a kid  he know said he will have to add 3 digit numbers.  He will, that is true, but the kid is just good at math. he will do fine. 

Jeff has a little more time to relax. His  move in date is September 2.  THey have a whole weekend of activities planned, and I am sure  he will do fine. But I feel sort of like when  each of them started kindergarten.  Maybe worse.  He has already  "met" his roomate online, so that shouldn't be as awkward as I was worried about.  One thing that is helping me is that he is only going to be forty minutes away, so if we forget to pack something,  or he needs us, it is only a phone call away. Now I just have to keep from calling HIM and bugging him while he is away!  See, he should thank me that he doesnt have texting!!

Overall, I am kind of bummed that summer is almost over. We had alot of fun together , and there are alot of changes to come this school year, and I am not sure I am ready for them.  They are coming anyway.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Eyebrows and Kohls

I know it's a wierd  post title, but it was just that kind of day!

The plan was to take Jessie this morning to Kohls to find some "skinny" jeans and some shoes for Josh. Well , I slept through most of the morning,  but the kids were relaxing and not fighting so I didn't get my usual wake-up call.

   A while ago, Jessie asked me if I could take her to get her eyebrows  done, and I put it off for most of the summer. I have never had it done and I was kind of nervous about taking her.  After I had my coffee, I called the local salon to set up an appointment, and they set it for today at 2.  Memo to me, when they set an appointment, just count on sitting there for half an hour.  I  don't go to salons, and I assumed the service would be better than at Gret Clips ( who does NOT do brows).  One of these days I'll learn.

Anyway, I have never gotten an eyebrow wax, so I couldn't really tell Jessie what it would be like. All I told her is that I thought it probably hurt, but it would be better than me plucking all of the hairs myself. I still think that is true, and I am positive the results were better :D  Anyway, poor thing was in tears when she came out, and she looked like someone sat there smacking her in the brows instead of waxing!  OMG..Kohls definitely had to wait a few hours or someone might have thought I abused the poor kid.  I will definitely NOT be going for a brow wax. Besides , I have wonderfully perfect eyebrows naturally (heehee).  After her face returned to normal, she was really happy with the way it looked. They  only got rid of the extra hair below and between her brows. I shudder to think what she would have looked like if we wanted to make her brows thin. OUCH

I did  make it up to her by supplying her with a healthy binge of chocolate, which just makes everything better. Even  Josh got to indulge , since he sat there like a champ the whole time we were waiting!
I got some rolos,  just because I can!


We did end up going to Kohls after dinner. We had a greast trip. Jessie found two pairs of Jeans she likes, plus a tank and a cami.  I found a couple shirts on clearance that rock, and  found some shoes  that   fit   the little guy with the wide feet. ( Thanks to his momma).

And Jeff, well , he is at the Kohls Warehouse working 8-6 in the first of potentially four  night shifts.  His friend Krystal (like the burger)  told him her employer needed extra help, and away he went.  The nice thing, its a temp agency, and he can check the listings for shifts available in the future.  He originally thought he would be working Friday, Sat, and Sunday, but they wanted him to go in tonight to train. Its a bummer that he only got four hours sleep last night, and that instead of coming home and sleeping this afternoon, he went to kings Island, but hey, he is 18. He will recover by tomorrow night!!!

Thursday, August 12, 2010

School Days

It has been a busy summer, and so it has flown by. I can't believe the kids are going to school soon. I have had a blast, and believe it or not, this year I am not as ready for school as before :(  I think they actually fought less, probably because I tried to keep them a little busier.  I  finally got my school list together this morning.

 Today I took Jessie and Joshua school shopping to buy their  school supplies and some school clothes.
 
Several years ago, I would have it made when they were out of formula and diapers and baby clothes..etc.  It couldnt be more expensive than that, right?  Wrong.  Now I have kids who STILL grow out of their clothes (some every season) and the clothes are no longer the three dollar Garanimals I got at Walmart. Heck, with inflation, even the garanimals went up!

     I  have now got  a just-about-teenage girl who  is starting to give a hoot about what clothes she can wear. Thank the LORD she is still a down to earth kid,  happy with graphic tees from anywhere as long as they fit.
But  she has changed sizes and has ZERO jeans that are long enough.  ( I thought only boys shot up  6 inches a year!?)  Jessie also is starting to LOOK more like a teen , something her dad will be shocked to see when she wears her new girl tee shirts instead of the boy shaped ones. Good grief,  we are going to be beating the boys off this one. On the other hand, she may  kick their butts herself!    The way she looks now, I told her she can wear make-up when she graduates high school!!! ( Go ahead, you can laugh at me. But I can at least scare her out of it for another year or two!)  She wants to buy "skinny" jeans.. and I don't know what to do if she wants "jeggings".. No I didnt' make that up. Its some cross between  Jeans and leggings,  and if you are my age, just think REAL stretch jeans like we used to wear ...gag..gag...

Joshua , bless his heart , he is cheaper to buy for , but he needed everything. The kid has got his momma's feet,  meaning  he needs a wide width, and I am having a time of finding shoes for him.  Everything he tried on today felt uncomfortable.  I shudder to think I may have to walk into a stride rite.  ( The scrooge in me does NOT want to pay 40 dollars for shoes lasting 6 months or less!)
I think he was a bit disgruntled because the tee shirts I bought were a little big, but I dont want to buy new ones next month for crying out loud!  At least the jeans fit him , and they all have that neat elastic adjuster. That will work until he grows another inch by  Christmas.


Jeff is the  the last one we still  have to shop for. He may be the easiest , because he is DONE with the growing. Most of what he has still fits, and the kids in college won't know he wore those clothes LAST year, lol. But, he needs some jeans and socks and all that. Plus the things for his dorm.  Its not really like he will be cheaper though, (ahem...laptop) ...


In the end, I shouldn't complain at all.  I seem to change sizes every year myself!!

Monday, August 9, 2010

Computer smackdown


Okay, I know I shouldn't brag. But sometimes when you have a little victory you just feel like celebrating!!

We got  Jeff a laptop for Graduation  to use at school.  I wanted  to make sure he had a little time to get used to it before he moved.  Well, he just kept taking the laptop into the  basement  to use.  Finally  I asked him if the rest of us had body odor. I mean, I understand the XBOX is set up down there so  he  has to be down there when he plays that.  But the laptop he can  sit right on the couch or at the kitchen table.

Well, his wireless apparently sucked old socks.  Chris checked it  and it was terrible. So we took it back to best buy and they checked it, and agreed and gave us a new laptop.  We got that one home tonight and it was exactly the same. The connection said excellent, but we could not get anything to download, and when we ran a  speed test it was as slow as molasses.  Chris fooled with it for a good part of the night before giving up and going to bed.  We figured we would need a different model of lap top.

I  am a stubborn woman.  I cannot stand to be defeated by a computer , ask anyone.

So I got busy , looking on the internet about what different settings mean, and fooling with his wireless adapter .  Finally, I figured out the problem and now  his internet connection kicks ass,  even beats my connection .  I dont even know how I managed to find the one tiny setting, other than comparing my settings to his.

Needless to say I am here  late at night by myself doing my own little victory dance!  I only look slightly better than that  man in the photo, but that is just how I feel.


Also, we found a neat little gadget at Best buy that we can dock our old hard drive into and transfer any data we want to save . It is AWESOME>>  but I have to say I am glad we have a backup drive that we bought a while ago, because there were so many pictures and videos on my old Hard drive  that they wont even fit on my laptop.  Go figure!   Tomorrow I am going to work on transferring more files to the backup drive, and then I am going to back up my lap top files.


Better safe than sorry!!