Knowing Me, Knowing You - May '09

Time again for the monthly interview project started by The Fairy Blogmother. I hope you'll play along on your blog or in the comments here. If you do play, make sure you head over to sign Fairy Blogmother's Mr. Linky.

1. Do you and your significant other go to bed at the same time?

Almost always.

2. Do you have any siblings?

Yes. I'm the youngest of 4. Donuts (brother), Optimus Prime (sister), Shaneus McTier (brother). I also have a half-brother and a half-sister. They are way older, from my dad's stud muffin days. 

3. You're spending an evening with friends -- would you rather cook for them in your home or go out to a restaurant?

Restaurant. I don't want to have to child wrangle at home.

4. What's your can't miss TV show?

NCIS. 

5. Are you doing any spring cleaning?

No. Sweetie, I can't get day-to-day cleaning done. Don't ask me about spring, summer or any other kind of cleaning.

American Idol - Live Week 12

This is my 5th Judge opinion...

Music Theme

Rock

Adam Lambert

I have to tell you that growing up, Adam's style of music was 'screaming devil music' to my ears. So the fact that I love Adam Lambert so much is proof that I have evolved and that Adam is that good. I say Adam #1.

Allison Areheta

This girl rocks!! Finally, Adam hooked her up with his hair genius and little Allison looks amazing!! I say Allison #2.

Kris 

Please, America, vote this joker faced punk off!! I have no idea how this guy made it this far.

Danny Gokey

Nice try Danny. I kinda enjoyed it tonight. I didn't think it was a bad as the judges made it seem. I say Danny #3. NAMK and Shan, it's not so bad - Daughtry went out at 3.

There ya have it. My 5th judge take.

Allison went home!

I can't believe Kris is still there.

Whomever is voting for Kris needs to stop.

Big Day

On May 5th, 1997, I was hit by a drunk driver. 

The ironic thing is that I was driving home from work - at a drug and alcohol counseling center. After the collision, I was stunned. My glasses had been thrown from my face in the impact. I remember looking at the other driver and thinking, "He looks drunk. But he can't be. It's only 4:40 in the afternoon." Even without my glasses, I could tell the man was drunk! 3x the legal limit, actually.

I was in rehab for almost 2 years. Why? Because one man made the choice to sit in a bar, drinking, for several hours one rainy, Monday afternoon and then made the choice to get in his truck and drive. Life as I had known it was gone.

If you drink even 1 glass, DON'T drive.

Private School for Motor Mouth??

Today, J and I are interviewing at a private school for Motor Mouth where my friend's kids will be attending. Yes, my hunt for a school for Motor Mouth continues.

This is an amazing school that uses the city's resources to learn in new and exciting ways. Students develop both a Christian worldview that roots them in their faith and a multicultural awareness that equips them to understand and respect people who come from different backgrounds. 

I'm so excited about the educational philosophy. I really, really, really want Motor Mouth to get accepted here. Really.

Kriti Festival 2009

My dear friend, MAM, is the founder and director of a DesiLit. As a result of MAM's involvement, I have been helping out with DesiLit since last fall. DesiLit works to build support for South Asian and diaspora writers. 

I am excited about the biennial Kriti Festival, sponsored by DesiLit, being held in Chicago June 11th - 14th!! I'm the assistant director of this year's Kriti Festival (official sounding title, isn't it?!). It is so fun meeting new people in Chicago as we plan the Festival and I am looking forward to meeting the many talented and accomplished Asian and South Asian writers, dancers, and performers who will be featured during the Festival. 

Sad But Happy

Jason is in the middle, held by his big sis

I am going to break my blog protocol and name names. There are some people in your life who will forever be a part of your life. You carry them in your heart and mind with you regardless of where you are. My friend, Carolyne, is one of those people. It is because of Carolyne that I have my kids.

Carolyne, has 6 children. Her youngest, Jason, was born with about half his brain. The doctors did not expect him to live long enough to go home from the hospital. But he did. Carolyne, her husband, her mom, their family and friends never gave up hope that God would work a miracle in Jason's life and that he would be healed.  

Jason passed away peacefully early Monday morning, about 9 years later than the doctors expected. Quite possibly, his growing body was just too much for his brain to support.  

Less than a year ago, Jason's paternal grandparents were killed by a drunk driver. I am confident that for the very first time, little Jason is running and jumping and laughing in Heaven. All the things he never got to do here. And that he has his grandparents to enjoy watching him.

American Idol - Live Week 11

5th Judge Resumes

I have not been able to fulfill my 5th Judge role due to our DVR messing up. Finally, I was able to watch it live, thanks to a tweet by my friend, The Fairy Blogmother.

Songs Theme

Jazz music

#1 - Kris Allen

Again, the DVR messed up. I got into the show 17 minutes into the show. I saw the Doesn't matter to me though, Kris needs to go tomorrow to make room for the real competition. 

#2 - Allison Areheta

That girl brought it tonight with 'Someone to Watch Over Me'. Truly, Alison deserves to be in the top 2.  She has the vocals and is an artist. 

#3 - Matt Giraud

Maybe Matt should not win. It could ruin my marriage. And um, he can sang.

#4 - Danny Gokey

Danny is sweet. I would put him 3rd after Adam and Allison.

#5 - Adam Lambert

My mom says he looks like my son and if I want to know how Motor Mouth will look when he gets older, just look at Adam. That's not why I love Adam, though. Words can't adequately describe Adam. That voice! The talent. The showmanship. And he comes across as humble. My God. I can't get enough of him.

And there you have it from American Idol's 5th Judge

My Sabbatical Has Ended

I didn't think I could make it 6 months. I did. Then, I didn't think I wanted to get involved even after my 1 year. I did.

#1. Website

I'm going to work on redesigning a website for a mom's site. This is the third non-profit site I'll be working with. I am the person who meets with the artist and the programmer and says, "I want this and this and this and this here and there and over there." This is perfect to ease back in - I'm sitting on my couch designing, not running around meeting with a bunch of people.

#2. Training

My rogue mom's group is full. We have 12 moms and all of those children!! It's such a great group of ladies, we all want to invite other mom's to join us. But we can't. There's no room for them. So, we might be splitting in the fall. It's an option. Not definite. Just in case, I am taking a small group leader training class at church, so I am officially qualified (by our church) to co-lead a group, should we decide to split. This way, I can throw my name in the hat in the fall.

I'm Sharing Too Much

 The other day, I had to fill out a gazillion forms for Mini Me's school enrollment. They asked:

- At what age did she crawl? Walk? Say her 1st words?

- At what age did she talk in 3-4 sentences? Was she toilet trained?

How am I supposed to know??

Look. This is my 2nd child. I was really busy and didn't have time to update her baby book like I did with Motor Mouth. Besides, I used to update his book when he was sleeping on my chest while I rocked him in his room. She wouldn't let us hold her, much less sleep on our chest or let us rock her to sleep. Ummm...I think that makes it my baby's fault I didn't update her baby book.

Anyway, if it weren't for my old blog site, I would have had nowhere to find all those answers!! I'm glad I blog. And blog our lives. It's history in the making, my friends. History in the making.

Motor Mouth's Twin Sister

I do believe this little girl could have been separated from Motor Mouth at birth.

Click Here and turn up your speakers.

Motor Mouth

My Mom is not happy that I refer to my son as 'Motor Mouth' on this blog. Now, she's not happy I told you she's not happy because a). she thinks it is TMI, and b). she doesn't want to be mentioned on my blog. Insert evil laugh.

Mom sent me an email with a bunch of scripture verses to support her point. Thanks, Mom.

 

I call my son Motor Mouth because the boy won't. stop. talking. Ever!! All day. Every day. Sometimes, I have to 'turn him off'. Like a radio. This is a little trick I learned from the original Motor Mouth: my cousin Hotster. 

Hotster is my aunt's youngest son. He came out of the 

womb sociable, gorgeous and talkative. Like Motor Mouth. My older siblings would 'turn off' Hotster for 5 or 20 min at a time to a). be mean/silly and b). to get some quiet in the house when he visited (often for a week at a time). 

I'm aware this is a developmental phase, and in 10 years I'll be begging him to say 10 words to us. But I don't call him Motor Mouth to his face. Ever. The nicknames I use on my blog are for the blogosphere only. They are to keep the innocent innocent and the nameless nameless. Except for Mini Me and JuJu, I don't call anyone these names in real life. Otherwise, I'd have to call my mom Bible Thumper, Prayer Warrior, Jesus Freak or Green Eyed Girl instead of Mom. And we wouldn't want that, now would we?

I'm Working On It

This is my current reading material. I have several purses that I rotate. There's a book in each, or on the coffee table.

What is on your current list of Required Reading?

Head on over to The Happy Housewife

to get some great book ideas!

School Update

Do you remember when I sent out 24 school applications for Motor Mouth and 11 preschool applications for Mini Me?

Seems it is easier to get Mini Me into a preschool than it is Motor Mouth into grade 1 (1st grade for my American friends).  Mini Me got into 5 schools!! I choose a Montessori school that is harder to get into statistically than Harvard. 36 slots for about 2,000 applicants. When I found that out, I said, "God, if you want Mini Me here, you will get her in. Otherwise, she doesn't have a chance in Hell, and I'm just going to forget we even applied." She got in. God answers jacked up prayers.

Motor Mouth, on the other hand, not so easy. Oh, he got accepted to some schools alright. Only they were my 20 - 24th choices!! He is on the wait list for Mini Me's school. So, I'm really praying HARD that the school board approves another class for Motor Mouth's age group. If that happens, he's in, baby!!

I can't believe I am one of THOSE moms who are planning out their kids' educational 'careers' from age 2 because if not, 'their lives are ruined'. But I am. And if I don't, they will be. It's a whole new world in Chicago. If your kid doesn't get into a good preschool, it is harder to get into kindergarten and, as I've experienced, 1st grade is next to impossible.

So, if Motor Mouth doesn't get in to Mini Me's school, I'm going to homeschool with the K12 curriculum again. It's a really great program. It would be nice to have Motor Mouth in a brick and mortar school, but if not, I'm good. I'm really good.

It's Time!!

I received an e-mail from J yesterday. He titled it: "Reminds me of 1 1/2 years ago." I clicked on the link. Talk about reading our mail!! Almost every one of these 10 signs was us. Plus, J had his wife saying: "You are the fluff. You make stuff pretty. You are going to be the first to go! Go before they fire you." Yes, I'm supportive like that. A good woman is hard to find, you know.

Copied from: Big Is The New Small.com

Often times people are assessing their jobs, roles, callings… by asking themselves the following question over and over: “Should I stay or should I go, should I stay or should I go…?”  

Here are 10 Signs It May Be Time To Move On:

1. You get an upset stomach every morning on your way to work.
2. At-least once a week you think the following thoughts “If so and so does (_blank__) again today I’m going to quit.”
3. You’ve asked God for signs that it’s time to move on and he has spoken to you through people, places, circumstances, His Word… you’ve heard its time to move on from God in every way besides hearing his audible voice.
4. You can’t find anyone within a square mile radius of your job that you like, trust or believe in.
5. Your boss has said to you “It may be time for you to move on!”
6. You are 100% certain that you could have a bigger impact, be happier, put your family in a better situation… by moving on and the only thing that’s holding you back is fear.
7. You tell yourself, your spouse and your friends on a regular basis that it’s time to move on and they agree.
8. When an American Idol Contestant is sent home; you begin envision the greener pastures that are on the other side of them be kicked off.  You then draw parallels to yourself being in the Top 10 and imagine how being kicked out of your workplace will be better for you.
9. Every time your boss calls you in his office or on the phone; you immediately start wondering what you did wrong or think they’re going to act like Donald Trump and say “You’re Fired!”
10. You’ve read through the 9 signs above and said to yourself “That’s the confirmation that I needed.”

My Comments on their site:

"It's so hard to leave when you are in the middle of it and you love what you do but not what you go through to do it. They did lay my husband off. We are in a much better place now. I hope this helps someone step out to find their life."

Crazy Thing To Get Alone Time

You know what I do to get alone time? 

I babysit other people's kids.

What? That's backwards. 

Yeah, it is. But it works. 

I am part of a babysitting co-op. It's parents in the city who care for each other's kids. You pay $10-$15 to join. Each hour you babysit someone's kid gains you one baby sitting hour. Most kids are asleep by 7 or 8 pm. Which is nice. You show up, put the kid to bed. And you have about 4 hours of free time to yourself. For me, the best place I sit has no cable. It's DVDs and music only. I can read or crochet and just have me time. And, it means I get hours to have someone babysit our kids for free!!

8 Things Meme

I got tagged by FaithChick.

8 Things I'm Looking Forward to:
1. Mini Me starting school in August
2. Summer so the kids and I can go for long walks again.
3. Summer in Chicago
4. Developing real female relationships
5. Finding a gynecologist
6. Getting to finish reading a full book some day
7. Spending more alone time
8. Finding 1 day where I don't have to do anything

8 Things I'll do Today:
1. Drive J to work
2. Go to bank
3. Go to mom's group
4. Homeschool Motor Mouth
5. Work from home
6. Fix dinner
7. Take Motor Mouth to Karate

8. Weekly online chat conference call (work)

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:
1. Speak Spanish
2. Find time to read
3. Go away for 2-3 days without kids. 
4. Not have foot pain to train for another 1/2 marathon
5. Have more patience with my daughter
6. Buy my dream car
7. Balance family, work, life better
8. Have more me time

8 Shows I Watch on TV
1. NCIS
2. Law & Order: SVU
3. Desperate Housewives
4. Brothers & Sisters
5. Ugly Betty
6. Psych
7. The Real Housewives of every place
8. Oprah

8 People I tag
1. Whittaker Woman
2. Tales of the Fairy Blog Mother
3. Lit and Laundry
4. Serenity Now
5. The Mommy Project
6. Mary Anne
7. A2EatWrite
8. You! Tag. You're it!! 

Moving Up

Have you ever seen the show 'Moving Up' with Doug, from Trading Spaces? It's a show where 2 homeowners go back to see what changes the new owners have made to their former home.

I feel like saying, "People, YOU chose to sell your house and MOVE. What makes you think the new owners are going to keep YOUR kids' growth charts on their walls? Come. On. It was sentimental to 'you'."

So, considering yesterday, I blogged about only missing the walls at our old house, I'm going to show you what WE did to the walls BEFORE we moved. This was in order to get the house sold, because we KNEW people would NOT want 'our' beautiful walls. It's called staging.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Not the House. Just the Walls.

One year ago today, we moved from Tulsa to Chicago. There is not much I miss about our lives in Oklahoma. Yes, we miss our family and friends. That goes without saying. But home is where the heart is and our heart is no longer in Tulsa. All 4 of us have fallen in love with our new city. We even braved a 'windy city' winter and came out saying: "Old Man Winter, that's all you got?" 

Our lives here are so vastly different. I think that is why we don't miss it. There is nothing to compare it to. 

Well, okay. Maybe we miss the walls at our old home. But I never think about our old house. It's like we never even lived there. Take a look and you'll see why we may miss just the walls.

Motor Mouth's Chicago Bedroom

Motor Mouth's Tulsa Bedroom

J airbrushed the walls and ceiling

That's a working fan as the airplane's engine

Mini Me's Chicago Bedroom

(Shhh...she's sleeping IN the bed)

Mini Me's Tulsa Bedroom

J painted the walls in a harlequin pattern

The black is ribbon with jewel stones at the points

He also designed the neon behind the bed

Not the house. Just the walls.

Freaky Friday - No Freaking Wonder!!

These tubes were in Mini Me's 

ears for the last 2 years.

No wonder she couldn't hear certain sounds. 

Wax, wax, baby!!

Maybe now her speech therapy will progress

My Review of Easy Reach Steamer

I don't know how this happened. 

When I was looking online for a graphic for yesterday's post, I decided to do a review of my new favorite healthy eating cookbook. When I hit the finalize button, I realized I had reviewed a steamer I didn't even SEE on the page! Hahahaha! 

Please enjoy my steamer review...

Shop Taste of Home

Place the stainless steel steamer basket in any pot. It unfolds to fit the pot, and the post extends to 6-1/2" to keep the cool-touch handle within reach. The 1-1/2" legs keep foods above the boiling water and in the steam to lock in vitamins. 9"D basket folds and post unscrews for ...

Easy Reach Steamer

Guilt Free Cookbook is AWESOME!!

WidneyWoman Chicago 4/14/2009

 

5 5

Pros: Attractive Design, Durable, Easy To Assemble

Best Uses: Kitchen

Describe Yourself: Midrange Shopper

I Am A: Family Young Kids

Guilt Free Cookbook is so EASY to follow. And there are PICTURES!! Lots of pictures. Very important in a cookbook. I like to know what it is supposed to look before I make it. My family raves about every recipe I make from this book. I love how there is nutrition information for just about everything you might want to know about a recipe. It was the BEST investment I've made in this economy! I will be buying up all the copies I can find and giving as wedding presents and Christmas gifts this year.

......... Oh, um, just ignore that last part if you are someone I know who is getting married this year or getting a Christmas gift from me. That was grandstanding...