nothing original

I can’t believe August is over. The kids will start school next Wednesday. Later than most, but traditionally, we start the Wednesday after Labor Day. What really gets me is that almost every Friday is an early release day. WTF? By Washington State law, children must be in school for 180 days. As long as they are in school for a certain number of hours, that is counted as a whole day. I wonder if there is anything in the FAPE law. Probably not. Most federal laws are ambiguous at best.

My director is out sick for the next few days. It started last Friday and the doctor wants her to stay home for a few days to make sure she’s not contagious. The only thing is, we’re not sure what she has, I guess a week is now a standard. No, it’s not H1N1.

Logan is being potty trained. He’s slowly getting it… usually lets us know after the fact, but don’t all kids at the beginning? And, yes, he hides when he goes poop and runs to us when he’s done. Ahh, kids.

Day two of playing with my new phone. I’ve added Facebook, Flickr, movies, and music. A friend of my has dubbed me a “gadget girl.” Yes, I agree that I am. I’m a geek, what can I say. Unfortunately, I have to work tomorrow (darn it), so I need to get to bed and get some sleep! Sadly enough, Chris has had to put the kids to bed because I’m too busy playing!

Chris got us new phones! The Blackberry Storm. There goes the paycheck. I’ve spent the last hour or so playing with it. I hope it doesn’t rack up any charges. Guess I know what I’ll be doing during my lunch hour tomorrow.

So Chris and I had a date night last Friday. I was invited to a barbecue at my dean’s house and listen to some music in a small park/street corner. Yeah, odd. Anywho, after the BBQ, we went to go see Harry Potter (finally). The theater is brand new and the seats were like fake leather. Comfy! Too bad they don’t recline. I was comfortable enough to take off my shoes and curl up a bit. When I got home, I pulled out the book to start reading it again. The books are always so much better and more descriptive, plus it has more info. We didn’t get home until 1:15a Saturday morning.

And then Monday had to roll around. At least pay day is tomorrow. Yea!

I hope I get much better sleep tonight. Over the weekend, we took away Logan’s crib and installed a twin bed for him. He’s been sleeping with us when the weather started to get warm (mid-70s and up) because we have the portable air conditioner in our bedroom. We put him in his bed Sunday night. I was so worried about what he would do when he woke up. He slept all night and Monday morning, we heard him wake. Chris went to go get him, but he wanted to go back to his bedroom and turn on the DVD and watch his Wiggles!

Last night he slept all night as well; however, I did hear him toss and turn and kind of wake up, but he must have gone back to bed. I was too worried that he would get up that I couldn’t get back to sleep. I have no idea what time that would have been. All I know is that I’m having a hard time typing and staying awake. Tonight the kids will be sleeping in our room again. It got up to 83 degrees and their bedrooms are very warm. Logan’s especially since it gets the full blast of afternoon sun. I know I’ll sleep better tonight.

Today was a typical Friday during the summer. QUIET! Most of the directors were at a retreat with our dean, so I was able to get a few things done. Barely any students since summer quarter is now over. I hope it stays quiet next week. I have a lot to do! It didn’t help that when I calculated my hours for the week, that I needed to leave at 2:15p; otherwise I’d be going into overtime/compensatory time. Can’t have that nowadays.

Tomorrow Chris, Vanessa, and I are going to see “Catch Me If You Can” at the 5th Avenue Theatre. Hopefully they’re still taking comments. We were supposed to see it the first weekend it opened, but one of the principal cast members had a family emergency and they canceled that weekend’s performance. I hope that the emergency was resolved and ended well.

This week has been a week of Mondays at work. Wasn’t there a full moon recently? Did the Perseid meteor shower have anything to do with this? Isn’t there something going on with Mars this month? There’s been a weird vibe – so much so that my boss has dubbed this Augtember. Fall quarter tuition was due this past Monday and we’ve been seeing A LOT of students. We normally see an increase during the last week of a quarter, but its usually about finals. I hope Friday is quiet like most Fridays during the summer. I hope.

I went to a Technology Resource Fair down @ Tacoma Goodwill this morning. Such a disappointment. Yes, lots of cool technology, but nothing to refer to DSS. The presentation was geared mostly toward K-12, but the audience was made up of mostly higher ed and non-profits. A few hours of work I’ll never get back.

I’m signed up for the CK Scrapbook Convention in November. Actually, my mortgage broker gifted two classes to me because we stuck with her. I think I’ll sign up for a couple more next week. I’ll want to compare notes with a couple of my coworkers so we can make a day of it or meet up at the vendor fair or for dinner. So excited!

My package from SEI came yesterday, but I haven’t opened it yet. It should have a new album kit plus software to create digital scrapbooks using the same “paper”. I can’t wait to try it out. I need to get information and photos from relatives if I’m going to pull this genealogy/scrapbook together. My idea is to use the software, create the pages and print to photo paper. Plus, I still need to design my Christmas cards. Maybe I can do that this weekend.

It was a busy day today. It started with wrapping a birthday gift and creating a birthday card for my niece at 1:30a this morning. Yes, 1:30 A.M. Gee, do I procrastinate or what? We needed to leave home @ 10:30 to get to Tacoma by 11:30a. We needed to leave Tacoma @ 2p to get to Bellevue by 3p to pick up some cupcakes I ordered from New York Cupcakes, and then headed up to Marysville/Lake Stevens area for a family picnic. We didn’t get home until 8:30p-ish.

My niece turns 4 later this month but will be out of the country during her birthday so we celebrated early. AT the picnic Logan really loved riding the 4-wheeler ATV with dad. He got to ride three times and was VERY upset each time he was force off. It took about 5 minutes to get Vanessa on the darn thing. We coaxed her into getting on for a picture and to let papa go down a little ways to turn the ATV around. It’s been a while since she last rode, but when he turned around, she wanted to ride! She got two rides in all! Glad they had fun.

I'm four and I'm cute!

I got three rides and had tantrums each time I had to get off!

It took me 5 minutes of encouragement to get on and then I had two rides!

I can’t believe it’s been almost a month since I had my last post. Actually, yes I can. I’ve spent a lot of time on Facebook. I was afraid I would get addicted, and yup, my instincts were correct. Oh well. Life will go on around me with or without my involvement. 🙂

I was off for a week from work, then one week on, then this week off. That’s probably why I haven’t written. I’ve been busy working on finishing up our addition and organizing that writing seems… tiring. I have a lot of purging to do and I’m running out of time to do it. I think I’ll need to take another day or two in a couple of weeks to keep organizing – keep the momentum going, so to speak. I’ve also been wanting to play. I’ve organized some of my scrapbook supplies and found a few kits that need to be put together. Having pictures for them is another problem.

My cousin and I are planning for a family reunion and she’s asked me to help with a genealogy/scrapbook. I’m getting a new scrapbook kit that includes digital scrapbooking software. Can’t wait for it to arrive so I can start playing with the software. I know I’ll need to order more albums, but first I need to know what to scrap and she’s given me a guideline of her thoughts. I might have to make two different books. One genealogy and one scrapbook. AND I have to start designing my Christmas cards, and save $$ for the trip! These are all daunting tasks, but I’m sure I can make this happen.