Wednesday, August 27, 2008

The Great Battle

Ugh. Time for homework again for Little Red. Thank goodness that Tiny Red does not have homework yet in Headstart! LR loves to fight me tooth and nail about doing her homework. Yesterday, she came home with her spelling words for her test on Friday. She also came home with math homework that is due on Thursday. Today she will come home with her Anthology book, and that homework is due Thursday also.

I always have her write her spelling words a million times, then I test her on Thursday night, day before the test. Last year, every time she did this, she got all five correct. This year she has a list of ten. After writing the first couple of words a few times, the complaining started. She continued to ask why she must do this, she claims to know the words, and how she doesn't like doing this. She took forever getting to the end of the list. Then came dinner, and as that passed, I told her she must do her math homework. After getting up from the table a few times and mom telling her to sit back down and just do it, she got up again. At this time, I told her that if she got up one more time, or complained again, it was time for her to go to bed. Five minutes later, she was up. I said BEDTIME. She argued. I said BEDTIME three more times trying to talk over whatever she was complaining about. UGH. Day one of homework. Only a couple hundred more to go...

I do homework daily. I have been since October of last year. I tried telling Little Red that mommy does homework all the time to get good grades and she too should try to get good grades. Does not seem to work.

Hopefully today homework time will go smoothly, since I have class at 5:30. We also have to start to find distractions for Tiny Red while Little Red is doing homework. That was another issue we had to deal with last night. Maybe her homework will be identifying the letters on the alphabet and writing them each a couple of times. I don't know yet...

Ok speaking of homework, I must study for my test in statistics tonight...

Thursday, August 21, 2008

First Day of School

Well.. Today was Caitlin's first day of school. My little girl is now in the 2nd grade. Where did the time go?? Seems like just yesterday that she was born and we took her home!!

I started my next term yesterday. It went ok. I have statistics this term. I have very mixed feelings about this class... but hopefully I pass.

Everything was great this morning. I woke Caitlin up, she got dressed and brushed her teeth, I brushed her hair ... She got her stuff... Then came time to feed Zoe. I got out the oatmeal, and put the empty box on the counter.. CRASH! Apparently, the counter that always is consumed with recyclables was too full and the empty cardboard box pushed it all over the edge of being full. The radio from which we took camping with us fell over, then knocking over the ceramic flour canister, and sent it straight to the floor.. It was almost as if it exploded leaving tiny shards of white ceramic all over the floor. Of course, both girls, the dog, and both cats had to come investigate the noise.. OMG. Get out of the kitchen! *sigh* The morning was almost perfect..No one got yelled at before this incident, everyone was following mommy's directions...

I finished Zoe's breakfast, and sent Caitlin off to school on the bus.. Ugh. The bus. I hope it manages to come on a consistent time this year...

There is always tomorrow for the "perfect" morning before school.

Now time to find my desk under all these receipts, coins, thread spools, and paper work from everyones school... so I can do my statistics homework..

Friday, August 15, 2008

I am a bad mother.

Every so often, my children's cute little voices stream into my ears like nails on a chalk board. Everything they say "SCREEEEEEETCHHHHHH". Am I the only one??

Thursday, August 14, 2008

ADD & ADHD

Ok ... First of all.. I am not saying I do not believe in these disorders and they can severely impact families.

I have 5 boys that live in our neighborhood. Four out of the five have ADHD and a few other acronyms.

Is ADHD just a mystery diagnosis that if a child acts out or is out of control, they add this label to them?? Why does it seem like some (SOME) parents use these disorders as an excuse as to why their child is a disobedient monster?! Could it be the parenting of these children?? Maybe their diet of fast food and foods filled with chemicals?? Why are so many children labeled with this?? Do a few of these parents just give up and let this disorder take over their family??

From my observations of the neighborhood boys, I see a major lack of parenting, and extreme cases where fast food is a major part of their childrens diet. One of the parents' only consistancy is that she will ground her children, then ten minutes later tell them to go outside and play. Grounded for ten minutes?? Does she send them outside to play because they are bugging her?? I often feel bad for her because she is a single mother of three young boys... But there has to be other ways of dealing with these children.

How do these labels affect them later in life?? How long does ADHD "last"? Is there an age where it no longer becomes an issue? Maybe when the children start eating right, or have solid rules and schedules?

Maybe in some cases, parenting skills and diet are part of the problem. Has anyone explored this??

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Customer Service

Its been a while since I have done a product review on my blog.. Today I will share my best and worst customer service stories...

Its been almost a year since I have contacted these ones, but they stand out in my mind as having EXCELLENT customer service...

GE - Bought some CLF's and three burned out... They sent me two 20$ coupons for free light bulbs

TAO - I bought a photo key chain on clearance at Sharper Image.. It would not charge... They sent me a replacement with a box for me to return the non working one.. No credit card number or anything... they just sent me a 60$ replacement with the hopes I would return the broken one!

Select Comfort - We have had a sleep number bed for a number of years. Our remote died... I called them, they sent me a new one with a postage paid label to return the broken one.

HP - online chat. I was having a driver problem, and I figured I would try out the chat with tech support. Few minutes, I was up and running with my new drivers

WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE (Yes they deserve all caps..)

XM radio - I never get an American. Well at least not an American that can understand plain simple english. I have spent hours upon hours on the phone with people from India, or where ever they are just because they do not understand I want to add a gift card to my account, no more. Just the gift card.

Leap Frog - Zoe has a weird thing stuck on her screen on her leapster. It looks like it is something under the screen, so I got on the phone... waited...on hold... for more then an hour before I gave up. I later read in the book that came with it that they only have a 3 month warrenty. WOW. Thats kind of short!

Hmm well thats all I have for the worst... course I could add Walmart...

Walmart - I was in the check out line and finished putting my stuff on the thing. I then went to go pay and mysteriously cut my finger on the pad where you write checks. The check out lady asked if I needed a bandaid, and so I looked ... I had blood running down my arm. YES I need a bandaid. She handed me a paper towel and called for the manager. She went on a hunt for a bandaid and came up with nothing. UM HELLO? Is there NOT an entire isle of bandaids?? I would have bought the box had she went and got one... but no... I was left standing there with a paper towel on my cut finger... UGh.

OK thats all I got ...

Monday, August 04, 2008

10 Things that I have learned this Summer

1. Summer vacation is short, about 12 1/2 weeks. Make the best of all of it. Best of all plan some down time to do nothing.

2. Do plan on free activities around the area. At the beginning of the summer I went through the community calendars and found several free, and not so free activities for our family to be apart of this summer.

3. Anticipate major weather events to interfere with those free activities. The Sunday of the "500 year flood" or whatever they are calling it, was also the McNader Arts Festival. We did not make it because we were either glued to the TV or were walking down to the river. We were prepared to be evacuated if necessary, but also missed the arts festival.

4. The dog likes a sandbox that has rain water in it. Oh boy. When it was hot, the dog would roll around in the sandbox, and actually kick the sand out so he could have more water! Yeah. We got out the pool for him that same day. He did manage to sneak in there a few more times during the hot days.

5. My children would rather help clean the house then their own room. Zoe helped Tony clean the house several times... (Caitlin was at summer reading camp).

6. Buy stock in sunscreen and bug repellent. I have two redhead girls with very fair skin. Caitlin swells up were she gets bit by the pesky critters... Should have bought stock.

7. Dollar store toys last only a short time - buying the more expensive higher quality plastic or even wood version will save you time in shopping for toys next year. Best part? They will last many years in stead of many days.

8. Along with the weather issues, the fair can turn into a disappointment because of poor planning on the boards account although they did pass the buck and say it was the carnival company's fault.

9. Wet laundry in the washer stinks twice as soon as wet laundry in the washer in the winter. Who knew...

10. Having a DVR helps you to forget about time when you are doing something fun. The DVR came in handy several times through out the summer. It also is nice to have something to watch when you feel like chillin'.

Well I probably could add more, but would you continue to read it if it was 100 things I have learned this summer?? lol

Saturday, August 02, 2008

Welcome to August!

Already?? WHAT? Ok... My terms are ten weeks long.. I started this term June 4th.. I shall be done by Aug 12th. That means the summer is roughly 12 weeks long. WHAT? TWELVE WEEKS?! *sigh*

So I have been doing some school shopping here and there. I did grab a new pair of pants and a tee shirt from KMart today... The shirt was too cute to pass up.. "Save the Trees, Ban Homework". I dont know if I blogged about Caitlin's issues at school last year, but apparently she had not done her home work for like a month. The teacher finally called me to tell me she had a good day after not having good days. That was the first I had heard about Caitlin not doing well!!! Why did she wait so long?? I implemented a few things into our after school routine, and Caitlin was back on track with in a week. ONE WEEK. Anywho.... Perfect shirt for Miss Caitlin who does not like to pay attention in class because she "likes to watch people".

So yeah back to school shopping... Our college put on a item/money drive for the victims of the flood that attend the school. No one... NO ONE affected from the flood stopped by to see what they had to offer. So after a couple of weeks of the stuff sitting in the college, they opened the room up to the entire college. There were about 20 tables full of clothing. I did get some stuff for all four of us... Mostly tried to aim for the children, since hubby and I really do not need much...maybe another pair of shorts or something... But, I lucked out ... I got about 4 outfits for each of the girls...

I also have been Ebaying... I got a pair of Gasoline jeans and a sketchers tee for dirt cheap... Still waiting on the shirt, but the pants are brand freakin new. I LOVE Ebay other then the fact that people sometimes go over board on shipping packaging.

So yeah... August... We are planning a trip to the Zoo next Monday, so hope for no rain, and a day in the high sixties! LOL The Zoo is our last Ha rah for the summer before we all go back to school. I have a short week long break .. I go back August 20th, Caitlin on the 21st, and Zoe starts head start on the 26th. Busy busy...

Now we just need to find a job for the Hubby and all will be well!