September...is over?

While I am thrilled that the heat of summer is over, I just can't believe that this year is winding down already. Shell has begun making plans for Christmas gifts and I'm just sitting here shaking my head in disbelief. Since the kids and I went back to school it has just been one big whirlwind of activity. My boy started playing football, thanks to a generous gift from my best friend and his boyfriend. We were struggling to figure out a way to pay for his registration and they sent my boy a check for his birthday that covered the whole amount we needed. He plays in a league sponsored by the local rec center, but his team is comprised of boys from his school only. They are 12 and 13 year olds and my kid is the second tallest on his team. He's so tall. When we went for their annual checkups at the end of July, he measured 5'8 3/4" tall. The girl was 5'4 3/4". I was pretty tall for my age growing up, so while I'm not surprised at their heights, it still amazes me that my 13 year old son is now taller than me...and still growing. Anyway, he loves playing football, but his team is not so great. Only 3 of the boys on it have played before and it shows. They still have two games left to play, but so far they've only won one and it was a scrimmage. He wants to play on the high school team next year, which should have better outcomes. Other than the couple of games I've missed due to my classes, we've all gone to every game and cheered them on. Shell loves that he's in a sport that she already loved to begin with and my girl asks questions all the time so that she can understand what's going on. Even my parents have gone to a lot of the games, which has meant more to us than they know.

For their birthday, the kids got their first cell phones. We've held out on this for a long time, but so many times recently we've noticed how it would be an advantage for them and us. Shell and I were both overdue for updating our own phones, so we did a free upgrade on hers, got the kids the free-with-plan phones and I got an iPhone 3. Such a move up for me from my old flip phone and I am loving it. With four phones in our house that have unlimited texting, free mobile-to-any-mobile, and free nights and weekends, plus 700 shared minutes to landlines, it didn't make sense to keep the home phone any longer. Not only did we get rid of that, we switched from satellite to cable for our television and switched to a faster internet service. These changes would be saving us quite a bit if it wasn't for the extra phones plus the data plan on the iPhone...but it comes out to be almost a wash.

Shell and I didn't have unlimited texting on our phones before, but now that we do? So much texting going on! I text my sisters, I text the kids, and Shell and I text while we're at work. Texting has allowed me to reconnect with a friend that I had spotty contact with over the last few years, and we text almost daily now. It has been such a delightful addition to my days being able to catch up with her and have her in my life again. We had a lot in common when we were close as 13/14 year olds and we have even more in common now. Actually, I wrote about Judy a little back in this post and am truly thankful that we are picking up where we left off and jumping right in to being great friends.

My girl auditioned for and got the part she wanted in this year's school musical, "The Big Bad Musical". It is a super cute story about the trial of the Big Bad Wolf in Little Red Riding Hood. My girl plays the newscaster, Sydney Grimm, and she even has a big solo at the end. Because of his practice schedule, the boy didn't audition so this is all for the girl this time. Even though he's not doing the musical, he is still in band and performs with the pep band. Their schedules along with my on-campus classes keep me very busy. Now that Shell is working days, she's not available to run them where they need to go, so it's made my days full. Luckily, she's been getting some overtime recently, so hopefully we'll be able to catch up on some bills and make Christmas a little less painful.

As for my classes, I'm enjoying them for the most part. My math buddy from last semester decided to move to the same class that I'm taking for math, so we have each other to work with again. This is helping a lot. Music Appreciation is not the light workload that I was expecting, so although I really enjoy it, it's a lot to stay on top of. For my English composition class, we are building up to our final research paper with weekly exercises to strengthen our paper. And Biology...well, it's certainly not my favorite class, by a long shot. Luckily, it is not the Biology that science majors have to take so it's a little less on the technical side, but it is still biology and I am still not a science-y person. It shows.

Before I wrap this up for now, I'm curious if anyone else is having trouble with blogger. I am finding it impossible to comment on other blogs with my google account and it is really frustrating. I don't really want to move my blog, but if Wordpress is more reliable I wonder if it would be worth it. Any thoughts?

Alphabet Meme

The proverbial kick-in-the-pants....

A. Age
I turned 37 in May. I really am not the kind of person who identifies with their age. I look at the number and never feel like it applies to me. There are plenty of days that my body feels like my age and older, but mentally I can't reconcile the number to me. I don't dread birthdays like so many others because I truly feel like it's just a day that I get presents and extra attention...how is that something to dread? :)
B. Bed Size
Queen
C. Chore you hate.
I HATE pulling weeds! Probably because we don't do it until they're already very long and have strong roots...but I'm not a fan of being in the sun for long periods of time and have never been one to play in any kind of dirt. No gardening or landscaping for me.
D. Dogs.
LOVE them! We currently have two basset hounds, one male and one female.
E. Essential start of day.
I guess it would have to be brushing my teeth. I don't always eat breakfast and I'm just starting to play around with different types of coffees (thanks to our pretty new Keurig), so neither of those are essential. Oh wait... I absolutely can't start my day until I've fed the dogs, otherwise they'll just whine and whine until I go crazy.
F. Favorite color.
I love greens
G. Gold or silver.
Both. I read somewhere recently that the long held belief that you can't wear both at once is no longer the case. I wonder if that's true because I have jewelry in both that I'd love to wear together if I could.
H. Height.
I am 5'8". I was taller that most of the boys when I was in junior high and much taller than my female friends. Didn't really like that so much. I am still taller than a lot of my friends. It's not so bad now.
I. Instruments played.
None.
J. Job title.
Right this minute, it is Receptionist/Office Support. Hopefully very soon it will be something on par with Office Manager. Keeping my fingers crossed... I'd appreciate it if you would too. :)
K. Kids.
My son and daughter will be 13 years old in 12 days. I'm still processing it...
L. Live.
I was born and raised in Southern California, but was never the definition of a California girl. Never. Now, I live in a suburb of Denver and love it. THIS is where I belong.
M. Mom's name.
Marvell
N. Nickname.
The nickname that is directly derived from my name is Tyff. But I am also Mommy, Timmy, Babe and Beautiful.
O. Overnight Hospital Stays.
When I was 3, I had the measles and was in a quarantined hospital room. I'm not sure for exactly how long, but it was a matter of days. I gave birth to my twins via C-section, so was in the hospital for 4 days then. The only other time was when my son was 2 months old and spiked a very high fever. He (and I) were in the hospital for 3 days while they attempted to figure out what was causing it, and what wasn't. Thankfully, it was none of the bad stuff that they could test him for and once the fever broke they diagnosed it as something viral.
P. Pet Peeve
School supply lists
Q. Quote from a movie
"I love ya more than my luggage."
R. Right or left handed?
Right
S. Siblings.
2 sisters. They are polar-opposite twins and are 3 1/2 years younger than me.
T. Time you wake up.
Whichever comes first: The dogs needing to go outside or my alarm at 5:30am. I have no idea how late I could sleep if the dogs didn't wake me up. On the weekends, they never let me sleep past 6:30. :(
U. Underwear.
Is not all that exciting. Have never worn a thong and strongly believe that given my weight, I should keep it that way.
V. Vegetable you dislike.
I don't like beets. That may actually be the only vegetable I don't like.
W. What makes you run late.
Sleeping in "just a little longer". Screws me every time...
X. X rays you have had done.
Lots of dental x-rays, ultrasounds during pregnancy, my knee and one mammogram.
Y. Yummy food you make.
French toast, omelettes, pumpkin bread, spaghetti, shrimp scampi pasta.
Z. Zoo animal.
I have always loved the Przewalski horses. I think they are beautiful.

A Shift

Well, we are 2 days into Shell's new position and have already learned a lot. Yesterday morning was a big fat fail, but what went wrong was highlighted and those things went 100% smoother this morning. She's struggling with sleeping at night, but that is something we both saw coming because it's a problem she has always had on the weekends too. I figure it'll take a couple of weeks to become her new sleeping pattern. I had to work at Pet*Mart the last two nights and didn't get home until after 10, so I only got to enjoy having her there for a short time before we fell asleep, but I'm hoping that we'll have some *quality* time either tonight or tomorrow.

Speaking of Pet*Mart, I've decided not to continue working there after the end of this month. It was quite a challenge to juggle two jobs, 4 classes and my family for the last two semesters and I always felt like I was just making it work. I need to be more present for my family and in my schoolwork, so something needed to give. I think that my full-time job probably suffered too and I can't let that happen either. Especially since it looks like I'm going to get a promotion which will mean that I'll be packing more into my 8-hour days and I need to be at the top of my game for that. So, bye-bye part-time job....at least through the next school year. I hope that they'll be willing to hire me back next summer if we need some extra money.

As for the promotion, I'm meeting with our Vice-President next week to discuss the new position and what it would mean in terms of a salary increase. It would be fantastic if it could make up for the shift differential that Shell lost along with the money that I won't be making by working part-time, but that may be wishful thinking. I'm hoping without expecting...

My kids will be 13 years old in 3 weeks... Still processing this one.

My nieces are coming next week for a two week visit. This makes me thrilled and wary. I miss them a ton and really enjoy them when they come, but events during their visit last summer caused the argument and resulting 4 month silence between my mother and I that I'm hoping will not be repeated again. I've already talked to my mom about some things that I think will help prevent the same issues from popping up and I was very happy that she agreed with me. I really just want to enjoy them while they are here. My oldest niece will turn 17 next month and will graduate high school in the spring, so I don't anticipate that she'll be coming out to visit next summer. We are planning to go to California for her graduation and then make it our vacation as well, but I don't think I'll have much time with just her. I'm looking forward to some good long talks and simply happy moments with her and her sister.

The Fall semester starts in 6 weeks and I'm trying very hard to read as much as I can before I jump back into textbook reading. There are so many books that I want to read, but I decided to do something a little different this summer. I've stuck to reading only memoirs or autobiographical books and am really enjoying myself. I started the summer with a fiction one before deciding to limit myself and really enjoyed Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult. I am a big fan of hers and this one didn't disappoint me. I hardly ever buy books anymore and usually just get them at the library, but Shell bought it for my birthday after I had mentioned wanting to read it. Since then, I've read True You by Janet Jackson, Brady, Brady, Brady by Sherwood and Lloyd Schwartz, Foxy by Pam Grier, and Getting the Pretty Back by Molly Ringwald. I'm currently reading Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman) and am reading One From the Hart by Stefanie Powers with Shell. I just got a notice from the library that my next book is ready for me to pick up, so I'll probably start The Way I See It by Melissa Anderson tomorrow. There are still too many on my to-read list, but I'm doing the best I can. I do miss it though.

Huge, Fantastic Change

I can't believe that it's really going to happen, but it's official. Starting in two weeks, Shell will be working days for the first time since our kids were born. She has worked graveyard shifts for so many years and although I am grateful that we had the benefit of being the only two people to have raised our children, I'm so happy that it is changing now. We never had to put the kids in day care and probably wouldn't have had them in preschool if the school we wanted them in didn't test prior to kindergarten admission. They actually only attended about 4 months of preschool and still passed their admission test with flying colors! They've always come home after school and Shell has always been home with them on days off or when they've been home sick.

We've had many discussions over the years about when would be the right time for her to go to days or even swings. These talks didn't go far when we contemplated what to do with the kids during summer and other school breaks. We couldn't afford to put them in any type of after school or daytime programs and we definitely weren't comfortable with them staying home alone or walking home from the bus stop on their own. However, a shift has occurred in these conversations over the last year. Working nights and not getting a full "night" sleep during the day has started taking a toll on Shell and although we've made it work for a long time now, it has never been easy for us to only see each other for a small amount of time during the week. This became very clear when I started school and working part-time. Before those happened a typical week day looked like this: Shell doesn't get off work until 6am and it takes her about 45 minutes to get home (without heavy traffic), so I'd get up and get the kids moving in the morning. She'd get home between 6:45 and 7 and we'd chat as I finished getting ready. I left with the kids to head to the bus at 7:15. Fifteen to thirty minutes is all the time we had in the mornings to connect and catch each other up or discuss what needed to happen that day. On days that the kids didn't have school, we'd have an extra 10-15 minutes before I had to leave for work. She picked the kids up from the bus at 4:45 and I'd get home around 5:30. We'd prepare and eat dinner, help with homework when needed, and watch some TV before she started getting ready for work around 8. I'd even sit in the bathroom most nights and talk to her while she was in the shower just to be able to cover everything before she left at 8:45.

When I started school and working part-time, many of those evenings ceased to exist. When I am working, I head straight there from my day job and don't get home until after she leaves for work. On those days the only time I see her all day is for those 15-30 minutes in the morning. The nights I had class, I'd go right to school from work and wouldn't get home until after 7.

Needless to say, our weekends were our primary opportunity to reconnect with each other, but they were also the days when we went grocery shopping, cleaned the house, did laundry and everything else that needed to be done. Our only two nights a week together were always expected as the nights we would make love, but that didn't always happen. Many times we were just too tired or the stress of the week would take over and there would be some bickering or arguments and in those cases having sex was the last thing we wanted to do. Mostly though, we're just tired. We have learned the hard way that if we let a weekend pass without making love it makes the following week harder to deal with and if we're not careful it often results in arguments and less patience with each other by the end of the week. This leads to a weekend where now we're not so much tired as we don't want to be intimate. It is a vicious cycle that we've fallen into more times than we'd like to admit. All this to say that the prospect of having the opportunity to make love or even just be able to snuggle up and go to sleep together every night instead of just 2 a week is VERY appealing.

When a position opened up in a different department where she works, Shell was hesitant but after we talked about it she applied. The kids will be 13 this summer and although it means that they'll have to walk home from the bus and be home alone when they're not in school, they won't really be alone. They'll have each other. And even though they argue and annoy each other all the time, they do really well when we leave them to run errands or go out to dinner. My parents live very close and Shell's best friend lives pretty close too, plus it only takes me about 15-20 minutes to get home from work. We're still nervous, but know that once we work out the little things it will be so much better for us as a couple and as a result, for us as a family.

Two weeks from today our lives will change in a huge way and I can't wait!

Day 30

30 Days: Day 30-a picture

This was taken just last weekend. I love us and I love that I have completed this challenge. I started it on March 22 so I'm not sure that I'd call it a complete success, but I did every single one plus a couple of regular posts as well. It's a success in my book. And I've really enjoyed reading everybody else's challenges too. A few of you have started some others that I'm intrigued by, I'm just not sure I should start another one. Let's see... It took me almost 3 months to complete this 30 day challenge so maybe I could make a goal to wrap up a different one in 2 months this time. I'd have it done before school started back up again at least. Maybe...

Day 29

30 Days: Day 29-3 Wishes

I've thought about this one for a few days and although I came up with many things to wish for, I just wasn't sure which 3 to use for this post. World peace, winning the lottery, the end of poverty... where to begin? And in doing so, I put off writing it. So, for the sake of finishing this 30 day challenge, I'm simply going to put 3 things I wish for my life pertaining to today.

My 3 wishes for June 16, 2011:

1. I wish that this shake-up at work would benefit me in some way. I want to be considered for a position that has just been vacated, but at the moment I don't know if they are even looking at filling the spot or just having those duties absorbed by others. The "others" would probably include me anyway, so if there is any way to increase my salary at the same time it would sure help a lot.



2. I wish for the weed killer that I sprayed last night to work on my yards and the rocks surrounding them. I'd like a yard full of green grass, not grass and weeds.



3. I wish that we weren't having spaghetti for dinner tonight. We eat it almost every week and I'm tired of it. I wish it wasn't one of Shell's favorites so that it didn't always show up on the meal list when we grocery shop. I wish it wasn't so cheap to make because then I'd have a reason to veto it.

I guess that last one had more that one wish in it, but they were all related to the same thing. End of this challenge...here I come!

Day 28

30 Days: Day 28-Something that stresses you out

Money, money, money! Seriously, if it wasn't for money we would be less stressed at least 90% of the time. Just this morning, Shell took the kids for their dental cleanings and was told that our girl will need braces after all. They've been watching her for years to see how her jaw and mouth would move while growing because when she still had her baby teeth it could have gone either way. Our boy was 100% in need of braces, even requiring two rounds to get everything fixed right. But the girl's was dependent on how her permanent teeth grew in and made room and it seems like it didn't go in our favor. She goes for an orthodontic consultation at the end of this month and we'll see what they say. Unless it is imperative that she get braces right away, it may need to wait until the first of the year when we can add more to our FSA account. We didn't see this coming, so didn't plan for it this year. Ai, yi, YI! The stress!