...3 months later...

There is just no way I can wrap up the last 3 months happenings all at once. It's an endless cycle, this not staying up to date on my blog. Things happen and I think I should blog, then I don't and more things happen and I think, okay if I blog now I need to catch up on what I missed, and then 3 months goes by and there is SO MUCH! So, a quick wrap up and then maybe I can finish out 2010 with regular posting.

• I got into a heated discussion with my mom the last week of July and haven't spoken to her since. It's very weird, but I'm standing my ground. I have talked to my dad, who just mentions my mom to me. I think that he's not sure how to handle this and he's doing his best. It's weird for him too, I'm sure.
• My babies turned 12 on July 30 and started the 7th grade about 2 weeks later. They're doing great. Got their first quarter report cards last week and my girl has straight A's and my boy has all A's and one B+...in Art.
• I am still working at Pet*Mart part-time along with my full-time job. It's helping us and I'm hoping that once tax refund time comes around I can cut back on my hours. It's hard and I hate being away from home so much, but Shell and the kids are picking up the slack pretty well and that has helped in a HUGE way.
• I started school the middle of August, taking 4 online classes to equal 12 credits. I have about 5 weeks left and my first semester will be over! I'm doing good and keeping my grades up. It's hard to manage time to get assignments done when I'm gone at work so much and there have been many times when I submit something just a couple of minutes before it's due, but I haven't missed any and I'm very proud of that fact. It's time to figure out what I'm taking in the Spring (registration is in two weeks and classes start in January). I can't decide if I should take another 4 classes since I'm making it now with 4, or if I should go to 3 and make it a little easier. There are obvious pros and cons with each, so it's an ongoing debate.
• My best friend and his boyfriend came to stay with us for a long weekend just before I started school and we enjoyed having them SO MUCH! We visited and were lazy and ate and drank and played games. We miss them and hopefully we'll get to see them again soon.
• I realize that November is NaBloPoMo and that today is the 1st. Do I think I can realistically post every day this month? No. Do I want to try? Yes. I will try and will do my best to post as often as I can. Hopefully my readers from long ago will forgive my trespasses and bear with me.

I think that's enough catching up for now. I have tons of pictures from our fun this summer and hope to get some of those posted. Maybe I can use that for when I can't come up with something to write about....

Whoever's still out there, thanks for sticking with me. Hopefully you'll have reason to come back again soon!

Almost the End

...of summer that is. I'm amazed that it's today already, which pretty much marks the beginning of the last month of summer. June was a nice month, pretty relaxing for the most part. Every morning when I left for work I'd leave a short list of one or two chores for each of the kids to do, and every day when I got home they were done. It was great and I think they actually kind of liked having something to check off as done. Nothing was too overwhelming. I never wrote "clean your room", but instead would write "clean off your dresser and dust it" on one day and "clean out under your bed" on another. Things that wouldn't really take that much time, but would get stuff done.
During that month, we found ourselves up against a wall, of sorts. We've been living paycheck to paycheck and JUST BARELY making it every month for too long and in June we had to use the direct deposit advance feature at our bank to pay some bills. This was a wake-up call that we couldn't keep living like that. And although we'd talked about one of us getting a second job before, we hadn't followed through on it. So as much as I didn't want to, I put on my big girl pants and applied to a couple of places that I thought I wouldn't hate having to work part-time at. Three days after applying online at big-box pet store, I got called for an interview. Two days later I received a call offering me the job. I've been working there for 2 weeks now, and I really like it. I get to talk to people about their pets and when they bring them into the store, I get to pet and give treats to them. So far, I've worked two evenings a week plus both weekend days on both of the weeks I've worked. Next week I'm working 3 weekend nights plus the weekend days, for a total of about 25 hours. I'm very grateful for the hours I'm getting, but I am tired on the days I work 9 hours during the day and then another 4 in the evening. But I do like it, which makes a world of difference.
Since my nieces got here at the beginning of July, there has been a lot of drama. Things have been tense between Shell & I, mostly because the younger of the 2 girls is pretty much the same age as my kids and so she has spent the vast majority of her visit at our house. The addition of another kid in the house coupled with the extra mouth to feed has not been easy. My sister (not the mom of these nieces), drove from Missouri with my niece last weekend for the week. My nephew (her son) flew in a few days before her and is staying through the 10th of August. These 6 kids haven't all been together in 2 years and want to spend lots of time together. But there's a catch. Everyone is "officially" staying at my parents house (which is less than 5 minutes from my house by car), but my mom shows preference for my oldest niece which all the kids can feel. So if CaNiece1 is there, everyone else wants to be at my house so they don't have to deal with it. So now there's a 15 year old boy in my house along with my 12 year old niece and my 2 kids. My sister is tired of the BS from our mom and wants to spend time with me and her nieces and nephew, so she comes over with her daughter. Who is 3 and naturally acts like it. There have been confrontations and blowups, and I'm not referring to the kids. There is still 1 1/2 weeks before my nieces go home and 2 1/2 weeks before my nephew goes home, yet I think that if they all went home tomorrow, nobody would feel incredibly heartbroken. We'd miss them and be sad because we love them all and don't see them often enough, but it's been a rough month and I think we'd all be relieved to get back to our normals.
There's so much more...but I'll get to that soon enough. I need to end this post on a lighter note, sooo....
Today is my best friend Eric's birthday. I get to see him in 3 weeks. I couldn't be more thrilled, well except if I had more money for while he's here but at least I'm not working at either job for the 4 days of his visit. Yahooo! I can't wait! :)

Time is Flying By!

I just can't believe that it's already June. This year is going by so fast, it's crazy! This has been a hard year so far, and I really hope that the second half goes a little smoother. But I'm having a hard time believing that it will.

The kids wrapped up their first year in middle school on May 27 and we're eagerly anticipating the year-end report cards. They should be here any day. 6th Grade was the first time that they really had to work for their good grades, but they learned a lot that will help them through the rest of middle school and through high school. But for now, they are enjoying their summer vacation. They are loving being able to sleep in and hang out in comfy clothes and eat and drink whenever they want. And being that Shell sleeps during the day, they pretty much decide between the two of them how they are going to spend their days. Which is starting to mean WAY too much computer, video game & TV time. But we're not comfortable with them playing outside while she's sleeping. So what else are they to do? My girl reads a lot, but she likes playing on the computer and when her brother gets a lot of time, she wants a fair amount. We're giving them more responsibilities this summer than they've ever had before, but it still leaves a lot of down time. Maybe I shouldn't worry about it and just let them spend their days in whatever ways make them happy, as long as their chores are getting done. Right now, it's a consideration.

The good news is that June should be the hardest month for figuring out how the kids days should be spent. On July 3, my nieces will get here and will stay until August 3. Since we live so close to my parents, they will spend their time between both houses and hopefully it'll be a great time for everyone. Ten days after the girls go home, my best friend and his boyfriend will fly in. They'll be here Friday through Tuesday and the day before they go home, my kids start school. And then I start school the following week! I can't wait for them to come. It's been almost 2 years since Eric was here and it'll be Jake's first time, not just to our house but his first time in Colorado. I'm hoping we can do a little sightseeing while he's here. If I had my choice, I wouldn't have them come in August as it's SO HOT, but I'll take a visit whenever I can. Hopefully they'll come back during a different season next time so we can show them how beautiful it is. They've been together for about a year and a half now and I'm so happy that they found each other. And we get the benefit of having Jake in our lives now too. I'm very much looking forward to spending more time with him, and getting my Eric fix at the same time.

Let's see...what else? Denver PrideFest is on Father's Day this year which really sucks. It's usually the last weekend of the month, but there was already an event planned for that weekend so they had to move it up. I'm going to spend the day before with my Dad, so I can spend Father's Day with the gays. And hope this doesn't become a yearly thing. BUT!!! The Main Stage performers this year have me SO EXCITED! Two years ago, we saw Tiffany. Last year we saw Debbie Gibson. And this year is En Vogue! I loved their music and still do. So I am really looking forward to that. And of course, all the fun that Pride is. And the yummy food vendors. I love Pride!

Last but not least, I received my financial aid award letter and my tuition and textbooks for Fall are all covered. This was a HUGE relief, because there is no way we could have paid for them ourselves. There should be enough to cover my Spring classes & books as well. We talked about getting a laptop for me to use, so I wouldn't be hogging the family computer all the time, but it doesn't look realistic, at least not in time for the Fall semester. We'll just have to deal with sharing for a while. Worst case scenario: we'll use our tax money to buy one next Spring. But we'll make it work. Just like we always do...

A student once again...

Okay, it's official. I will be a freshman in college this Fall. It's still sinking in, but it's happening for sure. And I'm finally excited. Really, really excited. But it was a frantic and nerve-wracking time getting here, to the excitement.
Shell has been mentioning that I should go to school for a few months now, but I pretty much dismissed it every time. She kept saying how she always thought I should have been a librarian. I love libraries and go frequently. A new library opened up locally, and the kids and I have spent a lot of time there and talk about it a lot. It's beautiful. There will be another new one opening just up the street from our house this summer and my girl and I can't wait. Anyway, it is easy to see my love for libraries, but I just couldn't see trying to go to school for a new career now. But Shell kept bringing it up and I started to think about it on my own. I'd mention why it was a bad idea, and she'd counter with how it wasn't. About a month ago, I mentioned to my best friend this thought that was starting to stir in my mind. His reaction was nothing but supportive and positive. It made me, for the first time consider that I could do this. But where to start?
On Friday, April 9 I went to my favorite new library and talked to a couple of the librarians there. Asked a lot of questions and got their opinions and advice on everything from the future of librarianship, the value of a degree and in what, and the job itself. They were very helpful and I walked out knowing that I wanted to do what they were doing. I even called Shell on my way back to work and told her I wanted to go to school. I'd decided. She was so excited that I was finally ready.
So that was Friday. On Sunday, we went to Dana & Jeannie's for dinner and told them that I'd decided to seriously look into starting school, possibly this fall. They looked at each other and then looked at me and said that registration for the Fall would be starting soon, maybe in the next few weeks. I didn't really see how that was possible, being how it's only April and all. But even so, we got on the computer and I enrolled at the community college that they both go to. As soon as I got enrolled, we checked and confirmed that registration for the Fall semester would start on April 20. That was just over a week away! When I got home that night, I applied for financial aid, which was the only way I was going to be able to go to school.
Over the next 2 days, I received my acceptance letter to the school and a student aid report. I decided to go for my Associate of Arts credits, then transfer those toward a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. Seem like a strange choice for a librarian? The ladies I spoke to actually suggested that since libraries cater to more needs than just literature, it is beneficial to study something people-related. I've always been interested in Psychology, so it was the obvious choice.
Next, I would need to take an assessment test to determine class placement. It's a 2-3 hour test, so I had to wait until Saturday to take it. Saturday...3 days before registration. I took the test, which consisted of sections covering reading comprehension, sentence structure, college math and algebra, along with a 300-600 word essay. I got my results immediately and learned that I got the highest possible score on my essay. Yay me! And scored in the highest range for the reading and English sections. Yay me! And... in the lowest range for the math and algebra. No yay there, but it wasn't a surprise. I did not like math when I was in school. I didn't do well in math, in fact I received the only F of my school career in Algebra 2. It's not my "thing". I'm a reading and English girl, obviously. So although it was a disappointment, it reflected the truth.
Now that I had my results, I needed to meet with an advisor before the hold on my account could be lifted and I could register. Hearing that the classes I'd probably be taking might fill up fast, I wanted to register as soon as I could. So I needed to see an advisor on Monday. Of course, there were no appointments available that day so I went during the drop-in hours and hoped for the best. The advisor I talked to was awesome. She confirmed that with my math scores, I'd need to start at the bottom of the math classes and work my way up. I'm not so thrilled about having to take so much math, but it is what it is. However, being that my reading scores were so high, I don't have to take any reading classes and since my English and essay scores were so high I can try to test out of one of the English classes I need. I'm planning to do that in the next couple of weeks. So, good and bad news. Because of my history with math, she highly recommended waiting until Spring to take math and instead take classes that interested me to ease into this new routine. Hearing that I wanted to take 12 credits, she encouraged me to really think about it before deciding for sure. I'd still be working full-time and having a family would mean that I'd be stretched pretty thin. I got the same advice from a friend, which I definitely took to heart. Thanks Steph, for your concern and advice. But I decided that since I was not going to tackle math until the Spring, and since I was taking classes that I was excited about, I'd go for it.
I registered first thing Tuesday morning, just 11 days after deciding to go to school and 9 days after enrolling. I'm taking Interpersonal Communications, Psychology 101, Introduction to Literature and U.S. History Since 1945. I am seriously thrilled to be doing this. I can't wait to get my textbooks and get started. School starts August 23!
I know that I'll be busybusybusy. I'm sure I'll feel like I'm pulled in multiple directions at once. But Shell & the kids are super excited for me and we've already had some conversations about how this will change our lives. I wish I could start sooner, but I'm also glad to have the summer to get organized and put some new patterns into place to make this as smooth as possible for everyone. All of my classes for Fall are online which makes me very happy. I may not have a lot of extra time for my family, but at least I'll be at home. :)

One Word

Does it count as posting when I do the Meme's I'm tagged for? Thanks Tara for keeping my blog from collecting too many cobwebs!
This one is supposed to be answered with one-word responses. Much harder than it seems...

Hair: dyed
Your Mother: difficult
Your Father: handy
Fav Food: Mexican
Dream Last Night: forgettable
Fav Drink: tea
What room are you in?: office
Hobby: reading
Fear: loss
Where were you last night?: library
Something that you aren’t: fit
Muffins: banana
Wish List Item: security
Where you grew up: SoCal
What you are wearing: clothes
Your Pet: hounds
Friends: diverse
Something you’re not wearing: earrings
Fav Store: Target
Fav Color: green
Last time you laughed: yesterday
Your Best Friend: true
Best Place you go over and over: home
Person who you email regularly: coworker
Fav Place to Eat: restaurants

10 Things

I've seen this meme going around the blogs I read, and while I thought it would be fun, I also thought it might be kind of hard as well. Then I got tagged by Teaberry for it, so the thinking had to start.
10 things you might not know about me...
1. Bodies of water terrify me. When I was growing up, we didn't know anyone with a pool so I never learned how to swim. By the time my parents made friends with a couple who had a pool, I was in high school and too embarassed to try to learn. I basically taught myself how to flail my arms and legs enough to "swim" from one end of the pool to the other, but that was it. I've never gone into the ocean past my knees, because I'm afraid of the pull of the water. I didn't want my kids to be afraid of water, but because I was scared that a day might come when they needed help in the water, we had them take swimming lessons. 3 summers in a row, they took lessons at the rec center and both did great. They love swimming and have no fear of the water. This makes me very happy and very relieved.
However, I do love being near the ocean, lakes, rivers, etc. I find the water very calming, as long as there is no danger of falling in.
2. After I graduated high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life besides getting married and having kids. My parents never stressed the importance of going to college, but everyone else in my life did, so I registered for community college with no direction in mind. I went for 2 weeks. I hadn't really thought much about it over the years, mostly because I hadn't ever found a career that seemed attractive to me. Lately however, the topic has come up often and I'm now thinking about actually going to college for real. My wife is pushing me in this direction, simply because she has more faith in me than I do. I'm still finding the reasons not to, and she is there to remind me of the reasons to do it. I think she might be winning...
3. My college time ended after 2 weeks when Shell & I ran away. We were gone for almost a month. Didn't let anyone know where we were. Our cover was blown when we contacted a friend and she ratted us out to Shell's parents. Looking back, it was a very foolish decision but in a lot of ways I don't regret it. It was just another way we were proving that nobody could keep us apart.
4. I don't mind speaking in front of people. I've run meetings with no problem. I've spoken my mind about things I believe in and oppose. Doesn't bother me. What DOES bother me is that when I do speak to a group of people, my face and neck turn bright red. I don't feel embarassed, so why does this happen? It never fails and many times knowing that it will happen keeps me from speaking up. I hate it, but I have no idea how to prevent it.
5. Shell is the only woman I've ever been with. I had one serious boyfriend before her, who I lost my virginity to when I was 17. Five months after we broke up, Shell and I got together. From that moment, I've never doubted my sexuality. Realizing that I was in love with her and wanted to be with her felt like finding out who I really was.
6. When I came out, everyone was surprised and that is still the reaction to this day. To be honest, I doubt that I trigger most people's gaydar. This bothers me at times, because I feel that visibility is very important. But I am out to all my coworkers and my entire family, so I do what I can in that aspect. I am who I am. I found the term "chapstick lesbian" one day and the definition fits me well. I like it.
7. I've never had a broken bone and other than for dental work and my c-section, I've never had stitches.
8. Most people I know would have followed up the previous statement with "knock on wood", but not me. I am not superstitious at all. Shell is and it drives me crazy when she tells the kids to throw salt over their shoulder or knock on wood or that breaking a mirror brings bad luck or not to step on a crack. I just don't believe in them. I don't believe in heaven & hell and I don't believe that there is a godlike being somewhere passing judgment on everyone. I do however, believe in ghosts and spirits.
9. I love doing laundry. Every part of it, EXCEPT walking up and down the 3 sets of stairs between the basement where the washer & dryer are and the bedrooms. My kids can do their own laundry, but I'll just randomly grab clothes out of their hampers and then wash, dry & fold them. When I do their laundry, I leave the folded piles of clothes on their beds to put away, you know so they have to do some of the work. But I don't mind, I like it.
10. I love living in Colorado and dread the day when Shell (who doesn't love living here) decides that we've lived where I wanted to for long enough, it's time to go back to California. She talks about wanting to move back all the time and has for years now, but I just can't bring myself to seriously consider it. I just don't want to live there again. But I know that someday, I will have to give in and it makes me very sad.

Okay, so now the fun part. I get to tag some of you to take this. Unfortunately, most of you have already been tagged, so that takes some of the fun out of it. These are a few I don't think have done this yet:
Steph at All For the Love of You
B at Endless Love
Jackie at Waiting for Mavis
Kathy at Wannabe Earth Mamas
Meg at All About Austin
Ally at 2moms2babies

I look forward to reading your 10 things!

This Month

This month is flying by, mostly because we've been BUSY and my house is a disaster to show for it. Hopefully that will be changing this weekend, which is the most logical time to do this deep cleaning as the next couple of weekends are booked. The run-down of the first 2 weeks of March go something like this:

My boy had his band concert on the 2nd. It's so fun to see the band getting better at every concert. However, the audience is another story. Can someone explain to me why, if you are going to your child's band concert, you feel the need to talk throughout the concert? It drives me INSANE to hear all the chatter in the audience DURING SONGS!! Seriously... Makes me crazy. The band director starts off every concert asking for the common courtesy of silence while music is being performed. If your baby/child is crying/screaming or just a loud talker, please take them out to the lobby. He proceeds to repeat this plea, mostly focusing on the talking, every 3-4 songs finally practically pleading with the audience to SHUT UP. I realized that I was so distracted by the noise, I missed a whole song. I just don't get it...

The kids have been rehearsing for the Spring Musical for months now. It started out as 2 days a week, until 5:15. Not a big deal as I work very close to their school, so I'd usually get there right at 5:15 to pick them up and we'd be home around 5:45. As the date of the performance approached, these rehearsals grew to 3 days a week, then 2 days until 5:15 and 1 day until 6:00, each week. The last 2 weeks have been Monday through Thursday, until 6:00 each night. It has made for late dinners that usually ended up being either fast food or something quick to prepare since Shell leaves for work at 8:45. The kids love being a part of the musicals, so it's all worth it. But I sure missed the brief time I had to spend with my wife each night. And when we miss too many days in a row, it shows.

My boy and I went to see Bon Jovi in concert on the 8th. We've had our tickets since November, so the anticipation had been building and we were crazy excited by the time the actual day finally came. Dana's mom bought tickets so that she could take Dana, her sister and Jeannie too. They got seats on the floor, but I think we had great seats too. We were first row just up from the floor, a perfect view of the stage. The plan was for me to pick up the boy from rehearsal and then we would head downtown to the venue. UNTIL..Dana called me that afternoon to say that they were taking a limo and we could ride with them. No fighting traffic, no dealing with parking, no paying for parking, no super long line of cars leaving after the show. Perfect! So not only did my boy go to his first real rock concert, but had his first limo ride too. All in the same day. He was beside himself with excitement. The concert was great, better than I even imagined. I have loved Bon Jovi since the 80's and my boy loves them as well. We sang, danced, shouted and whistled and basically had perma-grin the whole time. What a night we had. The limo picked us up right after the concert ended, right around 11:30. By the time we got back to our house and in bed, it was 12:30. To say that my boy had a hard time getting up the next morning would be a gross understatement. But he made it and now it's just a great memory. Shell is taking our girl to see Taylor Swift next month which they are very excited about. It's on a school night too, so we'll see how she fares the next morning. I'm so thankful that we can share these experiences with them, and that they are still excited to see a concert with their parents. I wonder how much longer before that ends?

The performances for the musical were on the 12th and 13th. I went alone on Friday night so I could scope out the best seats to watch from. My parents and Dana & Jeannie went with us on Saturday night and once again I was impressed at how well the kids did. The production was Metaphasia, a radically updated retelling of the Tale of the 12 Dancing Princesses. My boy was the only boy who auditioned, so he played two roles, the dad of the main character and the King. My girl was Trishnakov, the ballerina princess which meant that her brother played her dad. Hehe.
After the show, my parents took the kids home with them since we had plans. It was Shell's birthday and we were going out! The plan was for us to ride with Dana & Jeannie so I could drink. Usually I'm the designated driver, so this would be a treat for me. They told us we'd have to run back to their house because Dana forgot her ID, and then moments later a limo pulled up. They got a limo so that everyone could drink and not have to worry about it. Awesome plan! The limo dropped us off at the Mongolian BBQ restaurant we were eating at. It wasnot only Saturday night, but we were downtown on the weekend before St. Patrick's Day. The streets were packed with cars and people. We were VERY glad not to be dealing with that. Dinner was awesome, as always. It's quickly becoming one of my favorite places to eat. After dinner, we took a cab to the bar that we always go to. It's perfect. There are 2 dancefloors, one where country music is played and the other is hip-hop/dance music. One of the most appealing aspects of this place is that there is a covered smoking area. 3 out of 4 of us smoke and although I'm the one who doesn't, it is nice that we have somewhere to sit and drink and talk and they don't have to go outside when they're smoking.
As usual, we spent most of the night either in the smoking area, on the patio or around the country dancefloor. Towards the end of the night, we made our way to the "dance" side and as soon as we staked out our seats, a Janet Jackson song came on. I LOVE JANET JACKSON! My wife, who typically does NOT dance, pulled me on the dancefloor to dance with her. It was great. Dana & I danced after that and we all people watched the dancefloor, which really is so much fun. The bar closed at 2 and our limo pulled up soon after to take us back to Dana & Jeannie's. Jeannie didn't drink as much as the rest of us, so she drove us home. Thanks to the time change, it was 5am when we climbed in bed and I had to get up at 10 so I could pick up the kids and take them to the wrap party for the musical. It was REALLY hard to get up, but thankfully I was just really tired, not hungover.
After their party, we met up with Dana & Jeannie and the kids and we headed to a early dinner at a yummy pizza place near us. It was really good and we had entertainment in the form of a girl making balloon animals. We were pretty impressed, possibly more so than the kids. After dinner we went home and the kids finished up their homework while we watched the most recent episode of Ghost Whisperer and just relaxed for the first time all weekend. Oh yeah, that's what else we did this month: bought a new bed! Ours was over 14 years old and it showed it's age. We bought a really nice one that has an adjustable foundation so we can raise the foot and head of the bed. And it vibrates. We really spoiled ourselves with it, but we think it's a good investment and who can argue a good night's sleep?

The plan for this weekend is to clean our house. It's so bad and the only other plans are to have dinner at my parents house on Saturday, so we should be able to get a lot done. Next weekend the kids will be staying overnight with them again, as we'll be celebrating Dana's birthday and alcohol consumption is part of the plan. I think we'll end up staying over at their house, so I don't have to drive home after. March is the only month we drink this much and to be honest we probably won't drink again until it rolls around again next year. Spring Break is next week, so I think that this weekend we'll focus on the common areas of the house and then whatever is left to be done in their rooms can be finished while they're home during the week. I'm really looking forward to a clean house, it's been too long!