I am definately doing something right.

Just picked The Boy up from his friend's house. Driving home, I asked him how tired he was. He started to explain how it was everyone else's fault he didn't get any sleep. I stopped him. (Now, what I said was in jest; he's certainly not in any kind of trouble and I most definately wasn't scolding him, and he knows it. But the point came across anyway.)

But I stopped him and asked, "Now, what is my biggest pet peeve?"

"Don't blame other people for your own mistakes."


What do you know--he listens!

Time for an update

Hope everyone had a nice holiday. I am on vacation this week, seeing as The Boy is on vacation from school. We both go back on Jan. 2nd. Lots of sleeping late, movies and video games going on this week. Every day I say I'm going to tackle the laundry, but I still haven't. There's always tomorrow.

Jake and I went to see I Am Legend today. Awesome. Movie. Go see it. Really. Then when we got home, my two new movies from Amazon (Slither and Outing Riley) were in my mailbox. So then I made him watch Slither with me. He resisted quite a bit, "But I don't like slithery things..." which I countered with, "The slithery things don't matter at all. Nathan is really funny! You have to see it because Nathan is really funny!" And he was. And The Boy laughed at all the funny. And hid his face from all the slither.

Now Jake is sleeping over his friend's house, and I am drinking eggnog with rum and watching Nathan Fillion movies. This Firefly-men-movies-and-rum-drinking may be becoming a new little hobby for me. So far, so good.

Oh, I have pictures!

Here's my new coffee mug, courtesy of Think Geek:Awesome, huh?

And here's Jake's new plasma light bulb, also from Think Geek:

I swear, I bought that child a telescope and -with the help of my parents- a PS3, and that boy was just as excited by this $8 plasma light bulb. Really. He was absolutely fascinated that he has the fourth element of matter in his home.

And here's my Think Geek catalog:

There really are some neat things in it. And Jake's friend came over and was looking through it, oohing and aahing. And was all excited that I let him take it home. We really, really are such geeks here. I'm embracing it.

And here's my Christmas tree:
If I had any kind of photographic talent, this might be a half-decent picture. But I don't, and it's not. Oh well.

For New Year's Eve, I will be here hanging out with The Boy. His friend may or may not be joining us. Either way, there will be much Firefly involved. The Boy has been turning this friend into a Browncoat. Good boy.

Merry new Year to all!!

Slight change...

in today's "To do" list.

I am removing the "laundry" option and instead replacing it with "drink eggnog with rum and watch Alan Tudyk movies".

To Do:

Saturday:

• clean

1. dishes
2. kitchen
3. table
4. bathroom
5. trash
6. cardboard

• laundry (whites)

• wrap presents

Sunday:

• bank

1. deposit cks
2. cash for grammy

• shopping

1. 3 fruits
2. potatoes
3. cream

• more laundry (two reg. loads)
• cardboard

Monday:

• make pudding
• peel and cut potatoes
• make trifle
• trash
• go to Ma's

1. presents
2. cks

• 4pm mass
• set up bread machine and coffee
  

Tuesday:

• boil & mash potatoes
• Sue's

1. trifle
2. potatoes
   

Poor Little Duffer

So, The Boy is ill. Kind of. He's just been exhausted all week. Really exhausted. Falling asleep when he comes home from school, and just really tired. So yesterday evening I brought him to Urgent Care to be checked out. He needed to have blood drawn, which is a Very Big Deal for him. He HATES needles. But he bucked up and made it through. The lab tech was very good and talked him through it very well. I could see that he felt like crying but he didn't. I am so proud of the mature, brave person he is becoming. But before the blood draw, during the exam, the nurse practitioner had him lie down and she palpated his abdomen. Which was met by much squirming and giggling. My little man is becoming so grown up, so mature, but he's still so ticklish that he can't get through a medical exam without laughing. I love that so much.

In any case, the nurse practitioner called me later in the evening. The mono results aren't back yet, but most everything else came back normal. So nothing Really Bad is going on. It is most likely just some virus and he needs to just rest. And since he is on vacation from school and I am on vacation from work until Jan. 2, rest is well within our grasp right now.

LOL This explains a lot!

Yesterday I needed to call in a refill for my muscle relaxers but I didn't have the rx number on me. I could barely remember the name of the drug so I Googled my closest guess to find it. And under the Google findings was a little link to the side effects, so I clicked it, just to see. And this is one of the side effects I found:

"decreased mental acuity"

Yeah. We already knew that though, huh?




lol

My weekend

On Thursday it snowed. A lot. We got out of work early, even. I saw a car accident on my way home. But they were going really slow, so I don't think anyone got hurt.

On Friday, we had work, but my boy's school opening was delayed so I had to go into work late. And there was a "Holiday Party" that afternoon. There was very little actual working going on in between.

On Saturday, the boy and I got our Christmas tree, then went up to my parents' house to make cookies with my mom.

Today it snowed again. Jake's friend came to play while his parents went to work. I made two bracelets, did four loads of laundry, put the lights on the tree and some decorations up. Jake put the village up. Tomorrow we will put the ornaments on the tree. Watched Serenity (again). Wash died (again). That makes me sad.

This is the kind of Mom I am.

The Boy had some homework to do today. Kind of a lot, and he was feeling the pressure. And there was a piece of paper that he needed, and that he couldn't find. I got him to describe what it was and what it looked like. It was some notes on a film they'd seen in school, from which he had to make a little book about what good study habits are. The book was already partially done. According to him, without these notes, he couldn't remember everything in the film, and would have to do stuff that wasn't in the film, and get a lower grade. He was absolutely sure that he saw these notes in his accordian file this weekend. They were definately in the house but now have mysteriously disappeared. Now, this boy is smart. And he DOES try to be organized and responsible. He just hasn't perfected it yet. (Well, he IS responsible. It's the organization that he hasn't perfected yet. And he has an annoying history of blaming inanimate objects for disappearing or for other misdeeds that of course can only be the fault of a PERSON. He came by this trait honestly: he got it from his father. I hated it when his dad did it, and I hate it when The Boy does it. TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOURSELVES, PEOPLE!!! If the paper is gone, YOU LOST IT. IT DIDN'T RUN AWAY ON IT'S OWN.)

But I digress. He hadn't even started in on that angle this time...I was just anticipating it. So, the notes were missing. Did I yell at him for being irresponsible? Did I nag him to be more careful? No. (That's what my mother would have done to me, in order to satisfy her own need to vent.) But it would not help the notes get found, it would do nothing to teach him to be more careful, and would only serve to make him more frantic. What I wanted to teach him was that if he was sure he'd seen it in this house, then it had to be here still. It didn't magically disappear. So I quietly helped him go through his accordian folder, piece by piece, looking for the notes. It wasn't there. I helped him go through the "catch all" bin for his stuff, piece by piece. It wasn't there. Then I went through the trash. Piece by piece. And I found his notes. Covered in damp coffee grounds. "Is this it?" I calmly asked him. Yes it was. I noted, calmly and matter of factly, "I'll bet it was on the coffee table and you threw it away by accident when you cleaned the living room yesterday". I talked to him, nicely and calmly, about working on his organization skills. And how, since he was sure it had been here, then it still had to be here, and so it was. And I even put the notes in a plastic sheet protector, so he could use them without getting all gunky. And he gave me a big hug and went to do his homework.

OMFG this is AWESOME!

Wooden keyboard and mouse.

I'm such a geek.