It's been a rough week here in paradise, my current town

While I know in contrast to much other evil and tragedy that has happened recently in the world it's trivial. And if the world really did end tomorrow it would be just a speck of dust in the eyes of eternity.

But I, for one, have give my notice. To everything around me, but nothing has listened.
To the husband because he's not around to notice I'm still here.
To the kids because doing 2 4th grade projects at 9:30 the night they were due is not acceptable to me.
To the truck, who decided it's southern ca and doesn't need heat. The one am we had frost.
To the job, which I left fully 1 hour late and..... left charts to be done. I know. SO unlike me. I got home access to the computer system. I'll get to it sometime in the next 1.5 hours while it's still today. or so I tell myself.
To the neighborhood. Who are both a blessing a a frustration at times.

So. let's see. The 4th graders. THEY are going to make sure I have plenty of grey hairs and a lifetime diet of antacids. So on their homework agendas - they have vastly different teachers, as I've mentioned.. on one agenda I've had a nightly notation of "shoe box" on it. and nightly I asked "what does this mean- shoe box?" to which I was told "oh, we need a shoe box" so I get him a shoe box and say, "so you bring this to school?" uh,no, you have to have it at home. So after repeating this conversation for about 4 days I finally get to the question of "what are you supposed to be doing with this shoe box at home?"

A diorama project thing, of course.

When is it due?

Wed.

What is today?

monday.

So you mean to tell me that this whole thing is due on Wed? and tomorrow is Tues? so TOMORROW THIS ALL HAS TO BE DONE? (as the voice raises about 6 octives) This of course is after bedtime.

Go to Sonia. YOU HAVE ONE, TOO? yes. she does. Oh, yeah. it's also due wed. But she's been thinking about it and has mentally planned about20% of what she's going to get done.

So.. Tuesday we had 2 shoe boxes, which, by the way had to be covered in paper and not look like shoe boxes but represent the obscure Califonia Native American Indian tribes their projects were on. Into which we needed 10 objects that were significant to said Indian tribe so that you can represent everything about said tribe in 10 objects and 10 note cards. 

Lemme tell you, even with Wikipedia and the SDSU library it was hard to come up with 10 things, unless you count that 'there were last known 2 elders who spoke the native language in 1940' and 'they ate rabbit' as one and 'they ate acorns' as another.

I'm all for culture and all, but really. These kids don't know Connecticut is part of the United States. Shouldn't we cover the geography and history of the whole country before focusing on an essentially extinct people group? I know they think Connecticut is Canada because when the kids came home friday talking about the school shooting in Canada, it seemed very far away and remote. Suddenly when a phone call from family in CT happens, it's no longer so distant. But to the kids.. they feel safe. Guess that's what matters.

Unfortunately... MY kids know CT is in the US and knows people there, so when the news on the TV at the hospital where they were all dragged in for strep tests was on, it was all that was covered. And they were mesmerized.

I of course have hit the crazy land where I think all the good guys in life should have concealed hand guns and should just shoot the wackos who go places shooting. Frankly. Yes. It's come to that. I used to be in the 'we don't need guns' camp. Now I realize there will always be wackos and they won't stop at legal means of destruction, so I'm ok with stopping them when they go wacko and kamikaze in public. I read the Oregon mall shooting only killed 2 people because someone in the mall was packing heat. Well, dang it. I think teachers should have that right, too. And ever since my kids entered public school I thought teachers should be allowed to carry those tranquilizer dart guns the animal control people use to re-locate bears. Bears, wackos, out of control kids.. tranquilizers for all.

Anyway.. back to diorama boxes. They got done. And while I'm sure the over acheiving parents and kids had baked clay models of the type of home their assigned tribe had, we had pictures. We did have a few "real" items such as a basket, pine cones, and arrow head from Joey's now broken arrow head set (didn't take long, although he still has the bow, but the arrows just weren't meant for long term use much less actual attempt at penetrating anything thicker than a blade of grass). But for clothing.. the men wore nothing. you really want me to enclose a model of a naked male? or a topless female? Riiiight. I'd put quail meat in the box, but not sure that would smell great after a while.

We are now quail less. (speaking of quail) or rather, the cages are quail less, the quail themselves are still in the freezer.  We have 9 chickens and 2 pheasants.  No eggs they quit laying this winter.

Winter. we had actual winter today. As in a frost. As in it would have been a great day for the heat in the truck to work to DEFROST the windshield. And if I thought my husband would have answered his phone this AM, he would have gotten an earful. As it was, we managed. not well, but we did. All alive, didn't kill or run anything over. Only took til lunch time for my toes to thaw after my 30 min drive to work blowing luke-cold air on the windshield.

Usually we get 2 days of winter here, so I'm thinking 1 down, 1 to go. hopefully. Or I'll nag hubby to address the heat thing or threaten to take to to pay someone real money to get it fixed. Or maybe I'll just get out the book and fix it myself. Although he gets kinda touchy when I take something apart like a car to fix it and can't figure it out how to fix it and expect him to get it back together.

Taking things apart.. that reminds me. Last year I got Joey a target shooter thing with a basket that catches the air soft pellets or the nerf darts, which I expected him to use. Supposed to be awesome. Cept it didn't work out of the box. Tried to exchange it but I'd bought it 6 months earlier when it was on sale and it was discontinued. So it sat in the garage. And as we were cleaning out that garage (again. seems to collect crap, broken and not) he found it. I told him he could take it apart and see if he could figure out what was wrong. Suddenly... BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER. He LOVES taking things apart and fixing them, kinda like his father. So with some help from Larry, the loose wire was re-soddered and suddenly it works. This year he gets his own tool box and tools. And instructions to check with an adult and unplug it before dismembering anything. Boys.

At school they had the Jingle rock event. Used to be pancakes with Santa til cooking and Santa went out of style. This year it was cold bagels, cream cheese, donuts and the band concert (why we went. Sonia's in the band. Was in the band, I should correct). So.. the week leading up to the band concert, I asked 'hey, how's the practicing going, need help?' and she says, no, the teacher says we just have to be able to play the first 3 notes.

OK. can you play those? no. Still no sound comes out of the flute when she "plays"

We get to the "concert" and well.. none of us could hear much of anything, and then the band teacher gives a speech about how they're nervous and learning to play in front of an audience and that practices go better. uh, hello? how is that? I know for sure that 2 of the flute players can't play a note. I got confirmation from a trumpet player that he can't play the song, either. To add insult to injury the strings band (all violins and violas and such) played a real live song and sounded good. kindergarteners and all. Which leads to the question- is it self selecting that families that choose violin are more musically orientated and us 'band' parents are the under achievers of the elementary school music world?

Next time we're going with the violin. The price is the same, although we don't own a violin, yet, I've always wanted to learn how to play one. And after this year, I think this band will be totally dissolved. It was a disaster. Tonight they have another concert. We won't be going. Maybe if no one shows up, including the kids it will send a message. You want disaster proof: here it is. Just say to yourself "If you think it, you can play it" and then go rent the music man. It's in our que. And no longer such a strange and bizarre concept.

Can't recognize the tune? It's "we three kings" missing 3 kings, and a few camels. it's left a sick mooing camel and something that squeaks.

Another week gone, another night alone.

Hello computer. Thanks for waiting for me to find the time to come visit again. I know I'm not a great consistent friend. But hey, neither are you, so I guess that's why our chemistry works.

So Larry's working again. This residency thing puts a bit of a damper on the hours we actually see each other.  But we're almost 1/2 through. Or so I keep telling myself.

In other news the across the street family FINALLY left. New people moving in do not have kids, but as I figure no kids is better than bad kids. They seem nice enough.

I think we have gone 1 whole week without a hiccup in Joey's class and home work. Of course if this is going like last semester, I'll get a whole pile of failing papers in 6 weeks with the previous 6 weeks worth of work on the day of report cards so this could be a false positive report.  If she does that again, please feel free to unplug my computer and take away my car keys, because I cannot be responsible for my words and/or bridges I blow up in that case. I'm pretty sure this is the first year she's teaching 4th. I bet she was a Jr high teacher before. Her background hasn't exactly been clear other than she's married to a principle in our sister school district and that she had taught before. Details. I bet google could help me.

Sonia of course has forgotten her homework this week. But this is Sonia we're talking about. Because getting her to get it done in a timely and un-distracted and non-doodling manner I've started waking her up in the am to finish what isn't done before bed.  Jury's out on if this is a brilliant logical parenting move or an idiotic one. But she's my night owl and hates. HATES to wake up in the AM, much less at 5:45 when I am getting up. But there are far fewer distractions for her at 5:45 and her brain is at least 1/2 asleep, so I'm guessing some of the squirrels jumping around her brain are dormant so she get it done and goes back to bed if done fast enough. The part that I'm probably an idiot parent is that a tired Sonia is like a PMS screaming banshee 80% of her waking hours at home. But the logical parent says 'well, maybe she'll just learn so we don't have to go through this too many times' Tomorrow will be morning #4 since I hatched this plan that she will be getting up with me.

Kayla makes everything look easy. And would be a perfect child if she didn't cry over every hang nail and name she's called. Today (because I think she and Sonia were keeping each other up far too late last night) she was even crying at what she thought they were going to say or do to her. "he almost hit me or he almost called me stupid" Seriously. What I didn't gain in patience dealing with Sonia and getting her homework done I'm trying to find in dealing with a histrionic 7 year old 1/2 Cuban girl. I think it's a dominant Cuban gene she's expressing. Glitter, sparkles, and hystrionics. It's there, on the back of the X chromosone, written in glitter glue.

JM. Or, Jon as his teacher thinks he is. Will go to college on a sports scholarship or not at all. Of course this is kindergarten, but since he's in a K/1 class he seems to be not the smartest kid since he isn't reading. Which isn't as big a deal as the fact that he has NO interest in reading. At all. Not with computer games, not with me, not with the teacher. Nope. You cannot make him read or try to read when he doesn't want to. Which is 90% of the time.  And he's all about wrestling, sports and tackling, so football I think would be a wise career choice for him. Minus the head injuries. I assume that's the offensive team that gets those. I'm hoping the defensive side is the ones giving the head injuries and with JM's size and love of tacking siblings, dogs, and anything else that might not appreciate being tackled, I'm thinking defense is his talent.

Other than that, I've been in family medicine again. And I have an idea for a clinical study on quality of care and patient satisfaction with the implementation of EHRs. Not that I think I can change that we've all moved to them, but I have an alternative more human intensive idea to the way we practice now. Of course I'll need a grant and once published probably need to look for another job. MY hidden talent which my parents should have steered me to is bridge demolition. I blow up bridges spectacularly. Doubly so if I'm on them. Bet the pay is good and the autonomy is better.

Heading to craigslist to look for 'part time figurative bridge demolitions specialist position'
Hey would you know, there aren't any openings? Bummer.

Sometimes I think before I type

But most of the time I don't. What you read is the stream of consciousness thought that my squirrel chasing brain thinks.  Once in a while it slows down enough for me to fix typos and spelling errors. But usually it's full of red and green underlines when I'm done.

Anyway.. I didn't really have a certain thought I wanted to share but thought it's been a while and I hadn't written anything lately. It's odd to me when I log into blogger to see that I had page views today. Odder yet to see what page they landed on. And then I look and see what those posts where and realize 'humn.. if those were just meant to vent a thought 3 or 4 years ago and are still here in cyber land maybe I should be intentional about what I am writing here in cyber land?"

On the other hand.... here I am with the what come to mind post that I think is the only type I'm capable of.

So... a brief re-cap of the month - inlaws came and went. It was a nice visit, we didn't do a whole lot, but as they were leaving they said it was better than their visit from 2.5 years ago and they actually enjoyed themselves. Stay tuned, it's entirely possible at their new visit 2.5 years from now they'll only remember terrible things from the last visit.

In preparation for their visit, I did a little shopping and bought a new mattress set. For our bed. yeah. Love that logic, huh? But we needed the guest bed to be off the floor and a second box spring did the job nicely. That and the memory foam topper we have should make my parents stop dropping hints about the mattress. I did all this while Larry was away, so I found the set at 1/2 the price we'd seen before and since he didn't answer either of this 2 phones or pager, I took it as a go-ahead on the purchase.  Because he was away and I get a little insomnia with that I also made a 2 sets of curtains on a sleepless night.

He's away now, so here I am. Additionally when he was away we had a little crime spree here in the neighborhood. Started with someone trying to break in to a home in the middle of the day to the front door. This got me a call from one neighbor and knocks on the door of other neighbors telling me I was notorious for not locking our gates and doors and that we better do it. now. go now. while I'm on the phone. And then if that wasn't enough, someone's adult child came home drunk and decided to relax in the hot tub.. of the neighbor's house. So at 3:30 am there was a naked guy in the road confused as to where he was. I don't really call that a crime spree as much as a good reason to lock the doors lest a drunk person think my room was his. I thought such things only happened in movies. Apparently not.

There is a new boy in the neighborhood, in Joey's class. We like him so far. The people across the street have been moving out for 2 months now, but the real movers arrived here yesterday. We've heard the new person is a grandmother. So no kids. bummer. or not. depending on the kids.

We had report cards and it was 3/4ths good. And that 1/4th I have issues with. No, not ADD girl. Boy with the perpetually bad luck in teachers. This year's new teacher seems to have a perpetual case of ADD and Joey doesn't do well with staccato instructions, much less hurried staccato directions. And she blames the kids for not speaking up that they don't understand her/directions/etc when she races through and they don't know that they don't understand.  That and the books she's having them read have my 2/3 of the way going to the principle and demanding that he be in a different class. Nothing on the gay agenda, dad and mom. Just way above 4th grade level in reading level and content and too much dark/death/magic and another mom says the book in her group is very based on the occult. There are several reading groups, Joey's in a different one, and for this mom to notice the book is base on the occult, I'm pretty sure it is because she's not one that sees occult in things other than occult. I know there are some that make a lifetime of seeing the devil and occult in everything in a hyper-spiritual way, I can guarantee that isn't the case here. And if we had been assigned that book we'd have been locking horns sooner. As it is, I went to discuss my issues with her on Friday, got some answers -not totally happy but not as mad and get home, talk to Larry later and he brings up a dozen other things that he thinks I didn't address or get adequate resolution to. *sigh* it's going to be a long year at this rate.  And I threaten to homeschool regularly. This of course puts a kink in the work schedule.

Work.... sigh..... even Jesus went away from the crowds. There is so many issues. I was in a clinic with a larger percentage of english speakers this month, but with english came a greater percentage of homeless/mental health/substance abuse problems. wow. it just weighs on your soul after a while. Making tiny differences, hopefully, but just not sure how much it really matters in eternity. Of course I'm not totally comfortable doing the 'what matters most is knowing where you go after this life' speech. I'm getting better at it- practice and all. Still waiting to get called into the carpet for that. But the truth is, that it doesn't matter what we do for them medically or socially if we're not helping them spiritually. And on that side part of me really wants to start my own clinic with my own mission statement. I just don't have the resources of either money or time to do it.

In other news Sonia's band class is going about as great as the Music Man's band. I swear he is going with the 'if you think it you can play it' method. Mostly because they have a concert in 2 weeks and Sonia still can't get a note out of the flute. This concert will be one for the record books.

I started a Shutterfly account to add pictures to from now on, as the battle with loosing pictures is an ongoing one here. The hard drive they've been on has crashed repeatedly. Once I have much on there, I'll share them.  But the current site is  http://cowlesfamilysharing.shutterfly.com/ not sure if I have to make you members to see it. But if I do, email me what address to add to it.

Not that I think of it, I better finish uploading the rest of my pictures... talk to you later