So much going on and none of it involves blogging

So.. in 200 words or less:

• Larry's gone to Texas until friday. (I don't know where exactly- in a tent some woods on some army base. I think near San Antonio?)
• Sonia/Joey started school- real school with backpacks/lunchboxes/teacher school for 1 day a week. (kindergarten) Joey liked it, which suprized me. Sonia didn't care for it all that much. We'll see what next week brings.
• I've been to a new neurologist and am back on that merry-go-round of repeating every test they can. After that we can discuss surgery.
• We've been back to legoland- twice- we upgraded our tickets to season passes
• and been to the park

And.....

• it rained. complete with thunder and lightening. wow. for about 30 minutes (or maybe less). now it's back perfect weather all the time.
• And CA's board of nursing lost/never received my 3rd application I mailed. I consider that a closed door for my working.

Fired was too strong a word

So after the first call wondering if I'm ok or had really lost it..

Really-- we're not mean. We found her anther job. She left early this week for a family funeral. She was supposed to come back tonight after the funeral and let me know when she's starting with the new family- this monday or the following, but she missed the train. She missed ALL the trains. The last one left the station about an hour before she got to the station.

So.. until she figures this out and calls.. there is nothing I can do. What she usually does is radio (nextel) her family who relays the message by phone that she'll be at XYZ place in an hour (the time it takes from boarding the train until it arrives.) They base this hour estimate on the thought that there will be a train magically leaving at that time. I thought she understood the train runs on a set schedule, but... no. I guess not.

Organized crime and USPS

Let's compare:

• You have to use them
• If you mail something and want it to get there, you have to buy protection for it, otherwise, it may or not get there and if it doesn't there is nothing you can do about it
• They don't actually have to do what you paid them to do and correctly deliver mail
• If you have protection, there's still a good chance you can't do anything about it, because the tracking you buy doesn't always/often track that they have it, so they can deny that they lost it.
• If you have protection and they misdeliver it, you still can't do anything, because you have nothing to show that they broke or damaged or lost it- you only have their word that it's delivered and nothing to show for it. They say they delivered it, you say they didn't... what are you going to do- yell 'liar liar pants on fire?'

Song of the week

Larry leaves tomorrow morning for somewhere Texas. To play GI Joe meets M*A*S*H for 10 days. Living in a tent and learning advanced war trama treatment or something like that. And those of you who've heard our family discussion on camping.. I think it'd be a fun family vacation near nature. His idea of camping requires a camper or RV and electricity/hookups, etc.. See- God still has His sense of humor.

And because we fired the nanny, we ALL will be going to the airport at 5 am tomorrow. Yeah, I know. Bad timing. But THIS is the life I'm used to- dragging the kids everywhere with me and wishing I had a nickle for every time people stare and ask 'are they all yours?!'

I'm working on the perfect comeback line- something along the lines of yeah, we have 6 angels..oh, wait.. I'm missing 2... and then start running in circles yelling the names of fictitious kids #5 and 6..

but I'm sure that'd be the image I should be leaving with those people stunned at a family with more than 2 kids. And I'm sure that's what I want my kids to remember growing up- "gee, back in the days before they medicated mom, she did all sorts of weird stuff- imagining other kids, yelling, running in circles..."

It's back to the grind

Grandma and Grandpa have left the building
Actually, they left the state, too.

So.. it's been a transition week here.

We went to the kids' parent-teacher-student confrence thing today. And.. no, they didn't fail me. Almost, but not quite.
As I was up at 1 am last night digging through everything it hit me... I don't need to find ALL the materials- only 1 thing from each subject.
***EUREKA!!!! welllll thennnnnnnn..... I'll skip the other 4 days 6 weeks of work.

not that I think my kids need to be taught to be lazy, but.. I am SO relieved with that discovery. Soooo- no, because I couldn't figure out the flap book thing-y with vague directions- no, they didn't fail.

And they're actually going to GO to school 1 day a week. I think it will be good - at least for a day or so- Sonia is longing for interaction with other kids and Joey would probably benefit from it. And they're thrilled that they get to use lunch boxes and eat lunch there, and it counts as a day of instruction... I think it will be a good thing for us.

And on other notes... The nanny/housekeeper will be moving on to a new family.
While it has been nice to have a clean-er house.. it's not financially feasible--no where near financially feasible- and---
The kids are not learning spanish as we expected
I "lost" my job due to lack of license and as of today the Board of Nursing has now lost 3 applications, so I'm taking it as a sign that it is not meant to be- none of it- my working, the nanny, etc. Larry and the kids will just have to learn to pick up after themselves. (I hear your laughter on that from here)

She doesn't know yet. It has fallen on Larry to be the tactful interperter due to his mastery of spanish, but being the non-confrontational soul that he is, he's avoided it and is leaving tomorrow for 2 weeks of away from phone/internet camp somewhere in Texas...
So.. I think it will be me and my spanish-english dictionary trying to tactfully tell her that her services are no longer needed here, but her last employer has a new job for her with a newborn..

I have some great pictures to share, but again.. the camera isn't here in easy reach and I'm being lazy. We found BUGS in our rice. real bugs flying in the bag with the rice. in all 3 bags that we had. That was one of the pictures - I'm debating if it's worth taking the rice back to the store and wondering if they'd do anything about replacing it and... do I really want another bag of brown rice that likely has bugs in it? I made white rice and picked at it making sure nothing looked like those mothy things or the worms that were in there.

So with that lovely visual, I'm signing off.....

Balboa Park

Still doing the tourist things and discovering the area...

And triple points for finding the free stuff- Balboa Park- yippee!! Free Tram, Free museums on Tuesdays, Free Food on Sundays at the International cottages.. and I hear there's a big famous zoo there, but I haven't been yet. I'm holding out until October when kids are free all month. I'll get a year membership and we'll go to both the zoo and wild animal park at least weekly the whole month. Maybe more than weekly. (gotta get our money's worth, lol)

And more free fun times- A walk along the Marina- there were a host of sea lions there really active. There was one there that looked dead- thus the people in kayaks and standing/paddling on surfboards there checking it out. That much of an audience and it seemed to wake up and swim away.

And this is our church- it has an outdoor fair sorta feel to the plaza. My parents couldn't believe it and wanted a picture of it to take home. (Dad- right click on the picture and do 'save picture as' and save where you want it.

The most magical place on earth

is NOT disney.

in fact it is LEGOLAND!

With my parent's visit to the area this month, we've had the opportunity to go. Larry, sadly, was on call and is having a really busy month and has away duty in Texas in 8 days, so he wasn't able to go..

But the rest of us had a good time and I plan on upgrading our tickets to year passes before the 30 day time period to upgrade them is up. And I think that's really fair. And he'll get to go many many times after that. Can you believe it's about 15 mintues from our house! bonus! (PS.. This offer is good as long as we live here, but if any of our dear friends and family should want to visit Legoland.. we will happily serve as your bed and breakfast AND taxi service)

It was not busy at all. No crowds, the longest we waited in line was 15 minutes and that was only for the first ride when we got in the door and everyone else arrived at the same time and it was the first ride we all saw...

The rides were geared for the under 9 crowd- some my kids could ride by themselves and some they needed a "friend over 52 inches" to ride with them.. Even JM could ride some!!

So.. here are some pictures of the happiest place on earth:

What are they going to do? Fail me?

So, after some lengthy internal debate, I think I'm ditching the charter's approved cirriculum. I don't think cirriculum is the answer. We're used to a more montesori/unschooling/lifestyle of learning here and well.. it had been working fine for us. Getting them to SIT and complete a worksheet is.. well...sucking he very life out of any interest in learning.

So.. this week I've been to the library, done my research and we're learning about the ocean and beach.. We went to the marina today and observed crabs sunning themselves, seagulls, pellicans and sand pipers. We might even make a lap book.

And tomorrow is free museum weekend with bank of america, so we'll be visiting the local aquarium who participates and seeing the stuff we're going to be learning about. We read the book on killer whales, uh, I mean Orcas and the one on coral reefs...

We do much better with hands on stuff than "were does your food go" which we understood in about a day- the basic mechanics of it as they required but to spend 5 weeks on it- sheesh... we'd be able to start memorizing the essential amino acids and the Krebs cycle... but... no..... the rediculous projects were.. well... a waste of resources- particularly time. (sorry, I'm sure you cirriculum planners have good intentions and in a class of 20, I'm sure it's about all you can handle, but.. thanks, but no thanks).

I can't wait til our conference when I show up Sans the 200 completed work sheets..

And since I don't have the time or money for therapy... ponder this with me for a little while...
There are few things I can do which would pay as well as the job for which I was trained (and was fairly good at (good on the job teaching, lol, if I could brag...) I'm re-evaluating the need to go to work (ie. trying to re-work the numbers and my life to stay home..) and I realized that few things can pay me what a day's work as a NP can. really. If I took that much in salary from little lions, it would sink it completely.

Is there such a thing as being over educated and expecting too much of a pay scale?
Or does that only apply when the woman is the one bearing the brunt of the homemaking and child care and the one with the education?

It is nice to have the ability to support us if needed, but sometimes it adds to that tearing of my heart.. If I didn't have this education, I wouldn't have the option or tempation to work and make bunches of money.. so I'd stay home and be moving into the single wide.. but then it's a slippery slope.. I can work, so we hire someone to watch the kids while I work and then I have to work to pay daycare and gas for the commute... etc...

But my issues aside...

GO PALIN!!

(maybe I should send my kids to public school and join the PTA... worked for her...)