Oh, to be a Dog!

I just took a big load of hot laundry out of the dryer and plopped it on the couch for folding. On top of the dog! I didn't realize she was laying there on her back stretched out and comfy. The dog looks super happy!

Ah, to be a dog! So carefree! And buried in fresh clean warm laundry.

Feeling Finished was Fleeting

My to-do list exploded!

After breaking my baby's heart yesterday when I left the house despite her tears and they way she cried "mama" reaching for me as I walked out the door, I choked back a lump in my throat and went to school. The professors all did exactly what I expected and announced the term paper assignments. I've got a full to-do list now!

In fact, two of my papers are due tomorrow, but they are short and sweet. I'd love to report that our group presentation went off without a hitch, but no such luck. The professor announced to the entire class that three members of our group got caught plagiarizing! Honestly, that really threw me for a loop! Amazingly, she told our group to redo the presentation as she is giving us a second shot at it. I really wish she would have let us just do the presentation and hand the cheaters the Fs they deserved while giving the remainder of us the grades we earned. Group projects just don't always work well. One of the gals who got caught raised her hand and says to the entire class, "This is the first time I've ever heard of this, can you explain what plagiarism is?" There was a collective eyeroll from the class. She's never heard of it, oh please. Academic honesty is a policy written on every syllabus in every class and addressed at the beginning of the semester without fail. So, here's this cheater in an upper level course saying she's never heard of plagiarism. I didn't buy it.

Besides my long list of reading and papers to write, along with catching up on the western movies, I need to run out and buy diapers! And I need to sit in the passenger seat praying for my life while my middle daughter practices for her driving test. (She will take her test on Friday!) And I need to make dentist appointments for the girls too. I also want to find a minute to call the insurance company and switch our primary care provider to a different doc.

So much to do and everything is high priority! So, what am I doing? I'm breastfeeding, blogging and watching Mowgli march with the elephants in The Jungle Book. I'll start working on my to-do list later. I'm having a mommy-moment.

My Homework is DONE!

I think I'm all caught up on my homework! Well, mostly. Close enough to call it done. Wow! This never happens! Lucky for me, I've already read two of the books for my Fiction class. One I read 2 yrs ago and one I read this past summer. That class assigns a book a week and I'm two books ahead! Wooo Hoooo!!!

I am three movies behind in my Western Lit class. Isn't that weird? Western Literature class and all we do is watch movies.

This week the professors will all assign research papers, so the homework load will really pick up and I'll be busier than ever. And Monday (tomorrow) I have to give a presentation in my British Literature class, so that'll be behind me and done.

This feels great to have some idle time! All my reading is done!!!

Oh, and the schedule for next semester came out. I've picked out my classes but I will need to go to school 4 days a week instead of only 2. This presents a daycare problem, but we'll work it out.

The Laundry Monster rears its ugly head

There are 5 of us and I sort the laundry mountain like this: towels, more towels, kitchen towels and bibs and wet towels. whites, darks, jeans and multi-colors. Then we have the pink and red loads. Plus, one more load of this and that. And do you put all the baby socks in a little mesh bag? I do. But for some reason, I still end up with only one sock per pair. How did I do that? Where do they go? And how do I wash sweaty gross volleyball kneepads without ruining them. Everyone has their special instructions for folding, restringing hoody sweatshirts, and all the begging and pleading to not shrink their 100% cotton stuff. Lordy. It's too complicated! I need a college degree in laundry!

Drying is another great adventure. Dry this on inside out, dry this one on low and this on high. Don't dry this! This should dry flat, this has to hang. Clean the lint trap every time!

I am very glad I don't have two kids on the swim team anymore. They used two beach towels a day (morning practice and afternoon practice) then took showers - that's two more towels each. Swim season was a very busy laundry season!

The rule is... check your pockets! They all say "I did, I did!" Then I do it again before I throw anything in. I always get a collection of coins, gum wrappers, and guitar picks. Maybe the concept of taking things out of your pockets is lost in the "check your pockets" instruction.

I let my husband help one time. He did a load of jeans. We had to buy everyone in the family a new pair of jeans, some of us needed two pair. And we had to buy a new washing machine. He is more help if he just steps back. Stay away from the laundry, Mister!

You should see my laundry room. Actually it's a laundry NO room. It's just a walk through space between the house and the garage. It's just barely big enough for the washer and dryer and a little space to walk through. Plus two doors that both swing into the laundry "room". It's a busy little space. No room to store anything, no room to sort or fold. But that's where I do all the laundry, me and the toddler who climbs into the dryer and the dog who is our shadow. We all squeeze in there - and then I lock the doors so nobody opens them and slams into me giving m great big door bruises (experience speaking). We're like circus clowns stuffed in the miniature space battling the family laundry monster.

So, where are the baby's other socks?

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween and Happy Birthday to my husband! I skipped all my classes today and spent the day at home being the mom. It was a good day! Gracie was a scary lion - ROAR!



Long Version: First thing this morning, around 6am, I let Gracie crawl into bed between us for a mommy and daddy snuggle before we all get up. She promptly kicks her father in the nose very hard! The force of the blow sends out a stream of loud cussing, but fortunately, no blood or bruising. Happy Birthday, Daddy!

I skipped school all day long and cleaned and grocery shopped and made taco salad for dinner. That's what the birthday boy wanted, so that's what he got. We had pumpkin pie and ice cream for his birthday treat. Yummy!

Lexie went to hang out with her friends. So, I kept in contact with her via cell phone every hour just because she's a 16 yr old out prowling the town on Halloween, that made me nervous.

Katie had to work at the mall.

Gracie put on her costume and went trick or treating next door. She roared like a fierce lion when I put it on her! Once I got her outside, she didn't mind that she was wearing a costume, but as soon as we got back home, she was yanking it off. Or, I should say she was trying. We got it off and that was the end of that. She liked answering the door and watching us hand out candy.

Keith had a nice birthday. He said he didn't want to hear one more rendition of the happy birthday song though. He heard it enough at school. He didn't dress up to answer the door like he usually does, he said he was tired and just wanted to relax. So, he watched the discovery channel and relaxed like a zombie while I answered the door, took care of Gracie and kept track of Lexie. That was a treat since I should have been in class and he would have had to handle it all. I told him what i wanted to get him for his birthday, but I didn't end up finding it. He said the stores will have them in a week or two and he'll just get it and pretend its from me. Ok! I wanted to get him a turkey fryer. He wants it so he can brew his own beer.

Then after I got Gracie to bed, the kitchen cleaned up and the pie and ice cream put away, I went to go get Lexie and next thing you know, Halloween was over.

What's for supper?

I am not a cook. I am not a gormet cook, a short order cook or a cook of any kind. Cooking is the part of being a domestic goddess that I dread. Eating... hey, that's another story! I love eating! But cooking, ugh! I do not enjoy any part of it. Thinking about it, grocery shopping, the actual cooking, and the cleaning up. The whole process is my weakness.

Right now I'm in a dinner making rut. I've really only been cooking twice a week since school started. I have excuses that take me almost all the way through the week, but every now and again I have to feed the family.

Since it's Friday, I'm using my Friday excuse for not stepping foot in the kitchen. The excuse "It's Friday!" But I am thinking about it. That counts for something, right?

The trouble I have with cooking is making something everyone will enjoy. This is a rare event. Very rare. Since it's nearly impossible, I usually end up making two meals so that everyone can eat. Or two variations of the same meal. This is why "fend for yourself" night works so wonderfully!

I'm going to get myself out of this rut. I really am! Well, till I fall back into it again. I need to get myself organized by making a list of entrees, beef, chicken and other. I think if I have a list it'll be easier than trying to come up with something. Or maybe I'll have a launching pad to come up with other ideas. I'm determined to get out of my rut. I am open to ideas and suggestions!

Oh, I should point out that my lack of culinary talents are not leaving anyone hungry. I just fed the toddler cottage cheese and an avacado. She had an apple earlier (we shared it) and scrambled eggs for breakfast. Sometime during the day she wolfed down an entire banana and some cookies. She only ate one nugget of dog food today, so she had a pretty healthy menu today. She usually does. Everyone else gets to dig through the freezer and see what kind of magic the microwave can do.

Updates.... we are still safe from the fires but we were wondering the other day when there was a fire 3 miles from our home. Lucky for us, the wind wasn't blowing that day and the fire crews are awesome! It was out in 2 hours and only burned 14 acres. It was just a small one. There is another fire 12 miles from our house but it's all the way across town. School was called off until further notice and the air quality is horrible but improving. My grandma is out of the hospital but not before she tried to run the place. She's home and almost good as new. Plans for her 100th birthday party are in full swing. I'm looking forward to the party!

Fire! Fire! Fire!

We are safe, but we are sandwiched between some very bad fires. They are both to the South and the North of us. We have very poor air quality, but hey, we aren't burning.

My college classes were canceled today. Of course, when I left the house at 7:15 am (running late, as usual!) I didn't know this. We only get our TV news from the Los Angeles area, nothing from San Diego. And the LA news never mentions San Diego. So, I didn't know about the fires in North San Diego County when I headed south. I got to the exit I usually take to the college and everyone in the world is getting off here! Interstate closed! The sky was orange and brown, it was awful. I got to the college and the street was deserted. There is usually a mile long line of cars turning onto campus, seriously, it's a mile long at the point where I join it and it goes for 5 miles behind me after I turn into the line to get on campus. But, that's another story.. so the town was deserted and the campus was orange-coned off. I turned around and came back home. When I was driving north on the interstate, there were very few cars, kinda creepy. The road was open where I got off and hopped back on, but as I drove north, it closed behind me. Very frightening to be on such a lonely road. Escondido was on fire, still is.

My husband was dealing with the same type of thing as he drove north to his school. We both drive 45 miles in opposite directions. His school wasn't closed though, but the air was thick with smoke and they had high winds. His college class wasn't canceled either, so he's still working. He'll have to drive home in the dark smoke.

The fires destroyed over 100 homes at Lake Arrowhead, this is where my cousin owns a lake cabin. I sure hope her house is not damaged. She just got home on Sunday from a 5 week adoption trip to Kazakhstan and brought home her newly adopted son. What a welcoming.

We are just watching the fire on the news; watching them show all these fires that are out of control. They keep spouting off statistics that just keep getting worse as the day has worn on. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day. 300,000 people evacuated from San Diego. that's enough stats for you for today.

In other news.... my mom called me and said my grandmother (her mom) was taken to the hospital for chest pains. Turns out it wasn't a heart attack, but it was angina. She was given some medication and is on some monitors in the hospital overnight. Mom said she was going to go home today, but so far no answer at the house. I bet she's staying one more night. My grandma is 99 yrs old. And she's too darn stubborn to have a heart attack, so I'm sure she's just fine. But, she's on my mind.

Lets end this post on a good note. My toddler learned how to go DOWN the stairs today! And not by doing a nosedive. So, we've spent most of our day going up and down and up and down and up and down and up and down.... repeat... repeat again!