A Little Bit of Everything Wrapped up with a Big Ole Zit

Kindergarten

Tyler is doing good, though he is learning pretty fast that he must be quiet when told to be! The school has a 0, 1, 2 system that the kids must follow.  (0 =  no talking, 1 = whisper, and 2 = normal voices)  On his second day of school, he came home with a note safety pinned to his shirt basically saying that he needed to work on being quiet during instructional time.  While I fully expected notes to come home, I didn't expect it on the second day!  So, we chatted with Tyler and explained that he must be quiet.  Of course, this is exceptionally hard for him! 

I made the mistake of dropping Tyler off his second day instead of walking him in.  For some reason, I had in my head that I couldn't walk him in.  Plus, I was still in between jobs and in my pjs, so I thought it would be easier.  There were teachers guiding the kids where to go, and I had told him to walk to the cafeteria.  Once he got in there, he decided to purchase breakfast (which he didn't have money for).  When he went to find his spot where he had left his bookbag, he couldn't find it.  So, the first thing he told me getting into the car that afternoon was that he cried in the morning because he got lost in the cafeteria.  Lucikly, a teacher helped him find his bookbag!  Either Josh or I have been walking him in since then until he is a bit more comfortable with the school.  He has stayed in the after-school program once already and seemed to enjoy it.

This week he starts homework assignments which are listed on his teacher's website.  This will be interesting doing homework when we come home!  Of course, right now it's very simple work for him!  He keeps a reading log nightly which means I need to get better about making time for reading!  We let him buy his lunch last Friday, and he decided to purchase a cheeseburger, french fries, fruit cup, broccoli, and chocolate milk.  However, since my child eats at the speed of a slug, he did not finish all of his lunch.  He says he prefers to bring his lunch, so I suppose this is cheaper for us!

Job

My new job is going well.  I'm, of course, pretty slow right now which is a-OK with me.  My group is in the middle of a large contract, so I'm helping here and there, but I would be more of a hinderance at this point to train.  Everyone seems to be very nice and friendly, and I have a great corner office space with a large desk, two large bookshelves, and a window.  Seriously, the only thing I hoped for was a window!  :)  I've been coming in at 8:30 am and leaving by 4 or 4:30 pm to get in my 7.5 hour days assuming I don't go out to lunch.  Uh, yeah it's nice :)  I know that work will pick up, but I don't anticipate the level of stress I felt before.  I do not regret leaving DCRI though I do miss my coworkers.  By the way, I did find out that I'm not insurance-less the month of September.  I have a 30 day grace period with Duke.  So, you no longer have to worry about my redheads and their crazy antics sending me into debt this month. 

Baseball

Tyler has been going to practices for several weeks now.  He is making some progress but has a way to go before I'm not yelling "Tyler, if you want to play in the sand, we'll go home and play in the sandbox" from the bleachers.  And yes, I did yell this.  He does a pretty good job hitting but needs some practice with the catching and throwing. But really, I'm proud of him, and he seems to enjoy it from what I can tell.  Of course, when I'm not telling Tyler to pay attention in the outfield, I'm typically chasing a 16 month old from underneath the bleachers.  It's a circus, I tell ya.  Tyler's first baseball game is this Saturday at 9 am.  He will either have games Fridays at 7 pm (hello, this is Ryan's bedtime) or Saturdays at 9 am.  I'm learning to be a flexible mother.  I often fail.

I know you are waiting for the zit part.  Be patient.

Water-LESS

I've saved the best for last because it is quite humorous now after the fact.  I've mentioned in past months how we have had well issues.  We haven't been able to fill up a baby pool, run a sprinkler, and sometimes my faucet would stop running mid-bath.  You would think this would trigger us to call a plumber.  Well, we did but I can't remember what he said.  So, I guess that's a pointless statement.  Anyway, the same weekend as Hurricane Irene (which was the weekend of Aug 26-28), we got some strong rain and winds...and a power surge....which destroyed our well pump.  This meant we had no water. 

Wait.  Call the presses.  Did you say no water?

Ok, well I thought, like in the past, that it would come back.  Oh, but it didn't.  Our water conservation project lasted from Saturday morning through Monday afternoon.  Just to let you all know, I hadn't showered since Friday morning, Tyler hadn't showered since Friday night, and poor Ryan hadn't had a bath since Thursday night. 

Frankly put, WE STUNK. 

Once again we called for someone to come out on a weekend and see what the problem was.  When it was determined that it was the pump that was fried, I saw the visions of my new camera out the window.  I had gotten a pretty hefty check when I left work that included my unspent vacation time.  The good news is that I had money to pay for a new well pump.  The bad news is that I didn't get my new camera.  I pouted for a few days minutes. 

Sunday evening, I called my neighbor and asked if we could come take showers.  So, I packed our bags and went over to their house armed with two stinky redheads.  My neighbors were leaving for a pool party, so we had the house to ourselves.  It was a little strange, but we were clean.  And that's all that mattered.  I asked my other neighbors if we could do some laundry at their house since I was in the middle of laundry when the power surge happened.  Finally, Monday afternoon we got a new pump and all was happy (especially me). 

In case you don't understand what no water means, here is an idea:  

• washing your face with bottled water only to waste half of it dripping off to the side because you can only turn your head so far
• brushing your teeth with bottled water
• collecting water from the hurricane into a large cooler so that you can flush your toilet
• rinsing sippy cups with bottled water

So, while we now have water, I'm still sufferering the consequences of inadequate facial washing.  And so therefore, I have had several new zits on the side of my face.  Nothing a little Clearasil can't handle in time.

Thanks for following along :)