What Should I Be When I Grow Up?

Which College Major Should You Be?
	Your major should be Engineering. Logic is your friend. With enough work, you can find a solution to anything... Unless it involves dating or parties.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Pointing Inward?

I've received many emails about this movie, The Golden Compass, and I have to admit - it's making more curious about the movie than anything else. Today Fox has a piece about the controversy surrounding it's release, and I did find it a little more enlightening than the emails, which amount to a desperate plea to not expose my children to atheism.

Among the things in the article today that disturb me is the implicit intention of the author of this trilogy to portray any and all religion as poison, which I'm really uncomfortable with. I might have been interested in a movie if there was not such an intentional purpose as that - if there were anything in the movie that might actually be meant for the purpose of enjoyment rather than to "unpoison" children who, frankly, I don't feel are poisoned to begin with. For someone to say that they loathe The Chronicles of Narnia because it teaches children Christian ethics is just completely wrong in my opinion! I don't think even the staunchest atheists would argue that teaching children not to lie, cheat or steal is a bad thing, am I wrong here??

Anyway, I'm kind of feeling like there's really no point now in even bothering to see these movies. If my children happen to see them at a friend's house someday, we'll talk about that. I'm not going to waste all my energy on convincing everyone I know that watching these movies would be the worst thing ever, I just have no desire to take part in a Christian hate fest. It's the same way I feel about Michael Moore movies - just created out of hatred, and I'm not interested!

This About Sums it Up!

Your Interpersonal Intelligence Score: 59%

Your Interpersonal Intelligence is Average You do well in most group settings, but you also need time to recharge. So while you can work with people during the day, you may crave your alone time at night. For you, it's all about balance!

How Does Your Interpersonal Intelligence Rate?

Condi for President

I have been so nauseated by the possible presidential candidates. Really, I just want one good candidate, and I don't even care which party! Just ONE! T asked me tonight if I'm opposed to Hillary because I don't think a woman should be president, and the truth is I just don't like Hillary - at all! I'd vote for Condaleeza Rice in a heartbeat, so I don't think I'm opposed to a woman being president. T directed me to this blog post - I'm going to have to add this guy, Bob Roberts, to my blogroll. I'm with Bob - Run, Condi, Run!!!

Catch Up

I'm just catching up again... on everything! I had a very interesting weekend - still processing, as always. We started our beach weekend driving all night in rush hour in the rain. Four women who mostly know each other but not really - an eclectic group. I was the only non-morning person so I didn't get nearly enough sleep. I drove and only one person offered to help pay for gas. When we finally stopped for dinner after the Bay Bridge (took us 2 hours to get over it! - normally a 30 minute trip), one person on our trip who I know fairly well admitted at dinner that she was opposed to her daughter dating a person of a different race because of cultural differences. Where did that leave me? Hmmm.... very interesting weekend.

Now I'm home, and yes, indeed, after three weeks of waiting to hear from our out-of-town visitor that my husband offered to put up via email, T FINALLY called the guy Saturday and he is indeed arriving tomorrow evening. His email hasn't been working (I'd suggested this a week ago, but T still wouldn't call!). I would love to say that I'm a very hospitable person, but the truth is that it's not my gift. I'm completely stressed. My house is a mess, as usual, and the three members who stayed here believe they cleaned it - despite the fact that a two week old game of monopoly is still spread out all over the living room floor, all the towels in the clean bathroom are filthy, there are still girl scout cookies strewn all over the hearth, undelievered, our family room alcove is in shambles, there isn't a cleared spot on the dining room table, the mud room might as well be under mud, the laundry that I left because someone said it would be done is not even touched..... the list is longer, but I'll stop right there before the tears start flowing.

I'd love to go to my group power class tomorrow, seeing as lately it's the only class I ever make it to, but I have to clean, grocery shop, get a room ready for someone I don't even know and figure out what to make this person I don't know dinner tomorrow - of course, we have no details at all. I'm not even sure he's coming for dinner! I've spent a chunk of time cleaning up Em's bedroom - AGAIN!!!!! It's perpetually in a state of complete and utter chaos - and her teacher doesn't believe me that she's ADHD. She should have to live with her - one day should do it!

On the bright side, T made steak for dinner and that was nice. The kitchen looks semi-clean, which is good because sometimes when I leave for a weekend that's not the case! I have avoided Kt's room so I have nothing to report or complain about!! My car was lots of fun to drive, even if no one could agree EVER where to stop to eat - we brought along our resident food snob. I'm feeling much better after getting sick from eating at that seafood restaurant after hearing about how wrong it is to marry outside of your race on our trip to the beach and having to stop at a gas station that had - in the pitch black dark in pouring down rain - only a port-a-john for me to use. I have a little less than 24 hours to get my whole house in tip top shape. Wish me luck!

Hahaha!

Your Superpower Should Be Mind Reading

You are brilliant, insightful, and intuitive. You understand people better than they would like to be understood. Highly sensitive, you are good at putting together seemingly irrelevant details. You figure out what's going on before anyone knows that anything is going on! Why you would be a good superhero: You don't care what people think, and you'd do whatever needed to be done Your biggest problem as a superhero: Feeling even more isolated than you do now

What Should Your Superpower Be?

Just Hangin' In There

So, it's been an interesting week, much to reflect on, and really just a huge conglomeration of extremely odd happenings if you ask me! Last week we received the news that our van needed a new transmission, so we bought a new used car. That was big, stressful, crazy... all rolled into one big thing! We took that new car and went to Connecticut, which was fun, but I'm still unpacking, laundry, trying to clean....

My husband has this habit of checking up on my credit card expenses. It's OK with me, but it just makes it difficult to surprise him!! Fortunately, that habit led him to the conclusion that in purchasing our one big family gift (a Nintendo Wii) online, our credit card had been "borrowed" for other purchases. After checking to make sure I hadn't tried to surprise him by signing up to play online Playstation games (like he even had to ask!), we had to cancel that card and are currently waiting for our new cards. This makes life, er, interesting. We are really quite dependent on electronic transactions, to the point where I do not have an ATM card, we write very few checks and I essentially carry little to no cash on me. Pretty much everything I do - get gas, go grocery shopping, eat out - I do on our credit card. I'm beat.

On top of that little inconvenience, I've been working, subbing, and trying to get ready for going to the beach with some friends this weekend - WOOHOO!!! - which is great, but without my credit card and no way to get cash... I'm sunk. I hope my friends understand that I might become a beggar this weekend!! EEK! I'm also in the position where my husband invited someone to stay with us for a couple nights, someone we barely know but met in Hungary this summer, and, as usual, we have no idea if he's even arriving this Monday. In fact, we haven't heard from him in a couple weeks and he lives in the midst of those California fires... who knows if we'll hear from him at all!! So, am I trying to clean up around here for an out of town guest to arrive the day after I get home from being away all weekend (aka, leaving the house to the mercy of the three bandits!), or will I be snoozing all day Monday recovering from my very chaotic couple of weeks? That remains to be seen.

Anyway, I'm off now to carve a pumpkin for T's work party tomorrow. Oh, yeah... next week is Halloween. And I'm a room mom. Party planner. Costume maker/collector. Busy, busy, busy... That's the life, I guess.

Weekend of New

So, we made it to CT in our new car... New to us, used but in really nice shape. I'll get a pic of that later. The trip up here took us 9 hours. Between the rain, clearing up a little paperwork and NY Friday rush hour.... I'm surprised we made it at all. Today we went to the pumpkin patch and came home with two 18 pound pumpkins! Typically, the girls have gone lighter, so that was a first! T and Uncle D took the girls to their first ever ice hockey game, I think they are enjoying it! My mom, sister-in-law and I had a girls night... shopping (don't tell T!), eating out and now just watching TV or maybe a movie. It's weekends like these that make it difficult to go home.

Ironic? or just plain God?

For those 2-3 of you avid readers of this blog, were you not surprised at all that Tuesday I entered a Bible study on contentment and the very next day we found out my car was DOA? I think there's no irony in that. It's just pure God and the way He works.... although it has been making that horrible noise for months now! LOL

flabberghasted!

I've seen all day this headline about birth control pills being made available in a Maine middle school, and tonight it appears to have passed BY A 5-2 MARGIN! What??? I'm just completely flabberghasted. The obvious reasons - this is not a decision that should be made by a 6th - 8th grader without their parent's knowledge, that it appears to be condoning sex for very young children, that it puts schools in a very powerful position in the family - something I'm growing to dislike immensely and finally - this coming from my own personal experience with birth control pills - they are very dangerous, I'd think especially for very young girls. I had a horrific experience with them under the care of medical professionals, I can't imagine young girls being given birth control and not being monitored by their regular physicians for possible side effects, among them high blood pressure, blood clots, stroke... This is really just a travesty. Very unwise, very disconcerting. Shame on you, Maine middle school!

More Funnies

It's been a long day here at the Sheng house! With the van in the shop, gymnastics, and odd meeting at the mall for T (corporate meetings at Dave and Busters??) and the prospect of having to purchase a new vehicle, I'm whooped! Now it looks like we might not go to Connecticut this weekend, which instantly puts me in a mopey mood.

I was putting Em to bed and we were talking about the van. She is quite sad that we getting rid of it and quite nervous we might leave some of her prized possessions (that she is constantly littering the van with!) in it! She is so unhappy about not having a van anymore - they aren't even on our radar for this car purchase - her pooped little brain is functioning like mush. She finally sighed, laid her little head on her pillow and said, "All I want is an IPOD vigidel!" I, of course, cracked up. Then she said to me, "What is an IPOD vigidel anyway?" I said, "It doesn't exist!" And we both cracked up.... what a long day!

List of things hanging on by a thread....

Sometimes, we can just get overwhelmed by our stuff, right? I have this huge list of things that are about to go. When I think about that list (starting with our car news) I get a bit overwhelmed. The list looks something like this:

1. My car (pretty much bit the dust today)
2. T's car (one strand of the thread)
3. Our refrigerator - it's as old as the house, the shelves in the freezer don't say on their tracks and the drawers in the cool side are cracked and don't pull in or out without a lot of elbow grease
4. Washer and Dryer - 13 years old and when I run them, I smell it (yuck)
5. Water Heater - every morning, when I'm waiting for that hot water, I wonder to myself, "Is the basement flooded?"
6. Wall oven - as old as the refrigerator, the door doesn't shut all the way, which is probably why it doesn't cook anything correctly...
7. Our driveway is sinking, and that's the least of my worries!
8. Yay - I can't think of anything else.... yet! Oh, right, our windows.... that we can actually see right to the outdoors through their cracks...

Now, let's compare that to everything we've done since we moved into this house:

1. Replaced the polybutelane piping
2. Put on some new back steps
3. New siding, paid for my our insurance - Yahoo!
4. New car - yup, got that van after we moved in. That didn't last very long!
5. New gas furnace and AC
6. New cooktop with downdraft...
7. New roof
8. New sewer line
9. New bathroom for the girlies
10. Fixed that landscaping out front

I wonder if this balances out?? Anyway, I am thankful we have a house, T has a job, we can still smile when all around us things aren't so wonderful. We have a lot to be thankful for, and right now I have to go get two of those things off the schoolbus!=)

Bummer!

So, do we spend $4600+ on a new transmission for our '99 Sienna with 125K miles on it.... or do we just get another car? Dang!

The "F" Word

It's laundry day, can you tell? =)

While folding laundry, I was reflecting on my friend, K's, blogpost about her 1 year old "diva" who throws a screaming fit at the most inopportune times if she feels she's been in her stroller too long, like at the checkout in the grocery store. It cracks me up, but it reminded me of my very opinionated first child, who I had mentioned on here earlier was an early talker (18 months) who pronounced nearly all of her words perfectly.... but then I just remembered this one.

Kt, when she sets her mind on something, just cannot give up until she gets what she wants. She still pounds around the house when she disagrees with our rules, and it really doesn't matter that we stay our ground. When she thinks she's entitled to something she will stop at nothing to communicate that. I can remember when she was around 15 months and I had just pulled out a bunch of summer hand-me-downs and put them in her drawer how excited she was. She wasn't yet able to verbalize what she wanted, but she would stand in her crib watching me pull out each outfit and scream if it was the wrong one, then jump up and down for joy at the correct one. Silly thing! (K - this is what you have to look forward to, perhaps!!)

Anyway, one of the words when she started trying to speak that she had some trouble with was the word "walk", which tended to sound like the "f" word - I think you know which one! We would laugh about it at play group, at home, with our family and it never posed any kind of embarrassment until that day... We decided to head out to the mall for dinner one night, which was a rare treat when Kt was that young. We didn't go often because we were on a very tight budget. We packed up everything and off we went.

When we got to the mall, we opened up that stroller, knowing we'd want it for our adventurous toddler, who was now walking, running and shoplifting everywhere!! It was all fine until we opened the door to the mall (still a favorite destination for this child!). We pushed that stroller through the door and Kt looked back at us and said, "F$%#!!!" I said, "No." She then repeated, "I want to F$^&!" Tony and I just looked at her and agreed, "No, you need to stay in the stroller!"

It's then it all began (or ended??), when she started screaming at the top of her lungs much to our horror and dismay, "I want to F$&#! I want to F$^#%! I want to F$^#&!!!!" Her face was red, our faces were a deeper red as we turned to each other, admitted defeat and promptly pulled her out of the stroller to she could F%^$&! That was one word we worked on daily until we got it just right!!;-)

So, good luck, K! I'm sure there will plenty more embarrassing moments. Just remember - we're all laughing with you, and as bad as it seems to you at the time, they are memories you will laugh about for years to come and the rest of the world? We know that kids are what make life fun!

It's Really Quite Simple

You have no clean underwear because all your dirty, filthy, gross, disgusting underwear is in a heap on your bedroom floor. This goes for almost everyone in our house. Period. Any questions?

Oh, and I'm not your maid. Now, are there any questions?

Facebook

Have I mentioned before how much I enjoy Facebook? If not, I'll tell you now! I think Facebook started as a college networking site. I came home from CT one weekend and T told me I had a Facebook.... that's the way it works when your husband, the geek, works with students! Many high school kids were joining, and now, much to every student's dismay, more "mature" folks are joining.

When I first joined FB, it was really a great way to find babysitters, housesitters, communicate about our summer trips with everyone. Slowly, my network has grown to include former first graders (who are now in college - EEK), some college friends and this past month I've met up with some friends I grew up with. I've also connected with other moms, people from church (which helps when you go to a ridiculously large church where even if you go to church at the same time, chances are you won't see your friends) and my little cousins. It's a fun site, clean for the most part and you can really limit what you put out there, who you connect with and who sees what on your page.

My hope is that more people from my high school join so we can organize everyone for an informal 20th gathering next summer. Yup, it's almost 20 years for me. Scary.

Bookworm

I think Em may have finally reached bookworm status. She has discovered that she can read and I'm constantly finding her with books scattered everywhere around her. She reads to her "class" all the time. Cracks me up! We still have a long way to go, but it's nice that it's finally clicking for her, so I can stop worrying that she is permanently challenged. And she now officially loves school, which is a blessing. I'm hoping she never again asks me to homeschool her, which in her mind involves riding the bus, going to lunch, recess, PE, art, music and coming home to relax during the hard stuff. Boy, was she mistaken!

Connections

Our church has a women's ministry that I have been dabbling in for years. Sometimes I go, sometimes I don't. I got a little excited one year when they did a Beth Moore study - one of my favorites - but since then, they've decided not to do them. So I'm picky. Two years ago I joined, then last year I didn't, except for the very bitter end. This year I figured I might try it, I just wasn't sure if I should go in the morning - before work on Tuesdays, or the evening, which would have me out three nights in a row on some weeks.

I found out a few weeks ago that they would be doing the study on Calm My Anxious Heart, by Linda Dillow. This made me chuckle because I have a friend in Connecticut who I've known since kindergarten. She is Catholic, but had a neighbor who she kept telling me reminded her of me - I had no idea what that meant. When I went to visit her, she told me that her friend was a worship leader at Walnut Hill Church in Danbury, CT and she had invited her to a "Moms Morning Out". Now, I had been telling her for years about the Mother's Day Out program I had my girls in, where I would drop them off, go have fun for a day, then pick them up at 1:30 ready for a nap!! She was so excited, she signed herself up for this program, only to find out it was not that at all - she'd been duped!! It was a study on this very same book - and she loved it! Funny how that friend (who I never did meet=() reminded her of me. (I don't usually dupe my friends...)

Anyway, this past Sunday, I figured out that while I was contemplating which Connections to go to, I completely missed the kick off! Duh! It was last week, while I was enjoying a Tuesday at home... hehe. Anyway, a friend of mine, whose children have gone on a lot of our Space trips, told me she requested to be in my group (I sure hope the pastor's wife didn't waste anytime trying to sort through all those registration forms looking for my absent one!). So now, I'm in her group. There are 18 women in that group! 19 women all discussing contentment. It's going to be a long year for me!!! as I struggle with contentment on almost a daily basis. Woe is me.

Oreos

I don't usually buy these things, but I decided to buy them on Monday. It was a total whim. I just thought it would be cheaper to buy a big pack of something than smaller packs for lunches - like my mom used to do. This morning, I remembered why I don't buy Oreos, or Chips Ahoy or anything like that for that matter. There are about 6 left!!! And out of the whole package, I only ate about 6-8 of them. Usually, I don't buy these things because I eat them all, but now.... who knows??? I guess we won't buy those again!!

Embarrassing

Every once in a while, I post about funny searches that come to my blog. I haven't done this in a while, even though I've had some really hysterical ones. This one in particular has found my blog on more than one occasion and each time I just laugh. For more than one reason, and if it wasn't so late I'd probably not even post this.... My husband's initials are "tts" and I sometimes refer to him that way on here. And this guy (I'm going to assume it's a guy) has searched "big tts moms" - more than once, from the other side of the world. 'Nuf said.