On August 17, 2008 at 3:15pm PDT, my eldest daughter, Paige Johanna, will be 18. Eighteen. Eighteen... She will be embarking on her 19th year of life. I don't know where the time has gone.
(October 2007)
Paige came into this world at 6lbs8ozs and 18 3/4 inches long. I nursed her, held her and absorbed her sweet baby smell; we slept in the same bed for almost 5 years, and she was always rubbing my ear. It was an unusual comforting technique. We grew a lot together, and she has become a remarkable young woman. I love her immensely, and I can't believe she's eighteen and a senior in high school.
Actually, we don't start until September 3rd, but damn if that isn't coming up really quickly!
I have so much on my plate this year, and I'm already stressing out.
I am the class rep for Maya's 1st-2nd grade co-op class, and we have a new teacher who hasn't worked co-op before. She and I are kind of like the blind leading the blind at this point. As the class rep, I am her right hand woman, and I will help pretty much with every aspect of parent-classroom relations. Oy. The upside? I won't worry about meeting my minimum volunteer hour requirement.
A friend and I have decided to lead a Brownie troop this year. At our homes. We'll meet twice a month on Fridays after school. We will transport the kids from school to the meeting. Sus and I met yesterday to plan out our entire year or Girl Scout meetings, and I feel a sense of relief knowing that one task is done. If the dang service unit would get going on our paperwork and stuff, we could actually proceed further. We'd like to have our parent meeting the end of September, but who knows if all our ducks will be in a row by then.
I will still be teaching once a week, and I am considering teaching out of a local birth center. Other Bradley teachers and I are considering co-teaching at the facility, but I am also very interested in teaching somewhere other than my home. I'd also like to do more births.
Maya has begun swim team in a town nearby--about 15 miles from our home. It's 3 to 5 days a week, but we will start her at 5 days a week (the exception: GS weeks). I think her practice is at 5pm. Ugh. That is such a sucky time. We won't get home until 6:15-6:30. It takes a long time to travel 15 miles when one lives out here. We think we will have her stop ice skating until after the beginning of 2009; she loves it so much that I hate for her to have to miss it, but we need to see where this swim thing is going. We have our eyes on the 2016 Olympics, you know :-)
I will be getting a job. For sure. I haven't had to juggle job, kids and home since, oh, 1999? To say I'm stressed out at the idea is a major understatement. I'm hoping to work as a para at Maya's school, which would really be helpful considering I have to transport her to school because we are off the bus route. Plus we carpool with a friend, and I want to help make things easy for her.
I think that's all I have in my plate this year, though.
Luckily, Paige is licensed to drive, so I will probably have her help me get Maya to swim on Mondays since I teach that night, and Wayne often isn't home before my class begins. Class and swim conflict, so it will be up to Paige to get Maya to swim once a week. I'm sure I'll hear about it plenty.
Brittani will be licensed in January or February, so there's even more help. She drove for the first time today; Wayne said she did really well and that she seemed confient. She even drove across Meridian!
We have our trip to Disneyland in February, and once we get that out of the way, we'll plan a trip to Mexico, I think. Just me and Wayne. Iguess we'll go to South Carolina this next summer, though. Maybe in 2010 we can get to Mexico. Ugh.
So, I'm cooking dinner last night, even though I really didn't want to. Well, Wayne and I cooked, I should say. I wanted a bento box from the Japanese place up the street, as did Wayne, but our super tight budget (gas is KILLING us) couldn't be fudged with even for one night of dinner out. Plus, it was 90 degrees outside. Who wants to cook when it's 90 degrees outside.
Thank god for a/c because then we can have pasta for dinner. No one without a/c would even consider hot pasta for dinner on a 90 degree day.
So as I'm cooking, I think, "I have been cooking this recipe for forever. It is the easiest dinner to make when you, say, just walked in the door from running your kid(s) around all day. I need to submit this recipe to What's Cooking Wednesday." I am a What's Cooking Wednesday Weirgin no more.
Creamy Pesto Pasta with Chicken (I double this recipe for my family of 5 and will usually have one serving left over)
12 oz penne pasta 2 boneless chicken breast halves 4 tsp dried basil or 1/4 cup fresh chopped basil 2 cloves of minced garlic 2 T oil 1/2 of an 8oz pkg of cream cheese 1/2 cup lowfat cottage cheese 1/3 cup grated parmesan 1/3 cup dry wine ( I use white cooking wine) 1/4 cup snipped parsley 1/3 cup water
Boil pasta. Drain. Keep warm. Cube and saute chicken in oil until cooked through. Remove from pan and set aside. In the same skillet cook basil and garlic in drippings (or oil) for 1 minute on medium heat. Reduce heat. Add cream cheese, cottage cheese and parmesan cheese. Heat and stir until fairly smooth. Stir in wine, parsley and water. Cook, uncovered, for 3 minutes or until slightly thickened. Add cooked chicken. Serve over hot pasta.
When we eat this, we buy a bagged salad and some veggies to add to the salad and a loaf of garlic bread. The whole meal takes less than half an hour for prep and cooking.
Really, it's not the Ped-Egg; it's me. It was all my fault.
I was using my Ped-Egg yesterday to slough off some more of my oh-so-horrid heels, and I was making great progress. In fact, as I was making great progress, I thought, I need to measure the progress in tablespoons, or I need to photograph the great progress.
Anyway, my progress was too great, apparently, and now both of my heels hurt like hell. They hurt to walk on; they hurt to touch; they hurt when I put on my shoes and rode my bike today. It pretty much sucks.
That said, I will still use my Ped-Egg, but I will use it a bit more conservatively...once I heal.
Oh. Even bigger news: Brittani turned 16 today; she finally got her permit. We've been putting off having two licensed teen drivers in our family; we simply can't afford the premiums that come along with it. Our insurance just went down after a year of insane premiums. Ugh.
She is also being a very responsible young woman and is already applying for jobs. GASP I may have an employed teenager in my home before too long!!! I am so excited, and I know she will be soooo thrilled to have her own money to do play with.
Paige, on the other hand, will be 18 in three weeks and has shown no inclination towards being employed. I don't quite know how I can describe my intense frustration at this situation with any brevity. Any person who has talked to me in the past year has heard allll about it, though.
I love flip-flops and bare feet in summer; unfortunately, my feet don't hold up as well as they did when I was a kid. Cracked heels, thickly calloused. They feel like sandpaper, and even twice monthly pedicures do little to keep the cracking skin at bay.
I have found my solution: The Ped-Egg.
I know you've probably seen the commercial. It's an ergonomically designed cheese grater for the feet, and it works wonders.
I got it for $9.99 at Bed, Bath and Beyond (that place really does have everything). I probably could have bought a cheese grater, but I don't think cheese graters are ergonomically designed for grating feet.
Last week at the Farmer's Market I bought a half flat of the most intense strawberries; a lot of the berries ended up going bad because there just aren't enough of us here at the house right now. I decided that I needed to make jam, though, so off we went to the Farmers Market to get strawberries so I could make jam.
I've never made jam before, so hit the canning aisle at Winco and bought 12 jars/lids, pectin, a funnel and other jam making supplies (~$25).
When we go to the market today, guess what?
No more strawberries. I missed my window of opportunity. A decision had to be made right then: do I proceed making jam from a berry that I would prefer seeded? My options were blackberries or marionberries. I bought a full flat of marionberries ($24).
Marionberries mean seeds, though, which I didn't want in my jam. That meant I needed to buy a food mill ($30). I also needed to buy more sugar because jam-making requires a lot of sugar.
See my goodies below: (borrowed the canner fom my mom)
My mom came over and was my hand model. She has great hands. Anyway, here is my mom grinding the washed berries in the brand spankin' new food mill.
It worked well. I had little confidence in its ability to deseed the berries, but it worked amazingly well. You can see 5 3/4 c. of fruit in the background and 8 cups of sugar in the foreground. Yum.
We didn't know whether to count the foam as "fruit" or not, but we decided it looked more fruity than foamy to us, so fruit it was.
We put it on to cook:
Here's some free advice: when cooking jam, it's probably best to use a spoon that does not have a metal handle. Jam cooking gets really, really, really hot. Unfortunately, the longest spoon I own thatw on't be forever dyed red is a metal handled spoon.
The jam became the most beautiful reddish purple color as it cooked. So pretty. Pour into jars:
Lid 'em and bathe 'em:
Steamy.
But damn, this was good shan jam!!
All in all it cost about $80 to jar 22 8 oz jars of jam, but I have grand plans for blueberry jam, raspberry jam and I may even do some pickling of green beans. I plan to get my money's worth from my supplies.
Wayne and my friend Stacy both joked that I sound like I've aged a few or four decades. Wayne said I really sounded old when I said I wanted to give jam away as Christmas gifts, but then I reminded him that we are on a very tight holiday budget this year. Yes, I guess I am old if I am thinking about Christmas in July. Ugh.
Anyway, jam making wasn't as difficult as I expected it to be. It was really fun, but it helped that my mom was here to keep me company. Solo jam cooking may not be quite as enjoyable, but I bet the reward is still just as sweet.
I have ridden 30 miles on my bike this week. I am amazed at myself, quite honestly, though 30 miles on a bike in a week really isn't that impressive. I should do more.
It started with a bike ride last Wednesday with the MOES group that has kept me entertained and socialized this past school year; we went on the Foothills Trail with our kids, so it was a very slow ride with many stops for water and food.
It was a lot of fun, though, and I told Wayne we should go there together sometime.
So Friday we loaded up our bikes, and off we went.
We took Maya, of course, and she was such a little trooper. Her bike is too small and since it's a kid's bike, it has no gears or anything fancy to, say, help her up hills. We tackled one little hill, and she did it without stopping. She was very proud of herself--and this was around 2.75 miles into our ride. We ended up riding 6 miles with her that day.
Sunday Wayne and I went back again (sans Maya) and rode 15 miles. I was seriously ready to die at about mile 5. Wayne left me in the dust, which was good because otherwise I wouldn't have kept going. I had to catch up with the twit :-)
By 7.5 miles, which is when we turned around and headed back, I was magenta in the face (I turn red from exertion); we were stopped in front of a smoothie stand, but neither of us had any money (!!!!), so back we went the way we came. Smoothieless. Such a bummer.
Did I mention it was about 87 degrees out during this excursion?
I went fairly slowly. I was passed by old people and small children several times.
But we (I) made it back alive, and I actually enjoyed it--once it was over. I told Wayne that I was really proud of myself because I pushed through the hard parts; I'm really bad at pushing through. Usually I hit a hard part, and I say, "Okay, enough!"
Then today I met a friend there again, and we rode about 5 miles. It was easier for me today than it has been any of the other days. How cool are we?
Wayne and I plan to go back again tomorrow for another long ride; he wants to go like 20-something miles tomorrow, but I'm afraid I just don't have the endurance (stamina?) for that.
Wayne and I went to see Foo Fighters in concert at Key Arena last night; we saw them back in 2005 for their In Your Honor tour, and that was an amazing show. It was my first big arena show, and Dave and crew did not disappoint at all. We were in total nose bleed seats, and it was still the best concert. This tour is in support of their new CD Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace. Isn't that a great title?
Wayne is by far the bigger Foo fan; I really like them, but I don't listen to the CDs over and over again in the car and on my iPod. In fact, I thought I might have missed this concert due to a birth, but the baby was born 10 days early (EDD was 7/7). Nice. I'm so gald that I didn't have to miss the concert or the birth.
So we got the tickets the day they went on sale, and we chose "Best Available," which gave us seats directly across the arena from the stage, which didn't seem like very good seats to either of us. I told Wayne to buy tickets in what looked like the best section and we'd sell the "Best Available" tickets. Well, Wayne didn't want to do that, so we kept the tickets we were initially issued.
Wow.
They were the best tickets.
There was the mainstage, which did seem far away, but we had such a great view of it. I'm getting old and greatly myopic, so I can't see much anyway unless it's in my face. There was a catwalk from the mainstage towards our part of the arena as well with a big circular thing at the end. It looked like a trampoline to me, and I had visions of Dave bouncing on it while playing his guitar. That would have been fun.
But noooo...
Instead, a stage dropped from the ceiling onto the trampoline thing and our friends Foo performed an acoustic set right in front of us. We could have spit on Dave and hit him square on the face. It was amazing. They were so close.
It was awesome because we missed their acoustic show at the Paramount when they were touring for Skin and Bones; this was up close and personal and acoustic, so it was a good substitute for that missed show (I tell myself). And Pat Smear was there. I thought I saw him earlier on the mainstage, but I may have been wrong because I didn't see him on the mainstage after the small stage acoustic set.
The girl next to me was getting some sweet pictures and video with her camera (I so should have brought my camera!!). My phone camera sucks, so I'm not going to bother posting the crappy pictures I took or the even crappier video. I'm going to check youtube later today to see if some good video gets uploaded, and then I'll embed here.
They totally topped the last show, though. And the people around us actually stood up and moved to the music. Cant wait for the next show...
Here's some video though until I find better stuff: Start of the show:
Dave is funny:
And they did, too. They played from about 8:45-11:20. The encore was 5 songs. I don't know how they play so hard for so long for so many nights in a row. No wonder he weighs about 120lbs.
Found a video of the small stage:
and when they raised the house lights, it was way cool.
This was the end of the small stage set...Dave started there and ended back on the main. Where they rocked hard.
Hopefully more people post some good video soon. [Edited to add some videos]
Young men and women are embarking upon the next phase of life: adulthood.
Parents are proud, as they proclaim all across their vehicles, "PROUD PARENT OF AN ERHS GRAD" "WE R PROUD OF U BECKY"
Honestly, I hope to be one of those parents next year. Cheesy as hell, I know, but dammit! This getting a kid to graduation gig is difficult... thirteen (or more) years of homework hassles, conferences, volunteering, projects that make you want to pull your hair out... I can't wait for it to all be over, and I think I will be thrilled enough to just have to print it across every window of my car in bright green writing.
Amidst the proud parents of high school grads, I saw this yesterday morning:
And this that same morning:
I really think this is a little much. No. It's way too much. Over the top. What the hell are these parents thinking??? Dear lord, you have survived two years of two or three days a week preschool...or five days a week of half days for one year of kindergarten. The kids now know their colors, shapes and may know how to read somewhat fluently and write somewhat legibly. They still eat boogers, suck thumbs, wipe their noses on their sleeves and probably color outside the lines. Some may even still wear pull-ups at bedtime. They are adorable children, likely. Adore them. Embrace them.
But heaping that kind of praise on kids and making a preschool or kindergarten graduation an event that requires such a proclamation is quite possibly going to end up biting you in the ass later-- you know, when they are 16 and want that Super Sweet Sixteen party...no, I'm pretty sure it will bite you in the ass sooner than that. So just stop the trend before it runs like wildfire through my suburbia.
We're coming down to the wire, and I just don't know what to do with my supposed-Democrat friends and family members.
I can't tell you how many times I have heard, "If Obama gets the nom, I'm voting for McCain." Or "I would rather not vote at all than vote for Obama"
What????
It makes me so sad. This whole Democratic nomination campaign has been very divisive, and it is going to cause another Republican to just ease his way into the presidency. I support Hillary, but I like Obama, too. I would be pleased to have either person as the Democratic nominee and as the next President. I have to admit, though, that the Hillary supporters who are so anti-Obama are starting to turn me off of Hill; I feel like they are trying to blackmail the DNC into nominating Clinton. "We are the voters, and if you don't vote the way we want, fuck you...we'll vote for McCain..or no one!!" That's showing 'em!
I'm not an expert when it comes to politics at all, but from what I can gather from Clinton and Obama, their differences are subtle. I think he may be a little more liberal than she...she plays it a little safer than he does.
I really don't understand what the Obama haters, who happen to be Clinton lovers, find so revolting about him as a candidate. I keep coming back to two things: his ancestry and, well, his ethnicity. His father, who is now deceased and who did not raise him, was Muslim. He also was a black man from Africa.
Obama is Christian, though in a country where there should be a separation of church and state, I don't see why his faith is a concern; and even if he were Muslim, that is a honorable faith. Who decided that Christianity is the one true religion?
Obama is multi-ethnic...part black. Believe it or not, I think that is the unspoken concern for a lot of Clinton supporters. They may not be ready to see a darker skinned person heading our country, but it is so not cool to say that out loud. One would not like to be perceived as racist, after all.
Did you see this woman?:
Ick. How embarrassing. I know that when McCain saw that video, he did a little jig; he is so happy to have Democrats like that acting the fool.
Ugh. I just wish that the process would move on, so we can get a nominee that is able to begin to campaign against McCain and for him/herself. They are wasting money campaigning against each other-- the election is in five months! That's not a lot of time to raise more money and embark on a healthy campaign, especially when you consider that McCain is able to raise funds and focus on his strategy against the Dems now...not later.
Hopefully supposed-Democrats will not dismiss Obama simply because they are pissy about Hillary not getting the nom (if that is what happens). It's like 2 year olds having a tantrum. "I'm taking my truck and I'm going home."
I am fairly certain that if Obama gets the nom and the supposed Democrats continue to be petty and whiney that they--the supposed Democrats-- will kill the party's chances this election. How good will that feel in the end? Will they feel they have done the right thing? Imagine this country in 4 or 8 more years with a Republican at the helm. Is that really what they want to see? Are these people, these Democrats who are ready to turn their back on their party, are they living in the same economy I'm living in? Are they reading about the same war I'm reading about? Do they hear about the same dead and injured soldiers and civilians that I hear about? Do they not see the limitations that people have in their health care choices?
Really, knowing all that they know, seeing all they see, hearing all they hear, they would vote for McCain or no one at all rather than place a vote for Obama ? Out of spite?
Are they looking at the big picture? I think not.
So, my friends and family who count yourselves as Democrats... don't abandon the party when your support is needed now more than ever. Obama. Clinton. Either one is a strong candidate; we are fortunate to have two very passionate and energetic people to choose from, and we really need to embrace this moment. It's an amazing time to be a Democrat!
