Taking three children to the dentist at eight o'clock in the morning is a very lengthy and difficult task in itself. Finding out on the way down the highway that pretty much everyone in the tribe including the elders have come down with a stomach virus that makes them either throw up or just feel like they are going to every fifteen minutes or so complicates this task further. Getting to the dentist and trying to reschedule the appointments from the parking lot while cleaning up puke from everything in sight with nasty smelling baby wipes (that you had no idea smelled so bad when you bought them) is obviously an imposing and complicated task which one should never in a million years think will be acceptable to a receptionist at a pediatric dental office. Dealing with stupid people who don't care that they insisted you keep your appointment therefore your children are throwing up all over their waiting room full of people is a very trying task. Even Mr. Monkey had me pick him back up only a couple of hours after dropping him off at work because he was sick too. Today should have been rescheduled. Yes, the whole day.
Posted by gwendolyn on January 28, 2002 at 06:12 PM
Welcome to pale-blue-eyes.com, the site formerly known as gwencentral.com. (for any of you that are interested) I feel all Prince like. I need to go out and buy some assless pants and a ruffled shirt with flared sleeves.
Speaking of assless pants... I just went to the store with some sorta-big-on-me khaki cargo pants on and a black spaghetti strap tank top on. When I got home and was kneeling down to put groceries into a low cabinet my family pointed out the fact that you could not only see my transparent black VS thong and my tattoo but most of my rear end to go with it. Not to mention everytime I bent down I unknowingly gave everyone a free boob shot. I guess I wasn't aware that I was pretty much naked at the grocery store. However, that did explain a lot about several of the grinning old men making conversation with me.
It was a busy week. I have reorganized our priorities and filled our tribe calendar with lots of outdoor activities with other homeschooled children. Much to the annoyance of the two other mothers in the group, I quit the preschool co-op. I did this for several reasons but mainly because I don't feel like participating in a very structured group that really has little to offer our unschooling tendencies. We also quit because it just wasn't floating our boat. I feel very liberated.
However, my children have had the greatest week. They all show signs of being exposed to natural light and fresh air, and are very happy to have made some new friends and released some pent up energy at the events we have participated in. This is a good thing...a very good thing. I also am a bit pink on parts and my hair is a shade lighter already. What an amazing thing that sunshine stuff is! I will need to remember the sunscreen next week though or I am going to look like a lobster.
Posted by gwendolyn on January 26, 2002 at 04:51 PM
I have noticed lately that I have a terrible time going to sleep. Though one may mistakenly deduce the reason being the five people tucked into a queen size bed, it is really the excitement over the closeness and comfortable feeling I get when we are all there together. When I finally convinced Mr. Monkey to give this co-sleeping arrangement a try, I fell to sleep much more easily than I normally do with them across the apartment in their own bed. As soon as we were all settled in I was out like a light. I had such a sense of relief and peace. Now all of this changing is going on and I lay awake for a long time thinking. I even catch myself getting up for another hour or so just to look up more writings and information and words of wisdom. It seems I am too happy and inspired to sleep. Go figure.
Posted by gwendolyn on January 24, 2002 at 01:20 AM
Today we went to the "backyard games" event hosted by one of the moms. My children loved it and came home completely worn out and seriously filthy from their adventures. I mean this was the dirtiest Hope has ever been. Mr. Monkey got the chore of scrubbing them while I dumped the five pounds of sand out of their shoes and swept the floor where they took them off. I plan on arranging our days around as many of these activities as we can possibly cram into our week. I have already solidly booked up my calendar! I think this is just what we all need.
Posted by gwendolyn on January 23, 2002 at 11:18 PM
Last night was the annual art show held at the library by the homeschooling support group. It was very entertaining. I failed at my one and only job though...taking the pictures of my children while they trotted up on the stage for their fifteen seconds of fame. They each received a certificate of participation and a goodie bag. They were so proud. Hope even waited until her name was called and then went up on stage like she had been doing it for a million years.
I, being the novice that I am with our digital camera, accidently pushed the power button while trying to snap the pictures and messed up the whole fleeting moment. I think I was just excited and nervous and my brain was ooohing and aaaahing at my babies names being called up to get an award and not focusing on the task. So, by the time I got my act together and got the camera kick started back up the moment had passed. I really missed the whole thing because I was pulled out of the initial ooh and aah by the sound of my camera shutting down. And I have absolutely no pictures and no real concrete memory of what they all actually looked like while they were up there! I am so heartbroken. Bad bad bad mama.
Posted by gwendolyn on at 11:14 PM
I took the "What drink are you?" quiz linked from Love is a Battlefield over there, and I have discovered what I always knew...I am a shot of Jagermeister."You warm the heart but are pretty darn offensive overall." Well, duh! Who didn't already know that?
Posted by gwendolyn on at 08:12 PM
These were brought home to me today :) At first I thought they were from my husband. Turns out they are a gift to me from the CEO and founder of the software company he works for. I must remember to thank him.
Posted by gwendolyn on January 18, 2002 at 11:01 PM
Today we got an interesting tour of the museum by one of the people who worked there. Despite the fact that he practically spit all over the place when he spoke, I found his knowledge and insight to be a welcomed distraction. He taught Logan a lot about the animals and even got a lot of them out of their displays to let the kids see and pet them up close. In fact, I freaked a little when half way through our guided tour he took off. I couldn't tell if he was getting "buzz off" vibes from the people I was with or if the swarm of children finally overwhelmed him. Either way it had been a fairly educational visit to that point. Oh well. Maybe the fact that the children and I were the only ones paying attention to what he was saying scared him. Maybe he is used to people wishing he would go away and leave them alone to read the signs posted on the exhibits and still not know what the hell they were looking at. Maybe he thought that we were alien brain sucking mutants and decided to get the hell out of there. We will never know.
Posted by gwendolyn on January 16, 2002 at 03:17 PM
I am on day three of actually using my new glider. I am feeling lot better. I would feel even better if the little line in the scale would start to move in the other direction. I found out that that fairly simple looking piece of metal has the ability to make me sweat like a whore in church. I also found out that it isn't worth doing all of that work and then eating a piece of pizza that you knew you didn't want to begin with. It pretty much undoes the whole feeling. I think I should alternate days doing that and all of the rest of the stuff I used to do like normal crunches and leg lifts and all that jazz. I feel like even though the glider is completely going to tighten my legs and rear end, it just isn't going to do everything I need it to do for my big belly. The idea is to just get moving though. When I gain I lose hope. When I lose I am all pumped up about it. As is everyone I suppose. I just seem to be at one extreme or the other, always. That is just my style.
I am also getting the finances back on track after the meltdown in November. We did a lot of damage. It will take me a long time to fix it all. Again, just to be rolling in the right direction will help lift me up. I think I can. I think I can.
Posted by gwendolyn on January 15, 2002 at 02:12 PM
I have really been trying hard to keep up on the housework for the last week. I am tired of living in a mess. I kept telling myself that if the other four tribe members have to wallow in their own disgustingness for any amount of time they might start appreciating a clean place to live, see how hard it is to be the maid and cook, and pitch in to help keep it shiny. No such luck. The kids think they aren't required to clean up after themselves. So then I decided to stay up for two days straight and clean like a crazy woman right down to scrubbing all of the floors on my hands and knees. Everything freshly scoured and shiny and clean. That lasted until the morning of the third day. Now I am back to picking up soggy cereal from under the table, sorting laundry, and loading the dishes into the dishwasher from last night. With five people in one tiny space cleaning up can't be an occasional thing. It has to be a constant effort on everyone's part. So much for my efforts.
Posted by gwendolyn on January 13, 2002 at 11:30 AM
A lemon sorbet and Captain Morgan's spiced rum smoothie is only good in theory.
Posted by gwendolyn on January 11, 2002 at 08:40 PM
On this day ten years ago my monkey asked me to marry him :)
Posted by gwendolyn on January 10, 2002 at 10:28 AM
I have been extremely tired for the past two days. I am not sure why. I seem to be sort of shuffling around in my pajamas eating a lot of comfort foods and wanting to cuddle with my kids. I am under a lot of stress right now. Maybe that has something to do with it.
Posted by gwendolyn on January 07, 2002 at 08:25 PM
Have you ever seen bumper stickers that say "I am a proud parent of an Honor Roll student at blah blah blah..."? I have decided if I were a bumper sticker loving kind of girl, which i am really not, I would have one that said "I am a proud parent." I don't understand why the kid has to have done something at school for you to be proud enough to stick an obnoxious sticker on your car about it.
Also, the president of the homeschooling support group has a sticker on her van's back window that looks like a school bus and across it where the name of the school would appear it says "Homeschool Bus" I need one of those too. Only mine would read "Unschool Bus". I am so clever :)
Posted by gwendolyn on January 04, 2002 at 02:09 PM
Have you ever visited a TGI Friday's on a Thursday night when at least 50% of the place is empty to be told at the door that there would be a 15 to 20 minute wait to be seated because they were "understaffed"? I have. Very briefly. The evening only became more of a pain in the booty after we arrived at Chili's. But I will spare you the details. I am too tired to rant about it after all of the bull dodging and three hour office visit at the pediatrician and all sorts of other daily happenings.
Posted by gwendolyn on at 01:08 AM
I was just driving off of an I-75 exit ramp and merging onto a busy four lane street and as I passed through the light I nearly hit a bull. Or a steer. Didn't stop to look. But the point is that I don't live in an area where that should be a problem. I moved out of the woods...or so I thought. I was called out of the oblivion that is looking in my rear view mirror having a conversation with the little people by the sound of blaring horns. I looked up thinking I had ran the light or something. Nope, green. Just as I looked around I saw something swoosh past my van. I barely missed him. Then as I trucked on by him I looked up into my mirror and saw a police car, with lights flashing, trying to swerve all over the lanes to make the bull run off of the street and into the grass. This whole ordeal completely freaked me out.
Posted by gwendolyn on January 03, 2002 at 02:16 PM
This burning the midnight oil and eating pumpkin pie with Cool Whip isn't doing me any good at all. I even have to get up early and everything. Bad bad me!
Posted by gwendolyn on at 02:15 AM
I am on hold with the pediatrician's office. I have been for nearly an hour now. I am being forced to listen to hits from the 80's. Sad thing is that I know all the words to all the songs. I counted it up and Hope has been coughing her guts up, literally, for seven weeks now. Savannah is now complaining of her ears hurting, the pediatrician looked at them two weeks ago and said that they might clear up on their own. As a mother, this frustrates me. I have probably spent about $200.00 in office visits and medicine between the two girls for these same illnesses. I understand that prescribing antibiotics regularly to children does them more harm than good. Hope was given antibiotics after her second trip in because on top of everything else she had an ear infection, which didn't seem to do a thing for her. I have had chronic ear infections my entire life, not one time did it just go away on its own. Savannah was given nothing for her ear infection. The really sucky thing is that I just transferred my children over to this office on a recommendation. I am not so sure that was a good idea. Savannah is coughing along with her ears hurting. Logan still has a yucky nose but isn't coughing. Nothing over the counter is helping. I just want them to get better.
Posted by gwendolyn on January 02, 2002 at 11:00 AM