Thursday, August 28, 2008

Thank God it's THURSDAY

Work is kicking my a**!

I am so tired!

But Thursday is my favorite day. :) It always has been, ever since the C0$by show, and It's a Different W*rld came on after dance class when I was a little girl. :)

So, when Thursday gets here, I still just get excited.
Five day weeks are for the birds people!!!!
My children are turning into badly-behaved STRANGERS.
Probably not really, but I swear they are acting strange.
Yesterday I broke the employee dress code in two ways...and there I was thinking
I was just stylin'.
....

I am sooooo....tired!!!

:)
TGITh!

Sunday, August 24, 2008

collections

you know, i have always said, "i don't collect anything." I have always been sort of anti-collections.
for no particular reason-- well, maybe it's b/c my mama has collections of tons of stuff, and too much stuff, to me, is aggravating?? just maybe?..
hee hee
here are my windowsill collections.
One is mine, and the other is andy's.




I have the little wind-up toys and other teensy stuff that is on the sill.
When I was little while my mama washed my hair in the sink she always had some little cute things that I could hold. :)

The rocks, etc. are Andy's. he always has a little pile of rocks etc. that he picks up. one of them ended up on the windowsill in the kitchen when we moved.

They will probably live there for a long time.
When I am cooking Victor points to the wind-up toys, and I get them down for him to play with.

...I am off to play outside!
Have a good week! :)

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Haciendo una sopa

Have any of ya'll ever noticed that at the end of August, or at least by labor day weekend the light outside changes? I am sure there is an explanation, but everything starts to look golden. Even if it is still hot as all hell during the day, there is a chilly breeze in the AM and PM.
Well, when this happens I get in a mood. It is not sad, not happy, not ill, not...able to be named. I start to miss people, and things, and I sort get panicky about things.
This change in the air usually coincides with school starting, so the anxiety I have (and have always had since I was little) is about going back to school, and summer ending (I love summer), and it getting cold (even though it doesn't til November).
Today, I woke up this way, last Sunday I felt this way.
Andy took the kids to his mama's to swim. I went to the farmer's market to get veggies, and I decided, while I was there, that I would make a pot of soup! That instantly lifted my funk.
:)
Here are the pics:

the pots:

veis, isabel, y david, la holla de sevilla, que me consiguio tu mama? :)
Ya hecha:


After the farmer's market, but before cooking the soup, I went to my mama's and I was telling all my troubles, and then that I was going to make a pot of soup, and that would fix my mood, and she just shook her head...
Is it genetic that we both cook stuff to feel better? Is it instinctual?
I called my sister while I was at my mama's and she said, "so, you are depressed about fall coming, and you are going to make soup?"
I guess she did not get that gene. :)

The soup is yummy! :)

Here are some pictures of Victor having his morning cup of coffee.
He loves to have some sips. This morning he wanted me to pour his little bit into a big-people mug. :)
Then he parked himself beside me and started sipping.



And finally,
Our tomatoes are getting ripe. They are not quite purple, they are some sort of dusty-red color, but they are quite yummy!

Thursday, August 21, 2008

la lengua

tengo la lengua bien cansada por haber estado hablando todo el dia!

whew!!! I have been talking non-stop all day....
tonight was open-house at our school. well actually it was all day, in three different sessions.
it might be hard to imagine that just talking all day could make a person tired, but ....it can! especially, for me, speaking spanish all day, and filling out the same forms for people all day.
as long as i have worked in the schools i have wondered why in the world don't they have a person (or several) type this info. out and print off labels??? helllooooo???
these parents are filling out the EXACT SAME INFORMATION 12 times.
that would probably be too expensive...hmmmm

the very last person i helped was a dad of a little girl going to kindergarten. it was the sweetest thing. he was dirty, he had been working all day. he was illiterate, almost. he had a piece of notebook paper in his wallet with all of his important information on it. he had to take it out and find each piece of information as i asked for it, but since he could not read, he had to look long and hard, and of course i was not a big help, b/c i did not know which phone number/address/whatever was the one he was looking for. so i just sat there patiently waiting for him to find the right thing. i did not want him to feel embarrassed either. when i asked him a question, or maybe i told him, when i looked at his license, "you know, they are going to make you show proofs of residency" (every school does this for every student to make sure they are going to school in the correct school district) he got very defensive, as if i was accusing him of something, and then i felt sorry for him--he must have to be defensive all the time, (of course I was not, i was just trying to clue him in).
then we had to talk about the bus. i had to tell the bus rules etc. this is a translation into English of what I tell the parents, "the principal is very serious about the bus. your child has to sit there quietly, no eating, no drinking, no getting up or throwing anything out windows. If your child misbehaves he/she will get kicked off the bus."
when he had to sign that form he did a very fancy signature (more on this in a minute) i guess I sounded very serious during that part. hee hee.

signatures: I learned, in Spain, that in some places a signature does not just mean writing your name in cursive letters. In spain when a person signs their name it looked like to me they wrote their name in cursive, and then scribbled all over it. it is almost an art form. here we just write the name in cursive. some people do it in a hurry, but most are legible.
So when this man did the fancy scribble thing, it tickled me.

He was just so sweet/pitiful/hard-working....it almost (my eyes are watering) makes me cry! :)

Okay, I am over-tired now...off to watch some beach volleyball...that big beach volleyball tournament we have been watching for the past two weeks!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Two days down.... :)

Okay,
I have done two days! yay!
So far, so good at the new job.
Yesterday we had a pep talk with everyone in the whole school system, staff, packed into the auditorium at the high school I went to!
I had not stepped foot in there since high school!
Then we had a meeting at my actual school with the principal. I had to do the whole stand in front of everyone and introduce myself. --along with all the other new folks
That was fine.
When I said, "I am Susan Hi!!, when I went to this school, I was Susan Pilgr**n." My art teacher from when I was a kid (who is still there) got a bright look on her face (the light bulb). She remembered me!!! I thought that was so cool!
Of course I wondered if she remembered the fact that when I was in Kindergarten I could not cut paper with a single pair of scissors that anyone at school had. My aunt had to buy me some special ones, that I had to take to art class with me. I am still not sure if I am right-handed or left-handed and they had a hard time too. I can still remember crying b/c I could not cut out that d@mn santa beard!!
Morgan, you would be so proud! My goal this year is organization. I have my own room, so I actually have a chance to succeed with this goal..
I took these fotos JUST FOR YOU, and SHANNON! :)


Morgan, does seeing those labels make you proud?
:) I bought a label maker...it is fun!

Now, the title of this post is not meant to express that I am wishing away 178 days, b/c I have to go to a job. I would not have a job which forced me to count down days.
That is not to say that on some days I don't count them down...Just most of the time I do not.
The title was simply a celebration of two days completed :)
Andy started his classes tonight.
Get this, a guy in his class is a forestry person (works in Andy's same line of work), and is going back to school to be an RN--Just like him. ;)

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Garden update

The pepper plants:
They came from the Carrboro Farmer's market.
They are called Chocolate Bell Peppers. I am not sure why. When they are ripe they are green, and they taste like a regular bell pepper.
Yummy!
We have gotten several off the plant already.


The Basil plants are happy too. They are very bushy. These pictures are of the grasshopper that lives on the basil plant. He is very happy there, and he is beautiful to look at! I was trying to take a picture of him, but he was trying to hide. The other one is a butterfly that landed there, and he/she/it had a torn wing! It was still able to fly though



And finally, the tomato plants. We bought these as little guys at the Saxapahaw Farmer's market from a farmer there.
We planted them on May 10th. They are over five feet tall. For the longest time, they were growing but not making any fruit. Then, they started to make tomatoes, now we have just been waiting for them to turn purple/brown, which is the color they should be when they are ripe. So far we have gotten two tomatoes off! Now the leaves are turning funky, which means some kind of plant mold which likes to kill tomato plants might have gotten them.
These plants are huge!!



The funnest part of the garden has been watching my kids playing in/around it. Elena just loves looking for bugs, and the garden is the place to find one.
Victor thinks all the plants are ball plants. If he picks a pepper, it is a ball to kick, if he picks a tomato, it's a ball, of course. :)

Off to work tomorrow!
ugh...

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Beach Day

Andy and I are soooooo tired!
This morning we decided to go to the beach for the day.
This is something we have not done all summer, and when we got there we thought, "hello? why not?"
We got there about 11 and spent three good hours playing in the wonderfully refreshing ocean, and in the sand (Victor got a full body exfoliation treatment.)
Here are the pictures.
It was a bit overcast, but that was great.
The water was perfect, slightly warm, calm (even the babies got in past the waves and got to swim some.)
Tomorrow is my last day of summer freedom! I am going to clean up and get my house nice and organized before I leave it and go off to the rat race.
:(, :(, :(....

Friday, August 15, 2008

a Train

The past two times I have left my house to go west--the triangle, burlington etc. I have thought, the whole time I am driving, "how cool would it be if there were a train that could be taking me on this trip across the state!?"
I would take a bus to greenville, or drive there, then hop on the train, and then get off in Burlington, or get off in Asheville, or Greensboro, or Raleigh, or wherever! I could hop on, with Elena (in the case of the trip to the baptism) we could read books, relax...and arrive at the station in Burlington where Shannon or Sandra could pick us up. There would be one less car on the road, no stress attack from me about having to drive, and less fatigue from having to drive.
Then when Andy and I talked about our trip to Asheville we said the same thing. It would just be more fun to go on a train to Asheville.
Maybe the federal gov't should pull an FDR and set up some train routes. Andy said there is already a ton of existing rail line.
Set it up like the highway system was set up in the 50's. Have every state connect or build all the rails b/t major towns and cities, then have hubs in all the cardinal areas of a state ie NWSE that would serve to transport people b/t states...
throw in a couple speed trains and i could be in durham in an hour!
HELLOOOO...how cool would this be?
No driving, just riding. looking out the window, having a drink....
This would also create jobs for all these people who would have to work on these projects...
Andy already did one project for a high speed rail that would go all over the triangle...I am not sure if this actual train will ever run, but the state sure did pay to have all the land surveyed.

...and I said I was not going to get political...hee hee.

this is my last week day of freedom!!! back to the rat race on Monday,
Ay que stress!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

a bone to pick

I have been cleaning my house this morning.
It is so enjoyable to me to clean! While i have cleaned i have found things in closets that need to be hung on the walls. fun. When we move into a new place I don't immediately hang all the stuff up. It goes in waves. i do a little. then i find another stash of stuff i love to look at, and get excited, and hang it up.
ANYWAY.
While I was cleaning I was venting to myself.
We have a LOT of right-wing radio here. gag.
sometimes i just take a listen, just to hear what the dumba$$es are up to that day.
the other day lar@ ingr@ham was talking about immigration. Of course she was blaming all the crime in TExas on illegal immigrants...of course.

When I hear these types of arguments i want to choke the people making them.
have some compassion people!
The biggest thing LI has to worry about is how to dye her hair blond enough that she will still look 23 when she is 50!


What if she were illiterate, living in a house with a dirt floor, a husband who has no work, and about four children running around??? (she probably would not have four b/c she probably would have opted for an illegal abortion, which i am sure she is against), her kids were hungry all day, the two smallest ones had dirty rag diapers that she had to hike her dumb ass to a stream to wash, and then one baby is sick all the time and then she gets pregnant again!

hmmmm would she hire an attorney at the local down town to draw up some legal paperwork so that she and her sweet little family could move to the good ole u.s.?
i doubt it, b/c she would not have the money to BUY ANY FU**ING FOOD!!
would she fill it out herself, no, b/c she would not be able to FU**ING READ IT!!

she would probably wake up one morning and decide that she was going to cross the border illegally with her children and her husband, so that they would be able to EAT!--and probably move to a trailer from 1954 with some plywood floor with holes in it that is cold as ice in the winter time.

have some compassion!

These same people that go on and on about immigration etc. probably sit in church every sunday and talk about jesus loving everyone, turn the other cheek, love thy neighbor as thyself...bigots! hypocrites!

I do agree that there should be immigration laws etc. of fu**ing course i do, but am i an immigration agent? no. am i a legislator? no. do i want to be an evil bitch and treat people unkindly and rant and rave constantly about how terrible they are and all the problems they cause, when in all actually if i were in their shoes i would do the EXACT SAME THING THEY DID? NO!

okay, enough venting....i am off to hang some more pictures! :)

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Pale pink


Several years ago my friend Sara told me (after I obsessed about them) that if I found a glider she would bring her husband's truck to pick it up.
I found one at the raleigh flea market.
It was --pretty rough looking.
Andy and I painted it, sort of. It was forest green, even though I SAID I WANTED IT TO BE PINK FROM THE BEGINNING!!
Well, the green paint all peeled off anyway, the glider itself wanted to be pink, i think.
When we moved all of our stuff to this house Andy's uncle was pretty critical of my "junky glider" he basically hated it!, and you might think who the h*ll cares what his uncle thinks? ..his uncle is a co-landlord :) (cheeky smile).
So, in order to solve this problem of my "junky glider" my mama suggested that my daddy's buddy paint it! :)
I got out my pale pink paint sample, and off the glider went, to the shop, where it was carefully stripped and re-painted.
the color of paint was matched from a favorite beach cottage of mine, it is almost not even pink, reminds me of salt-water taffy.

I am absolutely thrilled about my glider now! ...I wonder what Uncle Fred is gonna think???
Do I care?--ya'll know the answer to that one. :)

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Out on the town

Tonight we went to Greenville...the closest college town.

Can anyone hear the old-west, ghost town music playing?
We heard gangsta rap, b/c this foto was taken outside the wings bar. hee hee.
incidentally, the only thing open, that happened to have an excellent outside seating area, always nice when victor is in tow.
the waitress was super nice and gave us to go beers. yay!
yes i type in all lowercase, lazy + beer.
We went to hear
the Steep C@nyon R@ngers. Andy's friends'/roomates from college band.
We met up with cousins:



The kids had a great time dancing..ojala que pudiera poner un video aqui! but i don't want to use &t&be.



This is what Victor made for me at the restaurant:



We came home with two happy/tired children, one of whom screamed the entire way home, (bethany, it apparently does not stop). :)

Now, let's see if this post gets up here the way i have intended....
ay que masterpiece!
:)

good night ya'll.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

yard work

This afternoon I took the children and went to the fish store and to the dump and to the grocery store.
When I got home Andy and his mom were in the yard doing yard work.
Andy informed me that he talked to his mom and told her that I don't want her to do our laundry or any more organizing in our house.
The next time we travel, I will leave some messages in my drawers, as reminders.
:)
and on the washing machine. :)
I was inside cooking some yummy shrimp and making a tinto del verano when I heard the neighbor's child--who is very dramatic--screaming to the top of her lungs..
as the crew got closer to the back door I realized that Elena was screaming and so was Victor.
Tristen was stung.
Elena was stung--with a bee clinging onto her..
Victor was participating the way that 16 month olds do.
Andy was stung.
Nana was fine.

So, we got everyone to calm down.
Then Andy began to break out in hives. He took a ben@dry!, but he continued to swell up.
When his eyes began to swell shut and his upper lip was huge and as tight as a drum, we decided that Nana should take him to the hospital.
YIKES!
He apparently was allergic to the ground bees that swarmed when he was digging up an old bush--they were mad, and rightly so, their home has never been disturbed in such a manner.
So, I continued to cook supper, and when he got back from the hospital, he ate it.
:)
It was one of his favorite meals :(.

Kn*cked ^p

In the movie Kn*cked ^p, the husband of the sister says something like, marriage is like an episode of EVEry bod^ L*ve$ Raym*nd, only that show only lasts 20 minutes, and it is funny, and marriage lasts forever...
I am not sure if ya'll watch that show, but the source of my anger right now is very much like something that would happen in that show.
When Andy and I went out of town his mama stayed at our house to keep our children. While we were gone she decided to do laundry (there was none in the hamper). She went around and "organized and cleaned," then in order to put all of the stuff away, SHE WENT THROUGH ALL OF MY DRESSER DRAWERS AND RE-FOLDED ALL OF MY CLOTHES!!! I cannot believe anyone who is 6? years old would not know any better, I mean who goes to another adult's house and goes through their stuff????? WTF???
I am super mad.
I don't even want anyone to do my laundry--that is why the hamper was left empty.
I don't even like for other people to clean up my house!!!!

Andy will not say anything.
And as we all know, southerners are pretty non-confrontational about things, so I cannot just tell her, "look, when you come to my house---do not clean up, I don't want you to, b/c it pisses me off."--now i would say that to my own mama, in a heartbeat.

What to do???
PS--I think I really am exploding...i have a terrible pain in my ribs...
AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Friday, August 8, 2008

misc.

So,

Tonight we watched the opening ceremony of the olympics.
Of course, when i say we...I mean everyone.
Victor and Elena both woke up and wanted to watch with us.
Elena's question: "do dey eat popcorn?"
Victor's preoccupation, drinking a glass of ice water without
HELP FROM ANYONE.

My favorite parts:
the printing press moved by people
the boat dance
it was all wonderful to me, and amazing.

So,

I have been ill today...
i will not divulge in a blog the source of my anger, but I am really ill, and I have a temper, and in this particular case, the temper must quell itself, which makes me feel like i could explode!!!

Grammar:
i wish everyone who writes and talks in public had to acknowledge that a couple is ONE THING. a pair, is ONE THING...
so, the couple is planning to blah blah blah...the couple was seen blah blah blahing...NOT..the couple were or the pair were.
and nauseATED vs. nauseous...
I guess other people..the majority of people have not read The Elements of Style, or maybe they were not listening in GRAMMAR class.
YUCK.

whatever...
I am ill..

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

how cool...

would it be if some smart company offered to publish blogs for people
in a hard copy format, i mean.
my mama is only 60--but to her the internet is nothing.
if she cannnot hold it in her hand, it is crap to her, even though her eyes lit up when she looked at my blog.
she still types letters on an old timey typewriter.
soooo...some smart company could offer to publish them.
in a cover.
slide shows could be expanded to a strip of pictures.
music--well that would just have to be listed, and that would send the person off on a quest to find that song, which for my mama would mean to a record shop--jkidding
it could have the same colors etc, and one would only publish it at the end of a certain cycle, whatever that might be.
For example, maryellen just totally changed hers...the old one is still up here.
how cool would it be if she could order it, published in book?

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Our morning

By nine oclock in the morning we have already:
Read books
Had a pancake feast
Played beauty shop
Played blocks
taken care of bathroom business
changed the diaper
are in the middle of playing dress-up
Whew....

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Interference

If you do not know me--then please do not even bother to comment on my page.
It is irksome, to be honest. I am doing this as a release, and to have something that my friends and family can see....
So, whoever that was that left the comment on my previous post, please respect my privacy--Hey, all I can do is ask.
If anyone who knows me and uses blogspot knows how I can prevent this--unknown folks commenting--I would appreciate tips.
:)

Mountain Trip

yay! We're back!
Andy and I left on Thursday for a get-a-way. We have not done this since Victor was born! It was really fun.
Thursday we went into Chapel Hill to the brewery to get some half gallons of beer. Yum.

Then we traveled to Tryon, NC--which is one of the cutest places I have ever been. It looks like somewhere right out of a picture book!
We stayed in a round house with Jay and Jessica. This was my first time meeting both of them. (Jay is a work buddy of Andy)

I really enjoyed meeting both of them. Very fun.
Friday morning we woke up with our hangovers in tow, and went to Asheville.
We walked around and got some yummy food to cure the hangover.
Asheville was alright.....
Then, Friday in the afternoon we headed off to Brevard--outside of Brevard--to Woody's camp out place on the west fork of the French Broad river.
This is an absolutely beautiful spot!!
We played in the water, and drank beer,& mimosas AKA mood lifters, (thank you Shannon) and hung out doing whatever felt relaxing. This is an annual thing for all of Andy's old college buddies, and their wives/girlfriends, kids, dogs, llamas etc. and people they know now...it's just a big camp-out party.
the pictures I put up here never end up where they are supposed to, so these might all be at the top. :)
The other picture is of a beer we ordered in Columbia, NC while we were waiting for Jay and Jessica, I asked for Large, and Large is what I got!




So then this morning Andy and I got up with our slight hangovers and aching bones (from sleeping on the ground), and went with Josh out to eat breakfast, then we rode to Statesville to meet up with my friend Morgan! I have not seen her since she gave birth in January, so this meant I also have never met her sweet pea, Gabriel.
He is sooooo cute!! and he was sweet the entire time we were eating lunch.


After we left Statesville we headed to Burlington to the Carter's outlet to buy all of my childrens' clothes for the fall/winter. I like to go there one time, buy all the sh**, and then not think about clothes for them anymore. I can do it in about 20minutes...five pants, six shirts, some panties and undershirt, pajamas, and out!
Ya!

Well, Elena informed me as soon as we walked in the door, that she is sleeping with us tonight, "in the first place." --translation, don't even put me in my bed first and say you will come to get me if I cry--just put me in your bed first.

Spot on!

Spot is our family's chihuahua.  He is what we call, "an evil dictator/stuffed animal come to life".  Sometimes, after he has ...