Give Me an A! (For type-A, that is.)

OK, so I'm a control freak.

A control freak with perfectionist tendencies.

This is why everyone always wanted me in their group for group projects in school.

It's also why I never wanted to be in a group and wanted to do all the work myself.

It's also why many people ended up with excellent grades after I did most of the group work and let them pass it off as their own.

So when Kendall came home with a project two weeks ago, I was stoked.  I live for school projects.  Of course, she did not share my enthusiasm.  And now, here we are, 3 days prior to D Day (Due day) and the project is only half complete.

It kills me.

And even more, it kills me the choice she made for presentation.

Mrs. Chapman gave the kids all these awesome, artsy choices.

"Make a collage." (Love it!)  "Make a poster."  (I love posters!)  "Make mobile." (Oh, we could use a coat hanger ...)  "Make a 3D representation." (I think I have a ladybug Beanie Baby downstairs!)  And my favorite words ... "Do what ever you want to show the life cycle of a plant or animal."

Wow! The possibilities were endless.  I saw hours of cricut cutting and gluing and layering and artsy-craftsy stuff.

And what did my child choose?

She chose the PowerPoint presentation.

Ugh.

I love PowerPoint and all, but do you know how hard it is to "guide your child in the completion of his or her project" when they are working on your very expensive Apple computer?  Aside from the fact that K has never used PowerPoint, I also had to help her find pictures online, save them, and read a book (I wouldn't let her do any research online) about the life cycle of a ladybug.

Oh, yeah, I didn't mention that.  Of all the things in the world she could have chosen that would have been so incredibly interesting (I was campaigning for penguin ...), she chose a bug.  A beetle, at that.  It makes for pretty pictures, but it sure is blah-blah boring.

Anyway, we started working on her slides yesterday.  It was very difficult for me to hand over the keyboard, mouse, and computer chair.  Then she tried to force the thumb drive into the wrong hole upside down, and I almost lost it.  But we got 3 slides completed with text, title, and clip art.

And we both survived.

Yes, I'm a control freak.

I own it.

The Gift of Sight

Or insight, really.

Some of you have heard me speak of the dilemma surrounding an early August birthday for our little Bug.  His birthday is August 4th, which means he is YOUNG for the first week of school.  In preK, it wasn't that big a deal.  They started a week later, so he actually had his 4th birthday the weekend before school began.  For kindergarten, T was actually 4 years old for the first week of school.  It was crazy to think that my little baby was headed off into big kid school.

So now, 5 months into kindergarten, Tim and I are looking at our options for next year.  While T was absolutely ready to leave Child's Play and head into elementary school, we aren't completely sure he is ready to take the next step to first grade.  In fact, I scheduled a conference with Tanner's teacher 2 weeks ago to discuss the possibility of holding him back for another year in kindergarten.  I wanted to get her thoughts on it, seeing as how she 1) has been teaching kindergarten for 25 years, and 2) she has 3 boys of her own that are older now and she has been through this.

You see, boys and girls are so different.  Duhhh, right?  But academically my two children are polar opposites.  Kendall is self-motivated and independent, where Tanner needs constant supervision.  I don't think a day went by for the first 3 weeks of school that he didn't come home with a new hole in his shirt (from his scissors) or that he didn't have paint/marker all over his clothes.  He wants to have someone helping him along the way.  So that is the biggest thing about first grade that frightens me -- the children go from sitting at tables and working together almost all of the time to sitting at real desks and working on their own.

Anyway, after talking to Mrs. Porrier, I had a talk with Tanner about how he really needed to try harder ... his coloring is all over the place and his handwriting is terrible.

Do you know what he told me?

"Mommy, I can't color the small pictures because I can't see them."

Gulp.  I guess I won't be getting the Mommy-of-the-Year award this year.  Again.

When he went for his check up at the beginning of the year, our pediatrician told me that his sight was "good enough to pass for now."  I suppose it has gotten much worse with all the stress of focusing at school.  Because now my little man is practically blind.

Awesome.

So I took him to the eye doc last week, and she informed me that his sight is so bad that we'll have to ease him into the prescription he needs.  So we'll do this scrip for 6 weeks, and then go back and bump him up.

Yes, it's that bad.

However, I'm hoping this new vision he has acquired (he looks a things so differently now ...) will help with his academics.  I really don't want him to have to repeat kindergarten ...

But I guess that's what this parenting thing is all about.

We make the hard decision now so our kids will have it easier in the future.

As a side not, he looks super cute in his glasses. ;)

A worthless post, really.

But I know some can relate.

On today's mission -- taming the hair.

If you are blessed enough to have "good" hair, consider yourself extremely lucky.  Not a day goes by that I don't have to wash (for fear of greasiness), round brush (for fear of waves and curls), and flat iron (for fear of frizzies) my hair.

Not. A. Day.

When a day does occur and I don't have to maintain the beast, bless you if you have to see it.

Kendall said it best this morning.  "Mommy, I hope I don't have hair like yours when I'm a mommy.  I mean, it's pretty when you fix it, but, man ... when you don't ..."

Yep.  You said it, girlie.

Don't get me wrong.  On a "good" hair day, I'm smokin' hot. ;) I get tons of compliments on my hair cut (done by none other than Linda Lillie for the past 5 years), and I love my hair.

When it cooperates.

When it's not raining.

And when there is 0 humidity.

In fact, cold dry days work best for my hair.  Well, as long as I don't brush up against anything that may create static.

But that's a whole other issue (Picture the science experiment where you put your hands on the crystal-ball thing and your hair stands up ...)

Anyway, I'm trying to grow the mop out right now.  I've been a few months without a cut, and it's killing me.  Anyone who has tried to grow a semi-short cut out to a long-enough-for-a-ponytail cut knows that there is a period of time called "the ugly phase."  It's that point where it's too long to be called short and, therefor, sits on your neck, creating waves of heat throughout the day.  But it's also still too short to be put up in a pony or pulled through the back so you don't look like a boy when wearing a ball cap.

Winter is not a good time for this growing phase because the heater is always on or I'm always wearing a jacket, leading to even more sweat.  Yuck.

Also, it takes a bit longer to create that glossy glow that everyone is so fond of.

And on days like today (foggy, humid), it is impossible to maintain any sort of straight, frizz-free do.

So today, while I'm glad to have it, I hate my hair.

(See ... it does a body good to have some worthless rants every now and then.)

New Year's Resolutions

I hate them.

But every single, cotton-picking year, I make them.

Usually, I stick to them longer than your average Joe.  And usually they have something to do with looking better, eating better, working out more, etc.

But this year I'm making a resolution, well two really, that will make me feel better.  I hope.

And perhaps they will make others around me feel better as well.

#1: Be nicer to my children.  I have become the most impatient, intolerant mom with my kids lately.  I'm down right grumpy, actually.  So I'm going to try extra hard to listen, focus, and not multi-task when I'm with them.  If they need help with something, I will stop and help them.  They will only be little for so long ... they are half-way to 3rd and 1st grades ... and I feel like time is passing so quickly with them now.  Very rarely does K want anything to do with her momma ... which I thought wouldn't happen until she was much older.  Tanner still likes having me around, but he is stuck halfway between being "mommy's baby" and being "daddy's big boy."  And he can't decide which way he wants to lean most of the time.  Bless his little heart.

So I am going to spend every day of the next year being a better mommy to my kids.

Or at lead I'm going to try.

#2:  My reason for writing this right now.  I'm going to start blogging again.  I realize time has again gotten away from me ... so many things have happened in the last six months, both good and bad, and most people have only gotten snippets from Facebook status updates.  So I'm going to start writing again.  Maybe it will help me get my creative juices flowing again.  Or at least I can share all the awesome projects Tim and I have been doing around the house!  Or I can vent and get some feedback from some other people.  Either way, I'm going to start blogging again.

Not every day, mind you.  But I'm going to try.

So there they are.  My New Year's Resolutions for 2012.  Completely unrelated to weight loss.

Hopefully that will make them easier to maintain!! ;)