Good morning, DDA!
Amy and Tom and Chanon - I think I forgot to say that I am very glad that things are much better for you all now, as far as cleanup and power being restored. Poor Jennifer and Kyle! We had to deal with massive power outages during an ice storm in Ohio about 21 years ago. I hope it doesn't take them as long to restore Jennifer's power. We finally moved into a hotel in Dayton for a week!!
that Jennifer gets her power back on soon!
Thanks, everyone, for your concern. I actually slept really well last night. I only had to get up once to go to the bathroom!!!
The biggest problem now is the constantly aching back! Nothing helps, so I'm just trying to find ways to deal with it.
Other than that, things are going really well. Katie is being a huge help, fixing dinner for me, as I recline on the couch and tell her what to do. She's been a bit of a pill lately, so it's nice to see the soft side of her again. She's going out of town with Alan this weekend for some one on one time. Hopefully that will sweeten her disposition even more.
I am sorry to hear about your back. Yay for Katie!
stop the stupid merry go round I want to get off.
I am tired of still having to rob Peter to pay Paul and still not paying everything, telling the girls "no" to nearly everything. I am tired of hating my job, tired of being unhappy. I am tired of crying, I am tired of putting on a happy face.
In essence I am just tired. Thank goodness the trip is already paid for and is nonrefundable or I would have been tempted, for a second, to cancel it
I had to get that off my chest...don't feel better yet but maybe I will later.
I wish that there were something that I could do to help. I am glad that you get to run away for a little while.
I found a new recipe that was a hit for the whole family.
STIR-FRIED BEEF TERIYAKI
1 lb. boneless lean beef (chuck, round or flank)
3 tbsp. soy sauce
2 tbsp. honey
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. minced fresh ginger root or 1/8 tsp. powdered ginger
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
2 tbsp. salad oil
1. With sharp knife, cut meat across grain into 1/8 inch thick slices.
2. Mix soy sauce, honey, sherry, ginger and garlic in bowl. Add beef and mix to coat pieces well. Let stand 15 minutes. Drain but reserve liquid.
3. Heat oil in wok or wide frying pan over high heat. When hot, add half the meat and stir fry about 2-3 minutes until browned. Repeat for the second batch of meat.
4. Transfer to serving dish. Add reserved marinade to pan. Heat to boiling. Stir then pour over meat.
I served this over rice and also sauted some onions, carrots, and sugar snap peas to mix with the beef. Yum!
That does sound yummy! I will write this down. I've been in a bit of a rut with dinners lately.
That is NOT what I wanted to hear!!!
The stuff she had tonight was something I could handle, thank goodness. But I think they need to send home cheat sheets for the parents.
I'm sorry, but it does get better. Really Laura only has homework drama once every couple of weeks now. It really peaked in 7th grade which has been the worst homework year for both her and Matthew so far. For some reason, they really pile it on in 7th grade. Or at least that one particular team did. She and Matthew were on the same team for 7th grade. I think there were times that she moaned and complained and cried about how she was too stupid to do an assignment longer than the assignment actually took her once she started it. (And her grades showed that she wasn't too stupid to do it.
) She was relegated to her room for the moaning, complaining, crying part and given any encouragement/help needed once she was in the calmer, working part. That seemed to do the trick.
We do get math cheat sheets here this year. Would you like me to forward ours on to you.
Welcome Dana!
I'm Amy (age 36), a very sleep-deprived mother of three (Alyssa, age 4; Matthew aka Matty, age 2; and Noah, 2 1/2 months). I've been a SAHM for four years, and I hold a degree in secondary communications education (I taught high school for nine years before Alyssa came along). I'm married to Kevin (age 37) who recently tore a calf muscle coaching Alyssa's soccer team. He's employed as a county prosecutor and he's also president of our city council. We live 15 miles north of Cincinnati.
I wish I knew Robyn in real life, too! She and I could go into the cake-making business!
Ooooh! Can I come help with the cake decorating, too?! I can specialize in the chocolate cake with the raspberry white chocolate cream cheese filling and cheesecakes.
Does anyone want a husband? I am sure you don't but thought I'd ask anyway! Every thing he is doing is just aggravating me to pieces but tonight at dinner I'd thought I'd have to choke him. Over what, you ask? Mashed potatoes and butter. Eric cooked dinner- meatloaf, mashed potatoes and broccoli. Emma or Molly asked for butter and his response was "There's no need for it do without" UGH, why is it a big deal. Go get the butter and put it on their potatoes and even broccoli if they wanted. For crying out loud who eats plain mashed potatoes! Stupid, huh?!?
Oh, I already have one of those! He also thinks that you don't need butter for corn on the cob (though I've learned to love it plain, too). He now just gets a death look from me, and the kids get their butter. They don't overdo it.
Tuna Pizza sounds good. I haven't made that in a while...I'll have to add premade pizza crust to my shopping list (and tuna and onion and cheese...)
...oh yeah I got a box from Cinci today!
(you guys tired of boxes yet?!)
I can never get tired of boxes!
OK, 7th grade is NOT GOOD. DS came home and said he had no homework. Which is true if you spin it the right way. DS has like 5 different things due Friday, and none of them are finished.
Two of them were just assigned today, 2 of them are things that are due every Friday (reading log and summaries of 2 TV news stories), and one is a HUGE project that isn't due until next month but the directions are very confusing.
He has to make a brochure (like the one from last year, but without directions!). The stupid brochure counts as a project grade in ALL OF HIS CORE CLASSES! He can work with a partner, but DS isn't clear on whether or not they can work on it at school. He also hasn't firmed up WHO his partner will be, but the 2 he named are good choices. The directions say something about 4 pages. OK, so, like a whole 8x11 page?
That's not a brochure where I come from. And DS has no clue, because that's how he rolls.
Is it June yet? I really need it to be June now.
As mentioned earlier, 7th grade was our worst year. I hope that it gets better for you and ds.
Robyn - he seriously needs to just give them butter!
Thanks to everyone for the many welcomes! For those of you who asked, I am 33 yrs old (turning 34 during my upcoming DW trip), married to a great husband (Robyn's kindergarten boyfriend I might add), and have 2 DD - Sydney, 5 yrs
and Katelyn 2 yrs
. I'm a elementary math resource teacher, which basically means I travel to about 12 schools in my county helping teachers be better math teachers!
It is a thankless job right now, as we've just adopted a new math program and everyone's struggling. I taught 4th grade for several years and miss it but this job gives me lots of flexibility, a great boss, and good experience should I decide to use my hard-earned master's degree and go into adminstration.
As for Disney, we typically go to DW every other year in the blistering hot days of July or August, since that's when I'm off work. This year, I've managed to convince DH to go at Christmas. So, we're leaving on Black Friday and driving to DW, unless airfare prices go down. We're staying at CBR. We stayed there in 2007 and loved it so we decided to go there again. As Robyn said, my 5 year old doesn't know about the trip yet. I'm trying to find a good way to tell her but without a holiday or birthday coming, I'm stumped.
I'll take suggestions!!! I told the 2 year old but only because I couldn't stand keeping it a secret any longer and, since she can't really tell her sister, the secret is still safe.
I think that about covers it. Again, thanks to everyone for the welcome. I'll try to keep up but I'm already overwhelmed at the number of posts here.
Dana
Once again, welcome! We have a new elementary math program that started last year...Everyday math. Personally, I hate it. I don't do well with change, but I also honestly think that I have valid, logical reasons for hating this program. Fortunately, Miles is much more adaptable than I am, and he is having no problems with it. There were plenty of students who did, since they completely changed they way they were adding and regrouping. I think they have renamed regrouping again, too, but I can't remember what it's called now (I grew up with "carrying" and "borrowing".) I'm not even going to get into the complex matrix that they have to draw when they want to multiply numbers. Oh, well...you didn't ask for a rant! What I wanted to say, was I think that your new job is definitely an important one! I know that there were (and maybe still are) teachers struggling with these changes, too.
I took my younger two to WDW this summer. It was kind of a surprise trip. I told Laura (14 turning 15) a couple of months before the trip. She loves the planning and anticipation, and I didn't want to take that from her. For her, I made a photo album of our previous trip. At the end, I had a page that told her that we were going again in August. I gave it to her on one of the Regents days at the end of June when she was the only child home. We told Miles a couple of days before the trip. Complete surprises tend to throw my kids for a loop, and I also wanted to give him a little time to come to terms with the fact that dh and my oldest weren't going with us. For him we made up a treasure hunt (he has always loved hunts) where the clues lead him to scrambled words that he had to unscramble and then put together into a sentence: "Miles, Laura, and Mommy are going to Disney World on Wednesday." He loved it, and never questioned why he was getting a treasure hunt out of the blue.
I bow to your manipulative powers! 
I'm excited that they are part of SSR as that is our home resort and we can book at the 11 month window 
I just got used to the regrouping!
