inch by inch

Since we last checked back in October (15th) the kiddo has grown almost an inch. He’s pretty happy with himself.

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As you can see miss CC was being pathetic in the second picture. I wanted a picture her in it next to him to show how much she’s grown too, but he didn’t smile the first go round so we had to try again. Second go round when I told her to stay she plopped herself down and sulked. She thinks camera’s are full of silliness… she wanted to play!

That’s the store of the two pictures to show his growing (vs the usual one). In the end her sulking caused him to laugh and that gave me the shiny smile I was looking for. See dogs do come in handy!

Dear Santa

“No mom you CAN’T keep it, we have to put it up on the window so Santa can see it and remember!”

On the front a short but very sincere letter. On the back a pictorial representation of what he wants Santa to bring him this year. The Astro Boy movie (that’s Astro boy gracing the cover of a dvd case). A Bumble Bee remote control car (from transformers), and a “big guy” ( in Star Wars the huge all terrain robots that help the bad guys attack the rebel base on Hoth).

Do you think one out of three is good enough?

Thoughts on the future

If you were going to go back to college and get a degree what would you get it in?

I've been thinking quite a bit over the past few years about getting my butt back into school and getting a degree in something. I want to be more marketable then I currently am, and I don't want to feel trapped by my circumstances. I CAN go get a job, I can charm my way into retail pretty much anywhere (says the egocentric part of myself) but I don't think I can compete to get a "real" job with real pay and real benefits. Not in today's economy.

The reason I keep thinking about it, but not doing it, is the cost. Do I really want to take on student loans? Will I even qualify for them? Can I get grants? Can we use the Man's GI bill to help pay for it? SHOULD we use the Mans GI bill to help pay for it?...

Anyway I finally realized something, doing nothing doesn't help at all, if I'd figured all this out two years ago when I first started thinking about it I would have it DONE. I really need to start the process. I need to apply for grants and see if I qualify to get some. Find out about the GI bill and see how much it helps. Find out how many of my credits will transfer to whatever school I decide to go too.

The other big decision is do I go to a physical school (state university etc) or do I go to an online school. The latter would probably be cheaper, and a lot easier to schedule... but would it mean as much to employers?

Anyway that is what I spent my morning doing; Requesting my transcript, getting my federal student aid pin (for when I apply for it), finding a few schools and requesting information from them.

Oh and degree? I'm thinking Business/Accounting it seems like the best 'universal' degree I can get, and I enjoy working with numbers. Maybe with that degree I can get a banker job or an office accounting type job.

What do you think?

Trees and more trees

On Friday, as planned, we went to the Tree Festival… We started by looking at the really big ‘gingerbread’ house fronts. The Kiddo loved them, he gets really excited with the idea of making cookie houses that he can eat. I might have to try to get motivated enough to dig up my gingerbread recipe.

The Kiddo’s favorite trees all had trains under then. He told me several times how we really should get our own train to go around our tree because it would be so cool to have.

Of course there was a huge dinosaur Tree with display, and he did spend quite a bit of time looking at it. It really was very neat with the big dinosaur skeletons, books, ‘fossils’ etc.

I had three favorite trees. One that had a whole village underneath. One that was a swan lake tree (so pretty, I couldn’t get a good picture of the swans AND the tree though). And one that was a snowman tree (which I thought was super cute, I wouldn’t mind having a tree looking like that).

We walked for about three hours, the Kiddo’s legs were sooo tired by the end that he just wanted to sit down and rest. But we saw it all, and I think we got our $15 worth out of it. This is the third year in a row that we’ve gone and I think that makes it count as a Christmas tradition. It’s a good one.

Of course there were a hundred other trees and a couple rows of real gingerbread houses. I put the rest of the pictures into a quick slide show.

Tree Festival 2010 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Questionable ...

Have any of you heard about the California house filled with explosives? I guess they caught the guy, searched his house, and found piles of the stuff. So now, because the place is also full of junk, (and that makes it "dangerous getting the explosives out") they plan to just burn the place down.

I don't think that sounds like such a bright idea. If it's to dangerous to remove the explosives then I seriously doubt they did a full inventory (who knows what random fancy 'go boom' stuff is in there). Sounds to me more like they removed and dealt with a couple loads of the stuff and then somebody said "you know, at this rate this is gonna take forever and be darned expensive... we should just burn it all and see what happens..."

Of course I have no idea about this stuff so I'm probably talking out my who-si-whatsit...

Mmmmm Co....ffee?

Throughout adulthood I’ve been a participant in more then a few “coffee tastes like crap” conversations. I will give it as far as the fact burnt coffee smells and tastes horrible, and that while I can drink black coffee I much prefer it with cream and sugar. If I could live on starbucks mocha cappuccinos I would. But then I’d be the size of a whale and a little less happy with life…

Anyway… what if there was a universe in which we could get our caffeine jump start some other way? What if that way was as easy to do as coffee and as warm and comforting on a half asleep headache filled colder then dirt cranky morning…

What if there was a such thing as Caffeinated Coco!! Oh wait, there is… and it’s probably a really good thing that I can’t find it within myself to spend the money on it. I don’t think I’d stop at just one cup…

Ugg

It has always been my belief that ugg boots are ugly... I’ve never understood why people clunk around in them all winter (AND summer sometimes) and think they look fashion forward and cute. They don’t. I have yet to see a pair I’d spend 12 bucks on let alone anything more then that.

Shockingly this morning, the foundation of my universe was shaken, I saw a couple types of ugg boots that are actually very own-able!* I want *wistful sigh* I’ll take the first pair in black, and the second in brown (never was big on brown suede in shoes, but brown leather looks great)

*assuming of course you have a boat load of extra money and don’t mind plunking down 300 bucks for a pair of boots.

** btw for those of you who always ask where to buy stuff I post... the photo's are links (Lady D).

King again?

I had a dream last night that I was a horrible parent. The kiddo was supposed to be doing some special project in school and I was supposed to be there helping him do it. But I didn’t know about the project so neither of us was prepared. We couldn’t find the class (they weren’t in the classroom) and as we walked around trying to find them he kept looking at me asking where they were and why he didn’t have the treats and papers he was supposed to have.

All of this probably caused by the fact that today the Kiddo gets to be king again. I know that some of the other parents go into the class to help out when it’s their kids turn to be king/queen. And sometimes they bring treats for the class to have. I’m not that motivated (other peoples kids make me nervous), and I feel guilty about it.

Anyway the Kiddo came home yesterday with a new “king for the day” paper. This time it was attached to a Christmas stocking. The directions said that he is supposed to pick an object to put in the sock, then he is to write down clues to help the other kids try and guess what his object is.

He picked his zu-zu pet, Nugget. He wrote down four clues. 1 – it starts with a z. 2 – it is orange and white. 3 - it rolls. 4 – and it talks.

I don’t think any of the kids will guess, hopefully he has fun doing it.

Nothing

No real post this afternoon. Instead I spent a bit writing my Grandma an email/letter. I am proud to say that I have, so far, achieved my two letters a week goal. I'm hoping the pictures I send aren't draining her printer ink too quickly.

But I do have a quick story to tell..

The Kiddo woke up late this morning, around 10. He ran to me, gave me a hug and immediately asked where we were going to go today after school. I told him that I didn't have any plans to go anywhere.

Him: But we have to go somewhere, we have to take a trip..

Me: A trip? Where do you want to go?

Him: To Arizona to see Grannie, and have Christmas.

Me: Well we can't go see Grannie today, Christmas isn't for four more weeks AND you have school...

Him: Oh, well can we take the trip in four weeks then?

Me: uh, probably not... it costs a lot to travel that far you know. What would you do with Grannie anyway?

Him: I had a dream that I was driving with her. You know on that game with the steering wheel, and I was winning!!

So there you have it folks. The Kiddo is dreaming about visiting Arizona so he can play on the Nintendo Wii with his Grannie and beat her at mario cart. He's got lofty aspirations for a five year old.