It’s been a week now since the kids went back to school. Not enough time to catch up with the flurry of activity that accompanies this time of year, but enough time to get a few thoughts together.

The budget crackdown in CA is really hurting our schools. It was kind of a given that education would be a big target since it accounts for roughly half of the general fund expenditures, but the reality on the ground really sucks. Ana’s kindergarten teacher was doing reading recovery the last few years to help ensure that the lowest-achieving first graders could catch up before it was too late. This year funding was cut so she’s back in the classroom. Quite a few teachers are in different grades from last year, some of them covering for those who were laid off. Class sizes are up school-wide. Our school’s Community Club, which was already responsible for donating much of the school’s computer equipment, chairs for the multi-purpose room, and emergency supplies over just the last few years, is asking for even more donations this year to cover further cutbacks.

Angie gets ready to go back to school

Angie is back in daycare after two idyllic months home with mama. She’s very advanced for her age, having started her Terrible Twos(tm) weeks ago. Her preferred method of ending a sip of any liquid is to hurl the container as far as she can. It turns out that those covered sippy cups either leak horribly when upside-down and/or their lids come off entirely when dropped. We’ve tried a few different kinds but for the moment we’re stuck sitting next to her and playing shortstop to avoid having to clean up massive milk puddles.

Her latest tricks are saying “uh uh” and nodding for yes and “unh” and shaking her head for no. She’s a climber, though thankfully not quite as much as her big sister. She can get on and off the sofa safely, but tends to avoid scary things like standing on tables, arms of chairs, etc. We’ve caught her with little Lego parts in her mouth once or twice but to be fair, I think she was hungry at the time.

See Daddy? I can do it myself.

Julie goes back to work tomorrow. She probably has 1.5 months of work to catch up on that built up during her 2 months ‘off’ during the summer. We’ve spent the last few days before she heads back pondering things like: How can we streamline bathing the kids? Do we really care if the cars aren’t washed until next July? and When exactly are we going to fit in grocery trips?

This promises to be an extra busy year as we’re both headed back to school as well. I’m looking forward to my MPA classes, as well as the interdisciplinary coursework I’ll be taking in Education. We spent yesterday getting an old desk back down from the rafters in the garage and assembling it in the study for Alex. We now have full-time work space for everybody but Angie, and I’m building a second computer for the kids. It’s not going to be practical having them share one any more as Alex is being expected to do more online research and type up his papers.

OK, bye!

Categories: angie, kids and parenting, school, work-life balance
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In the Disney movie, Lilo and Stitch, when the social worker Cobra Bubbles asks Lilo, “Are you… happy?”, the little girl responds with an awkward open-mouthed smile. Lately, baby Angie and I have been enjoying a private joke in which one of us smiles like awkward Lilo, and the other responds in kind. Sometimes we stand in front of the mirror and make the face together. It’s our secret handshake.

For months, the fish tank in the kids’ room has been empty except for a Golden Mystery Snail, which has grown alarmingly large. The other day I bought 2 Red Clawed Crabs to keep the snail company. Little animal lover Ana has been faithfully feeding them each one shrimp pellet every night. I think the snail wishes they would just go away, but I’m sure it can take care of itself.

Alex and I have been watching episodes of Gilmore Girls together on DVD. He finds Lorelei Gilmore hilarious and runs out of the room during the makeout scenes. I wish I were a Lorelei, but unfortunately I’m more of a Paris Gellar.

Have you seen the order form for Star Trek t-shirts on select boxes of cereal and cracker products at the grocery store? I’ve got enough tokens to order Kevin and Alex each a shirt. They both want blue.

With only 1 week left until I return to the office, I’m finally making some headway on the work I brought home with me at the start of summer. I would allow myself to exhale, but with the amount of knocking on wood I’d have to do, I’d rub my knuckles bloody.

Categories: TV, angie, kids and parenting, pets, work-life balance
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Kevin and I both going back to school + temporary pay cuts for both of us, courtesy of the California state budget = It’s going to be hard the next 12 months. Really, really hard.

I’ve been working on my coupon queen skills as well as my cooking skills. So far I’ve had great luck with creating shopping lists based on supermarket sales ads and cooking a mixture of ready-to-eat microwave food and from-scratch stuff. I’m hoping this routine sticks after I return to work full-time in September.

To end this post on a positive note, here are some fun things 15-month-old Angie has been doing:

• She knows how to wash her hands. When I take her to the sink and turn on the water, she leans over and puts first one hand and then the other under the running water.
• When Kevin comes home, she runs to the door to greet him.
• She hugs and kisses her big brother and big sister all the time.
• She likes to draw: on paper, on the floor, on herself, etc.
• She LOVES music. Anytime she hears a beat, she starts dancing.
• She likes to play “Angie says.” She likes to watch us copying her movements.
• She loves to eat cheese, popcorn, pretzel sticks, rice with sauce, and Chinese dumplings. She’s not fond of baby food anymore. Too bad I still have over 20 jars left.
• She likes to flip through books.
• She likes to put things in the trash can. Unfortunately it’s sometimes stuff that I would like to keep.
• She likes to play ball. Mostly we just roll balls across the floor at each other, but sometimes she picks the balls up and hurls them at us with great zest.
• She LOVES to play with clothes. Tonight she slung about 10 pairs of my underthings over herself and paraded around the living room like a little baby supermodel. Hilarious and adorable!

Categories: angie, budget, school
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My to-do list is a mile long, but I can’t cross anything off it. Whenever Angie isn’t crying for my attention, she’s doing something else to make me regret turning my back, even for a second. Today she drew all over her arms and legs with dry-erase markers. Then she spilled a bottle of milk on the kitchen floor and sat down in the middle of the giant puddle. ARGH!!!

At least she didn’t spill the bottle on the nice new flooring in the living room that Kevin spent the past week installing. No more awful, allergy-inducing, 30+year-old carpet, finally! I’ll leave the details for Kevin to blog about.

Last week Kevin and I went to the final show of 311’s summer tour. I had a great time. Once in a while, when I’m inhaling second-hand pot smoke and surrounded by sweaty, half-dressed bodies, I wonder if I’m getting too old for this, but the thought is always promptly pushed out of my mind by the sight of fellow concert-goers who are my parents’ age, rocking out and having a great time. Life is much too short to worry about appearing dignified.

Last week I also finally underwent Lasik surgery. This is something I’ve been planning for years. I have nothing to complain about; it all went very smoothly. But for the morbidly curious, here are the few bumps along the way:

• I was given a Xanax to help calm me down during the surgery. I was also given numbing drops in my eyes. Neither worked as well as I would have liked. While the procedure did not hurt, I did feel the instruments touching my eyeballs. UGH!!!!! The only reason I didn’t panic was because over the past couple of decades I’ve developed some excellent coping skills for dealing with crazy anxiety-inducing situations just like this one, and they worked perfectly.
• Afterwards it felt as if there was something in my eyes that I couldn’t flush out. This continued for 24 hours. The various medicinal eyedrops I was prescribed helped eased the discomfort a little, but the only thing that really helped was sleep, which I got plenty of when the Xanax finally kicked in after the surgery was all over
• The surgery is really, really expensive. The place I chose charged me a month’s salary. Add to that the cost of all the different eyedrops, and I feel positively poor.

But was it all worth it? Oh heck yeah! I can see! I CAN SEE!!! XD

Another highly anticipated event in my little life was the new film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that opened July 15. Last Friday, Kevin and I took Alex to see it in the theater. We had a great time!

If all goes well with the construction of the Harry Potter theme park in Florida, that’s where we’ll be going for our next family vacation. According to the latest news, it’s going to have some cool rides and at least one awesome eatery. I can’t wait!

While cleaning the kids’ room I found a little black rubber ball under one of their beds. Alex said it reminded him of what the Earth would look like if we continued to misuse our natural resources. I promptly promised to start composting the next day. So far I haven’t lived up to my promise, mainly because Angie keeps doing things like pouring entire bottles of milk on the kitchen floor.

Speaking of weird environmental things, did you hear the news about the big mysterious blob floating in the ocean off the coast of Alaska? Watch the video here!

Categories: allergies, angie, environment, harry potter, home improvement, music
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