Too much to do

2-28-13

I need to earn $1000 more a month.

It will be doable. There are numerous corners to cut and other things that will make this doable. Everything from doing the lawn myself to just being more careful with funds will be ways I can ensure that this extra cash will be on hand. I have also considered trying to get a second job.

Papa Brenan thinks we should rent out the back “house”. I think this is not doable. There is not a kitchen in said unit and truly, one of the reasons I like this little part is that Ken will be keeping his Lego out of my home. Yes, there is the garage, and truly, as I am cleaning out my house, my crap will be at a minimum, but still, I would like to hope that the garage doesn’t become his domain, also. Then again, I am more than willing to give up both spaces because I will have a house to work with. I also just don’t think that anyone will pay that much for said space. They will be dealing with no kitchen unit and 2 dogs and 2 kids. Plus, this isn’t 1950. I have to find some random person who isn’t going to do anything horrid to my family. Yeah, I think I will just concentrate on getting more money.

The house offer put in sounds like we are in a good position to get the place. I am still looking at other places just in case. As much as I really love this place, I do understand that house buying isn’t exactly simple.

I need boxes. Lots and lots of freaking boxes. I started taking things off of the walls in the living room and realized that I am lacking in boxes. I have asked the facilities manager here to bring any and all boxes my way, so hopefully I get a delivery of these before the weekend. My intention is to use the weekend, which currently has no plans, to make my house bare.

I told the boys that we were going to donate a bunch of their stuffed animals to this one charity for kids. They were quite pleased with this idea and I think I can bag up a bunch of that. I also have that bag of toys in the garage that clearly has nothing that would be missed in it, and I will take that to Goodwill this weekend.

I am hoping that there is a decent after school program in Torrance. I am considering letting the boys stay in said program until 3. I just did a check, and it looks like the bell schedule is different in Torrance. They don’t start till 9 and don’t get out until 3:15. Well, that helps me out! I can work then until like 2:30. Woo! I will still come in to work at 4:30. Plus, in a really short amount of time, these kids will be able to go home on their own. The route home is a little different compared to say coming home from Halldale, but it is a route we have rode many times before. I think they will do great!

I hate being at a desk when I am in super planning mode.

epic pain

2-26-13

I should be working on reports.

Sadly, the reports seem to have had some kind of an issue making report time even more stressful since it now means I have to wait for others to get into the office before I can even start work on them. Today was already going to be a more hectic report day what with a meeting I have at 10:30 and I am backup for Jean. Oh, and there is an audit being done which means I am often tapped for some pressing issue. Sigh. Good morning!

I feel better though, despite the added hectic nature of the morning. Yesterday my lady parts were in an uproar and I was in a great deal of pain. It was epic. It decided to even hit my back and legs with a force. It didn’t help that I randomly twisted my leg while trying to catch a stool with it, but even so, the pain was clearly from the epicenter that was located in my mid-section. It was super tense and annoying. The Midol did finally work, but it took way too long for my taste.

One of Ken’s students gave him Kings tickets, which meant he was able to go to the game with Bobby. It sounds like they had a great time, and the Kings won, which is a good first experience for Bobby. Dax was a little bummed about not going, but he seemed quite pleased hanging out with me in our bed and we watched AFV. He and I both crashed out by 8, but it was good!

Dax wants to color his hair black for his pictures tomorrow. I asked him why he didn’t want to do it some other color. He didn’t want people “getting in trouble for looking at his funny hair.” I think he just didn’t feel confident to do something like green. We will see how he feels tonight. We might be able to do a good temporary shade that he is ok with.

I started taking things off the walls in the living room. I need boxes! I am trying to not just toss stuff into a container, though. I am hoping to keep it organized. I figure I have some time so I don’t need to just panic and throw it all in a bag. I might as well get it all good. I am going to try to go through the kitchen this weekend and start tossing things like Tupperware I never use. I need to downsize our crap. Mind you, Ken is the one who suggested we do this, and we all know I am more on board with this than anyone, so this is kind of like a strange Christmas for me. LOL!

The only good news today is that I can stay late. Ken picks up the boys today and doesn’t have class on Tuesday afternoons which means I don’t have to rush to get back. I may take this opportunity to get some OT. 

I like the house

2-25-13

I really like the house.

We went and looked at the house in Old Torrance yesterday. It is cute! There is a good sized kitchen, which I fell in love with. There is at least 3 different spots for a dining table. This in itself makes me giddy. The Mother In Law quarters are not truly any kind of livable unit, but this is ok since we had not intended on having anyone actually staying in there. The garage is cool since it is apparently 2 and a half cars large with direct access to the alley, which is awesome. Decent backyard size. Of course, it isn’t as big as our current yard, but I don’t see that happening in any places we want to live.

I took a bunch of pictures to show our financers, which will hopefully be Ma and Pa Brenan. The plan at this point now is to actually sell our current house. We had our relator over who told us the only money we should put into the place is just painting all the rooms an off-white and maybe re-do the front wood on the house. All of this is doable. It also means that the primary objective at home is to start boxing stuff up. We are going to need to put some things in storage for now so that we can make the house sparse for showing purposes.

Papa Brenan has been skeptical of the plan for this place up until I uploaded the pics I took yesterday. Apparently between the sympathy coming from my MIL regarding school district changes and the fact that the place reminded them both of the Westchester house, there will be an offer made on the house. Yay! Ken told me that apparently the only reason they moved from Westchester to go to Manhattan Beach was due to LA Unified, which really helps my case.

So for now I am cautiously optimistic. I also did some more searches on other houses and have found at least one other that looks promising. We would need to go inside the place, but we will see what happens with everything. I think the ball is moving and hopefully we will be able to make something happen.

I love the area this house is in. Sure, it is across from the train, but it sounds like there are very few trains these days, and they happen mostly when we are not even there. Plus, they are not particularly loud.

The house was built in 1928, which is kind of fun. I love the charm of an old house. My understanding is that they have updated the wiring, though, so this is good. It has a lot of potential for upgrades, too. You could work with a lot of it. Ken pointed out that the place is really perfect for entertaining, which I love. It seems like a great hangout for my boys when they are teens. I know, that sounds silly, but there is the one room off of the kitchen that I can totally see them sitting and playing video games with their friends in.

The rest of my weekend went well. Bobby’s party was awesome. I was a little bummed about the lack of classmates, but based on every other school party we have gone to, this seems pretty normal with the kids from this school. We had a great turnout, though, with lots of kids and my wonderful friends who all made me very happy.

The boys are not as game on moving. When I originally told the boys that we were going to go look at a house, Dax freaked out because he didn’t want to leave Mr. Williams’ class. I totally understand his concern. I told him that even if we moved to a new house tomorrow, that he would still finish out the school year at Halldale.

When we were in the house yesterday, Bobby told me he didn’t like the place because it had too many rooms and specifically too many bathrooms. Mind you, in the house itself, there is one and ¾ bath. Not exactly mansion amounts. There is also a bathroom in the outside room. He was concerned with getting lost in the house. It isn’t that big! He just seemed to be out of sorts about it.

Dax didn’t like that the backyard wasn’t as big as home. Well, I can understand this, but his other reasons really stem from moving away from the friends they have on our street. I know this will suck, but I also know they will probably have other friends near us. We will just meet some more kids.

Ultimately, they just don’t like the idea of leaving the only place they have known as home. I am bummed at the prospect of leaving the place where my children were first brought home and learned to walk and all of the sweetness that comes with your first home. That being said, I find myself truly getting over that nostalgia with the prospect of being in a cute neighborhood that I would be more than willing to grow old in. I love the idea of the boys going to good schools and being close to a park. I love that we would still be close to many of the things we love about our current house like our grocery store, yet be able to not worry about the issues like being close to the hospital.

I need to get out of my head with the house. LOL! I keep decorating. I am trying to determine if the kids will be in the front room or the middle room. I am considering the option of where to put my desk. I am trying to figure out where we will end up putting our tv since there are two rooms that could be where we spend time. The front room will clearly be for the Christmas tree, what with the fireplace right there for Santa. Seriously, I am excited.

I don't know that anyone wins

2-22-13

I am still flustered.

You could tell it would not go well before we even got in the classroom. Ms. Jenkins was frosty and jumpy. Principal Allen was nice, which was good, but it would not warm up this classroom.

We sat down and Ken took the lead. He explained right out of the gate that we didn’t hate the teacher or the school. He went on to explain that we needed an open dialogue concerning homework levels. He explained how Bobby was taking a great deal of time on these packets and that after asking around, it appeared that we were not the only ones with this complaint.

Ms. Jenkins was more concerned with why we had not spoken to her before. The communication between her and us and really other parents has never been enough. Sure, we are friendly, but often we don’t know what is going on in class unless we are prompted by our kid. Ken has tried to ask her about certain things and she seems upset. Last month when I wrote a quick note asking Bobby to be excused from losing some books we didn’t know about (and offering to replace them), she was rather short with Ken and we have not heard anything else about it. The biography report was left up to our interpretation, and to be honest, I don’t have the time to ask her every day what needs to be done.

The blame was instantly put on Bobby. He is slow in class, he takes longer than others. He often has to finish his work in the other classroom. Mind you, both Ms. Jenkins and Principal Allen told us that Bobby is bright and at grade level. Yet they feel he is too slow. Ms. Jenkins seems to think that the rest of the class has no problems.

The principal explained that every single one of my letters were sent back to her to take care of. Ultimately the level of homework was at the discretion of the school. Yet, she indicated that they didn’t need (or want) to change anything. Everyone in LAUSD has been passing the buck like a pro.

They offered to lower Bobby’s homework. We said this wasn’t enough. We explained how much time kids in the class were taking. Sadly, this was on deaf ears. When I asked about the homework policy and the 10% of the grade it was allowed to consist of, they said this didn’t apply to elementary school. These kids would be benched for not finishing work.

I was getting angry.

I told them the packets were a waste of time. I cited the word search worksheet from this week’s packet. It had clues indicating that these words would be their vocabulary words for the week. Never you mind that none of us parents get this list of vocabulary words. Yet they were to have to locate words in this word search. This is a timely exercise for even the most advanced kids. I have to be honest, I had a hard time finding one word.

They indicated the kids should already know these words. They said that the homework should be done with minimal to no parent help. Yet in the same meeting these people told me that these worksheets were the one set of English the parents have access to. So wait, are parents supposed to help or not?

I knew this was all a lost cause within 3 minutes of anyone talking. My resolve to get the hell out of this school district was strengthened. I can’t have my kids deal with the bullshit any longer.

The modifications to Bobby’s homework were made in the form of I could decide what he turns in and he wouldn’t get in trouble for not completing the rest. This means I will have him do sentences (since those are good practice) but much of the other time consuming bullshit will not be done.

Ken tried to explain to these ladies how much time I spend with our kids. He was a loud advocate for me and he was great in helping my voice for our kids be heard. Sadly, our voices were not loud enough.

I left the meeting drained and miserable. I still have to go back to this classroom today to bring cupcakes. It means she will be cold towards me and I don’t have my support team since Ken has class. Luckily I can talk with all the kids, all of whom are awesome to me.

I broke down crying when I got home. I had to go in the bathroom to do so since the boys had their friends over. I don’t mind crying in front of my kids, but I think it would be rude to do so in front of other kids.

The house is ready for a party tomorrow. I promised Bobby and Jessica that part of the party would include the disco dance portion in the living room. They were quite excited. Ken secured a kick ass bounce house from our neighbors who rent them out. It will be a fun time and I am so happy that I will be surrounded with people who love me and my kids. It means the world to me right now. I feel weak after battling evil.

Battle Day is Upon Us

2-21-13

Today I go into battle.

I keep having to tell myself that I am not overreacting. I am going over in my head every single piece of homework he has to do, and I know in my heart that it is too dang much. Even if you just look at the sentences, you know it is too much. 15 sentences for many people would take at least 20 minutes, and yet this is all the time they are supposed to take a night. It is too much. I don’t know why I keep questioning this. I know I worry about being a spaz of a mom. I also hate actual confrontation. It scares me. As long as I stay strong and know that I am right, then I should be ok.

Sadly, it doesn’t help that Bobby got a notice yesterday indicating he wasn’t doing well on some kind of writing ideas thing. Seriously, I don’t even know what this meant. I honestly don’t care anymore about his grades. It is second grade. Fuck her and fuck this school.

I am already defensive. Hackles are up and I am feeling feisty. I am not sure if this will be good or bad, but either way, I am ready. Ken is going with me, which is a good thing. He is better under this kind of pressure. As long as I treat this like a work thing, I will also do better.

Speaking of work, there was a super sad announcement yesterday. One of my coworkers in the upstairs accounting department passed away on Tuesday. I had not known him super well. He always seemed to be pretty cool. He was a little aloof but I liked his no nonsense approach once that I saw him display in a meeting. He seemed like a good guy. He had apparently been ill for a couple months, and they didn’t know what was going on. He was about to take some time off to do more tests to figure it out. He was in the office on Tuesday, filling out paperwork for his leave and he passed away suddenly that night when his kidneys and liver failed. Super sad all around.

This is Tom at Halloween a couple years ago

On to happier things. I managed to clean the piss out of the kitchen last night while I helped the boys with homework and made my chicken noodle soup. At one point, right after I had finished scrubbing, I did prance around the kitchen while humming the Rocky theme. Bobby was pretty amused.

Aside from battle this afternoon, we are hopefully getting even more of the house in order. I don’t know if Ken has spoken to our neighbors about the bounce house, but if he hasn’t today, he will need to order one from our normal place. I don’t like waiting till the last minute.

Ken also will speaking to the financial lady with our realtor today. Apparently the house we are looking at will only do open house showings if we have been pre-approved for a loan. I guess the owner has some kind of illness. I am wondering if this means it needs to be a quick sale? Not sure what the deal is, but I am now nervous across the board. I know there will be other houses, but this one seems pretty cool.

I was all kinds of proud yesterday that I did 30 minutes on the treadmill at work. It felt good. It also helped that I am really enjoying the show I am watching now. I think that I am going to try for 30 minutes again today. I honestly don’t think anyone notices when I am gone. LOL! Plus, it will good for me to work out more of my anxiety about today. I am going to resist the urge to take a Xanax before the meeting because I want to be sharp.

all I wanted was some sleep

2-20-13

Perhaps I can get some sleep tonight.

I don’t know if it was stress, the loud wind, or my nose which has been in a great deal of distress of late. No matter the reason, I was unable to get into any kind of a good sleep mode last night. I finally fell asleep at some point because I know that I was dreaming about some kind of indoor pool that I was at. Luna was a puppy still and she was with me. I also know that a group of people I was with had all decided to go to this Indian food place.

I was hoping the evil evening would have knocked me out. Ok, in all fairness, it wasn’t evil. It was just one of those nights where all these small things kept happening that were super annoying. The remote’s batteries were dead. The show I wanted wasn’t on. It was almost comical after a while.

I was stressed and grumpy by the time I got home from work. Thankfully, I was able to take the dogs and walk up to meet Ken and the boys. I am always impressed with how easy it is to walk two dogs at once. I know it is because my dogs rock, but either way, it is always awesome to be able to do it.

We got through homework and then headed out to Costco. I gotta say, I love going to Costco. I don’t know what it is. I know it seems to be filled with idiots, but there is something always comical when I am there. At one point, there was a sample table. The guy was setting out little cups of something from a bowl. The problem was that I didn’t see what the food was. The only thing around him happened to be a jug of kitty litter that seemed to be prominently displayed next to him. Part of me kind of wanted him to be handing out samples of cat litter with pretend, um, waste in them. It was not in fact this, but I did tell him that I was a little concerned what with the unfortunate placement.

It is also fun to cart watch. Sure, there are the folks that are clearly buying for their business. Then there are family carts, filled to the brim with lots of kid friendly food options. Then there was the lady I saw yesterday. All she had was 3 giant jars of pickles, a case of Ensure and a package of paper towels which has about 8 rolls in it. Dude, what kind of parties does she have?

Bobby’s report was well received. It was liked enough that Ms. Jenkins even asked Bobby if he would like to present it at the assembly they were planning. He told me yesterday he really didn’t want to. He pointed out his stage fright issues, which I can 100% relate to. I know I should probably encourage him to do it, but the butterflies in me are swarming up and offering their support for Bobby’s swarm.

The good news this morning is my real test results are finally in. YAY! My premature jubilation concerning my A1C’s were justified since I am still below the 6 number that is diabetes. YAY! The only thing that needs to be worked on is my cholesterol. It isn’t horrid, it just needs to be lowered. I have gained some weight back, so I need to get back on track. I actually have lost a few pounds in the last week or so because I have been trying to be better again. My biggest issue is dinner these days. When I am at work, I have a limited supply of grub. When I am at home, I can do things like seconds or have more snacks than I should. I need to start slapping myself. The night time walks have probably been quite helpful along with making sure my walks at lunch time are at least 25 minutes of 3.4 mph at full incline. Today I think I am going to try and go for 30 minutes since the boss is out and no one will miss me.

With only three more days of prep time for Bobby’s party, I have to admit I am getting anxious. I am going low key with no real activities planned. Bobby does want to play Heads Up 7-Up while everyone drinks 7-Up. Don’t ask. The kid is a nutball. Ken is getting a bouncer slide, which always delights the kids. Other than that, I figure we don’t need much. Between our backyard and the countless toys at our disposal, we are pretty much set on entertainment. I think I will even have Star Wars playing in the living room for kids who just want to chill and watch. Either way, it is a gathering of people, and I get anxiety. Of course this makes zero sense being that 99% of the people are my close friends and family. These are people that even if they are judging me are doing it out of love. LOL!

Well, with at least a little good news under my belt and no boss today, I am hoping everything runs smoothly for another day of me. 

house

2-19-13

I had not planned on writing but I have changed my mind.

Apparently being out one day makes for a lot of catch up. The good news is that I am now caught up. This means that I now have some time to ramble on.

It was a very shoptastic weekend. We were able to find the most perfect drawers for our entertainment shelving at Ikea. They had soft boxes that look like old trunks that we got in their kids’ section. They are good sized and provide the whimsy our house has in spades.

We also picked up some other items including a wonderful duckie print reminiscent of Warhol. In addition to this, our house now is filled with scented candles galore so that come Saturday when people are in our home it doesn’t smell like cat ass.

Ken will hit up Costco today to hopefully stock for the food portion of the party. Of course, we will also be ordering some pizza, but that won’t happen until that day.

The rest of the weekend allowed us to get gobs of laundry done. It also gave us the opportunity to clean the crap out of the boys’ room which was getting pretty funky. Boys are stinky little buggers. Thankfully it wasn’t any one stinky item that caused it. It turned out the vent we have in there had gotten turned off.

Bobby and I worked hard on his homework, including his biography. Yesterday we completed probably about half of his homework for this week. In all fairness, I did do some of it myself. He did a lot of work, too, but for now, I refuse to let him fail. Until our meeting on Thursday, he still has homework, so I will help him in whatever way I can. His biography looks freaking awesome. He told me where to put the pictures and we even added some inside the actual copy. Bobby then tells me at least 10 kids have not even been given their report boards because they were not ready. In addition to this, there is now a contest that is through all the 2^nd grade classes in which the best 2 of each class will get to present theirs in front of the school. I asked Bobby if this sounded cool to him, to which he responded, “I am certainly not looking forward to that.” I love that kid.

As much as I love the rain, I have to admit I am a little bummed that it will likely ruin our walk this evening. I have truly enjoyed these family walks. It is a little bit more exercise for me which makes me happy. I may just get bundled up and go with just Luna so I can get it in anyway.

I got prematurely excited. We had rode up to get my blood work done on Saturday and I read what I thought were the results. Sadly, they were not the most recent, so now I am stressing that I am not doing as well as I thought. I keep checking the patient portal.

We also rode by this wonderful house I found through our realtor. It is in Old Torrance and super cute. It has 3 bedrooms, 2 bath, PLUS a mother in law house! That part could be Ken’s business stuff and the house could be just a house!!! It has a decent yard. The back is an alley and the front is across from the bushes covering the train tracks. I am overly jazzed about this place. It isn’t open until Friday, so hopefully we will be able to see it then. I am crossing my fingers that this place works out for us.

A good valentine's day!

2-15-13

What a lovely Valentine’s Day!

Ken showed up at my work with a giant stuffed tiger, a balloon and tulips in hand for me. I still have the flowers and balloon at work, although I will probably bring the balloon home today. I took home the tiger as I used him along with Bolt for sleeping purposes. At this rate, I am going to have more stuffed animals in my bed than the boys. LOL!

It has become apparent that Ms. Jenkins doesn’t want me dealing with the homework. I have been putting together the packets since the beginning of the school year. This was the first Thursday in which I did not receive the stack to put together. I honestly don’t mind. It was not a hard job, but it freed me up today to not have to worry about it. Plus, I have a feeling after next week I will have the packet duty back, so I am ok with a break.

I made lasagna for Ken last night. I would say for the household, but the boys still seem to be anti-lasagna for some strange reason. I didn’t care too much and made them some instant oatmeal per their request. I wanted us all to eat together and watch Hotel Transylvania. Super funny movie!

Before we started the movie, the boys played with their friends which resulted in two pout sessions. Anthony stormed off and didn’t come back aside from the need to deliver a note indicating they were no longer friends. Yeah, this will blow over. This kid is more dramatic than Dax. Zach also melted down in a tantrum at one point because his sister wouldn’t let him have the red flag for their parade. Yeah, that happened. I thought girls were supposed to be more emotional. Sheesh!

I need to go do my lab work tomorrow morning. I think I will ride my bike. I have to go pretty early since I don’t have an appointment, but it never takes too long. I am also thinking if I drag my family along, we can stop for breakfast, which is always a nice Saturday morning. Especially since I intend on spending much of the rest of the weekend cleaning.

I took Monday off. The boys have the day off for President’s Day, and Dax and Ken have a dental appointment. I am hoping that while they go do that, perhaps I can spend some time with Bobby. My little baby is going to be 8 soon, which just trips me out to no end. You can tell how much older he is. Yesterday, after the melt down between Dax and Anthony, he was the calm one who was able to tell me exactly what happened and wasn’t biased towards either kid. It was so amazing. His heart is truly gorgeous.

Happy birthday, Lycos!

2-14-13

Lycos turns 13 today. Holy crap!

She has been doing quite well on her walks with us. Last night we must have been walking at a slightly more intense pace, though. Even Bobby was running with her a bit, which I think is why her back legs buckled when trying to come up the porch stairs. Thankfully she recovered pretty quickly. She really seems to enjoy the walk time, so I am happy to bring her along, even if it might mean us carrying her for any part of it.

While the boys did homework, I spent time doing laundry and specifically cleaning up our bedroom. It is amazing how much crap accumulates in the space next to the bed. It is such a bad habit, but I suppose it is only in our room, so it isn’t too bad. Of course, this is only if you don’t consider how many items you “lose” for a while. LOL!

Bobby finished his packet yesterday, which means today we can concentrate on his biography. I really want him taking his time on that, and to make it really nice and neat. His penmanship sucks so giving him a lot of time I think will work the best for us.

I guess I am covering for Maryann today. She decided to take the day off. Not a big deal, I guess, except for the fact that we are still getting ARA orders, which means I am doing a lot more credit lines than I like to do in a day. I just hope this doesn’t prevent me from my workout time. I have decided I won’t let it. I really felt good yesterday what with my awesome workout at work, a nice bike ride to the store and back, plus our nightly walk. The more activity, the better!

Media

2-13-13

That may have been the most televised news I have watched in some time.

Between the Dorner shootout and cabin fire and the State of the Union, I sure seemed to be glued to the set yesterday. I used the net, too, but for some reason it seemed like one of those times to see the images and hear the commentary rather than just reading about it. The State of the Union just happened to air right as we were walking in the door from our walk, so I found myself watching parts of it. I was just shocked at what an asshole the Speak of the House was in terms of his lack of respect for his boss.

The other media free parts of my afternoon were good. I was able to get Bobby through all of his homework packet for the week while tagging Ken in on Dax’s work. I also managed to get all the Valentines for each class ready to go while Ken cleaned my kitchen, including scrubbing the floor which had been muddied from the recent rainfall. I felt pretty relaxed and happy, especially since we even had time for the family walk, which I really enjoy.

I guess with this being Ash Wednesday, all my Catholic friends will be walking around with dirt on their face?

armed ducks

2-12-13

My ducks are lining up and they are ready for battle.

One of the school board people I had bombarded with emails last week contacted me again yesterday. She had left me a message on Friday to let me know that she spoke to the principal and that the school was looking into my complaint. Yesterday, she called to check to see if my complaint had been addressed. Poor lady was really just checking up, but she caught a lot of my wrath.

She told me that the principal had spoken to her and that she and Ms. Jenkins seemed to feel that the homework was appropriate for the age level. They also said that they would be more than willing to reduce the homework for Bobby if it seemed too much. This was the most condescending thing ever. I tore into this woman, explaining that it wasn’t that I wanted it reduced for my son. I wanted the homework in general to be reevaluated. She tried to explain that some of the work I mentioned was not mandatory, to which I said even if you take out the book reports and just look at the packet alone, it was more work than an 8 year old needs to do each week. She was very nice, but clearly not the one to be talking to.

She told me she would relay my concerns to the principal and have her contact me. By the time I was getting home with the boys I had a voicemail from the principal. She claimed to have emailed me yesterday morning (she did not) to set up a meeting. I emailed her back and told her that we would like to set up a meeting. I asked her if we could do this on the 21^st. Yes, this is not until next week, but we are gearing up for battle.

Ken took the liberty of doing some research for me. He spoke to 2 2^nd grade teachers in the Manhattan Beach School District. This is a school whose API is 957. They clearly know how to educate their kids. The teachers here also know that homework isn’t a crucial part of this education, especially for kids in grade school. One teacher said that they only homework assigned is any work not completed in class, which is maybe a page. The other teacher said she maybe only assigns 2 pages. All of the homework mentioned includes spelling. They only assign 4 days worth of work, also. If you compare them to us, it means that to their 2 pages, we have 4 worksheets and 4 sentences and 15 words.

The lady on the phone also mentioned that the principal and teachers at Halldale seem to think that the homework they assign should only take 20 minutes a night, 4 nights a week, not including reading. Fuck you, Halldale.

The other thing mentioned was that no other parents were complaining. Ken went and spoke to Jessica’s parents. Jessica is incredibly studious and in Bobby’s class. Ken opened the flood gates with her parents who feel as strongly as we do that the amount of homework is insane. I spoke to Jessica and she told me she does homework every single day in order to keep up. They told us that they are more than happy to add their names to the list of people unhappy with homework.

The plan now is to try and speak to some of the other parents over the course of the next couple days. We want to see if anyone else feels the same. I am even tempted to write up a petition. You see, I am not just trying to get my son special treatment. I am trying to fix this. These are good kids. They should not all be bogged down with homework at such a young age. They need to run. They need to play. They need to enjoy school. Right now, they are not.

I did have a minor panic attack after my conversation with the lady on the phone as I headed out to get the boys. I was worked up and in full anxiety mode. I even texted Ken how I should have taken a Xanax. He tried to get me one before I went in to get them, but he just missed me. It is probably for the best. If I can calm myself without it, it is better. Granted, I did turn to rum…

I spent the afternoon trying to get as much of Bobby’s homework done as possible. We slammed through a ton. He and Dax both seemed to understand that their mother was in a manic state. I wasn’t yelling or anything  (Still going strong on that!) but I think they understood the urgency in getting things done. I took advantage of this and we kicked some ass. Hopefully today we will finish his packet so that we can work on his biography.

The good news is I slept. I did wake up at some point and was up for a bit. Breezer was being all sweet and curled up with me like a little teddy bear. It was really cute. Once she did that, I was able to go back to sleep. I am a firm believer that cats seem to know when I need calming for sleep purposes and they provide their services. It is why I can never live without cats.

I managed to also print out invitations for Bobby to take to his class. I will be curious as to how many people show.

headache

2-11-13

My head has hurt since sometime yesterday morning.

I am not 100% sure why. It could just be from it being a very active weekend and my lack of sleep last night due to Ken’s coughing combined with the tossing and turning combo. Either way, it is annoying. It is one thing to have to deal with work. It is another thing altogether to deal with work with a splitting headache.

My weekend needed to slow down. Friday night had us at Chris’ Flash Party. It didn’t start till 8, so it was way past 3 of the 4 of our bedtimes. It was fun getting all decked out in black and going as a family. The theme was pretty cool, too. We were to bring a gift that was something we already had that we truly loved. In exchange, we would be taking something from his home. Bobby picked out the 3 monkey lamp we had gotten after Doug died. It is a lamp we all really like, but we just didn’t have a good place for it. Chris would truly give it a good home. In exchange, we chose a piece of original artwork that Chris had drawn. I just need to get a good frame for it and we will be able to put it up.

After Chris’ party, we took the boys to Best Donuts. It seemed appropriate being that it was late and we were in the area. The donuts were not the fresh ones that you get at 1 am, but we were only there at like 10 pm. Still, it was kind of fun to go with the family.

Saturday was ok. Ken left to go ref at about noon. The boys, Luna and I walked up the street to watch the groundbreaking ceremony for a new pocket park near our house. It is only a couple of blocks from our house, so this will be pretty cool. It was put in for a number of reasons, but the biggest one was a way to combat the amount of sexual predators that are nearby. There is a neighborhood across the tracks from us that has an insanely high quantity of offenders, which is disturbing based on how many kids also reside in that neighborhood. There is not much law enforcement can do about it being that a school/park are not close enough to warrant removal of these people. So they decided to put in a park. This is a positive way to better the community.

It isn’t a big park, but I spoke to our local officer who was running the ceremony and she told me there would be a playground and a fountain and it would all be fenced in. It is also on the main street, which means it is less likely to have too much of a bad element due to the visibility. It will be pretty cool to have a little park we can walk up to.

After we got back, the boys played with their friends, so I was in a house surrounded by 5 running kids. It was loud.

At the last minute we asked my folks to watch the boys for a couple hours so Ken and I could attend the AYSO Volunteer Appreciation dinner. It was nice to go. It was near the house, over in Old Torrance at the BFD Grill. Both Ken and I not only got trophies, we both ended up winning in the raffle! We each won a $25 gift card for Score, which is pretty damn cool!

I left at 8 to go get the boys and I brought them back to the restaurant. My poor kids were pooped. Even Bobby, who normally handles late nights was out of it. He started to feel sick because he got a little car sick on the way over. It was not fun having to rush the kid to the bathroom in my nice garb, worried that he was about to spew. Thankfully he did not.

On Sunday, the plan had been to clean house since Ken was heading off to his gaming group. Instead, he invited the boys and I to come along and it would give us a chance to teach the boys how to play Pokemon. Bobby seemed to really enjoy it. I think Dax liked it, but he is a sore loser so whenever anyone attacked him, he got pissy. He won, but it was a close game. I helped Dax while Ken helped Bobby. It was cool playing the game again. I remember why I really enjoyed it. I have a feeling we will play more, but Dax will need a shorter game since he was bored. He also was tired.

I find it interesting that the Pope is retiring 8 years after he went in. I always joked that Bobby was the new Pope since he was born the day the last guy almost died.

I have to make invitation flyers for Bobby’s party on the 23^rd. I am letting him invite his whole class. I now just have to decide on a time. I am thinking 11.

Bobby and I picked out pictures online for his Hershey report. They have been printed and cut out and now glued to construction paper. I am going to get him one of those nice report folders. This week he needs to write the paper out. Hopefully she gives us the report back so Bobby can start copying it. I think the presentation will be overkill, but I am really good at that.