Is it the weekend yet?

Another day is done. Riley and I took it even easier today; we didn't go anywhere.

Grace woke up on her own again today. I had to convince her to eat something for breakfast though as she's just not hungry when she just gets up. She got to the bus in plenty of time and when I got back in the house Riley was still sleeping but not for too long. I got her up and she ate and really didn't play for too long and she got tired again. Then she proceeded to take a 3 1/2 hour nap. This was time for me to finish mowing the grass by mowing the back yard and other yard stuff. Then a sealcoating guy came by and so I got the driveway sealed.

By this time Grace was home with her friend and Riley was waking up. So she was really tired by the time Julie got home which was actually a little early today. I never decided what to make for dinner; well that's not entirely true as I had intended to go to the grocery store but since Riley took an early and long nap I didn't have time since I couldn't go once Grace got home. So we just basically had breakfast stuff.

Speaking of Grace...she's so funny. She played with her friend for like 3 hours after school. Then when she went home Grace saw the next-door neighbor outside and told him she would find out if she could play with him after dinner. So she comes in asking if she can play with him after dinner. Since it was 6pm and her bedtime was fast approaching we said no. You would think she hadn't been allowed to play with any friend for a week and she had this great opportunity to play with him and we said no. Oh the drama. "It's not fair," "he's going out of town for the WHOLE ENTIRE weekend." There were more, but you get the idea. Julie was able to squash it by letting her play right then for 10 minutes until we had dinner ready. Crisis averted; Mom's are good at that.

Anyone else following this whole issue regarding the alleged "torturing" of al-qaeda detainees after 9-11? I don't feel waterboarding is torture because no permanent physical harm is done. What the Japanese did to American POW's in WWII was torture. Waterboarding isn't torture. But that's just my opinion which I'm entitled to in our country. This has spawned a criminal investigation into the Bush administration whether any laws were broken and if any punishments should be handed out because of enhanced interrogation techniques following 9-11. My feeling is they should thank their lucky stars that this was done because it could possibly be the reason they are alive today.

I'm SO SICK of hearing that Obama has "inherited" all of these issues from the "previous" administration and that everything bad about our country is because of the previous administration as well. When Obama took office and even to this day he continues to state he only wants to look forward. Yet how many times has this whole issue of what the Bush administration left them been brought up? And now Atty. Gen. Eric Holder had been allowed to pursue this investigation and the rest of the administration is basically saying that it's Holder that's doing this and anything that comes of it is entirely on him. They had nothing to do with it.

There were three...yes, THREE detainees that were waterboarded. Thats all. No more. I hate to be the one to break it to people but war is hell. This is a war whether Obama wants to change the name or not, plain and simple it is a war. Things done in a time of war are quite honestly horrible; war is about killing people after all. Understand that not everything done on a battlefield would be acceptable to the common citizen. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded something like 185 times and after this he gave in and starting teaching his interrogators how to fight a terror war. He didn't just provide information about other plots that were to follow, he gave them a glimpse into how it all works and what they are ultimately trying to accomplish. I don't know about you, but to me that was worth the price of admission, legal or not. Of course I've already stated that I believe it was legal to begin with.

I'm officially off my soap-box now.

Have you also been following the case against David Earls in Oklahoma? He raped a 4-year old girl and received one...yes, ONE year in county jail (not even prison) for this. He is scheduled to be released on September 24th but now they are bringing about new charges for other child crimes he's committed in hopes of keeping him in jail. Thank goodness.

And did you see that the Netherlands have told Laura Dekker that she can't sail around the world yet? I think if the Dekkers had approached this differently by stating that she'd have a support crew following her in case anything bad happens they wouldn't be going through this legal proceeding right now. That's what the kid that just finished sailing around the world did. I think this would help ease a lot of concerns. Just my 2 cents.

I don't miss summer

Everyone here is complaining it's not hot this summer but personally I don't miss the heat at all. I had enough of that when I lived in Oklahoma. Why would I want to sweat all day or stay in the house in the air-conditioning? Why not just have it be nice outside like it has been? Ever been to San Diego?

I do have to admit it really hasn't been warm enough to swim very many days this summer so for that, I can understand someone missing the warmer weather. But otherwise, I don't miss it. I think the high today was 74 and right now it's already down to 58.

Here's a fun article (and short) for you to read about pink flamingos. This just happens to be in the town we'll be going to in a few weeks for our football game. I just ordered the tickets a few minutes ago. Yea!

Well I did a little research on the whole student-to-teacher ratio thing and I've found this study: Project STAR which pretty much clearly states that smaller class sizes equal better students in the long run. So I guess I don't have anything to complain about. I guess we should just go with the flow. Not sure if Julie will agree though.

As far as today was concerned Riley and I took it easy. Grace woke up on her own today and ate breakfast again. She was excited that I had gotten Captain Crunch cereal. So she was off to school and Riley still wasn't up yet. She finally started to wake up around 8:30 today. I had another chiropractor appointment today (I'm going three times a week for another month until things straighten out.) After that we just came home and hung out. She got tired and I put her down for a nap which unfortunately wasn't at the best time. I probably should have kept her up a little longer and fed her lunch and then put her down for a nap. I say this because she slept until Grace and her friend came home from school. So I got her up and fed her and we played for a while again and then only about a half an hour before Julie was going to be home she started to get sleepy again. But I put her down and she fell asleep for about 30-45 minutes so actually it all worked out just fine.

We just had left-overs for dinner so that was easy. Then after I did the dishes I ran outside and mowed the front yard and pulled a few weeds. Now I just need to get outside tomorrow and mow the back yard.

Now for tomorrow I still need to figure out what we'll eat for dinner. I'm still not liking this new "diet" thing. It's really hard to cut dairy and garlic. It sounds silly but pretty much EVERYTHING has either milk or garlic in it. Try and find a salad dressing that doesn't have one or the other. I think I'll just have to start having oil and vinegar for my salad dressing.

Cruising along

Can you hardly believe that Grace finally took her school supplies out of her backpack on Monday?!?!!! I'm so glad that's over with. She even got a few papers back yesterday too and one said "great" and one said "wow." I think school is on track for Grace this year. I made it to my Chiropractor's appointment yesterday morning with little Riley. She was so cute; I had to wait a few minutes and so I took her out of her car seat and was playing with her. Then when it was my turn I put her back in but didn't strap her in. About half-way through the treatment she fell asleep. She was just so cute; she had turned on her side and fallen asleep almost cuddled up. I wish I had my camera so I could show you how cute she was.

After stopping at Target on the way home to buy some food and Riley taking a good nap I made BBQ Chicken and corn on the cob on the grill for dinner. After dinner was bible study at my Dad's house where we finished up studying Joshua (chaps 20-24.)

So yesterday wasn't so eventful but at least Grace finally left her school supplies at school. Today was a pretty good day too. I had to wake Grace up again today (yesterday too) but she had breakfast and was out the door in plenty of time to catch the bus. Then I came back in the house and was expecting Riley to be waiting to get up but she had fallen back asleep; possibly a remnant from not enough sleep the day before. So I read the paper and did some other stuff while I waited. After she finally got up I got her fed and then like clockwork my sister shows up only 2 minutes after the time she says was the approximate time she might be over. She's funny!

She was just dropping off some clothes and stuff that doesn't fit April anymore for us to use for Riley. After that Riley and I played for a while but she was ready for a nap pretty quickly so she went down for a nap around 11am and while she was sleeping I started cooking some sweet potatoes for her and while they were cooking I did some research on the places we are wanting to go. We have decided to take Grace to her first Badger football game (yeah!) So I was researching tickets and I did find some but I need to check with the person that usually watches Riley when we leave to see if they can actually do that on the day we are planning to go. If so then I think we'll be able to get some pretty good seats for a pretty reasonable price. I can't wait!

After that Julie and I want to get away for a night. We haven't had a "date" night in a while, but also our anniversary is coming up. Since we didn't really do anything for our anniversary last year (our 10th) we've decided to do something nice this year. It is a little pricey, but it will be SO worth it! The biggest problem with going away is obviously the person that usually watches Grace and Riley but also hotel availability and our busy schedule. We haven't worked out an actual date yet, but we ARE going. We deserve it.

In Grace's folder today was a note from her principal and no she isn't in trouble (how could you think that?) Apparently there has been a significant increase in the number of kids enrolled in first grade this year which they didn't expect. Personally I thought that's why you enroll so early in the year so that this isn't a problem but maybe people wait until the last minute. What they want to do is add an additional teacher and spread the kids out among the four teachers instead of three. Right now in her class there are 27 kids and there are two other first grade classes. So it sounds like there is approximately 80 kids or so and they want to get the teacher-to-student ratio down. Honestly for both Julie and I when we went to school we usually had this many kids in our class every year. So I don't see what the problem is unless the classroom just isn't build to hold that many students. What the letter that was sent home was asking was if we wanted them to do this. The options were a) no preference b) keep it the way it is c) add an additional class. I guess ultimately the lower your teacher-to-student ratio is the better their education would be, but I don't know if that's necessarily a proven fact; especially with kids this age. We'll see what happens.

The rest of the day was pretty normal today. I made dinner early (egg salad) since Tuesday is my night out. I had dinner ready for Julie so she didn't have to "find" something around the house or make anything. Plus then we'll both have lunch for tomorrow as well. Then I headed to a new place in the area that felt like home. In a town about 14 miles from our house they just opened up a new SONIC! You read that right, a Sonic! Unfortunately if you read my post a few days ago you know that I can't have limes so no limeade for me :-( But the burger was good.

Now I'm at the library which is where I usually end up each Tuesday night. It's quiet and I can read or surf the internet or whatever. Did I mention it was quiet? :-)

Fridays and Hard Drives

Grace has officially made it through her first week (although only a partial week) of first grade. I think she likes it just as much as she liked kindergarten last year except she did say tonight when I was putting her to bed that she hopes she isn't so tired at the end of the school day next week. I told her she'd get used to it pretty quickly. It is a big difference as kindergarten was only about 3 hours and now she's in school for about 7.

Now tomorrow she has gymnastics at 8am so she'll be getting up at the same time as all week for school. But that's for 3 hours, not 7.

Hold on, watching the shuttle launch...

Discovery (STS-128) made it up tonight. Looks cool at night.

Anyway, back to blogging. So you might be wondering what Grace may have brought home with her in her backpack. You would be right if you thought that she still has pretty much everything in her backpack. She took out her 3-ring binder today, but she still has 22 glue sticks, markers, pencils, all kinds of stuff in there. She says she just forgets to take it out and that she doesn't want to take it home with her every day even though she has been doing that. Hopefully Monday we will see better results with this.

She had what they call "Buddies" today. I'm still not really certain what it is but it has to do with 3rd graders and them getting together and it just so happens that the 3rd graders they are teamed up with include our next-door neighbor. So she says she'll get to be teamed up with him. That's pretty cool. She also had art today and I can tell she enjoyed that because she has some marker on her forehead and all over her hands. She's not the neatest kid, but she enjoys what she does. I do really think she enjoys art because when she came home she started on some art project of her own with a bookmark we picked up at the library the other day that you're supposed to color yourself.

Riley keeps waking up each morning as Grace isn't the quietest kid either. I don't want us to have to tip-toe around the baby when she's sleeping so honestly I don't mind her making noise but for some reason she keeps waking up pretty early. And that would be alright too as she doesn't need to sleep until some set time each morning but if she gets up too early then her nap schedule won't really work. Honestly she hasn't really been on a wonderful nap schedule yet as she is usually just taking one long nap. Today since she got up fairly early I put her down for her nap early and she almost slept until Grace got home. So this would be alright too but she can't stay up from 1:30 until bedtime. That's just entirely too long. She was acting sleepy around 4:30 so I put her down again and she got a little nap it before Julie got home, but it wasn't a normal nap. Maybe I'll have to start getting her up from the first nap if she sleeps too long so we can split them up better.

But then we run into problems if we aren't home. It's always give and take like this. If we aren't home she pretty much just doesn't take a nap although she will sleep in the car typically. So if we aren't home then she would generally only get one nap anyway and it would be good for her if that were as long as possible. Oh who knows, we'll get that all figured out as time goes on.

So if you looked at the subject of this post you'll notice more computer related stuff. Can I just say before I start this part that Western Digital drives from my personal experience fail and pretty much always before you would expect.

When I bought my HP desktop last year I had a 400 GB Western Digital hard drive that I just transferred over to use as my main drive and used the larger drive that came with the computer for storage. It started to act funny so I took it out and put in a 500 GB Western Digital hard drive I had to preempt any problems that may have happened. Several months later the 500 GB drive dies so I buy a brand new 640 GB Western Digital hard drive to use for my main drive. In less than a month I think it failed. So now I have 3 drives (all in warranty) that have failed. Thank goodness they are under warranty, but honestly how does a person go through 3 hard drives in one and a half years? I'm starting to think this darned HP is cursed. I'd just like to burn this thing.

So anyway I go on the Western Digital website and find out that the 500 GB hard drive's warranty is expired unless I can prove when I purchased it. They go by manufacture date unless you have your receipt to show when it was actually purchased. Well I do have the receipt so when I put that information in, I only had a few weeks of warrantly left. So I sent that one out on August 17 and they received it on the 21st of August. They mailed the replacement drive on the 25th and I received it today. The only problem is I have to do this two more times but at least I'll get 3 new drives. All I can say is to ensure you backup your system regularly. Luckily I have been except when I lost the 500 GB hard drive I did lose 2 months worth of emails. But it could be much worse.

Does this mean you shouldn't buy Western Digital hard drives? I don't think so. Just keep your data backed up and pray it doesn't die after the warranty period is over.

Just a couple of photos

I wanted to get these pictures online before I forget.

Here is Grace from her first day of school.


Here is Riley from last week where she's only almost 7 months.

1st Grade

So Grace had her first full day of school today. She says she likes it and can't wait to go back tomorrow. Yeah! But...guess what she brought home with her........again!?! Yes, she has all of her supplies in her backpack still. Silly kid. She claims her scissors are no longer in the backpack. We asked again if everyone else emptied their supplies out and she says not everyone and that she forgot. I can't believe this chick. Why would you want to bring a full backpack of supplies back and forth to school everyday? She's pretty silly.

She still needs to bring in a picture of herself to put over her locker. Their lockers are open (no door) and at the top there is a little cubby where instead of putting her name they are supposed to bring in a framed photo of themselves. I got the picture printed tonight, but unfortunately the frame we had got into a little accident this morning (apparently when attempting to turn off the light) and we no longer have a piece of glass in the frame anymore. :-0 Hmmmm, what to do...

Last night at dinner Grace said her day was good. When she got to school she went to the cafeteria and everyone was finding their teacher and then their teacher took them all and showed them their classroom. After that they took a tour of the whole school. She said they went past the map that I helped paint last year and that she told the teacher I helped to paint it. I, of course, wondered what the teacher said in response to which Grace replied............."I don't remember." Should have seen that coming. Honestly as I write this I can hear myself as a kid....hmmm, very fitting I suppose.

So today she says she had a good day too. She got to eat lunch in the cafeteria for the first time. She went to P.E. for the first time this year. She has the same teacher as last year. I think there was some kind of rumor last year that this person wouldn't be back or something this year. I think it's good to have consistency so it's a good thing this teacher is back. (Plus I hear they like the Wisconsin Badgers!) What could be wrong with a person that likes the Badgers?

She did say a few other things about what she did but honestly at this point I don't remember what they were. Who's bad at remembering here? Lets just hope AGAIN that she doesn't bring all of her supplies home for the weekend. I'm guessing she's just getting out what the teacher tells her from her backpack since that's where her supplies are and then puts them away in her desk or wherever, and then never takes the time to put all of her supplies away and then all the sudden it's time to leave.

I had an appointment with my new chiropractor today and took Riley with me. She didn't do as well as the last time I went, but she made it through just fine and of course got more comments about how cute she is, such nice blue eyes, etc. She's still got it. We think she's pretty darned cute. I think she didn't do as well because she's starting to wake up earlier since her sibling is up earlier and isn't exactly quiet it the morning.

Who knew that Grace could turn out to be a morning person? She woke up at 6:30 all by herself again today and comes in the bathroom where I'm showering and says "Good morning Dad." She was even pleasant sounding. She was talkative all morning long. She's never gotten up that early two days in a row as far as I can remember. She's never been an early riser and usually is quite cranky by the end of the day if she does happen to get up early one day. But so far we're doing well with the new school schedule. Let's hope it continues. We have school tomorrow and then Saturday morning is gymnastics. Sunday is church, but we don't go too early; usually around 10:30am. So that's her "sleep in" day. She will have R.E.P. (used to be called C.C.D.) on Monday nights. I'm not sure when that starts yet. I just dropped off her enrollment form with the tuition payment today (finally.)

So that's the school situation so far. It's early I know but so far things are going well. I continued my new diet restrictions today and I have to say that so far this really sucks. I did read the instructions that come with it and it says you may not feel well after you start this and so far I'm not feeling so great. Not flu-like symptoms (which are possible) but I just don't feel good. And yesterday and this morning I've just been REALLY hungry because we just really don't have many foods in the house I can eat so I haven't really eaten much. I used to eat two eggs, some cottage cheese and a yogurt for breakfast. That's been cut down to only two eggs. I don't have anything else to eat with it. I could have a piece of toast but I'm really not thinking I want toast without butter.

I bought some soy milk today so hopefully I can have some cereal or at least some oatmeal tomorrow. That should help. I made the mistake of looking for some snacks to eat at Target today. I was looking down each isle trying to find something I could eat (anything, really) and found not one snack I could have. Nothing in cereal bars, granola bars, chips, snack foods, nothing. I found NOTHING to buy. And by the time I was done looking at all that I was depressed and just left. I had had enough. I'll have to sit down this weekend and work out some type of menu so I have things around the house I can eat but right now it's pretty much slim pickings.

Has anybody seen these news stories about the girl in the Netherlands that wants to sail around the world solo at 13? Actually she will start next week on the 1st which is apparently her 14th birthday. Family services or whatever it's called in the Netherlands is trying to take temporary custody of her so that they can prevent her from doing this as her parents have given her their blessing to do this. Her name is Laura Dekker. I actually think if done right she could do this, but I'm not so sure they're approaching this the right way. A UK teenager just finished doing this (he was 17) and he had support sailing with him the whole way. Many people are saying she doesn't have the experience to tackle such a daunting task. I don't know for sure. From what I've read she has been doing this for many years including sailing solo for the last 4 years or so. But is this enough experience for such a major task? I can't say. But if she does end up embarking on this adventure I certainly will root for her and hope she accomplishes her goal. I do think it's great to have big goals in life and to pursue them with all your heart.

I'm sure you have heard about the finding of Jaycee Lee Dugard after 18 years. Amazing. I'm so glad she's finally been found. What a horrifying experience she has lived through. I'm just glad she finally got out of there and that the people that took her and have held her this long have been taken into custody. They deserve all the justice system has to offer. Simply disgusting. I hope she can return to a fairly normal life soon.

One more little note...it's STILL raining. Even Grace is complaining about it raining so much now. We're up to 2 1/4" so far over the last two days.

First Day of First Grade

Grace had her first day of first grade today. Of course it was only a "half" day which translates to around 3 hours. Since our school district is low on funds (okay lacking funds) they have reduced the school day as much as they can in order to pay the teachers as little as possible and try and save money that way. So a normal full day is around 6 hours with them getting home around 2:20 in the afternoon. That's fine for a family like us that has a parent home when she gets off the bus, but for the average family I would consider that a hardship. You have to find after-school care for 3-4 hours possibly.

I know most families have to pay for some type of after-school care but it just seems to me that this is a long time to have to get child care each day. I know I didn't get out of school too recently but I remember getting out of school around 3:30 I think every day (honestly can't remember that far back either...maybe I am getting old???) By the time you're either home or at after-school care it would be close to 4 and if your parents get off work early maybe you'd only have to get an hours worth of after-school care. She gets out of school at 2 and is home before 2:30. If you get home at 5 that would be 2 and a half hours (I'm not saying you the person reading this can't add, I'm just spelling it all out :-).) I don't think most people are really home by 5 each day. Julie can be some days if she gets out of work on time and doesn't hit a lot of traffic. If it's the winter and we even have snow flurries, forget it; she won't be home until probably two hours after she leaves work. Just think if we had Grace in after-school care and Julie couldn't get there for a couple of hours. It's like watching the checkout people at the grocery store when they're scanning in your food. Just watch the amount of the total bill going up and up and up. (I hate spending money at the grocery store.)

So anyway she had her first day of school and we of course had to buy a bunch of supplies for her to take to school with her. We had them all stuffed into her backpack to take to school today. When she got off the bus her backpack looked just as full. That's because it was. She didn't take her stuff out yet. She brought it all back home. I don't know if she wasn't paying attention at school and didn't hear that she was supposed to do this or maybe just didn't or if she will just be doing it tomorrow. She said that some people took the stuff out of their bags. Maybe they were listening or maybe they were the one's that weren't listening. Who knows. Hopefully we'll find out tomorrow as hopefully she won't come home with all that stuff again.

She hasn't said how school was yet as she's been playing all afternoon with her friend. They don't have the same teacher but at least they are on the same bus and can sit by each other every day. There was some worry today because her friend didn't come home on the bus. Grace says she saw her outside when school was over but then she disappeared. Her Dad was waiting for her at the bus stop but she didn't come home so he made some phone calls and turns out she stayed at school for after-school care because she will be using that in the future...just not today. The school wanted to be safe, not sorry. I think that's good, but maybe the paperwork they have should better specify when she needs to go there so they are sure where she needs to be each day. I don't know.

Julie and I will try and get Grace to tell us how her first day was at dinner. She's honestly quite vague about everything school related. Without specific questions it's simply a vague answer like "alright" or "okay," nothing with much emotion that's for sure. But at the same time, tomorrow will be a much better day to try and judge how she likes first grade as it will be her first full day. In my opinion - her first true day of school. Sorry for not having a picture like we did last year. I did take one before she got on the bus though and I can post that later.

If you read my entry yesterday, you know about this ALCAT test I took. You should read the comment I got. It helps explain better what it's all about. Thanks "yenvy"! That helped me understand more what's going on. The results actually use the words you say, intolerance, etc. but it still didn't really hit home until you posted your comment. Thanks again!

Today is a rainy day - we've had an inch and a quarter already and I see more rain on the radar coming this way. This will be good for the grass and our plants. It was so nice going to bed last night...I just love the sound of rain hitting the roof when I'm going to sleep.

You're probably wondering why I'm blogging in the middle of the day. Okay...you probably didn't even notice the time but I point it out because Grace is playing with her friend, Riley is sleeping, dinner is already made and the dishwasher and washing machine are running (towels on Wednesdays.) So I had a few minutes to sit and relax DURING THE DAY! WOW! I know it's surprising, but hey I'm just as surprised.