Friday is National Grilled Cheese Day!!!

seriously........seriously love these made up holidays! not quite sure why this one isn't considered a federal holiday, but whatever! you know I love celebrating them and this one is no different!

if you are local, you might considering hitting up Drewski's Hot Rod Kitchen for some gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches. be sure to tell them Susan wants her Chevelle back on the menu......gosh darn it!

if you are more adventurous.......head down to San Francisco!! Tillamook is going all out to celebrate this monumental event! they are hosting a National Grilled Cheese Day happy hour from 5pm to 7pm at The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen! you get a FREE classic grilled cheese sandwich, cheese samples, games, prizes and more. (oh and for those cheese lovers over the golden age of 21......Speakeasy Brewery's local Big Daddy IPA will be $3.50/pint....sounds like a good pairing to me!)

if you can't make it......you can still play along:

• enter to win a year's supply of cheese by sharing your "cheesiest" grilled cheese moments beween today and April 12th on Instagram....tag your pictures #Cheesaholic and @Tillamook to enter! Rules are HERE!
• make your own celebration! Tillamook has oodles of great grilled cheese recipes! they even have a great Yum! Dance you can do to celebrate......or make room for more grilled cheese!

and before you ask........no, I won't be going down to SF for the fun. I am being a good and dutiful mom and spending my evening in chaos in an overstuffed high school gymnasium watching way too many kids make way too much noise.......wish they were offering grilled cheese sandwiches and beer! 

RANT Update!

last month I got a little upset on my blog about people driving around schools, kids, busses, etc. well.....I have an update for you!

the stupid woman (I really want to use another word here.......you know the one......feel free to use it in your head) was sentenced to two hours over two days of standing out in the cold with a sign that reads "Only an idiot would drive on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus." now, while I am an absolute fan of making the punishment fit the crime, I don't think two days is enough time. and, based on the fact that she showed up smoking a cigarette and wearing earphones (and was checking her cell phone during her first day), I don't think she really got the point. what would have been a more appropriate punishment? oh........working a school crosswalk where she can be on the front lines of dealing with idiots like herself that don't have the patience to not run over little kids. and I would make it a couple months of time so she really gets the picture.................hopefully with lots of rain and snow.

as for the two boys struck in a crosswalk, no update there. I am guessing/hoping in this case that no news is good news? the woman is in jail courtesy of her being dui and without a drivers license. (go figure) I have no clue what happened in court last week. I will note that I drove by the intersection this weekend and improvements are still being made to the crosswalks and sidewalks, similar to the ones that are driving me crazy by my park. supposedly the work will all be done before the end of November. I am not holding my breathe.......though Dolly may be. it is totally putting a cramp into her walking schedule.

(INSERT RANT HERE)

people turn into horrible selfish things when they get behind the wheel of a car!

not a new thought for me......but two events have brought it to the forefront:
 
this past week two kids were hit while crossing a major intersection near our house......on their way to school. you know, that school they walk to EVERY SINGLE SCHOOL DAY! in a crosswalk.....with the little white walking dude light telling them they were safe to cross the street......with a grownup just a few feet behind them. but that didn't seem to matter to a woman driving down the street. what did they need to do that was more important than watching the road? their job for the entire time that engine is running is to DRIVE! everything else can wait!

Crash Badly Injures Two Little Boys - SacBee


I know this first hand. I used to have to drive down a large busy street to take my oldest to school. if we were running late I knew I would have to wait behind those big ol' flashing red lights while the school bus stopped to pick up some kids for another school. every day we ran late I stopped............. and then prayed that I wouldn't get rear ended by some SUV speeding mad down the street who wasn't about to stop for those silly lights. you think I am joking?!?! oh no.......SO many times people honked and me, swerved around me, slammed on their breaks, etc. and we aren't talking about just the first few weeks of school while people got used to seeing the busses again. ridiculous!

 then things like this kinda makes me feel a bit better:

PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO.......it's short and worth it.

I LOVE that they caught it on video and the woman was pulled over! sadly, I have so very little hope that anything came out of this other than a ticket. I wouldn't even be surprised if the lady went back to doing the same thing in the near future! why oh why should she interrupt HER life for a silly bus full of kids!


I see the same problem when an ambulance or fire truck is trying to make its way down a street, lights a' blazing, horns a' blaring. but people don't move the heck out of their way! oh they do for a cop car.......sure! those people can give them a ticket, figure out they aren't wearing their seatbelt, etc......but why bother for an ambulance or fire truck? this is what I think:

EVERYTIME YOU SEE AN AMBULANCE OR FIRE TRUCK...........assume it is hurrying off to save one of your loved ones......put a fire out at your house!

make you act any differently?? I hope not........I hope you aren't one of those people who don't get out of the way. but if you are or know of someone who is.........put that concept right up front in your noggin.......because you just never ever ever know!

I guess that was two rants.......bonus!

of mice and men.....and boys and books.....

so as a "good mom" I try to keep up with what is happening in school so I can help the boys out with their homework. J is a great dad and very helpful, but R passed him in math skills in 5th grade or so. I will even admit to having R call Auntie Misty earlier this year. we can still handle D's math, thank goodness! science is completely beyond me. I won't tell you what I did to pass science in high school.

but when it comes to english and history, I am spot on! and as R has started reading what I would consider "classics" I have read along with, or ahead of, him so that we can discuss the points of the stories. I have read most, if not all, of them before, but it has been a couple of years (ha!) and some of the more minor details have escaped me. I am sure I will have to read them again in 2 years to go through the same thing with D. I like talking about books with the boys, especially books like "Of Mice and Men" and this year's earlier assignment "To Kill A Mockingbird."

so my purpose for blogging about this: I am glad that the schools haven't been so beaten by political correctness that they don't teach our kids the mistakes of the past so that they can grow up to not repeat them. I realize these books are fiction, but within them are the kernels of society. I want the boys to know that things weren't always fair and that people don't all live and feel like we do. I hope it will make them grow up to be open minded, thoughtful, and appreciative. all the things we want from an education!

obligations........

I don't want to get too specific........ ah, heck I do!

in the past 2 weeks, 2 different chaperones have had to drop out of R's school field trip. I don't know why the second person dropped out. and as much as I don't want to wish something bad to happen to someone, I sure hope something bad happened for them to flake on 115 kids!

the first person, however, is the one I would truly like to smack upside the head. everyone was told back in August that they would need to get fingerprinted. State law, District law, whatever! it used to be you only needed to get fingerprinted for overnight trips but a couple years ago it changed to do ANYTHING with the students you had to get fingerprinted. the process takes about 20 minutes at one of about a dozen police stations in the greater Sacto area. then they do the background check stuff. they tell you it takes about 90 days. don't have a clue WHY..... but it does!

anyway, back to the first flake. guess what they never "found time" to do?!??! oh you got it! so with less than a month until the trip they are short a chaperone...... one who had an econo van that they were going to transport 9 kids.......and a trailer for lots of gear. so, yeah, what a pickle!

so what I want to know is: how do you look your kid in the face and explain to them that you can't do something you committed to because you couldn't get your act together and get fingerprinted? and if kids can't go because there aren't enough chaperones how can you show your face at any school function ever? and really, what kind of parent or role model can you be if you, as a grown-up, can't meet your commitments? how can you hold your own child accountable if you can't do something as simple as find the time sometime in 6 months to go get fingerprinted?

(aaaah....... now who did I borrow this soap box from?)

no habla espanol!

(yeah.... not even sure I spelled that right)

but on with the story....... several months ago we started getting 2 phone calls every time the boys' school district sent out a broadcast message. I figured they just had a real basic phone calling system and couldn't figure out that we had 2 kids in the same district even if they were at two different grade groupings (elementary and middle) and at two different schools. so we get the same phone calls twice.

then a few months ago we started getting only one phone call from the school district....... in english......... and our second phone call........... in spanish!

and starting just a few weeks ago we have started getting solicitation calls from one of our credit card companies...... in spanish! WTH?!?!?!?

so, now, why is this happening?!?!? we have joked that since R has started taking spanish in school that the district wants him to practice! lol! and when D moved in with us, we had him tested as possibly bilingual because his prior foster care family spoke primarily spanish (welcome to California! lol!). anyway, he failed and they determined he had no problems with english and didn't know much spanish. but that really can't be it because D has been with us for 5 years and these spanish calls have only started in the past few months.

the question remains........... is there something about our family that makes people think we speak spanish or have they decided that everyone in our lovely state speaks spanish?

no se! (lol!!)

pants.....

Because it is warm so late into the school year, long pants are never on our back to school shopping list. So today R and I are going ice skating and I made him wear pants. Thankfully he has a pair that fit him around the waist. I guess that means he hasn't gotten WIDER in the past year.
But it does crack me up that the wear mark from his pants being too long last year is showing because his pants are now the right length instead of 4 inches too long!

bookend birthdays.....

things have been crazy around here. trying to get in the swing of the new job has taken quite a toll on my free time. dh is working on taking over making dinners and R is helping out a bit more around the house. thankfully summer is almost upon us and that means that atleast I won't have to do the morning carpool before catching Light Rail to work.

today, being June 2nd is the calm in the eye of the storm. R's birthday was yesterday and D's birthday is tomorrow. we celebrated this year with a miserable day at Great America. it was cold and windy and the boys lasted about 5 hours before wanting to head home. on top of that lunch almost killed us all it was so gross. if anything might push me to becoming a vegetarian......it was that hamburger! all in all we spent more time driving back and forth than we did at the park.

yesterday we went to Melting Pot for the next part of the ongoing party train. we joined a grown up couple for a lovely dinner. thankfully no hamburger there and the food is always superb!!

today was our day to rest from stuffing ourselves and tomorrow we will be off to Red Robin for the last of our great birthday parties. seems silly but Red Robin is our traditional place of celebration. we go every year on Gotcha Day and for birthdays.

D turns 10 this year. it isn't as shocking as when R turned 10. I wonder if that has anything to do with being the second child or because he hasn't actually been with us for all those years? not really sure other than it is still strange to think that he is 10.......

so anyway........hopefully I will be back up to speed and blogging AND scrapping more. I sure hope so!

an update of sorts...

to keep this from just being a total whine-fest tonight....I will just let you all know what happened with R's community service grade.

dh talked to the vice principal at R's school today. the reason for the F was because it is a pass or fail class. well......then shouldn't it be rated P or F?!?!? anyway....whatever! he also said that community service grades don't carry on up to high school so it won't continue to haunt R for the rest of his life! lol!! we knew there would be some adjustment issues between being bored in school and then all of a sudden actually having to think and do homework. if this is the worst of it (and is over with now) I am happy to accept it!

not a day to remember......

R's 2nd term report card came home. he improved his grades in all but one class. amazing since he was already getting darn good grades.

BUT.......he completely failed community service. why? because he forgot to write a one paragraph reflection on what he was doing and how he liked it. dh and I are so very angry with him. not only because he didn't pay attention well enough to notice but also because he has known for 2 weeks and said he forgot to tell us. here I was happily reviewing all his improved grades and then I get hit with the F.

now.....not to excuse his behaviour, but he missed writing one paragraph yet managed to do 150% of the required service hours. why a F? why not a C or a D for missing a part?

something that makes me laugh....

usually commercials get old after the 3 viewing/listening. sometimes after the first. but right now there is a radio spot that makes me laugh every time! in fact, we usually hear it in the morning during school carpool and we all enjoy it and spend a few minutes afterwards talking about it.....so I thought I would share....

girl 1: cute dog!
girl 2: thanks!
girl 1: what's his name?
girl 2: that is "Meow Meow."
girl1: that is a weird name for a cat.
girl 2: oh....he's not my pet. he's my cat's pet. I'm saving so much money at Petco that I thought it would be nice to buy my pets pets.
girl 1: don't you think a pet is a lot of responsibility for your cat?
girl 2 (sounding kinda snotty): why not? she's got a car!
(sound of tires squeeling and then a "meow")

we just think this is HYSTERICAL!!! (though it could be due to lack of sleep) we then start discussing the ramifications of a cat having a dog as a pet......and the image of a cat driving a car. course, the second half of the commercial is about a guy who gets his dog singing lessons. it isn't funny at all and we usually mute the radio......so we can rehash the pet-dog-owning car-driving cat! lol!

maybe we just need something to do now that Sunflower Seed Boy is gone?!?!?

ain't no sunshine when HE's gone......

yeah, I know.....I took liberties with Bill Wither's song. cut me some slack! lol!!

so dh and R have been at science camp all week. I talked with J briefly Monday night and got a text from him yesterday morning. that is it! heck, I had more communication when they were at Scout camp last summer where there was supposedly NO cell connection! whatever! lol!!

anyway......last weekend the weather was beautiful. this entire week it has been rainy and overcast. just plain ol' yucky weather! sure enough....they come home tonight and this weekend is back to beautiful weather! so sometime yesterday I started humming that song. funny, huh?!?!?

while I have missed them, I have spent most of my non-work time being a bum. D goes to bed so early that I really have a lot of free time in the evenings. instead of being productive.....which I really needed to do....I instead watched tv and went to bed early. and I slept......a lot!!! I woke up 30 minutes later than I need to when I have to take R to school and I didn't have anyone snoring and waking me up. I even fell asleep on the couch yesterday! obviously this weather is making me think it is time to hibernate. hopefully when the sun returns this weekend I will come out of my cave and get some stuff done! not too much time until the C's visit.....Halloween.....and the LM crop!!

I must still be in shock.....

Saturday R was with me and we were running errands one of which was a stop at the grocery store. R stated that we should make sushi at home. no problem except that no one in our family but me LIKES sushi! so his statement was a little shocking. only a little since he is almost through with his term of Japanese language at school. so I tell him that we should do that and we decide that this weekend wasn't going to work due to other plans but that the next weekend might. I asked what we needed and could we get it now or should we get it closer to when we were making the sushi.

that is when it happened.

R lists off what we need: short grain rice (we have), seaweed wraps, crab, cucumber, and avocado.

I didn't hit anyone luckily but I know that I caught my breathe. crab? no one but me likes. cucumber? the boys don't like and J basically tolerates in a salad as long as there is dressing handy. avocado? turns them all green....and not in a good way.

so basically R has asked to plan a meal using all foods that no one really likes and he thinks this is a good thing. maybe I should plan pizza for dessert??

Sunflower Seed Boys' alter ego revealed......

first introduced on September 20th, Sunflower Seed Boy sightings are a highlight of our morning drives! if we don't see him we wonder where he is. when we do see him the boys wave hello and start wondering about him and his adventures.

this morning, we passed SSB on our way to carpool duties. we were running ahead of schedule and B (carpool boy! lol!) was too.......so we had enough time to start contemplating a Starbucks stop. shortly thereafter we passed a down bicyclist. we really couldn't tell who it was but it looked like SSB or his brother (coined Super Dude). we couldn't tell what had happened (car accident, broken bike, whatever) but someone was laying down. so I did what any good mother would do, I turned around and went back to see what was going on. another cyclist had stopped to offer assistance by the time we got back to the scene. turns out SSB's chain broke and threw him from his not-so-trusty steed. his knee was injured but not bleeding. no broken bones.....just a kid who was going to be sore for awhile. I offered a cell phone to call home and he said there was no way to contact his parents. I offered a ride back home or to school.

I guess a lady in a SUV with 2 kids isn't perceived as too much of a threat because he accepted the ride. (or maybe he recognized us from the morning trips?!?!?) anyway.....we threw his bike in the back and he piled in the front seat. on the way to his school (which we obviously pass daily) we learned about our super hero. I won't go into details.............. to protect his identity.......but we did find out that he really IS a hero!! our SSB is in ROTC at his high school!

R got the courage to ask about the origins of his sunflower seed backpack and found out a neighbor gave it to him. the boys were SOOOO funny in the back seat all beaming with excitement! lol!!

we also found out that SSB would be moving and soon we wouldn't see him on our morning drives. as sad as it will to not have a familiar sight, I am kinda glad we know. this way we won't worry about why we don't see him! when we got him to his school the boys both said bye and waved.

......barely got the boys to their school on time......no Starbucks.

the many adventures of Sunflower Seed Boy.....

so with the change in R's school, we now drive about 20 minutes to school every morning. I guess it is good to have this quality bonding time, even though there is another kid in the car (no, I am not referring to D as "another kid"..... he is dropped off when we pick up B - the other kid).

as we settle in to our morning driving routine, we have noticed things:

Sunflower Seed Boy - duly named because he wears a David's Sunflower Seed backpack. he was our first *find* and the boys have fun making up little stories about him and how he got his backpack and what special powers he has. and, just so you know, this guy is in high school.

Handlebar Helmet Man - if we do make up a big ol' story, this guy is going to be a bad guy. he was previously mentioned on my 9-11 blog entry because he has his bicycle helmet with him every day..... hanging from his handlebar! we figure when he gets hit the handlebar will be just fine!

Hall Monitor Boy - he goes to the boys' school and we pass him just as we are reaching school. sadly, he got this name because he has a whistle that he has around his neck and the boys were making fun of it and him. we have determined that he is in 7th or 8th grade, but he is a small child for his age. after some gentle chiding, the boys have started to become his friends. they still don't know his name and he is still referred to as Hall Monitor Boy. his saga includes the special powers that he gets from the whistle.

and lastly to enter the scene is Super Dude! we were shocked to find yesterday that Sunflower Seed Boy has a brother...... who wears a Superman backpack. since Super Boy had already been taken, he was named Super Dude. he looks younger that SSB and we don't know why we haven't seen the two of them together before. in fact, we had seen SD before and had temporarily mistaken him for SSB! interesting, isn't it?!?! anyway......Super Dude is Sunflower Seed Boy's sidekick and we haven't figured out any powers or a story line for him.

this morning it rained and we didn't see any of our super heroes. funny to hear the boys comment that someone wasn't in *their* spot where we normally see them.

day 3 of school....

and we are already crying because we don't want to do our homework.

and people wonder why I am grumpy!

what a crummy blogger!

while it isn't for lack of ideas to blog about....but I guess I have just been so busy that when I DID have some free time I about passed out from exhaustion!

Friday - R's school orientation. he got his locker. he got his books. he got his class schedule. I got to write a BUNCH of checks.....and find out about the rest of the checks I get to write in the near future for him! uuugh! (blog idea: the new peer pressures of life in middle school. no lunchpails....we must use brown paper bags.)

Friday part 2 - THE STATE FAIR!!!!
we got there a little after 12 noon and spent the rest of the day looking at stuff. the boys even got to do some community art. then we saw Tesla in concert. R was exhausted from his day so he and I went out to the car early and kicked back resting waiting for J & D to finish watching the concert. (blog idea: how people in those electric wheelchairs are horribly rude and inconsiderate and worse than people who run over ankles with strollers! just because that thing HAS a beeper does NOT mean that you don't need to check before you floor it in reverse!) (blog idea #2: the food at the fair.....have you heard about the deep fried frozen COKE???)

Saturday - dh went golfing and then had a Scout event. I went to do school shopping and grocery shopping with 2 boys. then I came home and got to scrap a little. (blog idea: if the class list says 3x5 index cards but you can only find 4x6 does that mean you should: a) cut them all down to appropriate size, b) have a meltdown in the store, c) not worry about it, or d) not buy any at all.)

Sunday - we all just kinda crashed. dh built my scrap bookcase from IKEA and I scrapped. (blog idea: dh did NOT try and kill me again with undercooked pork.)

Monday - first day of school! started the morning car pool. it wasn't as bad as I thought it might. HOWEVER, the local college is not back in session yet so I would like to reserve final judgement until after that happens! lol! both boys had great days and brought home ooooooodles of homework......for ME!! how I despise all those forms that need to be completed every year! (blog idea: how much I get irked every time I fill out those forms and I am given the option of being D's "natural", "step", "foster/guardian", or "other" parent. it just bugs me to no end!!!) (blog idea #2: doing occasional movie reviews....like about the movie I watched today: Mistress of Spices. it was very good, btw. slow in parts...but overall extremely enjoyable!)

Tuesday - today. back to work. made it on time....how nice! lol! (blog idea: shoot! can't believe I haven't blogged since last Thursday) (blog idea #2: review of Stranger Than Fiction movie. it was very good and very funny and Maggie Gyllenhall is very adorable! however we can't seem to watch the movies we get through our Blockbuster program fast enough.) (blog idea #3: how we DIDN'T go to the Huey Lewis concert tonight. kinda bummed. kinda happy. I was tired. I am tired. I should go to bed.)

bye bye summer!!!

LM's DT did layouts around the theme of

What did you do this summer?

you know.....like that tortured back to school essay! lol!! it is all kinda a blur to me right now! where did time go???

you know there is something wrong....

when you can find out when & where all the field & track events for the coming season (starting in April 2008) are going to be but you don't know what time school starts in less than 2 weeks!!

I'm just sayin'...............

tell me again......it's Friday the 27th!!

I seem to be having a time space continuim problem. and honestly, since I don't actually pay attention when J watches Star Trek, I am not really sure what that is and if it is really what I am having a problem with.

all week I have caught myself thinking it is a different date. I have written the wrong date on every check I wrote this week. kept trying to give myself a few more days this week. maybe I am thinking that those days I spent at Hogwarts no time elapsed in the Muggle world?!?!?

either way....today IS Friday. it IS the 27th. and the month of July is almost over! YIKES!!! I guess not having a big family vacation this summer messed things up mentally for me. when do I start taunting the boys that school is about to start again? I think R is starting to get a little nervous about the whole new school thing. so much up in the air right now! makes me almost anxious to get it all going so we can figure things out and have things settle down.

so I guess this post isn't really about anything specifically.......just blabbering on.