This and That

I mentioned several months ago that our neighbor, Ken, sold his house and moved to an island to retire in peace.  We were happy for him, but a little bummed at the same time, because he was a good guy to live next door to.  Tonight, though, we met our new neighbor, and she seems really nice, too!  She looks like she might be an Indian woman and her name is pronounced Suh-doff.  Anyway, she came over and she, Mike, and I talked for awhile, and I like her.   After the nightmare experience we had with the people who live behind us, I don't take good neighbors for granted anymore, and I never will again.  (I don't remember if I talked about that here, but I probably didn't...at least not fully.  I never will, either.  I'm still traumatized by it, and it's been 7 years.)

Actually, our new neighbor said that she stopped over another time awhile back, when she first bought the house (I guess she bought it in October, but she hasn't moved in yet because she's doing some renovating), and "A very nice young man answered the door and spoke with her."  She said it made her feel reassured that she was going to be living next to decent people.

I automatically assumed she must've met Zach, and said, "Oh, that was our oldest son."  Then later I asked Zach about it, and it wasn't him.  I guess it was Drew!  Just the look of Drew doesn't always give people a "reassuring" feeling, so I'm glad! 

Recently Baylee had a bit of a rough couple days, behavior-wise.  After we worked through all that...consequences were given, etc...she came to me, apologized, and said that she sometimes feels like an especially difficult teen.  She's so wrong about that.  She's pretty dang easy, actually.

I said to her, "Oh, honey, you're fine.  You're fifteen, and all fifteen year olds are like that."  Then I went on to tell her stories about Zach and Drew when they were fifteen.  Zach happened to come in the room while I was telling his story, and he even added a few details that I had forgotten.  lol  I don't think I ever told about it here, though, because at that time I was probably too mad.  I'll tell it now:

When Zach was fifteen he decided one day to be a huge punk in our homeschool.  I don't even remember what he did, but it was bad.  In fact, it was bad enough that I called Mike at work to come home and deal with him, and I never do that.  This was back when Mike stilled worked at Environment Control, which was close by, and so he came home, picked up Zach, and took him back to work with him.  For the next 4 hours straight Zach cleaned that office building.  He scrubbed toilets, vacuumed and mopped floors, dusted, and organized inventory.  By the time he got back home he was a well-behaved kid again.

Thursday

I've been keeping the house really clean and nice all break long, but today I decided I'm not doing it.  I showered and everything, but then I got back in pajamas and I've been reading, working on French, playing Candy Crush (I'm on level 539), and generally messing around.

At the Season Preview show Mike visited with Jack's Australian dad for quite awhile.  (They have something in common:  They both work at Boeing.)  One of the things that Jack's dad told Mike was that they really like having Baylee over for dinner each week.  In fact, Jack's dad is the cook of the family, and he said that she eats everything he makes no matter what it is.  "I've made lima beans, brussels sprouts, and mushrooms, and I haven't been able to stump her yet!"

Here's the secret thing about Baylee, though:  She's a super picky eater.  In fact, she's our only picky eater, and to this day I don't know what went wrong.  So when I found out she's eating like that over at Jack's, I asked her about it.  Her response was an indignant, "Well, I'm polite, aren't I?  I even ask for seconds."

Yep.  She's Dutch alright.

Two Annoying Things

You know what's really getting annoying?  Posts like this:

"Would 2016 please just go away already! I don't know if I can handle any more people passing away!!!"

Those are actual words that one of my FB friends said tonight, and she's not alone.  I've read the same sort of thing written by several different people many times over the last few weeks.  Here's what I want to post:  "Alright, listen up, people!  2016 is not a sentient being who's out to get you!  When 2017 rolls around bad things are not magically going to stop happening. Quit being dumb!"

You know what else is annoying?  When you go into the grocery store because you have to buy one thing, a feminine product, and EVERY cashier is a guy.  And there's no self check-out.  (I hate Albertson's for that reason alone.  What the heck are they doing not having U-Scans???)  You'd think I'd be past any feminine-product-related embarrassment at 45, but nope.  I stood there thinking, "Are you kidding me right now?  Siiiiiiiigh.  This sucks."  And the cashier, a 20-something dude, definitely wasn't past embarrassment, either.  We didn't make eye contact.

PS:  It's possible my first annoying thing is tied into my second.

French Stuff

I'm so excited, because...well...let me back up.  For quite awhile Patty was expressing interesting in getting back into learning French.  (She took it in high school, had a great teacher, and really loved it.)  She and I talked about it several times and I always encouraged her to jump back in, and finally recently she started doing Duolingo.

Anyway!  A couple days ago she was texting me in French.  It was cute and fun and it got me motivated to pick it all back up again myself.  (I've been on a break.)  I did two things:

• I started working on getting all my circles gold again in Duolingo.  Whenever I step away from French for a time I always use Duolingo to get me back up to speed.  It's a really good review, and it usually takes me 5-7 days.
• I decided I'm finally ready to conquer French in Action.  That's the college French class that's half in the classroom and half a soap opera type story that takes place on the streets of Paris.  Each lesson is a 30-minute video, and there are 52 lessons. The entire thing is in French.

To get to the point, though, I'm excited about French in Action!  This is the third time I've attempted this course.  The first time I understood much of it but that wasn't enough for me, so I put it away and did other things.  The second time I understood most of it, but it was still frustrating.  Again I put it away and finished Assimil and Learnables instead.  This time, though?  I understand 99% of it!  It's so fun!  It's not even a strain on my brain!  I can't tell you how cool it is to be in a place where I can actually use the language...even just to hear and understand.  It feels like all that work is finally paying off. 

Monday

Today has been lovely.  Really, the only thing on the agenda was that Baylee had a drum lesson.  (The SoR only closes a few days a year:  Christmas day, Thanksgiving, New Year's Day, 4th of July, and that might be it.)  I took all the decorations down, and it was easy, because Mike helped.  And what's even better, we were able to chat together and enjoy each other's company during that time, which we needed.  We've both been a little stressed out lately and have been sniping at each other a bit, so it was good to reconnect.

I'm actually excited to get back to my diet, which I did today.  I'm going to be really good and try really hard to make my Jan 6 milestone 2 deadline.  I'm also happy because Mike is going to get back on the wagon.  He lost quite a bit of weight earlier in the year using his own do-it-yourself version of Slimfast, then gained some back over the holidays.  Recently, though, he heard about a diet called Isagenix.  He did some research and talked to a couple people, and decided to try it for himself.  I don't know much about it, but to me it looks like a super healthy meal replacement program.  Anyway, he hopes to place his first order in the next week or so.  It'll be fun to get to our goals together and then start doing stuff like bike riding with each other again.

Merry Christmas

Remember those days when the kids were up and ready to open presents at 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning?  Well, those days are long gone.  I was actually up, showered, dressed, and ready before the first kid got out of bed.

Anyway, it's been a nice day!  We opened presents, Mike made brunch, then we messed around pretty much all day.  Pretty soon we're going to put together a "treats" supper:  cheeses, sausage, crackers, dips, meatballs, a cheesecake, etc.  Then we're going to go see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them at the theater.

Merry Christmas!

Opening presents...

Drew made lattes for everyone with the fancy coffee machine that Zach got the family for Christmas.  So far Drew, because of his experience at Starbucks, is the only one who can figure out how to use it.

 

Patty, Baylee, and I colored for awhile.  I actually have to wear reading glasses to do it, if you can believe that.

  

Christmas Eve

I'm about to get in bed and read for a little bit before I sleep, but I thought I'd quickly post about Christmas Eve.  It's been fun!  Let's see...

Patty, Baylee, and I decorated gingerbread men.  It was Patty's idea, and it was a great one.

 

Let's just say Patty and Baylee were a little better at it than I was, though. 

  

We had lasagna, Caesar salad, garlic bread, and tiramisu for dinner.

Then we messed around with a puzzle and watched a great movie called Eddie the Eagle.  (Honestly, it was so good!  I highly recommend it.  It made me cry, but with happiness.)

PS:  My mom and dad had a homemade pizza party at their house with all the family, and my sister sent me these pictures. 

This is my sister, Lindsey, my brother, Eric, and various lovely nieces.

And this is just Lin and Eric.

I miss them so much!

Christmas Eve Eve

Yesterday I talked about how I was kinda sad, because there would only be gift cards under the tree, and then this morning Mike went out and bought gifts.  He didn't get many, and we're still doing the gift cards, but I have a few things to wrap and there will be some stuff for people to open on Christmas morning.  He spoils us all...big time.  Also, he's home for the next 19 days!  He's on vacation!

In other news, it's snowing!  In fact, it's been snowing all day.  I don't think it'll stick, but it's pretty.

Now we just to have to figure out how to get the food for Christmas and we'll be all set.  I went to Fred Meyer this morning, circled the parking lot with about 100 other cars looking for a spot, and then finally left.  We'll try again later.    

Thursday

Last year at Christmas I went through...I'd almost say it was a little bit of a grieving process...because, as far as gifts, our kids are all at the point where the only thing they want is money or gift cards.  In other words, they want to be able to pick out their own stuff.  (That probably makes them sound more demanding than they are.  I should say, "When asked, they say...")  Anyway, it was unexpectedly hard.  I missed shopping for them.  I missed all the presents under the tree.  I missed the excitement of Christmas morning.  This year is a little easier, just because it's not new, but I'm still kind of sad.

All that to say, so far getting ready for Christmas has been extremely easy.  In fact, we've done exactly nothing. Today or tomorrow we'll get the presents situated (money and gift cards don't take much prep time) and I'll shop for and make the food at some point, and that will be that.  The bright side is I have quite a bit of time on my hands this Christmas break, and I've been using it to read books and watch movies. Last night I saw the American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  Man, that is quite a suspenseful, scary movie!  In fact, it got to be too much for me, and I had to turn it off and finish it this morning in broad daylight.  Even so, I kept having to take breaks and do something else, like play Candy Crush for a minute. 

Today Baylee felt a little sorry for me, I guess, because I didn't have a real picture of her and Jack, so she sent me two selfies that she took.

They're at his house, and they've got big plans to cook a lasagna dinner for his family.  This should be interesting, because neither of them know what they're doing at all.  This morning I said to Baylee, "Do either of you even know how to make the hamburger that goes in it?"

"No, not really."

"What are you going to do?"

"Jack's little sister, Piper, cooks a lot.  Maybe she'll help us."

I hope so!  lol

Tuesday

We had such a busy day on Sunday that by the time I finally got to go to bed I was exhausted.  My feet and legs were sore from being on them for so many hours.  These last couple days, though, have been quiet and lovely!  I'm very much enjoying my Christmas break.

A couple pics from the last few days...

A peaceful moment the other night

Baylee is known for having a super serious face whenever she drums.  In fact, the other kids in house band tease her by calling it her "resting drum face."  lol  She's a sweet kid...really!  (Pic taken by one of the other house band parents.)

Big Day

Man, today has been quite a day.  The most important thing for you to know in order to understand this day is that Baylee's Australian boyfriend, Jack, was coming over for dinner for the very first time, which meant that we needed to make a good impression.  The house had to be cleaned.  Good food had to be served.  People had to pull out their winning personalities.  You get the idea.

The plan was that Baylee would get dropped off at her Led Zep rehearsal this afternoon, then from there she had situated a ride for herself and Jack to a house band gig they had to be at later.  Then after that they were going to come back to our house for dinner.  However, with very little notice she found out that her ride to the gig got grounded from his car and couldn't drive them.  That meant that she and Jack would come to our house, wait for awhile, and then we'd all go to the gig together.  In other words, Jack was coming HOURS earlier than originally planned!!!  That might not seem like a big deal to...well...pretty much anybody except me, but for me it was a house cleaning crisis.  You've never seen someone kick it into high gear like I did.  I scrubbed, vacuumed, picked up, wiped down, turned on Christmas lights, lit candles, and generally made it look merry and bright around here.  And bonus, I still had just enough time before they showed up to make myself look halfway decent...or at least not like a homeless lady.

Anyway, I think we made a good impression on Jack, but for sure he made one on us.  Honestly, he's the nicest kid.  He even asked Mike and me if we needed any help getting the meal ready. lol  For real!

Here's a sneaky picture of the two of them at the gig today.  Baylee looks unhappy, but really she was just bored.  They had to be there for four hours.

And here's a song Baylee played in.  This gig, although long, was a neat one.  The house band got to play at a place called the Rat's Nest, which is home base for the Rat City Rollergirls.  We got to watch roller derby events in between sets.  It was cool!

SoR Season Preview Show

From last night.  Baylee did a wonderful job!

Friday

Three weeks ago I talked about starting a diet and using the Happy Scale app to track weight loss milestones.  I said that I'd reach milestone 1 by December 16.  Well, I reached it yesterday, on the 15th, by the skin of my teeth!  (I messed around a lot.)  Whatever, though.  Onward and upward to the next milestone.  I'll reach it by or before January 6th.

We've got a big day today.  For one thing, it's the last day of school for Baylee and me before Christmas break!!!  We're both ready.  For another, she gets to play in the SoR Season Preview show tonight.  That's the one where they take the best two songs from each show and play them for a big crowd.  It'll be fun to watch her.  She'll be in one song from her Led Zep show and one from house band.

Finally

Quite awhile back...like a year or so ago...Drew read the DMV book and took the written part of the driving test.  Honestly, he didn't put that much work into studying and, not surprisingly, didn't pass.  At that point, though, he had already started using the Metro to get everywhere he needed or wanted to go, so he didn't care and didn't try again.  Finally recently he got sick of taking the bus, which is exactly what I hoped would eventually happen. He started putting quite a bit of time into studying, and today he took and passed the written test.  Now it's time for Mike to teach him how to drive, so he can take the practical part of the test and get his license.


PS:  When Drew got home after passing the test he and I had this conversation about it:

Me:  I told Dad you passed, and he said that teaching you to drive is either going to be really easy or really hard.

Drew:  I think I'll be alright.  I'd have to be a complete dumb*** to not get it.

Me:  Weeeeellll...

He laughed, then got a little offended, then laughed again.


PPS:  Mike took him out this evening and said he did great.

Pics

Yesterday Baylee was cold while she studied for a Latin test.  lol  Those Latin tests are getting hard, by the way.  To take that test Baylee had to memorize all kinds of charts and tables showing the different word endings based on tense and mood, not to mention gender.  Then there's all the vocab.  It's a lot.  She's doing well, though!

Last night me, Gibbs, and Drew piled on the couch and watched the season finale of Survivor.

The house band.  See the guy at the very back with the curly hair?  That's Baylee's Australian boyfriend, Jack.

Tuesday

One of my friends on Facebook has this as her profile picture...

...and seeing it this morning made me remember something from my childhood that I haven't thought of in a long time.

One summer afternoon when I was twelve years old I was playing outside by myself, pretending to be Wonder Woman.  I was standing on the top step of our back porch...about three or four feet up...and I decided to try that twirl thing that Wonder Woman would do when she was changing into her true form, only I thought I'd jump off the porch and do it in mid-air.  I jumped and twirled, and everything was great until I landed in a half barrel of dirt and flowers that my parents had put next to the steps as decoration.  My knee hit the jagged edge of it, putting a huge gash in my leg.

I guess I managed to get out of the flowers and crawl to the ground, and that's when our wife-beater neighbor saw me.  (For real.   He was a handsome guy in his 20's who was perfectly normal and nice during the day, but then sometimes at night he would get drunk and scare, if not actually beat, his young wife.  I only have snatches of memories of this, but I think my parents called the police on him more than once.  Also, one time his wife came to our door in the middle of the night and asked to come in, because she needed a place to hide from him.  My parents let her in and sat with her.)  Anyway, I was lying on the ground, and this neighbor guy walked over to me, scooped me up in his arms, and carefully carried me to my back door.  He knocked, my dad answered, and the guy told him what had happened.  My dad asked him to come in and put me down in the bathtub because of all the blood, so the guy walked into our house, put me in the tub, my dad thanked him, and then the guy left.

I still have a scar on my knee to this day.  (That's a topic for a whole 'nother post, though.  I could call it "You Don't Need No Stinkin' Stitches," and it would be about how parents in the '80's thought everything could be fixed with butterfly bandages.)

Monday

When I was in high school I was on the "smart kid" track.  lol  That is, I ended up taking a lot of things I literally never used again in my entire life, including Chemistry 2, Advanced Biology, Physics, Trigonometry, and Human Anatomy and Physiology.  Of those, Chemistry 2 and Trig were a complete bust.  I NEVER should've been in either of them, because they involved high-level math that I just couldn't get a handle on.  (Here's an actual conversation I had with my Trig teacher one day.  Her:  If you don't understand, why are you not asking more questions?  Me:  Because I'm so lost I don't even know what questions to ask.  Her:  Hmm.  I see your point.)  Advanced Biology, Physics, and Human A and P, on the other hand, were actually a ton of fun.  For real!  I still have good memories of each of them, especially Human A and P.

Human Anatomy and Physiology was a special class, in that there was only one of them each year and you had to be at a certain level to get into it.  The first 3/4 of it was spent just learning about the human body in depth, but...and here's the fun part...the last 1/4 of it was spent dissecting a cat.

The teacher, Mr. Krebs, partnered us up, and each group of two got one cat.  Mr. Krebs put me with the exchange student from Spain.  This kid, Pedro, was extremely smart (he won almost every award the school handed out at the end of the year), extremely good looking, and VERY sexist.  He absolutely fully believed that, because I was a girl, I couldn't be trusted to work on the cat.  Mr. Krebs ended up having to give him a private come-to-Jesus talk about it, and after that Pedro reluctantly let me help.  In fact, somewhere during that 9 weeks he and I became friends and had a lot of fun dissecting together.

Anyway, here are some random facts about that time...

• The cats were delivered to the school by the post office, and each cat was in its own box.  Somebody at the post office thought it would be funny to write names for the cats on the boxes.  I don't remember all of them, but I do remember there was a "Lucky" and a "Rigor Morris."
• For 9 weeks straight my hands smelled like formaldehyde or whatever preservative the cats had been filled with.
• Some cats were pregnant.
• Some had worms.
• At the end of the 9 weeks our final exam was to be able to identify literally hundreds of parts of the cat.  We walked in the room on that final day and the cats were all stationed here and there, and they all had tons of tiny little flags stuck in different muscles, bones, brain sections, etc.  Each flag had a number on it.  We had to find that number on our test and write down what that part was.

Saturday

I told you about my shower mishap yesterday, so today I thought I'd give you an update:

(Yes, this has totally become a blog where I give you up-to-the-minute coverage of my bruises.  Why do you ask?)

I've got 3 of them.  There's one on my arm and one on my back, and those hurt a little, but they're run-of-the-mill.  Then I've got my butt bone bruise.  I told you yesterday that it was going to be epic, and I was so right.  We have no floor length mirrors in the whole house, so I had to be pretty dedicated just to even see the thing.  I had to bring a dining room chair into the bathroom and stand on it to get my bruised area into view, and holy cow, it did not disappoint.  I've got a huge edge-of-the-tub-shaped raised welt that's totally black.  Of course, I made both Mike and Baylee look at it (separately).  Mike's response:  "Wow.  That's bad."  Baylee's response:  "That's the worst bruise I've ever seen in my life."  It hurts to sit.  It even hurts to walk.  Honestly, I feel like I should win some sort of prize.

In totally other news, I went out for breakfast with 3 girlfriends this morning.  That was fun!  I never realize how much I need that until I'm in the middle of it.  It's good for the soul.

Sigh

The conversation I'm about to share is probably TMI, but that's never stopped me before, so...

Me [calling Mike at work]:  You'll never believe what just happened.

Mike:  What?

Me:  I was in the shower and Baylee called me.  She was out dog walking, so I got out of the shower and answered it, just in case it was an emergency.  It wasn't; she just wanted to tell me something.  Anyway, when I stepped back in the shower I slipped and fell really hard.

Mike:  I knew that's where this was going.  Are you alright?

Me:  I hurt myself in about six places, but the place that hurts the most is my butt bone.  You know how you have those two pelvis knob thingies?  That's what I mean.  I landed on one.  I'm probably going to have a huge bruise there, and I'm not even going to be able to show anybody!  Well, except you.

Mike [laughs]:  It's funny that not being able to show people your bruise is your biggest concern.  Do we need to get you one of those old lady bath mats with the suction cups?

Me:  Yes!  Actually, I think I need them through the whole house.


Seriously, though, ow.  It really hurts to sit here and type this.  And if you're wondering, I'm talking about these...

Friday

We got snow!!!  We hardly ever get snow, so this is a BIG DEAL.

Last night.  PS:  That's a snowman windsock.

And this morning.

It's only a couple inches, but most of the schools are closed, including Drew's college, which puts him in a weird predicament.  He was supposed to take his last final exam yesterday, on Thursday, but when he got to the classroom there was a sign on the door that said the professor had a family emergency, and it told everyone to come back on Friday.  Well, today's Friday...and school is cancelled.  It also happens to be the last day of the quarter before Christmas break.  So now what??

By the way, I was woken up out of a sound sleep this morning by a huge crashing noise right above me.  I went outside and looked up at the roof above our bedroom, and there's a big tree branch that had fallen on there.

Thursday

He's a bad little dude.

Wednesday

Awhile back I told you about Baylee's new (as of this summer) friend, Abby.  What I didn't mention is that, although the two of them are really close and hang out together a lot, they're also part of a bigger group of four.  Abby, Baylee, Ezra, and Max are together all the time.  In fact, they even came up with a name for themselves:  BEAM.  It stands for all of their first names.  lol  I think one of the reasons they get along so well (besides the fact that they're in house band together) is that they're all just friends, and none of them are dating each other.

Anyway, here they are yesterday at Max's house.  (Max's mom took this and put it on Facebook with the caption "BEAM decorating the tree.")

By the way, Ezra is Jewish and goes to a private Jewish high school.  Baylee said he mentioned that it was his first time ever decorating a tree.  (I wonder what his parents think!)

Tuesday

Gibby is sick and it's been so sad.  He threw up yesterday morning, and then he seemed fine for most of the day.  In the evening, though, he started throwing up again and a lot.  It wasn't food, because he hadn't eaten all day, but it was this slimy, watery stuff.  And then he got a fever and chills.  There's nothing sadder than a dog with chills, let me tell you.  Man, my heart hurt for him.  Today, though, I've been giving him a tiny bit of water (like 3 ounces) every 20 minutes, and, except for a couple times this morning, he's been able to keep it down.  And he's not shivering anymore.  I'm praying he's on the mend.

Drew's in his finals week, and today he had to go to school to "sign off" on his Music Theory grade.  (I have no idea why they do this in the music program, but with all their music classes the students have to sign something that says they agree that they deserve the grade they're getting.)  Anyway, Drew got a 4.0 in that class!  I'm proud of him.  And what's neat is he ended up absolutely loving Theory and its teacher, and looking forward to it every day.  Drew said that among the 30 or so students in the class, there were a handful who worked hard and did well.  They had each other's backs as far as quizzing one another and working together to really understand things. At the end of the quarter the professor told them that they made it the best Intro to Theory class he's ever taught.   

Next quarter Drew will be taking Theory 1 and Piano 1, along with something new for him:  Songwriting.  He's excited about that.  He'll also be taking another English class.

And speaking of school, here's Baylee doing Geometry yesterday with a helper.

My Life of Crime

I'm about to admit something that's going to make me look like a VERY BAD driver.

This afternoon I had to run an errand to the grocery store, so I drove down a fairly quiet street called Meridian until I got to a fairly quiet intersection, Meridian and 185th.  There I got into the left turn lane and waited patiently, because my light was red.  I waited and thought about other things and waited some more, and then...honestly, I can't even explain what I was thinking...I just went!  Mind you, the light was still red!  I mean, what the heck???  I've heard of people running red lights, but I actually stopped at one, waited for awhile, and then ran it!  I was mortified.  Luckily, no cars were coming from the other direction (although there were cars behind and across who saw me do that).

Afterward I proceeded on to Fred Meyer, all the while looking in the rearview mirror, wondering if I was in trouble.  No police came, though, so I did my shopping and forgot about it.  On my way back home a half hour later or so, I was driving down a busier street, Aurora, when suddenly two police cars came roaring up behind me with their lights flashing and their sirens on.  My first thought was, "Oh, crap, they're onto me!!!  They know about the left turn!!!" but the police just went around me and kept going.   Apparently there was a bigger criminal out there somewhere.

Morning

Today started out a little rough.  I couldn't fall asleep last night until after 3am (because I took a late nap yesterday and had coffee after dinner.  I'm a genius.), which meant that getting up this morning wasn't fun.  I did it, though.  I dragged myself out of bed, talked to Baylee about homeschooling stuff, and then fed the dog, who immediately vomited it back up into a big pile on the dining room carpet.  Really, considering the fact that I clearly stated I never wanted a dog in the first place, having to clean up his puke in the morning when I'm barely functioning is the height of unfair.  I could feel it on the other side of the paper towel, all chunky and warm still.  Ugh.

On the bright side, awhile later it started to snow outside!  You can't really tell from this picture, but it was beautiful.

PS:  In case you don't know, hydrogen peroxide is the BEST at cleaning up spots from carpets, especially if they're made of bodily fluids.  I'm talking about blood, urine, poop, and vomit.  I know all this because of the dog.

Sunday

Christmas trees are especially beautiful at night, aren't they?

I remember mentioning this years ago, but this morning it's on my mind again.  Is it just my family, or have you found some really weird stuff in your dryer lint trap?  Here are a couple of mine:

• An entire toenail.  I'm not talking about a clipping; I'm talking about the whole toenail.  When Drew was two years old he was supposed to be in bed sleeping, but instead I heard a crash and then crying.  He had gotten out of bed, gone into my bedroom, climbed on the windowsill, and was looking outside.  The window was open about a foot, propped up with a stick or something, and somehow Drew dislodged the stick and the window came crashing down on his big toe.  (Yes, that happened to our cat, too.  Same house, different window.)  Drew ended up losing that toenail eventually into a sock, and I found it in the trap.

• Baylee's umbilical cord stump.  Again, it must've come off and stuck to the inside of her clothes.

Anyway, it's kind of serendipitous, because I was able to save both the toenail and the stump as keepsakes for their baby books.

Just kidding!  lol  It just seemed like this post needed some kind of closure. 

Factor Trees!

Okay, I should be cleaning the house, because we're having company over tonight, but I decided that teaching you how to do factor trees would be a lot more fun...for me.  LOL  I don't know about you.  So, without further ado...

First of all, why do factor trees even matter?  What good are they?  Well, let me give you an example of why they matter:  Can you do this math problem?

If there answer is no, then you need to understand factor trees, because factor trees are the easiest way to help you add and subtract fractions.

The first thing you have to know about adding and subtracting fractions is that you CAN'T do it unless the denominators (the numbers on the bottom of the fractions) are the same.  In other words, the way that problem up there is written right now is unworkable.  The bottoms aren't the same.

So how do we get the bottoms the same???  Easy!  Factor trees!  You make one for each denominator, like so...

Let me explain what I did.  First, I wrote the two denominators on the top of the white board, and I separated them with a line, just to keep things neat.

Then I went over to the first one and asked myself, "What can be multiplied together to make 28?  4 x 7."  (I could've used 14 x 2 as well.  It doesn't matter.  It'll all come out the same in the end no matter what you choose.)

I looked at the 4 and 7 and asked myself, "Is there anything I can times together to make 4?  Yep, 2 x 2.  Okay,  those are done.  What about 7?  Nope.  That one's done."   Then I circled all the "end of the line" numbers.  By that I mean that you can't multiply anything together to make them.  They're as far down as you can go.  (1 x the number doesn't count.)  They're called "prime numbers."

Then I went over to the 21 tree and went through the same process.  I said to myself, "What can be multiplied together to make 21?  7 x 3.  And, cool, I'm done, because those are both 'end of the line' numbers.  They're prime numbers."  I circled the 7 and the 3.

Now comes the really useful part.  I looked at all my circled numbers.  I had two 2's and a 7 in one group, and a 7 and a 3 in the other group.  The way it works is you have to pick the numbers that are the "winners" of each group, so to speak.  In other words, you have to pick the group which has the most of a certain number.  Well, one of the groups has two 2's, while the other only has one 2.  The one with two 2's "wins," so I wrote two 2's at the bottom of the page.  There's only one 3 in either tree, so 3 is a shoe-in.  It can go at the bottom of the page.  And each group has one 7, so that's a tie.  One 7 goes at the bottom of the page.

Now, all those numbers at the bottom are multiplied together, and the answer is 84.  That's your magic number to help you do that math problem I showed you earlier!

Okay, for the rest of this explanation I realized that it's easier to just video myself.  The video is...err...a bit clumsy, but I think it does the job.  LOL

Edited to add:  I make a mistake in this, which thankfully someone pointed out to me in the comments.  I say that 15 x 4 = 100.  (Face palm.   Homeschool moms.  I tell ya.  This is why they need more government supervision.)  The overall idea of the video is still correct, though, so try to ignore my brain fart and focus on that.

Saturday

Baylee took this picture of Cooper in the Christmas tree.

As annoying as it is that the cat climbs the tree, I like this picture so much that I think I'm going to have it framed.   Cooper is such a cute little guy, and Baylee did such a good job capturing that.

So...different subject...in a comment on that math post from a couple days ago, my friend Darci mentioned that she really likes to factor.  (That's a math thing.)  I responded by letting her know that I like to factor, too, and then I asked her if she's ever heard of factor trees.  Anyway, the whole thing got me thinking about how useful and helpful and kinda fun factor trees are, and how I should have that be the next thing I teach you guys how to do!  Who's with me?!

[crickets]

Chargers

Yesterday I was talking to my mom on the phone, and she said that she had been reading the blog (PS:  She and my dad laughed and laughed over the Jim and Cindy memory.  They hadn't thought of that in years.) and had seen the picture of the beautiful table that Patty set for Thanksgiving.  (Patty is so good at that kind of thing.  She's both hospitable and an artist.)  My mom was especially impressed by the chargers.  You know what charges are, right?  They're the decorative plates underneath the real plates.  See them?

I agreed with my mom that the table was really lovely, and then I suddenly had a memory...

When we first moved to WA we lived with Danny for a month while we got situated and found a home of our own.  One day Danny served a nice meal with fancy place settings, and he used chargers.  The only thing was 1) I'd never seen a charger before in my life and 2) the actual plates weren't on the table yet.  So there I was, sitting with everyone, and I just went ahead and served myself food right onto the charger like a huge hick!  I did think to myself, "These are some dang big plates," but that didn't stop me.  LOL  Sigh.  Danny got quite a kick out of that, let me tell you.

Another School Lesson

You know how the other day I gave a little lesson on finding the objective complement in a sentence?  Well, today I'm going to talk about another thing that most people don't seem to understand.  It's this: order of operations in math.  It's a simple concept, but people get it wrong all the time, and I know this because problems are always put up on Facebook with the caption, "Can you solve this?" and then most of the commenters are way off in their answer.

So!  I'm going to teach you, once and for all, how to do this, and then you'll get those problems right every time.  Ready?

Memorize this silly little sentence:  Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.   This will help you remember the order to do the different parts of any problem.  It stands for:

• Deal with Parentheses first.
• Exponents next.
• Multiplication and/or Division next.  (I put multiplication and division together because they're on equal footing as far as importance.) 
• And Addition and/or Subtraction last.  (I put addition and subtraction together for the same reason I did it to multiplication and division.  They're equally important.)

Honestly, don't even think about moving forward with this until you know that silly sentence and what it stands for.  I'll wait.

Got it?  Okay.  That's all there is to it!  Let's try it with this problem:

6 + 2 x 3

Think of the silly sentence:  Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.  Now look at the math problem.

• Do we have any parentheses?  No.  Okay, move on.  
• Do we have exponents?  Nope.  
• Do we have multiplication and/or division?  Yes!  Okay, so do just that part.  2 x 3 = 6.  Go ahead and cross the 2 x 3 out and write 6 above it.
• Do we have addition and/or subtraction?  Yes, so now do that part.   6 + 6 = 12
• The answer is 12.

Alright, now let's do one that's just slightly harder:

2 + 3 x 1 - 4

• Do we have parentheses?  No.
• Do we have exponents?  No.
• Do we have multiplication and/or division?  Yes, so do that.  3 x 1 = 3.  (Again, it helps to cross out the 3 x 1 and write 3 above it.  It just keeps things simple and obvious.)
• Do we have addition and/or subtraction?  Yes, we have both.   No problem!  If you have two things equal to each other in importance, go from left to right just like how we read a book.  So first do 2 + 3.  (Remember, you have that 3 from doing the multiplication problem already.)  That's 5.  Cross out the 2 + 3 and write 5 above it.  Now all you have is 5 - 4.  That's 1.
• The answer is 1.

 Make sense?

Adding in parentheses and exponents is no harder.  Here's a problem with everything:

2³ – 3 × (8 – 6)

• Do we have parentheses?  Yes!  Do whatever is inside them first.  8 - 6 = 2.  Cross that parentheses part out and write 2.
• Do we have exponents?  Yes, so do that next.  (Exponents are those little numbers to the right and slightly above another bigger number.)  In this one we have two cubed.  That's 2 x 2 x 2, or 8.  Cross out the two cubed and write 8 above it.
• Do we have multiplication and/or division?  Yes, we have -3 x 2.  (Remember, that 2 comes from doing the parentheses part.)  That's -6.
• Finally, do we have any addition or subtraction?  Yes, we're left with 8 - 6, which is 2.
• The answer is 2.

On the bright side, the Facebook problems almost never have parentheses or exponents.  They usually just have "my dear aunt Sally."

Alright, people, we're good to go now on order of operations!  You're welcome!

Ow

Yesterday something happened that's my clumsiest moment EVER.  Like ever ever.  And that's really saying something, because I promise you I've had more klutzy moments than the average person by a thousand.  I think the problem is that I'm too tall and my brain can't get messages all the way out to my limbs in time.  Anyway, I wrote about it on Facebook, so I'll just copy and paste what I said:

Oh my gosh, I just topped the clumsiest thing I've ever done, and that includes the time I tripped over the open dishwasher door, managed to catch my sock on the bottom rack (which made it so that I dragged the rack up and over as I went), and landed in a heap on the kitchen floor covered in clean dishes. This time someone knocked on the front door, and when I ran to open it my foot caught in a loop of the cord of the vacuum cleaner that was left out in the living room, and I fell forward really quickly. In fact, I stumbled for several feet, trying to regain my balance, before I finally went down right in front of the door I was trying to answer. Oh, and the icing on the cake is that I also bumped my head...hard...on said door. For real. That happened. Thank God it was just Drew who had knocked (he lost his key) and not some stranger. PS: He saw it happen through the little door window and was a cross between laughing his butt off and concerned when I finally recovered enough to let him in.

Today is the next day, and I feel like I've been through the wringer.  Holy cow.   The muscles in my back HURT.  Also, I'm bruised where I landed on one side of my...umm...hip area, and I've got a knot on the crown of my head where it hit the door.  It hurt to wash my hair this morning.  And by the way, that knot joins another knot, because the other day I bent over in the bathroom to pick up a q-tip, and when I stood back up I banged my head on the corner of the cupboard above the toilet.  That was one of those clutching-my-skull-because-I'm-obviously-dying-and-this-is-how-it-all-ends moments.

All that to say, it's very painful to be me.