February Moments

I'm still doing the One Second Everyday project, and today I finished February.

Tuesday

Last night Mike and I had this conversation...

Me:  I don't know why I thought of this today, but do you remember that time in college, right before you and I started dating, that [a guy who was a few years older] came up to me out of the blue and said, "I thought about asking you out, but I decided against it, because you're too wild"?  Looking back, wasn't that weird?

(Really quickly, before I finish the conversation, you have to understand something.  I never drank, never smoked, never did drugs, I was a rule follower, and I got good grades.  Therefore, the only thing he could possibly have been talking about was my personality.)

Mike:  [laughs]  Yeah.  If only he could see you right now, curled up on the couch in your jammies with a cat on your lap.

PS:  I wouldn't have said yes to him anyway.  He was too short.

-------------------------------

Drew told me that he decided which classes he'd like to take next quarter:

• Theory 2
• Piano 2
• Jazz Improv
• Algebra 1

He's excited about the Theory class, because it's going to be taught be the head of the music department, and Drew likes him.  This man literally wrote the textbook that Drew has been using in Theory 1 this quarter.  Also, he's looking forward to Jazz Improv, because he's really into jazz right now.  And bonus:  He'll get to play guitar in there!

Monday

Last night I couldn't fall asleep at all.   Uuuuuggggghhhhh.   I was actually still awake and reading in bed when Mike's alarm went off and he got up for the day to go to work.  The only reason I finally did fall asleep is because at that point I took two Benadryls.  That gave me a couple hours of shut eye, which isn't enough, so now I feel exhausted and more than a little Benadryly.  (i.e. drugged into a stupor)  It's gonna be a long day.

It snowed about an inch last night, but the schools didn't close.  I was pretty indignant about that and even posted on Facebook about it, and that's when it hit me:  I'm a full-fledged Seattleite now.  One inch of snow in Michigan isn't enough to get out a shovel, while here it usually just about shuts down the city.

A video I took from our front door...

 

Sunday

You know that part about "brown paper packages" in the song "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music?  Well, I don't think this is what they had in mind.

Me:  [getting up from a nap and seeing a big box by the door]  What's in that giant package?!
Mike:  A new cat litterbox.
Me:  ...

Random

Yesterday Gibbs was kind of freaked out about something, and Drew said, "If the dog was a triad, he'd be augmented."  Then he went on to explain that an augmented triad is jarring, sounding like something surprising (in a bad way) has happened.  In fact, at his school it's called the "Becky's pregnant" chord.

I made him play one on the piano and show me...

Zach and I decided that a really good job to have would be the cameraman (or woman) who films those ghost hunter shows on TV.

1. The pay is probably decent.
2. It's perfectly safe.  They never find a thing.
3. You'd have hilarious stories to tell your family when you came home. 

Last night Mike and I ordered in Ethiopian food and watched a movie together.  This is the first time either of us has had Ethiopian, and it was really good, but really different.  It consists of very thin brown bread that actually looks a lot like cloth...like a towel...that you tear pieces off of and use to pinch up meat and veggies in sauce.  I'd eat it again.

 

Friday

I've got big news!  For the last year or so Mike's been tossing around the idea of going back to school to get his Master's degree.  He decided to do it, but then he had to figure out what he wanted the degree to be in.  (He went back and forth between engineering and business for awhile.)  Finally he landed on getting an MBA and he started looking around for a school.  His first choice was Syracuse University's online program, so he applied, and that was quite a process.  It took a couple weeks of filling out the application and answering essay questions, and also getting letters of recommendation, and then he had to wait, but...to get to the point...yesterday he was accepted!  He'll start classes in April.  Syracuse's program is a little different than normal, in that you have to have a camera connected to your computer, and somehow the classes are live.  Plus, Mike will have to make a couple trips to New York over the course of things.  It'll be interesting!

You wanna know what one of my favorite things has been, since I've been old enough to go to the library?  Checking out several good books at the same time.  Even getting one really good book is so rare that it's like finding treasure, but happening on several at once?  That's all-the-stars-and-planets-aligned material, and I've got that going on right now.  I've got four good books, three regulars and an audio.

Here's a picture of Drew taken at his friend Emma's house.   He and a group of friends were watching a movie over there*, when Emma put her bearded dragon on him.  Then the cat climbed up, too.

*They've been watching music-related movies lately.  So far they've seen Amadeus and Whiplash.

Life With Drew

He comes home from school...

Me:  How was your day?
Him:  Good.
Me:  Anything interesting?
Him:  Nah.
Me:  How was English?
Him:  Fine.

I'm in the middle of a really good show on TV...

Him:  Hey, I'm going to wander in here, sit next to you on the couch, and proceed to talk about music in so much depth that you'll have no idea what I'm saying.  Oh, and I'm going to do this with enthusiasm and at length!

Wednesday Night

It's OCPR* up in here right now.

We used a black light and our noses to find the spot in the TV room that Cooper peed.  That is, Mike shined a cheap little black light at the carpet, couldn't see a dang thing, and then resorted to sniffing all over the room until he found the place.  Then he made me sniff it for confirmation.  (This is not how I pictured marriage.)  Finally, he used some sort of special pet pee cleaner and a carpet extractor to fix it all up.

We had to move the drum set into the living room.

Next Mike is going to clean the closet floor in Baylee's room, because that's where Niko peed.

Also, while we have the extractor, Mike plans to clean a place on the couch where Zach spilled coffee and a place in Drew's bedroom where Drew spilled tea.

And me?  I'm ready to put pets (and offspring) out on the curb.


*Operation Cat Pee Removal

My Shrimp Wound

My very first job was in a fish market.  It was the worst job I've ever had by a long shot, and the only one I ended up walking out on without giving notice.  I was a senior in high school.

All that aside, I want to tell you about something that happened to me at the fish market one time.  The owners, a very mean man and his wife who were probably in their fifties, had gotten a huge order for ready-to-cook shrimp.  I'm talking pounds upon pounds of it for some rich people who were having a party.  I was the only employee in there that day, so I was told by the wife to peel and devein the order by myself while she sat back in the office, even though we were pressed for time.  I hurried like crazy, though, and was on-schedule, when suddenly the barb on a shrimp's tail skewered me deeply right beneath my left pinkie nail.

(I just did a little research.  That barb is called a telson.)

Let me tell you something:  There's a reason a bamboo shoot pushed under people's nails is a form of torture.  It hurts like you cannot believe.  And the blood!  I couldn't get it to stop bleeding, which meant I couldn't go on dealing with that shrimp, because I was getting blood everywhere.  And do you think they had bandaids in that place?  They sure didn't.  I ended up losing some time on account of the stupid wound, and so when the customer came back to pick up the order I wasn't ready.  I remember telling my boss (who, by the way, never helped with the shrimp, even after she knew I was bleeding) that I just needed another ten minutes and then I'd have it all done.  The customer got angry about the wait, though, and left without taking (or paying for) any of it.

I ended up getting an infection, because part of the shrimp barb had broken off under my nail. I didn't go to the doctor or anything; I just let it scab over and hurt.  One day, a couple weeks later, I was sitting on our couch, which had a rough, nubbly texture, and I happened to move my hand across the fabric quickly.  That scab on my pinkie caught on a nub and ripped off, and tons of pus came out.  It was disgusting and smelled terrible, but along with the pus came the barb.  After that it healed up just fine.

To this day I'm good at peeling and deveining shrimp, and I always watch out for the telson.



PS:  I think this proves that a blog post can be made about absolutely anything.   lol  Also, it's a good way to put off doing housework.

Tuesday, Part Duex

In two different places today I've had a very strong feeling of "Why do I hang around these people???"

I'm not going to discuss the first one, because it has to do with people I know in real life.  All I'll say is that it's very easy, takes only a little time, and costs absolutely nothing to be an encouragement. Sometimes, though, folks just aren't.  'Nuff said.

The other one happened on that homeschool moms group I'm a part of on Facebook.  Today I posted on there that some geometry information our school sent me was stapled together totally wrong.  It has pages 1-7, then it skips to 16-23, then it goes back to 16-31, then back to 24-31, then it skips to 40-47. In other words, there are tons of duplicated pages and a lot of missing ones as well.  I asked in the group if anyone who is also using that geometry course could scan pages 8-15 of chapter 8 for me, so that we don't lose any time while we wait for the school to send new stuff.  A woman responded, "I'm pretty sure this is against copyright laws."  Siiiiiiiiiigh.  Really, lady???   #ThanksOfficerDenimJumper

Tuesday

It's day 3 of the hostage situation.  So far Stockholm Syndrome has not kicked in.

Monday

Yesterday morning I woke up to my phone beeping with a message.  It was from Baylee's friend Max, and it was telling me that he and his dad were on their way over to our house with their cat, Niko.  I knew Baylee had offered to cat sit for them while they were out of town, but I didn't know when.  Not wanting to look like I had no idea what was going on, I texted back something like, "Okay, sounds good!  See you soon!" and then jumped out of bed, washed my face, brushed my teeth, and tried to make my hair look less crazy-homeless-lady-esque.  Pretty soon they arrived, and we got the cat all set up with food, water, and a litter box in Baylee's room.  Oh, and by the way Baylee wasn't even around for this.  She was at a sleepover at her friend Abby's. 

To get to the point, since then everything has gone to hell in a handbasket.

1. Our own cat, Cooper, is hissing mad about what he sees as an invasion of his territory.  We've had to keep Niko shut in Baylee's room, just so the two cats don't fight.  And last night Cooper peed somewhere in the TV room.  He never does that!  The only other time he did anything like that was right after we brought Gibbs into our home as our new pet.  That night Cooper had revenge diarrhea from one end of Drew bedroom to the other.  Sigh.  Anyway, I'm going to make Baylee figure out where exactly in the TV room Cooper peed, and then we'll have to clean that up.
2. Niko is NOT HAPPY AT ALL to be in this strange, new environment.  In the middle of last night Baylee woke up to find him standing on her pillow, glaring down at her and growling deep in his throat.  She scurried out from under the covers and away from him, and then they stared at each other for awhile before the cat jumped down onto the floor.  Now Baylee's scared to sleep in her own room and is going to spend the next two nights on the couch.  In fact, I'm kind of scared to go in her room.
3. Despite having a deluxe litter box, Niko is peeing on Baylee's floor. 

Here's a video I took.  You'll see for yourself that things are not good.  We're in a hostage situation here, people, and we're the hostages.

Sunday

This is a picture of Baylee getting ready for the house band gig the other night.  I thought the fact that she was crouched in the sink pretty dang cute and kind of hilarious.

And here's a piece of one of the songs she was in.  Actually, it was my favorite part of the whole night. 

I absolutely love that girl more than I could ever say, but she's a full-fledged teenager now and sometimes we butt heads.  Yesterday we had a moment that ended up making me angry, but mostly it really hurt my feelings.  It was one of those times when I felt like my tear ducts were betraying me.  My brain was going, "I am NOT going to cry!  That would be ridiculous!" but my eyes were doing it anyway.  I was trying to be logical and calm, and all the while tears were sliding down my face.  Argh.  lol  Anyway, everything is totally fine.  It ended in good conversation and hugs.

Saturday

Last night my Mississippi mud cake was the hit of the bake sale!  (That NEVER happens to me.  Ever.)  Everybody raved over it and one guy took a bite and then said, "I'll give $20 to buy the rest of these and take them home."  lol  It was fun to have my little 15 minutes of fame in that arena, but I sure hope people don't expect anything great in the future.  That was literally all I've got.  My barrel of baked tricks is now empty.

I said a couple days ago that I had an unexpected, encouraging conversation...

Drew:  I think I might be my theory teacher's favorite student.  Actually, I think all my teachers like me.

Me:  [laughs]  Well, I hope that's true.  It would be awkward if you think that, and it turns out it's in your head.

Drew:  No, it's true.  They like me, because I'm curious.  I'm interested in what they're teaching, and I ask questions.  A lot of other people just sit there.

Me:  I know you probably don't want to hear this*, but that could be because you were homeschooled.  When people are in an institutional school setting year after year, like a public or even a private school, it can sometimes kill curiosity.

Drew:  ...You might be right.



*Because he doesn't like to believe that being homeschooled has made him different in any way.

Long Day

I feel accomplished!  I got up an hour and fifteen minutes earlier than usual, and so far I've...

• taken Baylee to a pancake restaurant to meet up with Jack for breakfast, because Jack and his family are going to Australia to visit family for about a week and a half.  He and Baylee wanted to spend a little time together before he left.
• picked her back up a couple hours later.
• shopped for stuff to make Mississippi mud cake.
• baked Mississippi mud cake from scratch.  I only have the homemade frosting left to make.
• cleaned most of the house.  I have the main bathroom to go.
• did a lot of school.  Baylee still has a test in science and one in geometry.

Tonight I have to bring the dessert I made to a house band fundraiser, where the kids will be playing a gig and baked good will be sold.  It's supposed to go from 7 to 11pm.

On a different note, today in school Baylee had to use ten vocabulary words from The Hiding Place in a little story of her own.  The assignment was to choose one of the following to write about:

1. The discovery of some ancient pottery.
2. A homeless child surviving on the streets of a large city.
3. A visit to an old, abandoned house.
4. A topic of your own choosing.

She chose #4.  (I italicized the vocab words.)

There once was a girl named Annie who had a dilemma.  She was trying to be venerable over her two little brothers, but sometimes she got so worked up over claiming her dominance that she would throw pungent black coffee beans at them, and it would end up turning into quite a dogfight.

One day Annie's brothers got so fed up with her coffee bean crap that they decided to sabotage her.  They chose to shove coffee beans down her ears and other holes while she was sleeping.  They grimaced as they watched the uncanny black beans slide down into her ears, and they unabashedly waited for her to awaken.

The next morning Annie found that hundreds of coffee beans were falling from everywhere, and she was absolutely hysterical!  She felt pathetic as she spent hours trying to get all of the beans out of her orifices.  Luckily the plan worked, and she never bothered her brothers again.

My first thought was to say, "Baylee!  That's totally inappropriate!" but then I just laughed and said, "Okay, good job.  I don't think you used the word 'venerable' quite right, though."

Thursday

You know that feeling of being so tired and on the edge of tears that you've given yourself a headache?  That's me today.

• Part of it's...umm...monthly timing.
• Part of it's that I'm beyond sick of feeling like my entire purpose in life is to re-clean.  Not clean.  Re-clean.  Because if it was just me around here, I'd keep things spotless in the first place.
• Part of it's that Mike and I got into an argument last night, and it wasn't resolved until this afternoon.  To be honest I'm still kinda mad about it, even though logically I know I really shouldn't be.  
• And part of it's that I'm SO not looking forward to tomorrow.  Tomorrow is going to be one of those days that starts really early, ends really late, and is packed solid with things I'd rather not do in between.   One of those things is a bake sale.  Lord, give me strength; I'm not bake sale material.

I did have one really unexpected, encouraging conversation yesterday, and I'll talk about it, but just not right now.

10th Grade at Our House

It's time to do one of these "Such-and-Such Grade at Our House" posts, especially since there's a chance...a small one...that it might be my last.  Baylee, Mike, and I are talking about her doing the same program Drew's in, which would mean that next year she would be done with high school and would start college.  Honestly, I don't think it'll happen, because Baylee's happy with homeschooling and the freedom it gives her, but we'll see.  The option is there.

PS:  Wouldn't it be weird if, after 17 straight years of homeschooling, I was suddenly finished?

Back to the post at hand.  Baylee's day always starts with her getting herself up with an alarm clock, showering and getting ready, and then sitting down at the table to begin school.  She does this on her own with no urging from me.  (I've been writing that same introduction to her school day since forever.  lol  The fact that she's so self-motivated may be the difference between boys and girls, or it might just be her.  I don't know.)

She usually starts with Old Testament Survey, because it's fun.  See, she's done with the hard part of the year and now she's (close your eyes, Craig MacDonald) reading novels and watching movies that have to do with the Old Testament.  Apparently I totally messed up the pacing of her textbook, having her complete it in half the time.  I feel kind of bad about it, too, because it made the course harder than it had to be.  Oops.  Anyway, like I said, we're through the textbook [ahem] and now I have her reading books and watching movies.  So far she's watched a mini-series called Noah's Ark and a movie called The Ten Commandments, and currently she's reading a book about David called The Fugitive King.

Next she does World History.  She just started a new chapter on the Age of Exploration, and today she specifically learned about the Vikings.

After that she normally does English, but that subject was so much work that she put it off and did Latin instead.  Today was a reading day, which meant that Mr. Thomas, the teacher, read from an easier version of the Vulgate, and Baylee translated what he said.  (He'll gradually make what he reads harder and harder, until he's actually reading the real Vulgate.  That'll be toward the end of Latin 2.)

The way the class works is that on Mondays a new grammar concept is introduced in a video lesson, and then homework is given on it.  On Tuesdays the video lesson is on translating individual sentences targeting the new concept, and homework is given.  Wednesdays are Vulgate reading and translation days.  Thursdays are test days.  And Fridays are college textbook days.  That is, he has students read a chapter from a college textbook called Lingua Latina.  It's all in Latin, and it has stories about family life in ancient Rome.  What's neat is that so far Baylee's good at it!  She can actually read it like a book.

After Latin Baylee did Physical Science, which is another class that she has on video.  Today happened to be a lab day, so she watched her teacher do experiments, and she filled out lab reports on them.  There are 24 labs over the course of the whole school year, and Baylee does them two at a time.  (The rest of the days...the ones that aren't lab days...are lecture days.  She watches a teacher lecture on something, then she does the assigned homework.  And then, of course, some days are test days.)

Finally she felt ready to do English.  First she read chapter 11 of The Hiding Place, and then she answered a TON of questions on the whole book so far.  It involved a lot of searching through the first ten chapters for little tidbits of information, which is why she put it off.

After all that she decided she needed a total change of pace, so she threw on her swimsuit (with a sweatsuit over it), grabbed her goggles and cap, and walked over to the Helene Madison Pool to swim laps for awhile.
 

When she got home she ate lunch and relaxed for a bit, and then we tackled her last subject, Geometry, together.   Today was a review day, which was great because it only a couple pages long.  She had to look at several different drawings and decide which theorem proved different things about them true, then she had to do a proof.  She's pretty good at this stuff.

 
She does have one more subject, Music, but she does that in her own time.  She practices quite a bit, and has rehearsals and lessons, and sometimes gigs and shows.

And that's 10th grade at our house!

(By the way, this is my 3rd "10th Grade at Our House" post!  If you want you can read Zach's here and Drew's here.)

Tuesday

Once a week, for a couple hours on Monday afternoons, Drew has a songwriting class at the college.  Yesterday he went and there was a guest professor from Cornish, which is a music/arts school here in Seattle.  Drew said that the professor did something interesting with the class.  He/she (Drew didn't mention if it was a man or a woman) said, "Somebody come up with a song title," and one of the students came up with "Cerulean Soul."  Then the professor said, "Now I need someone to come up to the piano and make up a hook for that title.  Who wants to do it?"  Drew raised his hand, walked up to the piano, and played something that he thought went with "Cerulean Soul."  He said that everyone, including that professor, really liked it!  They spent the rest of the class period building a song on that hook.

When Drew got home he showed Mike and me what he played.

You know what's funny about him is that at the beginning of this school year he couldn't play the piano at all.  I'm not saying he's great at it now, but he's not bad.  Plus he's weirdly confident.  It reminds me of how young people are so able to pick up a foreign language quickly.  They throw themselves into it, not worrying about how they sound or if they make mistakes, and they end up learning so much faster than an older person.

PS:  Mike and I are hoping that having such a positive experience with that teacher from Cornish will make Drew think about transferring there after he leaves Shoreline CC.  Right now his dream is to audition (on guitar) for a conservatory in Boston called Berklee College of Music, and while that would be a wonderful school for him, it's really far away and really expensive.

Monday, Continued

Okay, so I meant to write something completely different today, but then I went on a math rant, instead.  Ahem.  Here's what actually planned to say...

This morning in English class one of the things Baylee had to do was talk about someone she considers successful and why. Her response made me smile. She wrote:

Someone I find successful is my dad, because he has a stellar work ethic, he's very good at dealing with people no matter how stupid they are, he treats everyone fairly and with kindness no matter who they are or what they've done, he works with a Godly mindset, and he is an honest, respectable, hardworking man who is content with what he has and the life God has given him. I can only hope that one day I can be as successful as my dad.

Monday

Today on the homeschool board I'm a member of a mom posted this picture from her 8th grader's math book and basically said, "Help!  We don't know how to do this!"

I answered, telling her that the easiest way to do it is to get rid of the fractions.  Then I did one of her math problems, took this picture of it, posted it, and walked her through it step by step.

She didn't get it at all.  It was like I was speaking Greek to her.  So I did it a different way, using one of the other problems from her kid's math book, and this time I kept the fractions in the problem.  It's a more complicated method, but it works, too.  Again, I posted a picture of it all worked out, and I explained it.

She didn't get it again.  At all.  Here's the issue, which I'm not going to actually say to her, but I'll say here:  You can't begin to understand this unless you have a solid grasp of elementary math, and that includes adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions.  If you don't have that much down pat, then you're for SURE not going to grasp it when you start throwing algebra into the mix.

Her kid needs a tutor.  End of story. 

Sunday

Alright, to follow up on yesterday's post...

I wrote a PM to the author of Delay, Don't Deny.  It's a good book about intermittent fasting, and you can get it on Amazon.

The one thing she said that bugged me was actually about a different diet.  She started her book by talking about some of the eating plans out there these days, and she listed, among others, one in which you can't eat things "that start with the letter S."  Then she said, "That's a real book, people."  I had a feeling she was talking about the No S Diet, which isn't at all how she described it.  I wrote to her, asked if that's the diet she meant, and I nicely stuck up for it.  I said it's a fairly common sense approach that has you following a few simple rules:

• No sweets
• No seconds
• No snacks
• Except on days that start with S (Saturday, Sunday, and special days)

She responded and said, yes, she was referring to that diet, and she does actually know what it's about.  She said she "took some liberties [with it] for comedic affect."

As far as my brother and the pig, we had this text exchange:

He's got a construction business, and that's why he was on some property with some pigs.

So there you go!

In other news, it came out yesterday that Baylee and her sleepover friends let a half gallon of chocolate ice cream melt completely and then get tipped over onto the carpet of the TV room.  Knowing I'd be mad, Baylee tried to clean it up herself with several of our big, fluffy (formerly) white bath towels.  Let's put it this way:  We now own three less towels (I tried very hard, but those things are never going to be the same) and we had to rent a carpet extractor.  The carpet's fine now.  Calgon.

Saturday

Everyone knows that Facebook is great for helping us stay in touch with friends and family who are far away.  (Or even friends and family who are close.  We're all busy.)  Today, though, I discovered something else that's kind of neat about Facebook:  Sometimes you can communicate with people you would never think to reach out to before.  That is, you can talk to authors of books!

I read a book recently that I really liked, but it had one thing in it that I didn't agree with, and it bugged me.  Out of the blue this afternoon I realized that I could PM the author, thank her for her work, tell her what I liked about it, and then slip in the little thing that I had an issue with.  lol  And she wrote me back!  Cool, right? 

On a somewhat related note, my brother posted this picture of himself on Facebook recently.  I have no idea why he's holding a pig, but doesn't he look handsome?  (My brother, not the pig.)

Dinner Conversation

Tonight we have some of Baylee's girlfriends over for an overnight, so we made stuff for tacos. 

After the girls helped themselves and took their plates into the TV room, the rest of us got some food.  While we were sitting around the table we had this conversation...

 Me:  Drew, don't just sit there eating out of the lettuce bowl.

Drew:  I'm like a squirrel.

Me:  Or a sloth.  Hey, I just learned something about sloths recently.  Sloths only poop every now and then, so when they do it's a lot and it takes them quite awhile.  In fact, they're totally vulnerable to predators during that time, so that's when most of them are killed...while they're pooping.

Drew:  Huh.  I have a feeling that's how I'm gonna die, too.

Me:  Well, that's how Elvis went.

We Made It!

Baylee is caught up in Geometry!!!!!!  It took us four more days than I'd originally planned, because last week she had a bad cold and I just couldn't bring myself to make her do double days of math, and then she had the Led Zep show on Friday, which made that a crazy day, but whatever!  We're finally there!  We're completely caught up in every subject.

She talked me into Menchie's to celebrate.

A Good Guy

Last night BEAM  (Baylee, Ezra, Abby, and Max) came over (well, Baylee was already here) to rehearse.  When Ezra got here, though, he was a little upset, because the lid of the trunk of his car somehow broke and wouldn't stay shut.  It was cold and dark and raining out, but Mike said, "Do you want me to take a look at it?" and Ezra said he'd like that.  They went out there, and...get this...Mike ended up crawling into Ezra's trunk and having Ezra shut it on him, so he could watch what was happening with the latch with the help of a flashlight.  I mean!  I kinda love that he did that!  He figured out the problem, too, and fixed it.   He's a good guy.

Tuesday

The Seattle and Shoreline schools (including Drew's) had a 2-hour delay today, probably because the roads were icy.  It snowed yesterday, then melted a bit, then got really cold again, which made everything freeze.  Ugh.  Anyway, Drew got to miss Theory this morning.  He only had Piano and English.

Speaking of Theory, this quarter the teacher for that is an old Brazilian woman, and Drew likes her a ton.  She's super no-nonsense, but she has a lively, fun way of teaching.

For a few months now Mike's been getting farm-fresh eggs from someone at work who has chickens.  We buy them from the guy, and they still have gunk (dirt from the barn and who knows what else) on the shell.  I love them!  The color of the yolk is bright yellow...almost an orange...and the taste is delicious.  And that yucky stuff washes off.

I dread telling you guys this, because it makes me look a like a total jackwagon, but I had to stop doing Wonderslim.  I was doing so well with it, staying on track and losing weight, when I started getting really sick from the stuff.  Imagine the intestinal part of a stomach flu, and you'll have the idea.  It was bad.  It took me several days to make the connection, but I finally figured out that it was all that aspartame I was taking in through those shakes and bars.  I stopped drinking/eating them, and within a couple days I was totally better.

That said, I had already been thinking about what I wanted to do after Wonderslim, and so I put that plan into action.  So far, so good!  It doesn't cost anything and it's meant to be a lifestyle change, not a diet. I just started not that long ago and I've already lost some weight, and I found a great, active group of people on Facebook who also do it.  After some time has gone by and I'm sure I'm not going to be a putz, I'll tell you about it.

And here are a couple recent pictures.

I thought this looked kinda like a Leave it to Beaver moment.

I was lying on the couch reading a book, and Cooper was curled up on top of me, sound asleep.

Snow Day

All the schools around here, including Drew's, have a snow day today!  Here's a little video I just took outside our front door.  As you can see, it's really coming down.

Being a mean mom, though, I still made Baylee do a day's worth of school.  Hey, man, we don't have time to mess around with snow days.

Led Zeppelin Show

Yesterday was a reeeaaaallllly long day, but it was a good one!  Baylee and I got up early so that we could get a jump start on school, plus I wanted to clean the whole house.  We finished by about 1:30 or so, and I made myself look presentable.  At 2:30 Danny came over, and from then on it was busy.  We visited with Danny for awhile, then Patty came over, then at 3:30 we all (me, Mike, Baylee, Zach, Danny, and Patty) took the world's longest Uber ride downtown to the Hard Rock Cafe.  It lasted 50 minutes and I got the "hump seat."  You know that seat that they say is legitimate, but it's on a hump and it's super uncomfortable?  Ugh.  The reason the ride took so long was that traffic was incredibly slow, partly because of the time of day, partly because of the day of the week, and partly because it was raining.  Anyway, we finally got there and dropped Baylee off for sound checks, and the rest of us went out for dinner at the Pike Brewery.  (That place has amazing food, if you ever get a chance to try it.)  Finally we all went to the SoR Led Zeppelin show.  It was wonderful!

Baylee did a good job in every song she was on, but these three are my favorites.

This is called "Moby Dick," and it includes a 3-minute drum solo.  I've known for months that this was going to happen...that she would be on stage in front of an audience, playing alone...and I couldn't bring myself to mention it here or anywhere else.  I was too scared for her.  She kept herself completely together, though, and she made us proud.  (I would've been proud anyway.)  It was especially fun because the audience cheered and whooped and clapped throughout.

The sound on this one isn't great (I was standing too close to the bass, I think), but you can see Baylee clearly.  She really nails it.

And this one is just fun.

A little aside:  Baylee is in 10th grade now, and Drew was in 10th grade when he did a Led Zeppelin show at the SoR.  They both had a moment onstage where they played alone.  Here's Drew's.

Thursday

Awhile back Mike was cleaning out some old files, and he came across this.  It was written by Drew when he was in 7th grade, in response to the prompt, "Write a short essay about one person who has influenced you while fulfilling a specific career."

The person who uses his work to influence my life the most is my dad. His job as an Operations Manager teaches me to be more patient with people.  Sometimes customers complain to my dad, but he is still calm and kind.  If it wasn't for him I probably wouldn't have any friends and people wouldn't like me, because I wouldn't be very patient.

My dad has to drive downtown every day to visit customers so he can check on the accounts and make sure everything is ok.  Then he drives back to the office and manages operations.  My dad is a very willing and hard working guy.  He shows me how much you can get done with a good attitude.

Watching my dad do his job has made me a better person.  He's a great example to me.

Pics

Of course right after I said that he hardly ever allows me to take a picture of him, he let me take this one of him feeding pepperoni to the cat.  lol

Let me tell you about the biggest jerk in our bedroom.  It's this bedknob.

I'm always running into it at night, when the room is pitch black and I'm trying to get into bed, so I constantly have a crescent-shaped bruise right above my knee.

 Cooper looks awfully cute in this picture...

 ...but today he jumped up on he kitchen counter when my back was turned and started eating out of the bowl of tuna salad I was making for sandwiches.  I loudly complained to Mike about it, and his response was, "It's fine.  You can still use it."  I mean....what?!?!  That sounds like a good way to get cat scratch fever.