Yes, I have to admit that some reality shows are interesting to watch. Some are a mere distraction from whatever mundane task I am doing at the moment--like folding laundry.
I can't say I ever watch every single episode of any reality show. But I usually see enough to have a favorite that I want to win. I began watching some reruns of VH1 and MTV reality shows while on the elliptical machine at the rec center we belong to. So normally I would not have watched Tila Tequila, but somehow it was the only thing of interest as I flipped through the channels that were available for viewing as I exercised. So I voted for the girl, and the boy won. And I voted for "Punk" on the last I Love New York and he did not make the top two. I thought New York had more chemistry with one of the remaining suitors but the other suitor won. And on the last ROL I thought there was more chemistry with the girl who was eliminated than the girl who won. So chemistry I guess is just not a deciding factor some times. I thought it was a bummer when Michael Johns left American Idol because he was my favorite. So I guess I just don't know how to pick the winners...
So one of the latest shows I have been watching is Rock the Cradle on MTV. It's not a reality show but more of a singing competition. However, I tune in to see who has been ousted.
So tonight two girls were eliminated, Lucy Walsh and Lara Johnston. I liked both of those singers. Now the three singers on top are Chloe L., Jesse Blaze Snider and Crosby Loggins. Chloe's singing is "different" to my ears, and I just can't seem to like her voice. I am amazed that she had made it into the top three over Lucy Walsh. But I guess I must not be into whatever music genre it is that applies to Chloe's style of singing? Lara was a little bit pitchy but I did like her voice. She is only 17 so I think she just needs time. Perhaps it is the fact that Chloe's singing voice is so different from Oilivia Newton John's vocals that is keeping me from liking Chloe's style. For instance when Chloe sang her mom's song, Honestly Love You, her version was just so different from Olivia's and I just couldn't get myself to like it. Chloe definitely puts a lot of heart and soul into her songs but I just don't like her vocals. So I would rather have seen Lucy Walsh make it into the top three, and once again I feel rather...frustrated? Disappointed? I honestly don't see Chloe ever having a best selling record as her style would just not attract a large fan base. But I would definitely buy Jesse's album, or Lucy's or Crosby's album. Sigh.
I've also been watching Flavor of Love now and then, and as a result, I've been watching the reruns of the Surreal Life that are on the TV guide channel. There are not too many episodes, but they are pretty funny.
This was to have been a very busy week. The science fair was scheduled for tomorrow. The kids' school valentine parties were all scheduled for tomorrow. The PTA meeting was scheduled for tomorrow night.
It snowed on Tuesday and this was actually a welcome development for a change? Why would I actually want my kids to be off school? M was not done with his display board for the science fair and still needed to write more on his research paper for the science fair project. He had done a little over the weekend, but was exhausted by a Saturday afternoon birthday party at a laser tag recreation center and the subsequent sleep-over that followed. So by Sunday he was ill prepared to focus on the project. On Monday M had a cub scout den meeting, which my husband leads, and K had cheer practice. Although M's den meeting was cancelled pretty quickly due to the school custodian hinting about the bad weather that was presenting itself in the form of snow flakes outside, K's cheer practice kept me from making it in home in time to crack the whip on M, and D no longer assists M due to his attitude with last year's science fair project.
So Tuesday was a nice second chance for M to work on his project, which needed to be set up in the school cafeteria on Wednesday evening.
F's science fair project, in the mean time, had not really had time to be successful. I had purchased children's watermelon seed kits at Lowe's at the end of January, but as of the following week, no seeds had sprouted. I purchased some African violet plants last Thursday, thinking, okay, let's experiment on plants that were already grown. One plant is not being watered, one is in a plastic bag to cut off its air supply, one is under the sink, and one is the control, getting air, water and light. This weekend arrived and I was feeling rather alarmed. The African violets were not growing but were not noticeably fading away either. The watermelon seeds were still not showing any signs of growth into a plant.
So F did her display board but I decided to have her leave a blank entry at the bottom of her "results" chart so that on Wednesday we could add a line about how the plants were looking that day. So even though F was more willing to work on her board, she was having less results with her experiment because it had only five days since the purchase of the African Violets.
As luck would have it, yesterday we finally noticed a watermelon plant coming up in the control pot. Hmmmph! Frankly, I would have felt less guilty about not providing seeds with the proper conditions for them to grow, than I do about purposely putting already established plants in conditons that they will perish. Plus, having that one plant grow would have been so much more interesting vs. having a plant that was already grown.
Last night it began to precipitate once again. I was torn between wanting to get the science fair over with, and wanting just a little bit more time for F's project to present results. This morning the phone rang. Our school has an automated system of calling all the necessary families, which has been a welcome service. Sure enough, school was cancelled for the day due to icy road conditions. Later, a second automated phone call came. The science fair is being postponed until March. SIgh of relief? Yes, I believe that having more time is definitely a benefit in F's case. Perhaps I will even be able to get M to write more research up on his topic of bread mold (although now I won't have him display the bread mold in well sealed baggies., and we probablly won't be saving F's "dead" plants for 2-3 weeks either).
Last year the same scenario ocurred. M did a volcano project, but procrastinated a lot. So although his project was done, it was not done well by the time the fair came up. It was nice to get that extra time, but he made his project more of a demonstration project and the scoring is based on scientific method experiments. So he only received a participation ribbon. The year before his project had placed third, so he was disappointed by that.
I am feeling somewhat responsible for F's project being not ready on time because I was the one who needed to get the plants or seeds and I obviously did not purchase seeds soon enough and in retrospect should have just purchased plants up front if she only had a few weeks in which to get the project completed. However, at the time M was also talking about doing a project with plants and I was distracted by searching for ways of putting plants under different colored lights to see how best they grew. I was so relieved when M changed his project to bread mold because there was less set up, but had wasted a few days looking for colored transparent plastic that I could use to give the plants different colored light with which to grow.
The science fair pre-empted the kindergarten PTA performance last year, and K never did get to do a PTA performance as a result. This year, her first grade class is scheduled to perform on the same date as the science fair has now been rescheduled for. It would be rather ironic if once again K missed out on performing for the PTA, but rather unfair as well. The girl does so love being in the spotlight!
So....overall I am relieved that the science fair project is postponed. This was my first year in helping with the science fair projects. The first year D helped M, the project was on rockets. I had no experience or intuition in that case. The second year, D helped M build a volcano, but the display board took secondary priority and unfortunately lacked many of the factors that were being graded, such as hypothesis, purpose, conclusion, etc. This year D stepped back in guiding M on the project with the hope that M would step forward and take responsibility. I ended up helping M because I did not feel he was old enough to run the whole show, but this time of course I got to feel the frustration of not having M work on the project when prompted to do so.
K brought home the class pet, Scruffy, which is a webkinz, so we decided to put this picture of M, K and F and their 3 webkinz to date into the class pet journal K was to write in.
Santa brought the kids each a webkinz this Christmas, and thus we joined in the webkinz craze. M received a bulldog that he named Bullman, K received a pink poodle she named Gracie, and F received a chihuahua she named Sally. They don't make it to the website every day but do visit enough to cut into my computer time, he he. K and F also received Be-bratz dolls that also have a website set up where they can play with their doll in a virtual setting, and M has belonged to Club Penguin for a while. So each kid has two websites that they like to frequent. My time on the computer is becoming sorely limited. We have some extra computers and I would like for a network card to be placed in them so that the kids aren't always lined up to use mine, but we have so many other priorities that I don't know when those upgrades might happen.
Well, I think that perhaps I have the majority of my shopping done. The majority of my shopping was for my kids. My husband and I decided to purchase our own gift and put it under the tree. I bought a few Lee jeans from JC Penney's online site and that will be my Christmas present from him. I'm not sure what I am getting him, but if I were to check the credit card bill online, I am sure I could get a hint.
I know that I purchased too many gifts and spent too much money. My husband had a long time ago told me to stop purchasing things for the kids if it was not a special occasion, and I try to only give them a few gifts for their birthday now. So Christmas is the major gift giving event. Sometimes, I save back a gift or two for Valentine's Day, Easter, Adoption Day, or birthdays. Since I purchase many of the gifts online, it does not always impress me with how much I have purchased until the presents are sitting in our basement storage area. Yes, I know there is such a thing as counting how many presents I have purchased online before making another purchase, but with three kids it gets rather confusing. I did try to keep a list of the presents I have purchased for the three kids, but sometimes forget to log in the items I have bought from actually physically going to the store.
My son wants a Wii, but honestly, I can't find the darn thing in stock anywhere and I have been looking for 3 months. He had a skating party to attend on this past Sunday, and after I dropped him off at 1 pm, I went to Best Buy because at last I had seen their ad showed they had some in stock. However, they were already sold out. I was frustrated because if we had just left a little earlier we could have fit in a trip to Best Buy before going to the rollerskating rink.
Did you see the Harry Potter movie this weekend? Are you going to read the new book?
Yes, I took my 8 year old son to see the movie. This was the first time that my son has read a book and then seen the movie adaptation of it, so I believe he was disappointed in that regard. I thought they did a pretty good job.
I am definitely going to read the Deathly Hallows. Since I've read that two central characters die, I am very curious as to find out which ones. It's going to be difficult to keep myself from peeking!
Last week the public school that 2 of my kids attend began its spring fundraiser. I rather winced when I saw that the task is to sell magazines. My son "M" did the same exact fundraiser in the early fall for his football team. As a result, I don't really feel comfortable asking husband's mom to purchase a subscription again. Two of his sisters have kids in school and I suspect they are probably bombarded with their own kids' school fundraisers (and they pay private school tuition to boot). My mom is in the process of selling her house, is always complaining how little money she has, and it is probably not best to order a subscription so close to selling her residence and moving elsewhere. My siblings have no money to speak of as well. As for my husband and myself, we have so much clutter in this house already that I just hate to add more clutter to it.
I feel for the people who decide what fundraiser to do. It must be a very difficult decision for them. Personally, I think chocolate bars might be pretty easy to sell but of course that is promoting a product that may cause obesity when consumed in excess. In the fall they chose a read-a-thon. The fundraiser fell short of the goal, which is why they then needed to hold this spring fundraiser. Also, many who pledged for the read-a-thon did not end up paying their pledge. They some times sell tickets to PTA sponsored events, such as a morning at the movie theater, but I don't know if they make much money doing that or not.
Since M already had sold magazines for his football team, he already has received many of the lower end sales volume reward incentives that the magazine company offers for various sales levels. However, there are some prizes that the school is offering that M would really like. One unreachable prize in my viewpoint is to sell 18 subscriptions and win a special lunch and get driven to the lunch in a hummer limo with the other top sales kids. Michael is very interested in that prize, but I just don't see it happening! Another one was to turn in 6 orders by last Friday and get to pick a free music cd from a certain selection. Tomorrow is a more obtainable goal of turning in 2 orders and getting to pick out a lollipop that may or may not have a prize listed on it. I opted to order 2 magazines that are written in spanish because I would at least like to brush up on reading Spanish, even if I do get lost when listening to people converse in it.
My daughter who is in kindergarten has been stealing things and she lies and throws fits right and left. So I probably won't even order from her at all, or if I do, it won't be on any of the special turn in dates. Day after day of having her go into melt down mode has just made me reach the point where I could care less if she ever gets a single prize for these fundraisers or not. My son certainly has been known to go into melt down mode as well but believe me, my daughter is much worse and my nerves are now totally frayed.
Kylie and Felicia cheered at their first basketball game of the season on Saturday. Both did well. Both looked extremely cute in a long sleeved white turtleneck, their black vest and skirt, cheer socks, cheer shoes, and most importantly, the black and white hairbow that is indespensible to any cheer uniform.
Going in to Friday's cheer practice, Felicia was whining and crying about not wanting to continue cheerleading. She seemed to "cheer" up, however, at practice, and by Saturday's game, she did just fine. She is the type of kid who needs reinforcement from her teachers/coaches to feel that they approve of her and her performance. She was continuously complaining that the coach was always yelling and did not like her. I was continuously responding that the coach had to raise her voice to get all the girls on the team's attention and that the coach was most definitley not mad at her.
On Saturday, Felicia was rather hesitant and seemed a step behind on some of the cheer moves at times. Uncertainty filled her eyes as she watched her coach and tried to follow all the moves and get all the right words to come out of her mouth. She did well both times when the team went out onto the floor to cheer. The first time was the cheer in which Felicia sits on two cheerleaders' knees at the end. The other cheer was the "...clap your hand....now that you've got the beat, this time stomp your feet...etc. (I'm sorry but I don't really know the words until the cheerleaders are standing right in front of me leading the cheer.)
The real turning point for Felicia's portrayal of confidence and self-esteem came after the coach held up both hands for Felicia to give her five. Felicia's whole demeanor lightened up. Her movements became more accurate and precise, more on time with the coach's lead, and she shouted out the words with spirit and joie de vivre. From then on, I felt confident that Felicia was going to rally and enjoy cheerleading after all. With the exchanging of "fives" bonding with her coach had begun, which for Felicia is a very important factor in whether or not she enjoys an activity.
Kylie did very well too. She was at the back of the cheerleading line while they cheered at the side of the gym, and Felicia was at the very front, so I had to keep looking at the front and then the back. Kylie was facing the basketball court and sometimes was paying attention and some times not. She was not really looking at the coach like Felicia was but seemed to keep up and follow along okay. Most of the cheers she remembered from the year before. I really was not all that worried any more about her performance. It is pretty much established that a) she likes cheerleading, b) she meets minimum performance levels in order to be allowed to continue to participate in cheerleading. :-) She is 6 years old cheering for a 5-6 year old team, and Felicia is 4-1/2 years old, cheering for a 5-6 year old team. So I am more concerned about my littlest, inexperienced, cheerleader being able to keep up with the older kids than I am about my 6 year old daughter who is at the top of the age range and cheered last year on a 5-6 year old team under the same coach.
Michael had a basketball game yesterday. Once again his team lost. He now has only two more basketball games left to play.
The season was a bit of a downer, over all, but Michael seems to be coping. It was rather unfortunate that his team was placed in the top division out of the three 2-3 grade division levels that his league has. Last year the team he was on in this league also lost the majority of their games. This year, his team has not even won a game yet. They probably would have stood a chance in one of the two lower skill level divisions. As it is the team only has 4 kids who have even played basketball before, and there are 4 third graders on the team, whereas a lot of the teams we are playing are made up of primarily third graders.
We received his basketball photos yesterday but our scanner does not seem to be functioning right now. He did not really smile, although he did show his teeth. Sigh!
We took Kylie to the doctor's office on Friday for a consultation regarding her adhd type behavior. The doctor reviewed her results with us and she does have all the symptoms. The doctor prescribed adderall rx but we were unable to get the prescription filled yet. Also, I had forgotten to pull out Kylie's bio family information and was unable to tell the doctor if Kylie's family had any medical history of heart problems. Sure enough, there have been relatives who had heart attacks.
She also gave us 2 phone numbers to call. One was for PCIT and one was for Children's psychology department. I know this is something we need to follow up on but I am not looking forward to adding to our already very busy schedule. I've actually already taken a private PCIT course (this one sounded like it was a group therapy course). I just find that things go to heck when I have to divide my attention among three kids.
It is a relief to have gotten as far as we have. I was rather disappointed to not be able to start her on the meds on Saturday, and now it looks like it will be Tuesday before she starts on her meds. But help is on its way.
How are you ringing in the New Year tonight?
Hanging out with our kids, eating snacks and staying up late!!!
Hi, i was just browsing through (you have quite a long entry!!) and something caught my eye. I am also... read more
on Living vicariously...