I Think I Need a New Schedule + Other Things

I apologize for being somewhat absent for the past 2 weeks.  Everything in my house has gotten dirty during this time too.  I have been working online on my new tutoring business like crazy.  I am getting to the point where I should be able to section off my days again and work a little everyday as opposed to hours everyday.  I am definitely in need of a new schedule.  Those of you who have been reading for a while know that I like my schedules.  I may not follow them everyday, but if I have a working schedule, my house gets cleaned, dinner gets cooked, blogs get written, etc…  You get the idea.

Today, I will be getting my schedule in order. 

 

Other things that have been going on?  Yesterday I played Tennis (my first game ever) with a neighbor friend of mine.  She and I have kids that are around the same age.  Our husbands graciously watched our children while we went for about an hour or so to play.  I had SO much fun!!!  I haven’t ever really played.  My Dad (the non-bio Dad—but every bit my Father) taught me some things about how to hold the racket and swing and such when I was around 11 or so?  I took a lot from that.  Also, I discovered that tracking the ball and swinging in Tennis is much like tracking and hitting the ball in Softball.  I played softball from the time I finished T-Ball as a small kid until I was 14.  That part comes naturally to me.  The part that is hard for me is not blowing the ball out of the tennis court.  This takes major concentration on my part.  I’ll continue working on it.  Doc and I think we may have found that “thing” we can do together as we get older.  We both agree that we will get some lessons as soon as we can afford it.  I cannot wait!!!

 

Ernie got a hand Xray this week!  Yep, his hand got shut into the hinged side of our screen door for the entire time I was taking out the garbage.  Apparently Bert decided to help me by shutting the door…unfortunately he didn’t make sure little brother was out of the way.  Poor guy!  His hand had no broken bones…but he is still bruised up.  The swelling is down now.  I am noticing that when I take out the trash now, there is a 5 foot minimum distance between Ernie and the back door.  I guess he learned a valuable lesson. 

 

I discovered Bert still needs naps!  He was enrolled in a camp this week at a Jumpy-Bouncy Place (you know those establishments, right?).  He went everyday from 1pm-4pm (well, except for Friday—he got grounded Friday and couldn’t go).  Needless to say, Bert loved camp—I liked it (nice quiet afternoon), but hated the fact that he was on his worst behavior EVERY DAY this week.  Friday afternoon was so much better. 

A Little Help From My Friends

Hey everyone!  I have a HUGE favor to ask!!

I am trying to get my business website, Infinity Online Math Tutoring (http://infinityonlinemathtutoring.com) ranked in search engines like Google and Yahoo and MSN.  I have read that creating backlinks to your website will help with this.  So, I am shamelessly asking all of my Blogging Friends to help me out with this by adding my business website as a link on your website?  Please?  Pretty, pretty please?  I’ll even add some “bloggo-sugar”….MWAH!!!!

A Little Eyecandy…Have Fun!

Where Have I Been?

As I last wrote, I have been busy designing my website (with help—I’m not that good) for my new online tutoring company.

I have mulled over whether or not to put my website on here, as this is kind of my personal webpage.  I then thought about the 17,000 hits I have had in the past year and decided it might not be a bad idea!

Most of you, if you’ve been around a while, know that I am an online tutor (for the past year) and was a high school math teacher before deciding to stay at home.  The best part of my job was working with students one on one.  I always said that if I could just close my classroom door and shut out all of the other stuff and teach, I would be perfectly happy.

I have finally found a way to do this!!!

So, here is presenting my new company (it is legitimate in the eyes of the law—it has been registered.   )

Infinity Online Math Tutoring

Come take a look…see what it is…and refer people to my website if they have tutoring needs.

alphainventions.com

condron.us

What I Have Been Up To

I’ve been furiously working on a new website and the startup of my new company.  I am starting my own Private Online Math Tutoring business.  If I am away in the next week or two, it is because of this.  Please bear with me!   I have been working on it about 6 hours a day in the past 3 days as I am trying to startup as soon as possible.  I’ll be sure to post the link to my website as soon as it is up and running.

 

Cheers!!

Adding Some Special Interest Pages

If you haven’t noticed, I made some changes to my page links on my blog.  I have received so many search hits on people interested in Ear Infections/Surgery, Sinus Blockage Surgery, and Wal-Mart Stories (believe it or not?) that I have added pages that have all of the blog posts about these things in them.  They are entered in by date, so they go in order.  Have fun checking them out!

One Down, One To Go

Thursday, after naptime, I had Ernie come with me to lay down for a couple minutes in my bed while he was “waking up.”  This has become sort of an everyday thing for us.  We just lay there for a couple minutes until he becomes antsy and says, “Mommy, I still hungry.”  Then we get up and go to get him a snack. 

We were laying there and he was going to town chewing on his pacifier.  Since they developed holes in them, he has been chewing on them rather than sucking on them.  I asked him if I could see it and noticed that he was about to chew off a piece big enough to cause problems.  I told him, “It’s broken, isn’t it?”  and he replied, “Yeah.”  I then told him I needed to cut that part off so that he couldn’t hurt himself.  We got up and went to the kitchen, and I cut off that part, plus a little.  (Yeah, I’m mean…but hey, he won’t notice the difference, right?  This is how I got rid of Bert’s pacifiers.)  I gave it back to him and he promptly put it in his mouth.  The very first time he tried to suck on it, it popped out of his mouth.  (he couldn’t keep hold of it anymore because it was cut too short).  I looked at him and said, “It’s broken.  Do you want to throw it away?”  He looked at it and said, “Yes.”  We were right next to the trash can, so he plopped it in.  I then told him, “you only have one more bee-bee (pacifier in our house).”  He said, “Yeah.”  I then told him to go find it…and that we needed to see if it is broken too.  He told me, “okay!” and off he went. 

He brought the other pacifier back to me, so I looked it over and proclaimed it as “not broken, yet.”  I washed it, gave it to him and told him to go put it to bed.

One down…One to go.

Open Living Plans Not a Good Idea

As I am looking around my living/dining/kitchen area at the numerous toys still out…the laundry folded and in baskets in front of the fireplace…the junk all over my counters…I am making a decision:

Never again will I have a house that embraces the “open-living” concept!!

Here’s why:

• I cannot escape the mess of my house unless I clean all of the open areas. 
• If I use the oven, I warm up the entire living area of my house.
• Too much counter space = too many places to leave your junk.
• I can see how dirty my kitchen floor is from my couch…
• I can see how dirty my living room floor is from my dining room table…
• I can see my dirty dishes on the stove from my couch and my dining room table!  (really I cannot right now since I cleaned the kitchen)

Needless to say, having a “open-living” plan in my house is making my life more stressful.

I want need to be able to escape from the mess. 

Any of you ever feel this way?  I just for once wish that I could clean one room, turn around and relish how lovely it looks without raising my eyes to see the way that the next room looks.

Article on Tort Reform and Government Healthcare that I thought I would pass on

I don’t usually get political here…or too serious, however I have been educating myself on the ramifications of government healthcare as it is related to my husband lately.  I found this article today in the New England Journal of Medicine that suggests that the two parties might be compromising some on this healthcare thing in terms of brainstorming.  The article is about the possibility of adopting federal healthcare and some tort reform all together because it may make everyone who votes on it happier in the end. 

Just in case you are interested.  If you are not, then I completely understand.  This is not my normal blog-fodder.

Seeing What Others See in Your Kids

Do you ever feel like you are being too hard on your kids?  Are you nagging a little too much?  Establishing high standards for behavior in a household is a lot of work.  I am committed to setting those high standards for my children with regards to their behavior because I want them to be honest and responsible young adults.

As a former high school teacher, I learned quickly that lowering standards for kids does one thing…it teaches them that they can be “not good enough.”  I would rather set high standards and reward them for trying to get there and let them learn to “climb to the top” than I would lower the standards so that they will always be able to succeed.

I’m not condoning abusive situations with kids where standards are impossibly high and kids are mentally and verbally abused and have a low self esteem because of it.  I am speaking of healthy competition and challenge where kids are made aware that not everyone wins and that the system will not always pick you up when you are down.  I want my children to know how to pickup themselves and do it with integrity and conviction. 

I was inspired to write this because another blogger-friend of mine wrote yesterday of  something that was recently noted about her kids by a complete stranger.  She mentioned that she had been out eating with the kids by herself (she has 3 of them) was complemented on how well-behaved her kids were being when she felt they were being “busy” (she describes it so nicely—I feel like I need to pull out my hair when my kids are acting “busy.”)  Anyway, it just made me think of my own kids and how people seem to always perceive them as having such great behavior.  This was confirmed when I was having a conversation this morning with another friend.  We were speaking of our kids and she mentioned that my kids are so well-behaved.  (hers are too—I think that might be why we get along pretty well so far—I just met her about a month or so ago)  I guess I often get caught up in teaching them or guiding them or forcibly making them do/act how I feel they need to, that sometimes I forget they are just 4 and 2.  They are great kids already! 

I guess I am writing this to remind myself that I need to sometimes sit back and realize that I’m doing a great job raising my kids and although I sometimes feel like a lion-tamer (and look like the lion ate me), it is working.  I am seeing the results little by little.

ButtMart

When I go to Walmart, I typically see all kinds of people.  Some are made up, some don’t care, some would care if they had the money and others…well, they just need a belt.

Say No to Crack! 

This is the second time I have been exposed to bare butt in this Walmart.  Old butt, young butt, zitty butt….I’ve seen it all at Walmart. 

Workout Trenches—Smells from hell

While at the fitness center this morning, I decided to get on the treadmill and walk.  I had already warmed up and lifted weights and the Young and the Restless was about to come on…sooooo—off the the treadmill I went. 

I’m walking along…a little huffin’ and puffin’ when this lady gets onto the treadmill next to me.  I’m minding my own business, as is she, when out of the corner of my eye, I see her turn my way and I heard a noise.  I had my earplugs in for the TV, so I turned and saw that she had started looking back at her TV screen and assumed she had sneezed/coughed/whatever.

That’s when it hit me.  The stinking. awful. odor.  Smellerella had apparently forgotten to brush her teeth this morning.  It was bad…I thought a skunk had gotten in there.  To make matters worse, I glanced at my timer to see how long I would have to endure the stink.  It lingered in the air for about 20-30 seconds!!  It was awful, shut your mouth because you must have eaten tuna and farted all at the same time bad!!! 

When I recovered and could walk in a straight line again, I got caught up in my Y&R for a couple more minutes.  I then sighed with relief as she walked out of the room—of course she also didn’t clean the equipment.  Yuck! 

—————-

Since my walking was so entertaining today, I will take a moment to bitch about the two women who got on treadmills on either side of me while I was trying to keep up with Adam killing Ashleys’s baby by causing her to have a miscarriage.  Victor was just about to address Adam in his “kingly” way when these two ladies saw it necessary to LOUDLY discuss everything from when their cleaning lady was coming to narrating my TV show and discussing the scandal of Adam when I was trying to watch it myself.  It took all I could muster not to say anything.  I didn’t look either of them in the eye…but I did try subtle hints:  I repeatedly punched the button to turn up my volume, I repositioned my ear piece, I held my hand to my ear (singer style) to ensure maximum speaker/ear alignment.  Nothing worked.  Just when I was about to have to say something, a wave of quiet hushed over them and the loudmouth on my right shut up!  Wonderful!  I finished my workout and as soon as I cleaned off my machine, they switched machines so that they would be next to each other.  I suspect they wanted me off my machine the entire time…they were trying to scare me away.  Hah!  Bitches!  I withstood Smellerella, I can take your crap anyday!!!

Ketchup Kid

We made a discovery this past week.  Apparently Ernie likes ketchup just enough to try put new foods up to his mouth if things are dipped in it.  As of today, I am including ketchup on his plate for every meal.  Maybe he will venture out of his little culinary cocoon and experiment.  Last night we had meatloaf, potatoes, and rolls (yes, we are obviously a meat and potatoes kind of family)…and he ate his roll dipped in ketchup.  Personally, this is homemade roll murder in my eyes, but whatever works. 

He also dipped and put his mouth up to the meatloaf and potatoes.  I gave him a dessert reward in the form of a cheese stick later on when he said he was hungry.  I figure he tried and this is real progress over the past two months.  I guess once he figures out that putting food up to his mouth gains him more food later, I will dangle the carrot just a little further out and require one bite.  Baby steps, right?

Apparently I am a Little Charlie Brown

Tonight the boys and I were outside while they rode their bikes in the driveway.  I was sitting in my folding chair in the shade.  Ernie came up and was being silly, so I grabbed and tickled him.  Apparently I was also talking to him in a silly manner while this was going on.  Bert came up and asked me if he could sit in a folding chair too and I answered him in a silly sing-song voice.  He looked at me seriously and said, “Mom.  Talk like you always talk.  You know, how you always sound.”  Naivety set in.   Surely I could handle the truth about how my son thinks of my voice.   I answered him by saying, “How do I normally talk?”  He smiled and said, “You know…Wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa!”  I broke out laughing because it sounded just like Lucy and Charlie Brown’s teacher…and the funny thing is that he has never watched Charlie Brown.  I told him, “Well, no wonder you don’t do a single thing I tell you too!  If that is all I heard, I wouldn’t do anything right either!!” 

We got a great laugh on that one.

The Potty Wiper-Upper

Today we were shopping at a local grocery warehouse and Bert had to go to the restroom.  Our cart was full, I had Ernie with me too, and we had already made one trip to the bathroom in the hour we had been there.  I asked him if he could wait and he told me No.  Off to the bathroom we went.  Luckily I could stand at the door with it propped open and still be about 5 feet from Ernie.  Bert went into the stall and proceeded to do his business.  I called out to him to check on him and kept talking to Ernie who was saying “Mommy! Help! Out!”  I looked at Bert’s stall and noticed he was bent down and putting one hand on the floor in front of the commode while wiping up something tissue in the other with the other hand.  I spoke out to him, “Bert, what are you doing?  Get up from there! We don’t put our hands on the floor in front of the potty!”  It wasn’t an angry statement…just a startled one.  He finished and followed my instructions as I told him to scrub really good with soap.  He came out and joined Ernie and I.  I asked him, “What were you doing in the bathroom?  Did you make a mess on the floor?”  He replied, “Yes, Mommy.  I tee-teed on the floor just a little bit.  That is what I was wiping up.” 

Okay, I am not a germaphobe by any means, but putting a hand on the floor in front of a public restroom is just GROSS!  Maybe I was wrong…maybe I should have said something different—but I didn’t. 

“Bert,” I said, “We don’t put our hands on the floor in front of the potty in a store.  Lots of people use this potty and there are lots of yucky germs.  I understand you were trying to clean up your mess, but it was a really little mess, right?”  “Yes,” He replied.  I then told him (and watched his eyes widen at the same time) “Next time, don’t clean it up.  If you pee a lot on the floor, then we will get someone to help us clean it with a mop.”  He searched my eyes and said, “But Mommy, shouldn’t I clean up my mess?”  I told him, “Yes, normally you should.  In this case it was just a couple of drops on the floor and the bathroom is really dirty.  You should leave it be.”

Alright…part of me is screaming—You are overreacting!  He was right. 

Part of me is thinking, “EWWWWW!!!!!!!”

What do you think?  How would you have handled this?

Maybe I should have just told him to not put his hand on the floor while cleaning it up.  The only problem with that is that he would have just steadied himself by putting his hand on the toilet. YUCK!