Thursday, November 27, 2003

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Life is still going on. Staying busy and preparing to take two college courses in January. It's been (counting on fingers...) 7 years and counting since I've been in school. This should be fun!

Have a happy and delicious holliday!

Dawn posted this at 12:54 AM.

Monday, November 03, 2003

 

Whew! Too much going on to tell all.

Xander had his 2nd birthday party, 3 times. Once for 10 kids, once for Nanny, then once when Grammy and Papa came for a visit. Time to go through all those toys...

We are now in intense potty training. He's getting the hang of it. Wore him out that he's taken a 3 hour nap.

My school news: I found out today I don't have to take the GRE! Yay! That thing is greuling! I took three practice tests and got 71 on two different math tests, and a 40 percent on the verbal. No wonder I stink at writing! You know, in order to study for the verbal part, you basically have to study the dictionary all the way though. Know it forward and backward and then you're prepared. Like I said, greuling.

Anyway, a lady from MSU in Meridian finally called me back. I'm going to be taking classes from there. She was very helpful and not condecending like the others I spoke to. And, they actually have classes I can take and I'm interested in. Of course, it'll mean that I have to drive 45 minutes twice a week, but hey, I'll do that if I can avoid that nasty GRE.

But this experience the last month has had me thinking. I would like to advance my degree. I'd like to maybe go back and get an early childhood degree or a secondary degree, or maybe even a media specialist degree. Who knows, maybe one day I'll pass that irritating GRE and get into a master's program....

Dawn posted this at 4:19 PM.

Saturday, October 04, 2003

 

Check out this great website! Someone found a hummingbird nest and took pictures from construction to egg, to hatching and to flying away. Awesome pics! Hummingbird nest
Still around and still busy as ever! God bless!

Dawn posted this at 2:02 PM.

Saturday, August 23, 2003

 

Our vacation was a blast! Xander loved The Land of the Little Horses. He wasn't all that impressed with the zoo since all the animals were hot and tired so there was very little exciting activity. Tian Tian and Mei Xiang (the pandas) were both splayed out on a rock sleeping whe we were there. Mei Xiang had a sonogram done that morning and they gave her a lot of fruits and veggies. Since she was so full, she just laid around. I've been keeping an eye on the website that is following her pregnancy/psudopregnancy. It's interesting that pandas go through 'pregnancy' every year whether they are pregnant or not. They won't know until she actually gives birth.

Anyway, the first day we were at the beach, it was so calm it was nearly like a swimming pool. But then Ericka stirred things up in the gulf and the waves were so bad several days that we couldn't get in the water. Xander didn't seem to mind. Grammy and Papa took him to the Gulf Shores zoo one day and to the Oceanarium in Biloxi, MS. another. James and I played a bunch of mini-golf. The one hole that we both got a hole-in-one on we won free games. So we both have tokens for free games next time we go.

It was nice to come back all refreshed. The house we stayed at turned out to be very nice for $80 a night and had a washer and dryer. So, for the first time, we came home with clean clothes! Quite a feat for a two-week long trip.

So, now we are home and the house was a disaster. After such a busy summer, we've a lot to catch up on. Luckily, my mom flew my 18-year-old niece down from Oregan to stay for a month. She's been a great help just keeping Xander busy while I get work done.

Yesterday, James and I rearrainged our den so that now my desk is not stuck over in the corner and hard to get to. Now I actually have a window view! James made some bookshelves out of the free wood that I snagged from a local business that opened last year. They were unloading displays out of wooden crates and they gave us the plywood that the crates were made out of. They have been turned into a puppet stage for the library, two bookshelves for me, and I painted a sea background for pictures at the library. Not bad for free stuff. :)

Xander's kitten finally got named by him. Camel kitty. Don't ask me why. We were out in the pool one day recently and I was bugging him to name the kitty. A few minutes later he suddenly said, "Camel kitty."
"Camel kitty? That's what you want to name your kitty?" I asked.
"Uh-huh."
"Okay." I was a bit skeptical and not sure exactly what to think.
"Camel," Xander called as he looked around for the kitten. "Camel."

I couldn't resist laughing at him. The name hasn't exactly stuck yet. If I ask him the kitty's name he gives me a gibberish name most of the time. Sometimes he meows. He's a nut! Lately he's been hiding around the corner of bookshelves. At first I thought he had something he wasn't supposed to. "Xander, what are you doing?" I asked him.
"Hiding," he replied with a giggle.
Don't they make life such fun?

Dawn posted this at 3:11 PM.

Saturday, August 02, 2003

 

Wow, things have changed around blogger. Been too long again.

I'm on the jet set again. Tomorrow afternoon we leave on a flying (i.e. fast driving) trip to Virgina. James is teaching classes while Xander and I get to see the sights. We'll be about 2 hours or less from D.C. and Gettysburg. It's going to be fun. Also I'll get to visit a friend (Hi, Alicia!). Then, when the week is over, we'll be flying (see before) down to Gulf Shores for a week vacation with the in-laws. We have a beach house across the street from the beach! The houses were surprising-ly non expensive.

My writing has been portable-lized. I bought an expanding folder briefcase for less than $9 that holds my 'writer's toolkit' and even a couple of my favorite resource books. I'm working on two novels at the moment- my brain likes to flip/flop even though I want to work on a particular one.

I'm trying to work through the plot and characters before I write. With one of these two stories I've had many false starts because I don't know where the middle is going. I bought a book on plot, but the silly thing contradicts itself in the same paragraph! I even read the paragraph to the hubby and he suggested throwing it out!

Uh-well. Other news around here: My summer reading program work is over! Yeah! Xander one first place in the Read-to-me and believe me it was all him. He wanted to read those 464 books, AND to top it off, many of those books he wanted read 2 or 3 more times than we counted on his record. I wasn't like the other parents that forced their children to read that many books. But anyway...

Xander has a kitten. He showed up crying in the bushes one night. Some bowl of milk and about two 'kitten training' sessions (i.e. me sitting very still while kitten got curious and brave) and he was hooked. He is a pain about getting in the house all the time, but he's a sweetie. I'm trying to get Xander to name him, but he's stuck on 'Nanu'. He named his panda bear 'Nanu', so I'm trying to get him to name kitten something else, but to no avail yet. He spontaneously named a toy farmer he has 'Beau' and the Panda 'Nanu', but he doesn't name all his toys yet.

Xander is so smart, he amazes me. The other morning he woke up and as I was changing him he said, "Bats...fly...church...sleep." He's seen the bats fly around the lights at the church building and I wonder if he's dreamed about them. :)

Well, I'd better get back to packing. TTFN!

Dawn posted this at 10:36 PM.

Wednesday, May 28, 2003

 

Grr...page isn't viewing right, maybe another post will help.

Dawn posted this at 2:23 PM.

 

Whew! Has it been that long? Time really flies. This month I am so busy. Last weekend my sister and her two children came for a visit. Before that I was sick with pnemonia for a week. I wasn't even at home that week. I had started coughing the saturday before mothers day, started a fever on mother's day. Then we went to visit James' parents and James left me there on Wednesday just after I'd been to the doctor and got the diagnosis. I stayed until he came to get me the next week(we were planning on another return visit anyway). It worked out great 'cause Grammy and Grampa both got to help me out taking care of Xander and they got to spend some good quality time with him too.

So, this week, not only am I getting ready for the carnival and kick-off of the summer program next week, some of James' relatives are coming for a visit Monday and Tuesday we're all going to the beach. James' cousin Todd, his wife Susan and their two children will be staying with us Monday thru Wednesday. Not only that, but my mom has to be at the airport 1 1/2 hours away. She'll be flying to California to visit reletives for a week. That leaves my Downs-syndrome cousin Bruce with us for the week too. He's not difficult to take care of, but he is another mouth to feed and body to bathe. He can pretty much do everything for himself except cook and help get in and out of the tub.

Also, My sister brought me a laptop computer. When I told her what happened to my other one, she said that she had been planning to sell hers for $300 minus the cost of a new battery. She said that the battery didn't last as long as she thought it should. I went in and changed the setting from 'Automatic' to 'Longest Life' and it lasts about as long as my old one did! I feel bad and would offer to pay her more money, (the final cost we decided was $180) but she ended up taking all my fish tanks and stands (except for Xander's 2.5 gal tank) and other fish paraphinalia (sp). She was excited that she could buy her 55 gallon tank with the money. She is starting to breed different fish as well as raise aquatic plants. I was a bit upset that James gave her all my stuff, at first, but then I realized I just don't have time to keep up the tanks anyway. Dee was telling me that I should put a beta in Xander's tank and she was telling me that it would only require changing the water so often and partial changes so often. But I don't even have that time.

Having this new laptop brings a mixture of feelings. I'm glad to have it, but at the same time I wish I had more time to use it for it's major intended purpose: writing. I'm frustrated with my writing right now. I feel like mine is flat, and not 'out of the box' type. Anyway, I'll not go there right now. No one likes a pity party....

I see my last post I was talking about Miss Kitty's kitties. She disappeared, reappeared kitty-less and it looked like she wasn't even nursing. So, I have no idea what happened to the kitties. She's not been around at all in a long while. Gimli started haning around a lot while he was sick. He started out coughing and acting like he had a hairball. I considered giving him something to help him out, but never got to it and he quit coughing. Then he started losing weight and his voice was hoarse. He was acting really sick too. If there had been a vet in town, I'd have taken him but the closest one is nearly an hour a way...plus we're trying to pay off bills and I didn't want any added expenses (my trip to the doctor cost $112!) But he seems fine now, although his voice seems to be a bit hoarse still, but I think he was that way before. He's been hanging around nearly all the time, which seems strange for a male cat to do.

Also, I noticed that I mentioned Xander being ready for a real bed. He did very well and surprised us all by taking to his bed from the start. He had trouble learning not to fall out for the first few weeks, but now he rarely falls out at all. We didn't put a railing by his bed since it is a very low bed anyway and we haven't had any trouble.

He gave us a real scare not long after that. He, as most toddlers will, trips a lot. One night, James was on the phone with my bro-in-law and sitting in a dining room chair. The chairs are metal and Xander tripped and hit his head on the square metal leg of the chair. I was a step behind him and picked him up seconds after he fell. Already there was a large welt growing on his forehead. I panicked and James said, "Uh, I gotta go," and hung up the phone. When I first looked at the bump, I thought his forehead was smashed in as well as the bump out. But when I looked again, I realized it was just his forehead wrinkled making it appear that there was an indention.

We live in a small town with no hospital. It was after 7 PM and I thought there was an after hours clinic in town. So we all got in the van and headed downtown. Every place was closed up. On the drive, I calmed down and told my self to calm Xander down. Before we made it back home, he'd calmed down and was signing on demand. I had gotten the idea to make sure he was coherent and his memory was intact. Every sign I asked him to do, he did and I felt relieved. I told James that he was coherent and was probably okay. When I looked back, Xander was signing 'hurt' and gingerly touched his head. We had just recently taught him 'hurt' and was surprised to see him say it on his own. I took it as a good sign.

Before we got home, I remembered that Xander's health insurance included a 24-hour 1-800 # for ask a nurse. I tried that and either was on hold or got cut off for the next 30 minutes. By this time Xander was running around like a crazy man from being so tired. I also tried calling friends or relatives, most of which were not at home. I talked to my mom about it and she said he was probably okay, but I still wanted to hear it from a doctor. So, I called the ambulance company and spoke to an EMT. She couldn't really give advice or diagnose over the phone, but I asked, "If this were your child and..." She said that if it were her child, she would just watch him through the night and not worry too much. Xander finally got to bed about 9:30 or 10 and I checked on him after 30 mins and an hour and most of the swelling had gone down, so I didn't worry. He did have a regular check up the next day and the doctor said it was fine. He said it might give him a black eye, but it didn't really. I was very relieved to see him be okay.

One more thing and then I think I've rambled enough. We had the computers go down at the library recently and they got a man from the internet provider to check things out. He ended up fixing a BUNCH of computers and he still has more work to do. I asked him about the possibility of setting up my home computer to access the internet on the library account so I could work from home (the library gets free internet from them) and he said that would be fine. He also said that he would check out my computer and help get it working optimally. Then I told him about my laptop and how I wanted to be able to log on to the library network to search card catalog, so he said he would do that too. I'm really glad, because my computer at work is old and can only have windows and word on it. I've been wanting one that would get on to their network and I think this will work out great because the laptop can come home with me and I can work on the files at home too. No more disks to tote back and forth spreading viruses everywhere! That's another thing...I really need to get an updated virus checker too...

Anyway, TaTa for now!

Dawn posted this at 2:17 PM.

Friday, April 04, 2003

 

Oh, and bits of news to pass on:
Miss Kitty is about to have a litter of kittens (as opposed to a litter of puppies).
Xander is into everything, jabbering up a blue streak, knows over 30 signs, says over 20 words that are recognizable and is already too big for his crib! He'll get to sleep in my old toddler bed soon. My dad made it for me when I was little!

Dawn posted this at 1:51 PM.

 

I'm still here.

Increadibly busy. Growing a garden, sewing, working at the library, keeping up with housework and chasing a nearly 18-month old around keeps me very busy.

I've been walking every morning for 1 1/2 - 2 hours and have lost about 20 pounds since Jan. I'm looking good and feeling better.

I miss writing though. I've been getting some 'reading' done by listening to books on tape while walking, sewing or cooking. A friend and I talk about books all the time and it makes my heartache to be writing.

I am doing other forms of writing. I wrote my first grant for the library this past week. I've also been asked to write an article by a published local author about some awards he has won.

And now I shall return to my regularly busy schedule. :)

Dawn posted this at 1:46 PM.

Thursday, January 16, 2003

 

Oh, and my new e-mail addy is: mamadp@cheerful.com.

I haven't figured out how to add it to my template at blogger. I put in the proper code, but it won't show up when the page loads. I haven't taken the time to figure out what's wrong with it.

Dawn posted this at 10:26 PM.

 

Just a quick note to let everybody know I'm still here. We don't have internet acess at home anymore, we decided to save the $13 a month. So I'm sitting here in a cold library at 10 PM trying to get some work done for our Wee Read storytime tomorrow and our new homeschoolers classes too.

Xander is doing great. He started walking everywhere over Christmas. He now says mama, dada, nana, kitty and 'dat' (he says that all the time when he points to things and people think he's saying 'that'). We now have two kittys in residence. They chose us and started haning around last October. He started saying 'kitty' everytime he saw them. So one is Ms. Kitty and the other finally is being dubbed 'Gimli'. I started calling him 'Smokey Joe' because he is cream-colored with grey ears and tail (he looks a lot like our old cat, 'Coon and I'm quite sure Gimli is a decendant). I wanted to come up with a better name than Smokey and when my sister told me her cat's name was Arwen, I started thinking along those lines. At first I thought maybe Legolas since they both are of a fair color, but since the cat is extremely vocal I decided to go with Gimli. All through the movie Gimli complains. He complains about having to run all over chasing after the captured Meri and Pippin. Then he complains about not being able to see over the wall (one of my favorite scenes!).

Anyway, my laptop is still in the shop and although that doesn't mean I can't write (there is James' computer as well as plenty of paper and pens at the house) I haven't been writing. I've been catching up on housecleaning and working at the library. Which reminds me that I'd better finish up so I can go home...to a warm house.

Dawn posted this at 10:24 PM.