Blogging and why I hate it.
Posted on November 30, 2007
Ok, so I know I keep promising to be better at this whole blog thing. But I think this may be one of those things that is just never going to happen. The problem is, I think of something that should go in the blog, but by the time I have the time to sit down and write about it, it doesn’t seem important anymore. I also sometimes feel like nobody is reading this. This is partly due to the fact that I will write an essay about what we’re up to, and somebody will send me an email and say, “what are you guys up to?” I thought that this blog was supposed to eliminate those emails. Not that I mind the email, I love email. I just don’t want to repeat myself over and over again.
That being said….here is the latest:
Grandpa and Grandma Erickson came out to visit in October. Those pictures are up in the gallery. Mama and Papa O’Donnell came out to visit in November…those pictures will be up soon. We had Thanksgiving at the Grisinger’s with Dan, Ellen, Ellen’s mom and step dad, Devon, and all the kids. Ellen made a feast and we still have leftovers.
My biggest trial right now is Christmas shopping (I know, my life is sooo hard.) The main issue is that a majority of our presents are going to Colorado. Last year, we brought most of our presents in our luggage, wrapped. When we got to Denver, some of our gifts were unwrapped. So this year we decided we would do most of our shopping online and ship the presents to Colorado. Sounds simple enough, but you would be amazed at how quickly shipping costs add up! So, I have been trying to manipulate my shopping to reduce the cost of shipping (Amazon rocks with this.) In addition to that, I have been shopping for Chloe and John here. And let me tell you, its not easy to shop with a toddler. Chloe does fine as long as we are moving. However, when you are Christmas shopping, there tends to be long lines, and toddlers don’t do well with long lines. Today, while waiting in line, she emptied a box of raisins all over the floor at American Eagle. In some ways, I kind of thought it was their fault. They really should have had more cashiers.
In other Chloe related news, she is demonstrating her O’Donnell genes on a regular basis. In other words…Chloe’s a talker. Every day she picks up new words. She knows almost all of her animal sounds and can identify many aquatic animals (I blame Finding Nemo for that one, she’s OBSESSED). She is also starting to group words. For example, she says, “I did it,” “all done,” and “Mama up.” She’s big on the mimicking now, so John and I really have to watch what we do or say. She also LOVES music and likes to sing and dance. Every now and then I can pick out what song she’s singing. Her favorites right now are her ABC’s (which sound like: “a, b, d, d, e, f, Geee. a, b, d, d, e, f, Geee, a” the G is emphasized) and happy birthday, (”happy day, happy day.”) She still struggles with pronunciation; flowers are “wowers,” and sharks are “darks.” She also over generalizes, every color is purple, if she’s not sure what an animal says, it says “baaa.” She also calls telephones “hello.” I thought she was just pretending to talk on her phone and always starting with “hello,” until two days ago when I showed her a picture in one of her books and I asked her what it was, and she said, “a hello.” Oh, that’s another thing, she now adds “a” in front of almost all her words. “A fishies,” “a bear,” “a kitty.”
She is still a finicky eater, but she is getting better. She still is extremely cautious, but I have a feeling she is going to be like that her whole life. She is getting a lot better with going to other people, although when she is tired or overwhelmed, only mommy will do. Sometimes, this is rough. Especially since she is getting heavier (22 pounds) and my back still sucks. Its getting harder and harder to carry her through the mall because she won’t sit in her stroller and she won’t go to Daddy. Its also getting harder to lug her in and out of her car seat. I think it is time to teach her to climb into it by herself.
All in all, though…she is an extremely mild mannered and good little girl.
I started tutoring, but I am not sure if I am going to keep it up. For one thing, the boy I am tutoring doesn’t really need a tutor. He is a fifth grader who is getting all A’s and B’s. It is sooo weird for me to work with a kid who not only does all my work, but tells me how much fun he is having doing it and was actually upset that we had to miss the week of Thanksgiving. I have never, in my career as a teacher, worked with a kid like this. In some ways its refreshing, and in other ways I feel like he doesn’t need me and I am taking advantage. On top of all this, his mom does EVERYTHING I suggest. Most of the times, the parents are fighting against me. I recommended she find a nice quite spot where he could study. Two weeks later they turned their living room into a study room. Its just so out of my realm of experience. I am going to wait until after New Years and see how I feel, but right now I just don’t think it’s worth the money. It doesn’t help that the lady who owns the company I am contracting through seems a bit sketchy. She told one mom that I could get her 11th grade daughter who is reading at an 8th grade level “caught up” in a year. I am sorry, but if you aren’t truly committed to improve (and this girl wasn’t) it’s just not going to happen. When I suggested she explain that to the mom, she said, “we can’t tell her that, she might take her to Sylvan.” In the end, the Mom changed her mind. But, that sort of stuff just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It is nice, however, to get out of the house and keep my brain busy. I don’t know. We’ll have to see.
We are going back to Denver from December 19th to January 4th. It’s a long trip because I didn’t want to risk snow delays like we had last year. That whole situation sucked! I never ever want to fly into Colorado on Christmas morning again. This way, if we are delayed by snow, it won’t ruin our whole trip and we will have plenty of time to still see people.
Well, it’s late and our little ray of sunshine has been getting up at 6:00am, so I should go to bed. I will add pictures within the next couple of days. I pretty much have to add all the pictures for the month of November…it’s going to take me awhile.