Did I ever tell ya'll about Steven's zone ten allergy test? He's allergic to mold, dust and cat dander. It never occurred to me to dust my damn car. I never drive it, hubby drives it to work. His cough got nasty and we saw a doc yesterday. He coughed the whole way there. Those nice bone deep chest coughs. UGH, it was a 55 minute trip. Ear infection because he was more vulnerable to upper respiratory infections. Hubby has never really believed my allergies, and I let him talk me into maybe steven doesn't have them. That, of course will never happen again. At the store picking up meds for the infection, I realized steven didn't cough at the doc's office. AT ALL. And proceeded to cough all the way to the store. Picked up the swiffer dry floor cloths. Dust and dirt sticks to them and doesn't kick as much into the air. He didn't cough near as much on the way home. Boy did I feel stupid, didn't think to dust the car. Get home and he coughs all to hell in his room, but not down stairs. It occurred to me around 7pm that maybe, as they've slept on the floor and wet the bed, I need to pull up the carpet in their room. This morning shows small spots of mold on the 2x12s of the floor. Today I'll be pulling it all up and out. We don't have proper tools, so I'll be using a flat crowbar to get all the damn staples and the tack strips off the floor. It's a good thing I know how to do all that properly. And I have my steel toed boots. Stepping on tacks accidentally won't get through the soles. I'll be doing 'remodeling' after my coffee kicks in this morning. Apparently, I'll be disinfecting the boots for the air vents, too. I'm gonna need more bleach. UGH! If anyone can think of other strange places, let me know.
I wonder if this should have occurred to me before, if it really was stupid not to think of it. Opinions?
Construction is fun! I'll be sealing the 2x12s before any flooring gets put down. I wonder if a deck sealant would be sufficient.

See ya'll later |

Now that Steven is in school and spring is coming up, I'm due to go back to work. I didn't last summer, as I would have been paying more in gas and a babysitter than I could have earned. Restaraunt and grocery work is minimum wage or not much more. I will be going back to work soon, regardless. There isn't anything really open right now, unless I want to sell insurance and be a manager. And...I suck at selling things. Realistically, I'll probably find a place to cook in. As I would rather not be around people. The customer is always right has to be the most irritating thing about the front end. I'd rather bus tables. Which I may do, but here they usually hire high school kids for that. As they are a dime a dozen, here employers won't like that I haven't worked since summer of 2000. Soooo...I'm looking into school. Online courses (read degrees) are the way to go for me, as I detest a classroom environment. I went through a website that let you choose a course from an online university and now the schools are calling me. As with everything on the internet, I thought I'd get the information on them in my inbox. Apparently this is not so. Only one so far has given me a price per credit hour. It's the shortest for an associates in web design, and would cost $66,960 not including books/technology. those average apparently $80.

One thing that concerned me was a University that told me one of the reasons to go to their school was.....
All the tests were open book. Umm, yeah. When I was in school, we called that cheating. He couldn't answer either, my question of how the professors would know they actually learned what was being taught. He said their school wasn't what I was looking for, and he was right. So, I asked the next school about it and they grade and give an associates degree on a projects basis. I'll buy that one. The one today said theirs were 'open book' but they are timed, so that if you don't know the information inherently, you'll fail. The lady did address my concern for that and did explain. I have to wonder though, why would a school give an open book test, mind you the one I had asked first had an actual building people go into to learn at also. He did say it was common in their university. Are they actually learning there? If most of the students have to have their tests open book, are the teachers even teaching? Maybe it's just me.

I would rather work doing something I like. I like computers and graphics. If I can afford it, this will be the way to go for me. If I can't, I'll probably cook somewhere and try to save money. Ha, that's a joke. We can't save money for the life of us. If it's there, we spend it on something we want or need. We do keep $200 in our checking account most times though. That's the reason we will never have a credit card. It's just too tempting. I never had a problem getting a job before, but now that I haven't been working, it'll be so much harder. I hope I can get something I'll like. I'd wash dishes if it paid enough. I just don't want to be working to pay a babysitter. As work is mostly summer here, that narrows the field as I will have to find someone to trust my kids with. I think I'd like to learn though, My CSS isn't very good, and I don't understand the Javascript and such. I could use a teacher to answer my questions. I've only learned very basic Photoshop skills. I use Ulead for my graphics. I would like to learn to do more. Getting paid for it would be a plus too. However, with the money we make, unless we were to do the student loan thing, which I don't wish to do, I don't think school is in my immediate future. I will hope, but not expect.

Maybe you guys can buy my dragon designs I have over at Cafe Press, and support my education. {wink, wink}. Too bad I can't sell my necklaces there. I don't have much on there, but I'll probably draw a new dragon soon. I want to make a purple one I think. A pretty jewel tone, like the emerald one.

Apparently it's been so long with html, I had to readjust the anchor tag twice. He he. I think I'll change the colors on this page again and maybe play with a new header. I haven't really played with Ulead in a long time. I think I will.
See ya'll later.
Micki

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So...I was looking at my sidebar and noticed my archives showed very sporadic posting in the last two years. As my family has been posting news and pics in myspace, I haven't really had much posting here. I'm not sure why.
Steven started Kindergarten this year. Apparently, he is very much my son. I don't like his teacher...at all. Of course I am polite, as she is his teacher, but you know... She didn't believe me that he'd have a bit of trouble letting her tell him what to do and when to do it. This is just his personality, not that that excuses the behavior. I think we have it settled now, but it took her a few tries to realize I needed specific examples as to his behavior before I would A) believe he was doing anything wrong (she was very vague and it didn't sound like anything at all) and B) Speak to him about it. Steven is easy to get around if you know how to relate it to him. He now understands that giggling at his teacher 'hurts her feelings'. Now, the teacher said disrespectful, but as I don't think I've ever said it, it isn't likely he'd even understand the word. Just 2 weeks ago he decided he didn't have to do his 'work' and was playing instead. Until the threat of centers being taken away. Got a phone call for that one. I told her not to threaten and just take it. 'Threatening' to him means you don't mean it. Most kids the actual taking away isn't necessary, just the threat. He also has my need to know 'why'. If he doesn't understand the why of it, he doesn't care about it. I found his trigger though. Taking away his favorite thing, and the next, etc. until good behavior gives it back. After the third thing, he decided to behave. He's decided mostly to write with his right hand, but uses both for everything else. He had a blister from the jungle gym on his left, and so is now using his pencil, not crayons, with his right. I'm not sure his teacher realizes he is learning from her as he does not 'perform on command'. His report card said he didn't know half his alphabet. As he's known it since he was 3, I know this isn't true. We'll figure it out. We also found out that he is allergic to penicillin, cats, dust and mold. I thought he may have gotten chicken pox even after his shots, but it was an allergic reaction to the amoxycillin for his strep throat he brought home. He's not allowed to play with the cat anymore, he was only sad for a while though. He'll be 6 on the 15th.
Mikel is in 2nd grade and has a special education plan for his reading. It seems to be working, but he isn't where I know he's supposed to be. Last year he was supposed to end in I level. He ended in D. As was explained to me, it goes in levels A through whatever, A being the lowest. I cannot help there at all. He gets frustrated, then we get frustrated, then there's crying. I don't try to help anymore, as I can tell I do not help and maybe hinder that. They tested him last year and he tested special education level for basic reading. So we are working on it. I hate the math he brings home. They use algebra words for 2nd grade math. UGH! So, the instructions confuse me. Apparently this is right up his and his father's alley for their unique form of straightforward logic. I can help him with his spelling though. It never really occurred to me that reading and spelling were two very different things. Now I know. He and Steven both had strep throat again a while back. They have a shot for that now, and I didn't want to hassle with the medicine again. They got shots. Steven cried and was upset until after it was done. He's never cried for a shot before, it could be because of Mikel's behavior though. Mikel was screaming like they were killing him. All the while screaming, we had to pry him off the chair his father was sitting in and hold him down as he was wiggling a lot. I cried. A lot. I hate it when Mikel gets shots. I know it didn't actually hurt him, as after he calmed down he admitted it didn't really hurt. The secretary ladies were concerned and asked if I was okay. You'd think that'd never happened before.
I have lots of random thoughts, they just won't come out without sounding hypocritical and I hate that. There is one thing I've seen lately that scares me and creeps me out. Have you seen any of the shopping networks? They are sooo proud of their new 'presidential' (and I term that loosely) coins. Now, normally and ACTUAL president has to do something to EARN his face on the coin. We all know why Washington is on there, how about Lincoln? Yet we have a man that is not yet president that people are proud to deface their money with. Yes, it is defacing. Our money is supposed to be the way it is minted. Period, end of story. I ask, just what did he do to earn his face OVER all these presidents that did something to earn their place on their coin? I have said this before and I'll say it again... Just like being a woman does not qualify you for president, neither does the color of your skin. As near as I can tell, that's the only reason anyone has given for this. He had no control over who his parents were, why does it merit a coin at all? Not in office yet. Nevermind my actual opinion on whether or not he should ever be in office, the point is...right now, he is not. Therefore he has done nothing as a president to earn it. I have never seen what is so great about this guy to call him and treat him like a messiah. That scares me. All or almost all the things I have heard promised is IMPOSSIBLE to accomplish as president. The president does not MAKE laws. He signs them or vetos them and they go back to congress. Yet many people seem to think he can. Is there a magic wand somewhere? If there is, I want one too dammit! Doesn't it frighten anyone, the promise to make an all voluntary militia? Personally, I thought our military was voluntary. No one will convince me differently. They all make that choice. Sure some do because there isn't a better one, but it is still a choice. Why is it ok for him to be so demeaning toward our military? The president is commander in chief. Sure he hasn't said lately, that I know of, that they are bad people, but to bypass them overseas to talk to a bunch of foreign people in a foreign land and call it...See I have diplomatic-ish ties. The thing that scares me most is he will be in charge of the federal budget. If you cannot manage $5million, $50million(whichever), why did we vote him in a place where for four years he will be in charge over a few TRILLION? Like I said before, the color of your skin does not a president make. Sure, I believe a black man can do as good enough job as a white man, as a red man, as a whatever man can. There real question is, can this one? This man scares me mainly because no one seems to like to hold him accountable for his past, or present....Will they for our future? That is scary. Especially as we all should know by now that the UN is not the answer to anything, let alone, EVERYTHING! Another thing, as a senator there was a chance to make laws and he didn't do it then, why would anyone believe he'll do it in january where he no longer has that power?!
Strange days. Gas is less than $2 per gallon. Guess bush really wasn't the sole reason gas prices were up or down. Who would've thunk it?
Food for thought ppl! |