Mommy-Daughter Date

Anneke needed some one on one time. I felt we should go out and do something fun together. I struggle a great deal with my relationship with her. Mostly, I do not understand her and get easily frustrated with her. I let her choose and she decided we would go shopping for her gift for Marcus and get hot chocolate while browsing at Barnes and Noble. I am not a shopper, I get overwhelmed. BUT I went for my girl.

I ordered 2 peppermint hot chocolates and we looked around while we waited. When we got our drinks it tasted weird. I am not a huge Starbucks hot cocoa fan so I thought that was the problem. Anneke asked to try mine and she said, "That's gross." So, I had to try hers. Yep, mine was a mocha. I took it back and they apologized. Right on the cup it said hot cocoa. They started making me a new one but then a person in charge said they needed my receipt which I had thrown away (not usual). After digging through the trash for a couple of minutes I realized it wasn't worth it. *sigh* I didn't even want to go back but didn't want coffee. Not the best ending to our day. She did find a gift for Marcus, but not what she wanted.

Learning from Experience

Last night for my birthday my husband took me on a date. We don't usually get to do that. On this date he took me to dinner and then shopping for clothes. For anyone that knows me that makes my husband VERY brave. I don't like shopping and I am not very good at it. I don't spend money on myself, especially this time of year. My birthday money rarely goes to myself. By the end of the night I did have a couple pair of jeans, and a nice new shirt and camisole to wear to church. I learned a few things I will share, too.

*It is a lot more fun to go shopping without children in tow.
*Old Navy is not the only store to find inexpensive clothes that fit me.
*My husband likes me to wear different clothes than I would like to wear. (ie button up shirts and slacks vs. jeans and t-shirts.)
*The clothes I would like to wear are inpractical for a stay-at-home-preschool-teacher mom.
*It is nice to get new things every 3 years or so.
*Don't expect children to be asleep when you get home. You are happier if they are and not as disappointed when they inevitably aren't. 

There you go. My birthday was fun. I got the new Junie B. Jones book and a sterling silver Mockingjay necklace from my family on top of my little impromptu shopping trip. Anneke made me an easy bake oven chocolate cake, too. Don't be jealous. I can send her your way for your birthday if you would like.

Stuff

Yesterday there were a few English professors visiting from BYU-Idaho for a conference. (The conference was quite expensive so not much of an option right now.) My husband is awful at small talk, so I guided the conversation a bit. They were quite pleasant. With the new mission age, they may not actually be hiring though. :(

We got behind in job applications, so this week we are playing catch up. Getting Georgia mailed off, Tennesse, New Mexico and New Jersey. If there is time (which I doubt) I think Texas would be another good one to send off.

Details

Here is the situation I alluded to yesterday. I want some feedback, so I will post it in full. My children have seminars in school. They choose a topic that interests them and for 3 weeks, one hour a day, they focus on that. Marcus is currently in one about the Olympics.

Last week the teacher told them that the original Olympics took place with everyone competing in the nude. Fine. It is a fact. But, then he showed a cartoon clip of this. The men were full view, women from waist up. Marcus was quite uncomfortable. We contacted people about it, etc. Andy watched the video and said it was not horrible, but very unnecessary. 

I thought it resolved well until this morning. They had told the teacher the child that was uncomfortable. Marcus is so worried about upsetting the teacher and now is trying to distance himself from the situation. (Remember my post about confrontation. Guess who is the same?) I am very worried he will not come to us with something like this again. Especially if it means he will be singled out and embarrassed in front of others. So, now, how should we proceed? Suggestions?

Confrontation

Briefly, Andy is applying to a school in Tennessee, Indiana and possibly Alaska this week.

I am not good with confrontation. If there is a problem, I deal with it. I would babysit and never tell the parents if the children were bad. What if they didn't think I could handle them and never asked me again? If there is something wrong with my food in a restaurant I just won't eat it. I don't send it back. I am a wimp. It's kind of the same with sickness of pain. I deal with it until I really can't handle it. I don't like inconveniencing people. In order for me to speak up I have to feel really strongly about something and then that usually leads to me getting heated up quickly.

When something came up with Marcus at school I sent an email. I didn't want to have a face to face confrontation. Then, I made my husband call about it. So far, things are going well and we are dealing with it. In this case I did not want to say something wrong and offend or upset anyone. I am so afraid if this is handled wrong Marcus won't come and tell us important things anymore.

Is anyone else like this or is it just me?

This week on the job market...

For any interested parties, this week Andy is applying to 2 schools in Texas, one in Pennsylvania and possibly one in Nebraska.

Last week he forgot to apply to the Illinois school.  However, our good friend told him about a job opening for BYU Idaho.  After researching it he is quite excited.  They are doing things for which he would love to contribute. He quickly sent off the application and is trying to gather transcripts. (That is harder than you may think considering he has attended 4 schools.) This is the one Luke is praying he will get. We are trying to be open minded and go where the Lord wants us to go. The schools in Texas would be nice, but one has a very heavy workload and the other has very specific classes so he would not get to grow. Pennsylvania is perfect for him with the description and Nebraska is just a community college. Anyway, keep us in your prayers. We just want a job. This job hunting thing is overwhelming.

Follow Through

Sometimes it is hard to be a mom. 

I have been looking forward to the Vegas Valley Book Festival for about 3 months. Meeting Brandon Mull was the kick off and this weekend was the big event. It was separated into 4 sections; Children's, Young Adult, Adult and Comic books. They were all at the same location except Comic Book which is the one Andy wanted to (and felt he should) attend. I was most excited about meeting David Shannon (No David, David Gets in Trouble, Too Many Toys, etc.). However, I don't like driving, especially downtown Vegas.

This morning one of my children decided to be incredibly disobedient. They didn't care about the festival and purposely made it so we couldn't go. Andy took Marcus to the comic book portion, though. I am disappointed and frustrated. I am afraid I will regret this as much as not being able to meet Gail Carson Levine because it was moving day in Boulder. More importantly I am not sure how to handle the choices my child is making. Argh!