The kids do a jagger (aka pimping my kids out for a poster)

One of my clients, Linux Journal, held a contest - for people that were willing to do a jagger, you could win a free poster (super cool geek poster). Anyway, here's a link to the contest HERE. I, of course, bribed my children to do it... enjoy! (it's REALLY funny, at least I think so!)

Meet The Teacher was last night.... and cha-cha-cha changes... (Long and Rambling)

So, the welcome walk was last night. Yes, they come to the house. There are joys to having a small community elementary school (350 students in 6 grades - plus Pre-K). How cool is that? Both seem very very nice, which helps seeing as I'm handing them my babies for 7 hours per day. And no, I didn't scream "baby stealer!" at Cassie's Kinder teacher.

Cassie's teacher came first and we had to call Cassie out of Jamie's room - they had been in there for an hour or more playing with legos. Earlier that day, we had made a pencil craft (with a pinwheel on top) and Cassie gave it to her teacher as a gift (something we started last year and appears to now be a tradition). She was very surprised and will put it in her room to show it off. Cassie was, of course, beaming. Cassie was a bit shy but I think she's fine and the teacher shook her hand and told she would see her Monday for supply drop off. We found out later that a kid she knows will be in her class so she's feeling pretty good about it all.

Jamie's teacher came a few minutes later. The lady was pretty nervous, but I have to admit if someone told me I had to go visit 18 kids at their home with their parents asking me random questions, I'd probably pee my pants and then go hide. I thought she might start crying when Jamie gave her her pencil. That has ended up being a pretty good ice breaker. The little girl next door won't be in his class like he wanted, but his bully will NOT be in his class (we requested it ahead of time), and he knows a few kids that will be in his class, so it's all good.

For those of you that don't know, Tom is moving to a limited capacity working with me. He's found that he really wants to see people during the day (well, more than just me). He took a contract job over the Summer and is considering substitute teaching a bit this year. I'm okay with that, but it will be a huge change. I actually really like working with Tom and while we have our moments (seriously? you didn't do that? You know it's like - OVERDUE - now, right?) I think we have worked super well together over the years. Having said THAT, it will nice to eventually have insurance that doesn't suck and other benefits.

He should hear soon about the substitute teaching. He had an issue with getting fingerprinted. Tom has palmar hyperhydrosis (which basically means his hands sweat a lot - and nearly all the time). They had some issues with the prints coming back as altered because when your hands sweat a lot the whorls and ridges aren't as pronounced due to the swelling or whatever. Anyway, we haven't gotten the final results yet so we are in a holding pattern until we hear back.

I'm very proud of Tom in that he will graduate this April (or June? I cannot remember) with his bachelor's degree. WooHoo! The degree is in Business Marketing. So, of course, he wants to be a teacher now. *laugh*

Actually, he's not even sure what he wants to be when he grows up (yes, my 36 year old husband is trying to find himself). I'm all for the teacher thing because you can't beat the hours or the time off - PLUS it has a great benefits. Frankly, that's becoming more important than the salary to me. He's also thinking of a starting a small hosting business for QuickBooks and Sharepoint, but he doesn't actually know what he wants to do at this point.

I'm going to really feel weird the first few weeks. I've had someone here while I worked for the past 5 years. But I'm also looking forward to a more focused work-time. It's going to be REALLY quiet! Not such a bad thing :)

So, there you have it... the update on our lives right now.

Work to do and a couple of kids are coming over for a last hurrah today to play with our kids. (I truly believe the more the merrier - they keep each other busy so I can work - plus I secretly smile when I hear them all playing nicely together). We are so lucky to have great kids in our neighborhood that get along so well. It's like stepford without the freakiness. *grin*

(Hey! I typed stuff and no pictures!)

My little networker....

Because of some weird scheduling thing, I had a little networking meeting and had to take Jamie with me. Luckily, it wasn't a big deal to bring my kid because it's SUPER informal. Anyway, Jamie found this tag in my bag and made himself a name tag. I thought it was so cute I, of course, had to get a picture.

I have to say what a little man my kid is. He's so smart and cute and funny. He was SO good during the meeting. I was very proud of him!

The end of an era...

I just posted on my business blog, but

... wow, I'm so excited. Oh yes, I had a great year and I feel good about the business side of things, but I'm so happy to be getting parts of my life back. I feel like I've been neglecting the kids a bit, the hours have been insane.

But.

I can blame Tom.

You see, I wasn't going to take it. He talked me into saying "Yes!"

His fault.

Alllllll his fault.

Nah, it's been a fabulous year, but I'm looking forward to getting back into a regular routine and having less responsibility for every little thing that happens :)

.

Work Sucks and I shouldn't blog this late... err... early.

I am so over this accounting crap. Next year, I'm quitting in December and we'll all go live out of cardboard boxes on the street for a few months. I'm exhausted. It's 4:15am and I'm just getting ready to head to bed. This is so not normal, people! I mean, I like the work and I know that this is the busy crazy time and that the Summer is one big lull, but dude, I HATE January. I hate 1099s. I hate W2s. I hate the IRS. I hate the social security administration. I hate all the states that cannot agree on one freaking rule so I have to keep looking crap up. I absolutely detest California. I'm always in this foul mood this time of the year. Oh, and my primary printer keeps getting stuck and is now saying it needs a new drum. I think it needs to be put out to the curb.

The good news? Because I stayed up so late, I shouldn't be completely crazy on Wednesday and Thursday. I've got a few that need some major TLC so that's a good thing. I'll just have to put the coffee maker to the ultimate test tomorrow. I'm going to bed - for... err... a nap.

Obligatory Pics:





(Yes, I let her have orange soda. Bite me, perfect Mommies).

What?

Oh, and did I tell you? The President of the PTA is moving. So that means Tom is now the President apparently. Just perfect. Like we don't have enough volunteer crap going on in this house.

Whatever.

House & Boring Ramblings...

Not too much is going on right now. It's pretty quiet around here. Jamie is back in school and he LOVES his new teacher and the kids in his class. This year is SO much different than last year. Last year, he had a very rowdy group of kids in his class and the class was always loud and out of control. This year, it seems to be completely different and he really likes it. Jamie likes rules and order and this seems to be what he's getting this year. He has his first real "test" on Monday - a spelling test! We've been practicing every night, making him write them. Which is good, his penmanship is really bad - 'course it's not like Tom and I have beautiful handwriting or anything ;)

Cassie is adjusting to being without Jamie during the day again. We are considering signing her up for the Spring session at a preschool so she can get some exposure to that. Tom decided not to push the district for speech help for her, I think he just doesn't want to deal with the fight. I dunno, maybe she will get better. The lady there did say she would get together some worksheets for her. Hopefully Tom remembers to ask her for them.

Me? I'm working, working and working some more. It's been a pretty crazy month the time of the year. Usually it's pretty laid back, but for whatever reason, I've been going nuts, so much to do and everyone wants special projects done this month. I can pawn some of it off on subcontractors, but a lot of it is stuff I'm just going to have to do. I'll survive ;)

Tom is Tom. Plays World of Warcraft too much. Denies playing WOW too much. That's pretty much how it goes. He and I did clean out the garage. It's almost done, just a few things that need to be moved around. He also got a new tool bench to hold all his junk. Pics coming of my new and improved garage soon. I also have 3 mini-blinds up. *laugh* We just gotta measure and buy for the rest of the house.

Speaking of house stuff... we decided to buy this one. After our first homeownership disaster 9 years ago, I've been really reluctant to buy again. But, let's face it, we really do need to buy again, for tax reasons and for stability reasons for the kids. And we absolutely love this house and our neighbors and the schools and the neighborhood and the area. It's perfect for us. We loved it when we moved in April 2006 and we still love it, so I guess it's a sign. The landlord was wanting to sell it, so we are in the process of buying it. We close next week. It actually feels pretty good that we were approved, I knew it wouldn't be a huge problem, but this was all based on our income from our business, that's a pretty awesome feeling.

So, of course, we have all these grand plans for the house. We organized the garage and are putting up regular mini-blinds. We want to concrete in the front patio area (right now it's covered with mostly dirt and make a real walkway out to the sidewalk instead of to the driveway. The place needs new windows. I'd like to build a little covered patio area in the backyard to hang out in during the Summer and put up new siding and privacy fencing, but that will have to wait a while, first things first ;)

Ahhhh... relief!

January is OVER!!! *~*~* Happy Dance *~*~*

I've been buried in forms for WAY too long now. I'm so glad to be feeing human again. Not enough sleep, too many clients wanting too many things from me all at once. I took most of the past 4 days off to regroup and feel human again.

Tom has the worst birthday for me. January 20th. AND he wanted a party, so he got one but had to do most of the work (and whined about it, ya big baby). Cassie's falls on February 11, so I'm always rushing trying to get hers set up. She wants a Barbie cake. Crap. I SUCK at making Barbie cakes. So I give up this year. Yes, you heard me, people. I'm not making the cake this year. For the first time, after 9 cakes, I'm buying the freaking thing. It's really cute at HEB. *shrug* She'll survive.

See, cute right? I'll make (or talk Tom into making) some cupcakes or something so the adults can have some cake too ;) We also had to scale back her birthday party to kids her own age and family only, basically. It's too cold to have a party at home, so GattiLand here we come again.

Anyway, I'm sorry I haven't kept up here much. It's been a LONG month.