Epiphanies

I found it while surfing.  Just rip it out and insert them into clear non glare  non vinyl plastic sleeves.  You can put them in a binder. Use different colors of dry erase markers.  Wish I had learned of this earlier.  C and B have written all over many many worksheets.

ROOT CANALS

Yesterday was the continuation of my root canal on my lower right side. It didn’t feel as bad this time, probably because Duc used a thing to keep my jaw open. Doing that helped me “doze” off instead of concentrating on keeping my mouth open. He also put my permanent crown on my upper left tooth. It was disturbing hearing Duc talk with his assistant Stephanie about dentisrty. He’s been coaching her, a good guy imo to talk her through everything he’s doing although it makes me a little too conscious of what he’s doing. I feel more comfortable with him as my dentist than I have ever felt in my life. He really puts me at ease. I don’t know if it’s because he’s a friend and I feel more trust in him or just his bedside manner. She spoke about how easy root canals were and he told her all the procedures in dentistry are easy on paper but a lot of factors can make it trickier, i.e. placement of teeth, patient reaction, how far back the teeth are, how many canals there are, how many roots there are, etc. Fun stuff

MOVIES AND GROWING UP

C had swimming as usual yesterday. I saw P there again. I remarked on how damn cold it was and that it was probably due to global warming. She suggested I watch “Who Killed the Electric Car?” Maybe we should sign up for Netflix. I seem to be spending more and more time in front of the tv. J has a sixth sense for when I’m on the computer these days and wakes up as soon as I get online now. He’s growing such a personality too. Yesterday, when I wanted him to nurse, he wasn’t having it and pushed me away. He’s never refused milk before. He also refused the bottle at my mil. He also has started batting toys on his swing. I’m not ready for him to grow up yet. Ahhhhh…

B has to do a computer timeline at school now. We had to submit two photos. One of when he was a baby. One more recent. I used a photo I took of him at the Corona Del Mar Castle building contest. He looks so happy at the beach. I looked through the baby photos and since Easter was coming up, I asked him if I could submit the one of him in his spring outfit, sitting in the easter basket wearing bunny ears. Think he was 5-6 months old. Soooo cute. His answer was, “No way, that’s so embarrassing.” I asked him again 5 minutes later. He said, “MO-OOOOOM-MMM.” Oh well, it was worth a try.

ACTIVITIES TO DO WITH THE KIDS

I met this woman Sulan at the park today. I met her last time as well. She had a few good suggestions for occupying kids during the summer. I told her I didn’t want them to spend all their time playing video games. She has theme days i.e. making a movie day, arts and crafts day (draw a flower in the garden day) , math/worksheet day, write an article day and science day (google cool science projects). She has a website which she runs where she programmed cool free educational software – free math/chemistry games (sort of like teaching tools) for kids to play and along the side are google ads where she gets $/click. I may try to find it.

EASTER BASKETS

I popped by Target this morning. It was great. They open at 8am so after I dropped B and C at school, I swung by there via Irvine Center Drive. I wanted to get all the goodies for their Easter Baskets or in this case bucket (bought that at Big Lots in Laguna Woods). I didn’t want to concentrate on just easter wrapped candy (i.e. candy that just has a different wrapper) but candy that they don’t often have or at leaast has some significance with the “Easter Basket” tradition. I bought jellybeans, malted choco balls, bunny-shaped chocolate, easter animal pez dispensers and also some egg shaped gum because C seems to have a thing for gum. I also bought some goodies like hot wheels truck combo that has a car inside, pokemon card packs, some crayola goodies for C. I also bought some clothes for a portrait sitting later on. I want the kids to have a photo taken together professionally, maybe at Kiddie Kandids since that seems to be the place to go by all my friends.

FINANCIAL ADVICE

The pokemon cards rang up at $13.99 but on the rack they were $9.99. Normally, I would never have noticed because I don’t really pay attention when cashiers ring up things but it just so happened that yesterday I read Common Billing Errors that can Cause You Money – most notably “With the computer age, many people assume the bill is automatically correct and don’t review what the actual charges are. While computers can make errors in calculations less likely, they are far from foolproof. The result is that consumers lose billions of dollars by making unnecessary overpayments each year.” It stuck in my head and I had resolved to be more proactive when it comes to finances since budgeting may play a bigger role in the near future. It’s good to make it a habit of being aware of your money and where it is going.

Id theft is a scary thing too. I think I may do 1-888-5-OPT-OUT and buy a cross shredder. I’ve always wondered what would happen if you submitted a taped up cc application and now I know.

“If we are not willing to fail, we will never accomplish anything. All creative acts involve the risk of failure.” -Madeleine L’Engle

I read somewhere that you should always praise your child for working hard at achieving something rather than for “being smart”. “Being smart” creates an idea of perfectionism and causes a child to have a fear of failure and not being “smart” anymore. If you create the idea that if you work hard at anything you can achieve anything, the child learns that anything is possible and won’t be afraid of trying. I’ve done both but now that I know the consequences of both, I’m going to try hard to praise for working hard. This option is much better than the other. I don’t want my kids to be afraid of failure. I think sometimes that is my handicap. My father always told me I was stupid and although it had the opposite effect of making me try harder to prove him wrong, it did affect my self-esteem at times and made me cognizant of “failing to be perfect”.

We worked on B’s school project called “Fantasy Island” today. I sketched out his vision of “Pokemon Island” which consisted of Pikachu and Skitty. We then painted the ocean, lakes and rivers blue. Then he mixed a recipe of dough, salt, and water to make the landforms. We used food coloring to make the grasslands and mountains. I printed out a key on a Pokemon card and a compass rose on a pokeball. We then made labels for all the different landforms – they were all pokemon names. It was fun. C also made his own landforms which consisted of a volcano and whatnot. He managed to put all the toothpick labels correctly on the corresponding landforms without any guidance. Sheer luck or sheer genius? The jury is still out on that.

We went to Spectrum food court for a quick bite to eat at Wasabi. Then we went over to Barnes and Noble to check out the kid’s section while C went on the Merry go round. We tried looking for the rest of the Deltora Quest books by Emily Rodda but they didn’t have it. They had some other series by her. B only has 1-5. Later on, we bumped into P & Austin. They just came back from Taipei (his grandfather’s 80th bday). Chatted a bit – seems like I wants to become a flipper instead of a Pilates instructor. He told her that she had to become a realtor first if she wanted to do that since the profit margin is slim after realtor commissions. Might as well earn the commissions herself. He seemed to think Socal is immune from the RE market. Is he the only one? Possibly.

Watched “Little Miss Sunshine” with A after the kids went to bed. Was quirky and amusing although not the Oscar type movie I thought it would be. I think people are just ready for a happy light hearted movie with meaning. *goes to write the script for the next big thing*

While B and I were waiting for the elevator he mentions to me that this was a different kind of elevator. I stare at him blankly wondering what on earth he could mean. The elevator seemed like a typical elevator to me, nothing special about it at all. I ask him to explain. He said that there was only one door that slid open to one side instead of the two doors opening up. Wow – he boggles my mind sometimes. I can’t help but be proud of him.

I think I was watching “Nightline” and they had on a little segment on messy desks. I have to admit I’m guilty of having a messy desk and of being a pack rat. They had on some people who theorize that a sign of a messy desk is a sign of a creative mind. Yipee!! An excuse to live by – ha. Anyway, I try really hard to be more organized. It’s amazing how much stuff I can accumulate. It’s literally a struggle for me to throw anything away. I’ve been pretty good lately though. With 3 kids, I can’t stand the clutter anymore so I actually threw many things away, including my huge huge anime cd collection. I kept thinking I would go back and watch them. I finally admitted to myself that that was probably never going to happen. I haven’t thrown away my drama cds though I also threw away all my clothes from my “Professional lawyer” days. I think part of me didn’t want to throw it away because of the sheer amount of money spent on those clothes. I could cry. But seriously, I “retired” from being a lawyer this year. It was time to move on. No more sentimental attachment to clothes. It was quite ridiculous. I took pics of them in case I ever got nostalgic. I also threw away a lot of film related things from my film days at NYU and Downtown Community TV. I organized the kids clothes into correctly labeled bins (by age) instead of just throwing them in random “Clothes” bins. I threw my “one day I will fit them again” clothes into bins instead of leaving them in my closet. I haven’t quite tackled the toys yet but I’ve been pretty good about throwing away/donating toys all along so I don’t think it’s in too bad a state.

This week was Parent teacher conference week. Mrs. Terry was quite positive about B. Said he was very intelligent and sharp but too talkative. I guess he gets the chatterbox thing from me – that was something written on my report card as well. I remember always being moved around because I talked too much to people. Finally, the nuns from my Catholic school would just put me in the front desk where they could keep an eye on me. I still maintain it was others that spoke to me, not I to them.

She told us 4th grade was going to be much more intensive and that the jump from third grade to fourth was huge. Think she was hinting that we should prep him during the summer by visiting the sites of Harcourt and some of the other publishers. I will definitely do that. I still worry sometimes that we made the wrong decision by not letting him start school later. (He was born late in the year and could have thus started later). He does really well academically so in that respect he’s fine but socially he seems to get along best with those the year below him (i.e. Liam, Joshua, Peter, etc.)

On that note, B doesn’t get along with Eric. She told us he said something mean about Eric today. Not surprising to us because he’s expressed to us many times that he doesn’t like him. I asked her about whether Eric was liked by others (my attempt to figure out if it was B’s personal vendetta or was Eric an outsider). I concluded he was an outcast because she alluded to the fact that she thinks Eric has difficulties with socialization because of a language barrier. Eric is a Chinese immigrant. Then she said she didn’t know if Eric was cursing at B in Chinese and if he was, she couldn’t really help B with that. I told her even if he was, B wouldn’t understand it since he doesn’t speak Chinese himself. That surprised her.

All in all, she said B was a great student and that our influence showed itself. I guess a lot of parents aren’t that involved or aren’t able to help. I think a lot of the students are immigrants and the parents are probably unable to help with English is my guess. Ben, my hairdresser, comes to mind. He told me his kids weren’t doing well in school because he said he had problems communicating his ideas to his kids. Even though they understand Chinese, when it comes to school subjects, it was much harder to explain concepts in a way they understand. I get that totally. I never had that problem really. My parents didn’t really help me with schoolwork but I don’t think that was a function of language. It was more that they thought I should be independent minded and learn by doing. B mentioned today that he got 100% in his factor of 9 test which Zachariah graded. He in turn graded Zachariah’s test and when I asked how many Z got wrong, he said 10. This made me think I should give B a break.

On another note, B is so cute. He mentioned that he helped C (the girl he has a crush on) get her backpack after school. Wow – he’s growing up so fast it’s scary. I asked him why he liked her and he really didn’t articulate why. I asked if she liked Pokemon or Gameboy or Nintendo DS Lite. Reasons that I thought may be why he liked her. Shock of all shocks, she doesn’t even have a Gameboy or watch Pokemon though she does watch Naruto and she does have a Tomogachi (sp?).  Who can understand the inner workings of an 8 year old boy?

A went to an Indian Guide meeting last night with the boys and B burned his finger ironing some cute craft thing.  I’m thinking of spearheading the Kindergarten group of the MOMS Club if it passes on the Board next term. I like doing crafts with the boys so I think a K group would be ideal for me. C and I already signed on to be Mom’s Night Out Coordinators for next term. I’m passing on the baton of newsletter editor. It should be fun. W is running for president. I think she’ll be great at it. She always goes above and beyond.

 S wants to run for a position also and I told her she should try for Treasurer which was imo, the easiest position.  I held that position last year.  C disagreed and said that I was exceptional at it.  She mentioned the end of year report.  While she was at a meeting where all the moms groups in our area met the state coordinators to make sure our reports were done correctly, the state coordinator told her that our report was an example of how it should be done.  Many of the other clubs reports were a mess and done incorrectly.  I think as long as the procedures are done correctly from the beginning, the end is a breeze.  I was lucky because since we started our club anew (sistered off), I was able to do things my way.  I threw away all the old club ways (it was all incomprehensible) although in hindsight, I probably should have looked at what the end of year report required so I could streamline my procedures better.  I overkilled imo but that’s ok – it got the job done.  In any case, we won “Outstanding New Chapter” our term so imo we were just great all around.  (C was prez, X was AVP, W was MVP, I was Treasurer, and A was Secretary).  We just kicked butt.  Anyway, seems like S took my suggestion and is going to run for Treasurer.  It should be a great year.

 TGIF – we went out to El Cholo Cantina. Best cheese Nachos I’ve ever had in my life. Proof positive that simple is often best. It was just cheese and nachos but damn it was good. Think the nachos were fresh or something. I saw photos of President Bush and Jack Nicholson on the wall amongst other famous people. I wonder if they were actually at this particular location. Cool if they were. A and I had their award winning “El Cholo” Margarita. Nastiest sh*t ever. Not getting that again. I had a great Margarita at Habana so I figured I would have another Margarita. Blah.

Anyway, so I had the Crabmeat enchilada, A had the Sonora Style Enchilda, B had tacos and C had nuggets. B was quite disgusted with all the veggies in the taco lol. He’s like “Mom, the description doesn’t mention veggies in the tacos…” I told him, “Hate to break it to you kiddo but tacos usually have lettuce and tomatoes in it.” A liked his dish except the corn tortilla part (he likes flour). Mine was ‘eh’ all around. I think A was just desperate just to go to a restaurant we haven’t been to before. I would have been happier at “Irvine Tofu House” which was what we decided before we left the house. I could tell he really didn’t want to revisit the same places. He mentioned he thought we tried every restaurant around us. I pointed out we hadn’t been to “El Cholo” though I couldn’t remember the name at the time though I’ve passed by it a million times. Anyway, now we can say we’ve tried every place around us within a 5 mile radius. Probably won’t go back there. I definitely will take A to Habana to try the tamales. They were, in the words of Rachael Ray, “delish“.