One More Thing

So I've taught my charge the hand signals for the dog, I've got her reading at a 1st grade level, she's 1/2 way through 1st grade math, we're working on spanish together--as well as sign language, and she can now operate the hose by herself when she wants to water the garden. We've made 8 different kind of playdough, made bread from scratch, made our own butter, made fortune cookies, have done numerous science projects, and we've been to multiple museums in the area. Most nanny's would call that a good summer and count their blessings that there weren't more injuries. But not me, oh no no no. I have decided that since there's 4 weeks left of summer, I'm going to take on another project. I'm going to teach her how to ride her bike without training wheels.

Call me crazy, optimistic, a glutton for punishment...call me whatever you want, but by golly she just turned 6 on Friday and she WILL learn to ride without training wheels.

Unfortunately, this isn't going so well. No major injuries so far--of course the knee pads, elbow pads, helmet, and jeans I make her wear probably help with that. She's just not getting it though. She gets about 4 feet by herself and down she goes. She can't stear AT ALL and her balance is pretty much non-existent.

So for those of you out there who have been down this road, how do you do it? I mean, I'll keep working with her but any tips would be GREAT.

Thanks. Will update you on Saturday of any aquired injuries.

Book Reviews

Yes I'll admit it, I'm a total book worm. Though my job leaves little time for me to read books above a 1st grade level, I did manage to polish off 3 books this month. Read on for my reviews:

Book # 1:

Ah yes, good ole' Darwin Awards. Nice short stories in here about idiots who either successfully removed themselves from the gene pool or came damn close to it. My personal favorite is the guy who shot a bullet with a pellet gun. If you wanna know what happened, you'll have to read the book. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a good laugh or anyone short on time. The stories are between 1-5 pages long so it's easy to just read a little bit and then put it down if you have kids, animals, or spouses to take care of.

Book # 2:

First off, this book is not as gruesome as you may think. It goes through all the cool and interesting things that human cadavers are used for when they are donated to science. It also walks the reader through the process of embalming, cremation, and a really cool new gadget at a University in the states where they basically vaporize you. Definately don't read this book if you have your heart set on donating your body to science...unless you REALLY wanna know what happens to those bodies.

Book # 3:

Unforunately, this book is older and I can't find an image for it. The book is called "This Will Drive You Sane" by Bill L. Little. It was one of my dad's college textbooks. If you can take a constantly satirical attitude curtosy of the author, then you can handle this book. Basically it walks to reader through the many different ways in which you can ruin your life and never be responsible for any of it. The idea is to point out all of this stuff in order to get the reader to THINK about how they create their own problems in life. A little bit of reverse psychology, if you will. Anywho, a good book for those trying to get a deeper understanding of themselves..though I don't know if you'll be able to find it. Another book by Bill L. Little, that probably has a lot of the same stuff in it is: "Self Destruction Made Easy." It was printed in 2006 and is available through barnes & noble.com

And that is the end of 1 month. 3 books isn't horrible for me, though I wish I could've read more. Currently I am deciding what to read next month. I have a bunch of books on my shelves that I have never read. If the book doesn't grab me within the first 3 chapters, back onto the shelf it goes. I know I know, not the best way to go about reading--but I've read too many books where I get to the end and feel really let down. Kind of like watching a really bad movie just to have the ending suck.

Why Does My House Smell?

It smells like raw fish. I moved here in May and have yet to bring fish into the house...so WHY does my house smell like raw fish????

Okay Okay, I do know the reason..but there's nothing I can do about it! I live right next to the canal in town and due to the humid weather, the lovely rotting fish smell has wafted up into my windows. EWWWWWWWWWWWW. I would just close the windows but then it gets waaaaaaaaay to hot in here. Blech.

I guess on the up side, it's better than the skunk smell from Mr. Stinky hanging around every night. A word of advice for you all...don't slam the door when there's a skunk outside. They frighten easily.

New Goal

First a recap:

The summer reading program at the local library is 7 weeks long. I enrolled my charge-(with her mothers permission)-in the program because:

A) We needed something to do.

B) Towards the end of the school year she declared that she hated reading because she was forced to do it at school.

So during the first week she set her own goal of 10 books by the end of the program. I cringed a little on the inside but ran with it anyways and we made a sign that said "10 Books by July 29th!" and proudly displayed it on the fridge with her favorite magnets.

Fast forward 5 weeks. She greatly surpassed her goal of 10 books and, as of today, has read 89 books. We went to the library today, at her request, because she wanted to read some 'new' books. On our way out, she told me she had a new goal. I asked her what it was, and she told me it was a surprise. So we went home, she grabbed her crayons and some paper, and then went into her tent that we have set up in the playroom. An hour later-(yes, I got an hour break today!)-she comes out with her new 'goal sign.' Imagine my delight when I read this:

109 Books by July 29th!

I am thrilled! I have successfully created a book worm and I couldn't be happier :) Of course, I couldn't let the learning end there. So we did some math and figured out, together, that her new goal is 99 books more than her old goal AND that she has 20 more books to read until she reaches her goal. She got really into the whole math thing so we took it a step further and figured out that she needs to read 2 books a day to reach her goal.

I LOVE summer reading programs! Kudos to all you children's librarians out there, you do great work!

I've Been Tagged!

I've been tagged by Judy

THE RULES:
List 8 facts/habits about yourself
Post the rules at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed
Tag 8 people and post their names, go to their blogs and leave them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and ask them to read your blog.

So here ya go peoples. 8 things about me that you probably didn't know, but do now:

1. I am horrible at multi-tasking.

2. I start buying Christmas presents for people in January.

3. I don't have a single cavity!

4. I have to have at least one pop a day otherwise I get a headache.

5. I LOVE country music.

6. I have traveled to 10 countries-(Canada, Mexico, England, France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, & Luxemburg)

7. I'm addicted to Jolly Ranchers-especially the blue ones.

8. The door fell off of my first car--I opened it one day and it just fell off into the street.

Now for my 8 people:

Busy Mom

Kim

JT Cosby

Bone

Katie

K8

Phil

Madeline

I Want

Last night I had a very long conversation with an old friend of mine about what I want to do in my lifetime. It got me thinking and I have decided to write a list of the 10 most important things I want to do with my life. So, for your viewing pleasure, this is what I want to do with my time here on Earth:

1. I want to be a mom.

2. I want to get married, and stay married.

3. I want to become pregnant, carry to term, and deliver a healthy child.

4. I want to adopt at least one child.

5. I want to open a daycare where children feel safe and loved. I want my daycare to be filled with employees who love and enjoy children as much as I do. I want my daycare to have a gym, with tumbling mats, for rainy days. I want my daycare to be a place where children can grow, thrive, and feel comfortable expressing their feelings because they know that no matter what, they are loved and cared for, unconditionally.

6. I want to become an organ donor when I die.

7. I want to be a positive roll model for all children that I work with.

8. I want to do more mission trips, especially trips where I have the opportunity to work with children in orphanages.

9. I want to own a house.

10. I want to be able to put my children through college.

There you have it folks, there are my top 10 things I want to do with my life. What are yours?

The Good, The Bad, and the Stressful

Good Stuff:

My sister and brother-in-law were up from Florida last weekend and stopped to see me. It's been over a year since I've seen them so it was nice that they decided to come up :)

My job is going very well. A few weeks ago I almost lost the job due to my inability to set an alarm clock properly. But it's all good now and I'm back in the good graces of my boss. My charge and I have been doing a lot of things in the past couple of weeks. We baked bread, made butter, made and decorated sugar cookies, made dirt & worm pudding, went to the city history museum, played putt-putt golf, and we've been going to the local library for their summer reading program every Thursday. In the past 3 weeks she has read 60 books on her own, with no prompting from me at all. I'm very happy and proud of her because there was a period of time when reading was "boring" and trying to get her to read was like pulling teeth.

The Bad:

2 months after I broke up with my boyfriend of 3 1/2 years and I am just now beginning to deal with it. The emotional rollercoaster has been hell and I am just absolutely worn down from keeping so many balls in the air. I have so many unanswered questions and though my ex and I have a talking relationship, the answers to my questions are not forthcoming.

The Stressful:

Tuition was increased by 9.3 percent today. That's going to make my tuition bill over $5000 for the fall semester. Add to that to lack of financial aid-(I'm not eligible, my parents make too much)-and all of my scholarships have expired-(they were only good for 4 years) and I'm left footing the entire bill. Time to turn to the bank of mom and dad.

Update:

The school reversed the decision to terminate the program I am in for at least another semester. This means that I am in the clear to get my degree. :) Even though I didn't do anything, I still feel like it's a victory for the program.

I guess that's about it for now. I have to go get ready to go back to work in 30 minutes. Relay for Life is today and tomorrow so I'm "on-call" for the entire night. Have a great weekend everybody!

It's July 8th Already???

Where does the time go????? First of all, I have to say HAPPY 7th BIRTHDAY to my nephew Ira. I haven't seen him in a few years but I still remember his birthday :)

No final decisions have been made about next summer yet. I'm still in limbo about the whole thing. Will let you know when I decide.

The university I currently go to decided to scrap the early childhood education degree. They aren't phasing it out or anything, they're just firing all of the professors in the program, shutting down the child development center, and getting rid of the program altogether. I haven't been able to get a straight answer from anybody about whether or not I will be recieving my degree in early childhood education next year. The school's claim is that it will no longer be a recognized program so they can't give degrees out for a program that isn't recognized by the school. My objection to the whole thing is that I have completed everything for the degree and could have recieved it this year but decided to wait another year so I could finish my psychology degree and just get both degree's at the same time. We'll see how it pans out, but I have already been in contact with my family attorney because I am livid about the whole situation. I didn't go to school for 5 years to be jipped out of a degree. You can be sure I will fight it till the end and I will get my degree in early childhood education, one way or another.

Other than that nothing new here. We're experiencing some massive thunderstorms so everything in the house is unplugged, except for the computer right now, since they've stopped for the time being.

Keep safe everyone, and have a great week!