Chinese Fortune Cookies

Have any of you noticed that fortune cookies of late have become more statements than fortunes? Paul and H are famous for getting statements, I usually get a fortune and usually a double in my cookies. We have finally found a great chinese place in town. We like the food and the girl that runs it is very nice. The food is not as good as Golden Star, but I think it is still yummy. I am bringing all of this up because I got a statement in my last cookie, and it was so good I taped it to my computer so I can see it while I am studying.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.

What a great thing to read every morning. School is going very well. I have just finished my mid-terms and I think I did fine. I already got back my Brit-Lit exam and got an A, so I am feeling pretty confident now. The kids are on mid-winter break this week, and they still get a spring break in April. I am on spring break next week, which is nice because I will get to go do fun stuff with my mother when she comes to visit. We will have oodles of fun while the kiddies are in school, and we won't even let them know we left the house! In other news, my car is back in the shop. It is stalling again and the trannie is going (I think). I love the car, but hate the problems I have had with the car. I am driving a tin can on whells until I get it back.

American Idol-I did really like any of the singers last night, except the hippy girl in the white dress. My fav to win it is still Gokey. I think the boy that sang last last night may get the little girl votes and could be a contender.

Survivor- I still love the redneck boy JT, and hope Coach gets his just desserts. He is too cocky for me.

Homeland Security-My FAVORITE new show. Thanks to Amy we are watching it. I never even heard about it until I saw it on her blog as her show to watch when the season started. THANKS AMY...very cool show.

Amazing Race- I like the asian brother and sister and the boy and his mom. I don't know how well any of them will do in the great destructor INDIA. Everyone seems to fall apart there, and I laugh my butt off.

Bachelor (SP?)-I hope he pick Melissa, but I think something big is going to happen, but not with Deanna. I have heard some rumors, and wonder how true they may be.

I hope you all have a wonderful week. Read my extra post below to see how H did in the State Championships for Swimming.

Proud Mommy!

I posted about H going to 2008-2009 State Championships for swimming, well the meet was today, and H did a bang-up job! He took 1st (YUP, that is FIRST) for all three of his heats. Even thoogh he came in first for his heat, he still had some tough boys to beat. Overall he came in:

13th out of 33 for 25 meter freestyle

18th out of 44 for 50 meter freestyle

12th out of 44 for 25 backstroke

He will get a ribbon for placing in the top 12 for backstroke, but no ribbons or medals for the other two races. He is very proud of himself for winning his heats. If you all don't know what that means, they have 33 swimmers and only 8 can swim at a time, so they have 5 heats in order to have all 33 swim, so H beat out 7 other swimmers in his heat to get the first ribbon. He is turning into a fine little swimmer, but this summer it looks like he is going to work with the diving team. I hope I will be able to breath when I see him up on the high diving board! Hope you all had a great weekend as well.

Late Again!

I am posting late due to a big exam in my Linguistics class on Thursday. I was all ready for it and had a few extra hours to spend studying for it on Thursday morning, as well as, post my blog entry, until we had a snow day. Around here it has to be a pretty big weather system for them to shut down school, so you should all know we had a nice big storm. I think I did OK with my exam. I did get my paper back for the class and got a nice 94 (A) on it! YAHOO! I turned in a few more papers this week and I have mid-terms next week, so I am a bit stressed, but nothing that a nice glass of red wine can't fix. Friday's are my down days. i am finished with class for the week. I don't have to get up early the next morning, so I usually reserve Friday nights for a glass of wine, people magazine, some yummy snacks (Chinese Cracker and Nut mix from Costco) and chill out. I start studying again on Saturday for the next week, but I get Friday night. I also get the hours on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, that my favorite shows are on. One hour a night to watch. This school thing is really cutting into my night time TV schedule. I promised some pictures, so today I will post a few. The first is the Valentine Mailbox H made for his school project. they had a contest to design a box to put your Valentine's in and H got FIRST place for his! The next is one of the kids with their icicles from the house. Now I know you have all seen pictures of my house, so you all know it is a two story house, so how did I get these bad boys down? I opened the upstairs bathroom window, removed the screen, leaned way out (don't worry Moms I held on to the towel bar so i wouldn't fall out, besides if I did I would just land in snow. Right?) and grabbed them with a towel. The kids had the best time playing with them. I was pretty sicked out that they kept licking them, but hey if they eat hot dogs a little roof tar can't hurt them. In the picture of G, she was just passed on to the next level of gymnastics. She is now a "flipper" level 4 girl and she is very proud of herself. I asked if she wanted to have a gymnastics party for her birthday in a few weeks and she declined saying instead she wanted a Chuckie Cheese party. Good Golly Miss Molly! I thought we had almost outgrown that place! The last picture is one from our dinner earlier this month. There is a place in G.H. that makes a 24" pizza. Yes ladies, you heard right! 24" inches of pure gooey, cheesy, delight! That is two feet of pizza, and we had to get one to try it. VERY GOOD. and, if any of you come for a visit (moms included) we will order one just so you can try it. Now, on to some shout outs....

TARA-you rock! Thank you for my favorite Valentine's Day present. I wish my hubbie had thought of Starbuck's! Also, I love looking at L's pictures. She is getting so big and she is so beautiful. I remember meeting her for the first time at Kathleen Tabors house when she was a few months old. How far she has come!

AMY- JT is my pick. There is just something about those southern guys. I also kind of like the boy that just went to Exhile island. He played that whole thing off really well.

MELISSA- I am watching American Idol, so you don't have to be left out of the TV talks. I am thrilled that Tatianna is gone and hope Gokey goes all the way. (he was the guy that sang Hero the other night)

MICHELLE- Thanks for all the info on boys that you keep passing on. We feel really lucky that H seems to be back to normal(?) for him and it was the meds. I'm counting down for you and Matt here, and hoping oyu all pass by G.H. on your way back east.

LAURIE-I know you have a motor home and I also know gas prices are way down, so if ever there was a time for you to think about a trip to MI now is it! You could all come out for the summer. You and Michelle and hubbies and kids and we could all have a big reunion. Maybe Tara and her family could plan a trip to OH and make it up here as well. Melissa you guys could even plan a trip to see if MI is where you all want to come next.

OK, I am off to watch Friday Night Lights. I love that show and it's not just because Riggins is nice to look at!

P.S. I think Johnny Depp is HOT!!!!!!! Even as a Pirate.

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! Just think, this time last year we were all celebrating together. I'm not sure which I like more, having you guys or having Paul home. I sure do miss all of you, but there really is no substitute for having him home. If I recall last year we went to that nice place on the water. This year I am hoping for a nice dinner cooked by Paul and cleaned up by Paul. He is taking the kids out tomorrow to get me a present. I am not sure what to get him, but I may have to do what i suggested the young girls in my Lingustics class do for their boyfriends. They were asking me for ideas today and i told them to bake their boyfriends cookies and write "saucy" things on the cookies. Not to cheesy, ot to sentimental, not to personal, but yummy and fun.

So, how did Paul propose to me? He didn't! We were having a phone conversation one night and he suggested if I was sick of my job in San Fran. i should move to WA to live with him. Up until this point we had just been roommates. I told him I wasn't moving to just be roommates, so he said we would see were it went. I told him I wasn't moving up there to just date, what if it didn't work out? So, I finally said, "what would you say if I asked you to marry me", he said "ok" so we joked about it for a while, and the next morning I told him I was calling my Mom to tell her we were getting married and he said "OK". We got married three months later. I should have married him years before, because he was the only guy I ever dated that my mother liked. Here we are working on year 11, and I am so thankful every day that I married him. He is the best thing that ever happened in my life. Him and the kids, of course!

H is doing great! We took him off the meds last Friday and he is like a different kid. He is sleeping really well, not having dreams or sleepwalking. He is being an angel. His teacher noticed the difference right away. It is hard to believe that something like that could cause so many problems. Here we thought we were doing the right thing for him and his health and it turns out we were making his health much worse. The Zytrec is not as effective at treating his allergy/asthema problems, but I don't care,we will never go back to Singular. Right now we are working on his Valentine box for school. They are having a contest in his room for the boxes. He used frosting to "glue" thousands of conversation hearts to the box, so it is completely edible. He has a big "fake bite" taken off the side for kids to put his valentines through. It is pretty cool. I get to help in his classroom tomorrow for the party and i am pretty excited about it.

I don't know if I told all of you that H is going to "State" for swimming next week. He will swim the 100 meter freestyle, 25 meter Freestyle, 25 meter backstroke. We are very happy for him. He has worked hard all year to make it!

So, everyone needs to update after valentine's day so we can hear how the hubbies did. I wish we were all together again, but I can't kiss you guys, so enjoy your valentine's day with your sweeties.

Good Morning Girls!

I am up and ready to go this morning. I have some school work to get ready to turn in today and H forgot his homework in the library so we have to leave early so we can get it and get it done before school. We have had a very nice week. We went sledding on Sat and Sun. the kids loved it. G is much more of a daredevil than H which is very suprising. We also had a superbowl party for just the four of us, but it was fun anyway. Here is a shoot out to Bill for his superior team. We loved watching them. H and I were hoping the Steelers would win, Paul was going for the Cardinals. What a great game. For those of you that don't know Star of the Sea is going through a huge scandle right now. Check it out on the Daily Astorian website. Type in the keyword St. Mary's or Star of the Sea. You can also google it and I am sure you can see it on the big news stations out of Portland. So, in other news. We are taking H to the doctor on Fri. He is showing some signs of anxiety, so we want to see what we can do to help him out. I think the move has been a bigger deal for him than we thought. He has undergone a pretty big personality change in the last 6 months and we are starting to get concerned. He doesn't want to go anywhere without us. He doesn't want to go to a friend's house to play unless one of us is going to stay. He doesn't want to go sledding or ice skating if he thinks a bunch of other kids are going to be there. He is also very concerned about checking that doors and windows are locked. I was looking up anxiety in kids and he has some pretty big signs of it. All I can say is that it really sucks when you know your baby is going through some issues and you don't know what to say or do to help them. I am also very glad we are part of the C.G. so we can get the help we need and now have to worry about the cost. On a happier note. G and Paul are going to the Father/Daughter dance on Weds. I am taking her to get her hair done before and they are going out to dinner with her best friend and her best friends Dad. Paul wants to play it up really big so she has a great time and he makes up for not being home to take her the last few years, but he also wants to set the stage for any boys that try and date his daughter years from now. He wants the date standard set high, so G doesn't settle for some shmuck. H and I are going to go and see Pink Panther 2 while they are at the dance. A nice Mom/Son night, and the best part is I don't have to get super dressed up for it. The YMCA here is doing a parent's night out on Feb 13th, which G wants to go to, but H does not and so we are trying to decide if it is worth making him go so we get a date. We have not been out together at night, on a date since we lived in Astoria. I will keep you posted on the possible date night. School is great. I really love being back in a classroom, learning new things. The younger girls in the classes are starting to share their boyfriend problems with me, but I think, in a more Mom than girlfriend capacity. That's OK though, because at least they trust me enough to share. I like my proffessors. They are all very smart and I get a lot out of the classes they teach. I am not looking forward to Mid-Terms, which are coming up. I remember why everyone parties so much in school. To celebrate when things are going well, and to drown your sorrows when they are not. I haven't reached either point yet! I am so glad to hear Lily is doing OK. Amy do you have anymore info? Melissa, I love all the craft links on your page. Amy....SURVIVOR, next week! Michelle, have you started planning your trip across the country yet? Planning to stop here? Well, I am off to start the day. Have a good Thursday ladies.