Monday, October 30, 2006

Ahhh, 'twas the night before Hallowe'en...

And all through the house..........
Mama sat like a louse
Not wanting to go thru the many preparations
Only to be faced with Great Candy Altercations.
Poor prose, I know....but that's about how I feel!

It's not that I hate Halloween - b/c really, I don't. But somehow, I just don't get all ramped up about the perfect costume - vicariously thru my kids or otherwise - or the random tradition of knocking all the doors of the cookie cutter neighborhood we live in and making super surface-y chit-chat with the other parents we only have seen every October 31st.

I don't begrudge this rite of childhood......at least I don't think I begrudge this rite of childhood?!?

What I do take issue with is the obscene amounts of gore, immodesty, and inappropriate miscellany one finds in even children's costumes these days.

What I take even more issue with is the sugar lust. The alleged treats are a deceptive euphemism for what truly is a psychotropic effect upon one's children, turning innocent enough li'l imps into Satan's relentless minions from HELL!

What's that you say?

Well, duh, but moderation is key, Red.

Well, duh back atcha! I know (to be read with my accompanying eye-roll)!

What I'm talking about is for MONTHS after the fact, my kids will say, "Mama, may I have a piece of my Halloween candy?" To which, I will look around at the mess they've made at any given moment, and reply, "Not until you get _______ room cleaned up. Then you may have some."

This is not a new rule - though the sheer abundance of crystal (and I mean sugar, not meth, here) in my home is incredibly foreign compared to the other 9 mos of the year. Also foreign is what ensues - the Great Candy Altercations - AKA - the world's most horrific temper tantrums.

Someday.....someday, they will realize that Mommy and Daddy spent way too much money (in the dollars to duration of wear sense of things - I refuse to spend a fortune on costumes!) on an outfit they would only wear for a few hours (if that), went and froze their butts off with them as they tromped around the hood watching the trick-or-treating phenomenon come to life, protecting them from the idiots who wore stuff that really freaked them out, let them collect an ungodly amount of processed, refined sugar, and even let them consume some! Also in my fantasy of someday being appreciated by my two wee minions, is their realization that every year they made the October - December period exceedingly difficult.

I pray hope they come to said realization before they place me in an assisted living retirement center, instead of after.

Friday, October 27, 2006

I'm so buzzin'

Partly from the overly large container of a caffeinated beverage this morn.

BUT............

Mostly because of this:



University of Colorado at Denver and
Health Sciences CenterGraduate School of Public Affairs
1380 Lawrence Street, Ste. 500
Campus Box 142, P.O.Box 173364
Denver, Colorado 80217-3364
Office: (303)556-5970
Fax: (303) 556-5971
October 27, 2006

Dear Ms.Meyer:

Congratulations! We have reviewed your application and would like to accept you into the MPA program at the Graduate School of Public Affairs. You will soon receive information from the Office of Admissions and Records concerning your acceptance and the procedures for registration this coming semester. Meanwhile, we encourage you to look at the Academic Calendar, Payment Deadlines, and Course Search and Schedule Planner under the Registrar’s Office on the CU-Denver home page,
http://www.cudenver.edu. These areas will help you select your courses, plan your schedule, and identify important deadlines.

The admissions committee made these decisions based on your previous educational and work experience:

Internship:
Due to your work experience, the internship has been waived.

Dr. McProfessor has been assigned to be your academic advisor.
You should contact him at (303) xxx-xxxx or
mcprofessor@cudenver.edu to discuss the courses you will take next semester and to develop a degree plan. The degree plan is a document that projects the courses you will take toward graduation. MPA degree plans are available online at http://carbon.cudenver.edu/public/gspa/library/files/mpaplan.doc. I encourage you to look at the degree plan and consider your needs to prepare for your meeting with Dr. McProfessor. You may want to examine the courses we will be offering in the coming semester or in the future. These can be found under “Courses” on our web site at http://thunder1.cudenver.edu/gspa/.

The entire faculty and staff welcome you to the program and offer best wishes for your success.

Sincerely,

Dean of School of Public Affairs

January is so not far away!

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

If you write it, they will come

"It" being anything remotely ubus related and/or containing the words "No Boys Allowed."

"They" being the boys that you desperately do not want to have any sort of mental picture of your chest.

That said, I'm about to venture into the world of brassieres.

Let's begin, shall we?

I have a hard time finding good bras b/c I'm a weird fit. I'm a 38 B, and my boobs sit further apart and more "to the side" than the fantasy babe model's whose ubus are sitting straight and center, lol - WAY TMI, I know!

Anywho....I get a coupon/giftcard thingie in the mail for a free panty at Victoria's Secret, oh and by the way, it says, $10 off any bra, too! LOL, they hook me in with that free panty EVERY time, even though I know this is the marketing ploy of "Bring them in at a $10 cost, show them all the bells and whistles in lingerie, and they will spend at least 3x what it cost you to incent them in the first place!"

So, naturally Charlie Brown and I go in on date nite to claim the prized panties. And, it was no great surprise when the lady wants me to look at/try on bras too. I know that I'm in need of one or two new bras, so I agree to test the latest and greatest.

Victoria's Secret now carries that new IPEX (which, who comes up with these names anyway, it sounds so SCI-FI - which women generally are NOT) bra, so I try the wired and wireless version.

Soft cup bras are generally pointless for me - the rough equivalent of a sock for lifting and support, and little more than a shelf bra for coverage- so I was leary. But I hate the wire's discomfort - though VS bras are much more comfy for me.

Enter clouds of enlightenment and harpy music:

The IPEX wireless bra is like HEAVEN NIRVANA, blissfully unaware of life's troubles, for my boobs!

Lift - CHECK,
Support - one enthusiastic CHECK,
Comfort - Like you can
only IMAGINE! Check Plus!


This bra is so TOTALLY worth its weight in GOLD....not that that would be much cuz it's pretty light, but ykwim, right?

sigh - that is the sound of one comforted woman Bow Down

And for you BOYS who just can't stay away from this topic, please don't comment! I retain the right to bury my head in the sand as to your now inappropriate knowledge about myself. Help me stay in ignorant bliss.

Also - keep this in mind for your wives. Christmas is coming - do me a favor will ya? Learn your wife's candid information re: her "girls" and treat 'em right with this bra!

Friday, October 20, 2006

It's getting BaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaD!!!

Political attack tactics, that is.

Colorado's got several House seats up for election in Congress...

And, it ain't purty.

On either side.

Today, I got a mailer that said, "Make your vote count; Vote Republican!"

Are you kidding me? Are we not taught as citizens that every vote matters, even if they choose to vote PeeWee Herman in for Prez?

The arrogance!

The ignorance............

*sigh*

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Punkinhead - the next American Idol?

This is his favorite thing to do right now, sing "The Wiggly Worm Song."It's too cute, imho.....
For you at home who want to sing along, here are the lyrics:

There once was a wiggly worm
He climbed up in a tree
[He wiggled long]
He wiggled short
He wiggled right at me!
I put him in a box
"Don't go away," I said
But when I came back
He was a butterfly INSTEAD
I could never make one
Not even if I tried
For only God in Heaven
Can make a butterfly!

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Holy Frijoles, Batman!

Hell has frozen over.........

Sorta.

Well, not really, but with the icy blue sheen of the sky smiling down upon the season's first snow-covered ground, combined with the unlikely event I'm about to describe, it seemed an apt descriptor!

For the past 4 years, the Boss has been trying to increase my position (though I've only been here for 2 of those years) to 100% FTE. It has been denied repeatedly. Last year, with CDBG being cut at the federal level, thus putting our admin budget on a diet, I even went DOWN in hours - from 25 hrs/wk to 20. Until last night - City Council approved the City's budget, which included my position's increase, on its second reading last night. Yeah, second reading, as in this is a done deal.

Even getting the proposed increase in the City Manager's budget recommendations was quite a struggle. Until right before the Council saw the recommended budget, the Boss and I had been told no regarding our staffing request by the Asst. City Mgr. But, for some reason, at the last minute she included it in her list of recommendations to the City Manager. And then he included it, much to our surprise!

So...

This means come January 2, I will be working 40hrs/wk. Which means, healthcare is not NEARLY as costly AND I'll be making more $$. Together, the two will make for a nice change of pace at the Meyer abode.

I will get more responsibility, which means more community presence. Which means more influence to social changes.

These are good......

But...

It also means afterschool care for LMNOB is a must. So, enter me figuring that out. :-? Tap, tap go the fingers.

It also means that if I get accepted to UCD, I now have to juggle school with FT work, instead of PT. I did go to college full-time (like 16-18 credits a semester) while working 30 hrs/wk and married - so we shall see what 6 online credits/semester, 40 hr work week, 2 kids and Charlie Brown looks like.

In the meantime, though, I can heave a sigh of relief. God is providing for us, and we are grateful!

Monday, October 16, 2006

Alright Niki, you win.........

WHAHHHHHHH! :(

I can't get our picture to post!

To which you will likely reply, "Yippeee!"

I'm just sad that the WWW is missing a pic of two awesome redheads.

Enter sour grapes

I guess it's no big thing though - my picture of us is pretty blurry.

Monday, October 9, 2006

The Internet makes the World even SMALLER!

So, funny story......not funny ha-ha, just funny in how unconventional friendships have become the norm in the past decade.

When I first started blogging, I knew one other blogger, Purple Kangaroo. PK is a mommy I "met" at ivillage while pregnant with LMNOB. A few other of the March 2001 Mommies have turned blogger, now as well. One night I was just randomly clicking on Blogger's "recently updated" links, and came across The Time Has Come (when it was still blogger, not wordpress)- and was surprised to see that James is a CoC preacher in New York. Then, somehow, I discovered Alive By Grace, which is authored by a friend from my church. He had a link to Mike Cope - James also had a link to him, whom this friend and his wife are connected to via their time at Abilene Christian University.

So, I read preachermike, and I liked. I liked a lot, commented even. And then, I explored more and discoved Larry James, Bobby Valentine, and Niki Nowell. All fellow Christians, and some with CoC ties.

Well surprise, Niki is also in CO - Denver even. And she and her husband work with homeless youth. When she posted about a family who'd been in a car wreck a month or so ago, I read and prayed. And then marveled at the small world once again, when my mother-in-law sent the same e-mail Niki'd had posted. Seems my husband's family was really close to this family as well.

Niki had a question for me recently about people and places in the homeless services arena, and I told her, "Sure we can talk, b/c I'm going to be in Denver next week for 3 days!" We talked on the phone for *blush* 2 hours?!?! and discovered that, small world, I go to church with one of her good friends - whose daughter is my daycare provider!

I hadn't yet ironed out details for lodging for my trip - and when Niki offered, I accepted. I feel somewhat impulsive, but since we know so many of the same people, it's like we practically know each other, right?

I'm excited to see her tomorrow, and to go with her to her worship band practice in the evening.

Here's to the internet, bridging gaps between kindred spirits all around the globe.

Cheers!

***Edited to add - yes, I'm leaving Seth for more than 24 hours (3 WHOLE DAYS) with the KIDS for the first time. This means, yes, your prayers are very much needed for patience, love, and kindness to abound in the Meyer abode during my absence.

Friday, October 6, 2006

From a Child's POV

LMNOB brought the above home from school today.

At first I didn't think much of it...but, at second glance I noticed she had equated happy with love, evidenced by the hearts in her illustration.

Oh, sweetheart, you've so much to learn yet. Love isn't always a feeling, like happy- it's more often a choice. Happy is a feeling, for the most part. Yet it too has a lot to do with choice.

Hoo boy, I'm waxing philosophical here....but you know, I didn't have anyone to talk with me about love like this. And, while it's a ways off, I desperately want to have those talks with her. I want her to know that she is not at the mercy of her heart - that love, true love, requires some of the greatest self-sacrifice one can muster, that long-term love is more often "faking it til you're making it," and that she has the power of choice as to just when she wants to embark on that journey.

How many people lose sight of this?

I know I have at various times.

I don't have it all figured out - I suppose if any ONE did, there wouldn't be such a market for love, finding it, keeping it, or rediscovering it.

But I'd like to think that by the time LMNOB is wanting to talk about it, I'll feel a little bit more confident, ;-)

In the meantime, I'm curious.

After noticing the happy-hearts relationship, I noticed the girl is blonde. With brown eyes.

So, I'm curious....just who is the little brown-haired boy making my daughter feel all heartsy at the ripe ole age of 5?

Would it be the little boy she was telling me about yesterday?

Mama, I really like M too, too much. But he's just too nice!

Followed by a *giggle, spin, swoon* number that had me a little overwhelmed to see this soon.

Maybe this M boy's parents and I oughta be talking? For certain, LMNOB and I will be!

Bwah-hah-hah-hah!

That, my friends, is the sound of, quite possibly the biggest laugh I have had in a LOOOOOOOOONG time!

Now, I'm sitting here dribbling my lip with my finger like a loony-toon.

You see, I just did the FAFSA so that I could (really and truly this time!) apply for the MPA program at UCD.

And, after all is said and done, the federal formula, applied to our 100% of the AMI level income, 4 people - one of which is soon to be a student - household, the feds determine thru their asinine formula, that my EFC (expected family contribution) to this academic endeavor is..........................


DRUMROLL please....................................


$12,564/year!


Oh......my.......Heck! This is more than 1/2 my salary, as well as more than child care costs alone for a year. Now, if we were to wait until no daycare costs, this could be doable - but until then- how are they figuring this?!?!?

Since the EFC is SO much higher than tuition, that means, per my former student financial aid counseling days, that I will not qualify for any "need based" aid. Bad, unsubsidized loans, and all.


C'mon merit based scholarships for a working woman..............


****sigh****

Tuesday, October 3, 2006

As, quite possibly, the YOUNGEST Mom

of LMNOB's classmates, I tend to feel somewhat insecure about my age.

It's like, in the midst of the upper 30-something and 40-something moms, there's speculation about my real age, which, once known they can do the math and determine whether I was a teen mom.

Well, ladies, I got news for ya: LMNOB's 5 years of age, subtracted from my 27 years of age = I was just shy of 22 when she was born.

Twenty-two does not end in TEEN. Though, in Colorado mothering, 22 is the new 16, or so it seems.

But, in their silent judgments, there is one very true fact: LMNOB was QUITE unplanned.

Some say, "Oh, you had an accident? I see...." as they look with pity assuming Charlie Brown and I had a semi-shotgun wedding.

Uhm, no, let me correct you again. I discovered I was pregnant just one week before our SECOND wedding anniversary. Yup, I was a child bride, if not an adolescent progenitor. And, really, we prefer the term "surprise" as opposed to accident - I'm a bit sensitive to that, given my own mother's age at the timing of my conception.

It's just kind of interesting to see all these moms who worked pre-kids and thus are now able to stay at home (and for a number, whom Chuck and I have dubbed the 'spandex mommies,' this seems to mean they can and do work out ALL the time, or perhaps, as Chuck and I tend to lean, perhaps they just want the rest of us to THINK that's what they're doing) with the kids full-time.

And then there's me.

I'm the half-alive-in-the-morning zombie, 10 years younger and 10 minutes later than the majority of the rest of the kindergarten mommies. I imagine they are so bubbly and energetic, not because those genes have had time to mature longer, but rather, because they are likely not as overworked, underpaid, and stretched thin as I am. Or, in their BC (before children) years, they actually may have found themselves, and are more secure with their identity. Or, they may have maids. OR....... and this is my favorite plausibility The Stepford Wives was based on a true story and they all migrated here - and while they look all put together and uniform - they're ROBOTS!

I could be wrong. I'm probably just as wrong in my assumptions and imaginings as the above. Probably.

They at least have had the tact to keep their mouths shut, unlike the checker at the grocery store the other day. LMNOB and I stopped to get a few things after church, since Daddy was at home, nursing Punkinhead's fever. LMNOB and some other child who appeared to be 8-ish were looking at the contraption known to cause many a tantrum on the tail end of a shopping excursion; the claw game designed to get your child's hopes up that they too could become the owner of something shiny and new for only $1.25! Why, oh why, do they put those things where children can and inevitably do see and become drawn to them like a shoo-fly to poop?

Anyway, the checker looked over at them and then at me. And then, she uttered the words I have grown to despise;


"You don't look old enough to have kids that age."


This is my cue to tell her, "Oh, well, I was a young mom." But you know, I resent that cue. It's NONE of her business! I mean, I don't go up to women approaching 50 who have younger children and say, "Wow, you REAL-heal-heal-Y waited to have kids, didn't ya?"


But, instead, I just looked at her with my I'm-a-bigger-person-than-that smile, and said, "Well, the older girl isn't mine, but thank you! So many people actually think I'm older than I am."


In other words, I choose to take your words as a testament to my youthful appearance instead of the passage of judgment based solely on the appearance of things.

And, because I'm not really a grown-up....


SO THERE!

Sunday, October 1, 2006

Kids, and the things they say...........

Yesterday Charlie Brown and Punkinhead were sitting in the yard. Gracie, our 4-legged black baby, had, uncharacteristically, pooped in the yard a few days prior.

Be reminded that it's fall, and thus, fly season in Colorado.

But otherwise, my two guys are out in the yard, backs to the house - engaged in what we call male bonding- the autumn leaves are vibrant against a crisp blue sky as the slight breeze caresses their skin with the promise that winter is coming.

The idyllic scene is interrupted with Punkinhead's clear little voice, making known for all the world around that;


"Shoo-flies eat POOP!"


First, it cracks me up that my little boy calls flies 'shoo-flies,' but second, the above statement is precisely why they are called just that. Not to mention why I hate for one to land on me! *shudder*