Something New, #123

Barack and Roll

I watched a Democratic presidential acceptance speech last night for the first time. I honestly don't think I've ever watched anything political from start to finish, but as everyone keeps saying, we're watching history being made, and I wanted to be able to tell my future grandchildren how their mamma and I watched it together.

I cried almost the whole time.

I totally heart Barack.

Something New, #122

I am not a fan of No Child Left Behind.

I have several friends who are teachers, and even the cradle Republicans did not vote for Dubya in the last election because of it.

It has seemed that for the last 4 years, my oldest is getting tested about every three weeks. At first, she didn't mind, but now it's old.

I got a letter from the "Gifted" teacher at her new middle school. The Big One is not in the "gifted" program in our public schools, because she missed the entrance requirements by one point, but she scores in the highest percentile on all her standardized tests. And have I mentioned that she and her friend Amber were the only two in her sixth grade class that made straight A's since kindergarten?

Yeah, I figured I had.

Now I'm not saying my girl isn't smart, but I really don't believe that standardized tests measure intelligence, creative thinking or even common sense. When I get frustrated at my kids because they ask me obvious things like "Mom, where do we keep the silverware?" (duh, in the silverware drawer) I think to myself, "These are the dumbest smart people in the world."

Anyway, she came home with this letter, saying she was qualified to take the ACT or SAT through Duke University's Talent Identification Program.

The ACT or SAT.

In the seventh grade.

What on earth for?

I checked out the website and it pretty much seemed to me that if your kid takes this test it will qualify for many exciting summer programs and camps sponsored by Duke University.

Starting at $1,800.00.

No mention of any scholarships.

So I talked to the "gifted" teacher and she highly recommended it, it's a wonderful opportunity, etc. The Big One wants to do it, so I gave her the OK.

I'm going to make The Ex pay the test fee.

Something New, #121

I finally used my new status as a notary to actually notarize something.

I stamped and signed myself silly.

Something New, #120

When I walked into the house after work, I could hear coming from outside, what I thought was a really loud lawnmower. Turns out, it was a tree service company taking out my back neighbor's tree.

They had already taken off all the branches, and were down to the trunk, which was probably about 12 feet. Four men had hold of a guy line and one had the chainsaw and had cut through the trunk, which was about 3 feet across. I got to the backyard just as they pulled and the whole tree came down. TIMBER!

I cussed at myself, for not having the foresight to grab the camera and film it.

Too bad the tree was taken out, though. A former co-worker said she had to take out the cottonwood tree in her yard because of her son's allergies. Slacker mom that I am, I think I would have kept my kid hopped up on antihistamines 3 weeks of the year, rather than cut down a full-grown healthy tree.

Something New, #119

I found a blue caterpillar in the flowerbed, so I thought it would be a nice nature lesson to put it in a jar, and watch is turn into a butterfly.

We brought it in, filled a jar with leaves, twigs and a few drops of water, and punched air holes in the jar lid. The Little One named it Bob.

We checked on Bob to see how he was doing and to take a photo.

Bob was drowned in the few drops of water that were in there.

The Little One insisted he was sleeping and that I should stop poking him with the twig to prove otherwise.

It's probably a good thing. Turns out, after I looked it up online, it was probably a sawfly larvae.

Pretty much a metaphor of my life: I think I'm getting a butterfly, and end up with a grub.

Something New, #118

Bad Hair Day

I've always hated my hair.

It's curly, but not cute-curly, just curly enough that I can't make it do what I want. Plus it grows really slowly, so it's never been my longer than my ears. This was a major contention with me growing up, as I grew up in the era of Farrah Fawcett feathered hair. Plus there was no hair product during my formative years, with the exceptions of Aqua-Net and Dippity-Doo.

When L'oreal came out with styling mousse my sophomore year in college, I swear I could hear the angels sing the first time I used it.

I pretty much took care of my hair problem, by keeping it short. Whenever I'd go to a new hairdresser and he'd ask how I'd like it, I'd just say "Give me a lesbian haircut" and he'd know what I meant.

(I probably offended someone with that, so I apologize, but everyone knows what I mean when I use that description.)

I've colored my hair since I was sixteen, so I honestly don't know the natural color. Since I am battling grays like crazy, it's probably mostly gray.

So about a year and a half ago, I decided that I would just give into it and see what happened. I've only had the ends trimmed and have colored it. It's about down to the tops of my shoulders if I let it air-dry.

That is, until yesterday.

I went to my cute hairdresser Joe, and after he cut it, asked if I'd like a blow out. Usually he just uses the diffuser, but I thought, why not.

And the angels sang again.

Turns out, my hair is almost long, another first for me. I had STRAIGHT, swingy hair for about two hours, until the humidity got to it. I flipped my head of STRAIGHT hair around so much, I'm surprised I didn't give myself whiplash.

I'm going to try it myself, but not until the humidity subsides.

Truly, a life-changing event.

Something New, #117

Another digital first for me. I figured out how to get photos out of my camera that are on the internal memory.

I know it doesn't sound like much, but considering I didn't even know the camera had internal memory, I think that counts.

All I had to do was rifle through the dozen or so USB cords in the computer cabinet, plug it in, and transfer.

Here's a lovely photo of The Big One and I at Race for the Cure.

And I did cave in and made a trip to the grocery store between dropping off The Little One and dropping off The Big One at school. I checked with a friend who just finished at that middle school, and apparently, the lunch line stay like that all year.

She's going to have to learn to make her own lunches.