Lets talk preschool

Sigh. My son is in school. When he started he was in the 2-3 year old class. I loved his teacher. LOVE! I still love her and when it was time to transition him up to the next class I found myself wishing that teachers would transition with their class too. His new teacher is, um, cold, and always angry and always on the defensive. Since day one I have been afraid of her. I feel like when I say hi, even her reply of, "hi" is attacking and scary and MEAN. You know, those people who just look mean. Anyway. The point is, in Brandons last class he was good. So good in fact that the teachers were all stunned he had never been in school before. I went to time out maybe once a week but barely even then.

Fast forward to now when I found out the other day that my son is in time out at least TWO TIMES A DAY EVERY DAY. The most disturbing part is that I only found out because my mom picked him up and when she arrived he was in time out. My mom inquired about how often he goes to time out, to which the teacher casually mentioned he is always in time out. Obviously being his mother, she didn't feel like I needed to know this. Makes perfect fucking sense to me. The next day I inquired and in a very attacking way as if I was questioning her authority she let me know that Brandon likes to hold other kids or grab toys from them. Fine, yes that is bad, but shouldn't I have been told so I could talk to him?

After she said that, my mom, husband, dad and I all talked to Brandon and guess what THE PROBLEM STOPPED. However yesterday after he promised me he wouldn't go to time out, he went to time out twice. My husband picked him up and when we got home he told me to ask Brandon why.

Me: Brandon why did you go to time out
Brandon: Um I go to time out cuz I go potty
Me: Huh
Brandon: I just go potty so I go to time out.

I looked at my husband who replied, "that is true, they were outside playing and Brandon went inside to go potty with out asking someone."

SHUT THE FUCK UP!

This woman put my child in time out for fucking going pee? I can understand that kids aren't supposed to go inside alone, but I also know that in the amount of time it would have taken him to go talk to her he probably would have peed his pants. I know my kid I know that sometimes he plays until the last second and before I know it Brandon is hauling ass to the bathroom and there are times he lets a little pee out before he even sits down. I was bothered by this and went to bed thinking about it. It didn't help that my husband said he went in time out again for not listening. Not listening about what?

This morning I went in and talked to his teacher. Before I even opened my mouth she was on the defensive. I asked about the potty time out. She said all the kids know they can't come inside alone. I asked her if he had been in trouble for this before. She said no. I was kind of shocked. I was stunned she would put him in time out for a first offense. Then I said, well, you know, the way he relayed it he was put in time out for going potty. She tried to tell me that she explained to him that he was in time out for not asking to go in. Which is fine if she says that but I know that the exact words my kids said are "I go in time cuz I go potty." I told her I was slightly worried this would make him just pee his pants outside instead of asking to come in since he now related that with time out.

Next I asked about the not listening. She said him and a bunch of other kids were going down the slides backwards so they all went to time out. I was stunned. Because he played follow the leader he got punished. So I finally say, "you know I'm just confused because my kid had no problems in the other class. Is something different here, because to me this seems like excessive time outs." At this point the teacher got very agitated and went on about how her class was more structured, she start using hand gestures to punctuate her point which I find insulting and angry. Basically is sounded like no matter what these kids were all going to go to time out every day. In fact the last four times I've gone in she was putting someone in time out INCLUDING TODAY. Today a little girl screamed and she went to time out. The teacher wasn't nice either she just YELLED "_______ in time out now."

I walked out of there feeling like nothing was accomplished and feeling like by asking about my son I was probably getting him in more trouble. I read somewhere that if a preschool teacher doesn't like the parent they will take it out on the kid. While I"m always overly friendly now because of this, I get the feeling that this teacher hates my questions and in turn is overly mean to Brandon. I stopped and talked to the other teacher who is in that class part time. She assured me the main teacher likes Brandon. However she agreed that time outing him for going potty was a little odd. She also totally understood that it was bad for Brandon to think he went to time out for going potty. This teacher responded to me kindly, in a nice voice with an understanding smile.

I don't know what to do now. In his last class when I had questions or concerns I could easily talk to his teacher and she would reply nicely. She would explain things, be understanding, and never make me feel like an asshole for caring about my kid.

Before I left I stood there and watched this lady with the kids and she comes off mean to them too. She looked angry at them even. I can't decide if this lady is just angry or going through something or what? No matter what, I don't feel like she has the personality to care for kids, nor the personality to deal with children's parents.

What do I do now? I don't feel comfortable knowing my son is in time out that often. I don't feel comfortable after hearing the other teacher, the part time one say that TWO TIME OUTS WAS NOTHING the other kids go at least 5 times a day.

FIVE TIMES???

Am I the only one who sees this as excessive? Am I the only mom wondering if they shouldn't maybe be talking to these kids and educating them instead of just shoving them in time out? Am I the only parent who even knows this is happening? Because had my mom not walked in while he was in time out, that teacher never would have told us.

I don't know where to go from here. When I enrolled him I read the parent teacher handbook from front to back. One of the things in there talked about teachers communicating with parents when there was a problem, and parents working on it at home. How in the fuck am I supposed to work on my sons school problems if no one is communicating and when they do communicate I feel attacked and like I need to go sit in time out.

What do I do?

BET YOU DIDN'T KNOW WHERE TO FART

Me: Brandon we are going to go take a bath

Papa: Make sure not to fart in the tub Brandon

Brandon: We don't fart in the tub PAAA PAAAAA you only fart on the toilet......and in pants!

Stuff

So I promised I would show you some of my recent house finds.

This is my fake plant. I hate fake plants. I find them weird. However when we went to get my couch the guy selling it handed me this plant. Not knowing what to do I took it. Later I stuck it in my living room to balance a wall until I knew what else to do. However after about an hour I decided I LOVED THIS PLANT! I can't even begin to describe how perfect this plant looks! Plus it was free and I CAN'T KILL IT!

My mom found this little table at a garage sale (I think). It used to live next door to our work but Brandon loved it so much my mom let it move in with us. It hangs out in the living room now next to our couch giving Brandon a little area to play, color, and watch TV.

My mom got this little table for the boys at Christmas. She found it at an antique store and it is the absolute perfect size for Brandon. I put it in the dining room as a "kids table." The truth is, my kids sit at the table with me but it was so cute I didn't want to get rid of it after the red table moved in on its spot.

I got my fork and spoon from one of the other houses on the land where I live. They were all family owned and only the original owners lived in them. When the last of the original owners moved out she left us quite a mess. I scored these a few years ago knowing someday I would have a dining room for them. I have a nice place for them now and I love them. Below that is my new table runner I scored at TJ Maxx on clearance for $7.00.

They sell this sign at a little boutique here for $59.99 I found it at TJ Maxx for $12.99 last year.

This is my little bowl from World Market. I paid $9.99 for it which seems pricey but it is bamboo. I used it to replace the nasty old bowl I had my rocks in. Isn't it pretty.

This lamp I got for free! I mentioned to my mom that I wanted a lamp so she walked next door and grabbed the one off her desk that just happened to match the other one I had PERFECTLY! I also got the table for free. It was left here by the old owners. I love this stupid table.

I got this little stool thing from couch guy also. ALSO FOR FREE! (along with the coffee table in Rob's room). I stuck this in the laundry/mud room for Rob to put his shoes on when he gets ready in the morning.

I took photos of Rob's room all done too. I'll post those up in the morning. His room is pretty fucking rad if I do say so myself. Every man needs their own room!

Makes you wonder

Did I ever tell you that once upon a time my husband was a post man? Well he was. Back in the day he was a post man. Funny shorts and hat included. He told me once that when he was delivering mail he used to stop at his girlfriends house for "lunch." You know, lunch in bed. Ever since he told me that I've looked at my postmen differently. The guy at my old house always had a little spring in his step and I couldn't help but wonder, is that because he just came from his lovers house, or is it because he's about to stop and have "lunch" somewhere near by.

Now my husband works somewhere that has drivers and he tells me how some of his guys go home and take naps during their routes. I was totally stunned. That never occurred to me. So now of course I look at all my employees and wonder if they are secretly napping somewhere.

That reminds me of the time I pulled into one of my local favorite eateries to find one of my guys parked in back NAPPING in his truck.

Do you guys have any secret things you do at work? Like the girl in my office who ALWAYS uses our stamps to mail her bills. Or the person at my husbands work who uses the laminating machine for non work related things.

What kinds of sneaky things do you do at work? Nap, have "lunch," borrow office supplies?

And also, have any of you had "lunch" at the work place, like on premises? I have once but not at my own work place, at my boyfriends work place. And it was fucking cold!

Building a home office

I finally have a desk! That means I can finally ORGANIZE a desk. I have picked up a few new things that I just love. The first are these oversized clothespins. I found them for $8.99. Pottery Barn sells something similar for almost $30.00. I love them. I put bills to pay in them and things to do. I got a green and a white one.

About a month ago Dooce featured these files on her style page. The moment I saw them I fell in love. I knew I would be getting an office soon so I went online and started researching files. I found so many awesome ones, but something kept drawing me back to the pink and green. Before I knew what was happening I was clicking order and a few days later they were on my doorstep!
I purchased these boxes in blue, white and green. They retail for $21.00 on See Jane Work but while I was roaming through TJ Maxx I spotted them clearanced for $7.00 and $7.99. I snapped those bad boys right up and I now keep them on the shelf behind my desk. One holds all of Brandons school papers and art work. One holds everything of Codis and one holds all of Rob and I's romanitcal things.
I have picked up various other things, like a desk top box for documents or the cutest little napkin box that I now use as Rob's "in" box. Meaning stop throwing away your fucking receipts and put them on my desk!

I have a small wishlist. This desk top tray, which price wise is totally unreasonable and unless TJ Maxx somehow gets it in I will never own. But still ISN'T IT RAD!

This adorable little desktop calendar! It has a different page for every month and is eco friendly.

And for my birthday Rob is buying me this. I love the movie Office Space, and if you haven't seen it, the red Swingline makes no sense but, I sort of feel like the red Swingline is to the office what a Kitchenaid is to the kitchen.
I have other little things I want of course but I can't find them all online. I've done great shopping at Ross and TJ Maxx though. I'm finding amazing deals. I purchased the most awesome bamboo bowl to hold the rocks that Rob brings me and I got some perfect wooden utensils that hang on the wall. They were FREE as they came out of one of these old houses when we were cleaning them. I took pictures of some of the great items I have acquired for free or very little money and as soon as I upload the other 100 pictures on my camera I will post them. I think some of it is pretty neat!

And then there is that

Me: Alright Brandon time to shoe fly
Brandon: No mom you're a shoe fly
Me: Well then you're a horse fly
Brandon: Well then your a fucking fly
Me: I'm a funky fly
Brandon: No mom your a FUCKING FLY
Me: Ummm. Go tell your daddy that!

Winter does have a few good qualities

In case you're wondering I'm doing excellent on my diet. I have another month until my one year anniversary I can't wait to see my final weight after a full year. I have been eating excellent and making awesome choices. All but one. There is always one tiny thorn in my side.

LIMITED EDITION HOLIDAY COFFEE CREAMER. Gets me every damn year. Obviously I adjust for the extra calories but still it gets me. Yesterday while at the store picking up some last minute dinner items I saw it.

The other flavors were

• Eggnog Liquid
• Gingerbread Liquid
• Peppermint Mocha Powder
• Pumpkin Spice Liquid

You bet your ass I loaded my cart. That just means a little adjusting to my calories for the season but it's worth it to have a nice cup of coffee in the morning. Anyway Caramel Apple HUGE RAVING HIT and if I didn't give a shit about my waist line I would totally just chug this shit straight from the container!

In other news Brandon finally got all of his teeth fixed last week. I never followed up with that situation on here, so here is your follow up. After taking Brandon to the first dentist whose idea was to take him to the hospital and knock him out and give me a ($3,500.00 bill after insurance) I called another dentist (Dr. Trujillo). Brandon loved this dentist from the start. He was so good and the staff was amazing. They were on time, didn't make us wait and handled everything as though they were all parents themselves. They even got Xrays so they could have an accurate picture of what was going on in his head. The other dentist said he was too young to attempt Xrays and said they would just wait till he was knocked out to do it and then ADJUST MY BILL AS NECESSARY. Turns out Brandon had cavities on both the bottom and the top. Again they were in the areas where his teeth are crowded. I explained to Dr. Trujillo what the previous dentist had said about sedating Brandon. He absolutely disagreed. He informed me that if Brandon was 3 and 30 lbs they could do an in office procedure where they gave him a drink and he just kinda went to sleep. He said based on Brandons excellent behavior he saw no reason we couldn't do that. He was shocked the other dentist pushed so hard for hospitalization. After insurance the whole thing would cost $500.00 and only that much because we would split it into two visits, one for the top and one for the bottom. This dentist also said waiting the two short months for Brandon to turn 3 was no problem at all. So we waited, went for the first appointment and things went awesome. He was well behaved and terrific. They sent him away with toys and balloons and light up toothbrushes and now Brandon actually ASKS to please go to the dentist! Moral of the story GET A SECOND OPINION.

Anyway the real point of this story is that Wednesday we went in for Brandon's second appointment. Like last time they sedated him which means he came back totally stoned and sleepy most of the day. So we come to work and Brandon is being kind of babyish as he is when he is sick. I feed Codi and put him down for a nap and Brandon comes over and says the following:

Brandon: Mama I want some Nilk
Me: Okay one sec
Brandon: No mama Nilk from your BOOOOBIE
Me: What!
Brandon: I want Nilk from your boobie
Me: No Brandon that is just for babies
Brandon: Then I wanna be baby
Me: NO!

So there is that. I really had no clue how to react to that. This is the first time he has actually asked for that. Of course I would never ever ever let my 3 year old nurse but I really felt bad for the little guy. I don't expect him to ask again but it still tugged at my heartstrings.

Also following up about last weeks post about the kids eating I made the roasted butternut squash. However things went totally not as I planned as Codi HATED it and Brandon ended up eating an entire quarter in the kitchen while it was still hot enough to burn his mouth. He would take a bite and walk around proclaiming MMMM YUMMMY THIS IS THE BEST EVER? That kid boggles my mind since the last 217 times I made him taste it he replied, "this is yucky," and then proceeded to WIPE OFF HIS TONGUE because the squash was apparently going to burn a hole through his skull.

Brandon has also decided that he wants cereal for every meal. Which is fun for me, since I recently started eating cereal again I get to try new stuff. Last night we came home from the store with my new favorites, Blueberry frosted mini wheats, Kashi Go Lean Crunch, Special K yogurt and berries, and Golden Grahams. Yes. We have an addiction. I forgot how much I love cereal. I love it so much I don't want to eat real meals anymore just like Brandon. This weekend while Rob was gone I was like, "cook dinner or eat cereal." You bet your ass cereal won out! I am all out of my coveted Kashi Strawberry Fields but after buying eleventy billion boxes of other cereal at the store last night I had to make the decision to leave that one behind in favor of tasting the Blueberry Frosted Mini Wheats, which, fuck regular snacks I'm going to portion that shit out in baggies and eat that. It is like eating a really crunchy blueberry muffin that is totally reasonable calorie wise.

Lets see what else?

OOOO last night Rob came home from being gone for three days, and I was finally done with my time of the month, and we weren't living at my moms and we weren't cranky so we thought hey maybe we can finally you know HAVE SEX! About 3 seconds from actually getting to have sex Codi woke up in a bloody screaming fit because I made the goddamn mistake of putting him in his fucking crib. One hour and thirty minutes later I gave up, brought the little shit to bed and told Rob maybe we can try again next year or when the kids turn 18 or something.

Because oh yeah, I'm trying to get Codi in his crib. Which is a really smart thing to do when your kid has 3 FUCKING TEETH COMING IN. Which means he sleeps for about an hour at a time. But, hey, he sleeps in his crib for like an hour. A WHOLE HOUR. Do you know what I can do in an hour? I can lay awake and listen to the noise coming out of my husbands nose that sounds exactly like someone coming up my stairs. Yes that is right, I almost woke up my husband to go get the killer when the killer was really just a case of the evil deviated septum. Also we solved the case of the mystery doorbell ditcher. I never talked about it because come on, someone ringing your doorbell every weekend and then running away really, REALLY! Turns out we had a short in the low voltage wire and the doorbell was just ringing itself! So the whole me freaking out and never leaving my bedroom and being sure we were all gonna die by the crazy doorbell guy, yeah, hee hee, that was a fluke. Now the guy living in my crawl space, well, that is just a whole other story!

And finally. I've been trying to get my husband to eat a tri tip sandwich since the day I met him. He has flat out refused. He came home from a wedding in CA with all his friends this weekend and announced that he ATE A TRI TIP SANDWICH AND IT WAS REALLY REALLY GOOD! I was mildly annoyed and then he said..."I also ate beans and rice." I wanted to fuck his ass up right there because those are three things he totally refuses to eat (white rice excluded) and by refuse I mean I can't even cook it, no he won't taste it stop trying already. But the kicker, the I'm going to junk punch you in your sleep was when he said, "I'm so different when I go to CA."

At least he said it this time, not me. He followed that little gem with, "But no, you still can't make me a tri tip sandwich, it's just not the same as CA they had rolls."

Because you know, I forgot that Nevada doesn't sell dinner rolls.

Fucking rolls.

Men!

HI SWISTLE

I TOOK A PHOTO TODAY JUST BECAUSE HE HAS ON AN EAR HATE AND I KNOW HOW SWISTLE CAN'T RESIST BABIES IN EAR HATS!

Fuckers

It appears that the people who stole my computer are finally getting around to playing with it. Here are a few of the amusing little things I have noticed:

*Every morning I wake up to find that I have blocked 3-4 people on Yahoo Messenger. It has happened twice with my mom which means that when she is writing to ask me work related things I'm not getting it because she is blocked. Last couple mornings shes tried telling me she was writing me but I wasn't reply and every morning I told her she was crazy, nope turns out she was right. I also apparently blocked my friend Erica and had no clue why I couldn't see her for almost two days before I realized she was some how on my blocked list. This is a huge pain because I don't use Yahoo the program I use Adium a program that combines my yahoo and AOL accounts in to one. While I did change my yahoo and AOL passwords somehow they were still able to access via Adium. I dunno how but dammit! This also means that in order to fix it I have to take them off the blocked list from Adium then log into Yahoo and take them off that blocked list also. UGGG!
*I woke up this morning to find my Facebook account deactivated with an email in my inbox confirming my deactivation. NO THANK YOU I did not deactivate my facebook I was just kicking Patty's ass in parking wars! I think I did forget to change the password on this one.
*A few people have been deleted off Myspace, along with a log of my Myspace settings being all jacked up and my home page now has this weird little purple dude on it instead of my cute home page I had picked. Grrrrr. I did change this password but the stupid password reset went to my Gmail account which NO I didn't change because I forgot I had a goddamn Gmail account linked to anything important. I have now fixed this and put the email back to my yahoo email that is safe!
*I can now tell when the fuckers are on my computer because when you open my computer it automatically opens Adium and alerts me someone is signed on in my name (*edited to add it appears that while I changed the passwords Adium somehow updates no matter where it is, so it now has deactivated accounts but new reactivated accounts that they are some how able to open.) This is such a fucking tease because it's like, hi I know you're there ON MY COMPUTER FUCKERS but I can't do anything about it. My computer is set to automatically attach to any wireless network, the police said they would have to do a lot of digging to find out where they are latching on. I can't wait to find out what else they will fuck with.
* While they were able to log into my Adium it appears they have even chatted with my friends. A couple people referenced conversations I never had, and one person got upset that I left a conversation with out a reply...a conversation I never knew I was having. They also chatted with a guy I hadn't talked to in years that I didn't even realize was still on AOL (I only sign on AOL to chat with Patty) and now he won't stop popping up saying hi all the fucking time!

Another thing that massively sucks is how many passwords I can't remember. Everything was just memorized on there and what wasn't was saved on Stickies on my desktop (A mac feature). This means I can't pay certain bills because I don't remember the passwords. These are all those websites that make you come up with extra creative passwords. You know, must have 3 letters 6 numbers 2 symbols rhyme with pony and be totally non rememberable! So I can't pay my trash bill and to pay the car payment this month OMFG! I have my bills sent paperless which is fine until you call. Push 1 for English, push 2 to pay your bill push 2 if you really want to pay, now enter your account number. FUCK! I don't have that. Because the company doesn't actually email me a statement they email me a note saying my statement is available to view IF I CAN JUST LOG THE FUCK IN! So then I end up pushing 0 0 0 0 0 for the operator who informs me it's an additional 15 dollar charge to pay it over the phone with a real person. Okay fine, give me my account number and I'll call back and pay. NOPE! Fuckers got my $15.00.

I also can't access my blog her ads thing because I have no idea what my three log in credentials were and I tried resetting it so many times I'm locked out. I got my monthly check last week though so at least for now I know things haven't been messed with there.

This will all be remedied Tuesday when I finally buy a new computer and we unstuff the backup of my old computer. The great thing is our computer guy had just been here the week before the break in so I have all of my pictures, passwords, songs, bookmarks and recipes backed up. The bad part is how much we paid him to do that just for the computers to get stolen. Luckily he happened to back up Rob's too (he backed us up because we were upgrading to system 10.5 from 10.3.9) so we also have all the pictures of his ballgames and his music too!

Luckily I changed my main email password, blog password, checking account password and so on so they couldn't go sending any crazy emails or spending money I don't have.

Either way, this shit is annoying the piss out of me. I am reactivating Facebook and looking to see who all was deleted on Myspace and now I just need to call Adium and figure out why these people are still able to log into my name.

**Updated to add: I have not purchased a new computer yet because while we were waiting for our insurance check to arrive I was informed that Apple may or may not be coming out with a new computer. Yesterday Apple finally confirmed that on Tuesday they will be releasing new Macbooks and Macbook Pros, so the husband and I are patiently waiting until Tuesday to get our shiny new computers!

A few pics of the boys

Batman gets papa

Little bro pushing big bro

Here I come mom

Hi I'm Brandon how can I help you

I just made a biiig mess mom

Batman!

He was trying to surf on his toy

Brandons first paper chain