the birthday

all week long Z had little field trips here & there & cried on thurs when i told him i couldn't go with him, so fri was a must, even if it wasn't his birthday. i took him to school first thing in the morning, then went home home to at least get a cup of coffee to deal with all the kids.

about 9 B & I went back for our walk to stater brothers. yeah, i know, exciting stuff, huh? it was overcast so it wasn't too hot out & we got a couple of drops of rain on the way. our presenter did a great job of talking to the kids, showing them the different fruits & veggies & explaining how they were good for the body, then they went in the refridgerated section, went behind the butcher's counter to see how the machine wrapped & priced cut meat, over to the loading dock, last was the bakery. Z got 2 fingers of frosting beings he was the birthday boy.

once we were done the kids returned their aprons & vests (everyone had a job) & were given a box with some goodies in it & a balloon. stater bro's did a great job of informing & entertaining the kids, thank you.

the walk back to school was hot & we were all exhausted by then. we ended up taking Z home & getting ready for our trip down to mom's. we stopped at SD house, everything looked great, did our walk through, got our keys [YAH!] & went to mom's. Z finally got to open presents & cards & my mom got chocolate pudding pie with strawberries on top.

resigned & last hail & farewell

i did it, today, official resignation letter has been submitted, final date = June 11th. i have to say it did make me a bit sad to leave, i work with some nice people here; yet i know, we will be much happier in sd.

i picked up Z from his after school place & gave them notice as well.

then we headed over to the golf course for our final hail & farewell; Rob was welcomed & B was goodbyed. B was given a plaque & a friend (MB) gave him a model Zulu (type of helicopter).

so close i can taste it

friday is Z's 7th birthday.
yeah, i know, already, it's amazing how quickly it's passed. it feels like only a few years ago that i was pregnant, yet here we are with this big boy now. he's 4ft tall & last time we weighed him at 45lbs; although i know it's more than that because this weekend he felt heavier when i picked him up & he's been eating 5 or 6 meals a day. [talk of the family anchor is for another day...]

the plan was to head down to mom's once he got out of school to spend the weekend down there; celebrate the birthday, spend time with mom, do the final walk-thru on the house sunday & get OUR keys to OUR house[!!!!!].

B spoke with the tenant this morning & she's ready to meet & hand over the keys on fri night. [OMG!!!] so we will probably just stay in OUR house & sleep on OUR floor & be ridiculously happy about it!
do you have any idea how many rolled tacos & shrimp burritos we're going to eat? Z's going to be 60lbs by sun afternoon...let's not concern ourselves with anyone else's weight though.

i still haven't given work an official resignation letter; i think i'll do it today, 2 weeks notice as of today. sound fair?

obsessed

have you seen that show obsessed?
i don't watch a lot of tv, not even sure i knew the show existed, but last night the tv was on whatever channel B had left it on watching intervention & after that was obsessed. i was about to go to bed, but had to watch.
it was about scott the germ-a-phobe.

in the intro he talked about how he slept on the sofa because he didn't want sleep on his bed & have to make it every morning because he couldn't leave the bed unmade - whatever, the only time our bed is made is sunday when i change sheets, or we're expecting company, & it depends on who that company is...

then he told us he didn't have any trash cans in the house because he took every single piece of trash to the can outside - ok, that's kinda extreme.

then he talked about hand washing, counting hand sanitizer, about 30 times a day - AMATEUR!!!!!!!!!!

house updates

woo-hoo, we have a signed lease!

not only that, we a have a door to the backyard that works!!!
fancy huh?
it's beautiful too; french doors (you know, that OPEN) with mini-blinds inside too!
purdy!

closet doors were painted & hung in Z's room; so it's done except for a few touch ups, like that spot on the ceiling where the roller got away from me, oopsy! then clean up around the closet & window frame & that's it.

the kitchen is our final project, we bought paint for the cabinets & wood flooring.

ghetto house, prepare for your metamorphasis!

Z's VIP week

everyone in Z's class gets a VIP week, this is his week (next week, actual b-day wasn't available).

- on mon & tues he took some of his favorite books to share with the class.
- on weds B had something planned, but had to cancel because of a work meeting. in lieu he brought Z a big happy face mylar balloon. wait, big doesn't cut it. gigantic? maybe...let's put it this way, when Z brought it home, i told him it might not fit in my car!
- yesterday B & I brought in confetti eggs & the kids had a blast with them. my only regret was that we only had enough for each kid to get 1. there were a few leftovers, but not enough to make another round.
- today B's going in with slime. yeah, so not my arena. he made glow in the dark slime, temperature sensitive slime (changed color when you touch it) & a magnetic version (i haven't seen it yet). oh & i also made chocolate cupcakes last night.

Z in turn has had a good week. he's only gotten 1 unhappy face so far & it was because he said "butt" in class...we can do this!

guilty as charged

i've taken my first hit off the crackberry pipe...

on the internet popo's hit list

at work...we are watched, logged, like big-time.
a lot of sites are blocked too, which is really sad considering how much free time i have on my hands here.

as of late i've become completely addicted to FB.
SL put up some fantastic pics from hs, the wall chats have been fun, etc.
but our server can be slow.
wait.
i mean S.......L.....O......W
& sometimes because i can be little type A i will click the refresh button a gazillion times because it takes so long to load.

then it happened.
just the other day.

massive pop up window
"YOUR CERTIFICATE AUTHORIZING FB HAS BEEN REVOKED"
my name was on there too, like i got a ticket.

um, what?
abuse?
hardly...
how am i supposed to fill the time here??? hmmmm?

as of yet, my privileges haven't been fully revoked, i can log on, but now i'm scared so i'm not logging on as often & just checking in real quick, not hanging out & having a drink anymore.

don't take my FB away internet popo, i need it.
really i do, what do you expect me to be productive for 9 hours a day?
because if that's the case, you need to talk to my boss first.

organized

the past few weeks i've been working on engineering flowcharts. i've worked on finland flows in the past, they were boring, anything that goes away has to have 'RESERVED' entered in it's place.

do you know what it's like typing 'RESERVED' 42,334 times in one day?
great fun!
no fancy clickity cut & paste going on here.
type, each letter, each time, all 42,334 times...

this pile, i'm not joking it's 6 reams of paper high.
luckily NOT double sided.
[gotta find a silver lining somewhere...]

anyways, this is for canada & although i still feel i'm owed some handsome pilots in flight suits walking around speaking french, i have to say i actually like this work.

i delete a bunch of crap, then move boxes around to make sense of what's left.

evidently i'm an organizational F-R-E-A-K.
can we keep that a secret?

better yet, can i put that on my resume?

BUDZ day

on fri while Z was at school B removed the entry tile while i cleaned up the backyard. then he took everything over to the dump while i used the grinder to remove the tile adhesive. i was sore for 3 days after that!

part of the reason we worked so hard was so we could take a break & drive over to visit a friend from hs. A couple of us managed to set up a surprise visit in time with her graduating from nursing school (& birthday).

a visit to a city was great, even if it wasn't a big city, it was bigger than what we're used to. got to visit target & costco, so i was happy.

when the rest of the gang showed up we headed over & S was completely surprised, almost in tears. it was really nice how it all worked out.

i finally got to meet M's little beybey & she chewed on my thumb.

Z had fun, played in the pool then played wii with S's teenage daughter & friend, then finally just passed out.

we weren't able to stay for the actual pinning ceremony because we needed to get home & back to reality, but it was a nice get away & it was great to see my buddies!

stars aligning & going to pot all at the same time

thurs our neighbor came over, he's definitely interesting in renting the house => AWESOME!!!!!! (he's even cleaner than we i am)

i've been working on a contract & he would like a 2 year lease (i think we're going to go for it).

however last night our cooler went out...yeah, in the D-E-S-E-R-T!
luckily B was able to get the window unit installed in the dark so we could sleep.

then this morning the electricity went out in the living room.
yep, just that room.
no, not just the circuit popped because i flipped it & still no tv or ceiling fan.

you can take the ghetto out of the house, but you'll never get the house out of the ghetto i guess...

2nd grade here we come!!!

the post is late but not because i was completely excited/thrilled/happy about it, just WAY WAY BUSY!!!!!

on fri am when i took Z into school teacher said he's improved enough over the past few weeks to go on to 2ND GRADE!!!!!!!!!!!

i'm so happy, no more 1st grade homework for me(wait, who said that?) i mean Z!!!

high & tight

(if you're not in the know with military speak, that's a marine's haircut - basically shaved sides & lil long on the top).

the boy is high & tight & Momma is not happy.

the boy is though.

that was the best haircut lady could do. i wasn't there, i'm guessing she left the top kinda long to avoid sunburnt scalp or beings B's military maybe she thought it'd be cute.

i do not think it's cute.

missing chunks are still kind of obvious too, not that i'm complaining, i know what girlfriend had to work with...

i will like it better in 2 weeks,
maybe 3 weeks.

baldy

a few days ago i noticed Z had a spot on the back of his head where his hair seemed really...sparse. i figured bad case of the duck (aka 'the chicken') & didn't concern myself with it too much, just made a point of making sure he used conditioner & let it set in for a few minutes. then B calls me for something today & tells me there's another spot i need to look at.

so at the end of the day when i pick Z up, i lift up his bangs to find he's twisted off about the first 1 to 1.5 inches of hair!!!!!!!!!!!

it's forehead, then a patch of MAYBE about an 1/8 inch long hair with glaring white scalp underneath for a good span, then the intact hair remains (although frightened).

so i called haircut lady (aka Katey's momma) & Z has an appt tomorrow afternoon. i told her how f-ed up his hair is & she thought for sure he cut it, but no, i don't think it would be THAT BAD if he'd cut it.

i'm pretty sure the only option it to shave his head & i'm SO not happy about that. not only because his white scalp is going to get sunburnt, or because he is going to look ridiculous & possibly like a little skin-head (hmmm, anarchy temp tat on the forehead???), but it's his FRICKEN BIRTHDAY AT THE END OF THE MONTH & we're going to have pictures documenting the skin-headedness!

on the bright side, only a few weeks of school left & i can not WAIT to be done with 1st grade (even if we have to do it over again)!

house stuff

on fri pm the real estate guy came by to appraise the house & help us figure out what to do with it. he liked the work we've done in the hall bathroom, living room & computer room but said Z's nemo blue room had to go, and the kitchen, well, we should just bomb it. [my words not his]

although the RE guy didn't give us a finite # he said we won't get our $$ out of it for the work & improvements we've put into it & that we'd be better off renting the house out instead of selling it. B & I had previously discussed this & we knew it was a possibility, just were hoping to be rid of it.

fri night B pulled the countertop out of our bathroom & worked on that over the weekend while i painted Z's room & touched up the paint in the dining room.

mother's day celebrations for the most part took a backseat to the work we needed to do. B gave me a card with an appt card; today i go in for a mani/pedi & facial - i can't wait. Z gave me a card where he drew a ladybug, a butterfly & a turtle & filled with I love you's all over one side.

lost tooth

yesterday Z finally lost his other front tooth.
the first front tooth & it's neighbor were lost way back in dec.

so you can imagine how he's looked over the past few months with one gigantic adult front tooth next to a tiny baby front tooth.

B would call him shark tooth, nice huh?

the boy's trying

so far, after last Wed's spanking from Momma, Z has been better.

he made it through the rest of the week just fine & was doing well this week too.

happy faces & 3 stickers a day.

until today.

he lost his happy face for not following instructions & scribbling on someone's arm. (they scribbled on him first, which is always the excuse, he's only reacting.) i do have to say that i am glad though, we can work with this.

UPDATE Fri pm - another happy face & 3 stars - YAH!

about being mexican

alright, so after last post, SIL brought to my attn how mexican i really am...although you would never know it by looking at me. [which i kind of like that people look at me & wonder "what is she?" - i'm human!]

my nana (mom's mom) has told me when i was a kid, before i started going to school, i spoke more spanish than english. although i find that strange, i know when i'm tired, real, real tired my enunciation changes.

as in 'chair' becomes 'share' & 'chicken' becomes 'shicken'.
[i just say my mexican is coming out]

another thing i've noticed is when it comes to eating, especially leftovers, B (the white guy) always makes a sandwich while i put everything in a tortilla. flour or corn (preferably yellow, white doesn't cut it), fried or heated on the flame.

yes, on a flame.
just like nana's does it.
or on the comal if you want to get REAL mexican.
but please don't f-it up & put it in the microwave.

oh, & how about this, i didn't even know there was a white version potato soup until i was in my early 20s! funny, it ties to last post as the vieja had potato soup one day & i remember saying something to her about it because it was white & she asked me:

"well, what color is it supposed to be?"

i only knew of the red tomato sauce based potato soup.

& finally, the teasing song. you know the song kids tease each other with right? i never thought much of it until i heard B say:

"nanny nanny boo boo"

& i was like 'wth was that?'
you're supposed to say:

'le-doh le-doh leeee-doooohhhhh'

the vieja (old lady)

i read an article the other day about bad bosses & although old boss was a ringer, no one will come close to 'the vieja'. [see how that ties into cinco de mayo? i've been saving this story. that's a lie, i'm not that good.]

alright, so we have to go way, way back, i was a mere 20 years old when i started working at the dirt place. it was my first real job; i had worked at a record shop, a dept store & for a 1 person tax prep office, but this was real grown up stuff.

i still remember in the interview her telling me "it was a family environment".
[i was too naive to realize she meant f-ing dysfunctional beyond belief.]

she was the OFFICIAL WORD PROCESSOR for the office. i was hired as an admin. assist & she showed me the ropes. officially she wasn't my boss, but she made my life hell for many years. the office manager was kinda spineless; he was the "just let things work themselves out" type of guy & did his best to ignore our fights altercations. i can't even guess at how many times she made me cry at work. we would get in the worst arguments & shouting matches. to this day i still remember the dream i had where i had her on the ground & i was choking her. serious dislike.

- when she would talk to other people, she would refer to me as "her little helper", like i was an elf in her workshop.

- i did the filing for the office & whenever she found something mis-filed instead of just putting it back in the "to be filed" spot she would write on the document "this was found in file 400235". you can go to that report to this day & see her note.

- one time i stayed 1/2 hour OT to work on something that was going to be a rush in the morning. the next day she told me i had to leave early so i wouldn't get paid the OT. however she would stay late to organize paper in the recycle box & her pay was 3x mine.

- whenever she was out of the office i had to do her OFFICIAL TYPING & when she would return, she would print out everything i touched & mark down all the mistakes i made in red pen. [how about a f-ing thank you?]

- i wasn't allowed to go out to lunch with our co-workers. she would specifically take lunch the same time they did so i would have to stay & answer the phones while she ate.

- she started a rumor that i was having an affair with a married co-worker. our corporate HQ conducted an investigation because of it. [for the record, we were just friends, he was happily married & i was not attracted to him in the slightest bit.]

catch up

there's a few things to catch up on from last week, so here we go:

- found out last mon (remember the fire?), well there was an actual fire drill planned for that day. ironic, huh? so when the alarm sounded, the principal was like "isn't that a bit early?"
Z's just ahead of the game...I guess he is like me, why procrastinate?

- thurs pm we went out to celebrate C's engagement. C's from old job, it was nice to see those friends, probably the last time i will before we move away. old boss was there & it was rather funny that B noticed his un-friendliness. yup, that's old boss alright. C & fiancee may come to the beach with us, that would be nice.

made it

Z made it through the rest of the week with happy faces & 3 stickers each day.

THANK GOODNESS!

beatings are hereby postponed until further notice; the right to resinstitute beatings may occur at any point in time deemed necessary.

now only a few more weeks left of school.

well, i can't say he doesn't help with laundry anymore

today i finally got a chance to go through Z's dresser & move stuff around for the season change. i also go through everything & put the clothing that's looking rough in the give away pile.

lately we've had Z put his own clothes away, so his drawers were a disaster. no rhyme, no reason, no order. i expected some mix up between shorts/pants & short/long sleeve shirts, but it was chaos. in one drawer i even found chonies & jammies which belong in another dresser.

then i found one of my shirts in the mix.

that's what happens when you let Poppa help with laundry.