Lazy day Saturdays

Today I just feel like being lazy. Just hanging out in my Pjs with a hot cup of tea and a good book (BTW I'm reading The Lovely Bones, so far very interesting). Alas I cannot be so lazy.

I have a bunch of things to do. Plus it is just way to cold to lazy around comfortably.

Our apartment doesn't like to have functioning heat until October-ish. I complained several times directly to management about it last year to no avail.

So today I will make myself a to-do list and see what I can accomplish.

Today I need to do:
Dishes
Tidy the living room/dining room
Take care of the pile of boxes in my bedroom before they fall over.
Put away some clean laundry
Clean kitty box

Today I should also do:
Gather the laundry for washing
Scrub down my tub and toilet
Pack at least 2 boxes worth of stuff up

What I'll probably do and forgo the rest of my list:
Finish Philip's new CARS outfit for Monday
Make a shirt I've been eyeballing for my unborn nephew. (Can't wait to snuggle his squishy face, December can't come fast enough)

So that's today's game plan. Matt's at work this morning then he's going to work on our house. Time is rapidly running out on that major project as we have to be out of this apartment in about a month and a half. My mother in law is supposed to take the boys but after the fight they had this morning I don't know if I still want to give them the treat of spending time at Grandma's. They woke me up this morning screaming and yelling at each other and before I could get out of bed they were both crying. Philip was crying because Nicolas bit him right under his armpit and Nicolas was in tears because Philip punched him as retribution. Definitely not how I wanted to start my Saturday morning but such is life with 2 little boys. Apparently the fight started over the fingerpaints which they weren't supposed to have anyways. So they both got time outs and I know SuperNanny would freak but I doubled the time for the double offense of fighting/hitting/biting and for getting into the fingerpaints. Then I sent them back to bed because they were clearly tired and didn't get enough sleep to start fighting right in the morning. They didn't actually go back to sleep but they did calm down and recenter themselves. After apologies, hugs and I love you's were enchanged they played together nicely but they're still a little bratty today. Chalk it up to a really long week I guess.

Tomorrow I'm hoping Matt doesn't have to work so I can have the car. I know he'll be busy at the house but that's fine. I know once we're in there we'll have lots of time together so I can spare him for now. I just want the car to take the little ones to Strong National Museum of Play. Our membership expires at the end of October and while we have definatly gotten our money's worth out of it I'd like to still go a couple times more since we won't be renewing it. At least until the new year when things begin to settle down. With Philip in school and me not having a car during the day we don't get as much use out of it anymore anyways. Plus after 2 years of going at least once a month and sometimes as much as once a week I'm kinda bored with the place.

Well suppose I should get up and start my list of things to do today. I suppose I should start motivating myself by finding some good music and getting dressed.

Chaos Perseveres.

Chaos...such is my life. It's a'righ. I've learned to deal with it.

So what kind of chaos has been going on??? Well Philip turned 5. Big deal big deal. We had a good time celebrating his birthday by taking him out to buy his first real bike, even though it has training wheels it is a big boy bike and it's in his favorite color, green. After we purchased that we took him to the play ground where they have a nice paved wide path all along all four sides of the soccer field so he rode around in big circles as fast as his little legs could peddle.

We stayed at the playground just about all day then went home to dinner, movies, tons of stories and bed.

The next day was his birthday party and I feel wretched about it but I only got a handful of pictures and lousy ones at that. It was a simple party, a bunch of friends and family. Snacks, pizza, cake. Bubbles to play with, kites to fly, a slip 'n' slide for the big kids, a kiddie pool for the "babies". A good time was had by all. Philip was super excited he got to invite not only his lifelong family friends but his preschool classmates as well and 2 of his favorite friends actually made it to the party. He had a blast. My mother in law and I worked it out that Matt and I would buy the bike for Philip and she'd get him his helmet and pads. The helmet she had bought him included a bell for his bike so of course that was attached ASAP and the bike is his new favorite toy. Philip turning 5 was a big deal and sorta emotional for me. It signifies him leaving his baby/toddlerhood and becoming a big boy. A child. In a physical way he's no longer my baby. What slammed that message home was the first day of kindergarten....

This amazing little boy is old enough for kindergarten. He was really excited about it. Has been looking forwards to it all summer. The moment was kinda dampened by the fact that his "home school" is responsible for transporting him to RSD and even though I worked it out when we had the last IEP meeting somehow the address changed to the apartment 2 years ago never went through to the transportation office.

Philip gets on the bus insanely (to me anyways) early at 7 am. This lack of communication between the IEP board and transportation department resulted in the bus needing to pick him up at the house where we lived 2 years ago (this is the house we are remodeling and moving into in a month and a half, confused yet lol). Philip being picked up at the house meant I had to get him up at 5:45 in the morning to get him bathed, dressed, fed, hair styled and at the house by 7 am. I don't have a car during the day. Matt takes our family car to work at 5:30 every morning. He works on the far side of Webster in what is really 315 area. It takes him 45 minutes to get to work. Needless to say I'm not dropping him off at work just so I can have the car to go 3 miles to the house. I arraigned it with my mother to come get us and bring us to the house.

He picked his own clothes for school that morning. A Mickey Mouse short sleeved, cotton shirt (which by the way I made :p ) and denim shorts. I don't think it got above 65 that day and once I realized that it really was that cold and it wasn't just because I was in my shorts and tank top PJs we were already at the house and it was too late to go back to the apartment and get something different. Poor kid was freezing waiting for the bus. Luckily mom had a jacket in her car so it wasn't too bad but I did feel awful that he had to go through his entire day being cold. Now I check the weather first before getting him dress. Thank goodness I learned that lesson before winter hit.

He was so super excited seeing the big yellow bus pull up. He couldn't wait to get on it. I had to pull him back for my hug and kiss good bye. He simply started walking up to the bus, throwing a "bye mom" shout over his shoulder. No fear on this kid. He got on the big yellow big kids bus where there were already big kids waiting for him.

He did pause long enough to turn around and say "I love you" before the bus carried him on his first step towards adulthood and total independence.

The frustrating part of the day came later in the afternoon.

Matt came home in time to see Philip get off the bus. Came straight to the house to see our little man. I had walked up there with Nicky to make sure someone was able to get my precious guy. The time the bus garage said would be dropping him off came....and went. I understand the bus would be a few minutes early or late depending on outside circumstances like...oh I don't know, it being the first day of school maybe? But when he was 15 minutes late and still no sign of that damned bus I got worried. So I called the transportation office.

The woman I spoke to said the change of address I put in finally went through and he was being dropped off at the apartment. I got pissed. I told the woman, clearly angry but calm and polite, that the person I changed the address with promised someone would call me with the new time and the confirmation. She responds with "well I can call the driver and see if she's already dropped him off." My reply "dropped him off? By himself?" Her: "Yes she might have dropped him off at that address, I can call and get back to you." Me...shrieking: "HE'S FIVE YEARS OLD!" Her: "Oh. Well yes, you said kindergartener. Well he should be getting dropped off at the apartment." So now I'm royally pissed, I jump in the car with Matt and Nick and we fly, speeding the whole way to the apartment to get our son. As we pull up to the light right before we get to the complex the transportation woman calls me back to tell me my son's bus is minutes away from the street the house is on and will be dropped off momentarily. Now I'm super pissed because we've got to turn around and speed back to get him.

We get there to find the bus waiting for us. Poor Philip was being very patient.

Just hanging out on the bus waiting to grace us with a smile and a wave when we finally do arrive. Oh I've never been more happy to see him.

I've had words with the transportation department and now he is being picked up and dropped off at the apartment, at least until we move back into the house at the end of october. Fun fun for me. All that just to change it back later. The important thing is everything got straightened out and on the second day of school Philip was dressed appropriately and the bus picked him up and dropped him off at the apartment.

He loves kindergarten. Loves his new teacher and his new classroom. Loves the new freedom like being able to play on the playground between the bus dropping him off and the start of class, also loves being able to have a recess after lunch. He loves that he's learning to really write. He won't tell me anything else about kindergarten but I'm sure he will someday.

On a side note....guess who's potty trained!?!?

Eye for an eye and the whole world is blind

Ordinarily I hate proclaiming to the world my views on religion but as this is my blog I’ll make an exception for myself.

I just read a Newsweek article in a waiting room that really pissed me off.
Yes I understand that there are a lot of terrorist attacks by people of Muslim or Islamic beliefs and yes the attacks make me extremely angry but since when are Christians so squeaky clean and pure that they can point the finger like that?!?! Hello!!! Witch hunts? The crusades??? How many innocent people have been killed by Christians due to their religious differences? How dare we say that a mosque can't be built where we would allow a church? How dare we say that Christianity is better than any other faith? What happened to religious freedom?

I am so pissed at all these people who act like their shit don't stink, that their religion is better than others. Who is walking this earth that has met God to say "yes God wants us to worship him this way". Every single major belief system believes that their faith is the "one true faith". You wanna know something...in the Bible itself it says that the Jews are God's chosen people. So even Christians can't say that theirs is the one true faith. Yes there are many many similarities between Christians and Jews and Christianity began with Judaism but the Jewish faith has a completely different set of rules beyond the 10 commandments. So if they are the chosen people and Christians don't follow even most of their rules does that make the Christians damned?

I was raised to be a Christian. There was no other faith in our household but that of the Lutheran church and Lutherans like many others believe that a man we now call Jesus came to Earth because of the miracle of his birth by a virgin woman. This man who was a Jew was born and raised according to the Jewish traditions and beliefs. He was loved by his mother and step father and I’m sure many others of his time. As an adult he went around preaching and leading by example how to love and care for each other. How to love your fellow humans damn near unconditionally. He loved all, the poor, the wealthy, the sick, the elderly, the prostitute and the house wife. He loved the tax collector and the tax payer. A whole religion was founded upon the teachings and lifestyles of this loving, caring, compassionate man. And now his followers condemn others. A man who preached love and forgiveness, I believe, would cry tears of bitter grief for all the hatred his followers now spew without a second thought.

In the name of this holy man, the son of God himself, who died a brutal painful death on a cross to prove God’s love and devotion to us imperfect humans we go around condemning others, slaughtering others, and just being the exact and total opposite of everything Jesus would want us to be.

Aside from what Jesus taught his followers and what Christians believe, we are Americans. A country founded because a bunch of people decided that they didn’t want to be persecuted for their religious beliefs risked life and limb to sail on a boat over to an unfamiliar and dangerous new land for freedom. In 1886 we accepted a gift from France that was inspired by the Roman Goddess Libertas, a goddess of freedom. A gift that has become the ultimate icon of America: The Statue of Liberty. This is the poem inscribed and placed on the base of our beautiful lady of freedom:

The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Emma Lazarus, 1883

Every single schoolchild in this country knows at least the phrase: "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,”
Notice nowhere in this poem does it say “But only if you are a Christian”, it does not say “Except if you are Muslim” or Jewish or Japanese or Irish or Italian or Mexican or black or a woman or gay or any other of the countless people that the people of this beautiful country has decided is unworthy of our rights and freedoms.
So they want to build a mosque in Manhattan, so it happens to be near Ground Zero. Would the people of this country be up in arms if it was a Catholic cathedral? What if it was synagogue for the members of the Jewish community? Would you protest then? Would there be countless articles in magazines and on the internet if this were a YMCA? Would you post on your Facebook how wrong this is if it were an African-American Baptist church?

Here’s a better question for you…would you even care if a group of people decided to build a Shinto or Buddhist temple at Pearl Harbor? Or if an anti-Semitism group decided to gather for weekly meetings in Pearl Harbor? Would you care then or was the bombing on Pearl Harbor too long ago for you? When is the cutoff date for hate? Is it 9 years? Maybe 15? How about 30 or 50 or 100? When you reach the gates of heaven and Saint Peter asks your name can you enter the pearly gates saying you lived a life God and Jesus would approve of? Or will Peter turn you away for being like the fallen angel Lucifer in your blind hate?

Is a mosque near Ground Zero really so wrong or do you just need a reason to spew the nastiest part of your soul without fear of repercussion?