I love a man in uniform

Ok - I love that my five year old has to wear a uniform next year. I love the school we found for him. I don't love paying for school, though. He passed the 1st grade entrance test in two different schools; however, neither were public school. He was on the waiting list for the school closest to us, but we like the second school we found as much, if not more. This whole battle - and it has felt like war - is so ridiculous. I swore that I would never send my kids to private school. There is no need. Then I had a child who was born in November.

S completed kindergatern last year. He did really well. Public school wouldn't even look at him unless we put him in kindergarten again. I did my research to see what he needed to know, what social milestones he needed to hit before he could move to first grade. I had to ignore a ton of people who told me I was wrong. I was told to let him repeat kindergarten because he was a boy and he would be better in sports if I held him back. SPORTS? Really? What the fuck is that about? I don't give a shit about a sports career. I care about education. I will not base my son's life on possible sports issues. It's called priorities, people.

And in the interest of full disclosure, I have a December birthday. I was a full year older than my classmates and hated it. Wow - I could drive earlier than my friends. Guess what that means? I got to pay for the gas to drive them around. I was also taller than all my friends - almost a foot taller than some. Would that have been different if I was with kids my age? Maybe. Would the teachers have treated me as if I was a regular kid if I was with kids my age? I hated being last for everything - size place order was the rage at the time. And who knows, maybe I would have worked harder if I had been challenged in school. I came into kindergarten reading chapter books and it was a battle to get the teacher to allow me to read something more than baby books when we went to the library.

So am I letting my emotions help me make my decision? You're god damned right I am. It's the little things that you can't quantify that create your school life. It may mean I keep S in private school until he completes 5th grade. I think he will thrive at this school, as much as his sister is thriving at public school. My only issue with Trinks' school is there are ignorant fake Christians who won't be friends with her because she's not Christian. I guess they haven't found Jesus yet. Trinks is outgoing and doesn't get lost in a class of 25. S might. So we shall see where this trip into private school leads us.

So now I am off to spend my life savings on khakis and navy pants with light blue, navy and white (white - really?) polos. I am planning to avoid the urge to dress him in button down Oxfords, even though he looks adorable in them. The good news is I can get rid of most of his clothes now. He'll only have 2 days to wear non uniform clothes. How many things does he really need????

I walk alone

Yup - alone in a sea of 3,000 other people. And I know one person walking with her mother. She'll be the one in pink.

I'm talking about my 4th Breast Cancer 3 Day walk. My walking partner isn't able to walk with me this year and it's a bit too late to guilt someone into walking with me. Walking alone, while initially terrifying, is completely liberating. I don't have to tell anyone I have to pee - I can just go without worrying about annoying anyone. I can take a nap at lunch it I want to and not worry about holding anyone up. Neither of these things happened before, but I am trying to psych myself up for this. The best thing is I get to camp with the crazy people known as the crew. They work hard and are always smiling and helpful. My tentmate is a tent decorating queen and I look forward to getting a ribbon for the best decorated tent. I believe all I have to contribute are a few training bras and a flag. Can't wait to see what we get this year.

So in between psyching myself for the walk, I have been training. I'm happy that I started early this year because the humidity is killing my lungs. I can't walk when the air is thick because I can't breathe. Even with my inhaler, my lungs BURN! I was able to kick out a few walks while in RI, but I just couldn't do much more. This AM I was able to get 4 miles in before I go into work late. The air quality was near perfect and my lungs didn't burn. I'll drag my lazy ass out of bed to walk again tomorrow to take advantage of this rare event. I'm hoping we get the nice humidity-free air when we hit Galway in a few weeks. I like to do some nice, long walks when we're there. I know I can do the walking - I just need to get some good numbers up there before the event.

Am I being paranoid?

Trinks is really offended that I make her ride in a booster seat and she is 9 years old. She's also 87 pounds. Why do I force her to ride in a booster seat when all of her friends are out of one? (And for the record, she was rear facing for 15 months.) We went to the Da Vinci Science Museum last year when I was getting ready to remove the booster seat. One of the displays mentioned children should be in booster seats until they are 4'9". Trinks is now about 4'6". Since she's begging me, I spent some time researching the issue.

This link confirms the 4'9" recommendation. But I checked how the seatbelt hits Trinks when she is not in a booster seat and it does hit her shoulder. I admit I am not consistent with making her use a booster. For the ride to her after school program, she is not in a booster. She was actually in a hit and run accident (the third car accident she's been in) in that vehicle, but thankfully no one was hurt. So I guess I can't wrap her in bubble wrap for the rest of her life. If hubs ever wakes up, we can discuss what to do next.

My date with S

I love spending time alone with each child. Trinks was at a sleepover, and S is an early riser, so he and I went IHOP. Then we went to the park. We couldn't stay long because at 9AM it was already unbearably HOT.

Twilight I can appreciate

I think it’s no secret that I HATED the Twilight series after the first book. While reading the second book, I desperately wanted Bella to die a tortuous death. A co-worker talked me into reading the last 2 books and they were ok. But this has to be the funniest thing I have ever seen.

I was reading Jen Lancaster’s book Bright Lights, Big Ass in the café today. I just about choked several times to prevent myself from bursting into peals of laughter. People would have stared and talked about me. More than usual, I mean. I like this book more than the first book - Bitter is the New Black. It is funny as well. I just seem to like this more.

Seafood withdrawal

Yesterday we had a wonderful trip to Mystic CT on the way home. We missed all the traffic and the rain, plus it was a beautiful day. Trinks wore her new Peace, Love, Lobsters shirt. We finished the trip with a last seafood lunch. Trinks and I had amazing fish and chips. Hubs and his dad had a clam roll. My mother in law had a great looking lobster roll. I did manage to leave my purse there - a sure sign it's not time to go home. It was a sign that we should have stayed another week.

A nice beach day

All S wanted to do was go back to the "fake house" and play his DS. He did get me out in the ocean and we tumbled.


Rough surf today. And there was tons of seaweed.


Our awesome tent. If we went to the beach more, I would get one.

And a second set of glasses was broken

Trinks' new glasses have broken twice in the last two months. This time the screw fell out and none of us could fix it. I took her to Vision World down the street and begged for help. While there I noticed their special - 2 full pair of glasses for $99. With thoughts of camp, I had Trinks pick out 2 frames. Yesterday we picked them up. These are the old - and a great picture of Trinks' new nano.


These are the new. The other new pair is the same as the old, but they are purple. Hopefully we can get through a year with three pair.

S be nimble, S be quick

S jumps over boogie board.