me moments | The Angel Forever

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Finding time to read

Posted on November 18, 2008 9:16 am by TheAngelForever

Now that the cooler weather is here reading just seem like a better choice to do at night before bed. It is harder to curl up under a blanket to knit items like these that I sent off as part of my bloggy giveaway earlier this month.

No matter what you do, bamboo knitting needles and heavy blankets just do not mix. Sure, I could bring my laptop into bed and do some blogging. Still the laptop is not easy to maneuver and type with when hidden under a mountain of blankets to keep warm.

There is just something about snuggling up under a blanket and reading a great book at night when the weather is cold. Last week I read Mia King’s novel called Sweet Life. The story starts off in NYC and is about a couple that moves to Hawaii. Sounds wonderful to me now that the daytime high is only going to reach 30 degrees most days. The main character quickly finds that paradise is not an automatic thing, even in Hawaii. Marissa Price (the main character) and her husband struggle with the changes in their life and marriage. With great woman friends supporting her, Marissa is able to settle into life in paradise and eventually fix items in her personal life as well. I really enjoyed the cast of characters in this novel. King does a fabulous job establishing them quickly into the life of Marissa Price.

Thanks to the bloggy world I heard about this wonderful book from many different people and went to get a copy to read. I enjoyed it so much that I went out to get King’s first novel Good Things. I hope to snuggle up under my blanket tonight to get started on this soon.

What books are you reading right now? I could always use more suggestions for this long winter that is ahead of us. Happy reading!

Categories:
books knitting me moments NaBloPoMo winter

Look into my eyes

Posted on November 15, 2008 5:51 pm by TheAngelForever

As a former teacher, I know it is never good when the school nurse has to send home a letter to parents. Thursday afternoon we received our first one home this year with the kindergarten kid. The note that NHL had in his backpack was telling parents that the room had a large number of cases of pinkeye. I called the nurse to ask about it. I was concerned since NHL had pinkeye less than a month ago and it was what started the illness that ended up with JSL in the hospital for four days in February. According to the nurse, several kids had come to school only to be sent home with it, and others were coming in with antibiotics on their own.

Care to guess what happened to me when I woke up Friday morning?

Sure enough when I tried to open my right eye is was all crusted over and did not want to open. Ugh! I wanted to wait and see what was going to happen. Since the weekend was coming and I did not want to get stuck going to Urgent Care, I called our doctors office. I left a message that I had been helping in my son’s kindergarten class where an outbreak of pinkeye was going on and I had it.

I stayed in waiting for the call all Friday morning and early afternoon. Sure enough they called 10 minutes after I left to get NHL from school. They called in a tube of ointment for me (not thrilled about it, but it is better than nothing). I opted not to pick it up yesterday just in case I was rushing into this. Here is my eye as it looked earlier this morning.

After a nap this morning with JSL I got dressed and went to the pharmacy for my ointment, clearly it was time. For some reason I am quite susceptable to pinkeye, no matter how careful I am washing my hands. Hopefully I can keep this to myself like NHL did a few weeks back.

Remember, you can not catch pinkeye from just looking at this photo!

Categories:
doctor me moments NaBloPoMo nasty things photos school sickness weekend

G’day Mate (Aloha 22)

Posted on November 14, 2008 8:37 am by TheAngelForever

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the Mr. Linky there if you are participating.

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My question for this week:

Where is your dream vacation destination and why do you want to go there?

I love Disney World, but as much as I enjoy going there it is not my "dream" destination. One day I would love to go to Australia. For as long as I can remember I have been mesmerized by photos of Sydney, parts of the Outback, and The Australia Zoo. I credit a lot of my fascination of Australia to my late cockatoo Moose and of course the late Steve Irwin (the Crocodile Hunter). Watching episode of The Crocodile Hunter on Animal Planet I saw the wildlife, scenery and wonder of Australia and secretly hoped to get there one day. Of course one of the major factors stopping me (aside from money) is the flight that would take nearly an entire day to get there. For now this girl will dream of one day stepping foot into Australia to see cockatoos flying wild and visit the wonderful home land of Steve Irwin.

Categories:
Aloha Friday animals dreams me moments NaBloPoMo video

Ponderings of a PTA Parent

Posted on November 13, 2008 9:08 am by TheAngelForever

It is official, I finally went to my first PTA meeting last night. Something came up in September and the second one was the evening that Yom Kippur started, so I did not attend those.The boys all stayed at home and I set off on my adventure ALONE. Imagine that . . . I actually managed to break away from all three of the boys!

I am not too sure what I was expecting, but it was different. Not different bad, just different. The meeting was very casual and there were about 15 parents there, one teacher and the principal. I suppose this is the beauty of a small school in a very large district. Still I felt like an outsider. I think participating more and going to meetings will help with that, yet I am not entirely sure if I want to.

After just over a year of being a stay at home mom I found that something is missing, my identity. I seem to have become NHL and JSL’s mommy. Everyone at NHL’s school calls me "NHL’s Mom" – not my name. His teacher calls me Mrs. AngelForever, rather than my first name. Sure that is technically my name, but I think of it as more of my mother-in-law. In the classroom when I was teaching I was fine with my students using it, but this is not in that setting. I love being a wife and mommy, but I also need to know who I am now that I am home and no longer teaching. I was always upset that I never stayed home with NHL when I was teaching, I missed so much that I will never get back. As hard as it is sometimes I am glad I am home with both of my boys to see them grow up.

My plan was to get a part time job to earn some extra money and get some contact with other people. The trouble is timing. By the time JL gets home from work it is pretty late. In addition to this we had to factor the time gone, money earned, and gas purchased to get to a location. In most cases it was not worth the effort and lack of family time in the evening. I would love to tutor kids in science, reading or anything else, but that is a hard area to break into.

Blogging is great, but I need actual contact with real people before possibly going to Blogher 2009 in Chicago next summer. What I think I want to do is at least get involved in an organization to volunteer and socalize with other people locally. There is something that I have in mind. It happens to be a cancer service organization that I remember my mother always being active in while growing up. Perhaps I can get her to go with me again and another friend who has relatives involved. Maybe putting this out there will actually make me move and do something.

Hopefully my need for a complete bathroom rehaul and the state of the economy will not dash the dream to attend my first BlogHer conference.

Categories:
decisions me moments my boys NaBloPoMo sahm travel vent

Down for the count

Posted on November 6, 2008 8:45 am by TheAngelForever

Yesterday it was my turn to have the stomach bug bite me. For those keeping tabs, that would be 2 of the 4 of us that have been hit and I fear for hubby and especially the little guy.

It really got a hold of me and does not want to let go. When I got up in the morning it was bad, but it was nothing compared to what came later. Later in the day a fever joined to add some fun. As the afternoon arrived I knew there was no way that I could drive to get the kindergarten kid from school. Driving while curled up in fetal position, shaking from chills, and burning up from a fever does not work. Thankfully the little guy was good and played nicely while I rested and my father saved the day. Papa was able to pick NHL up from school.

When hubby arrived home from work it was my cue to collapse on the bed. I barely moved most of the evening and only recall a few screams from the kids as they were unhappy with meal choices from Dad. At 10:00 my temperature was 101.5 and I managed to get some more ibuprofen to lull me back to sleep.

This morning I am able to move around more than yesterday, but still feel like my batteries are completely drained. Clearly I will not be the Energizer Bunny today! Still, life as Mom must continue to move on. While attempting to eat something this morning hubby notified me that he had no dress shirts for work. I asked why he never said anything yesterday. Apparently he did, but I was a little preoccupied with not being volcanic like a certain kindergarten kid was on Sunday.

So any guess what I am attempting to do now?

Laundry of course! (please note the extreme sarcasm)

There is a wash in right now. With any luck, I will be able to finish it and possibly another, assuming I am not down for the count again later today.