Sesame Street

Now that NyCee is in the learning phase of her development, we watch Sesame Street every morning. I was so surprised to see the same actors: Maria, Bob, Lou, as when I was a kid. I will be 33 years old in August. How long have these people been on Sesame Street?

Nonetheless, it is still the best learning show to me. I don't like a lot of the new cartoons they have out today. One cartoon is about a grim reaper and there is nothing educational about it. Dora the explorer is a good learning tool but I don't like the underlying message of teaching the kids Spanish.

(You know it is time to get out of the house and interact with civilization when you begin analyzing cartoons. I have no social life.)

Drat!

Final Grades:
4 A's
2 B's: Anyone who knows me, knows that B's are unacceptable in my world.

Bright side:
One of the B's, was in Statistics. That is definately something to shout about.

Warped Thinking

In the movie "Toy Story", all the toys would come alive and talk to each other when the owner Andy was away. And then when he returned, all the toys would return to their normal toy state. I think NyCee's toys do the same.

These two got caught. HA! HA!

Birthday Boy

Today, Lewis celebrated his 38th birthday. He didn't want much of a fuss but in my family, we would not let the day go by without some sort of recognition.

This morning, the baby and I left to run a few errands such as finding a cake to help him celebrate the day. Well, this was the only cake I could find in a flavor that he would like:

Pefected Skill

Now, instead of sitting and removing all the clothes from the drawers and tossing them about--she picks them up and tosses them back into the drawer as if she is playing basket ball.

Go figure--it keeps her quiet and entertained.

Afternoon Showers

Today, NyCee and I decided to go to the pool. Yesterday, we attempted this but discovered that we needed a key for the gate. I have lived in my house for over one year and had never been to the pool. (Partly because I spent last summer in a funk.)

Well, after acquiring the key we walked over to the pool this afternoon. Lewis even joined us. As we were walking, our neighbor and his children began their stroll to the pool. We were not there 5 minutes when the sky opened and buckets of rain poured out of the clouds. We had to cut through yards to get home to avoid more of a downpour.

Of course, now, the sun has returned to the sky as if it never rained. Maybe we will try again tomorrow.

Father's Day Gift

What does a man get for father's day when his wife is an unemployed, student living on a budget?


Would the statement, "It was the thought that counts" work in this scenario?

(Forgive the grammatical error as the candy decorations did not come with an apostrophe to properly spell father's.)

Mission Accomplished

Finally, I have completed the thorough summer cleaning of my house. The floors have been swept, mopped and vacuumed respectively; refrigerator, stove and microwave, cleaned out; cabinets and pantry organized; closets—old clothes discarded and all others hung neatly with care; NyCee’s toys bagged and organized by pieces; carpets cleaned; laundry washed, dried, folded, and put away; CD’s categorized and alphabetized; bed linens washed and changed; all final exams completed; both 12 page papers with PowerPoint presentations submitted; trash cans washed out (done outside of course); blinds dusted; windows washed; boxes unpacked; and donated items taken to goodwill. WHEW!

But I didn’t do it all.


I had a little helper every step of the way.


And now we wait for the posting of the final grades and all the cleaning begins again on Monday.

Who needs it?

Hail: in June!

Last night, the sky opened and provided much needed liquid refreshment from the clouds. Along with it, came marble ball sized hail. It pelted the house.

At one point, the power went out for about 30-35 minutes. I told Lewis, who was walking around with his cell phone for light, to grab the camera so that I could capture the moment. As we were standing in the door debating whether it was hail or the rocks from in front of the house, a large lightening bolt cracked through the sky. I replied, "Okay Lord, we are going back in the house now!"

The ground was covered with hail to the point that it resembled a light blanket of snow.

WaHoo! It worked

May I present: (Drum roll please)NyCee putting herself to sleep. Applause, cheers, Yipee!

Since returning home, I have been working with her regarding her bed time which is now at 8:00p.m. and getting her to go to sleep without being rocked. The latter is not really her fault because she was breastfed as an infant and grew accustom to falling asleep in that manner. I sit next to her crib so that she can still see me and play a baby lullaby CD to help calm the mood. Sure enough, she drifted right off to sleep.

Now, I just have to get her to stay asleep in her bed all night. One challenge at a time is all I can do right now.

You know you are ghetto, extremely ghetto when...

You know you are extremely ghetto when you use a pair of pliers to change the settings on the washing machine--


for six months instead of simply replacing the knob which is in your possession.

Dinner Time Theatre: Starring NyCee Thompson

NyCee is gaining more independence everyday. The latest challenge has been to get her to eat with utensils. If I put the food on the fork and attempt to feed it to her, she shuts her lips tightly and refuses to open them. However, if I place the food on her tray table she will gladly eat it.

During dinner, she often entertains us with her antics of pulling her bib over her head and attempting to play peek-a-boo. Although she is playing peek-a-boo, she will let you know when she wants more food on her tray by pointing.

When she is done, she takes the bib off, raises her arms to be lifted out of the seat. And if you don't respond fast enough for her, she will attempt to get out of the chair on her own.


She is truly the star of her own show. I just wish she would use the utensils that I bought for her. I don't want people thinking I am raising a wild child.

Common Sense: When will I ever get some?

Not 24 hours ago, I had a conversation with my grandfather about how I lack common sense. Some people would take offense to that statement but not me because it is true. I can grasp the most complex ideals but have trouble with simplicity. Take this evening for example.

In less than 24 hours, I have to submit 1 of 2 twelve page papers. (As for the second one, I have not put word on page or done any research--that one is not due until Sunday at 1159 pm eastern time--I have plenty of time.) The one being referenced is due no later than 800pm eastern time on June 6, 2007 which is approximately 18 hours from the time of this blog entry and because I failed to save the file, I managed to delete all the contents of the paper that I had been working on for the past 5 hours.

Of course, that has not been 5 uninterrupted hours. Why would I have five uninterrupted hours when I have a 14 month old and a 37 year old running around the house playing, laughing, and chasing each other? Why would I save the file? Computers don't crash! Batteries to laptops don't die! 14 month olds do not want to sit on their mother's lap and help her type the paper and press keys that mother didn't want pressed! No! None of these things happen.

Well, even if these things did happen, had I used some of that "common sense" that my grandfather spoke about earlier today, I would not be starting my paper over from scratch.

He Got 'er Done!

After 1800 miles, 5 states (I didn't get pictures of New Mexico and Texas as I didn't think of this until I captured NyCee's photo at the Louisiana border) ,


and countless games of peek-a-boo,

we crossed the Alabama/Georgia border in record time.

Lewis did all the driving. In addition, to driving from Phoenix to Atlanta, while I was in Phoenix working, he kept NyCee and did not go stir crazy.

I worked Friday thru Monday and commuted back to Atlanta on Monday nights. He never complained about keeping NyCee. In fact, he suggested that she stayed with him so that I could get school work done when I got off work. He is truly an awesome husband and father! It was terribly hard being away from her four days a week. Although, I am NOT glad to be back in Atlanta, I am glad to be back home with my family.

"LJ, Why are you driving so fast?"

Lewis drove over 635 miles today covering the state of Texas. FYI--from the New Mexico/Texas boarder to the Texas/Louisiana boarder is 635 miles. (We noticed the exit when we left the state.) I offered to drive on several occasions but Lewis declined.

I woke up at one point and asked, " LJ, Why are you driving so fast?" LJ replied, "I am not doing 55mph. We will never get there." On several occasions, Lewis asked, "Can we hear some black music please?" I laughed and scrolled through the stations only to hear Winona Judd, Shania Twain, or LeAnn Rhimes. (Remember we are in Po'Dunk, TX.) I then connected the iPod and he was met by John Mayer, Pink, and No Doubt. No wonder he was driving so fast!

"What'cha Haulin'?"

Lewis, NyCee, & I left Phoenix, AZ this morning on our way back to Atlanta. My first thought was to chronicle our road trip but then I realized, not everyone appreciates the desert like I do and no one wants to see three days of blogs which displays scenery like this:

And again, just rock and catcus.

I grew bored. So I dished that idea.

My favorite part of the evening was when Lewis reached a border patrol stop in the middle of Po'dunk, TX (I don't know where we were exactly so I came up with that name.) The custom's agent stopped the car because he was driving a moving truck and pulling the Ford Explorer on an autotransport. (Sorry for the dark photo. It is just to enhance the story.)

The agent asked,"What'cha hauling?" Lewis replied, "Furniture and the truck." "Okay," replied the agent. And he let us go. I laughed at the question because it was ridiculous. What was Lewis suppose to say? "Oh, we are transporting 15 pounds of heroin, 6 pounds of crack, 8 pounds of meth, and for kicks we thought we would sneak a couple of illegal aliens across the New Mexico/Texas border to work in our sweatshop that we are opening in Atlanta."

Personally, I sleep better at night knowing that our borders are so closely guarded by stellar agents such as the one we encountered this afternoon. What a wonderful use of our tax dollars, eh?

Thought of the Day!

When you are in Phoenix, AZ and it is 102 degrees in the shade at 2:00 in the afternoon, and you have just left a resturant where you had your lunch boxed for later, and you decide to stop at the grocery store to pick up a few items, and that quick trip turned into a 30-45 minute expedition, and when you return to the car you are met with a horrific stench that nearly pours through the windows to the point of nausea---needless to say, it was not a good idea to leave my lunch in the car!