Gwyneth's Loves

Getting to know you

2009-01-23T13:21:00.000-08:00

I'm bored, got this from a friends blog.

1. What is your occupation right now? Homemaker/Homeschooler.

2. What color are your socks right now? Not wearing any.

3. What are you listening to right now. Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss(movie)

4. What is the last thing you ate? A couple of saltines.

5. Can you drive a stick shift? No.

6. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Jason.

7. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Yes! She has a wonderful, inspiring blog.

8. How old are you today? 23

9. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? None.

10. What is your favorite drink? Sweetend ice tea. I'm not much of a alcohol drinker, but when I do drink I like straight up Vodka, double shot normally.

11. Have you ever dyed your hair? Yes, I put blonde streaks in it once but I hated that look. And, I dyed my hair a dark brownish red around the time I got pregnant with Pete, but it made me look washed out so I got rid of it after a few months.

12. Favorite food? Dark chocolate.

13. What is the last movie you watched? The mummy, last Saturday.

14. Favorite day of the year? Easter.

15. How do you vent anger? I take a long walk/drive while listening to my favorite "angry music".

16. What was your favorite toy as a child? My unicorns, and barbie's.

17. What is your favorite season? Spring.

18. Cherries or Blueberries? Blueberries. It's too much of a struggle to depit cherries.

~~19. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back?~~

20. Who is the most likely to respond?
~~21. Who is least likely to respond?~~

22. Living arrangements? 2bed/1bath/den apartment that we grew out of quite a while ago.

23. When was the last time you cried? Monday afternoon.

24. What is on the floor of your closet? Jason's clothes, and some shoes.

25. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending this to? Maggie.

26. What did you do last night? Cleaned, got kid's to bed, scrapped, and got to bed myself.

27. What are you most afraid of? The unknown.

28. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers? Cheese, please.

29. Favorite dog breed? Basset hounds.

30. Favorite day of the week? Friday.

31. How many states have you lived in? NY, NC, and VA.

32. Diamonds or pearls? Depends on the occasion, and the piece of jewelery.

33. What is your favorite flower? Lilacs, Lily of the valley, Casablanca Lillies

34. Favorite Hobby? Reading, driving, scrapping, crocheting. No particular order there.

35. Have you ever tried singing Karaoke? Not unless I was so drunk at the time that I don't remember it.

What we're reading this week

2009-01-19T05:12:00.000-08:00

Cath and I are reading "Charlotte's Web" at nighttime to get her used to chapter books with not too many pictures, and she is loving this book! I have been very surprised by how attentively she is listening to this book while I'm reading.

Both kid's are reading "Goodnight Moon" with me this week. We will be talking about the different phases of the moon, planets, clocks/telling time, memorizing "Hey diddle diddle", and reading "Goldilocks and the three bears" as a supplement.

Now for my reading list:
We can all use some help with our budget sometime, especially when trying to buy a house!

And here's the new picture if me:

Waiting....

2009-01-17T03:49:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to post all week, but I only really have one issue on my mind lately, getting a mortgage for a house. We have turned in all our needed info to the mortgage broker, and now we have a 2wk wait until we hear back from the lenders. And, apparently a VA Loan doesn't always mean a guaranteed mortgage like we thought, especially not in this economy! I feel so stupid for letting people know that we may be buying a house, now if we don't get the mortgage having to explain to them why we're all of a sudden not buying will be adding insult to injury. I'm tryting to stay positive, but am of course extremely nervous/anxious and driving everyone nuts with this issue.

We took a break this week. Everyone was sick at some point this week, and I wasn't feeling too motivated so we stayed home and did nothing all week. We'll get back into the swing of things sometime next week, probably after the holiday/inauguration mess is all done.

And, my last bit of news. my hair is now short again. I'm sure that comes as no suprise to most as I love short hair and I also change my hair at least a few times a year. Long hair bores me, and I've never looked that great with even medium/chin legth or so hair, so I may have to stick to just short for a while now. I love my hasirstyle now, pictures will come when Jason wakes as I'm horrid with cameras... my only issue with it is now I look identical to my dad! It's always something....

Car troubles...buying a house... shoes?

2009-01-06T18:18:00.000-08:00

We haven't heard back from our car insurance guy whether the man Jason grazed with the car will settle or sue, obviously we hope he will settle. Everyone is in agreement that he was in the wrong so if he decided to sue it really wouldn't amount to much more than a major annoyance, and those lovely legal fees. But, that wasn't the end of our car troubles last week, I ended up popping 2 tires while trying to avoid a pothole! Of course, even if I knew how to change a tire it wouldn't have helped me here since I only had 1 spare, albeit a full size spare not a donut. We had to be towed to the nearest car dealership, and bought 2 new tires and got the alignment checked out. The other 2 tires we'll replace next month, the downside of having a AWD car is when 1 tire goes they all must go, joy.

Our lease will finally be up at this horrid apartment in June, so we have decided to buy a house, finally!! I have been bugging Jason badly about this for a while and he's finally caved, we should be applying for a VA Loan in the next few days. Until then I'm having quite a bit of fun house hunting online while kid's nap, I already have a list of potential dream homes I bug Jason about quite frequently. I'm actually in shock that we can buy a single family home in Woodbridge/Manassas area for around $200-250,000, I never thought I'd see that!

Cath's shoe saga is finally over, she got new shoes over the weekend! As most of you probably remember she has held on to her favorite shoes for months now and refused any other shoes, shopping trips for shoes... Finally when my mom was here we took her shopping and I explained she must get new shoes because someone else needed her old shoes, she got extremely upset with me but reluctantly picked out a new pair when Jason bribed her with ice cream. Now she has a shiny new set of brown Mary Jane's with butterflies on them, and I'm seriously dreading having to relive this again 6mos or so from now.

Back from vacation

2008-12-30T17:03:00.000-08:00

We got back from our Disney vacation a few days ago, family is here for a few days but I'm so thankful the holiday season is coming to a close. The Disney trip was fun for everyone but really stressful, especially when you have 2 kiddo's with a intense hatred of long lines and minimal things young kid's can actually do. Now the family is here for a few days before going home, and we just celebrated our own "Christmas" today since we weren't here on the actual holiday.

As you can see I changed the background again, mainly to please the snow lover in the house, Catharina. She's waiting very impatiently for the real thing, I try to appease her with pictures, books and info on her current favorite animal penguins and that's working for now. We're in talks about putting Cath into either a ballet or gymnastics/tumbling class for exercise/socialization without mom/something to do in winter, but don't know which to go with. I would love for her to be in ballet, since she seems to have some interest in it, and since I so loved ballet when I was little... but the gymnastics/tumbling classes I've seen look right up her alley too, and they have some great programs, although some are rather costly. Any suggestions?

Pete is throwing himself into his love of trains/cars and will throw a major fit if anyone touches his new birthday stuff, don't you love the 2's. He's been getting entranced by the way his trains magnetically stick to their cars, so I'm thinking may'be getting some info on magnets? Other than that the only thing new with Pete is he has to see a Pediatric Urologist next week, to check on things "down there", and be sure that his previous surgery at 6mo took care of the Hypospadias and no more surgery is needed. Needless to say I'm on pins and needles about that, I just hope we won't have to go through that ordeal again.

We were in a car accident yesterday, Jason bumped into a pedestrian, who was not in the crosswalk, when we were leaving the Harris Teeter on Duke St. The man is fine, he only has some bad bruising to his legs, the kid's were with my mom and we are fine. But, of course this is bringing up a whole slew of troubles, even though we did everything right! Thankfully both the police and car insurance guys are in agreement that it wasn't our fault at all, but unfortunatley there were no witnesses and now the guy we hit is making up tall tales to milk us out of $$. The man we hit is saying that our car ran over his legs before we stopped!! How would it be possible for our SUV to run over this man's legs and only leave him with bad bruising, but not any broken/fractured bones? While I of course feel sympathy for the man, I must cry bullshit here. And, of course our insurance agent informed us that this matter may not be resolved for a year, may'be more.... This will make for a exciting year.

Uneventful week here....

2008-11-29T16:49:00.000-08:00

We didn't have a very eventful week here, and it felt nice! We had a very quiet Thanksgiving with no extra family members, no friends, no traveling... it was just the 4 of us and it was wonderful. The kiddo's hated the hand/foot print turkey craft idea I had, and we meant to make turkey hats but the hats I got were too big, ugh.

This week we hope to work on ornaments for the tree, as we have decided that we will only adorn the tree with either handmade ornaments or one's given by friends. We're trying to keep things as simple as possible before our trip in Dec.

I am trying my hand at scrapbooking, and I really like it! So, hopefully you will be seeing my latest creations. On that note, I have to run to Michael's to get some adhesive, because the Scotch brand double sided scrapbooking tape really sucks!!

Updates...

2008-11-21T18:42:00.000-08:00

Updates aren't going to be happening on a daily basis here, so don't get your hopes up. We're not that interesting, and I either don't have the time or don't have the motivation to update all the time. I do plan on updating this blog at least 2-3x/week, and I'll try to include a picture or some other juicy details.

No new signature, or header yet as Jason is still helping me making them but is dragging his feet. I will give you pictures today though. I have pictures of "turkeys" the kid's made, and a photo of their new haircuts. In the future I probably will just post photos of completed projects sans kid's as I dislike putting pictures of my kid's on the web for everyone to view for security purposes, thanks mom.

I'm back

2008-11-19T18:23:00.000-08:00

After a bit of a break I've decided to resume my blogging here once more. I've been trying lots of new things to lift me out of this depression I've been in for the past few months, it's been a really hard year but I just have to hope things will get better. So, I've started updating and personalizing this blog, and with Jason's help I hope to have a custom header and signature by tomorrow. I'm getting out of The Mom's Club which feels freeing, I'm going to try my hand at scrapbooking, and my new goal is just to make life simpler.

Catharina is obsessed with everything ABC's currently, which is resulting in her knowing almost all of her sight letters. We are doing some basic potty stuff which she is actually receptive to, may'be she'll be trained by 4 I can only hope. Jason is taking charge of art here as Cath has decided that I am too boring to be a art teacher... I just get the fun of cleaning up the creations *whoopie*. Jason is also teaching Cath how to use the computer mouse to play games online, this mostly ties in to her ABC obsession. Cath has decided she loves drawing lately... on the walls... I figured out recently that she prefers ro stand up when drawing/painting rather than sit down, so one of her presents for Christmas is a art easel. And, on a final note for Cath, she finally got her hair cut! She and I have been tired of taking care of her long hair for quite some time so last weekend I asked her if she wanted it cut and she said yes, now it's just below her ears and very cute. We are donating her 12in ponytail to Locks of Love.

Peter, my baby, will be 2 on Dec. 13th, and I am so sad. Pete has really gotten into Thomas the tank engine, and trains, I have no idea where it came from as we never watch that at our place. He talks more now, although only 50% is audible to others, and he is joining Cath on her potty training, at his request. Again, to end on a hair note, Pete got a mohawk! It looks really cute, although being the amateurs we are the lines aren't straight so it looks much better spiked than not.

Kumon Workbooks

2008-09-06T17:55:00.000-07:00

We've recently rediscovered the wonders that are Kumon workbooks! I tried them about a year ago with Cath and there was no interest, and we've tried mountains of other workbooks with the same results. I recently decided to give workbooks another try since Cath needs to work on things like letter recognition, pre-writing skills/tracing, and other fine motor stuff.. and we decided to try Kumon, because everyone seems to rave about it. We got a bunch of Kumon workbooks at Target, and have been working mainly on coloring and pasteing over the last few days, and I'm suprised to say that Cath loves these workbooks! She and I both love the colorful pages, how they start off very simple and increasingly get harder, they're not "too" long, they seem more fun than academic.. Cath has showed some interest in the Uppercase letters workbook I got her and is getting better at guessing which letter I'm showing her, but still not much interest in tracing it. And, we gave the Cutting workbook a shot but Cath got really frustrated when I told her that she shouldn't operate the scissors with 2 hands, and that ended the lesson real quick.

This week we'll be reading "The Big Green Pocketbook" by Candice Ransom, it was about time we started actually "doing something again". I plan on helping Cath to make a lapbook for this book, and I hope to record some of this adventure and share it all with you. I just hope Cath is cooperative when I'm taking pictures, I normally can't make her hold still for more than a minute. Peter, if you're reading this I'm sure you know what I'm talking about;)

This is me, take it or leave it...

2008-09-02T18:19:00.000-07:00

I am so sick of kissing up to people and playing nice just to be snubbed by them at the first possible opportunity, or to hear those whispers about "how weird she is". So, I'm done with trying to please people!!! This is who I am what you see is what you get, if you don't like it then good for you go get a cookie and cry about it for all I care.

I know I'm young, I'm "so liberal she should be a Communist", a hippie, not one of those "perfect mom's", my kid's actually have tantrums in public *oh the horror*, I'm "weird" and "ruining her kid's life" because there's no Santa/Easter Bunny/Tooth Fairy/figment of somebody's imagination here. Yes, Pete still co-sleeps and wakes up in the middle of the night, yes I'm still nursing, yes it's still considered "normal" for all this to be going on. No, Cath is still not potty trained, she shows no interest in handwriting so we're not going there, and there is nothing wrong with her because she doesn't like crowds and has breakdowns in public she's just a introverted child.

There, I think all the major issues are on the table. So, if you get offended easily, don't like what you've read thus far, completely disagree with my views, or whatever you're excuse is you know where the door is and trust me I won't be shedding a tear over that departure.

So, for those sticking with me, I've started to personalize this thing. It's still obviously in the beginning stages, but something is better than nothing. Yes, I actually put up a picture and there may be more to come, at least of the kid's. I have come to terms with the fact that I'm completely un-photogenic, the camera and I are not friends, so I will not be posting pictures of myself much.

We're Home!

2008-08-25T17:29:00.000-07:00

We made it back, now it's time for the fun to begin again! I'm suprising myself by admitting that we actually had a wonderful trip with almost no major bumps, for once. It was so relaxing to be away from the city, the river and all its wonders has always worked some sort of magic calming on me, and I think its rubbed off on the kiddo's too. We had such a wonderful visit that when Jason came up for the weekend to bring us back we were actually talking of may'be moving back to NY after he finishes getting his degree, which is something we swore we'd never do. I guess as much as I hate to admit it I am a small town girl who wants to live close to her family, I'm not suited to live in this or any city, I yearn for a simpler life with less stress. Why is it that the older I get the more of a hypocrite I find myself becoming?

Cath is really blossoming now, she seems to be growing out of her shyness although I suspect that like me she will always be shy to a degree, she talks more especially outside her comfort zones, and we're making headway on verbalizing our emotions when she gets upset instead of just yelling. Pete isn't really doing anything new I can think of, except looking less like my baby everyday, especially nowadays since he's sporting a faux-hawk. The schooling is on hiatus right now because life is too busy and we need some cool down time before adding another thing to our schedule, I plan to start up again in a week or two, after we recover from MIL's expected visit this weekend.

The "blah's"

2008-07-24T18:26:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling kinda "blah", I guess is the word to describe it, about things lately. I swear I'll figure out sometime how to get pictures up and personalize this blog, but then I've never been good about journals so this shouldn't be any better. And, the kid's broke my glasses today, I don't have another pair, I don't have contacts anymore, I don't have a current prescription nor the money to get new one's at the moment either! So, how am I walking around without bumping into things? Well, Jason hot glued my glasses back together (they broke at the bridge of the nose), yeah I'm not showing my face in public until we come up with a better solution for this.

Enough about me, now onto the kiddo's. Cath is loving Goodnight Moon this week, she's even answering most questions I ask about the book! Our second attempt at lapbooking is going well, although I'm still doing most of the legwork Cath is helping which is encouraging. Pete is happy and recovering well from his Corneal Abrasion last week, only thing new with him is the fact that we called PCC today because he ate some Pepto Bismol Jason left out. That child will be the end of me, he's too much like Jason for his own good.

Crayons anyone? How about paint?

2008-07-09T18:40:00.000-07:00

I don't know what has gotten into Cath but all of a sudden she's interested in art! It started early last week with a intense interest in coloring. Now, she has been bringing me her crayons and a coloring book and announcing she needs to color, and she's been doing this 3-4x daily!! While I'm very excited about this I have to ask, did I miss something here?!

I realized over the weekend that we really haven't given the kid's a lot of access to paint, so off to the store we went. First for the hand paint, that was a hit with Pete, but Cath wanted to use a paintbrush. Next, lets try the oil based paint! Oil based paint is a hit with Cath, but Pete just wants to dip the brush in the paint and eat it. Now we have something for everyone.

Showing Off

2008-07-03T18:15:00.000-07:00

Ever feel like you have to show off all your child's abilities just to prove that you're actually doing something with them and not just setting them in front of the tube all day? Why is it that our parents are most often the one's with which whom make us feel this way? Ok, enough with the rhetorical questions on my part.

Anyways, I'm putting together little 4th of July projects for the kid's to work on and send to the grandma's to prove we're actually "doing something". They already think I'm just homeschooling to "keep on baby-ing them", I can only imagine the talks I'll be subject to once they find out the kid's aren't going to Kindergarten much less Elementary school.

Oh well, I've always been seen as the "slightly off" one in the family, I guess this is my way of staying true to form.

Feeling out of place

2008-06-26T18:57:00.000-07:00

About a month and a half ago Jason, me, and the kid's went up to visit some friends in PA and I have felt very conflicted about our living situation since. The area of PA we visited was about 1hr outside of Philadelphia, it reminded me of where I grew up in NY except a great deal nicer, it also brought back nostalgic memories of my grandparents who lived near there. Visiting our friends reminded me of what it was like not to live in the city but instead to live a comfortable distance outside it, and it was wonderful!! I felt so relaxed and at ease when I was up there, for once I didn't feel like I had to impress some snobbish city mom who has everything and more for her kid. On the way home both Jason and I said if we could we'd pack up and move straight away, unfortunately Jason's job is tying us down here for at least another 3yrs, what a depressing thought!

I've come to realize how much I despise city life. I can't stand all the snobbish people, traffic is horrendous, coming home to a shoebox of a apartment certainly isn't thrilling, wondering if we'll ever afford a nice home. Everything here really depresses me! Just thinking about it makes me want to tear up, and those few who know me well know how much it takes for me to not only get to that point but more importantly admit it.

I feel so lonely and out of place here, I can't stand it. I feel like I have no real friends here, with the exception of 1 person who knows who she is. Everyone here really lacks substance, and are so fake it makes me want to scream. How am I supposed to survive these next years without losing it?

My pity party is over now.

Small Victories

2008-05-11T10:13:00.000-07:00

I finally have worn Jason down!! He has agreed to take our homeschooling year by year and just see how things go. We will reserve the option to put the kid's in public school if things aren't working out, that was my compromise. But, this is a big change in attitude that I'm extremely happy about! Before Jason would only agree to homeschooling up until Kindergarten, and after that he wouldn't even discuss the issue with me. Finally, after many discussions I sat him down and explained to him my whole plan for homeschooling, which is basically a mix of unschooling and unit studies(FIAR), he likes my plan but would like for me to get my curriculum overlooked by a Kindergarten teacher to make sure I'm not missing anything, and that I'll agree to. So we finally reached a compromise, this is a great Mother's day gift!

I also have figured out part of the reason Cath dislikes art, it's more a matter of ability than interest here. I figured out that she disliked coloring because she's been holding her crayons incorrectly, so we're working on that. And, I've noticed with some of our other art projects I think she's a little behind in Small Motor Development which would explain the reluctance with art. We have some things to work on but fortunately it's nothing big, she just needs a little fine tuning in certain areas. There may be a light at the end of this artist's tunnel!

Yay for small victories!!

Pediatrician's are driving me insane

2008-03-26T18:51:00.000-07:00

First a little background before I explain our current situation here... Last week we had Pete's 15mo & Cath's 3yr Pediatric appt. with a intolerable pediatrician who shall go unnamed at this time. This pediatrician and I do not have a good track record considering she diagnosed Pete with a ear infection when he actually had all the signs and symptoms of Influenza Type A, and I had to literally stop her from writing me the prescription for his "ear infection" and demand she test him for the flu before dismissing us. Guess what Pete ended up having, you guessed it Influenza Type A.

Back to last week now, I asked the ped. to give us a referral to a Pediatric Hematologist so we can be 100% sure she did not inherit Jason's blood disorder. Even after both Jason and I carefully explained the whole situation to her the ped. could not understand why we would want to get Cath tested! Fortunately she did agree to the referral, but we never got it at that visit because she needed to ask her colleagues if we really needed this referral. Well, we got the referral today but there's a small problem... The stupid ped. never mentioned that Cath would need bloodwork drawn to be sent to the Pediatric Hematologist to review before we could even make the appointment!!! So now we get to visit the ped. office for the bloodwork on Tues., wait a few days then call and try to make the appt with the Pediatric Hematologist again, fun!

I'm beginning to think a new doctor is in order.

A new week, a new plan

2008-03-25T19:09:00.000-07:00

We survived all the craziness of last week!! From getting over the flu, Cath's birthday, family member's not being on speaking terms with us for days, a road trip to Central NY, meeting Jason's family, then spending the weekend with my family, and let's not forget Easter; I feel like I need a vacation just to recover from all that!

Fortunately we're now home, thankfully. Family troubles are now officialy on hold until mid-April. So, this week to celebrate Easter we're rowing "The Little Rabbit". Plans are to make some bunny cookies may'be tomorrow, and make a bunny shaped carrot cake Thurs.

As far as the art thing goes, I think I've had a epiphany. When I'm looking for art projects to coordinate with our weekly book I must carefully screen each project, literally pretend like I'm Cath and ask myself if she'd like this sort of thing. I've learned recently that Cath likes to trace things, and she loves the glue stick(with her hair, heaven help us). And, since I already know Cath hates to color I've figured out that the best way to start a project is to print out the Color template; if I ask Cath to color first well then I may as well introduce that project to the recycling bin.

Back to normal, health wise!

2008-03-13T18:57:00.000-07:00

The flu is finally been purged from the house, *fingers crossed and knocking hard on wood*. It seems to have passed over Catharina thank heavens, of us all Cath is the most miserable when sick, thankfully she rarely gets sick. So, next on the list is to survive Pete's 15mo & Cath's 3yr Pediatric appt. and then on to the much dreaded 1st Dental appt. for Cath, not fun.

School wise, still no interest being shown in any of our projects despite repeated effort and new tactics used by both me and Jason. Oh well, we did have fun at the Aviation Museum and Cath even dressed up as a aviator and got her picture taken; although I had to "help" her hold still for the picture and she outright refused to make a picture frame. Pete had a great time too, he kept trying to either romance the other little girls or sneak off towards the stairs the entire time I was "helping" Catharina. These kid's wear me out.

FLU!

2008-03-12T08:51:00.000-07:00

Pete had flu over the weekend, despite having the shot, and now I have it despite getting the shot. What a waste of $35! I'm not holding out much hope for Catharina not getting it considering these odds, and Jason didn't bother to get the shot because he didn't think it would be worth it. Right now Jason seems like the smartest one of the bunch. The only fortunate thing here is that his wonderful workplace is taking pity on us and letting Jason work from home today and tomorrow, and I think he may try to wheedle tomorrow out of them too and make it a long weekend.

As I had previously been worried about Cath has decided she wants nothing to do with any of the coloring, projects, and activities I put together for her; no real suprise there. I don't believe this child has 1 artistic bone in her body! She loves to run around, work on puzzles, sort/stack things, play with dolls, be a make believe princess, read and discuss books... but when it comes to art it's just no use there's zero interest there. I asked Jason about how he viewed art at a young age and found that he and Cath are remarkably alike on this subject, so I guess it's a family thing. I give, may'be Pete will be my artistic child.

Rowing "Play With Me"

2008-03-10T18:09:00.000-07:00

Currently we are using a Montessori approach to homeschooling our preschooler, with the help of Before Five In A Row(BFIAR), and www.homeschoolshare.com. We have been loving every minute of BFIAR, with lots of cuddles on the couch while reading classic children's books and really fun activities, we are trying to make the most of these precious formative years.

So, this week we started "rowing" our 2nd book, "Play With Me", from BFIAR. I'm almost as excited as Catharina is, who knew preschool was so much fun? I finally have all our projects cut, pasted and ready to start work on; now I just have to hope Cath will be in the mood to venture into trying something remotely artsy for once. Well, even if she doesn't feel artsy we have some fun museum trips planned for the latter part of the week. So, I guess either way this week will be productive somehow.