Silver linings

Apparently while I was at work today about 3897433487 people came through to see the house, requiring my mother to be out of the house with Isaac for roughly five hours. I am praying for our house to miraculously sell in, like, a week because I don't know how much more we can take of this.

Anyways, Isaac has about one more pair of clean pants, so I went to toss some of his clothes into the washer and I see this sign on the door.

Rats. It came out kind of far away and blurry. Well, it says "ELDERLY CAT IN GARAGE". For some reason, this has struck me as hilarious and I have been rolling around laughing about this for the past ten minutes or so. I don't know why on earth our cat was banished to the garage or why any perspective home buyers would possibly need a warning about her, but (in my warped mind) it is pretty hilarious.

Under pressure....

My parents house officially has a For Sale Sign in front of it. It's so sad. It's also means that now everything has to be hidden, boxed up, cleaned up, picked up, etc, because at any moment someone could be coming over to see the place and we have to disappear leaving behind an immaculate house. This does not mix well with a stubborn preschooler who is prone to tantrums...

Duh

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7971578.stm Shopping sprees linked to periods Sex and the City character Carrie Bradshaw loves to shop Women may be able to blame impulse buys and extravagant shopping on their time of the month, research suggests. In the 10 days before their periods began women were more likely to go on a spending spree, a study found. Psychologists believe shopping could be a way for premenstrual women to deal with the negative emotions created by their hormonal changes. Professor Karen Pine will present her work to a British Psychological Society meeting in Brighton later this week. She asked 443 women aged 18 to 50 about their spending habits. The spending behaviour tends to be a reaction to intense emotions Professor Pine Almost two-thirds of the 153 women studied who were in the later stages of their menstrual cycle - known as the luteal phase - admitted they had bought something on an impulse and more than half said they had overspent by more than £25. A handful of the women said they had overspent by more than £250. And many felt remorse later. Professor Pine, of the University of Hertfordshire, said: "Spending was less controlled, more impulsive and more excessive for women in the luteal phase. "The spending behaviour tends to be a reaction to intense emotions. They are feeling stressed or depressed and are more likely to go shopping to cheer themselves up and using it to regulate their emotions." Hormonal She said much of this could be explained by hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle. And the findings were exaggerated in the women with severe PMT. "We are getting surges and fluctuations in hormones which affect the part of the brain linked to emotions and inhibitory control. So the behaviour we found is not surprising." Another explanation might be that women are buying items to make themselves feel more attractive - coinciding with the time of ovulation when they are most fertile, typically around 14 days before the start of a period. Most of the purchases made by the women were for adornment, including jewellery, make-up and high heels. Professor Pine said: "Other researchers have found there is an ornamental effect around the time of ovulation." Researchers have found women tend to dress to impress during their fertile days. Professor Pine, author of the book Sheconomics, said if women were worried about their spending behaviour they might avoid going shopping in the week before their period was due.

You know you are having a bad hair day when your own son sees you from behind and tenatively says "Are you my mom?" and when you turn around and reassure him that you are he says "Oh I couldn't tell because of your hair." Yeah...

You tube

Can't seem to make the embed feature work. But I love this

This is what I do when I am avoiding writing an IEP

Sorry the spacing got a little bit wonky

• Things I Love
• Adam Duritz and all things Counting Crows.
• Dancing
• Hot chocolate.
• Quilts
• Mexican food-- especially authentic Mexican food.
• Diet Coke. I love, love, love it.
• Spending a whole Saturday in your pajamas.
• The Cathedral of Learning at Pitt. I would always try to schedule my classes there. It is such a beautiful and unique building.

• Kindergartners. I used to not be the biggest fan of them but now I think they are hilarious. Icecream. Especially Zwahlen's ice cream.
• Boathouse row at night when it is all lit up.
• Scope
• Snow days. They are so fantastically wonderful. I feel so bad for anyone who teaches in Florida or Arizona or in some un-snow sympathetic state like Utah who never knows the joy of the 5 am phone call that school is CANCELLED!!!
• Pedicures
• The little "bloop" on my cellphone when I have a new text message to read.
• Down pillows.
• Bagels
• This statue in Philly:

• Shea butter.
• The teacher's supply store. I could spend HOURS there.
• Hot showers.
• Playing cards with my family.
• The bed after you just change the sheets.
• Magazines - any and all.
• Walking the boardwalk in Ocean City at night.
• The smell of Johnson and Johnson baby bath. I think this is my most favorite smell in the world.
• Using the British spellings of things
• Blogs of all kinds.
• Folding laundry. I know it's weird but I like it.
• Walking around the city of Philadelphia on a beautiful day/evening.
• Really crispy toast with butter.
• Fireplaces on a chilly night. Coloring with crayons.
• My old FHE group. GO FOOD!
• People watching.
• Recieving mail (if it's not bills)
• Really cold lemonade.
• Buying scrapbook supplies.
• My GPS. Especially when I don't listen to it and it gets all annoyed ("When possible make a LEGAL u-turn")
• Parenthesis
• Riding the train into the city
• Candles
• Laughing so hard you cry.
• The way Isaac always says "her" instead of "she"
• Going to the movies
• Valley Forge Park
• Sepia toned pictures
• Drag queens. Random but true.
• Massages - professional or by a kind friend.
• All of the variations on my last name I get from my students. I love hearing "Good morning Steversin"
• Someone telling you in the stressful moments "It's okay. You are doing a good job"
• Inclusion in elementary schools. It works! It's so great!
• Flip flops.

• What do you love????

Thrift store finds...

So my mom has been on this big kick lately searching for milk glass. She has been hitting up all of the area thrift stores and yesterday she invited me to trek out to a few with here. We started out at 2nd Avenue in Lansdale which was pretty amazing if you are looking for clothes, shoes, purses, housewares, etc. I ended up getting this placemats and napkins as well as that wooden hook thinger for about five bucks. The computer bag I already had. I don't know why I included it in the picture.

We also went to a small thrift store in the basement of a church in Norristown. That one had mostly junk but I did find this huge box of wooden blocks for four bucks. I'm going to let Isaac play with them for a few days and then bring them into school.

My mom made out better at that one though. She got a goblet for a dime that she says would retail on e-bay for 28 bucks.

I am typing this from the front porch as Isaac is running around with the frisbee. It's a beautiful spring day!