An interview with Isaac, as he graduates kindergarten

I was inspired by Sarah over at Clover Lane:

I am really good at: math

I like to: do the monkey bars at recess

Someone that makes me laugh: Damien

One word that describes you: difficult (I swear, no prompting from me on that one!)

I am really happy when: it's my birthday

I am really sad when: I have to wash the dishes

My favorite book: The Story of Darth Vader

My favorite TV show: the NBA

My favorite vacation: Orlando, FL

I like school when: it's calendar time

I don't like school when: we have to be quiet

My favorite season: Summer

My favorite toy: Wii

My worst nightmare: the one about Michael Jackson's Thriller with zombies

Things that make me mad: when mom takes my Wii away

Favorite sport: Basketball

I like my Dad because: he takes me to play with Junior

I like my Mom because: she lets me use the computer

I like my family because: they are fun

Movies...

When you are as broke as I am, Netflix is like your best friend. Here's what I've seen lately.

White Oleander I'm always up for a good drama but this one was sort of weak. It was about a girl who's mother commits a crime of passion and goes to jail. The girl floats from foster care home to foster care home. I might read the book, but I felt like the movie was sort of cliche.

The Business of Being Born This is one that came recommended by quite a few of my friends. It's basically a big advertisement for midwifery and home births. Although some of their views bordered on over the top propaganda (just because monkeys that are c-sectioned don't care for their young, doesn't mean that women who have sections are going to be less attached to their babies!), I thought it raised as lot of interesting points about how women in America view childbirth.

Paper Clips This was a really cute documentary about a middle school in rural Appalachia who decide to collect a paperclip for every child that was killed in the Halocaust. It was really good.

Bridesmaids

I saw this one in the theater with friends. There are parts that are raunchy and over the top, but overall I really enjoyed it. I totally related to the main character, a single girl navigating the world of dating and dealing with blows from life. It was hilariously funny. I found myself laughing the whole time.

National Geographic: Solitary Confinement

I like documentaries about psychology and this was about the psychological effects of solitary confinement. I thought it was interesting and featured footage and photos of Eastern State Penn, which is a Philly landmark.

Tupac and Biggie

This one was all right. I was making 50 cards for a bridal shower and just wanted something on that I could half pay attention to while I was working on them. It brought up a lot of the loose ends of the cases of the murders of the two rappers and highlighted the corruption in the LAPD that caused the murders to do really be investigated. However, Biggie and Tupac is pretty much old news.

Man on Wire

This is a documentary about Phillipe a tightrope walker who does daring stunts such as walking between the two towers of Notre Dame and ultimately between the two towers of the World Trade Center. His stunts were interesting but the documentary was a little slow, mostly talking head type interviews and awkward reenactments.

Movies That I Tried to Watch and Just Couldn't Get Into

Brokeback Mountain and Chasing Amy

Have any good recommendations for me?

Monday

• I ran a mile and biked five tonight. Not bad. I could have run more but my allergies are causing my lungs to close up and I wasn't in the mood for wheezing and keeling over. Tomorrow is Zumba, so the week is off to a decent start as far as excercise is concerned. And I tend to eat a million times better on days that I bother to work out. Hopefully I can stick with it for a while, because I have a whole closet full of summer shorts and capris that are too small, which is just depressing.

• I got a great Groupon a few weeks ago 20 bucks for 45 dollars worth of stuff from the Body Shop. Since I am obsessed with The Body Shop, I couldn't pass it up. I bought two lip butters, a lip balm, a body butter and two shower gels and I am in love with the shower gels. One is grapefruit which is one of my favorite scents for shower gels. It just smells fresh and citrusy and yummy. The other is almond which just smells nutty and delicious.

• Speaking of depressing, I'm helping plan a bridal shower for a girl who goes to my church. Her name is also Lisa and I keep getting e-mails that are intended for her about aspects of the shower. I'm in charge of the invitations. I picked up a cute wedding type stamp at AC Moore tonight. I should be able to whip up something cute... I hope... or it will be horrible and I will end up spending even more money on store bought invites. We'll see.

Another E-harmony winner. This was on a new match's profile under the section "Other information you might want to know about me": I'm not on here for the right partner, but to choose someone and make her right. Uh... make her right? Not too sure how that works. I promptly hit the archive button on that one. Well that's all for now. Counting down the days until June 15th!!

Quick Memorial Day Post

Here's a few pictures from Memorial Day. Isaac and I had a lovely day with my parents. Isaac played outside all day, helped my dad with lawn work and car washing and went swimming at the Leola Pool. I did some crafting and reading. We went to my parents church picnic. Here's a few pictures.

We stopped letting him win a long time ago.

Riding our bikes over to the picnic.

Games at the picnic.

a few randoms

• We have had such a hot few days and it has been unbearable at work. Our school is very old and is not air conditioned. The temperatures in our classrooms have been in the upper 90s for the past two days. At least I can wear a light cotton sundress. I feel bad for the men in my school who have to wear pants and polos. Ick.
• It's not fair to be so hot before I have even had a chance to get over my allergies. I have been a snotty, sneezing, itchy, drowsy, wheezing, asthmatic mess for the past week or so. And I look scary to boot.
• I'm currently reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I tried to read it once before and couldn't get into it, but the second time around I like it a little better. It is just a compilation of letters from the various characters and it took a while to get used to that format and keep all of the characters straight in my head. I would say I'm about 2/3 of the way through it and enjoying it.
• I can now say I've made an official (if half hearted) attempt to get a summer job. I filled out a few applications, but nothing looks to promising, aside from writing IEPs which isn't very many hours. I really need the money though, so I should probably hustle a little harder. I did get Isaac enrolled in swim lessons and a few sports camps which gets me a few checks in the "good mommy" column. Lately, I've felt like the mommy that other better moms point and laugh at.
• My sister and brother in law are on their way to Alaska for the next year or so. I need to figure out a way to afford to visit them before they move.
• I ended up meeting up with the TrueDeeva herself over the weekend. It has (sadly) been a few years since we have hung out. I had a babysitter and my plans ended up never materializing so I texted her on a whim. It was fun and I will be heading out to her place for a BBQ in a few weeks.
• I got an e-mail from another e-harmony guy, who seems like a real winner. In response to my question "describe the worst date you've ever been on" he related a story about how the girl's face looked skinny in the picture she sent, but when he met her, her body was fat. Then, one of his open ended questions he sent me was "What is your opinion on society today?".... Say what?? I responded that I wasn't sure how to answer such a broad question and his response was "Well, that's why I asked you, because you're a broad."......... So in short I've met another arrogant jerk, this one who seems to have the political views of the Unabomber. Thanks, e-harmony.

Anyways, that's all I have for right now. I'll try to post some Memorial Day pictures as soon as I can gank them from my mom and dad's camera. Have a great week!

Seeing students at the pool...

Last night Isaac asked if we could go swimming. He has a free membership to our local YMCA because I use the Y for childcare. Sadly, we rarely take advantage of it. We had nothing else going on, so we hopped in the car and went on over. The YMCA is only a few blocks away from the school where I teach. Sure enough, I had barely got into the pool when a girl came swimming over to me.

"Hey! I know you! You teach at my school"

"Yep."

"You came to our class during autism awareness week and read us that story about autism!"

"Yep."

"Do you have any kids?"

"Yes-- that's my son right there."

"Oh-- is he adopted?"

"No, he's biracial. His dad's from Africa. Well-- see you!"

But nothing beats the time I was doing day to day subbing and I was in the locker room. I had just peeled off my swimsuit and was standing naked and wrapped up in a towel when this girl points to me and goes "Hey!!! You were our substitute last week!!!"

Mortifying.

how time flies...

Isaac is so goofy and funny.

Even when he doesn't mean to be. This is his homework journal I discovered today. I giggled about it all night.

(in case you couldn't tell it says "This is My HeD. It is BROWN.")

He is slowly giving in and integrating some lowercase letters into his writing after much resistance. He mastered all of the kindergarten sight words by winter and he has now mastered most of the first grade sightwords as well. He is great at decoding words and it is getting harder to hide things from him when it is convenient for me ("That's not what that says mom!"). He loves Junie B. Jones books and we have been cuddling up together and reading several chapters of one each evening. He will make me read the silly parts over and over again.

He continues to be an avid sports fan. He watches Comcast Sports Net over Nickelodean or Disney Channel most times. He isn't picky either. He loves to watch baseball, basketball, hockey or soccer, college or pro. He will watch men's or women's although he refers to all women's sports as "lady ball".

He continues to be embarassingly superior to his peers in soccer. And I'm not just saying that. He should be playing with eight year olds, not four year olds. But whatever. But he also loves to shoot baskets, to play "baseball" with my dad, to ride bikes and play frisbee. He is a regular at his school's Zumbatronic club. He loves to hop out of the car when I stop at the mailbox bank about a block from my house and to run along trying to beat the car. He would rather be outside playing than plunked in front of the TV and for a kid with no siblings or neighborhood friends he keeps himself pretty busy playing by himself in our tiny postage stamp of a yard.

He is currently on a Michael Jackson kick and begs me to put on The Essential Michael Jackson whenever we are in the car. Not only does he love all of the classics (Thriller, Beat It, Billie Jean, PYT, etc) but he knows some of the more obscure disco-ey ones. The other day on the playground he was singing "Blame It on the Boogie" to himself. He has also memorized all of the tracks and when he knows I am tired of a song he will ask me to listen to "number 8" ones more time to try to trick me into playing it yet again. One of his favorite songs is "Dance and Shout Parenthesis Shake Your Body Down to the Ground". Even though I don't think he could tell you what a parenthesis is.

He continues to have definite ideas about fashion. He is not as into action hero shirts as he used to be. He definitely favors shirts with sports themes or logos on them. We still have to alternate days choosing his clothes so that he doesn't exclusively wear warmups and sweatsuits. He regularly eschews underwear in the evening hours. His feet are growing so fast we can hardly keep him in sneakers (I'm not exaggerating, I think he is on his fifth or sixth pair this school year!). Since the time he was a baby he has had the same trouble with pants: they are too big in the waist and too short in the legs. He is a long skinny minnie. When given a choice, he tends to chose clothes that are red.

I love you Isaac and I'm so glad you are home!!