Happy Birthday LittleMan!

My baby is 5 today, five! I can't tell you how old that makes me feel :P.

I will post a picture of him blowing out candles later tonight. He wants to make sure we sing "you growl like a tiger and you scratch like one too" rather than "you look like a monkey and you smell like one too" lol.

My LittleMan is definitely a mama's boy. He has a quick temper (the redhead temper stereotype is real for him, lol) but he has the cutest smile! And he is so smart and funny. I love his laugh and how proud he is to be a big boy.

"Mom, I want you to measure me to see how much I grew cause I'm 5 now. I'm 5!" Hehe, ok big guy, I will.

I love you, my LittleMan!

I don't want to ever talk, think, hear about

School vouchers ever again!

I have been working on this stupid paper for weeks, weeks! And if you know me at all, you know I'm a procrastinator. But this time I have tried really hard to work diligently on this stupid paper. I hate it, I hate everything about it. And no, I'm not done. When is it due? today!

I have 5 written pages done (need 12-18), the title page and abstract, summary,general info page, contents page and bibliography. I just need to finish the piece of crap paper! Gah!!

So my 12-18 page paper I was stressed about at the beginning of the paper? Its really 22-25 pages long and if I knew that at the beginning I probably would've had a heart attack :P.

Update!! I'm writing the conclusion page and then I'm done! Well, gotta review it and then I can send it off :)

Final update! I am done! and I'm about to send it off. So happy to be done.

Please let me pass so I don't have to write another 18 page paper, lol. Please :)

Its the little things....

As part of the interview process for my job, I was asked to take a personality test. This test consisted of true or false questions like "I get easily stressed in high pressure situations." or "I hate to sit for long periods of time." My favorite question was "I am easily amused."

I said "true" to the easily amused question and those of you that know me, I sit for long periods of time, daily.

What amuses me today? I'm currently sitting on my couch typing, online, on my computer! I know!! Technology is amazing. And I love. Love. My new wireless router :)

I'm officially.....

gainfully employed. I'm not going to say the name of the place but I will say that I'll be taking calls from people wanting to activate their American Express card. Jealous? Oh I bet!

I don't start until May 7th, so I can focus on finals and then get a little break before starting my job.

One step closer to purchasing a home! :)

He is growing up!

M is small for his age, but he is fast and smart and lots of fun :). He is also pretty determined and stubborn, which is a good thing most of the time.

On Saturday I decided to finally get new tubes for M's bike. He has been bugging me for a long time! When I came home from the store he said "I want you to take the training wheels off my bike too" I said "ok, sounds good." But I was a bit nervous because he hasn't really ridden his bike, even with the training wheels. But he is almost 7 (in August) and very coordinated, so lets give it a try.



sorry he is so far away, we took him to the Church parking lot to ride and this is all I got.

Now to get LittleMan riding so I can take them out while I run :)

Too late!

I was early to school last week, waiting for my fellow group members to show up so we could practice for our project. There are four people in my group and two were pretty late. "M" and I were chatting while we waited and we somehow got onto the subject of our parents age. I said that my mom was 52 and "M" looking very surprised said "I thought you were in your 40's!!! Not that you look like it, cause you don't. You look totally young. I just thought that you said you were in your 40's. But you really don't....."

Um...yeah, I'm 31. Thanks for that :P

I'll blame it on my allergies. My forehead trying to blow off my face from all the pressure has to be making me look older. Yeah, sounds good to me.

You know what time of year it is!

Thats right!



Rocket time! We had a ton of fun yesterday, launching rockets again. Littleman got the biggest workout, he had to run all the way across the field, his rocket almost went over the fence. But he is ok with that since his rocket went the highest ;)

Your attention please :)

I created another blog, one dedicated to my knitting (and other crafts). I have the link on the sidebar, here it is just in case http://queenmeadow.wordpress.com/

I will be adding my "old" knitting stuff from here over to there and then this one can stay more rambly and kid oriented ;)

100 miles in 3 months

I joined runagogo, a group of crafters (knitters, crochet, sewing, etc) trying to get out and get moving. I have been a slacker with my exercise lately and with the weather warming up, I thought that this would be a great time to start.

April 1st to July 4th will be the challenge to run, walk, bike, crawl ;), 100 miles. I plan on running but I'm sure there will be walking mixed in, hehe.

Feel free to join me or to yell at me if my mileage ticker, on the top of the page, doesn't move for several days, lol.

I get to join...

those of you that are cool bloggers and actually get hits on your blog from search engine searches.

My most recent, and maybe my fave.....

"boys farted in gym" um...?

or a little bizarre, but at least it isn't gross...

"meadows well stocked half marathon" I ran one that was but it wasn't mine ;)

and last but not least, the tame one.

"queenmeadow"

:)

Update on paper

The paper I blogged about a few days ago. I received the grade today, 9/10. My professor is incredibly picky, so frustratingly so that I'm pretty freaked out about writing the final paper (12-15 freaking pages long!!). But the grade is good on this paper so I guess if I can suck it up and take criticism from him, it wont be too bad.

He said my thesis statement wasn't enough to the point. Let me show you my final draft of the thesis statement.

"Without assistance, only those born into wealth will have the opportunity to receive the kind of education that gives them an advantage over those who would otherwise be stuck in a never-ending cycle of under privilege and societal discrimination, i.e.: discrimination from higher social classes."

He also said that I'm trying too hard. Um...yeah, I wonder why :P

I'm just happy that this is my final English class because I think my head is going to explode. As you all can tell, I'm not a good writer and this is really sucking.

Any smarty pants writers reading right now?

I'm writing a controversial research paper for my class this semester. My problem is that I tend to get wordy, I know! its shocking ;) My other problem is that I don't like controversy, lol. So I keep trying to soften the "blow" of my thesis statement.

I need to turn in a report that includes my thesis statement (and the bibliography, so its not the whole paper yet) but its so wordy and doesn't feel right yet.

Here it is...

In order to increase the success of all students, those that are less economically privileged that are unable to pay for private schools, school vouchers will provide the means necessary for parents to choose a school that they feel will benefit their child the most therefore increase the success rate of their child.


My paper is on School Vouchers and I had to choose a side so I went with the side for vouchers.

Help!!! fast too, please :) Its due in 4.5 hours, eek!

Fish heads, fish heads....

rolly polly fish heads, fish head fish heads, eat them up. Yum!

We had dinner at the In-Laws house last night. Mother-in-law asked Little Man if he liked fish, he said yes so she gave him some dried sardines to try. He looks at them and said "ooh, they have teeth!" and then put them in his mouth "Yum!" She gave him a bunch more and he happily munched on the little icky things.

Stu says "you didn't pull the heads off?" I said "I've never seen them before, I don't know how to eat them!" he said "I guess if he doesn't mind"

So yeah, I think I'll tell him that he can never complain about my cooking again, now that he has eaten whole, dried fish.

Jealous?

This food review is inspired by foodie, since she has been critiquing food a lot lately, thought she'd like something new to try.

Zion

I drove back down to southern Utah with my older sister. We wanted to go hike Zion on Saturday since the weather was beautiful and I don't remember ever going there. Pretty sad since I've lived in Utah most of my life :).


I love this place :)


I love the layering of the mountain and all the colors.


The "bathtub", just thought it was cool.


This tree was struck by lighting, see the stripe going down it? it twists all the way around the tree, down to the base.


This is my mom, she'll hate me for posting her picture but too bad ;). This is what happens when my dad decides to ditch us, we stand by the edge because he makes us hug the mountain while we hike. He is scared of heights and can't stand anyone by the edge, hehe.


We made it to the top!! It only took 3 hours!!! And I stupidly wore pants, not just pants but black pants! I recommend you wear shorts if you hike when its 85+ degrees.

Vacation

I have lots of pictures to show and I'll make small comments. We'll let the pictures tell about the trip :)

This is the jacuzzi tub in our room :)


This is the wonderful pillowtop mattress with the down comforter and down pillows. Heaven!




The shower and sink, notice the glass instead of plastic cups, lol.



Ok, moving on to Hoover Dam where Stu took the boys (I was sick and needed to stay close to the potty ;) )

The boys can't be in a picture without posing something like this...




And the Dam, wish I could've gone, maybe next year :)




We also saw KA from Cirque de Soleil (I'm sure I butchered the spelling but I'm too lazy to look it up). It was good but I recommend getting the program first, we were pretty lost as far as the story goes.

I had a great time and so did the kids. I'm pretty sure they didn't want to come home after all the fun they had with the aunt and uncle.

I have returned!

Last night we returned from warm and enjoyable, Las Vegas. I have lots of fun pictures to share but they must wait. I was sick all week, it was no fun, with a UTI and am about to go to the dr. I will try to post when I return but I am leaving town once again. I am going back down to Southern Utah to hang out with my sister and parents with no kids :). If I don't get a chance to post before I leave, I'll post on Monday for sure!

Yum!!

I made this yummalicious soup on Friday! I got the recipe from Frugalmom who got it, and modified it, from kerflop. I modified it slightly as well and it was divine! I had some for lunch on saturday and plan on finishing the rest off today for lunch.

Tangy Potato Soup
6 medium to large russet potatoes. Peel 4, leave the skin on 2, and dice into 3/4 inch pieces
2 cans low-sodium chicken broth
1 8 oz package cream cheese
2 tbsp dried minced onion
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tbsp flour
1 cup cooked, crumbled bacon (I used the precooked kind I buy in a big bag at Costco, about 12 oz bacon cooked would yield a cup of bacon)

Put potatoes, chicken broth, cream cheese and onion in a big soup pot. Bring to a boil. Add milk which has been mixed with flour to dissolve lumps. Simmer until potatoes are tender (15-20 minutes). Season with salt and pepper. Add bacon and serve.

*my changes, I had no dried minced onion so I used onion salt (out of onion powder too, oops) about 1 tablespoon. I also added about 2 teaspoons of course ground pepper. And I used 8 smallish potatoes because thats all I had. Then garnished with graded medium sharp cheese, delish!

Why Gmail, Why?

Dear Gmail,

I have been a loyal subscriber to your email services for a very long time. I have invited friends and family to use your service, I even dropped my hotmail email account to use you exclusively and this morning? You don't allow me to log on. Oh sad sad day.

I have emails to read! don't you understand?

*sigh*

My Oh So Sweet, Little Man.

My kids have an hour to an hour and a half of "Quiet Time" in their rooms every afternoon. They can draw, read, play with quiet toys, listen to music, nap, whatever they want within reason. I usually let one of the boys "sleep" in my room during quiet time so the other has their room to "sleep" in. When its Little Man's turn to be in their bedroom he usually cleans! How sweet is that? He'll take a notebook, pen, pencil and books with him but he almost always ends up cleaning the room instead. And he's only 4, well he'll be 5 at the end of April, sigh.

I really am spoiled ;) (and so is M, lol)

I am so spoiled!

I'm currently in my third year of college, I'm going part-time and its taking an eternity! Anyway, I've wanted a laptop for quite awhile now, so we decided to take the plunge and sell my desktop and get me a laptop. I'm typing on it right now :)

I love it!! Its a Sony Vaio and its cute and fun and its mine and did I mention that its cute? Cause it is :) Oh and we got it on sale so its cheaper than shown in that link, woot.

I'll take a pic later and post it so you can see how cute it is. I can't take it to school yet because I don't have a bag for it, lol. But I will make one or buy one soon. Its a little bigger than I planned, but bigger is better sometimes ;)