Freedom

I was just thinking I should create another blog about the adventures of a homeschooling mom putting her kids in public school. Ha. Any way Shawners wanted to go to his public school today, and so off he went with his new TMNT backpack. Poor Justinbustin has had so many issues in this first week - for example, he was play wrestling with a friend and the teachers took them out of the room to tell them they were breaking the rules, on the way out to the pick up line that same friend told him he hates him, then the next day the teacher moves J to a different spot and tells him he and this other kid can't be friends. He really doesn't understand what's going on, frankly neither do I, but I suppose that's part of getting used to public school. Fortunately he's so much his own man already that it hasn't affected his demeanor, thought process or his kind heart one bit. I did talk to the school registrar and she said she had to deal with the same issues with her daughter and that I need to make sure and speak up for him, protect him, and talk to the teacher about it. I called the teacher and left a message with her this morning.

On the other hand, wow does it smell like freedom without two or even one little one running underfoot! I stopped by McD's and spent just two dollars all on myself. Yum. Normally it would be $6-8 or only $4 if I didn't want anything. Honestly though, I'm such a mean mommy I never stop by McD's any way when they're around cause it's so bad for you. I've usually left that to the grandparents to spoil them with - unfortunately they haven't been out here lately so no McD's for the boys lately.

On Wednesday when they were both at school I scrubbed my kitchen and living room from top to bottom as it had gone south while Brando has been home the last four weeks with the kids. He's taken care of picking up and laundry real well, but toilets? Are you kidding me?! They were disgusting. I wouldn't have wanted my boys to use theirs had I known how bad it was and my poor guest used theirs last week. Oh well. Off to scrub those a little more today and see what else needs dedisgustinated.

PS I am continually impressed and in awe of the amazing people that come out of different environments (public, private, homeschool, or otherwise), i.e. Courtney :) , Becky, Kels, Jen, Al, Aime, Jodi, my first professor, my sweet cousin, at the same time I have to remember the crazies in my family and Brando's and wonder where they went wrong and see if there's anything I can do with my family to make sure they get all the love and care they need, however they need it, and in whatever environment they need to make it. Does that make sense? I feel like I'm doing wrong by Shawners if I see that he needs more attention at this stage in life than he's getting in a certain environment and don't do anything about it. Personally, over the past nine months I've been doing a study of girls in different school environments and by all accounts any way they go they turn out fine - except in the cases where they go to five day a week private school their entire lives which screws with their head, especially in the teen years. Maybe I need to do a study of males in different school environments since d'oh that's what I have!!!!!!!!

Awesome

Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from amandalynferri and Vimeo.

My school

Started Monday. It's only an hour and a half, still twice a week, this semester because of the longer timeframe of sixteen weeks instead of eleven. Yay! The girls in my study group and I signed up for the next class together with the same professor so we wouldn't get lost and would still have each other! He's still going at lightning speed, but as long as I get the homework and have time to see a tutor if need be I do okay. So fun to see them again! The last two weeks of break FLEW by.

Update on school

It's funny how my oldest one seems to be craving the public school environment. A friend and he were play hitting each other yesterday and the teachers spoke to them and told them they weren't following the rules. That worked out fine, but for some reason on the way out this kid that was his friend tells him he hates him. Grreeaaaaat. Well I just told him there's somebody like that everywhere and it's too bad for those people, but it gives a warning signal that we can keep those people who get offended when we didn't do anything wrong at bay and keep the true friends who don't get offended when we don't do anything wrong close. So even after all that he says this morning he wants to attend public school over the two day a week school he did last year. I think this is going to be a good year for him.

Shawners, on the other hand, came back from school yesterday a TERROR. I have never seen him like that and I am not willing to do that to him. He was craving attention and he got no hugs all day long! Five is too young to not get a hug for eight hours. So Brando is going to figure out a night job so we can keep him in his two day a week school and hire a nanny to pick him up and for the one day of the week I'm working. Brando will have off on the weekends so he'll be able to have the kids then. He really wants to send Justinbustin to the two day a week school too, but he's really enjoying the public school so I really don't mind him staying. We'll see on that aspect.

Public vs. Private vs. What the heck do I do?

Interesting comment:

Jerry Hill | April 4, 2007 2:37 pm

One thing that has not been mentioned is the fact that public schools must educate all children to the level of proficiency. This means special needs children (10-20 percent of the school age population) and children who speak little or no English as well as many students who do not wish to be in school, but are nevertheless commanded to be there. These special populations eat up manpower, facility, and technological dollars far out of proportion to their numbers and they are, logically, the most difficult to educate. When you wonder why public schools cost more, this is your basic answer. When you remove special education students, non-English students and non-student students, you have a private school!

Cited from: http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2006/07/18/do-public-and-private-schools-compare/

From a study comparing private schools versus public schools:
"In general, the average scores in reading and mathematics of students in private schools were found to be higher than those of students in public schools."

Can you tell my minds not made up? I think I just found my dissertation subject. No I'm not writing one right now - when I get to that point!

Life

I think this is the toughest spot I have ever been in in life. It's less emotional for me than other spots I've been in, but it is the toughest one. Brando's income is not enough to support us (and I should say, our debt). We have to have a second income to make the finances make sense. We can't afford private school much as we WANT to put the kids in private school and are terrified our little one will break if we don't. He has such a sweet tender spirit. We have to put them in public school, and not only that but YMCA afterwards in order for me to work. I am terrified of what this next year will bring and can do nothing but move forward to make sure we stay afloat and crawl out of this financial hole we've dug. Hopefully things will balance out and maybe next year we can put the kids back in private.

Shawners First Day of School

I totally cried. Brando actually took him to school as I headed to work. I flew in from San Diego last night at 11pm though so I am absolutely exhausted. When I got to work they already had two girls there so I asked if I could go home... and cry! I wish I could've gone to sleep but I haven't yet and I'll be picking Shawners up in a few minutes.

Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, and Huntington Beach by the way was AMAZING. My cousin lives on the border of Costa Mesa and is five minutes from Newport Beach and Huntington Beach. She has a Vespa we scootered around on all weekend and never left a ten mile radius of her house yet did well over thirty different things!

(totally need to edit this and add pictures, but for now...)

In order...
Thursday
Ate hole in the wall pizza
boated around Balboa Island to see the celebrities houses
Newport Beach shopping
Back to A's to see her cute place
Cheesecake Factory for herb-crusted salmon and a heifeweizen
Nordstrom Rack for shopping
To the movie theatre to see No Reservations

Friday
Scootered to Newport Beach
Rented beach cruisers ( the fun colored bikes you can sit and relax on)
Biked Newport Beach
Walked the Wedge
Went in the waaaarrrm water
Stopped by a three million dollar open house with a panoramic ocean view
Stopped for lunch at BJ's and had a pazookie
Shopped at Newport Beach
Returned bikes
Napped on her lounge chair on her deck in the beautiful Costa Mesa weather
Got dressed up
Had shrimp scampi for dinner
Scootered to Balboa Island
Got Maggie Moo's
Walked on the sidewalk in front of all the beautiful waterfront houses and checked out their deco
Went dancing at Hurricanes
after checking out Blue Beet, Woody's Wharf, and a few other places
Came home and crashed

Saturday
Scootered to Huntington Beach
Shopped at Huntington Beach
Walked Huntington Beach pier
Got food from Wahoo's and ate by the beach
Came home and napped on her comfy lounge chair in the beautiful Costa Mesa weather :) (sense a pattern here?)
Scootered to Newport Beach
Ferried us on the scooter over to Balboa Island
Shopped at Rachel's
Found two CUTE dresses and fun inexpensive sunglasses
Went to Rudy's for dinner
Watched Hairspray
Came home and made cookies
Talked to all hours of the night

Sunday
Went to church
Scootered to the beach
Laid out
Scootered to Crystal Cove
Made reservations at the Beach Cafe where there's always an hour wait because it's right ON the beach
Walked down the shore next to the cliffs
Played in the water
Gathered BEAUTIFUL seashells
Got to the farthest corner
RAN back because our restaurant beeper was beeping us
Enjoyed a beautiful lunch all hot and sweaty from running
Picked up stuffed seals, Sammy and Sandy, for the boys from The Shop
Scootered back home
Got all dressed up in our cute new dresses
Went to the Bay Resort for dinner
Enjoyed Beef Tenderloin Carpaccio (read: raw beef) and Lobster Bisque
Checked out another club, Sutra (very much like Kama Sutra)
Came home and chatted while we packed my bags

Monday
Went to a bakery for sticky buns
Went to see A's work for a few hours and try and myspace addict her
Went to lunch at BJ's for one last pazookie
Cried at the airport.

San Diego Bliss

I've only been here a day and a half but we've done SO much it feels like a week. On Thursday I arrived and we went straight to Newport Beach pier and ate hole in the wall delicious pizza and rode a boat around Balboa Island and a bunch of other little islands viewing all the celebrity houses including Nicholas Cage's house. Totally touristy and totally fun. Afterwards we went shopping because California has the best shopping ever, then home to see my cousins adorable house that is soooo relaxing to be at, then off again to cheesecake factory for salmon (go me!) and a heifewezen, more shopping, and then to the theater to see No Reservations (been dying to see that movie, so has A, it was fabulous!).

Friday we headed off on her Vespa scooter back to Newport Beach and the second pier to rent beach cruiser bikes. Mine was pink : ) . I have pictures but don't want to unplug anything on their computer to get the pictures on so they will have to wait. We cruised up and down Newport Beach for three hours stopping for lunch at BJ's brewery and more shopping. We were so tired we came home and slept outside on her recliner for an hour and a half before we had shrimp scampi at home for dinner and then headed back out to Main Street in Huntington Beach where the nightlife is. Out to Hurricane's where it took me WAY too long to get comfortable (but only two drinks!) and we got in our dancing and took off, stopping on the way home for boxes of Red Vines. Mmmm.

I've had SO much fun I could almost go home today and be completely satisfied!! The weather has been SO beautifully perfect it's amazing. I would totally consider living here. I never would want to live in Santa Cruz, but here there's a different vibe... less New Agey than Santa Cruz. Of course Brando and I not having gone to college presents more of a problem to be able to make the kind of income you need to live here. So maybe in ten years. Hehe.

I'm off!

And freaked the heck out!!!!! But I'll be okay. I want to make sure I DO enough so I don't get bored and miss my kiddos! I don't have money to shop so I have to come up with enough free stuff to do!!

The Year of Seafood

I don't eat seafood.

I just don't.

Until this year. This year I decided I'm 26 I'm eating seafood or going to learn to like it whatever it takes. For my birthday I ate shrimp with Kels and stuffed down three as fast as I could while making a face as she fired twenty questions at me. When I was done, I said, "Did you HAVE to have a play by play every minute?!" The face I made was because of the texture, the shrimp itself was delicious.

Tonight we went to a dinner with Brando's study group at one of the guy's houses and they made delicious looking salmon and chicken with avocado salsa. I ate the salmon. And seconds and thirds. It was DELICIOUS. I'm so proud of myself. I'm 26 and I eat seafood.

PS Oh I got my first lease yesterday as part of my job! I got a $25 gift certificate to Pier 1 for it too!

Ended Math Class AND accepted a Job Offer in One Day!!

Whoohoo!! I am totally going to have an office, bonuses, BRAND NEW property we'll be opening up. SO. FREAKIN. EXCITING. The position I'll be in is a coveted one in the industry and I'm so in awe that I got it. And SO. EXCITED.

Last math class today! It was the final. Thanks for all the good luck wishes - I think they helped : ) . I studied last night at Starbucks and got off work early today to hit the tutor to clarify a few things before the final. I was the first one done out of the three of us study partners which surprised me - I always thought I took the longest on tests out of the three of us. Up until this point we've taken them separately though so I had no idea. Don't know what my grade is yet but I feel like I did pretty well. I double checked, changed a few answers, crossed my fingers, and had a beer with the girls when I was done.

And some awesome sex when I got home. Oh and together Brando and I with the job offers we've accepted will be pulling in well over what we figured we need to make it. On top of that we're selling our house in Marble Falls so if that sells soon we'll be able to pay off our debt. More crossed fingers!

Shawners says,

"Give this to Mommy please: Hugs and kisses."

Brando tells me this after I got home tonight after going over to a friend's after class to study for our final on Wednesday. Wish me luck! With working all the time lately I need it.

"Because there's six flags on the sign"

And that's why it's called Six Flags, Shawners says.

We've had the awesome opportunity to go there two. weekends. in. a. row. - for less than the cost of one person per time! Last weekend we had three free tickets and only had to pay for Brando's ticket. The four of us went and enjoyed the kiddie rides and the water park with the boys. THIS weekend friends of ours were going and wanted us to come with. Saturday night I discovered we could go for $10/person as a friend with their season passes. Awesome.

So yesterday we went and this time rode the coasters. There were three of us couples - two of us were married and the other are boyfriend and girlfriend, our boys, and one of the couples little toddler girl. So we all took turns watching the kids and rode Tony Hawk's Big Spin, The Poltergeist, Superman, and the big water slides in the water park. It's been years since I rode a rollercoaster - Aime said I whimpered on the Superman, Rian just laughed at me on the Tony Hawk's Big Spin, and Brando laughed at me on the Poltergeist (0-60 in a few seconds) with my alternate screaming and laughing. I'm pretty sure my throat was soar after that one.

Justinbustin went on his first roller coaster and big water slide ever yesterday! I asked him how he liked it and he says, "Fun and scary." He went on one waterslide, loved it, and then went on the The Twister waterslide and screamed the whole time. He totally went on a different waterslide afterwards though. I am so proud of him.

I've never had so much fun with two couples in my life! One of the couples is a couple who have been coming over the past few weekends... at 11pm at night and staying until 3am or 5am because well, that's when we have time to hang out these days : ) . And they rock. The other couple we actually met the couple who has been coming over through and were clients of Brando's a year ago. This is the second time we've been able to hang out with them because they live way down south, and it was so much fun. We introduced them to our favorite, Chipotle, after the park, and Chipotle's fabulous $3 margaritas, and had a great time at dinner. Brando was singing Adam Sandler's first CD "Mop, mop, mop all day long. Mop, mop, mop while I sing this song." in the voice Adam sings it in, and Aime says, "A year ago when we met Brando I never imagined I'd be sitting here listening him to sing a song in that voice. He was so professional." Brando says we all have the different hats we wear.

I had so much fun! Now with today off I'm kicking back with the kids and finishing up studying for my final exam on Wednesday. Unfortunately I skipped out on studying with the group yesterday when I went to Six Flags, and they weren't able to meet in the evening. So I'll go over to one of the girls house today and go over the review and homework with her and that'll be good. Tomorrow I go back to work. Brando went back to work today and I so still haven't found a babysitter for Tuesday and Thursday. My Starbucks girl is busy with company this week and I'm so screwed if I don't start making some phone calls!! Ahhh!!! I think figuring out somebody to babysit is the hardest part of working!