Life as a Leach

I signed up for two one-credit MSDE technology classes so that I would have the credits I needed for my APC (Advanced Professional Certificate = big pay raise!) Last week, I took Publisher and Digital Scrapbooking, and this week I am learning about Senteo clickers. I was already pretty familiar with Publisher since I use it for my weekly newsletter, but the digital scrapbooking was all new to me. I learned that you can use www.scrapbookflair.com , which is a free program that you download. While you won't get quite as many choices as you would with a program you buy, IT'S FREE!!!!! I made a bunch of pages and am excited about a new hobby that I don't really have time for! :) I had a negative view of Senteo clickers, but I quickly learned that you can do a lot with them without much effort. Basically, you put in questions/answers into the program and the students use the clickers to choose the correct answer to the questions. They can get individual feedback on how t...

Caleb has started biting with vengence. It really hurts!! It seems to have come out of nowhere, but he bit me three times today and Matt several times as well. We've been thumping his lip hard, but I think we're going to have to take it to the next level. He's also having some eating issues.....as in, he won't eat any vegetables at all! Matt's tactic of forcing the food down his throat doesn't seem to be working as well as he'd hoped (insert sarcasm here...), but my idea of mixing them with tastier foods isn't cutting it either. If anybody has any new ideas of how we can stop the biting and start getting Caleb to eat some veggies, I would appreciate them! :)

Matt wanted to go to the Woodstock museum, so we headed out after going to the Balliwick Ranch. We found it in Carla and set out to: yet again, the middle of nowhere!! We end up at this guy's house and he comes down to see what we need. Turns out, that IS the Woodstock museum!! This guy was straight out of Woodstock, complete with big hair, nasty beard, and the no-shower stench. He then goes on to tell us all about his Hydrogen Peroxide pool...yes, he was serious! "Chlorine is poison to your body, man!" Of course, when we ask where the festival museum is, the guy goes on a big rant about how Woodstock isn't about the music, but about the lifestyle . It's all about taking care of the world and living a life of love (and smoking a lot of pot....) After wayyyyy too long, we finally managed to get ourselves out of there (and we never even left the car!) and off to the town of Woodstock. Once again, we felt like we stepped into the '60s! People everywher...

On Thursday, we went to the Balliwick Ranch and Discovery Zoo . We found this on a flyer in our inn, and decided to check it out. Well, when we drove up there, we saw several peacocks and a bunch of horses right out in the parking area! We paid our money and decided to get a bottle of milk for Caleb to feed to the baby lambs. When we got out to the ranch, you could literally walk up to any of the fenced in areas and pet the animals! They had the traditional farm animals (goats, horses, pigs, chickens, etc.) and then also had more exotic animals like camels, llamas, a zebra, ostriches, etc. Can I just tell you that Caleb LOVED every minute of it!!!! His favorites were the parrots, who talked and fought with each other constantly. The only thing he was a little scared of was actually my favorite of all--the baby camel! He was so cute and soft--I really wanted to take him home, but Matt said that since we can't have goats per our HOA, he doubted that we could have a camel! We made our...

Up until now, our trip has been a bit of a disappointment. Don't worry, it is about to get a lot better! After a very disappointing trip to the Petrified (they meant falling apart) Creatures museum, we went to the butterfly conservatory. When Carla got us to the conservatory, there was a tiny sign in the front of a huge field with a path that led to who knows where. We were pretty much figuring on being led to a serial killer's house to be his next victims, but we decided to take the chance and have a bit of an adventure. We finally come to the front of the conservatory, pay our money (everything is grossly overpriced in NY) and go in. We were cautious about this, considering the misfortunes we'd had until now. Well, it exceeded our expectations by a mile! I felt like I stepped into the rainforest. There were butterflies and birds flying around everywhere! At the front of the room was a pretty multicolored bird that made a ton of noise. Caleb really liked him! Soon, the bir...

So, as we were planning our trip, I found a site for the Petrified Creatures Museum. They showed lots of dinosaurs and kids climbing on them and such. There was a cost (no specifics given), but it was tax deductible. We figured that Caleb would love it and that it would be a fun place to go. Well, Caleb DID love it, but we felt like it was a rip-off! Because you have to pay before you go out the back door and into the outdoor museum, we couldn't peek to decide if it was worth it or not. $18 later ($9 a person--thankfully, Caleb was free!) we realized that we had just wasted a chunk of money. The dinosaurs were nothing but some plaster sculptures that were falling apart. Half of them even had tape around them to keep the kids off because they were dangerous! They had a few run-down displays that weren't even real fossils, and the information didn't look to have been updated in 20 years! There was a place were you could dig for fossils--this was nothing but a small rock pit. ...

When we finally got something to eat, we headed out to go to our inn . Carla told us that it was about 45 minutes from where we were, so we figured that it shouldn't be too long. Yes, well, Carla was measuring the miles and assuming we would be going 60 miles an hour. You can't go 60 miles an hour on one lane winding roads in the middle of the mountains! We saw a lot of farmland, wildlife ("BIRD! BIRD! BIRD!" says Caleb), and rundown trailers. Several times, Matt contemplated throwing Carla out the window. It was seriously the kind of area where you half expect a mad man to jump out in front of your car and kill you all, but no one would find you for several weeks until the next trucker comes through with his load of lumber! When we FINALLY got to the Bavarian Manor 3 1/2 hours later, the owner told us that there was a much simpler and more direct route that truly took only 45 minutes. Thanks a lot, Carla! She did redeem herself later on in the trip, so Matt decided t...

So after a *restful* night's sleep (I think we got all of 4 hours, since Caleb didn't fall asleep until 5 and woke up again at 6!) we got up, ate breakfast at the hotel, and packed up the car. Thankfully, Caleb was really good in the car and slept most of the way. It was another 2 1/2 hours to Cooperstown, and the trip was rather uneventful (thank goodness!) We went to the Baseball Hall of Fame , which Matt thoroughly enjoyed. It actually wasn't nearly as painful as I thought it would be. The room with the plaques got a little old though, since Matt has to read EVERY word on EVERY plaque. Then, of course, he has to share a story (or two, or ten) for each of the ball players! We didn't stay as long as I figured we would though, and I found myself asking if he wanted to stay longer! (stupid girl!) We were going in the little shops in the town when it started to POUR, which is oh-so-fun with a stroller. I hurried back to the car while Matt did a little more shopping. Then,...

We went to Coopertown, NY for Matt's 30th birthday. For baseball fans, this is like their Mecca. I'm not a baseball fan, so this was the most extreme sacrifice! The ride up was pretty uneventful, as Caleb is a pretty good car rider and we had lots of toys and books on hand if needed. We drove to Scranton, PA the first day and found a fun (but a bit run-down) park nearby. There was a really cool treehouse there and a pretty nice playground. Then, we put Carla (our GPS) to the test rying to find a Pizza Hut....she took us to a car wash! When we finally found the desired Pizza Hut (which made me ill, by the way!), it was very late for Caleb to eat dinner. We went back to the hotel and played in the pool to tire him out; then it was BEDTIME! Now the fun begins....we had been training Caleb to sleep in a little blow-up bed for weeks now in preparation for this trip. He had been really good about it...until we tried to put him in the bed in the hotel! He screamed, wandered, and talke...

In an effort to keep myself busy while Matt is gone, I have been crazy productive! Here's a list of what I've done so far: * Washed both cars * Geo fans installed * Began working on the will * Cleaned laundry room * Did 5 loads of laundry * Trimmed bushes and limbs off trees * Watered flowers every night * Stood in line for an hour to get a Wii fit * Painted counter chairs * Attempted to kill the hated elephant ears * Cleaned 3 out of 4 bathrooms * Washed marks off the walls * Took a Publisher class * Organized the play room * Paid bills * Cleaned out kitchen cabinets I'm sure there will more to come.... :) As of Friday 7/24: * Made dinner for my parents on Tuesday * Had mother-daughter bonding on Wednesday * Had my adopted daughters over for girl time on Thursday * Went swimming * Had Amy and the kids over for leftover night on Friday * Painted the storage cabinet in Caleb's bathroom--I'm on the 4th coat! * Learned how to do digital scrapbooking * Made 9 scrapbook ...

I've been inspired to start blogging again after reading the blogs of several of my friends (KN, LD, KG, MG, and GR, namely!) :) I have started up a new blog because this one is more just about life in general than Caleb's page. Of course, "life in general" does majorl include Caleb! Hopefully, I will be better with this one than I was with Caleb's page. Actually, I did pretty well until I got Facebook! So, what has been happening recently? Matt is away again, so Caleb and I are on our own. I am becoming quite self-sufficient though. I have been working in the yard, doing a lot of cleaning around the house, and am even 'getting fans installed in our bedrooms! (I'm not doing it, but scheduling it counts, right?) This is the first time that Caleb has really seemed to miss his daddy. He carries Matt's shoes around with him and repeats "Daddy" over and over again in a really pitiful voice. He constantly asks me "Where's Daddy?" I kn...