Conductor or Insulator? Is that the question?

So we are on our way to school and we have one of those conversations. The one where Travis is being curious about something and wants me to explain. He ask me what those tall electric poll are made out of. I told him they were tall pine trees. He asked what was in the middle and I told him they were solid wood so he wanted to know how the electricity got to houses. I told him through those "breakers" and of course he corrected me and said they were called "transformers." Yeah, whatever! He said he thought electricity ran up through the electric poles. (My teacher voice starts here:) " No, honey wood is a insulator and electricity can't run through it." He said, "What did you say?" So I start explaining, " There are insulators and conductors and insulators keep electricity..." He told me to stop. He said, " When am I suppose to learn this?" I told him in 4th grade. He said, " Don't tell me then, this is the reason I am so smart. You have to tell me everything before I actually am suppose to learn it. Just let me learn it in 4th grade so I don't already know it before the teacher tells us about it." Sheesh! Fine! He's the one always wondering! These conversations occur regularly. But this is the first time he hasn't wanted me to tell him all about it or find a book to learn more. This is what it is like to be a teachers kid. Believe me I know, I was one! Everyday is a lesson! ;)

*** I totally mixed up the conductors and insulators on here. Just figured that out when I read it again today (2-9-10). Fixed it. Hope I didn't mix it up when I was telling Travis! hmmmmm?

O-M-G! What a time!!!

It's been a while, I know. I was so going to do this Monday or Tuesday but things got crazy. This weekend was great. Christie, Travis, and I went to explore Lake Catherine. Wow! Love it. We went on the Falls Trail where you go up to a waterfall. It was so pretty. Everything was wonderful, then the sky opened and it started to pour. We had to walk for about a mile in the rain. I felt like a kid again. It sucked but was also pretty fun at the same time. We are so going back this weekend with my camera! Sunday was spent planting my moms plants from her old house. She couldn't just leave them; they had to come too. And a total plus was that I got some more. Monday, I actually went running for the first time in forever. It felt so great hiking that I decided I would start running again. Well, it was so much colder than it was when we went hiking and I think my ears about froze off. I am still sore from that run but I think I will try again today but I'm going to let it warm up some. Maybe around noon. Oh and I got 15 applications sent off last week. So now I play the waiting game. I sure hope I can get a job in the hot springs area so I can still work at the YMCA. I really enjoy it there. So calm!

Yesterday, **** hit the fan! To fill you in a little. We have been waiting since Thanksgiving to get a water permit. No one wants to give us one. Someone from the state told my septic that it was approved, then the septic guy told my contractor, and he cleared the land and brought in the house. Still no sight of this water permit. Finally, I got tired of hearing "It's in the mail." Now seriously, don't tell a mailman that. He has eyes all around the dang post office. If it was in the mail, someone would have seen it. So I called the Malvern Health Department to find out that the State also failed to application for a water permit. WTH! So we have been waiting for well over a month for something that didn't freakin exsist. So now we have a house on our property that can't even be lived in because no one will give us water. This is ridicilous. So I called my contractor and told him in a round about "FRIENDLY" way that he better fix this and we will not be paying anymore money. Like my mom really wants to end her retirement in a lawsuit cause I was ready to call the lawyer. The contractor calls me back and tells me that they are putting in the more expensive (way more expensive) water treatment plant for us, and getting it all done on Friday. Yeah, I would love to see this. He is also suppose to be cutting my mom a check for rent since they have been having to pay rent for two extra months. And he is eating the difference. Hopefully, my prayers have been answered cause I was on my knees in prayer. For heavens sake, I just want my mom a house to retire and play in the flowers. Please, just give us water to use the toliet! Not funny really!

Anyways, as the world turns. We shall see the outcome to this soap opera! Plus the father had an episode yesterday to top the whole thing off and I thought my sister was going to have a nervous breakdown. Seriously, never ending! At least my homestead is calm, and I can thank Douglas Ray Barnett for that! LOVE MY HUSBAND...he is my worldly savior only second to my heavenly savior! ;)

My PRECIOUS lil boy

I thought I might have to kill my kid again this morning because he is up playing the computer, some game he is obsessed with these days. When I look at his homework folder and come to find out it is Friday. OH crap, Friday is always test day. And of course I haven't made sure he did any studying! By the time I come home from work, I have to cook, clean, and get everyone ready for bed. So I forget all about homework and stuff cause Doug usually makes sure he does his homework. That was done but he hadn't studied a lick! So I have to give him THE SPEECH again! "You aren't going to be able to stay a child forever. You will have to start being responsible for doing thing on your own and one of those things is STUDYING." Of course I hear the same ol, "Awww, I don't want to grow up." Who DOES? So he is reminded that God only had us be kids long enough to learn all the things we need to know to be GREAT adults. He hears this speech enough, why isn't he getting it?? Oh yeah, he's only 9. But I only have 9 more years to make sure he learns everything he knows to be a good man. Being a parent is stressful!

So he starts studying his spelling words, 10 minutes before we have to walk out the door. He can spell but he is going to do bad on this one cause they are a combination of compound words and hyphened and seperated words. He couldn't rememeber which was which. So I am sitting there freakin out on him when it is really all my fault cause I am not there in the afternoons with him to make sure he is doing his work. When I start stressing my blood pressure goes up and I start getting mad. Part of my anxiety problem and usually quit medicated for such things. So I stay pretty calm until he figures out he still has to study for his vocabulary test. OMG...the blood pressure just went through the roof. I am so mad right now I could probably spit bullets!!! He starts calling out definations and words when he says, " Something that you love and you keep close to you." or something to those words. Then he says, "Precious, Me, MOM, I'm precious to you." That was it. That is all it took. Anger gone for the heart and love has found it's way back in through my PRECIOUS lil boy!!! God is good! So I decided to not kill him this moring and let him live. Maybe he is a great manipulator, but who cares. He is still precious!!!

Not much to say...First time ever

The weekend has come and gone very quickly. I didn't work Monday cause of MLK day. The parents and I went to eat and sign more papers for their house. Then my sister and I went shopping for a book she really wanted. We ended up at Lowe's to look for floors and backsplashes and counter tops at her/my house. Travis had to go to school yesterday thus not having any african americans at his school. We picked Travis up at the bus stop, ran to walmart, and played at the neighbor's/brother-in-laws house. Then they came over for taco night. That about sums up my weekend/MLK day. Not very exciting but spent with family and that always makes me happy. Doug is feeling better today. Which makes me feel better. I still have applications to fill out but not feeling the need to get right on those. My sister bought the newest Van Alen Legacy: The Blue Bloods novel yesterday for her class. She said I could read it first so I fell OBLIGATED to read it quickly so I can return it to her. HA! Anything to put off those stinkin applications! Plus, I really need to be watching videos on AETN for get my 60 hours of professional development. Since I didn't teach this year, I am on my own! It will all get done, but AFTER my book! ;) Must get reading!

Procrastination Is My Middle Name

Instead of working on my applications, I chose to make my blog pretty. I don't know if you could call this procrastination or just chosing to do what I want to do and that is not applications. I have filled out all of the easy stuff like name, address, schools, jobs, blah blah blah. Now I have to do the dumb parts like why did I want to become a teacher or why do I want to teach at this school? The thing I don't understand is why they ask these same questions. Surely everyone's answers are the same. It's the answers the school wants to hear. So I guess I will mouth up some bs to write. The truth is of course we want to teach or we wouldnt have gone to school for it. The other truth is we want to teach in your district cause it is either in driving distance or it is just plainly a job. I honestly don't know if one school is better than the other until I am there. So!!! I'll do it later!

Travis is into this stuff called k'nex. My brother in law and him spent all day making this roller coaster. It was really awesome but contains over 2000 pieces. CRAZY. I DONT have the patience for all of that. Well they come with an instruction manual to make different things. The roller coaster makes another coaster like thing. He also go another box of k'nex that make 4 different things too. And last he got 4 small connect trucks that put together to make a monster truck. So that is fine and dandy. He is playing with it and reading the manual and says " I wonder if I can make up my own toy." Finally, imagination!

He has made two different "things." hmmmmm maybe he willl be an engineer??? And then the next weekend, Doug and Travis spent all weekend building a Lego car. That is their new hobby. They started it about a 3 years ago. (When Travis was old enough) And they have quite the selection. Doug is going to put them all on shelves for display in his man cave. Right now they are all in a kitchen cabinet.

I was just looking at his report card and see that his lowest A (93) is in reading. Of course! And his highest A (98) is in math. He absolutely loves math. From the time he was little we would be in the car and he would make up a math problem and ask me to solve it. No kidding. Now he is working on 6th grade math. We will be laying in bed and he will tell me he can't sleep cause he can't stop thinking about math problems. Seriously, what is wrong with my child? I never had that problem when I was trying to go to sleep!! Sheesh!

So I am playing the old mother's cupboard game called Clean out the pantry! Yeah, I've made up the game but my family knows exactly what it is when I say we are going to play it. It is when I use my imagination to use what we have to make a meal. Creative, huh. No, it's called learning to be without! Believe me it is not always good and usually isn't healthy (fried). Cause anything taste good fried, right? We had fried catfish and hushpuppies. I know I could have baked the dang fish but I hate baked fish. It is so slimmy. And the texture is too much for me. owwww. I have no idea what I am going to make today. I think some sort of noodle dish since I have noodles and sauce. But I have no hamburger meat so it will have to have chicken or something. Fish? J/K. To off balance the fried fish last night, I just had cottage cheese and crackers. I'm out of coffee and creamer so I will have to go to the store anyway. You don't want to see me without coffee!

We started a caffine experiment at school last night. We let all of our kids get a cup of coffee. Of course we jazzed it up with yummy creamer. So far it has worked with our add kids. We will continue the experiment until we can really tell if it makes a different and then we are giving our parents a written proof, that caffiene helps calm overstimulated children. I haven't been able to get any pic of my lil hispanics cause they have been gone but I did get a pic of Bri Bri! She reminds me of a lil Oprah. Too cute.

Must Have Pretties

So I just got finished looking at one of my friends blog, Kristy. Her blog is so pretty and mine is NOT. I must work on that this weekend. I hear the house being delivered so I'm going to be nosey. I guess I better get dressed first. ha!

Peeking from my back porch (this is zoomed)

From the front street

Practice makes perfect...yeah...in a perfect world!!!

Well the job at Cutter Morning Star was already filled. BUT there is a job open at HOPE. OMG...and the husband wants me to apply. That is like an hour away...ONE WAY. He said that he enjoyed commuting for an hour when he had too. Well good for him. I'm sure I'm not going to enjoy it. The ride home, possibly. But I couldn't be on time for my own funeral so I can't see leaving an hour early for school. But I'm doing it anyway, for the family. Doug has been making sacifices for long enough. We have been making the bills and still have enough for food and gas and the essentials. But Doug is use to living on a $1000 cushion and this is freakin him out. Pay check to pay check is not cool to him. So I'm doing what is best for the marriage. Who knows I may not even get the job. Anyway, I am still applying EVERYWHERE for a teaching job next year. I have like 15 applications to fill out and send off in a packet. I hope to get these all done and sent off by tomorrow.

One of our kids got suppended from our program for a week for kicking Angela (the director) in the stomach and trying to push her down the stairs. Yeah, distrubing. But I am really getting a good lesson with these kind of kids. I feel like I have a better understanding of how to deal with them. The reality is...their life sucks and they deal with it with distrustive behavior. I pray for these kids that they are able to reach out of what they are in and better their life. That is why the YMCA is so important. It is an outlet to them. When they were asked to name 1 place they feel safe. Over half of them said the Y. Honestly, it is probably the only time they can relax! We are starting a Mentoring program soon with some of the troubled children and partnering them up with successful Minority Men and Women. It is going to be amazing.

Travis made the All A's Semester Honor Roll. He got a certificate. It made him feel really good. He has also started Hatchet and LOVES it. I knew he would but he never believes me when I suggest a book. I suggested the Hank The Cow Dog series and he love those. Don't ya know, parents are stupid. I talked with Doug about going to church and how guilty Ive been feeling and we are going to start Glen Rose Baptist again. They are getting a new preacher and I think it will be a fresh start. Travis already goes and has a lot of friends there so we might as well go and try to make some friends here. I know this is sad but I haven't really minded not having friends here. I guess cause my husband and sister are my best friends and I don't feel like I'm really missing out on anything.

My parent's house is supposed to be delieved and set up today. I'm excited. Hope it doesn't rain. They still have to get electric and water hooked up but that shouldn't take more than two weeks at the most. My parents have really tried to work on patience during this process. I still remember when we were building our house. I thought I was going to go crazy waiting on things. It is a true test of patience. I think I am still being tested. I guess I didn't learn my lesson.