Yellow Wallpaper

You know how sometimes you have 'one of those days'? I feel like it's 'one of those weeks'. The silly thing is, nothing major has gone wrong.. I've just been in a bad mood and not able to pull myself out of it very well. The kids haven't been sleeping well and so they've been grumpy so that hasn't helped. S-Boogie seems to be doing everything possible to assure that I will gladly hand her off to school next week without any tears or regrets. I've been feeling lazy and we haven't been able to go to the pool because her ear was still healing. So that has meant many days spent sitting around the house getting bored and picking on each other. On Wednesday morning I took them into the doctor to check her ear. She passed with flying colors, but the kids spent at least five minutes fighting over the lone chair in the exam room. I finally got fed up and put the chair out in the hall. One of the nurses gave me a funny look, but I don't care becaus...

I admit that I hold back on a lot of things on my blog for fear of offending people. I tend to overshare some things on my blog, but generally avoid making the kind of snarky judgements that other people can get away with on theirs. In real life I'm actually fairly judgemental but usually keep it to myself or complain to my husband when no one is listening. There's one issue that I know everyone is opinionated about and I've been scared to say anything for fear of offending: baby names. What is up with the things some people name their kids? The Social Security Administration just released their list of popular names from 2008, and the website is an awesome place to waste your time. I will refrain from sharing too many of my opinions, but there are a few issues I really want to complain about. I randomly looked up a few states to compare their most popular names and was not surprised by the results (for example, Angel is the number 3 name in California). What I didn't ...

On Saturday we had another wonderful family day. We drove out the organic farm that delivers our weekly produce bin and took a tour. The sun was shining and the hills were turning from the green of spring to the brown of summer. We hiked all over the farm and got smell citrus blossoms (the most heavenly scent in the world), see tadpoles in a pond, and even pick our own fresh strawberries--which we got to take home for free! After a picnic lunch in the shade we headed home, but had to stop at Target on the way for a few things. While we were there we impulsively bought an ice cream maker and supplies, then came home and made a gallon of homemade strawberry ice cream with our fresh, organic strawberries. We were tired and a little sunburnt by the end of the day, but it was so much fun that it was totally worth it. On Saturday we had another outing as a family, this time to an organic farm. It ended up being a hotter day than I had expected and the sun really beat down us. The tour was al...

I've been reading a lot lately about ways to save the earth like using your car less often, buying local food, recycling, and all that "crunchy granola" stuff. I'm a big fan of it, but the truth is that I usually end up being lazy and driving my car to the supermarket to get some food that's been shipped halfway around the world. Since moving here, however, we've been working hard to make some lifestyle changes that I hope will benefit the environment. The main reason we've been doing them is because we're poor, but I hope the good karma from earth-friendly living will help us out in the long run. First of all, we've started drying our clothes on a clothesline instead of in the dryer. The weather here is hot and sunny, and we have to pay one dollar per load of laundry, so the choice was simple. Plus we have a little patio on the back of our apartment that's just right for clothes drying. I'm still trying to decide if I want to pay for dryi...

Fifty-six people have taken my quiz, and the answers match what I had predicted from the outset. In fact, majority opinion matches all the animals in the book . If I had more time and a good reason to do it, I'd survey a bunch of books to see what kind of gender biases farm animals are subjected to in the name of children's literature. Now let's analyze the results: Pig: Three quarters of the responses were for male, one quarter for female. The book actually has two pigs and uses "they", so this won't match up. Pig is one that can kind of go both ways, but I generally think of pigs as being male. The Three Little Pigs are usually male, and so are Wilbur and Babe, so there's some strong cultural conditioning going on there. Horse: The same split: three quarters were male, one quarter female. In the book, Horse is referred to as "he". As one commenter pointed out, horse and cow are often seen as a pair, and since cows are obviously female (except i...

When Mr. Fob and I were dating seven years ago, he got a new car. I went with him to the dealership to look at it and pick it out; I remember feeling funny because at the time we were just dating, but starting to get serious, so I was thinking that at some point the car would be "ours" and not just "his". I'd never owned a car before, and for several years the car was fabulous. It has air conditioning and a CD player, both features I had never been blessed to have in a vehicle before. It's been a good little car and we've appreciated having it. Unfortunately, like many relationships, ours is getting a little stale. I've grown tired of our car's flaws, like no remote entry and a not-so-powerful engine. The cramped backseat and tiny trunk are also getting on my nerves. Many of my friends have recently acquired new cars or vans and I'm beginning to feel some serious envy of their new vehicles. Today we had a one-day fling with a Toyota Sienna, a...

When I was in Las Vegas last month, my mom and I went to the mall to buy me some new shoes. We went to a store that sells quality, comfortable shoes. Their image is very practical and certainly not flashy like many of the other apparel stores in the mall. I thought it was the sort of store where you go to buy some sturdy, basic shoes that will keep your feet happy for a while. Then I got home and opened up the catalog they had slipped into my bag. I was confronted by a full-page picture of a lady with sand stuck to her butt. And a guy staring at her (notice that he's not looking at her shoes--I didn't notice them at first either). All the other pictures in the catalog are just as ridiculous. Lean women in tiny sports bras and shorts--oh, and athletic shoes. A girl hiking in a ridiculous looking tube top. A close up of a woman holding flip flops at her waist, so the picture is just flip flops and bikini bottom. I don't know if all the ads come from the shoe companies (like ...

Thanks to Nemesis I am now watching Masterpiece Theater on Sunday nights. To accompany my TV viewing I either eat low-fat ice cream or air-popped popcorn. Sometimes I work on counted cross stitch. Then I make sure I take my fiber pills before going to bed.

Because I'm avoiding writing the syllabus for my class and because this blog has become too boring lately. 1. Even though I'm morally opposed to junk food and I'm trying to cut down on processed foods, I'm in love with Cheetos. I adore them. 2. I also think I have a crush on Gwen Stefani . She is so cool. Her name is Gwen and I love that name. And she breastfeeds her kids in public. Not to mention the fact that she makes awesome music and wears funky clothes. 3. When we were at a beach in Hawaii that didn't have a bathroom, I hid behind some bushes and changed my tampon. I've never done that before. 4. My first semester teaching I had a girl in my class who was in a wheelchair and had a helper dog. They sat up at the front of the class every day. One day I had really bad gas and I just couldn't keep it in, so I let a bit slip out. At the end of class a girl sitting up front turned and said to the dog "Misty, you are so stinky today!". I didn't ...

This morning on the way to the library I had a sudden urge to be spontaneous. Instead of going home for lunch, the kids and I decided to swing by McDonald's and get some lunch to take to the park. I was going to write a post about how I decided to eat at McDonald's instead of the local place across the street. The local place has better tasting food, but they don't have a drive thru . They also don't have healthy kids meal options like apples and milk. So I sold my soul to corporate America all for the sake of saving money and avoiding feeding soda to my children. Like I said, while at the park eating I was writing a post in my head about how it's OK to not always be "perfect". Wiggle room in the budget (and the diet) for Happy Meals is not a bad thing. Then it turned out that S-Boogie was too distracted by the playground to eat any of her lunch. I wrapped her cheeseburger and apples back up and put them in the bag. I left the bag on the picnic table and...

This post goes along with the spirit of the last post, and was inspired by today's featured article on MSN that discussed "10 gifts that will make her cringe". The article mentioned things like wilted bouquets from the supermarket, stuffed animals, trashy lingerie and small appliances. I thought it was interesting. And so, in that vein, I offer 5 gift suggestions that would definitely not make me cringe. (Disclaimer: this list is purely for wishful thinking purposes. I already know that Master Fob can probably not afford any of these things, unless he has a secret Swiss bank account that I don't know about. I'm actually looking forward to freshly barbecued cheeseburgers and a nice "foot" massage) 1. A few nights at Ko Olina resort 2. A pound of Godiva chocolate 3. Dinner for 2 at the Melting Pot 4. Tickets to the upcoming Michael Buble concert 5. A couples session at a day spa where we could get massages and facials

Over the last few years, I have suddenly become aware that there are gay people in the world (if anyone here also reads Master Fob's blog, you will know why). I honestly don't remember thinking much about gay people during high school or even my first few years at school before my mission. I went to high school back when it wasn't that cool to admit to being gay, and most people at my school were members of ethnic groups that still don't think it's very cool to be gay (don't mean to be racist, but it's still mostly OK to be white and gay, but not Samoan and gay). So yeah, didn't think about it, and I honestly didn't care that much. But, now that it's become more of a personal issue for me, I have to confess that I spend way too much time lately fixing up my "gaydar" and trying to figure out who just might be hiding something. Especially since I live in an environment where very few people are out and most are hiding way in the back of ...

Thank you for pointing that out, S-Boogie.

Yesterday my two year old said the word "sex" for the first time. I'm not sure if I should be amused or frightened.

Yesterday I ate a rather large bag of Doritos that I had been saving for a picnic. This morning I got mad at S-Boogie because she was kicking me while I was trying to change her diaper, so I slapped her on the leg. She looked at me and slapped me on the arm and said "mommy owie too". I guess I won't do that again... I've been getting S-Boogie ready for bed in time to watch Jeopardy at 7:30, even though I know TV rots her brain. Sometimes I pick my nose while I am driving in my car. I like to read the obituaries and am especially fascinated by younger people dying in strange and tragic ways. Some days I don't brush my teeth until I go to sleep at night. I really like that song by George Michael about having a quickie in his car and that one about being "too close" because they turn me on. I haven't vacuumed my living room floor for over two months.