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December 30, 2004
Christmas etc
The holiday was holidayish. Christmas Eve we went to Tree's house and did Christmas with them, then we came home and Dan took the kids to his house for distraction while I did things I needed to do around home. They came home (with Jake driving the car. Don't ask) just in time to get to the family reunion where Santa comes and we have food and wonder why we're still carrying on the tradition started by 2 the family elders of 2 generations ago. We got the hell out of there by 6 and came home. The kids went to bed at 9 and Dan and I had fun doing things that grownups with kids do on Christmas eve. (we put some gifts out too).
Christmas morning the kids were up by 4:35 and we kept them in bed til just before 5am. Once they ripped into everything here, we went to mom's house and did the same thing there. After breakfast we dropped the kids at James's house and then came home to take a nap and watch a movie.
Everything was good on Christmas day day and then Christmas night became wiggy...the next day, even wiggier. It's all good now and I don't feel like recounting it. Since this is my blog, I'm allowed.
That's enough for now and I'd just like to report that I've hardly changed out of pajamas all week. yay!
Posted by krystal at 3:07 PM
11 years ago today
Trev was born. He, with his bowtie mouth and surly disposition, has made my life way more interesting. I can't say I've ever met a person more like myself and more unlike the general population.
Happy birthday Trevvydoodleschnoodlepoodle.
Posted by krystal at 2:59 PM | Comments (1)
December 24, 2004
Not a creature was stirring
I'm enjoying the silence of Christmas eve before the kids get up and we go up to visit Tree & co. I think I started waking up around 5 so Dan booted me out of bed (ok not really)so he could sleep. I get too excited and CAN'T sleep no matter what.
We're going to be running allover the place this weekend and eating lots of bad food ...can't wait.
Merry Christmas!
Posted by krystal at 6:59 AM | Comments (1)
December 22, 2004
dammit janet
Today on the way home I ran up on the curb and got a flat. So thanks to Tree who paid for my new tire and Mike, my ex-bro-in-law who came over and changed the tire, I'm good to go again. Why's it seem like I have to be reminded of how great people are to me by having something really shitty happen? I APPRECIATE THEM JUST FINE WITHOUT EXPENSIVE AND HUMILIATING REMINDERS TYVM. GOSH!
Posted by krystal at 5:58 PM
err
This picture got someone banned from fredtalk. I'm still ell oh elling.
Posted by krystal at 3:01 PM | Comments (3)
December 20, 2004
Teach your children well
P(6:56:25 PM): I told my mom that I was gonna ask her to take care of me after the surgery but A. wanted to do it. Instead of "oh how sweet" I got "I would've done it."
P(6:56:32 PM): LOL--oh well
Me (6:56:34 PM): hahaha
Me(6:56:48 PM): well THANKFULLY we're grown women
Me(6:57:00 PM): and they can disapprove all they want but it won't make our lives worse
P(6:57:58 PM): Zackly
P(7:01:04 PM): Only took me this many years to figure that out
Me (7:01:15 PM): my mom acknowledges Dan
Me (7:01:29 PM): of course, she looks at him like he's from Mars sometimes but I think she's mildly amused
P(7:02:29 PM): Why can't they just say "hey, she's happy" and be done with it?
P(7:02:36 PM): Are you taking notes for when your kids are older?
Me (7:03:50 PM): yeah, I said to jake the other day "some girl called and I called her a slut and hung up"
Me (7:04:05 PM): I was just kidding but the mortified look on his face was priceless
Posted by krystal at 7:05 PM
In other D.A.R.E. news
Education Journal Gives DARE, Other Student Anti-Drug Programs Failing Grade
August 8, 2002 - Chapel Hill, NC, USA
Popular Programs Either Don't Work Or Go Untested, Study Says
Chapel Hill, NC: The nation's three leading student drug prevention programs are either ineffective or sorely unevaluated, according to a study published this month in the journal Health Education Research. Programs highlighted in the study include McGruff's Drug Prevention and Child Protection, Here's Looking at You 2000, and DARE.
These programs are "not a very good use of taxpayer money," lead researcher Denise Hallfors of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation told the Associated Press. A previous evaluation conducted by Hallfors in 2000 reported similar results, noting specifically that the DARE program fails to have a long-term behavioral impact on teens.
To date, more than 30 studies, including those by the National Academy of Sciences, the University of Illinois, and a 10-year evaluation by the University of Kentucky, have criticized DARE's effectiveness. The largest of these, conducted jointly by the U.S. Justice Department and the Research Triangle Institute in North Carolina concluded that DARE has a "limited to essentially nonexistent effect" on adolescent drug use.
In response to this research, as well as criticism from the Department of Education that the program lacks scientific merit, DARE announced last year that it would be changing its curriculum. The organization is currently conducting a 5-year study to evaluate the new curriculum, during which time the program continues to receive several million dollars in annual federal funding from the Department of Education, Department of Justice and the Department of Defense.
The DARE program currently pays and trains some 30,000 police officers to teach anti-drug lessons in an estimated 75 percent of school districts nationwide and in more than 50 countries. Recently, however, several school districts have begun pulling the plug on the drug prevention program, including Salt Lake City, Fort Worth (TX), and Jacksonville (FL). This week, Cincinnati city council officials also voted 6-3 in favor of scrapping the program, arguing that police officers' time would be better served on foot patrol.
For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre or Paul Armentano of The NORML Foundation at (202) 483-8751. Abstracts of the Health Education Research report are available online at: http://her.oupjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/17/4/461
Posted by krystal at 6:47 PM
D.A.R.E
Trevor: Papa, I won the speech contest for D.A.R.E. at our school, do you want to come and see me when I give the speech?
Papa: Sure! I'll come but I'll be drunk.
James: I'll come too, I'm gonna get high first.
Posted by krystal at 8:44 AM
December 15, 2004
Why does the chicken cross the playground?
To get to the other slide.
I had my dad/daughter date with dad tonight. We got mom's shopping done toot de suite and went to Cheeseburger in Paradise to have dinner and beer. I love how we've got mom pegged. New earrings? check. Shoes? check. Something for the kitchen? check. done, let's get beer.
The kids stayed home while we went. Stacy called as I was leaving to see if her kids could come play. I told her "send em on, but I won't be here, Dominos pizza is on the way, there's plenty". So when I got home the kids had moving box forts allover the house and the pizza was gone but everyone was happy and the house was generally clean.
This weekend I'm gonna finish my shopping and wrap all of this stuff that's in the house. I love Christmas but I'm just about ready for it to be done now.
Posted by krystal at 8:18 PM | Comments (1)
December 14, 2004
shoooooooooooes
These are my new shoes. Tree's mom got em for me for Christmas and I love them x 100.
Posted by krystal at 4:55 AM
done dirt cheap
It's weekend update time again. Close your eyes, this will be painless. (if you just don't read it).
Thursday I slept most of the day and then wandered around the house doing random chores til time for Trev's tkd and Jake's hockey, where not only did my boy's team win, but he also scored a goal. booyah. It's only too bad that I already despised him for bringing home the most shitty grades I've ever seen.
Friday Stacy and I went to Hard Times at around 11 where we drank ourselves silly, played darts and pool and danced to Waylon. She's not gone yet but I think the sendoff was fitting.
Saturday we got up bright and prettyfuckingearly and got our Christmas tree. 
My family has some cool traditions and going to chop down the tree is one of them that I know the kids will remember. I hope they remember the best parts like the hot chocolate and the cool tree-bagging machine and how we all had to agree on the tree. I hope they do not remember the parts like the rain and cold and mud and getting lost on the way home because I have no sense of direction and neither does Dan apparently :)
Saturday afternoon Tree came over and we went for our massages at Ambiance. Dan kept the kiddies (awe what a great boyfriend!) and we even had time for a drink afterwards. I wonder what poor people do on their Saturdays? Saturday night was an especially early bed time since I'd woken up at 4somethinggodawful early in the morning in a complete panic about not taking the trash barrel to the curb.
Sunday we decorated the tree, ate bagle bites and I took the kids to James since he's the babysitter for one final week.
Dan took me to dinner at Damon's where we ate entirely too much food and then went to the movies to see The Incredibles. It is with much self-loathing that I report we then rushed home to watch the final episode of Survivor. We're nerds but I like it that way.
Today I couldn't sleep because I was so excited about having just 2 more days of night shift! I got all of my wrapping done and fixed up my beer bread gift basket thingys and cleaned the house up and did all of the laundry. I finally faced my Christmas list and I see that I have quite a bit of shopping left to do. It's ok though, I'll get it done. I hope.
Posted by krystal at 3:24 AM
December 9, 2004
Jingle deez bells, biotch.
I waited up for the kids' bus to come and spoke with the bus driver (who had black teeth). She said she'd keep an eye out for Kendall and her bully. Everyone's happy now except Trev who didn't get to karate chop anyone.
***
Thursday is tkd and hockey. Is it wrong to want Jake's team to lose so this can be over? Ok, fine. I hope they win. (lies)
***
Friday I'll have lunch with Stacy. She and her family move to Puerto Rico next week. I'm heartbroken. I'm not the most outgoing person and Stacy is my only friend in the neighborhood. In fact, had she not just shown up at my house in her pajamas last Summer, we might have never actually talked. Since that time we've been trouble makers together; drinking, smoking, dancing with children, toilet papering the neighbor's car, having YAYA moments and singing Waylon songs. She's listened to me bitch about work and men and I've listened to her bitch about PTA crap (how she did that PTA thing I'll never understand). I remember the first time we hung out. I told her that I can't be her friend because she moves a lot and I don't like losing people. She promised she wasn't going anywhere for a while so I gave in. I think that's grounds for making her stay...she did promise afterall.
***
I just started reading Last Orders by Graham Swift. I'm not sure I'll finish it. It won some award and was made into a movie but I'm not following it very well. I'll read a bit more and then decide.
***
2 weeks and 2 days until Christmas. I feel at least 2 months from being ready. I guess that's how it goes, eh?
Posted by krystal at 3:02 AM
December 8, 2004
clogs and purse under my desk.
Images work again. yehaw.
Posted by krystal at 6:46 PM | Comments (1)
turning into my mother
Jake: Where do I put this blanket?
Me: In the closet, 2nd shelf I think
Jake: It doesn't fit.
Me: Well then find another place. You're a big boy, you can solve problems.
I've raised a family of invalids.
Posted by krystal at 3:52 PM
Bully for you.
Kendall had her 2nd bad day in a row. This time she was upset because a 5th grader on the bus promises to hit her if she doesn't sit by a certain kid (wtfe) tomorrow morning. Trevor wanted to handle this situation since he's in taekwondo but given his propensity for beating the living shit out of people, I figure I should handle this one.
So tomorrow morning I'm going to climb on the bus and beat the living shit out of a 5th grader. Kidding of course. Although, it'd be kinda funny and teach a lesson all at the same time!
Posted by krystal at 2:44 AM | Comments (1)
December 7, 2004
Miles to go before I sleep.
-I am wearing my brown clogs with weird designs on em that Tree got for me last year. They make me into the tallest person in this building.
-Yesterday Amanda and I started our Fredtalk book club and I couldn't be more excited in the nerdiest of ways.
-I'm off Christmas Eve and New Years Eve which makes it so that I don't work a 5 day week til January. That's good, it'll help me ease into things.
-My favorite thing to do is wake up Dan when I get home. He's all warm and I'm all tired. It's perfect.
-Our last hermit crab, Gary, died 2 weeks ago and the kids still haven't missed him. Hamchovie will be next if we don't go get some food for him.
-I can't stop thinking about taking pictures with my new camera. I just don't have anything to photograph here at work and it's making me nuts because I just keep carrying my camera around like a freak, waiting for something to happen so I can take a picture of it.
-I finished Angels and Demons tonight. I also wrote my Christmas cards and plucked my eyebrows.
-The official date for dad/daughter dinner and shopping and beer drinking is next Wednesday. It's a tradition that can't be broken, even if my dad is too busy to think straight these days. So I just called their house (yep, at 5:30 am) to decree Dec 15th "THE DAY". He said that's a good day for him so we're on.
-Happy Pearl Harbor Day. Do you say "happy" before that? I guess not. Ok, un that.
Posted by krystal at 5:41 AM | Comments (1)
Ice cream dreams
Kendall's teacher is a boring snotty old woman. She informed the kids on the first day of school that they aren't allowed SNACKS because SNACKS make kids hyper. They're also allowed ice cream only on FRIDAYS because ICECREAM makes kids hyper as well.
She also finds any reason to not let the kids go outside for PE and she has 100 other rules that just make no fucking sense to me but are innocuous enough that I'm not bothered with fighting her about them. They're just STUPID though, ya know? Retarded oppressive boring-person rules.
I've told Kendall many times that her teacher sucks and that she's a boring old snob and Kendall smiles at me knowingly and goes on about her business. I swear she's too nice to be my offspring.
Today Kendall came home from school in a bad mood. She told me how some (horridly mean) boy got her in trouble at PE over a complete misunderstanding. She skulked around behind me as I put away dishes and folded laundry. Then all of a sudden her face lit up. She said "OH! MOM! You'll be so happy to know that a girl in my class asked the lunch lady why we only get ice cream once a week and the lady said we can have it everyday and we should let our teacher know that!" I said "Kendall I told you that you were following stupid rules all along. That girl just stood up for herself". She said "Yeah but now that she's been ratted out, we get ice cream ANY DAY!". I know now that I have a lot of work to do with Kendall. She should have been the one ratting out the teacher. I think I'll withhold ice cream money until she gets the teacher in trouble for not letting them go outside. Maybe I can have her lead a rebellion where all of the 3rd graders bring snacks to school and eat them right there in the classroom!
There's just no limit to the fun you can have with kids who are easily bossed around.
Hmmm...
I hope she never realizes she can question my authority though. On second thought, I'm going to tell her she should listen to her teacher.
Yeah.
Posted by krystal at 1:42 AM
December 6, 2004
The good stuff
I was never really crazy about birthdays til this year. I've had some good ones, believe me. In fact in 1990, I had a 3 day old baby on my birthday! That's a pretty cool gift, except my belly hurt like mad and I was exhausted.
Thursday morning the kids woke up talking about having chocolate gold coins under their pillows. I knew it wasn't me, so there must have been an incredibly handsome tooth-decay fairy going around making kids happy. (awww what a sweetie). I should have spent the day decorating but I didn't. I went shopping with mom and got a kick ass Liz Claiborne bag and we had lunch at Panera. That night we had tae kwon do and hockey and then I had to get the kids from play practice. Kendall and I had a really cool girl snacky dinner at the mexican joint beside the karate place while we waited for Trev. She and I have perfected girl moments I think. It was nice to have time alone with her. To top off a great day, Shep sent me roses AND Ami got voted off of Survivor.
Friday I shipped the kids off to school and Dan off to work. Gayle came over for our wine lunch date and we caught up and then I napped for 2.5 hours. Jake woke me up at 4:48 and I had to rush to get ready because Dan showed up with roses and a birthday card and we were out the door because we had plans with my folks to go see Scrooge at the dinner theater. The night was very nice. Good food and a cute play. I don't think that ever before in my life have "theater" and "massage" both been on my calendar in the same month. crazy man, crazy. We came home from the play and watched The Station Agent. It was a sweet little movie. I went to bed full and content and slept like a rock.
Saturday it was we were on a mission to not be civilized. We watched Stepford Wives and then I got my shower for Tree's visit. She showed up with TONS of stuff in true Tree fashion. There was crab quiche, beer, cheesecake, baby stuff, the baby, pictures, a new stool from the Goods, her pj's and and and my birthday gift which was a box FULL of socks and a kick ass new digital camera. I'm still in shock over that. Saturday was just so fun. We played with the baby, ate, drank, had a fire and sat around being lazy in our pajamas. I loved Saturday so much.
Today we got up and I went to church to see the kids in their little Christmas play. It was cute, but man oh man do I hate it when I get to church and realize it's communion day. That always adds 30 minutes to the service and I get all figity after 45 minutes, so 1.5 hours is maddening. Luckily I lived through it and came home to sleep for the afternoon. Dan came home from moving stuff and we went to have mexican food and then I had to get to work.
I know work is a necessary evil but just one more night of bliss would have been so great.
Posted by krystal at 4:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 2, 2004
4 am wakeup.
I couldn't sleep in today. At 4-something my eyes opened and I could not force them shut.
I was thinking about how funny it was last night when Jake was juggling marshmallows and Dan was showing him how. I was thinking "wow, I didn't know he could juggle". My boyfriend never stops surprising me. Kendall was interrupting and being silly and it ended with all of us chucking marshmallows at each other. I'm sure we'll still find some under the couch eventually. It occurs to me that I should have probably stopped the food wasting and insanity but I'm glad I didn't do the grownup thing.
Now I'm dragging ass but my energy is increasing because at 11:30 I'm meeting mom to have lunch then she's buying me a pair of shoes for my birthday.
Life rocks.
Posted by krystal at 10:42 AM | Comments (5)
December 1, 2004
in 5 minutes
I'll be going to my UNWARMED-UP car and going home til Sunday night.
That is all.
Posted by krystal at 6:04 AM
such is life and it just keeps getting sucher and sucher
I'm a procrastinator. I put things off til they must be dealt with and then they fall on my head and I freak out. That's sort of how things went this week. First I had trouble with my finances. Not really *trouble* per se...I just don't have any fucking money. My troubles compounded a bit because not only do I not have any money but neither do my bill collectors. I'm terrible at staying afloat but normally I keep one nostril above water so I don't drown. Right now my nostrils are bobbing up and down and that isn't snot that's going into my lungs.
At least that's how it feels sometimes. I know things aren't that drastic. I'm just riding the emotional roller coaster this week and omg...CHRISTMAS IS IN 25 DAYS. *inhale*exhale*inhale*exhale*
Ok so in addition to my lack of financial riches, pms and the approaching holidays, I've also been worried about my new job, my weight, some legal stuff and then this morning I locked my keys in the car...
with the car running...
and my purse in the car...
and the cell phone in my purse...
So when the lady at the tow truck place told me that it'd be an hour before someone showed up to help pry me back into my car, I lost my composure and cried like a pathetic loser. She told "Henry" to hurry along and he was there in 15 minutes.
I got to my kids in time to get them to school on time but I had to drive Jake to school because we missed his bus by 3 minutes. We were so close to that bus that I could have rammed into it and made her take him to school but I was just too fucking exhausted to even bother.
Dan stayed home and slept in with me til noonish because ya see, I can't suffer alone. When I realized I'd locked the keys in the car, I called and woke him up (at 5:45am after he'd not been able to sleep til 4:30).
So I got up around 1 today and tried to get my ducks in a row because the ducks, ya see, are waywayway not in a row and I'm not a smoker anymore so there's just no calming me down anymore. I got a few things accomplished at home and then a few more at work and still felt a sense of apprehension about how I'd get through *everything* this weekend.
What's everything? Well, it's nothing. Not only is it nothing, but the things we DO have to do this weekend are fun things. So, why am I in a panic? I donno. I sat down tonight and made a list of each thing I have to do on each day from Wednesday thru Sunday. Now that I have something to cross off and put check marks beside, I'm feeling a lot better. thanksforasking.
I'm going to siphen through my list and pull out the things I'm looking forward to the most. Here goes...
Wednesday: watching a movie with Dan. making spaghetti.
Thursday: Lunch and shopping with mom. Watching Survivor.
Friday: Decorating for Christmas, wine with Gayle, Dinner theater with mom, dad and Dan.
Saturday: Tree and Jason are coming down.
Sunday: the kids are in their play for church.
see? not so bad at all.
Posted by krystal at 1:15 AM | Comments (1)