Doggie update

Veterinarian update:

After a thorough rub-down/massage/evaluation, it looks like the dog has sore muscles from jumping into and out of the snow fort about 20 times yesterday. $129.00.

Being chicken

I posted something yesterday and then I chickened out, thinking I'd be judged. But I'm putting it back. Sorry to "anonymous", I think your comment got deleted when I did that.

Another snow day today. Off to the vet, with three kids in tow. Poor doggie is limping. Say good-bye to $250.

Snow day and selfish

It's a snow day today. The first snow day this winter. Yes, and we've had 90 inches this winter. So the snow plows and road crews know what they are doing. But today, we have a day to enjoy being home together. My husband even has the day home...rare, indeed! We've got the three kids of our own plus a buddy of my 7 yr old son's. We were all out playing and building a massive snow fort in the backyard, made with recycling bin-packed snow. Pretty cool. Maybe I'll try to snap a pic. (And here you go.)

I've got to start lunch for the crew soon. Maybe left over soup. I made a delicious soup last night. I love soup and crusty bread, especially in the winter. The soup is curried roast butternut squash with coconut milk and ginger. If that doesn't sound good to you, there's something not right with your taste buds.

It's pretty cool that I have gotten a few comments on this blog of mine. I got an interesting comment regarding homeschooling. The comment was referring to a post I wrote about freaking out that my kids wouldn't be able to get through high school with this FS life. At least not traditional high school. I wrote that (essentially) I couldn't imagine sending my kids off to boarding school, sending my husband off to Iraq or homeschooling my kids.

The comment reads:

"In my opinion, homeschooling isn't that scary of an option. Your kids won't turn into booger-eating weirdos, just weirdos (I was homeschooled for 8 years, and I don't eat my boogers). Seems like most people have strange perceptions of what it involves and who does it. I just know that personally I felt like it was the best education I ever got and also allowed me to develop a better relationship with my mother."

That's funny. The boogers part. I'm 38 and booger comments still make me laugh.

I appreciate the comment. I appreciate the sentiment. I have great respect for homeschoolers. I mean it. And I would and could homeschool if necessary. The thing is, I don't want to. I don't want to *have* to. Maybe I'm selfish. Is it selfish to want a career, activities and interests of my own? Am I selfish because it doesn't really thrill me, intellectually speaking, to do the laundry, cooking (other than that rockin' soup!), cleaning and managing of the household? Is it selfish that I don't want to teach the three kids full-time on top of everything else?

Don't get me wrong.

I love my children and husband. I have been home for nine years taking care of the family. And I wouldn't trade it for anything. It was my choice. I decided this was what I wanted to do. But now, my daughter (the youngest of the three kiddos) is 5 and in kindergarten for half the day. I am enjoying the longer stretches of quiet, of having solitude and time to be me, alone. Ah, just me and the laundry. sigh.

Before having kids I was a teacher. An art teacher. But the teaching part was more to pay the bills. To be honest, I didn't *love* teaching kids in the public schools. All that constant challenging of my authority was exhausting. It was more management of kids and less art. I've taught adults too, and that's fun. But my love is art. Making art. Seeing art. Talking to people about art. But mostly making art. I have undergrad and graduate fine art degrees. I'm good at art. I used to be anyway.

I know women aren't supposed to say this, but, I'm looking forward to having something besides my family to keep me busy. I'll homeschool if I have to. But I really would rather be an artist, and maybe even an art teacher, just not teaching all the subjects, all the time. Is that selfish?

Snowing, again.

 

Dude. I know you have had snow in DC. I get it. Oooh, big snow. Snowmageddon, snowpocalypse. Well, I live where there is snow for at least six months a year. Not just inches. Feet. Yards. Meters for you international folks out there. I'm thinking here, snow in November? (yup), December (yup), January (yup), February (yup), March (yup), April (yup, sometimes even big storms on April Fools Day).

Last night it snowed big huge flakes. We call them Lake Effect Snow. Wayne Mahar, the meteorologist on the TV news calls them (infuriatingly) "Lake-feck", as in "Well, we have more Lakefeck snow expected." So I shovel and I shovel and today I shoveled some more. And now it's snowing again.

As an aside, I need I new swimsuit this year. Do you know exactly how pale my anglo-saxon legs are after being under-cover with all this Lake-feck? Lets just say, imagine you froze some chicken breasts, then thawed them, then microwaved them. Yeah, that color. My legs are the color of microwaved chicken. Lovely picture, isn't it? Now, who wouldn't be excited to go swimsuit shopping for a Lake-feck suit? Maybe the color of, say, barbecue sauce or ketchup.
MmmMmm.
Friggin' Upstate NY!

Blogging

This blog I started is my first time ever blogging. 

I'm not sure what I was hoping to accomplish but I am enjoying it. The strange thing is that this isn't for my family and friends. In fact, they don't know anything about this. If I do let them know about it I will have to edit out some stuff. For instance, I can't write about how lousy it felt when my Dad told me I could go move away but to leave my kids here. That's nice, very supportive. 

It's been fun making new connections. Foreign Service people connections. People who know what I'm talking about. It's nice not having to explain too much. You get it. Even if you don't know me. And that's kind of nice. 

The freak-out.

This is the "freak-out" post. Just warning you.

Along with the A-100 board, I also check the Livelines board and the FS-Parent group. They all give many practical tips and real advice from people who have been there and done that. Very helpful and reassuring. Usually. But just recently there have been some messages going around that are not reassuring. Not at all.

Specifically, one writer was concerned that her son would need to move to a new high school for just his senior year and that some schools don't allow you to transfer in for just your senior year. The advice on how best to handle that situation is what scared me. It seems this is a common problem, how to get your kids through high school while in the FS, with postings lasting just 2-3 years in each location, at most. Suggestions included sending the child off to boarding school, home-schooling for the final year, having the Foreign Service Officer volunteer to go to Iraq or Afghanistan to extend the family's stay in the current post, asking a friend or acquaintance at post to take your child for the final year of high school while everyone else in the family goes to the next post. Really!? The best advice is to leave your child behind? The best advice is to send your child away? Would it be a great senior year for a child to have Dad go to Iraq, because Iraq is so safe and reassuring? And if that is one of the better suggestions...< shudder >. Some suggest timing things just right so that the child can have the final three years in one school. I'm not sure how we would do that. Our kids are all 2 years apart. Granted, we have some time to be concerned about high school, as they are only 5, 7 and 9 now, but still! And this is the life I am hoping to get into. A life where everything is harder, everything requires research and extra paperwork. Where sending my child or children away could really be an option?

After reading a few messages last night, I said to my husband, "It's only going to get harder, isn't it?" He looked at me, puzzled. I clarified, "Everything is pretty easy now. We don't have to do much, we don't have to work too hard to be happy."

Usually a person sees a storm brewing and steers away from it. I fear we are sailing on calm waters and are aiming this ship straight into the storm.

It sounded a lot better when I was using the merry-go-round/roller coaster analogy.

So yeah, this is the freak-out post, but I can't promise it is "THE" freak-out post. This will not conclude the freaking-out. I'm sure there will be more freak-outs to come.

I heart Regal Cinemas.

Things to be thankful for in the U.S., installment #2.

My kids are on vacation this week. So I am thankful for large, clean movie theaters with plush stadium seating playing Oscar-worthy films such as Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Squeakquel. Oh, and Taco Bell. Good times today.

Thanks for the suggestions about the A-100 Yahoo boards. Yes, we are checking out the A-100 forums which only make me more nervous as people keep entering with better rankings than ours. (Okay, his.)

My husband is working on the German though and has made arrangements to meet up with some German woman. Weekly. Am I nervous? Jealous of the frau, Helga? Oh, hell, nein!