Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Meet the tweens




Meet the 2 unofficial stars of this blog. Tween#1 and Tween#2.












Kate is showing off her tumbling skills. Kate is the oldest tween. Soon to be a full fledged teenager, a scary thought to dear old Dad. She can be found most times in her room, cell phone clutched in hand, fingers flying across the keyboard, with the phone glued to her ear. Kate is the drama queen. The "omg, I-am-going-to-die-if-" drama queen. She also is the keeper of goofy faces, all things girly, an overflowing closet and shoe rack.

Mary is the second in command tween. Mary is the little monkey. Most likely to be found stomping in mud holes. Or telling some boy who messed with her that she is going to stomp one in his. Mary is the anti-girly girl. Her domain consists of hanging in trees, taking apart things in her room, or telling on her sister. She is the great debater. Mary is the keeper of all things involving outer space, her dad's tools, and silly jokes.

Now you have met the two faceless kiddos who can destroy a clean house in 60 seconds flat. Who I probably blog about more than I should.
Stay tuned for tomorrow, you can meet the fur kids who inhabit the geek and belle home.
Sunday, March 29, 2009

The grounding never ends

The girls are gounded again. Their previous grounding had just ended today. The last grounding was for coming home at almost 9PM. They were supposed to be back at 6PM, when the street lights come on. They got to eat a cold dinner that night. Oldest had her cell phone taken away and no phone/tv privelages for the week for both.

But of course they just couldn't help themselves but get in trouble again today. This time Dad took over and the former Army came out in him. The raised voice, the glare, the finger wagging. He's not yelling he is just speaking in a tone of voice so that there is no misunderstanding. All that. This time they got grounded for taking both downstairs phones upstairs in their rooms and being in our room, letting the dogs in our room and the dogs pooped in our closet and the girls just tossed a bath towel over it.
They are grounded from the phones and tv again and have extra chores.

The future defense attorney in our youngest came out. She made the tragic error of trying to debate Dad. She shouldn't be grounded because she does alot of things around the house, she gets good grades, and for the most part does what she is told.
Truth be told, she does do alot around the house and does what she is told. Her grades are spectacular as well. And then she began laying out all of the things her sister didn't do.
That didn't go over well with Dad. Our rule in the house is that you don't debate Mom and Dad when you are in trouble and you don't ever throw your sister under the bus. She did both.

So now in addition to doing extra chores, they have to do these chores together and if they fight, the grounding just lasts longer.

The older my girls get, the more they seem to get in trouble. When they were little, it was things like: oldest eating spoonfulls of butter, coloring on each other, the walls, or the dog. One time oldest tried to feed the fish.... butter. (the fish survived). Or playing hair salon with real scissors and butter. (My kids had a fascination with butter when they were little)
Now that they are older, can talk, can read, and are almost as tall as me. They can mutter under the breathe (not a good thing since I am hard of hearing. All I hear is whisper..mutter..stupid..not fair) And being girls EVERY thing is a major crisis or drama.

As much as I love my girls growing up and getting older. I wish sometimes I could go back to the toddler stage. I would take coloring on the walls over a hormone filled soon be teenager. But then again reasoning with a toddler and a teenager are about the same thing. Both stomp their feet and screech "Its not fair!" And that's just me. (just kidding) All it took when they were toddlers was a 5 minute time out.
If only dealing with tweens and teens was as easy.
Thursday, March 26, 2009

Breaking Dawn-My thoughts

I started reading the Twilight series after seeing it mentioned on several gossip sites. I've always loved vampire and supernatural books and movies. My first Vampire book was The Vampire Diaries by LJ Smith. Smith is an amazing writer of the supernatural and young adult romance. I thought it would be something fun for me to read over the summer.
I bought Twilight and read it in about 2-3 days. It was okay. Not the best vampire book I'd ever read, but good for just a fun read. It was kind of like reading fan fiction, but I thought this is the author's first time writing, it will get better. There are more books in the series, New Moon, Eclipse and then Breaking Dawn. All of the books are about the same way. Bella is clumsy, thinks she is just average, kind of a snot to her dad and others who aren't the Cullens. Edward is beautiful, god-like, beautiful, has liquid topaz eyes, stalkerish, beautiful. Did I mention Edward is beautiful. Yes, almost every other page is Bella saying how beautiful he is.

I had already read some spoilers about Breaking Dawn, but I wanted to read it for myself to see if what I had read was true. I kept thinking there was just no way the author did that. No way she would go there. I was SOOOOO wrong people.

This book is completely different than the other 3. It almost feels like someone else wrote it. Or that the author didn't know how to tie up the loose ends, read some fan fiction about the characters, took the most insane and impossible one, and went with it.

It starts off with Bella whining about a gift Edward gave her. Some car that isn't even available in the States yet. She didn't want it. She's getting married in a few days and whines about that. Except that after they get married, Edward has agreed to change her to a vampire. Alice of course is planning the wedding. Here is where I started to get just slightly annoyed. The author can go into great detail telling us how beautiful Edward is, and just how plain Bella is, but the wedding is barely described. A bare description of Bella's wedding dress, bare description of the decorations. Just nothing.
Then they go off on the honeymoon. To the Isle of Esme. An island Carlisle had bought Esme. Here is where Edward and Bella consummate their relationship. We basically get .... our eyes met, our lips touched, hands touched.... fade to black. Wake up the next morning to pillows ripped to shreds and headboards busted.

I actually really didn't have a problem with this. I respect that there wasn't some long drawn out sex scene in a young adult book. But then here comes the shocker.... Bella begins to feel tired all the time and then hungry all the time..... What could be wrong.......

Then she feels something move around... and calls it her little nudger.... (Facepalm....quickest way to kill a book, introduce a main character being pregnant) This is especially weird seeing how the author told us in several books that vampires can't reproduce. And don't tell me because Edward was a virgin, he still had some junk. Nope, not gonna happen.

So they run back to the Cullen compound and the baby is developing at a rapid rate. Here is where all the characters in this series become paper dolls.... Bella calls Rose to protect her, becomes BFF with her. She uses Rose because she knows how much Rose always wanted a baby. Alice just goes and sits on the stairs, Jasper is just there, Edward looks conflicted, Carlisle doesn't know what to do while Bella wastes away. Then enters Jacob and the wolf pack.
Jacob tells Carlisle that Bella needs blood because the baby is a vampire hybrid. So instead of just giving her an IV with blood, Bella drinks gallons of blood. Plus this baby breaks her ribs and spine with its kicks.
I'll fast forward to the birthing.....
Bella vomits a fountain of blood all over the place, and goes into labor. Carlisle is gone. So Edward delivers the baby. He bites through her uterus to get the baby out. This is all described in graphic detail. Oh and Bella becomes a vampire also. And she bypasses all the bloodlust/newborn stage everyone else experienced. Why? I guess she is super special!
Then the name the child Reneesme Carlie. Renee and Esme names and then Charlie and Carlisle names. (Facepalm again)
Want even more creepiness. Jacob our werewolf/shapeshifter imprints on the BABY!!! ON THE BABY!!!
Of course the Italy vampires find out and you think a huge battle is going to happen.. Alice and Jasper run off during this.
The Cullens call in all of these other vampires from all over the world to bear witness who this baby is. And of course the baby is super special. She wins everyone over and ages at a fast rate. Goes from being a newborn to like a 3 year old in a matter of weeks. She can read, talk, hunt, yadda yadda...And during this we get more of Bella admiring how beautiful she is and more fade to black sex between her and Edward. And Charlie visits and turns into an ostrich who doesn't care and buries his head in the sand.

The Italy vampires show up and Bella uses her super duper love shield power and the Italy Vampires tuck tail and run back to their tunnels.

It was the perfect Disney ending. Bella gets her husband, baby, little cottage in the woods, and Jacob stays in her life by imprinting on her baby. And Edward calls Jacob son.

It really was as bad as people told me. I really hoped that the author would show growth in Bella. That she would grow a backbone, not whine and be such a lil twit towards people. But nope, she remained a Mary Sue character, nobody had to sacrifice or give up something. Nobody important died. There was no conflict. Just cotton candy rainbow colored unicorn farts.

If you do have daughters loving this series, I would not let them read this final book. Tell them to write their own ending.
Thursday, March 19, 2009

It was peaceful....

That was until the girls came back from grandma's yesterday. The girls spent some time at grandma's this week. I actually got the house clean... downstairs at least. I even dusted!
There were no dirty dishes in the sink or a countertop crusted with whatever they cooked and didn't clean up. I didn't have to break up a fight over who borrowed whose shirt, hair band, or Ipod.
Peaceful and relaxing.
They came back home yesterday. Apparently they told grandma they were ready to come home. They dumped their bags full of dirty clothes and goodies from grandma and took off out the door to their friend's houses. This morning, get woken up by the phone rining at 830 in the freaking morning. The youngest tween's friend-who-is-a-boy was calling. He called 3 more times before 10. It's Spring Break.... no school.. which means we in the Geek and Belle house are sleeping in! All of us! Do not be calling unless someone has died! The morning just got better (NOT!) as I was now awake from the phone ringing over and over. One of the tweens had decided to have a midnight snack. Rice Krispies and sugar was scattered all over the counter, and two empty packages of oatmeal and more sugar. Where were the bowls? On the coffee table, with dried krispies and oatmeal in them. Their response when I asked why they didn't put them into the sink.....
Ooops.. I forgot!

I guess having a clean house is out of the question.... until they leave for college or I convince the husband to let me hire a maid.
Saturday, March 14, 2009

Blog Pretties

I got tired of looking at the blogger background and went in search of something to make my blog pretty. I see all of these other blogs with such awesome looking backgrounds and headers. And the green eyed monster comes out. I want a pretty blog too!
I found this background over on thecutestblogontheblock.com
They have some really cute FREE backgrounds and headers. So head over there if you want some pretties for your blog.

Hopefully tomorrow after church grandma will be coming to pick up the girls. She's been wanting to spend some time with them, but since we live over an hour away she doesn't get to that much. Then maybe me and the husband can finally use that $50 Red Lobster gift card and the movie gift card we got for Christmas. A night out without kids! What is that like again?
Friday, March 13, 2009

Late Night Blogging

Thank goodness it is now officially Spring Break!!! No school tomorrow. And none next week. The weather is supposed to warm up and be nice. Crosses fingers. Missouri weather is wicked about changing its mind.

Oldest Tween daughter's cell phone stopped working. We got her a nice AT&T GoPhone for Christmas. A Sony Ericsson W580i. This thing has a camera, MP3 player, a pedometer, the works. Sunday while out the in-laws, the screen froze up. She turned it off and charged, it started working for a while, then just turned off. We thought it just needed a good charge, no dice.
I did a tech chat last night with AT&T and it has to be replaced. Thank goodness it is still under warranty. She has a new phone, same model, same color, being shipped to her.
If you are thinking about getting your kid a cell phone, get a Go Phone. For $20 you can get unlimited texting for the month. I get oldest daughter a $30 card, 20 for the texting and 10 for emergency calls. She texts far more than she ever talks on it.

And I am almost done with all of my classes. I got back one more of my papers. This time with no revisions! YAY!

My poor husband came home sick from work. He thinks he has the crude that has been making its way around the office. I think he is just dead tired and going out after work with the guys for beer and pool did him in last night.

I hope everyone who is out for Spring Break has a very relaxing and restful break. I know I will and it will all end way to soon.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Sweeps out the dust bunnies!

Okay, okay. I know. I've been gone for a while. Well... a long while. But I swear I have a good excuse. A really good one.

I went back to school. Back to college to get my bachelors. I started back in November and I'm about to finish up my first 6-month term. Everything is done online. Aside from taking my objective exams. Those I have to find a testing center. I've been doing nothing but writing papers for each of my classes. And I swear I am about to pull my hair out on some of them.
See, you don't have a professor who grades them. You have some annoymous grader who does. It all goes through this system called Taskstream. It has your classes listed and the assignments for each one. You do the assignment and then submit it to the "Taskstream god" and hope they don't kick it back to you for revisions.
Yes, revisions. You don't get a letter grade, you get a grade out of 4 points. And you can't get a 2 on any section, otherwise the grader will tell you to revise that section.
I've had history papers kicked back because I didn't write enough about a certain political thinker, because my rough draft wasn't "perfect" enough, or because I didn't discuss revision strategies in enough detail.
You get the picture. It is frustrating to have it take a paper 5-7 days to be graded only to be handed back to be revised. Then it takes an additional 5-7 days to be graded again.

So it has been pretty stressfull around here. My poor husband has heard my gripe and complain about the grading process every time I get a paper kicked back. He just rolls his eyes and goes back to whatever he is doing.

Good news did come this year though. My husband got a promotion at work. He is now the manager of one of the teams at work. No pay raise though. Just more responsibilties and more headaches. The owner did tell him that once the economy gets better that he wants to open up some satellite offices down South and my husband will be the one to head up one. I guess the owner knows how much I miss living down South and my family. I do miss living back home. No more snow, warm weather practically year round, iced sweet tea, and college football. Plus my husband wouldn't have to drive 8 hours to go deer hunting with my brother and dad.


give a man hunting and he will agree to anything.