So I took an Academic Writing course (B+), Marketting (A-) the first summer semester and right now I am in the last week of Philosophy in Film (Guessing a B+) and Children’s Literature (Guessing a solid A).

We have been trying to stress to Seporah all summer long that when school starts Mrs. VanTreese won’t be there because she is staying home with her kids. Today, she finally got it, and said “Mrs. VanTreese is not at school, she is staying with her kids.” Of course today is the day we found out that she is actually still working and will be Seporah’s special education instructor. I swear she came back just for Seporah, but Märia’s guess is probably more plausible, that she came back due to finances and the economy being bad.

Märia and I are looking forward to Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory starting up. This summer has really been a dud for television. There hasn’t been one show that I have enjoyed (not that I had a lot of time to try a lot out).

I actually won’t have a lot of time Fall semester either. I am taking 7 courses, 21 credits. Here is a quick list: 1. Civilizations of Asia, 2. Modern European Civilization, 3. Science Fiction in Film, 4. MultiEthnic American Literature, 5. Hawaii during WWII, 6. Hawaii’s Economy, 7. Directed Reading and Research (I decide what I want to study, outside of class, for 3 credits). That last class is a present from a professor that I have particularly impressed (not the chemistry professor who gave me the award last semester). Basically I tell him what I want to study, he finds nice academic pieces for me to check out, and I read other, related items, and report back to him on what I have learned. I am going to use it as a lead in to my Senior paper in the Spring. I need 36 credits to graduate, so 21 now and 15 in the spring will finish me off.

Um, I guess that is my update. It was nice that I saw Lynda on Skype today, and had a quick chat with her before me and the girls went and had some fun. It would be nice if some of you other awesome people logged on to iChat or AIM or Skype sometime so we could do a video chat with the girls (I am looking at you grandparents!)

I made these darling pants…

…as well as the girl wearing them.

Magical Shroom…

…the “Magical” part referring to that they are gender neutral for the co-worker who’s not finding out. Craziness. I mean who doesn’t find out in this day and age?

It’s called a Taggie and believe me, they are all the rage in today’s baby consumerism population, google Taggies if you don’t believe me. I made it for a good friend who’s having a baby. They have waited a loonnnggg time for him. I was so thrilled and bought her some stuff, but the stuff (although super cute) really didn’t feel personal at all. So I was like dude, I just bought a sewing machine and I’m gonna start making excuses to use it. I used 3 different types of soft feeling fabrics (don’t ask me what they’re called) and I thought it turned out well. Felicity and Seporah said it was “actually really, really soft” and tried to insist they were the babies that needed it.

Sportin’ the paint as make-up do.

This one came out kinda fuzzy (plus the bright yellow floaty is a total eye deterrent),

but the smile was too cute to ignore.

So Seporah and I went to go see The Last Airbender tonight. I actually really wanted to go see it having nothing whatsoever to do with Jackson Rathbone. It just looked like fun. I’d seen commercials for the show Avatar and though I never actually watched it (since I don’t really have the time to just sit and watch a whole cartoon television series) it did look interesting and I figured I could sit through a 2 hour summary movie instead.

The storyline was interesting, the choreography was beautiful, the music was epic, the costumers were amazingly talented, the CG was really cool but the whole thing just plain sucked. There was no soul to the movie, no depth to any of the characters, plus I’m pretty sure the dialogue was written by a 3rd grader. It was like someone was making this wonderful sweet bread and forgot to add yeast, so instead of tasting delicious it was hard as a rock and was good for nothing but a doorstop.

Anyways I haven’t seen a movie this bad since, well I don’t think I’ve ever sat through a movie this bad before. I’m pretty shocked that the same director of Unbreakable put this out as well. So here’s your warning: RUN, Do not waste your money on this movie, it is not worth it.

I have also written about the major difference between how women (especially those with children) looked at me back when it was just me, and now that I have children. Before there was generally fear in their eyes, and they would move their children so that they were between me and them. Now they see me with two little girls and smile, allowing our kids to play and even for me to play with their kids.

It really is insane how our society has come to view men, based on an incredibly small minority of heinous crimes.

Yesterday Märia and I took the kiddos to the local bouncy house, where there were probably over 100 kids and 5 bouncy houses. There was a man, did you hear me? A MAN, in one of the houses and HE WAS PLAYING WITH CHILDREN!!!!

It totally freaked Märia out “he gives me the heeby jeebies!” and she told me I had to go check him out to make sure he was a “nice guy”. I asked her if it would bug her if he was a woman and she said of course not. I initially refused to go over and check him out, but she insisted, and so I went over. He was just your average dad, rough housing in the same way that I do, or Matt (old neighbor from church) did or Adam (new neighbor from church) does. Throwing kids around, pushing them, playing and such. I honestly don’t know what the big deal was. It was a well lit area with parents all around, watching their kids, and lots of kids old enough to know if “bad” playing occurred.

Did you know that in England an adult man cannot sit next to a juvenile on a plane unless they are related?

We as a society have got to quit seeing all dads as pedophiles. The insanity has to stop.

And to top it off, Steven actually re-read the whole series in the past month just to get prepped for it. I went to see it this afternoon, thoroughly enjoyed, but I really think it’d be hard to follow the movies without having read the book(s). I am totally team Edward all the way baby, but I understand Team Jacob if all you’re going off of is the movies since Bella and Jacob had much better on-screen chemistry.

Anyways, go see it!!!!

The song that played during the ending credits.

Actually I don’t know how to help you there. I don’t feel I’m really a true Type A or Type B Personality. Anywho, I’ve been looking for workbooks for Felicity that are age appropriate and actually grab her attention. The majority of preschool workbooks are actually meant for 3 or 4 year olds and don’t work on Felicity’s level. She doesn’t care for them as they are over her head and just frustrate her. I was at Borders a couple of days ago and picked up these gems. The first two are actually meant for 2 year olds!!! And Felicity thought it was the coolest thing that she got a school work that she actually understood. She had a blast, she did like 15 pages! If you happen to have a 2 year old, pick these up! I tried to find them online to tell you guys, but couldn’t find them. Only $3.99 in the Border’s clearance section.

Hopefully the next so many years don’t sound like yesterday: Seporah was repeatedly bugging Felicity while they were in the car. Felicity was repeatedly screaming. I pull the car over and in my meanest mean mommy voice say, “Don’t touch your sister! Don’t poke your sister! Don’t hit your sister! Don’t kick your sister! Don’t touch her toy! Don’t take away her toy! Don’t pretend to hit your sister! Don’t put your hand in her face! Don’t pinch your sister! Do you understand?!?!?!”
“yes.”
Good, start driving again and not 5 seconds later Felicity starts screaming again. “WHAT?!?! DID YOU HIT YOUR SISTER?”
“no.”
“DID YOU KICK YOUR SISTER?”
“no.”
etc, etc, no to everything.
“THEN WHY IS SHE SCREAMING?!?!”
“I poked her chair.”

The people who say “Be grateful, these are the best years of your life” either have really lousy memories or have much more obedient children than ours. The longer we have the girls, the more amazed I am that my brothers and I made it to adulthood without being killed by our parents. I mean there were FOUR of us, that’s twice as many as we have. Sibling rivalry drives me absolutely bonkers, I’m amazed MY girls aren’t dead yet.

So thank you Dad for not killing any of us and keeping us around for 18+ years. I really appreciate that all of us made it, even though you had 3 boys so there’d be spares.

Thanks for finally taking me to the emergency department when my appendix ruptured. If you hadn’t I would have never lived long enough to fully appreciate a nursery with raisins ground into the carpet that reeks of poopy diapers.

Thanks for teaching me how to drive. If you hadn’t I’d never know the joy of listening to my little monsters fighting with each other in the back seat while I tried to make a left turn.

Thanks for teaching me how to tie my shoes. It’d be difficult to chase after the girls with me tripping over my laces.

Thanks for teaching me how to read. It’s really come in handy for the 28th reading of Olivia Goes to the Park.

Thanks for teaching me to never talk to strangers. As far as my children are concerning, catering to their every whim is far more important than developing a social life anyway.

Thanks for teaching me to sing off key. You get no awards for singing The Itsy Bitsy Spider on key anyways.

Thanks for teaching me about the Strike Zone. Between work, school and children, you’re never gonna find the energy to do it anyways.

Thanks for teaching me the true value of a nap. Now if I could just have the opportunity to appreciate one.

Sorry for all those times when I was little that I annoyed the hell out of you. I’ve got my comeuppance: grandchildren.

Baby Märia, Mommy Pam, Toddler Russell and Daddy Russ

Sesame Street Live, totally NOT!

Seriously though, if you don’t have a kid, borrow one and go see Toy Story 3. Really worth it. I know it’s a sequel’s sequel and those normally suck, but this one was really good. The bad guy gave me goosebumps. Ken was introduced (to Barbie that is) and that whole interaction had me bursting at the seams. Oh! Oh! and Buzz Lightyear goes on Spanish mode and that had me laughing so hard I was crying. They stole liberally from The Brave Little Toaster, but since I LOVED that movie, I was a-ok with it. The girls were mesmerized by the whole thing (except for the scary trash, that part was pretty scary and Seporah was REALLY worried). I’ve never taken the girls to see a movie twice in theaters, but I’m thinking about taking them again with Steven in a couple of weeks, since we enjoyed it so much and he didn’t see it.

And the sucky one: The girl’s read lots of Sesame Street books, but have never seen the show, so mainly the only characters they knew were Elmo, Cookie Monster and Big Bird (and Cookie Monster’s costume was so scary, I didn’t even recognize him). Seporah looked bored to tears and kept asking to go home (in all honesty I was kinda right up there with her). And EVERY time Elmo stepped off the stage, Felicity freaked out, Where’s Elmo? Where’s Elmo?!?! I kept on saying he had to pee-pee in the potty, then Felicity got smart and said she had to go. I told her she wouldn’t see Elmo there though because Elmo goes in the boy bathroom. Not worth the time or money.

Totally excited about the movie, except for the whole 3D thing. I can’t handle 3D, it makes me physically sick. I have to watch all the new 3D movies the regular way. Drives my husband nuts as he wants to see them 3D. We end up watching them all separately.

About a month ago, I’m listening to the radio and who comes on but Ace of Base (and I’m not on the “Oldies” station that Steven talked about a couple of days ago). It seems the white wonderbread band has got a little Mexican spice thrown in as the song I’d never heard starts talking about various Hispanic men. I think it’s a little weird, but then again I forget the Hispanic population is increasing exponentially in almost every other state in the US. Here, it would be of more worth to speak Chuk or Laos than Spanish. Spanish will get you nowhere. They don’t come here since you know they can’t get here in the back of lemon. **

Anyways, I get all excited as a new song means a new CD. Yippee! Go home and look it up. It’s totally not even Ace of Base, but Lady Gaga. I totally laughed out loud. That woman has more faces than a pair of D&D dice has sides.

**BTW, that was totally a joke. I really don’t care about illegal immigration. Just don’t get my husband started on it.