If You Snooze, I Lose

Mike is a snoozer. I am not. What I mean is that every night, Mike sets his alarm, and every morning, he hits the snooze button several times before he gets out of bed. One thing I have noticed throughout the years is the enviable ablility "Snoozers" have of falling asleep quickly. Within minutes of his head hitting the pillow, Mike is sleeping soundly. I have to normally lay in bed for a half hour or so, even when I am tired, to fall into the blessed oblivion of sleep. So, once the alarm goes off, and then again 10 minutes later, I have not made it back to sleep yet and am less likely to the more I hear it. When I ask the obvious question : "Why not just set your alarm for the time you really want to get up and sleep well for that last half hour?" I get the "I like to wake up slowly" response. My "Well, I don't want to get up this early" gets me a bit of sympathy, but no results. The compromises we have to make in married life.....

Getting it Done

Things have finally settled down here. Mike is over the jet lag. The boys are getting used to the new schools and schedules. We have a date (the first weekend in Feb) for taking back the whole house - the renter for the basement level is moving out and the boys will move downstairs. Apartment #1's projects have been completed from the old renter moving out, and new renters are in place. We are down to just 2 banks (praise the Lord) one for the house and one for the rental. Now is the time to get some of our projects completed. Mike and I have committed to doing one project a night around here. Sunday he hung my under cabinet TV/DVD/Radio combo. Monday he started hooking up the dishwasher (until he found he was missing a part, and the hardware stores here close crazy early), so he put the vent hood back up over the stove. Last night the ceiling fan in the bedroom went up (our bedroom is a loft with a half wall in front, so all the heat from downstairs comes up to the bedroom). The next 2 weekends are dedicated to finishing apartment #2 so we can get that one rented before the end of Feb. Life is good.

My Early Riser

I have often thought that the child of mine who should go to school early was Pete. We have always had the rule that the boys are not allowed out of their bedrooms before 6 AM. Now for those of you who think "Why the heck would anyone want to be up that early, you must remember that on weekends, holidays, vactions, etc. it did not matter if there was school or not, they had to be up at 6 so I could get them off to babysitters or Link so I could go to work. On rare days they could sleep in, Steve would, but Pete was always up, often at 5:30 waiting to come out of his room and turn on cartoons at 6. So when last year Steve's grade started later than Pete's, I wished it was flip flopped since Pete is my early riser. Now that it is, and Pete goes first, I have to drag the boy out of bed every morning. I just don't get it.

Bus

My kids are city kids. Well, small town, but anyway..... they are not used to being picked up by the bus at our house. They did ride the bus before, but at a central bus stop where several kids got on at each stop. So this morning, Pete was a bit pokey (I know none of you can believe that) and instead of walking out the door at 7 AM as he was told he went out at 7:04. At 7:05 he was back at the door telling me he missed the bus. If he had those other kids waiting at the stop with him he would have been re-assured that he was in plenty of time. Now I don't know for sure what time the bus got here yesterday morning - it's still very dark at 7 and the driveway is long, but I know on Wed when they go a half hour later to school the bus got there about 20 minutes after the driver had told us to have him out and ready to go. So, I was fairlee (Hee,Hee) sure that we had a bit longer until it got here today. 2 minutes later he was back at the door saying he missed the bus. I informed him I had been watching out the window and he needed to get back down to the road before he really did miss the bus. HMMM 7:15 and here comes the bus. She even drives by first, turns around over the hill and comes back to get him. Steve is getting ready to go now. His bus comes and hour after Pete's. Just like in Sturgis, they go to school at different times. This time is flip flopped though and Pete goes first. They are still enjoying school and making new friends.

Monopoly Anyone?

Last night my boys - the two I gave birth to and the one I married - did one of their favorite things together. They played monopoly. Now, I know you are saying "Why the heck are you telling me this? Who cares?" It was not just any Monopoly game, it was the Chinese version that Mike brought home with him last weekend. The directions and cards, everything, are printed in Chinese, so out came the regular game board, set up next to the new one. At least numbers are the same in both languages. The dice are TINY, maybe a centimeter square. The pieces are just colored pieces, like the ones in the SORRY game - only smaller. But other than that, the game seems to be just the same. Steve takes Chinese language class 4th quarter in school, so maybe this game will become a show and tell item later. I know who Steve's Chinese tutor will be - not me!!

New School

The boys started their new school yesterday. I drove them in to get them going. Pete has a male teacher this time- I think that is a good thing. He goes to the intermediate school (4th and 5th grade), Steve is at the middle school. Steve has to wear an ID badge on a lanyard every day. They both say the kids at school were very friendly. The only major problem so far is that Steve was taking Earth Science but here they are doing chemical science. We will have some catching up to do with him there. They are riding the bus to school for the first time this morning.

Home At Last

We brought the cats home last night. After a half hour of 2 cats yowling for all they were worth to let us know just how unhappy they were to be in their carriers and on a car ride, we brought them to their final destination. Santara is very happy to be back here, her original stomping grounds. She and Mike have lived here for 10 years, and she is definately a bachelor's cat. It took her almost 2 months to start coming out from under the bed after we started dating. And ther boys? Well, never being around the noise and confusion of children, it was months and months - and she still barely tolerates them. When we brought her to my house, she hid for weeks, barely leaving the bedroom. Even at the end, she was not out of the bedroom often. Last night she was in her glory - running around the house and telling Fiona that this is HER house we are in now and the top cat status is now changing. The difference in this cat is just amazing. Fiona on the other hand looked around a bit, decided that the house smells like her family and settled right down into getting on with life. The personality differences in the cats is facinating. Princess Fiona is the easy going, people loving lap cat. Santara is the recluse who will come out to "allow" you to pet her when she thinks you are worthy.

A Couple of Months Makes a Big Difference

Every year I look forward to August. Probably not for the reason that most of you crave August - it's not the heat and sun. It's not those end of summer vacations. It's the school supplies. Opening up that list when it comes in the mail appeals to many parts of me - the list itself helps me feel organinzed and checking off those items means we are prepared for what lies ahead. Hitting the back to school sales satisfies the thrifty, bargin hunter. Now it is January, and I enrolled the boys in their new schools this week, to start next week. And I was handed at each school - the school supply list. Oh No!! So this morning I hauled out the boxes of extra supplies I bought over the summer - thank goodness I just couldn't pass up those $1 calculators (didn't need them before, but do now) and some of those other wonderful bargins. We raided the craft supplies for rubber cement - didn't know schools still used that, a bag of drafting supplies my Dad gave us when they moved a couple of years ago produced a protractor for Steve, and we now have just enough of everything. Instead of calming the orgainzational beast in me (this beast likes plenty of time to digest the situation), the supply list made me crazy with the time crunch. We are making the permanent move this weekend to just one house, Mike is coming home today, a lease signing with new tenants in the apartment house this weekend, gathering supplies, and now making sure the book bags make it into the car. Hope I didn't forget to do anything.

I Have A Dream

It's a very simple dream really. It's one that I've had since Mike and I married in August. I dream of having a household budget. OK, I've made the budget. I dream of knowing where all the bank accounts are. Silly me, I come from a very orderly world that I made for myself when I bought my first home back in 1993. A friend taught me her method of setting a budget to paper and tracking the bills so I knew when everything was paid each month. I have a small savings account and a checking account that I pay everything out of. When we married, we agreed that we would take a few months of keeping things the way they were, but our plan was to have everything combined by January 1st. That did not happen. Life continued and the status quo was easy. With Mike spending so long in China though, it brought this need back to the front burner. As long as he was gone, I felt dead in the water. "Honey, what bank do we used for the rental property? I need to take care of security deposits." "Baby, which bank do I pay the mortgage at?" I know of at least 4, maybe 5 banks now that we use for different things, plus the one I had. So, as soon as the jet lag subsides and he can think coheriently again, he is going to take a vacation day and we will do everything in one day - banking (getting down to just one or two), insurance plans (finding one company who can service both states), everything. Our goal will be accomplished, a little late but done. My orderly world can continue. Mike can go back to laughing at this "strange" need of mine to keep all my ducks in a row ( I come by this honestly as anyone who knows my mom and sister can tell you ). The dream is good.

Re-Run's are re run for a reason

With all the illness in the house, we have been watching a lot of TV - I sure was not feeling up to entertaining the children!! With being so close to our permanent move from here, we cancelled the Dish and we are slumming it with antenna TV. Steve came home from school early today, feeling bad again, so turn on the TV after he took a brief nap. We have a new favorite show among the boys this week - Matlock. Hawaii Five-0 is also making an impression. We went through this with Touched By an Angel a while back. They will "discover" these shows and want to watch them all the time. They are then amazed to find out that they are old shows, usually ones I watched as a kid either when they ran or in Re-runs myself. We own 4 seasons of Bewitched. The boys keep asking my to buy the rest.

UHHH

The stomach flu has run it's course through the house. We spent a wonderful weekend bonding over how awful we all felt. Today we begin to disinfect the house and air everything out - the cats are loving the open windows. We had to cancell a house showing for Sunday with all the illness, hopefully they will reschedule that soon. I hate to turn away a possible sale, but there was no way we could leave the house and I am sure anyone coming in would run the risk of catching the flu themselves. Pete is back to school today and Steve will return tomorrow.

Relaxing Weekend

I cursed myself on Friday night. I had to interview a perspective tenant for our rental house at 5:30, so I got home at 6:30 and my Darling Youngest announced he was SO hungry that if he did not eat soon, he would be sick. Well, now I go along with that because with my Polycystic Ovary my blood sugar dips and I need to eat at fairly regular times or I feel sick too. So dinner is made (leftovers) and we are done eating by 7. Youngest tells me he is still hungry, knowing how much he ate I had him take a shower and wait 20 minutes before eating anything else. While boys are busy, I began to clean the carpets with the handy-dandy home steam cleaner. As I was using it I wondered, as I have many times through the years how my Mom raised 2 kids without owning one. Now usually I wonder this while I am cleaning up after sick children, today it just crossed my mind. It must have been a premonition. 9 PM - off to bed for the boys, and I sit down to work on e-mail. Then I hear a disturbing sound. Not quite sure what made it I asked if everyone is OK. Then I hear the dredded words - Mom, Pete just threw up. UHHHH. Luckily,the carpet cleaner was still upstairs and ready to go. Pete and I were up all night and by Saturday afternoon he is so sick that he is laying in his bed without me telling him to-instead of on the couch watching TV. His eyelids and all around his eyes are purple (not a good color for him). Now for those of you who may remember a few years ago, he reminded me of when he had RotoVirus. Not at all his usual self. So off to the Urgent Care. Dispite the seasonal and H1N1 shots, he has the stomach flu. Highly contageous and we should plan on it running through the whole family. So, today is Sunday, Pete is back to normal (almost) and I am waiting for the next illness to hit. Who will it be? I don't want to find out.

Oh, My

So, last night my Darling Husband called to tell me that in April we will be hosting a dinner party for the Chinese partners he works with when he is in China. Now, thank you so much, Hubby, for finally learning that I need a little notice for things so I can prepare. HOWEVER, now I have 4 months to worry about what I am going to serve these people to eat. Hubby says not to worry they want to eat food native to the country they visit - anyone know where I can get Maize and Squash in April? I guess I should not worry so much, these are the same people who have been feeding my husband eels, snails and fish heads.

The Value of Money

I was browsing the news stories on Yahoo a couple of days ago and clicked to find out "How to save money in 2010". Most of the time these things are common sense, but every now and then I come across something useful. This time they were talking the usual about paying off credit cards- but said not to cancell all of them. Not for the ususal reasons of your credit rating dropping if you do (something I still don't understand if I cancelled them, not them cancelling ME, but that's another can of worms). But for the simple fact that there are somethings you just can't seem to buy with cash anymore. I know, WHATTTT? But thinking about it, it's true. Their example was trying to buy a plane ticket with cash - almost a sure way to be flagged at the airport and extra screened. But then I was reminded of our honeymoon back in August. The final night of our trip, we found we had used our cash wisely and decided to pay the hotel room in cash. You would have thought we were trying to barter goods for the room. The clerk was simply perplexed. Now mind you we were checking in around 11 PM. We had to leave by 4 AM to catch our plane. Well, he could put the room on our card tonight and in the morning we could pay cash instead (YEAH, leave the next unlucky clerk to figure THAT one out and still be out the door in time to return the rental car and catch a flight out of San Francisco). Never mind, we just used a credit card. Now I know plastic is convienient. I have had to give a card when checking into a hotel for incidental expenses most times I traveled, even with McDonalds, but never before have I encountered someone not able to do a cash transaction. Just what are things coming to when money, good old American Greenbacks, seem to have no value in our own market place?

Today at Mass we had the celebration of the Epiphany. In other words, a Holy Day where a lot of incense is used during church services. Now, incense has never been one of my favorite smells. It makes me sneeze. Today I viewed the use of incense from a whole new perspective. My boys were alter servers this morning. They (all 3 servers) took turns bringing Father Richard (who loves to use it liberally) the incense burner and the canister of incense all through mass as the services called for it. First I saw Peter holding it, waiting for Father to use, trying to turn his face away from the fumes. When he returned to his spot he tried to wave away the fumes (so much for the solemnity of the Mass) The girl they were serving with - sorry, I don't know her name, because my boys don't bother to find out because she is (and I shudder to say this) A GIRL. Steven even tells me she is in his Sunday School class and he doesn't know it. But I digress. The girl they were serving with had to leave the alter a few times because the smell of the incese was making her sick. Steven was trying to tough it out. I found out as we walked out to the car that the holder for the incense burner sits just out of sight by the alter servers, so even though the congrigation had a break in between Father's usages, they did not have any reprieve. We are home from Church now and Pete is rushing to change his clothes, because he tells me he can still smell the incense on his clothes.

News from China

Sorry to disappoint those of you who are waiting for Mike to contribute stuff from China, it's just me. Mike tells me he can not view our Blog, let alone write in it from China. Guess that is one of those things they block. Understandable, I suppose, after the stuff with Twitter in 2009 in North Korea. I am always a little stiff even in the e-mail I send him when he is over there, because I know that someone reads them before he can get them, and I've been a bit stiff in my Blog too thinking the same thing. I try not to forget the fact that he is in a Communist country.

Mike is enjoying himself. He really does like to be in China. He loves seeing different cultures, talking to different people (he speaks passing Mandrine if he has his electronic translator with him - which he forgot on this trip), and eating the REAL Chinese food. His boss for this project told him that he is the only person he knows who GAINED weight in China. Most people can't stomach the food. Mike tried 4 new dishes the other day - octupus, squid, eel, and bullfrog (and says the frog really DID taste like chicken).

He called me about 2 minutes before 11AM on December 31 to wish me Happy New Year. It was 2 minutes to midnight there. Since China invented fireworks, I need to find out if they celebrate the Western New Year with them too, or just the Chinese New Year, which I think is the end of January. We forgot that China does not have Daylight Savings Time, so they are really 13 hours ahead of us. Hard to remember that when we call eachother.