To Whom It May Concern:

Please forward my request to the appropriate department.

I am a mother of three. I have paid my dues - 10 1/2 years with at least one child in my house for whom I was chef, servant, entertainer, social scheduler, nurse, sleep technician, maid, and chauffeur. My youngest child started kindergarden this fall. I was promised that after I put in my time, I would be able to go into "semi-retirement," as soon as my youngest entered kindergarden.  Granted, I chose to only go into "quasi-retirement" by putting my children's education first: sending them to a school that only meets 4 hours a day, 4 days a week and by homeschooling them for several hours a day. But I was assured that "quasi-retirement" was equal to 3 hours and 20 minutes a day (one must take into account time to travel to and from school - everyone knows that teleporting is only available upon "full retirement," otherwise known as death). 

Unfortunately, I am severely disappointed to find that my "quasi-retirement" time has been cut in half, and on some days it is even less than half. The school needed me, so I agreed to give them an hour of my time each day, giving two teachers their mandatory 30-minute break (which they never take - I either watch them teach or go make photocopies for them).  You would think that they would express their gratitude by keeping my children for an extra hour each day so that my 3 hours and 20 minutes remained untouched. They have informed me, though, that that is not how things are done.

And so, I am sending this letter to request that another hour be added to my day. And, yes, I would like that extra hour to occur while my children are at school. You did, after all, promise me 3 hours and 20 minutes of free time!

I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

One Overworked Mother

What if the Mormons are right?

I was sent an email link to an article in the Belfast Telegraph. It was written by one of their columnists, Eamonn McCann. Apparently, there has been some frustration expressed in Ireland about members of my church using parish records to acquire names to do baptisms for the dead. He starts off the article discussing the Biblical reference to and history of baptisms for the dead (see 1 Corinthians 15: 29).

All of this was interesting, but I just had to share this paragraph from the end of the article. It's too funny!

The key point is, surely, that all religions believe that the soul, after death, at last knows what’s what — whether Hinduism, Free Presbyterianism, Jainism, Judaism, Islam, Catholicism or whatever is the true religion. What if it’s Mormonism? What if it’s an everyday occurrence on the other side that Catholics and Protestants are left standing dumbstruck at the Gates, gasping: “Mormons! Who’d have believed it?” And maybe a wife berating her husband: “There! I told you it would be the Mormons! But would you listen?! Now it’s eternal hellfire for the two of us, I hope you’re satisfied.”

I can just hear that irate wife and 

picture that poor hen-pecked husband!

Shad and I have been following the guidelines in this book for about 15 months now. We think the advice in it is fabulous. In fact, this book will be the gift I give at every wedding from now on!

Because we are following the steps in this book, we've been able to save up some money. 

When we heard that the 2012 Olympics were going to be in London, we set a family goal to save up money to go.  

We had even thought that we could take the Chunnel and go pop over to Paris for a few days.

I studied French for 4 years in High School and 3 years in college. I loved learning about Paris and it has been one of my greatest dreams to go. I started making a list of places we would have to see if we went and it was getting ridiculously huge!

But, after watching the Olympics in Beijing for 2 weeks, we really got to thinking about how much we can't wait to watch the Winter Olympics - our family, as a whole, prefers the Winter Olympics to the Summer ones. When we realized that the 2010 Winter Olympics are in North America - we thought "we have to go!"

So we've changed plans, Vancouver here we come! 

Sorry, London!

But get this!

Shad knows how much I've always wanted to go to Paris, 

so he's suggested...

Paris for our 15th Wedding Anniversary next year!!!!

My sister and her husband are going in November and it got Shad thinking of how much more fun it would be to go as a couple instead of as a family. 

So I guess we'll be living off of bread and water for the next year or so as I work my financial magic and get those pennies to accumulate in our savings account.

Or I'll be doing some detective work, trying to find the will of that long-lost, rich relative who just died, leaving us a boat load of money.

Wish me luck!

Loose Tooth

Friday night, Laura discovered that she had a loose tooth - her first one!

Laura was so excited. 

She kept saying "I'm finally old enough!"

After getting advice from Peter about how to get her tooth to fall out faster (his response - wiggle the tooth to make it looser, then spin it around in your mouth until it falls out), she came to me and asked, 

"Mommy, are you the people who take our tooths and then give us money?"

Do I look like a tooth fairy to you?!

That's a rhetorical question - don't answer that.

First Day of School

Monday was the kids first day of school. I tried to post these pictures Monday night, but blogger wasn't cooperating, and then the rest of the week ran away from me.

Emily is in 5th grade this year. Peter's in second, and Laura started kindergarden this year. Peter and Laura are in a class together (Family School has multi-age classrooms).

Peter and Laura's class theme this year is patterns. Their teacher Ms. Paula (not in this picture - that's Miss Reyna, the student teacher) put streamers in a pattern in the entryway to the classroom.  

Here's Laura trying to get one of those streamers.

And she gets it!

Peter and Laura finishing their lunches after school while we wait for Emily's class to dismiss.

All three kids had a great first day!

They love going to school - 

it's the homeschooling that isn't the greatest. 

I agree!

What was that?!

One of the kids' favorite desserts is Darn Good Chocolate Cake. I'm sure the original name of the recipe used a different four letter word, but we know it as Darn Good Chocolate Cake.

Tonight we had ice cream for dessert. The last time we had ice cream, Shad was sleeping (he works a graveyard shift). Tonight, he was awake and so he got to eat some with the rest of us. Laura commented that "finally dad got to have some Darn Good ice cream."

Peter told her that not everything that is good has to be called "darn good." Laura was not convinced.