We have lived in this house for 2 years, and for some reason the wasps have been really bad this year.  We live in a somewhat wooded area, so I'm not exactly sure why they aren't building their nests high up in the trees.  I have probably killed more than 20 wasps and at least 7 nests in the past couple months.  I have used up 3 cans of wasp spray in the past 2 weeks and I have had to change the batteries in my electric bug zapper several times.  And, worst of all, my son was stung twice in as many days because they had a big nest under the two person swing on our swing set.  And wasp stings HURT.  Bad.  Especially when you are five.

Their nests hide in tricky places like above the recessed lights in our covered walkway that goes to the garage or in tiny little spaces in a crack in the brick in the house.  I try to watch them fly around when I see them so I can see where their little nest is hanging, and I've been fairly successful doing that.  I found one on the back of a chair, behind a light fixture on the back patio right next to the door, and then even closer to the door the next day after we killed that one.  They built one on the window behind our storage bin when we left the lid up for like 2 days.  And they have a couple in the front of the house that are probably 30 feet high, so I have no idea what we'll do about those.  These wasps are relentless, and I just for the life of me can't figure out why they don't build in the safety of one of the hundreds of trees in the areas beyond our property.

I've learned that you have to try to get all the adults when killing a nest otherwise a new nest will pop up within 24 hours.  There have been tons in our garage because the inside is unfinished, and so I have to periodically go around and make sure they haven't built one sneakily behind something.  I am on a mission and I always have the electric bug zapper with me when I"m sitting outside.  I want them all gone, and I would much prefer the bees to fly around and polinate stuff, but they seem to be absent this year.  I'm not sure if the two occurrences are related.

All I want is for my kids to be able to play outside without complete fear of being stung yet again.  Is that really too much to ask?  Apparently it is, so I guess I'll continue poisoning and electrocuting those pesky stingers.

So, yesterday my garden smelled like rotting fish and my garage smelled like diarrhea, and I didn't even spill any.  Thank you very much Texas heat!  My husband even commented as we were going to dinner and loading the kids in the car.  Gross.  I hope it's better today.

I enjoy gardening, and I finally have a decent sized garden that I can experiment with.  I also love getting the kids excited about growing food and taking care of plants.  Some of my favorite foods to grow are tomatoes and cucumbers, and I could eat them every single day of the summer if I had enough.  Well, this year I finally planted everything early enough (last year I was pregnant and had a c-section right at planting time) that I was sure I was going to have a boutiful harvest!  Well, of course, things never go as planned.

I have some tomatoes, but a couple of my plants have tons of blossoms but no tomatoes.  So, I headed to the best local nursery around and they told me that they just didn't set and now it's too late because it's too hot.  Major disappointment.  The plants are huge and beautiful and I won't get any tomatoes.  I have some on the other plants, but not tons.  I guess I'll have to try again in the fall.  Ugh.  I hate having to buy produce in the store if I could be growing it for free.  And, I just discovered the baby has a major love of tomatoes.   There's always next time.

I also planted cucumbers and they were doing awesome - the plants were green and beautiful and growing so much they were creeping up the side of the house.  I got a few cucumbers, but then all the leaves started turning yellow.  I watered and watered assuming they didn't like the current drought we are experienceing.  But, then I read that they don't like tons of water and that the yellow is probably due to Nitrogen deficiency.  Several websites suggested fish emulsion so I bought some, and finally had time to apply it today.  Here's what happened:

Fish fertilizer is made by soaking dead fish in water for months, straining the solids out of the sludgy product and then selling it.  So, I opened the bottle ready to measure it out into my watering can, and it was the MOST disgusting stuff I have ever seen!  It actually looked and smelled like DIARRHEA!!!!  I knew it would probably be gross, but not that gross.  I put some into my can, diluted it and put in on the cucumbers.  It started smelling like gross dead fish at this point.  Then, much to my dismay, I realized I needed to do another batch to get all the cucumber and squash plants! 

So, I went back into the 100 degree garage and poured some more, except this time I could not tolerate the smell.  I do not have a strong stomach for diaper explosions and vomit to begin with, so this really sent me over the edge.  I poured it as quickly as possible, but then it happened.  I began dry heaving (no throwing up thankfully!).  I hurried as fast as I possibly could to the hose to dilute it, pour it out, rinse the watering can and be done.  It was quite possibly the worst smelling stuff ever.  I got inside and scrubbed my hands with lemon scented soap, but it was like the scent was following me (even though I did not spill any).  So, I lit my lemon scented Yankee candle and washed my hands again and tried to distract myself from even thinking of the smell.  It really was THAT bad.

I have a whole container of this stuff, and it's supposed to be good.  It even says wintergreen scent is added to it.  Can't imagine how awful it would be without that scent!  When it comes down to it, what's better for fertilizing a garden than decayed matter?  I sure hope it works for the sake of my cucumbers and my gag reflex.  I won't handle this well on a regular basis.  Ya

I have curly hair.  It's not perfectly, evenly distributed, beautiful curly hair like my friend Jennifer, but it's sometimes wavy, sometimes less wavy and sometimes frizzy curly hair and it all depends on the weather, which fluctuates between 60% - 100% humidity around here.  My hair styling skills are about as good as a dog's, and no matter how hard I try, I can absolutely, positively NEVER get it to look anything like how it was designed to look by my hair stylist.  Add three kids to that, and it's almost impossible to have a good hair day.  Ever.

Overall, I like my hair because it does great things when other people do it.  But, I live in super humidity, and I simply don't have the patience for sitting around trying to get my hair to look at least half way decent.  And, while I do like the curl/wave in my hair, I have secretly always longed for stick-straight hair so I could have a cute short bob or something. 

Enter: The CHI straightening iron.  My cosmetology instructor friend went to a hair show and picked me up a chi at a discount.  It was still $97.50, and I pretty much decided I was completely insane to spend ONE HUNDRED dollars on a hair tool.  Yet, something called me to it, and I splurged.  And I absolutely can not believe how great it is!  It really is true what everyone says about the chi:  It works, it leaves hair soft and it stays straight ALL day long!  And surprisingly, it didn't take too long for me to do (about 15-20 minutes).

So, I came to school one day last week with my newly ironed hair, and nearly everyone noticed.  They asked if I got a haircut or did something different, and several students specifically noticed that I straightened it.  And, above all that, everyone complimented me, and I NEVER get compliments on my hair because it's usually entwined in some nasty battle with the humidity, and the humidity always wins.  Several students said my hair looked pretty, and I believe them more than anyone else because they never hesitate to tell a teacher when they look like crap. So, they certainly wouldn't extend any extra energy to compliment someone unnecessarily.  They also told me I look younger, so that makes me feel good.  But it makes me wonder if I just looked like a hagard old woman before.  I feel like a new person.  Almost.

I also recently purchased several skorts, and have been wearing them to school.  The male teachers I work with have a comment nearly every time I walk by, and the straight hair must be the girlie icing on the cake because one teacher commented that I"m losing my tomboy-ness and the guys were unsure what to do with that.  I'll take that as a compliment.  I also explained it's not a real skirt since there's shorts underneath, but that means nothing to them since they can't see the actual shorts. 

So, YAY for the CHI!  It's amazing what new hair can do for you, and I'm loving every minute of it!

My oldest daughter had her first dance recital last weekend, and she really enjoyed herself.  We had a full dress rehearsal Friday with the recital on  Saturday afternoon.  All the girls looked so cute in their pink ruffles and pink & blue sequins - I think they all felt really special.  My daughter was always so silly in class when they had the girls practice in front of their parents, but she did great on stage (except she generally went the opposite way of everyone - if they tapped right, she tapped left).  But, for being just barely 4 years old, I couldn't have been more proud!!

Of course, not everything was perfect . . .  When I picked her up early Friday afternoon from school, her eye was sticky and draining some gross stuff.  I'm pretty sure it's pinkeye, and thankfully we still had a bottle of drops from the last time someone had pinkeye.  I cleaned her up and put the drops in, but it made putting on her make-up a little difficult and washing it off even more difficult.  And, it was the first time she had ever put make-up on, so it wasn't so smooth.  Oh well, there's always next time.  Her teacher had to clean her eye during the recital, but getting the drops in early really helped.  And now, today, I am home with her because she was running a fever and seemed extra tired.  I think the whole weekend really wore her out.  So, even though I only have 9 days of my job left and I can't really afford to miss a day, I'm missing a day.  This is the whole reason why I'm taking some time off from teaching - I won't have to stress about sick days any more!

I also had so much fun being a recital Mom!  I didn't help back stage, but maybe next time.  It was fun to do her hair, get her ready and watch my little girl have fun on stage!  I'm excited for her, and I am looking forward to doing it all again next year.  And, I especially loved having just some time with just her and I.  That's a rarity these days.  And, how can your heart not melt when you see your daughter looking so sweet??

My daughter had her 4th birthday and all she wanted was Princesses.  A princess cake, princess gifts, a princess dress and a tiara, of course.  There has been so much recently about how bad princesses are and how they consume our little girls and are certainly bad role models.  I don't disagree 100%.  I want my daughter to dream about more than just a handsome prince coming to sweep her off her feet and marry her.  I want her to dream that she can do anything and be anything, and she most certainly does not need some prince charming to help her achieve happiness.  Dora seems to be good for promoting independence and careers like doctors, , and thankfully she still likes Dora.  So I try to let her know that she can go to college and do awesome things before becoming a Mommy - because she has asked on more than one occassion when she can be become a Mommy.  Yikes.  It also doesn't help that she has a crush on Mason at school and I came upon them holding hands in the playground one day. 

With that being said, my inner Girlie Girl cannot help but love all the princess stuff, at least for now.  It's cute, and for a 4 year old, it truly is innocent.  She loves the pretty dresses and sparkly things (I still love sparkly things!!), and thankfully hasn't requested a Ken doll for herself yet (she saw one at  Target and thought her brother needed it).  I don't see her pining over the lifestyle of a princess, but she does love to run around in her Ariel costume and plastic high heels.  Thankfully she is mostly pretending to be a Mommy.  If she is still doing this with seriousness when she is 10, then I'm going to have to call in the big guns for some kind of princess shock therapy.

Little girls will be little girls, and as long as their strong female role models are not sitting around trying to fit a glass slipper on their foot, they will most likely strive for something greater than sitting around waiting for some non-existent ideal prince of a man (sure William has some annoying habits that Kate can't stand . . .).  My daughter strikes me as a strong willed little girl who won't settle for anything less than doing what she puts her mind to.  And so in the meantime we are going to enjoy the Princesses, the pink, the purple, the tiaras and the sparkles because soon enough she is going to be an emotional teenager trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life.  And when that happens, I'm sure I will long for the days when she pranced around in her princess dress and nothing made her happier than Barbies and plastic heels.

I took my son for kindergarden registration the other day.  Everyone asked me if I was going to cry, and I said definitely not, but maybe when he gets on the bus for the first time!  There's no way you can get emotional in a huge room full of parents and kids and long lines and lots of paperwork.  We got all the paperwork done and turned in, signed up for the bus service, bought a couple of shirts, signed up for an ability test in August, learned about the PTO and got lots of papers about preparing your child for school.  I'm amazed at what they have to put in those like 'have your child eat a healthy breakfast every day' and 'make sure your child goes to bed at a reasonable time every night' and 'read to your child'.  I guess there are quite a few people out there who are not doing these things, which seem pretty basic to me.  I really shouldn't be surprised by these things any more.

My son has been talking about kindergarden almost all year because they are focusing on being ready for it in his preschool class.  This usually causes some major emotional strife for my daughter who will not be able to join him next year.  After we completed registration, I asked him if he was excited about it, and for the first time he said no.  I think he was overwhelmed by the big school and all the people.  We walked around the outside of the school and he wanted to check out the playground and investigate the different play areas.  He was most concerned with the 'big kids' playground because at his preschool they have a playground for the 5 year olds and one for all the kids who are younger. 

I'm excited for my son to start school, but I"m a little nervous, too.  I know he'll do great, and I hope he will enjoy going to school.  But, I also see school (even if it's high school) from a teacher's perspective, and there's not much students hide from teachers these days!  So that terrifies me a bit, but thankfully we have 9 years until high school (even though it'll be here before we know it!). 

The next day he wore one of his new shirts sporting the name of his school, so I think he might be a little excited.  I really can't believe I will have a kindergardener, but I'm going to do my best to embrace it all!

Yesterday was a big day for the world - Osama bin Laden was finally killed, and everyone had something to say.  I actually missed the announcement on Sunday night because I am a teacher which means I am in bed well before the 10:15 time the news aired.  I took my students on a field trip yesterday and so I didn't read or see any news for pretty much all day.  So, as I was cooking dinner I watched the news, and the husband and kids arrived home during that time.  We continued to watch a little, and my son's ears perked up and he listened for a little bit.  Then the questions started.

He wondered why we didn't take him to jail, why we killed him, why did we dump him to the bottom of the ocean, and if sharks got him.  I was somewhat conflicted about letting him watch (it was 5pm evening news and there was nothing graphic), but in the end decided it was ok for several reasons.  First, he plays guns (despite our best efforts to discourage it - it seems to be some wierd innate boy thing - and it should be noted that we do not have any toy guns around the house except water guns which he does not equate truly as a gun), and so we do our best to discuss why guns are dangerous and what the consequences are when someone shoots another person.  I think he may actually be listening to all our talk because while explaining that he was killed by a gun he said 'that's why we don't play with guns'.  This is a real event with real consequences and I felt it was a good learning opportunity.

Second, he loves talking about good guys and bad guys, and so he was asking who had the guns and why the good guys had to shoot the bad guys.  We explained at a 5-year old level who bin Laden was and why the soldiers had to do what they did, and he seemed to understand that he was a pretty bad guy and the soldiers are protecting people.  He still didn't understand why we didn't just take him to jail where bad people belong, so we had to explain that the bad guys were shooting at the good guys.  He seemed to understand and I could see he is beginning to really comprehend the danger of guns, although it is certainly elementary.  He has also been wondering quite a bit about bad guys and has wanted to ask our priest for some time why God made bad guys.  This kid is a thinker!

This was an interesting parent moment for me.  I don't want my kids to live completely shielded from everything, and I know 5 years old seems pretty young to be discussing bin Laden.  He had so many questions that we really felt it was best to answer them as age appropriate as possible, and I could really see him thinking about it because he kept asking more questions.  I think I was most impressed with how intelligent his questions were and how he was pulling different ideas together from what we've talked about and what he saw on the news program. 

I always hear about teachable moments as a teacher, but they also come to us as parents and we have to be ready to jump on them.  Hopefully we did a good job of communicating the facts and seriousness of the matter as well as making him feel like he can always come to us with questions.  We also wanted to do our best to communicate that guns, war and killing is very scary and does not make anyone feel happy, and that we should do our best to solve problems   It will be interesting to see if he processes it a bit more and asks about anything else.  Parenting is such an interesting journey!