Haiku Friday - Big Girl Pants

Two days and only
one small accident for her
today she had none

Big girl underwear
she gets to pick out from store
tomorrow if dry

Hope that this is it
no more diapers for Miss E
hope I didn't jinx!

Theme Thursday - Focus

Here is a picture of the crab apples still on the tree. I like how they look wrinkly so I attempted to focus just on these and not on the tree.

TT # 24

Thirteen things I am noticing about the American Judicial system, as seen by a lowly Juror doing her civil 'duty'.

1. Court buildings are very old.
2. Court buildings are very cold. (see #1)
3. There can be lots of boring down time, until they call for you and then you rush in to the court room in an instant.
4. It can take 5.5 hours to pick 15 Jurors out of 85 potential people.
5. I can read a whole James Patterson book in the time it takes to pick a Jury.
6. Apparently I have a like-able appearance to be selected by both the Prosecutor and the Defendants Attorneys to sit on the Jury.
7. These Attorneys are real strong since they must bring in and out about 1,254 lbs of books, papers, pictures, files and posters each day to the court room.
8. I wonder if the attorneys get writers cramp from all the notes they take?
9. The attorneys must get tired of saying the same boring phrases over and over again, such as "I now add this exhibit into evidence", "Can you tell me if this picture depicts the scene correctly?", "The court's indulgence, Your Honor".
10. Without the extreme drama and hot actors, real court is just like what you see on TV, except MUCH longer.
11. The Judge taking notes on his laptop behind the bench surprises me.
12. The chairs that the Jury sit on are very uncomfortable.
13. And finally, being a Juror makes me realize that I am not nearly organized enough to ever consider a job change to be a Lawyer.
    

WW - Boo Boo Baby

Jury duty and best shots.

That's right, I was picked for jury duty. Got my notice a few weeks back and sent in the answers to the questions that I am not in fact part of some secret militia while I hold onto my instructions to call the magic number after Friday at 4:30 to see if I have to report. I am group 21 and it says on the paper that most likely 1-10 will get called Monday and the rest maybe sometime later in the week. That's what happened the last time I got this letter, I called twice and was let off the hook. WHEW. So, being as I was dead tired Friday night and forgot to call, I dial up that magic number first thing Sat morning. The recording goes on to say..."For Monday Jan 28 and the District Court of Blah Blah Blah...I hearby summons the following groups to report Monday at 1:00 PM". Ok, so hubby and I look at each other and think 1:00 PM, that's a odd time to report to jury duty. We cross our fingers and hope for the best as the mystery man continues..."Groups 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 (He is listing them all out individually?!?!), 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21". FRICK! I'm, 21. What's the odds??? So, I get to spend a 1/2 day at my office and then report to the court house at 1:00. I am both nervous and a little apprehensive that I will be stuck there all evening and most of the week. Hopefully not.

On an unrelated note, I love taking pictures during the day at my house with the natural light spilling in from the windows. So since that only leaves the weekend for this kind of torture fun, the nights come so early, here are some of my best shots.

Photo Hunt - Old Fashioned

This week's photo hunt theme fit directly with our Friday night dinner. Mr Z brought home his Hebrew School class's Shabbat Box. We used this box and decided to have an Old Fashioned Shabbat dinner. We dressed up the table, lit candles, said the blessings for the Wine (sparkling grape juice for the kids), ate Challah and had Matzoh Ball Soup and Chicken. Here are two shots of the kids from dinner.

Haiku Friday - Bad Day

Having a bad day
Don't happen very often
started yesterday

It too shall pass soon
being angry at all things
tomorrow better??

Theme Thursday - Books

This is a great theme this week as we all love books at my house. My hubby and I built a bookcase in our living room-turned-library to fit them all into since my 'office' was way too small. So my first shot is of my favorites of late. Of course, with a FT job and three kids I don't have much time to read but when I do, I love it!

And here's one of my son as well. He has been doing so well in his K class learning how to read. I am quite proud of his progress. On Wednesday's he has Media Day where the whole class gets to go to the library and check out a book for the week. So, this picture is of Mr Z reading his Media Day book.

Thursday Thirteen #23

Thirteen things I want(ed) to be when I grow up.

1. Singer, backup mostly for a cool-front woman
2. Actress, that lasted all of 2 minutes when I realized I really suck at acting
3. Vet, until I saw needles and decided that wasn't for me
4. Dancer, I loved to dance as a kid but figured that would be too hard to break into
5. Teacher, but I suck at keeping control of kids after being a counselor at camp for many years
6. A child Psychologist, I did major in psychology in college but was discouraged at how many more years of school I would need to get anywhere in this field
7. An activist, that didn't go further than the interview where they explained I would be going door to door soliciting....no thanks
8. A business owner, not sure what business but I thought it would fun to be my own boss. But that's very costly and time consuming.
9. Working at a radio station, my fear of public speaking kept me from that one, I really just wanted to play with music all day
   
10. Work for a large credit card bank, wait...that's was real and it was awful. I am so glad I quit that job
11. A Model....hahahahaha...I am also too short
12. A Brain Chemist......not smart enough, but I did do well in those classes
    
13. And my final dream job for when I grow up would be professional Photographer. I need to really practice at that one if I even want to do it P/T.

WW - Playing with Photoshop (still learning)

Haiku Friday - Tooth Fairy Visited

The tooth fairy came
to visit my oldest kid
she left two dollars

Z was so happy
with the find under pillow
it was very sweet

He said the fairy
was very sneaky since she
came while eyes were closed

Maybe its magic
he thought since he did not see
fairy in his room

He offered money
to give to his daddy but
I said it was his

He was excited
to hear he can go shopping
and use his two bucks

Theme Thursday - Winter Snow Doggie

It snowed very briefly at my house this week. It didn't stick around long but I grabbed a shot of our doggie statue with snow.

Thursday Thirteen #22

Thirteen Things about teeth, in honor of my son's first loose tooth that is about to fall out any minute!

1. Children’s teeth begin forming before birth. As early as 4 months, the first primary (or baby) teeth to erupt through the gums are the lower central incisors, followed closely by the upper central incisors.
2. Teeth usually come in pairs. The bottom front two teeth typically show up first, followed by the top ones.
3. Not all doctors agree that symptoms of teething are diarrhea and a fever although most parents notice a tooth erupting after these symptoms are gone.
4. Although all 20 primary teeth usually appear by age 3, the pace and order of their eruption varies.
5. Permanent teeth begin appearing around age 5, starting with the first molars and lower central incisors. This process continues until approximately age 21.
6. When children are 6 or 7 years old, they begin to lose their baby teeth, and permanent teeth start to break through the gums.
7. The back molars fall out between 9-14 years of age.
8. Adults have 28 permanent teeth, or up to 32 including the third molars (or wisdom teeth).
9. Dentists say that the minimum time you should spend brushing your teeth is 2 minutes twice a day.
10. Eating sugar, as you probably already know, is a major cause of tooth decay. But it's not just how much sugar you eat - when and how you eat it can be just as important to keeping teeth healthy.
11. No one really knows what prompted parents to begin putting the tooth under a child's pillow or when the practice of leaving a gift became widespread. However, it probably began to be part of our American folklore sometime during the late 19th century.
12. A less-common variant is for the child to place the tooth in a glass of water beside the bed. Again, in the morning, the tooth is replaced with a coin.
13. You can have your child write to the tooth fairy here .

And here's my son's tooth this morning, the loose one with the big tooth behind it. I wonder how much the tooth fairy will leave him??

WW- Flurries

Back to our regurlarly scheduled programming...

I have been away from my computer and house for a number of days and unfortunately been away from blogging. We lost a wonderful member of our family whom we will miss very much. She was the woman who everyone adored, she was smart, happy, upbeat, loved to get her kids and grandkids and extended family together for gatherings and was a pleasure to be around. She was my grandma's younger sister and endured quite a lot in her many years but came through it with honor and respect. We all take a part of her with us as we live on.

Theme Thursday - Contrast

Here is take on this week's Photo Theme - Contrast.

I took this picture in a dark restaurant so the colors and lighting are real poor. But I wanted to see if I can make it better cause its a rare picture of my son not looking silly and sitting still.

So here's the picture SOOC:


As you can tell the picture is pretty yellow, not real sharp and too dark. So I wanted to make it BW and change the contrast some. So I recolored the whole picture in BW using a brush and left just his eyes green, cause they are such a pretty color. Unfortunately, they look pretty dark too and its hard to tell that I left them in color. I cropped it some to get rid of some excess background. Then I played with the Levels and changed the contrast a bit until I liked both the look of the picture and the eye color (even though they came out more brown than green). Then I did some sharpening and noise reduction to make it look a little clearer and less grainy. I then burned the edges a little bit to reduce the background even further to emphasize his face more.
Its an attempt but I am not sure I love the way it turned out. I may try again and leave his eyes BW too.

Thursday Thirteen #21

Thirteen Phrases that you can substitute for real bad words, when you are around your kids.

We have terrible potty mouths and are real bad about keeping it clean in front of the kids. So here's a list of safe 'bad' words.

1. Oh My Gosh!
2. Shoot!
3. Oh fiddlesticks!
4. Goodness sakes alive!
5. Yahtzee!
6. Oh fudge brownie!
7. Gooey Gooey Gum-Drops!
8. Man that guy can be a real "JA" = (Jack-ass)
9. Ohhhh Man! (said in a Bart Simpson way)
   
10. Where the FENG SHUI is that dog?
11. Aswipe - pronounced "As Wee Pae" (stolen from SNL)
12. Crikey!
13. And here are some suggestions that I found that I want to try - "Jimminy Hee Ha", "Cheese and Rice", "Shut The Front Door!", "What the Fish?", "Eef!", "Sufferin Sucotash", "Ai Caramba", "Fargin Iceholes", "Mother of Pearl", "Blasted", "Shazbat", "Oh for the sake of Pete" and "BADWORDBADWORDBADWORD!!!".

WW - NYE Disposable Camera

Kids today have it so good!

"When I was your age, I had to walk to school, up hills, both directions!"

As a parent you realize how far we advance in technology from generation to generation when your kids bring up certain aspects of 'yesteryear'. I then think of all the things we had or did as kids that they will never experience.

My older daughter asked to go to a restaurant last Friday night. Having nothing planned for dinner and not interested in fighting with her, we decided to oblige her request. So we set out on our usual 30 min drive to find a something different for dinner. Having just seen a commercial for the Olive Garden's new menu items, hubby and I thought that would be a good choice.

We arrive at the restaurant and its a 25 min wait. Typical for a Friday night. The kids hang in the car watching their DVD while we circle the lot to find a space. We finally go in and get seated.

This particular restaurant has been around since I was in high school (not doing the math to figure out how old I am!). But more importantly the decorations are kind of 'retro'. My 5 year old is taking it all in as he looks around. Lately he is obsessed with the newness of situations. "I have never had that cookie before so I want some", or "We never went there before". This time he was trying to dig back in his memory banks for some recollection of remembering this restaurant, and was having trouble. I explained that he had been there but it was probably a while ago and he didn't remember.

So, since he didn't remember, therefore this restaurant had to be "Old".

Z - "How old is this restaurant, Mommy?"
Me - "Well, Z, I went here when I was in high school so its been here a few years."
Z - "I have never been here before."
Me - "No, Z, we have all been here before but it was a long time ago."
Z - "So do you think this restaurant was built when they used type writers?"

Type writers? First off, I am sure this place always used some type of computer, which is what I told him. But secondly, how does he know what a type writer is? We obviously don't have one. Maybe its something they teach in 'technology' class? I found that reference odd. Maybe because I don't think of a type writer as old (since I had one as a kid) but to my 5 year old it may as well have been an abacus.

I find it fascinating to watch him learn about the differences in the generations and what he determines is old vs new and how old he must think we are! I am sure we did that as kids too but its more interesting from this vantage point.

Photohunt - Delicious

This is what Mr Z's tongue looked like after having cake with blue icing. He thought it was delish, mommy wondered why they have to use so much food coloring in cakes these days.....

Haiku Friday - Back to School

It's about that time
I am going back to school
First class was Wednesday

I am half way through
My MBA degree
finish what I start

I really hope that
this class is not too hard
ease back in slowly

I thought I would join back into the Haiku this Friday to talk about heading back to college. I am still working on my MBA but took a break after Miss V was born last May. I wanted to start back up last fall but the college wasn't offering any classes that I needed so I waited till this Spring. I signed up for two electives that I needed in December to start one class in Jan and one in March. The January class was full so I was wait-listed. As luck would have it, I got a call from the Dean at noon Wed to tell me that they were letting me in and I needed to attend class THAT NIGHT! So I scrambled getting everything ready that afternoon, filling out Tuition forms and buying the book and wound up with a terrible migraine (on top of my cold). I agonized through the class but I made it through. However, it looks as though this class may be quite interesting. Lets just hope its not too tough cause with everything else going on in my life right now, I am not sure adding a class is the best idea. Wish me luck!

Theme Thursday - Color

I love colorful pictures and every now and then I get one that captures the amazing color of my older daughter's eyes. She let me take her outside on a cloudy day and I grabbed this shot while she was dancing around and telling me that she was real cold.

Thursday Thirteen #20

Thirteen Facts about the Common Cold (since we are all sick at my house).

1. The greatest myth about the common cold is that susceptibility to colds requires a weakened immune system. Healthy people with normal immune systems are highly susceptible to cold virus infection once the virus enters the nose. In volunteers studies, approximately 95% of normal adults became infected when virus was dropped into the nose.
2. Another myth - central heating dries the mucus membranes of the nose and makes a person more susceptible to catching a cold.
3. Being cold or being sent out in the cold with no jacket/gloves/scarves do NOT lead to catching a cold.
4. Drinking milk while having a cold does not increase production of more mucus.
5. Feeding a cold and starving a fever is an old wives tale. There is no scientific proof that overeating while having a cold does anything, other than help you gain weight.
6. There is no cold vaccine due to the numerous amounts of different strains of viruses that cause the common cold it would be impossible to protect against all of them.
7. Studies suggest a person is most likely to transmit rhinoviruses in the second to fourth day of infection, when the amount of virus in nasal secretions is highest.
8. Researchers also have shown that using aspirin to treat colds increases the amount of virus shed in nasal secretions, possibly making the cold sufferer more of a hazard to others.
9. Handwashing is the simplest and most effective way to keep from getting rhinovirus colds. Not touching the nose or eyes is another.
10. Every time you cough or sneeze, you release tiny droplets of fluid into the air. Those tiny droplets can fly pretty far -- up to 3 feet.
11. Children have about six to ten colds a year. In families with children in school, the number of colds per child can be as high as 12 a year.
12. Adults average about two to four colds a year, although the range varies widely. Women, especially those aged 20 to 30 years, have more colds than men, possibly because of their closer contact with children.
13. Large doses of vitamin C have not been shown to prevent or shorten colds and may cause diarrhea.

So the moral of this story is you will get a cold, there is little to do to prevent it, except wash your hands until they are cracked and bleeding, don’t kiss your snotty kid and there is little you can take to make you feel better so just grin and bear it. Great…just great!

WW - New Hard Drive