Crime and Punishment

Today, I am not talking about the Dostoevsky novel ... no, I mean right here in our household.

Our son, Mister Twister, is in the sixth grade. He's been a great student; a good kid, also a smart kid who usually gets an A or A- on most tests. One problem that he's had since homework started for him a few years ago is not turning said homework in, either on time or at all. Well, around here, sixth grade is the beginning of middle school. (This child will be 12 in August.) So amid the work required for his core classes - language arts/english, maths, science and social studies - we also are dealing with the beginning of pubescence and all the hormonal junk that goes with that.
Currently, we have about a month of school left. I believe I have mentioned before that he has had detention twice since the beginning of the school year; it's worked out to about once every 12 weeks (the year is 4 [9-week] quarters). Per his school handbook, any student who misses two consecutive detentions "wins" a day in SAFE (Suspension And Failure Eliminated - it's like in-school suspension).

Guess who had a SAFE day on Friday?
Also guess who did *not* know about this until after school started?

While Poseidon and I were out running errands around 10:30 a.m., the school's SAFE coordinator called me to let me know about a new development in this story. It seems that, as best she could tell, Mister Twister had given her a paper - which was supposed to have been seen and signed by a parent and returned to her (or one of the student's teachers) - on which the signature looked like it was not signed by me or his dad. "I tried the phone number listed here, and that turned out to be a business; they said there was no one there by the name [my name]. It really looks like forgery by [our clever son], and for that he'll have to serve another day in SAFE. I will send home another sheet for you to sign and he needs to return it Monday."

Really, son? Seriously? Awesome.

So, after talking with her I told Poseidon about this interesting new development. You see, Mister Twister had mentioned *nothing* to us about a detention (to have been served on April 15), *nothing* about the detention make-up (April 22), and not a word about SAFE (April 30). The boy, however, knew about the SAFE paper for a full week - it was sent home Monday, April 26. Honestly, we both laughed because otherwise, we may have cried in frustration.

And it was at this moment that we began plotting a punishment which would absolutely fit the crime.
Luckily for him, we know that grounding and taking away beloved objects and priveleges no longer work.
Unluckily for him, I like writing and have seen his penmanship.



- I wanted to give him a word list and a dictionary, or take him to the library rather than let him use any electronic dictionary or website. I spent part of Friday evening and part of Saturday coming up with a word list for him, which would consist entirely of words related to the incident (listed and linked below if you'd like to see them).

- Friday night, we sat down with him and each of us printed, then signed, our own names. In this way he was able to see that anyone can print anyone's name, but a signature is something you *own*; something by which a person means "yes, this is *my* name in *my* handwriting". My own signature is quite unique, in that I practiced and consistently use an older style of my last name's first letter. It would be very hard to copy - which prompted the phone call in the first place. LOL.

- Saturday, he would help his dad finish the bathroom floor. We have been working on the bathroom this week, and all that was left by Friday night was the floor tile - self-adhesive linoleum. They finished it by dinnertime.

- No gaming for the weekend. This meant only no XBox and no Wii, including not helping Miss Hurricane if she needed help (like she does in Halo or Banjo Kazooie). We did let him use his Ipod Touch for reading or watching youtube videos.

It's just after 6 p.m. now and he's almost finished with the writing assignment I gave him. I looked up the words, chose the fitting definition and gave him the listed origin of each word. After each word, he is to write a short paragraph - a few sentences - using the word correctly to prove that he does understand what it means. Afterward, he also has to write two apology letters - one to the SAFE coordinator, and one to the teacher who referred him to SAFE (they mailed us a letter with her name as the referring admin).

The word list, with links I used:
forgery, definition 1
falsify, definition 1
imitate, definition 4
fraudulent, definition 2
violate, definition 1
criminal, definitions 1 & 4
culpable
misdemeanor, both definitions
misconduct, definitions 1 & 4
plagiarism, both definitions

Fun stuff, huh? I'm such a mean mom. Better he get used to it now though. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA

(While I was linking, he brought his finished work to me. Now all that's left is the apology letter. I'll update this in a couple days.)

I hope you had a good weekend - ours was crazily rainy!
Namaste =)

Make a new plan, Stan

Yes, I've been singing this song all day now. I like Paul Simon though, so it's okay!

Poseidon and I spent Saturday morning crunching numbers and deciding which was the best way to move a family of four across the country. After two hours of writing, adding, subtracting and bouncing ideas around, we made the decision to fly everyone out instead of the cross-country drive we were hoping to make. We will still make that drive, but are now saving it for a future visit back home in a year or two.

So, here's our new plan for leading up to The Big Move:
This weekend, we've listed things on Ebay that were going to be sold anyway.
May 2-8: ship everything sold there, list other things on Craigslist.
May 8-9: Mother's Day weekend - for the last two years, I have had Mom and my mother-in-law over for a "tea party" the day before the holiday; this year I may still be able to do that, and I also want to invite a wonderful lady who used to work with Poseidon (she retired in January) and our landlady (if she isn't busy with her daughter).
May 14: be totally finished with Ebay and Craigslist selling and shipping.
May 15: yard sale! (Let me know if you need our address! LOL) We're selling off almost everything, as we've mostly decided what we actually *are* moving out to Portland with us.
May 18: the kids are out of school for primary elections, so we might just set any yard sale "leftovers" out and try to get all of it sold.
May 22-31: we are hoping to box up most of our non-essentials, and store them at Mom's house for a while. (Things like winter clothes and heavy blankets, stuff we won't need for a few months.) Dad said he'd ship these out to us once we've found a place to live out there.
May 31: our last day in this house! We'll turn in the keys and hug all our neighbors who will be missed!
June 1-3: the kids' last 3 days of school. Still working on the actual plan for getting them back and forth for these days, but it *is* only 3 days.

After school on the 3rd, we'll all head over to my in-laws' place and camp out there for a week; we hope to use this week for some visiting and goodbyes with friends too. June 10th we'll head north and spend a week with my parents, during which time we'll sell the car and have visiting with all the folks up there. We're tentatively scheduling ourselves to fly out on June 17th. That's just the date we used to get estimates in figuring out just how to get moved; however we do still hope to be in Portland by July 1st. Everything leading up to the end of the school year is pretty well set now, and as it gets closer we'll finalize the details for June. I will still keep this updated as originally planned!

Now, we have much to do and little time left in which to do it all! Have a great week everyone =)
Enjoy some music from my library:


Love and blessings,
Amphitrite

We've been kinda busy

In just a few weeks we'll be packing up to move! Lots of things that have to be done around here in the meantime. So here's a quick little update on things, and a rough timeline of when it's all going to happen...

Just want to mention my father-in-law Ty (that's going to be his blog nickname now!). About 6 weeks ago, he was rushed to the ICU and no one knew what was going on - or if he would even survive this ordeal. Incredibly scary time for the first week, for all of us, but especially my mother- and sisters-in-law. Thanks to modern medicine and some seriously skilled medical staff, and his own good health, Ty recovered with no lasting effects! He's back to the Ty we know and love =D

The kids were on Spring Break recently and we spent the week at home. We did have plans to go to a few places, but my back started hurting - for the first time in my life - and I spent most of my time laying on the hardwood floor in the living room. I haven't been seen by a doctor, but I'm guessing it had something to do with my sciatic nerve (not something I've ever dealt with, my guess is based on a Google image search - I could see that yes, that's where the pain is); all the pain is on my right side. No fun. Now even a week later I'm still in a little pain, but it is much better and I can move around all by myself now! Thankfully Poseidon was home too and he is a *wonderful* Mr. Mom.

Last week was the first anniversary of my friend Timmy's passing. Not a nice anniversary to remember, but it was good to be reminded and to think about him for a while, and to send out love and comforting thoughts to his family. The gang got together up north to have a little party for him - he is very much loved and missed.

A few days ago the weather finally warmed up enough for me to swap out the seasons in our closets. I asked Poseidon to get the boxes out of the attic for me, and when I was able to stand (or sit sometimes) with little pain, I worked on moving batches of clothes around. The kids helped with theirs and I did our closets. Blankets and outerwear are the last things to be put up, and I'll have him do that. In the meantime, our living room is a bit of a mess because it has taken me almost a week to get everything sorted and picked through - there are many things that each kid has outgrown, so we have "yard sale", "ebay" and "craigslist" piles and boxes laying around too. That is the only downside to storing off-season clothing... the weeklong mess that inevitably ensues!

Yesterday I had my Spring conference with Miss Hurricane's teacher. There was a singing performance a couple weeks ago, and I have a picture of them together which will be up soon (I'll come back and edit it in). The kids were awesome, and I got some good videos too. Due to school district rules I will *not* be posting the videos online, but we can put it on a disk to be viewed on a DVD player =)
Anyway, the conference went well, as expected. This child is very intelligent (like her father) but can space out at times, and socialize too much (like her mother). She's a good mix of us LOL! Mrs. B. said Miss Hurricane would be well on her way to a creative arts school here in town if we were staying, and told me to let her know if the Portland schools need or want recommendation for the same once we move.
Mrs. B. also works with a lady who attends church with my in-laws, and knew about the last month. She was so happy to hear that he has fully recovered =) All in all it was a good conference. Miss Hurricane scored pretty high on the state-issued tests so far this year and will be moving on to 2nd grade. A very creative child she is, and we have some of her work to scan and I'll post those here as well.

For the move itself, we're going to look into a few options and see how we can save the most money in the process. We went out today, and on the way home ended up behind an RV - with a website on the back. That's an option we hadn't thought of, and we have it bookmarked to get more information about that. Luckily we won't be taking much - we wanted to get rid of our couch and the kids' bunk bed anyway, so those won't be coming with us. And being renters, we don't have large appliances to haul along! So now we're getting things ready to sell and going as minimalist as we can. We want to have everything (not couch or beds yet) sold by mid-May to give ourselves two weeks to pack the rest. Here's the loose timeline:

May 15 or 22 - yard sale. I'm going to talk to our neighbours and see if anyone else wants to set things out for a street-long sale day.
June 1st - have all furniture gone that wasn't sold and we aren't taking with us.
June 2nd - last grocery trip and making sure the house is all packed (minus two days necessitites).
June 3rd - kids' last day of school.
June 4th (morning) - turn in keys to landlady and say our goodbyes to neighbours and friends here.
June 4th (afternoon) - we'll head over to his parent's place and stay for a week or so - likely camping the yard or the awesome treehouse :D But we figure this will give everyone who wants to see us a chance to visit a little while we're still in town.
June 10/11 or thereabouts we will leave to stay a week or so with my parents. My family is bigger (*tons* of aunts/uncles/cousins) and there are more relatives involved, so that week will probably be very busy and nonstop with people coming and going. Glad Mom has a huge yard!
June 17/18 or so we'll leave Mom's and head to his brother's house in Detroit. Depending on how well they like us (LOL) we may stay only a few days... ;)

We will head west from Detroit and we *will* be blogging along the way! Even if it's only a quick post, we are absolutely going to post something daily once we leave Detroit. Be sure to bookmark this page, and if you use Twitter I'll post links there too (that address will come soon). I know some of my friends homeschool, and I'll keep that in mind for pics and links if we visit historical places - I may even take requests!

We're still obviously in the early stages of planning this trip, but we (kids included) do want to see as much as we can without wearing ourselves out too much, or spending too much money along the way. We're thinking we may try to camp a few times if we can find a free/really cheap campground! We are also going to let the kids handle picture-taking while we drive. One of us adults will take pics when we stop somewhere, you'll probably easily pick out who took which quickly... LOL. So far we have only Mount Rushmore on the list, but I have a list with a map and I'm looking for at least one place per state - allowing 2 for Montana because, well, it's a big state.

We are hoping to be in Portland by July 1st but will be taking our time enough to ensure we *get* there. The schools there start right after Labor Day, so we'll have a couple of months to settle and figure everything out while helping the kids do the same. Unfortunately, I will miss one cousin in all this. He's still in Iraq and will have a 2wk R&R in mid-June, but I do want to be there with his wife to welcome him home when this tour is up! They will be the only family nearby.... and they're a few hours' drive away. The flip side to this is I already have some friends in the city there - fellow mothers - so we aren't totally throwing ourselves to the wolves. =)

In the time I've sat here to write, my back has started hurting again, so I'm going to stake out a good place on the floor. We may go out hiking this weekend, and I hope you have a great weekend too!

Blessings,
Amphitrite

**Politics/Religion Warning** Yes, it's THAT kind of post, my friends.

I got an email from one of my aunts yesterday. I thought about replying to her (and about 7 others to whom she forwarded this email), but decided that I only knew half of those people so I brought it over here. They'll find it eventually if they are so inclined.

Here's the email I recieved: President Obama removing his shoes before entering the Blue Mosque
Thank you, Barbara and David!

[Now, I didn't think to check Snopes immediately, so I started poking around online to try to briefly address the religious side of the whole thing (my entire family was raised in the Christian faith, myself included). Here's what I found - and bear in mind, I never took a journalism/history/religion/political class or anything beyond high school. I'm not a researcher or teacher... I just play one on the internet.] :P

Anyway, this is what I almost sent back to all of them....


Quick history lesson:
Atheists and believers have been around since the dawn of time. There has likely been at least one person on Earth at any given time in history who didn't believe there was *something* out there bigger than himself. Judaism was founded around 1300 B.C., which is about 3300 years ago. Then Christianity, which I'm sure you all know the most about. Next up, Islam - whose followers are called Muslims - was founded about 1300 A.D., or 700ish years ago. Later on came Hinduism and Hare Krishna, and so on throughout time. I'll go into these a little more at the bottom.

SO, about President Obama and 'the scary Muslim picture'. Who really cares what religion he is? The constitution guarantees freedom of religion - any religion - or none at all. That's up to each individual citizen. Here is what Thomas Jefferson - a founding father of the US - said about that. If you need more, trust Google to help.
The National Day of Prayer has *not* been cancelled - it's still on for May 6, 2010. If you pray, you may pray anywhere and anytime as a matter of fact, but on this day groups of people will come together to pray. Think of a revival meeting - but one which invites everyone who believes in any sort of higher being, no matter the name of said being.
I also want to point out that our founding fathers decided that a majority should choose who runs the country (that's the 12th Amendment). That happened once again just over a year ago, when people actually *did* get out and vote - and that should be celebrated! Too many people just do not care about their governments (local, state or federal) and either choose not to - or flat refuse to - go out and vote, when this *is* the best way to have our voices heard... as stated in the Constitution written by those same founding fathers. Isn't that wonderful?! Do not be afraid to voice your opinions at the polls! Anyone who tells you otherwise is only trying to keep you from your duty as an American citizen - you must *not* let that happen.

Here's some fun stuff for you to digest:

I feel drawn to (and try to practice) Buddhism, and I have among my friends: Buddhists, Hare Krishnas, Jews, Catholics, Christians, Pagans and Atheists. Does that have any impact on our friendship? Actually, no. I see *people* - loving parents, friendly personalities, good humans with good morals - and I do not care to whom or what they worship or pray if they do at all. It shouldn't matter to anyone really - every religion states something along the line of the Golden Rule. Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you.... pretty simple stuff.

Here are some links which describe some of the basics of a few religions:
Buddhism - founded about 2500 years ago. Extra link here.
Islam - founded about 1300 years ago. ("Allah" is the Arabic word for "God" - not a different God, just a different word - like "Dios" in Spanish and "Dieu" in French both translate into English as "God")
Judaism - founded around 1300 B.C., so it's about 1300 years older than Christianity. (sidenote: many Jews do not write or speak the word God, as it is a name and so holy that it must be guarded to avoid defacement - that will make sense if you click the link)
Vaishanvism - a recognized sect of Hinduism - also known as Hare Krishna, which gained popularity here in the states thanks to George Harrison. (not just "strange orange-clad men in airports", they are normal people like you and me)
Atheism - well, they just have that one rule.
And here is a link showing that there are SO many others as well.

Click each of those for a brief description of their core beliefs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My goal in all of this writing? Just want my family to remove their blinders, or at least loosen them up a bit. When I was young, another aunt once told me "only believe half of what you see and none of what you hear". That advice should be taken completely to heart in these days of email!


Many blessings upon you,
Amphitrite <---(A Greek goddess. That post is still in the works too!)

Quick link for today

I'm working on an update, but today Poseidon found this and shared it with me. Really resonates right now.

Seek Danger (An Open Letter to a Friend)

There is another man in my heart who could stand to read this today too. Baby Bro, I hope you take these words to your soul as we did. I love you man, and I want you to be alright.

~Namaste~

Kids' Winter Break from school 2009 - pics

Okay, I said I'd have them all up by Sunday (today). I do have most of them now - all that are missing are a couple of one of my friends; I'm waiting for him to let me know if I can put them online. Click the links to see the full sets on Flickr!

The kids' last day of school before the break was Dec. 18. My in-laws kept the kids for us that weekend so that I could get everything wrapped and re-hidden. They came home early on the 22nd (my MIL had an appointment over here that morning, so it was easier to just drop them off beforehand rather than coming here twice in 24 hours), and the three of us wrapped up the rest of the gifts for their daddy and cousins. This year, Miss Hurricane did a much better job of not telling anyone what we wrapped before they had a chance to open it! :D Not much interesting between then and our leaving for Mom's though, so without further ado:

Christmas at our house

Christmas with Poseidon's family

Bro's middle daughter has a December 30 birthday, so this next set has a couple pictures from that day too:

Christmas at Mom's house

While we were at Mom's, 2009 turned over to 2010. A friend from high school was having a New Year's Eve party and invited us and another friend's family. The moms gave permission for me to post their kids too; here's some of the photos I took that night... I'm still waiting for our other friend for permission to post him. He's active military and I don't want to compromise him in any way, but there is one of the back of his head :P

New Year's Eve fun with friends

I absolutely *love* the 'BROCCOLI!!' picture - she is too adorable but that one was hilarious! We had fun that night though... 6 adults sitting around a table talking and laughing, all the kids got along very well and played everywhere with everything, and nobody even started to leave until almost 1:30 a.m.! There also was no alcohol involved (honestly, a NY first for me) but when surrounded by friends and laughing... who needs it?! We all got to catch up on each other and poked fun too. I got to Mom's house and my face and sides were still sore from all the laughing!

We had a great break and visit with Mom & Dad, but I was glad to get back home too. The kids went back to school on Jan. 3rd, then have had Thursday and Friday off due to snow. It's snowing again, so there's a chance they'll be home again tomorrow - and that's fine with me! Poseidon is off work today, and tomorrow morning, so we have time to hang out in our jammies all day and possibly make snow people - or have a snowball fight!

I hope you all had a great holiday season! Many blessings to you and yours~

Namaste :)

Time for a PSA

PSA = Public Service Announcement.

Most of you know that Dad is an HVAC man - the furnace guy, the central air man, you know - if you're hot in summer or cold in winter, he's the guy to call. Even I went to trade school for it and am still fully certified, although 11 years out of practice. The kids & I recently went up to visit Mom & Dad for Christmas break (more on that soon), and on the first day he shared this with me...

The previous week he got a call from a guy who was having problems with his oil furnace. Dad and Bro (he helps Dad out often) went to see what the problem was. It was not good:



Dad looked at it and knew immediately what happened. When he showed it to me, *I* knew what had happened too - and I haven't looked at an oil furnace in almost 10 years! What you see here is the result of a furnace fire. Luckily, the man was awake and realized what was happening and called the fire department. Very little damage to his house and no one was hurt.
So, when Dad got there and saw what happened, he asked what the man had done before the fire. The man said he'd pushed the reset button (that little hole in the pic), waited and nothing happened, pushed reset again... and the next thing he knew there was black smoke coming out of his kitchen vent.

{PSA portion}
Folks, this will not happen if you push "reset" twice. This kind of fire WILL happen if "reset" is pushed more than 3 times. This is the reason your HVAC tech will tell you to only push it ONCE, then call him (or her ). An oil furnace is a totally different, and sometimes dangerous, beast than an electric or gas furnace; those are 'easy' in comparison. Links - How Stuff Works ~ Oil Furnace, light preventative maintenance and Mother Earth News, 1/1/1986 ~ Oil Furnace Troubleshooting. If you have an oil furnace (and you'll know if you do) you should take the time to read those articles, even if you only read the first page.

If your oil furnace isn't working, push reset ONE TIME. Wait 60 seconds. If it still doesn't work, push the buttons on your phone to call your favorite/nearest repair technician.

{/PSA portion}

I took a few pictures of the furnace as it sat in Dad's driveway. The only fix for this was to install a new furnace, and this one will be scrapped. No parts are left useable. You can see all the pictures here on Flickr, and I included some notes on the pictures as well. Hover over each pic to see the notes.



Love to you
~Amphitrite