AWOL explained

Life has been a bit busy here for the Irie family. Between record amounts of snow and making Christmas memories, I've been busy. In fact, our Christmas rivals that of the Griswolds. But that's OK. I'm good.

I got a haircut today and to say that it's bad is an understatement. It looks like the chick took a beaver to my hair. My thick and straight hair is now several different lengths instead of a bob. I have a mini-mullet going on in the back. My bangs are a bit freaky, but they're not as bad as that one time when I had Eddie Munster bangs. No, seriously. They were Munster-ific.

I'll post some photos soon.

Learning the hard way

I have this rule about never volunteering for anything, but I've had some trouble following it. I volunteered to help another teacher run her club because I had heard that things weren't going well. Now I'm going to be the solo advisor starting next month. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I'm channeling my undiagnosed OCD to finish some of the work that still needs to be done for upcoming projects. I have several other ideas that I'm looking forward to implementing. The great thing about this club is that it's only purpose is to promote volunteerism. How cool is that? Most days I don't feel like I'm making a difference. I think with this club I'll be able to see how I'm helping others and that's pretty damn cool.

The bob

Thanks to the bed rest and pregnancy, my hair grew to the middle of my back. On a whim I decided to cut it off and now I'm sporting a news anchor bob. So not enjoying the helmet 'do.

I did it! Yeah!

On Monday I finished my thesis and put it in the mail. WOO HOO! I'm sure that there will be extensive revisions, but the bulk of the paper is done and for that I'm thankful. To celebrate we packed up the family and went to San Francisco. Three days in San Francisco was a great getaway.

Joy and happiness

Tonight we gave the baby his first taste of rice cereal. He was happy at first, but I was feeding him too slowly. The feeding session ended with him crying.:(I wiped the cereal off his chin and nursed him. He was a happy camper after that. In fact, he's been asleep for two hours now.

I bit the bullet and called my graduate department advice gurus. I've been in anxiety overload fearing that I was way behind schedule and that I would be SOL. However, I have about two weeks to crank out the last few pages and send it off to my advice gurus. Yay! If I finish this paper this week we may head to San Francisco (my spiritual home) during Thanksgiving break. I think it's his way of bribing me. I'm so class that I go between bouts of anxiety to elation.

We're also in the middle of the grading period which means progress reports. Ugh. I don't mind keeping parents updated, but we've yet to figure out a system that will work well. Actually, there is a system, but the admin is against it. Most of the local schools mail home a progress report for students that are failing or in danger of failing. Until this past year we were required to print out a list of all entries in the gradebook for each kid. I mailed mine on the district's dime. This year we're to write the grades in a progress report log located in each child's organizer. However, there's no clear policy of when the report needs to be signed since we all fill it in during the span of a week.

No global warming, eh? C'mon down to SoCal where it's been a balmy 80 degrees this November.

So not a prairie muffin

I'm turning more and more into a domestic diva. It's a bit scary. There was a time in my life when years would go by when I didn't enter a grocery store and now I'm carefully planning the space in my freezer. Oh how my life has changed.

Yet, some things never change.

I was raised in a Pentecostal home where the message was that men provided women with a house and she made it into a home. My mom is no Donna Reed and I've watched her wrestle with the idea of what she feels she's supposed to be and who she really is. No one ever taught me the ins and outs of housecleaning. I've picked up tips here and there. Yet, I keep feeling that I'm not as together as I could be. Maybe it's the legacy of my mom's struggle, but I'm trying to develop a system to help things run smoothly. I began looking at websites and came across the idea of a home binder. It's a novel idea of keeping all of a family's information in a binder for easy reference. I'm a binder person so this sounded like it would work. However, many of the sites giving you tips on the binder are so wrapped up in conservative ideas of families that my eyes sting. These women are proud prairie muffins.

Check it out and tell me what you think.

My soul is covered

The debate surrounding a constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriage is heating up. Even in this small town the street corners have protesters on both sides of the issue waving signs and encouraging people to honk. On Friday we visited my mom and step dad. I mentioned that I wasn't voting for McCain and my step dad went off about how wonderful Palin is. I then said that I'm not voting for Prop. 8. My step dad flipped out. He started to question my reasons and became so upset that he went into the next room to start praying for my soul. No, really. I could hear him saying "Jesus" and other things that I couldn't quite make out.

I believe its a civil rights issue, plain and simple.