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Hale to the Cullens

My Twilight-obsessed Tween heard the DVD was to be released on March 20th.  Similar to the Deathly Hallows Days, the fantastic folks at Borders hosted a midnight DVD release party on Friday night.  I didn't want to say anything too early lest I flake out on her, but Friday afternoon after her horseback lesson I let P in on the secret that IF she takes at least a two hour nap into the early evening, I would take her to the midnight release party.  She was all over that idea!

By 10 PM, P was primped,pretty, and in my car waiting and ready.  She wore her Alice choker and off we went.  I chose to go to a special Borders "concept store" a few miles further than the one in my town because I thought they would have a better event.

We hooked up the iPod and blasted the soundtrack all the way there. Borders had a literary scavenger hunt of sorts that kept the hundreds of people busy as we waited for midnight. The scavenger hunt questions were like, "go find the religion section and locate the book that inspired the cover design of the book" Or "go to the travel section and locate a book on the city of Edward's birthplace. Write the title and author here".  They also had some games, trivia and raffle prizes. 

At midnight they had people line up and started selling the DVDs.  We did not pre-order a copy and understood that we were likely going to get a standard version of the movie and were fine with that.  We had #147 of the "overflow" tickets.  By the time we got up to the registers, I think they only had 16 total copies left and the store had ordered 600 copies.  The cashier said she only had regular versions left and I said "that's fine".  Then she whispered, "Do you want an exclusive edition?" and I said "Sure".  And off we went.

I swore I would never allow TVs in my kids rooms.  Last night I sort of broke that rule and I set up a little 13" TV/DVD combo that used to be in our garage so she could fully enjoy the whole midnight movie experience.  She was so happy.

Any my husband didn't really even get mad at me.

P will be a fitful mess today of course, but she'll get a nap and let's not forget....she IS a tween.

...and we thought we wouldn't see her for the rest of the weekend...

My tween daughter is a literary tailgater when she wants you to finish up so she can get her hooks into the pages. 

While I was reading Twilight at a painful pace, she all but stole it from my nightstand on Sunday evening and read until lights out.  She asked her dad to wake her up at 5:30 AM (he thought she wanted to rise early to practice her Powerpoint presentation). She woke me up at 7 AM announcing she has finished Twilight  "and where is New Moon?"  She camped out in her room after school, finishing New Moon by dinnertime.

Her relentless begging for Eclipse and Breaking Dawn finally caused me to throw down some cash for the hard back editions last night.  I delivered Eclipse into her hot little hands about 6:00 PM and she didn't move until she closed the finished book about 10:30 PM.  Crazy.

This morning, we enjoyed a mother-daughter matinee of Twilight while daddy took the younger sibs to Tales of Despereaux.  P really enjoyed it, though she couldn't help whispering to me at every opportunity how the movie got the details wrong.  That bugged her.

I guess I could hand off Breaking Dawn tonight...but I'm feeling a little left behind...

So I married a health freak

I have no idea how many books my husband has read on health and nutrition.  A lot. He's a smart guy,  you know.

His last shipment from Amazon included four books on pumping insulin and The China Study. I do plan to read it when he finishes it. So far, I've only read the back cover. It all makes sense.  If his 80% raw food diet wasn't enough, I think this book is making a strong case for drastically reducing the animal proteins intake for our entire family.  Man I'm gonna miss cheese....

He has been after me to read The Hundred Year Lie. I want to...I mean to...in fact, I even perused and considered taking it on the plane when I flew to VA last month. The exerpt I read was so depressing, I chose to leave it in favor of something light, like I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids.  Though, upon my return, I noticed a disturbing connection. While slicing tomatoes for our dinner, I saw this:

Which is eerily similar to this:

Coincidence???  I don't think so.

I knew something about Disney Pixar was evil.
 

Lost brain cells and other concerns

I want this:

and I want this:

After reading the reviews, I really want this:

I experienced a brief flash of panic as I helped my fourth grader with "expository paragraph writing" last night. She was in tears, pounding the table declaring, "I DON'T GET IT!!" and I couldn't even give her the cool calm, "Here, let me show you" because, well, the worksheet example was so poorly explained.  Not that I can't handle fourth grade style and usage work, or that I've forgotten anything.  Nope, not me.

There are several things that unsettle me: noisy chewers, mouth breathers, fanny packs with white tube socks and not knowing the answers to elementary school homework.  I'm the Mama.  I NEED to know how to answer their questions.  It's my job.

Notice, however, that when it come to language arts, I'm totally ready to run to Borders Books and plunk down my money for style guide(s).  I am looking forward to having them.  I will use them.  Probably pet them.  I likely only need one, but I want three. I want NOTHING to do with owning mathematics texts or guides or whatever they call them.  I hate math.  Can't do it.  No use for it.  That's one of the many reasons I married T.  He loves it. Thinks it is fun. Yin-Yang, ya know?  At least our children have half a chance at coming out well-rounded: he loves math and science.  I love words and art.  He can crunch the numbers.  I can make it pretty and talk you into it.  We really should be in business together.

Back to my need for three style guides:
I am President of our school SITE council and tomorrow night we'll be locked in a meeting proofreading and editing our School Level Plan which is on deadline for submission to Sacramento.  Essentially, this is our battle plan, our mission, goals and objectives, milestones and measures to justify programs and funding.   It is a big serious looking document and every year they lock us in a room and feed us pizza until it comes out polished and ready for submission.

Yesterday our Principal asked me to help write our Distinguished School application to be submitted to the California Department of Education.  This is a big deal.  It is a step toward being recognized as a Blue Ribbon School, as identified by the US Department of Education.   I have every confidence that our school WILL get both Distinguished School and Blue Ribbon recognition and I am flattered that I may have a small hand in the application writing process. 

There are days when we are overwhelmed in our home with homework, fundraisers, school meetings, book orders and commitments.  When September hits, our lives change.  School is all-consuming for all of us.  When I tell the kids that school is their job, I mean it.  It seems it is my job too.  I get as frustrated as my family does with the unpaid demands, but really, at the end of the day, the paycheck is my kids' future.  And what could be more important than that?

Can you see why I might need a new style guide or two??

Seriously, if you have a favorite style and usage guide will you please post the title and tell me what you love about it?  I'm going with the top two on Grammar Girl's recommendation.  The third just had rave Amazon reviews.  Thanks!

An Amazon.com thirst for knowledge with a Readers Digest attention span

In addition to the list of books in progess listed in the column to the right, I am also currently in the middle of:

• Bitter Is The New Black, in paperback, almost finished
• She's Come Undone, in audiobook (perfect for mundane chores)
• The Gluten-Free Bible , Prescription for Nutritional Healing, and Natural Detoxification seem to follow me from room to room, ready resources for trying to figure out our allergen issues...but really...they are not really that much fun.

Yesterday my mom watched all three kids all afternoon for us, ostensibly so that we could get our weekend chores and errands done with greater efficiency (thanks Mom!).  With a kid-free afternoon, we couldn't resist the call of a (quiet) sushi bar lunch and an hour or so browsing at Borders.  Our favorite date.

I resisted the pull toward the new hardcover offerings and settled in among the magazines.  There are so many specialty publications out now and I wanted to grab an armful and retreat to a hammock somewhere.  Instead, I attempted to triage my needs and set out to find Organize Magazine .  No luck.  The O.C.D. chronic organizers of the world beat me to it and there wasnt' an issue to be found.

So I set my sites on current seasonal solutions instead.  I found a FANTASTIC issue of BHG Special Interest Publications: Halloween Tricks & Treats.  Really great ideas here and I have been given my craft store marching orders from the kids.  I have an idea we'll be spending big chunks of time creating our Halloween decor this month.  Here is a past project that still serves us well, mine is a smaller, much punier version, but here is the inspiration:

I also think it is time to fire up the old Family Fun Magazine subscription.  I had one years ago, but many of the ideas were ahead of our age span.  Now I think we could put a lot of it to use.

Finally, I had to pick up this new publication, Kiwi Magazine.
 
The cover tagline promises "Growing Families the Natural and Organic Way".  Who can resist that?  Thumbing through, I found a . 50 cent coupon off the purchase of any Pamela's Product, which sold me .  I'm such an easy target.

I'd write more, but I've got to go create my Michaels list and spend $50 to make a faux headstone that would have probably cost me $10 with my 40% off coupon...oh but it the creative experience that counts, right?

Watch for my text blog post:  Magazines I'd read if I had the time...

The Dangerous Book for Boys

I thought T and J could have some fun with this.

How to use The Dangerous Book for Boys
 

Renewal

Yesterday was a typically nuts day.  I ran my butt off all day long, coming home for 20 minute chunks of time where I'd unload dishes, leave, come home, vaccum a room, leave, come home....well, you get it, you've all been there.  I had planned to pick up P, pick up Bella from the groomer, take J to baseball practice, then hit my Fat Club weigh-in at 5pm, somehow make dinner and get up to a studio by 6:30pm where I planned to start a six week series of belly dancing classes.

When dinner wasn't ready by 5:30, I decided to cancel my big belly dancing plans (shut up) and go to Plan B which was to attend a Parent Education Night offered by our elementary school.  My kids wanted to go so badly because while the parents got educated, they got a huge pajama party with games and movies and free babysitting by local high school kids in the classrooms.  Our elementary school principal is married to the head football coach at this high school.  The kids got to watch football films and the quarterback was one of the babysitters.  You should see how starry-eyed my five year old was.

The Parent Education Night was called "Raising Kids With Values".  The guest speaker was Dr. Michele Borba and she was absolutely fantastic.  I took four pages of notes and bought one of her books after the seminar.  Dr. Borba didn't waste our time with endless citations of "research shows" and "disturbing trends" without a giving us a plan.  Totally workable plans.  If I tried to relay what she taught, your eyes would glaze over and you'd hit your homepage button because my writing isn't nearly as dynamic as her presentation.  Please take a moment to go visit Behavior Makeovers and peruse her online articles for information that is relevant to your specific behavioral issues. 

I bought her book Don't Give Me That Attitude on the spot, because the backcover said, "Does your child have an attitude?  Do her theatrics leave you drained at the end of the day?"  THAT is the book for me.  I almost bought two.

Seriously, I got SO MUCH out of last night.  My head is spinning with all of the steps I want to implement, all of the things I want to do with and for my kids.  Dr. Borba outlines 21 day plans and cautions against targeting more than one behavior or value at a time.  Just like we (I) multi-task to the point of exhaustion then look around and wonder what I actually accomplished....parenting and value building needs to be targeted, specific and consistent.  I have a big picture idea of what values I want to instill in my children, but I've never taken the time to write them down, reflect on them and consciously build upon them daily.  I'll share more with you as I sort my notes and thoughts and finish the book.  Good stuff.

Other good stuff:
- I weighed in last night and lost almost 3lbs last week.  Shockingly, I'm down a total of 8.5lbs in four weeks.
- Got Bella groomed into a puppy cut and life is so much better with a Shih Tzu tha looks like a sweet little puppy instead of a dust mop.
- P got her braces on last week and she is doing great!  No crying, no pain, no problem.  I'm so proud of her.
- New episode of LOST last night.  Loved it.  Can't wait to listen to some theories and commentary on the podcasts.

Off to workout.  I've resorted to putting little gold stars on my calendar every day I workout.  Cardio days get a little red heart.  Today will be 20 minutes on the bike and weight lifting for shoulders and legs.

Have a beautiful day and go check out Behavior Makeovers!