I lack motivation. And I babble.

Laundry is waiting in the kitchen to be brought downstairs. The bathroom needs to be cleaned. The kitchen floors are gross. Dishes are in the sink. And where am I? On the computer because I don't want to clean.

School starts up for me again next week. Two of my classes should be fairly easy. The second part in Natural Science will kick my butt this term. I'll actually have a professor who teaches the class how it should be done. I still need to retake my math placement exam otherwise I'm screwed. Which means I need to study. Yet something else I'm avoiding like the plague.

Holy crap, I have generous kids

I started baking on Sunday for the goodies will be giving to the kids teachers and our neighbors. I sent Brendan and Colin to school with tins full of cookies for their teachers. The rest of the morning I finished up my holiday baking.

As I'm waiting for the boys after school I see Brendan coming towards me with his cookie tin. When he gets into the van I asked why he didn't give it to his teacher. He, and Colin, both passed out the cookies to their classmates. They took my saying it's for your teachers as 'hey, lets share with everyone!' Brendan said it was the nice thing to do. I thanked them for their generosity, saying it was nice.

This morning I restocked the tins and promptly forgot them in my yelling to get the kids out the door. At least their teachers will have a bit of a different fare this time around.

In other holiday news, Colin hasn't taken his santa hat off since I bought them on Monday. Brendan lost his at school and Jake waffles between wearing his and tossing it around. Colin asked for two weeks if I'd get them santa hats. He is very happy I obliged.

We're not big on traditions so I haven't gone gungho on holiday crap. Things are added each year as the kids get older. We have blue christmas trees, ornament garlands and santa hats this year. I'm thinking I might go squirrely and get solar powered outdoor lights next year.

Procrastination, how do I love the? Let me count the ways.

I have one more assignment for my last class and I'm done. All the research has been done. Websites gathered for source material. The project is only 3-4 paragraphs on what I'd like to be as a grown-up or the reason I'm trying to get my arse into nursing school. Simple. Easy. Yet I'm avoiding this task like the plague. If I don't get it done today I always have tomorrow.

On a completely different subject, we have a tree! A fake, prelit, 7.5ft tree is happily decorated in the corner. Trying to find a decent prelit tree in the stores this year has been a nightmare. Everything is either out of stock in store or not sold online. We should have bought the tree when they first made an appearance in store. See the above paragraph about procrastination since it also applies towards trees.

Jake spazzed out yesterday in helping me decorate. His zeal caused several broke ornaments and candy canes. I had to very carefully go around him as I found new homes for some ornaments. While he didn't cluster them in a giant ornament disaster there were a few hanging a tad close. I haven't decided when the boys will start eating the candy canes off of the tree. Perhaps after winter break starts.

We're still missing a topper since the one I got years ago is rather heavy for a fake tree. Our last fake tree could handle the star in a rather lopsided way. This new one wants to be Charlie Brown's Christmas Trees older brother. In the meantime, the old topper is sitting on our mantel by the blue tree. It rather matches everything we have up there now.

One class down

Last night I took my last exam in NAS 161. My gut is I'll get around the same grade as the previous exam. While I rocked out the bone portion, the muscle section gave me the finger.

I'm holding steady at a C in the class thanks to bombing my first two exams. Sadly, I'm actually one of the better ones in the class. This speaks volumes about how our professor taught the class. His tests were interesting to say the least. Only one time did he give us a study guide and followed the guide in his exam.

My only concern is not getting into the nursing program. The rumors abound as to wait lists, difficulty, what you need, etc.. Yesterday I heard there's a one year wait for the program. While this doesn't affect me too much a fellow student will be screwed if it's true. She's on scholarship with a local hospital with the caveat she'll be in nursing school next fall. Another student had a friend denied acceptance in the dental program because she got a B in NAS 161. Depending upon the program the minimum grade is a C. Oy.

I'm beginning to accept the fact I could very well be denied acceptance the first time around based upon who you talk with. We've all been told different things. If I don't get in for next year I'll continue working on as much of the program I can without actually taking nursing classes.

I don't like Mondays

Actually, it's more along the lines of not liking this particular Monday. Things didn't start out very well once I realized the fresh pot of coffee I made wouldn't get drunk by me. My stomach has been doing knots ever since I woke up. Chalking it all up to my last test tonight which I'm woefully unprepared for. Instead of studying I've been reading, poking around on the internet, buying gifts for my niece and nephew. Pretty much everything in my power in keeping myself from cracking open my science book.

On a brighter note our tree is on the way through the postal system. We did a real tree last year and decided it's not happening again. More from not wanting to clean out the sap in the tree stand because I don't even know where to start with the gooey mess. Between Jason and I we've combed the stores all over our area. Finding a decent priced tree is a bitch. Or having any stock of fake, pre-lit trees in the store is a bitch. I keep forgetting we're in a densely packed area of human bodies.

Realistically I know a pre-lit tree is a bit costly. Only I don't want to pay the cost even knowing it'll pay for itself within 2-3 years. Seeing our neighbors tree almost had me canceling the order and hitting up Home Depots tree sale. They got a beautiful live tree for $20. But no, I don't want to deal with putting up any lights. I don't exactly enjoy all the knicks I get from the needles, real or fake be damned.

Screw hair of the dog

My only goal today is regaining the ability to function.

It's 2pm. I'm still in pajamas. My stomach has finally stopped the roller coaster ride from the liquor and inadequate sleep. I need a nap before I can even consider studying for my last lecture exam tomorrow night.

My only advice is saying no if someone offers you rum punch.

Food Allergies and Birthdays

Baking in the oven are chocolate cupcakes for Colin's birthday at school tomorrow. Not ordinary cupcakes but gluten free cupcakes. This is the first time I'm trying the mix since I don't have any gluten free cake recipes sitting on my bookshelf. Nor any of the ingredients so I'm going the easy method in baking out of a box.

Originally Colin wanted me to make peanut butter chocolate cupcakes. His eyes shined with the thought of having those made for this birthday and passing them around the lunch table. I had him ask his teacher if there were any food allergies in his class because that could change what I make. He said it wouldn't be a problem.

The next day he comes home saying someone in his class has a peanut allergy. With this bit of knowledge I told him I'd bake different cupcakes for school and the peanut butter chocolate ones would be for home.

I find out later in the week the same student has a gluten allergy on top of the peanut allergy. He still wanted me to make cupcakes because it was okay for this student to be left out. I asked him if they were always left out. He said yes. I asked him how he'd feel being left out of a birthday celebration and he said he'd be sad. When I asked him if I should make something everyone could enjoy, the same shining eyes turned to me and he loudly said yes.

I left a message with his teacher confirming the two allergies and if this was the case I would make gluten free cupcakes. I got back a note thanking me for thinking of the student but it was okay to make what I wanted. The student's mom normally packs something special for when birthday's are celebrated at the school.

I don't like having a student left out because nobody bothered in finding out if there were any allergies in the class. Food allergies are common these days. It shouldn't come as a surprise a child might be allergic to every day products we all take for granted. While some allergies are pretty easy in working around some take a bit of educating oneself before whipping up a cake. Or something.

Fortunately I am only working around a gluten and peanut allergy. While I could have gone out, bought a gluten free cookbook and all the ingredients, we're fortunate enough food companies are recognizing these allergies more and more. I bought a gluten free cake mix from a box and dairy free/wheat free oreo's for the decoration.

I don't know how these cupcakes will come out. I will say they smell delicious.

The last week of school and possible bus suspension

And what not to do without all of the pertinent information.

The rumor mill started with a phone call from our director informing us 3 kids, including Brendan, were suspended from the bus for eating. This came from one of my coworkers who took the phonecall. I called the director to verify when this happened. She only stated it came from Mr. C who wanted to know when the last day of school is.

I call Transportation so I can find out what happened. This is all related to Brendan's being written up last week for not sitting still or staying in his seat. His inability to do so has been a long standing issue since the first week of school. As I told my boss and Transportation my only issue is why it's being written up now. Transportation will be riding today and I asked her to double check the new monitor isn't shoving the elementary school kids towards the back.

Apparently chaos was the word of the day last Thursday. Kids were eating and drinking. One kid was spitting on another. Nobody was listening to the new monitor. Fortunately Brendan wasn't one of the ones eating. Don't get me wrong, his not sitting still is a huge issue for us. He definitely should have been written up a long, long time ago. Part of the problem stems from having a bus monitor who the kids figured out how to manipulate. Doesn't help there is now only one bus in the afternoon so all 3 schools are together. The elementary kids are on the longest since they're picked up first. Care to guess some of the words and finger gestures Brendan's picked up on thanks to all of this?

I am so glad school is almost out. The bus issues have been a bloody nightmare this year especially with the going down to one bus in the afternoons.