A three year old’s explanation for babies…

My daughter has this way of talking your ear off. She has an impeccable memory. She remembers things from a couple years ago, which amazes me because she is only 3. I want to help enhance this memory so she can remember those things when she is older. Today she was telling me the story of her cousin’s birth:

“Mommy, Auntie Brandi had Zack in her tummy, but then her tummy broke and she had to go to the doctors and now Zack can’t go back in her tummy. Zack wanted out of Auntie Brandi’s tummy and the doctor helped her [him]. Auntie hold Zack now.”

A three year old’s explanation of my nephew’s birth is astonishingly accurate, especially because she wasn’t at the hospital, nor have I explained this thoroughly to her. She’s only asked a few questions about her cousins’ births and a few questions about babies. I’m dreding the day she asks about how babies are made, I’m not sure if I’m going to tell her the whole stork story yet, however, after seeing Up! and the digital short preceeding it, I think I will use that story since it’s plausible until she’s old enough to understand the real story. But if I use the real story, how do I explain the expanding belly of her aunts, especially when we tell her there is a baby in there. My sister is planning on having another child soon, and I know since Skye is older these questions will be asked. I think I’ll say something along the lines of mommies and daddies loving each other, and when they’re ready to have a baby the stork comes and plants a seed in the mommy’s belly that grows into a baby and when the baby is old enough to be born, the mommy goes to the hospital and with the help of the doctor and the stork, the baby is born. I don’t know. Is that a good explanation for a 3 – 8 year old?

The American Dream can be realized, here’s how to order…

Billy Mays was a marketing genius. I’ve been watching the PitchMen marathon that was on the Discovery Channel today. All the work that goes behind those 2 minute infomercials is amazingly crazy. I know there are some bogus claims out there, but Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan test their products and only stand behind those that work. I’m not going to turn into one of those “As Seen on TV” buying freaks. I laugh at people like that. Billy Mays will be missed. His voice was well known and I will miss hearing, “Hi, I’m Billy Mays for …”

It’s sad how sometimes people that deserve attention and praise don’t get it until after they’ve died. Billy Mays is an example of that. I mean sure, we all would recognize his loud boisterous voice, his blue shirt and khaki pants, and his trademarked beard, but how many of us really know how many lives he made better by supporting their products. My sister could have been one of those people who made a product and had someone like Billy Mays pitch a product to America and have her “American Dream” realized. Billy Mays did that for hundreds of entrepreneurs. Now the legend is gone and all that’s left are the “sham pow” pitchers and of course, Anthony Sullivan. If I was a marketing major, like my sister, I would be glued to the PitchMen series…but then again, I already am and business isn’t my cup of tea anymore.

What is the “American Dream”? That question has different answers for many people. So how would I answer that question? I think my “American Dream” starts with my education. I’m going to school to become a teacher. I want to have a career. I will do almost anything to ensure my success as a teacher, or even if down the line I decide to do something else with my degree (which I won’t change my mind). I think that’s the most important goal. With success I can become a role model for my daughter. My success is her success. I want to make sure I give her the tools necessary to help her gain her own success. My dream is to live in a small town, be the best mother I can, be a great English teacher and own a house. A husband isn’t my goal, I don’t want to get married. If I do not have another child, I’ll be okay. I have my Skye and myself. What else do I need?

What is your dream? It’s something to ponder.

A much needed weekend…

My weekend was long, lasted from Friday til just a couple hours ago. Friday was  a little busy, but not so much. I went to my dad’s. Then from my dad’s we went to my Aunt Marelene’s house in almost downtown Riverside. She lives on the historic and well known “wood” streets. All the streets of this neighborhood contain the word wood; maplewood, brentwood, edgewood, etc… It’s a gorgeous neighborhood lined with huge trees, old houses and beauty. My aunt’s house is haunted. We’ve all experienced something in this house that is paranormal, but no harmful things have ever happened. You just walk in the house and you know you’re not alone. It’s so cool. In my aunt’s house she has a lot of furniture that belonged to my grandparents, including an old electric organ. Every child has played on this organ. Mind you, I come from a very large family, being that my grandparents had 12 children, most (all but 2) had kids either by natural birth or adoptions. I digress. My aunt’s house is filled with antique looking furniture which adds to the already vintage style house. Skye noticed the organ and wanted to play. Being as old is it is, it’s not tuned nor is it loud anymore, even turned up all the way. If it was played all the time, I’m sure my aunt would get it serviced. I enjoyed taking this picture, because memories of always playing this organ popped up.

I love it.

Then we went back to my father’s house where we stayed up until 2 am. My cousin came over after dropping her son off at castle park and then my other cousin (her sister) came over and we made a party out of it. Then the next day I chilled around my house, straightened up a litle and then went back to my aunt’s so my dad could fix her toilet. It was pretty cool. Then we went back to my dad’s where we stayed again until 2 am. Then I drove up to Big Bear to spend 2 days with my grandparents. It was so nice. I love it.

Nostalgic memories and things are so precious. They help keep me grounded.

Insanely sad day

The entertainment history was hit hard today as Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson lost their lives. Farrah finally lost her battle with cancer and Michael suffers cardiac arrest. This is heart breaking. Death Death Death. It’s a never ending battle, and we all live to die. Although extremely eccentric and strange, Michael was a musical genius in his time. Farrah had an undeniably beautiful way about her. They were icons of their times and will be greatly missed. My thoughts are with those close to them in this difficult time

I leave you with a link to one of my favorite Jackson songs and the pin up poster that made Farrah famous.

Michael Jackson – Black or White Video

A song from my past

I’ve been listening to my mp3 player (no I do not own an iPod) and I’ve been listening to my old songs I used to listen to in high school. One song caught my ear that I think we need to be reminded of:

Simple Plan – Crazy

Tell me what’s wrong with society
When everywhere I look, I see
Young girls dying to be on TV
They won’t stop till they’ve reached their dreams

Diet pills, surgery
Photoshopped pictures in magazines
Telling them how they should be
It doesn’t make sense to me

Is everybody going crazy?
Is anybody gonna save me?
Can anybody tell me what’s going on?
Tell me what’s going on?
If you open your eyes
You’ll see that something is wrong

I guess things are not how they used to be
There’s no more normal families
Parents act like enemies
Making kids feel like it’s World War III

No one cares, no one’s there
I guess we’re all just too damn busy
And money’s our first priority
It doesn’t make sense to me

Is everybody going crazy?
Is anybody gonna save me?
Can anybody tell me what’s going on?
Tell me what’s going on?
If you open your eyes
You’ll see that something is wrong

Is everybody going crazy?
Is everybody going crazy?

Tell me what’s wrong with society
When everywhere I look I see
Rich guys driving big SUVs
While kids are starving in the streets

No one cares
No one likes to share
I guess life’s unfair

Is everybody going crazy?
Is anybody gonna save me?
Can anybody tell me what’s going on?
Tell me what’s going on?
If you open your eyes
You’ll see that something, something is wrong

Is everybody going crazy?
Can anybody tell me what’s going on?
Tell me what’s going on?
If you open your eyes
You’ll see that something is wrong

*Very good song. Something is wrong, and it needs to change and not in the “Obama Change” but in the change for humanity. We need the 9-11 mentality back. It’s something to think about.

I can’t sleep

So I have decided to endulge in writing a bit more.

One thing I’ve noticed since my sister has had her own child is that her and I have two completely different ways of parenting. This is a funny thing to me since we both grew up in the same house with the same parents. Now, granted our parenting styles are influenced greatly by a great number of differences, the main being that she is raising her son with her responsible and educated (mind you they are both educated) husband whereas I am raising my daughter on my own with the help of my mother, which i am incredibly thankful for otherwise I wouldn’t be able to and I hate to think of what would happen to my child if I was doing this alone. My ex is uneducated and frankly unsuccessful. He’s really good with Skye, but isn’t the best role model. My sister is limiting my nephew’s intake of negativity which is a good thing. I wish I could have done that, but with my ex and his… faults… this wasn’t possible. Not only that, I have a crazy family, whom I love, but there is no way I can shield her from the drinking and cursing as much as my sister and her husband try. Plus, I curse like a sailor, but I’ve been getting so much better at stopping that (see: eHow.com How to Stop Yourself from Cursing by ME )! I’ve only slipped twice in the last week I know our kids will grow up differently, however I do know that my sister and her husband and I all have great heads on our shoulders and want only the best for our kids.

Now there are some things that my sister does with her son that drives me nuts. I laugh and roll my eyes sometimes, partially because I think it’s cute or because I think with all the preparation and theories my sister and brother-in-law have, he’s still going to be a toddler sooner than later and I know what he’ll be like. I’ve been spending more time at my daughter’s preschool recently, because I have all the time in the world and nothing else to do. In doing this, I’ve learned one incredibly important lesson: my child isn’t a brat merely because she’s a brat — she’s just replicating what she sees. My daughter’s preschool is a GREAT preschool. It’s a happy place, the kids are on task and they learn. It’s a fun place. I would have loved to have gone there for preschool (not that mine weren’t good, they were pretty cool from what I remember). However I see a common thing happening. My daughter replicates the other children. I see what her friends at school do and she does it, not necessarily at school, but at home I see it. This summer I must retrain her so that she turns into my perfect little angel again — hahahaha. Okay, so she was never my perfect little angel, but she was still a little better behaved and wasn’t such a “no” monster.

I’m not quite sure where this world will take me or my daughter. I’m hoping that things will not always be this down. There is going to be a point in our lives, I know, that we will not have to be worried about how our bills are going to get paid or we don’t have to cancel summer plans because we have no money. There is going to be a day where we won’t have to rely on my mom and I can pay her back for everything she’s done for me and Skye. I know that by me finishing my education and finding a successful career that Skye will have the same determination to better herself in a world where people rely too much on their ignorance for a handout, and she will work hard to EARN what she has. I just want to know, when is it my turn to be happy? When is it our turn to stop struggling?

When does school start again?

In way too long. I’m already missing classes, and ready to go back. I wonder why this is. I got really good grades this quarter with the exception of one class because the instructor hasn’t posted grades yet. I got 2 A-s and a B+. You should be proud of me. I did this while being a single parent.

In an attempt to get my child to sleep in her own room, I am letting her throw a fit in her bedroom, by herself. She is screaming for “Grandma’s bed” but it is becoming increasingly apparent to me that she can no longer sleep in my bed or my mother’s bed as she needs more structure. I already had the task of going through her room removing all of her “monsters” which were her large stuffed animals. She refused to take a nap in her own bed. This is the only thing that has become increasingly difficult as my mother has been working graveyard. My child refuses to sleep in her own bed. Her excuses crack me up: there are monsters, it’s too hot, I want another story, I don’t want Tinkerbell on my wall anymore (my sister would be proud that a rather large banner of Stewie is now taken off her wall, but it is now on mine). These excuses drive me up the wall. Now she’s resorted to kicking and banging on her door as I put one of those child door locks on her knob so she can’t get out of her room right now. This might seem cruel, but she is not in any immediate danger and I open her door as I go to sleep so that if she has a nightmare once she is asleep, she can come join me in my bed. She is fine. Just throwing a fit.

So now I must ask, HOW DO I GET HER TO STOP CRYING AND GO TO BED? It is really driving me nuts. I’m about to go outside and let her screams go unheard for a while. She has been at this for over a half an hour.

That is that. This is what I am presently dealing with.

life in a nutshell

I have recently decided to make candles. I thought it was going to be a simple task only to find out that there is so much more to candle making than I thought. My first batch were supposed to be red, but turned out to be this REALLY pretty color of pink, so I’m not too disappointed. Then, they were supposed to be cinnamon scented, but to no avail, they are not. They smell like wax. I made a huge mess and had my stove smelling like burning wax for a few days, then once I had poured the candles into the jars, the insides sank in. I do not know why. I have yet to melt some more wax to fill them in, basically these first batches of candles are going to be pink with a white filling. Not bad though, for my first time anyway. They burn for a while, so if you like candles just for the sake of fire, they’re not bad at all.

This week has been a busy week for us. First it was finals week. I did well I think but not as good as I probably could have done if I did not have strep throat. I got strep throat the week of finals. How so like me. I wait until the last possible moment to get sick when it hurts me the most. Oh well. I’m okay. Then it was my little cousins graduation on Tuesday (YAY! CONGRATS MADDY!) and then my mom’s birthday on Wednesday. Thursday was when I was forced to go to the doctors by my mom being that I had just spent time with my little nephew and sister and grandparents the day before and I should find out if my sore throat and fever was nothing more than a cold. Well, as I already stated, it was strep throat. No symptoms until everyone left on Wednesday night, which is really weird. Thursday my other little cousin (the grad’s little sister) had her 8th grade promotion. Nothing went on Friday except Skye’s preschool did a sports themed day in which her father participated and I did not because I didn’t want to get close to the kids. I did take pictures of Skye and her friends because it was her boyfriend’s last day before jetting off to South Africa. Saturday (yesterday) was my little cousins’ grad party. It was fun. My grandmother’s friends Jim and Karen and their son Brett stopped by. My Great-Aunt Rayma and Great-Uncle Harold came over. It was awesome. The only people missing were my cousin and his girlfriend and my Uncle Denny, but he lives in Washington so it’s completely understandable. I guess I’m ranting about this because I am still so TIRED.

Next week isn’t going to be so busy. I have no school but Skye has school for the next 4 days. I’m still not sure what I’m going to do, whether I stay out there near the preschool or drive back and forth, I just don’t know. If I stay out there it will only be 160 miles on my car. If I go back and forth, double that but it will be shared between two cars. I don’t know. I do need a hair cut, so I can do that one day. I just don’t know.

That is life right now in a nut shell. How are you? Have you smiled lately?

You are beautiful.

Trying to generate some summer cash…

Hello my cyber friends.

Well, now that school is out, I need to find a way to earn some extra dough. I have applied to a few things here and there, but found a really cool site that can generate some extra income. Being that I love to write I have decided to embark on a new journey and began writing for eHow.com. It’s pretty simple.

My first two articles are up and the latter one being at this link: http://www.ehow.com/how_5090692_become-effective-college-student.html.

Please visit and help me out.

Thank you much.

“Your Child Can Read”

Has got to be the lamest thing ever. It reminds me of Pavlov’s Bell. There is no way that something as remarkable as a child reading before they can talk is only going to be 14.95 first of all. Second of all, they’re not reading. They’re being conditioned to do the things on the card. Real reading requires looking at the letters of words and putting the sounds together. I can garauntee that if you put a different word than the words provided on the cards, those kids will be lost and thus prove that this does not make your child read. I don’t know why this is making me so… frustrated. I think it has to do with the fact that this company is PREYING on the uneducated of language acquisition and the ways children learn to read and write, but alas, not everyone can be teachers.

So I’m watching tosh.o and i had to share with you what clip they just showed. It was disgusting but it reminded me of my sister and my trips to the zoo where the monkeys whip out their junk and play with it. Well this clip was of Elephants. This one elephant stuck his trunk in the other elephants butt and pulled out poo and ate it. I am so glad that I have never seen that in person. I think die of disgust and laughter. Sorry for the graphic thing, but that made me laugh, pretty hard. Otherwise this tosh.o show on comedy central is kinda lame. It’s really lame actually, but there is nothing else on and I am lazy and don’t want to find the remote to change the channel. I’m writing.

Cal Poly decided to cancel all of the summer classes in order to try to save money in light of the California Budget crisis. I can see where some people are angry. People rely on their summer courses to get pre-reqs out of the way, or because they need just that one last class in order to graduate. I understand that. But what makes me angry in reading the student responses to this is that what the students don’t realize that if they don’t cut summer courses, our fees can and probably would tripple. Cal Poly is one of the cheapest “good” CSUs. I understand why the school did what they did. I wasn’t relying on the summer courses, but I know MANY who were. The students are going to complain either way because they are selfish and want things to not change, but change is inevitable. If they want a school to go to still they must realize something must change. Either fees skyrocket or classes get cancelled. Students aren’t the only ones that are frustrated by these budget cuts. I am struggling to find affordable health insurance in these tough times, with no luck. Jobs are being cut left and right because if there are no students on campus, jobs will be cut.  So my message is simple in dealing with this budget issue – cal poly cancelling classes crisis: STOP COMPLAINING! IT’S INEVITABLE AND YOU JUST SOUND LIKE BABIES CRYING.