Day: December 19, 2008

Yay! Another fun meme! I thought I would throw my blog into the mix and join the gang this Friday. In fact, this meme just SCREAMS me because of the sheer randomness – it’s a thing of beauty, ya’ll. *grin*

This Seven Quick Takes on Friday is brought to you by Conversion Diary. Hi Jennifer! It’s nice to meet you! *waves*

We had a little drama around here yesterday. Well, it’s a tragedy, quite frankly. I picked MK up from school yesterday and he was LIVID. One of his very good friends, a boy who has done all of the same band things – honors band, pep band, competitions – with MK tripped and fell in P.E. while holding a medicine ball (whatever the heck that thing is).

The kids laughed. And were quite cruel in their teasing. And when it became apparent that this kid was badly injured, MK went ballistic on their butts. He reported the mean kids to the teacher and I guess it was so bad that this teacher is going to call a parent-teacher conference with the mean kids’ parents.

MK is not a tattle-tell. And because of his small size, he’s certainly taken his fair share of teasing from the “mean” kids. But MK is nothing if not loyal. And once you’re MK’s friend, then you’ve got him for life.

The boy that was injured is a big boy. He’s a bit on the overweight side but mostly, he’s just a BIG kid. His father is pretty big so he comes by his physique naturally. The mean kids can’t resist teasing him because of his size anyway, but when he fell, it just went out of control.

We had a pretty good talk in the car about how MK handled the situation. I told him I was proud of him for doing the right thing – the mean kids need to learn there are consequences to their, well, meanness. But I also told him that he would likely get some flack for being the “tattle-tell” at school today. He understood that and was willing to endure it – his conscience was clear.

I told him that if it became physical in any way, if he was hurt by another kid in any way, I wanted to know because that’s one thing I WILL NOT TOLERATE on any level – someone manhandling my kid. But if it was verbal, then he would just have to learn to control his temper and handle it because let’s face it, life is full of mean people. You just have to learn to deal with them.

MK had a band concert last night.

Of course, the boy who was injured wasn’t there. He was the only kid in band big enough to handle the baritone saxophone and since he wasn’t there (they had to take the boy in to the emergency room – I think he messed up his knee pretty badly), it threw the rest of the band off rhythm and they didn’t play their best. They were all pretty upset about their chum and it showed in their music. It was a disappointing performance but the kids learned that there will be times in your life that something bad happens like this and you must go on – there was nothing they could do to help.

The teacher told the kids to play for their buddy. I thought that was sweet.

This episode also reinforces my dislike for physical education in the schools. I think the coaches ask these kids to do some pretty ridiculous things and then of course, it’s a prime feeding ground to pick on the smaller, weaker kids. Though I can certainly understand the need to get our kids moving, I think the curriculum could be structured a little differently and not so geared toward competition. MK is constantly coming home and telling how crazy out-of-control the kids got when they lost a game.

And then, there’s the whole physical education requirement in college thing. I had to take a P.E. course when I went to college and I was a late bloomer, so there I am, in my early 30’s in P.E. class with 20-something kids. Talk about embarrassing – and a complete waste of my time and money.

And did I mention the kids have to dress out for P.E.? So, you have the whole body image/self-conscious factor at one of the worst ages to put this on kids – the pre-teen/teenagers. It’s truly insane, in my opinion.

I learned the five characteristics to maintain a healthy civilization today:

1. Religion
2. Social Structure
3. Culture
4. Specialized jobs
5. Writing

See? Writing IS important.

I will shut up about that now.

My main computer (because I have two PC’s and two laptops – I know, I’m sick), has completely gone berserk on me. It just randomly restarts with no prompt from me and at irregular intervals.

It could be a virus, but I don’t think that’s what it is. I’ve been having power supply issues for months now. In fact, I was afraid to turn my computer off for months and well, haven’t turned my computer off for months because it would take me up to five minutes to get it started again.

I’ve scanned for viruses and it’s not showing anything (which doesn’t necessarily mean I don’t have one) but it was doing this shortly after I reformatted so I’m pretty sure it’s not a virus. I was lucky enough to make backups of my important files before it completely went nuts, but I still need to back up my emails and I haven’t been successful because every time I start the process, it shuts down on me. I finally just unplugged it and I’ll try it again later.

Instead of buying a new power supply though, I think we’re going to wait until after Christmas and just buy a new computer. I’ve had this computer for a long time and it’s probably time to just chock it and start over. I’d like my husband to build me one from scratch (I’m currently using the computer he built me and this baby is ROCK SOLID), but you can get such a good deal on a ready-made computer from Ubid that it seems silly to go any other route.

If you haven’t checked Ubid out, I highly recommend it. They sell refurbished electronics and we have gotten some amazing deals through them. And if you don’t want refurbished, then think of it like this – someone has already located a problem with the device, these guys fixed it and voila! It’s brand new again, minus the bugs. So refurbished can sometimes be better than brand new. 🙂

The sun is out for the first time in a week. Ahhhh. Hello sun. You are beautiful. Stick around a while, won’t you? Our extended forecast looks good, though we’re scheduled to get some wintery mix on Tuesday, which COULD discourage my sister and nephews from coming down for Christmas.

BUT, our forecast for Christmas is sunny and 55 (!!) so maybe not. I hope not. Of course, it says sunny now, that doesn’t mean it WILL be. Our weather, *shakes head*, is amazingly fickle.

What’s the weather forecast look like in your area for Christmas day?

MK is ringing the Salvation Army bell at the mall tomorrow. That should be fun. Actually, he’s teaming up with two other classmates and he wants to play the saxophone to help entice people to drop some money in the buckets. I’ll take a short video of that (providing he doesn’t chicken out) and post it soon.

This is it! The last weekend before THE big day (that would be Christmas if you’re not quite awake to catch that *wink*).

Are your kids getting antsy? My boys are getting pretty excited. Of course, if you didn’t know them you wouldn’t know they’re excited – they’re teenage boys after all. How much emotion do teenage boys really display anyway?

Exactly. But they are, trust me. 😀

Anyway, here are some last minute Christmas tree ornament ideas from Family Fun. Try them, it might distract the kids – for an hour or two.

Sweet Mice

Sweeten up the Christmas tree with a collection of chocolate mice ornaments.
CRAFT MATERIALS:
Hershey’s Kisses
Pink felt
Scissors
Double-sided carpet tape
Fishing line
Self-adhesive googly eyes
Curling ribbon

Time needed: Under 1 Hour
1. Remove the tags from two Hershey’s Kisses. Cut out mouse ears from pink felt, about 3/8-inch high. Using double-sided carpet tape, affix the bottoms of the ears to the flat side of one of the Kisses.

2. Tape an 8-inch loop of fishing line behind the ears to form a hanger.

3. With more double-sided carpet tape, join together the two flat sides of the Hershey’s Kisses, with the mouse ears and fishing line loop pointing up. Add a pair of self-adhesive googly eyes.

4. Slip a tail — a 4-inch piece of curling ribbon — under the foil. Now, see how they run (or disappear) from your tree!

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Northpole Signpost

Here’s a real treat for your tree: a candy cane-like ornament that points the way to Santa’s place.

CRAFT MATERIALS:
Large craft stick (ours was 4 ½ inches long)
Acrylic paint: white, green and red
Craft knife
Permanent marker
Glue
Small green felt holly leaves
Red mini pom-pom berries
White glitter
5-inch piece of ribbon

Time needed: About 1 to 2 Hours
1. Coat a large craft stick (ours was 4 ½ inches long) with white acrylic paint and another with green paint. Let them dry, then add stripes of red paint to the white stick.

2. Use a craft knife to cut a 3-inch section from the green stick, notching each end to create an arrow shape, as shown. Write “North Pole” on the sign in permanent marker, then glue the sign to the red-and-white craft stick.

3. Next, glue on small green felt holly leaves and red mini pom-pom berries. If you like, add dabs of white paint, then sprinkle on white glitter for snow.

4. Finally, glue both ends of a 5-inch piece of ribbon to the back of the signpost for a hanger and let the glue dry.

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Downhill Racers

Gear up for your holiday decorating with these handmade tree trinkets.

CRAFT MATERIALS:
Craft stick
Emery board
Glue
Toothpick
Beads
Ribbon

Time needed: About 1 Hour
1. To make a set of skis like these, first use hot glue to attach 2 emery boards an inch or so from the ends of 2 colored craft sticks (available at craft stores), then glue the sticks together as shown.

2. For each pole, glue a small button onto one end of a toothpick and a round bead to the other end for a handle.

3. Finally, glue the poles to the skis, tie a ribbon around the set, and tie on a string loop for hanging.

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Dangling Snowman

It doesn’t take a single flake to build this frosty character — you can round him up with white foam, buttons, and ribbon.

CRAFT MATERIALS:
3 round objects (we used a spice jar lid, the bottom of a yogurt container, and a mason jar lid)
Scissors
Craft foam, white and orange
Glue dots
Monofilament
Buttons
Permanent marker
Ribbon

Time needed: Under 1 Hour
1. Using the round objects as patterns, cut out 2 white foam circles in each size.

2. Place one set of the circles on a flat surface, spacing them 1/4 inch apart. With glue dots, glue a 12-inch piece of monofilament across the circles as shown, then firmly press the matching circles on top.

3. Use more glue dots to attach buttons and an orange craft foam nose. With a permanent marker, draw on eyes and a mouth. Finally, tie a ribbon scarf around the monofilament at the neck, and then knot the line above the head to create a loop for hanging.

Merry Christmas!