Sleeping

I love sleeping. I love sleeping in. I live for Saturday and Sunday and avoid early weekend plans if I can at all help it. (mind you, sleeping in for me is 9:00am)

I also love sleeping in an ice cold room. And this week it has been the most amazing weather-hot during the day and nice and cool at night. So I usually crank up the window fan to high and let the room get frigid. I love snuggling into the covers while the fresh air blows over the bed.

The only problem with this is that my husband hates it. In his mind it is summer and we should let the room be a little warm and enjoy the season. He wants me to leave the window fan off at night. And he decided to bring this up yesterday morning before I had any coffee.

I was seriously considering sleeping the spare bedroom last night(but I didn't). That's how much I hate sleeping in a hot room. What can I say? I'm a princess.

Rebecca ****** Age 8

Something wonderful has happened at our house.

My 8 year old step-daughter has finally embraced my love of reading. And I have Beverly Cleary to thank.

Just to give you a little background, when I "got" Rebecca, she didn't even know her ABC's. She knew the song, but when I mixed up the letter flashcards so they were out of order, she had no clue what the letters were. It was worrisome and she has seemed to be trying to catch up ever since. First grade it was a fight to get her to read. And despite Dave and I often working 12 hours day, we came home every night and worked with her. It was very frustrating because it was always a fight. She just didn't like to read, it was very difficult for her and it was just very trying. We felt like our efforts were not paying off. We talked about getting her a reading tutor or sending her to Sylvan, but it is so expensive. And we held off.

Then she got into second grade and got a wonderful teacher who was so encouraging to her. It was still somewhat of a fight to get her to read but she was definitely making progress. By the end of the school year she was reading on her own. It was glorious.

So last night I took both kids to Borders and told them they could each pick out a book. While Sam wandered off to pick out a "boy" book, I wandered into the children's book section with Rebecca. There I found all the wonderful books I read as a little girl and young adult. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, SuperFudge, The Phantom Tollbooth, Anne of Green Gables, The Boxcar Children, and the Ramona Quimby series. And with my encouragement, Rebecca picked out "Ramona Quimby, Age 8".

And she started reading it in the car. It was bliss. She didn't even want to stop to eat. She just wanted to read. We got home and she took that book to bed with her and when I went upstairs to tuck her in, she was asleep with the book on her chest (the first time that has ever happened). And when I took the book off her chest she stirred and murmured, "I'm so tired, but I wanted to finish the chapter." and then rolled over and went back to sleep.

And I stood there in awe of what we have finally accomplished. This is my little girl. She may not have come from me, but she's mine and I'm so proud of how far we both have come.

Adventures of Guinness and Jerry

Yesterday I came home from a meeting to work at home for the afternoon and Guinness's water dish was bone dry. I was a little ticked about that because it seems that I am the only one who ever makes sure he has water.

Then I heard a crinkling noise behind the couch and found Jerry back there licking a bag. Guess what the bag was? It was empty, inside out and licked clean bag of hot and spicy pork rinds that Dave had left sitting on the sofa table.

So that explains why his water dish was bone dry.

Little monster dog.

Movies Not to See Unless You Enjoy Feeling Suicidal

I Am Legend (My alternate title - I Love Dogs (that is why I hated this movie))

PS I Love You (My alternate title - Why, why, why, would you put yourself through this? And PS - I hate this movie)

There Will be Blood (My title - There will be boredom)

Beaches (My title - Beach-bawling)

Steel Magnolias (My title - Where can I find a beauty shop like this? )

Terms of Endearment (My title - Seriously, people think watching this is enjoyment?)

Hmmmm.....

I stopped to rent a couple of movies Friday night and I was on the phone with Dave while I was picking them out so he could give his opinion. Since I was a combination of tired/distracted, I grabbed the movie boxes instead of the movies and took them to the register and also into the Twilight Zone.

I was short on cash so I asked the cashier if I could charge it (normally I wouldn't charge 6 bucks, but I hadn't been to the bank). She said that was fine and rang it up without scanning my membership card. Then she asked me for $16. I was totally confused as to what was going on and then realized she was charging me for the movies, although in retrospect, $16 for two blu-ray disc's would be a steal. Except the movies weren't in the cases. I looked at her blankly and said, "I'm renting them." and she said, "These are blu-ray disc's" "Yes" I replied and she said, "Do you have a blu-ray player?" "Yes" So I pointed out to her what I had and done and she headed back to the rack to get the movies. I was really embarrassed and could feel my face getting red. So I said, "I'm sorry. It has been a really long week." To which she replied, "Yeah, I've been having stomach problems all week."

Huh?