So a Prof family moving tradition -
We invite a bunch of people over right before we move. The food is generally super casual - like tonight will be pizza, veggie tray and birthday cake since tomorrow is Spouse's birthday. And everyone leaves with a gift. We have a lot of stuff we acquire over the years that we aren't going to move - outgrown toys, 1/2 a pack of little swimmers that we don't need any more, assorted items of "decor" given to us by various grad students from other countries, etc., etc.
Everyone leaves with a present.
I found some streamers we aren't going to move, so I'll put those up, too.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Priorities
So I have been thinking about ways to be more cheapity because of the cut in income we are taking to move to NewState. I've looked into The Grocery Game and getting Offspring's and my clothing at thrift stores (as well as switching from skirts/jackets to dresses for me, as Spouse and I will be sharing a fairly small closet for a least a couple of years, and they take up less space).
The space concerns are real, but I finally had an epiphany that I need to focus on my priorities, which are a) to take good care of my family and to b) get tenure. If we go on less nice vacations or keep our cars with 100,000+ miles for a few more years, we may just have to suck that up.
In other news, Bun has learned how to be deceitful. When I was cleaning out a desk we are moving I found this novelty I had bought as a present for Offspring when I had a business trip to NYC. It's edible paper - a little pad of pink sheets, with a food coloring marker. You can write messages to each other and then eat them. I told Bun she could have 1 piece, but then needed to not because food coloring vomit would be harder to clean out of our beige carpets and I don't know for sure that she is done with puke-a-rama yet.
When I wasn't looking, she grabbed it off the table and ran to her room, slamming the door. Slamming doors are not good with a 3-year-old, so when I went to investigate, she still had the evidence in her mouth. She is doing a long stint in the time out chair while I write this blog post.
In other news, I ran into a door this morning, and I think I might have broken a toe. yay.
The space concerns are real, but I finally had an epiphany that I need to focus on my priorities, which are a) to take good care of my family and to b) get tenure. If we go on less nice vacations or keep our cars with 100,000+ miles for a few more years, we may just have to suck that up.
In other news, Bun has learned how to be deceitful. When I was cleaning out a desk we are moving I found this novelty I had bought as a present for Offspring when I had a business trip to NYC. It's edible paper - a little pad of pink sheets, with a food coloring marker. You can write messages to each other and then eat them. I told Bun she could have 1 piece, but then needed to not because food coloring vomit would be harder to clean out of our beige carpets and I don't know for sure that she is done with puke-a-rama yet.
When I wasn't looking, she grabbed it off the table and ran to her room, slamming the door. Slamming doors are not good with a 3-year-old, so when I went to investigate, she still had the evidence in her mouth. She is doing a long stint in the time out chair while I write this blog post.
In other news, I ran into a door this morning, and I think I might have broken a toe. yay.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Back in Central State
So we are back in our house in Central State. It's both odd and comfortingly familiar to be here. Bun has some kind of stomach virus, so I have already cleaned vomit out of carpet (yay!) and we are trying to keep things pretty neat.
In an odd turn of events, I have a friend who left PrettyGood to go with her husband to the coast as he pursues an acting career. She lives in the expensive coastal city, but still telecommutes to PrettyGood. Due to some issues with child care plans and whatever, she needed a place to stay last week, so I had her and her baby stay at our place.
Well, it turns out that her division at PrettyGood had its VP fired, so everyone has to re-interview for their jobs (a PrettyGood specialty...treating people like they are insignificant), so now she has to stay here until the end of August and actor-husband is here to take care of the baby. They moved out of our house for the weekend, but may be back. They are really in a bind and a) I feel really bad for them and b) I am extra glad to be leaving PrettyGood.
She may have to stop telecommuting, and for what the rent on a studio is on the coast, they could pay a mortgage on our house...which has crossed our minds. But for now, we are just trying to be supportive. How crappy.
In an odd turn of events, I have a friend who left PrettyGood to go with her husband to the coast as he pursues an acting career. She lives in the expensive coastal city, but still telecommutes to PrettyGood. Due to some issues with child care plans and whatever, she needed a place to stay last week, so I had her and her baby stay at our place.
Well, it turns out that her division at PrettyGood had its VP fired, so everyone has to re-interview for their jobs (a PrettyGood specialty...treating people like they are insignificant), so now she has to stay here until the end of August and actor-husband is here to take care of the baby. They moved out of our house for the weekend, but may be back. They are really in a bind and a) I feel really bad for them and b) I am extra glad to be leaving PrettyGood.
She may have to stop telecommuting, and for what the rent on a studio is on the coast, they could pay a mortgage on our house...which has crossed our minds. But for now, we are just trying to be supportive. How crappy.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Cold Feet
Definitely starting to get cold feet about the move - I think Spouse and I both. Wondering if torching Spouse's career in favor of a modest improvement in mine was really the best choice. Whether sending Offspring to a school that, yes, is more academically appropriate, but is a jump from a chummy rural campus to a "we can't have basketball goals outside because it encourages drug dealing after hours" urban campus was the right choice. Just wondering.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Packing
We are beginning what promised to be 2 and a half crappy weeks. We started packing our NiceState place today and over the next day and a half will get it moved to storage. Then we drive to NewState, drop a few things off, and then drive 20 hours to CentralState. We are there for a week and a half, packing up the house (I leave for 4 days in the middle to give papers at our annual big to-do in basketweaving) and then driving 20 hours back to NewState.
Whine. Bitch. Moan.
You get the idea.
Whine. Bitch. Moan.
You get the idea.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Um, no.
Offspring: I think I could be a vegetarian. Except I like milk. Me: Some vegetarians drink milk. They are called lacto vegetarians. Offspring: Well I like bacon, too. Can I be a lacto-baco vegetarian?
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Back for a moment
We're back in Nice State, but just for tonight. Our townhouse in NewState FINALLY closed today, so we are going down there tomorrow to do some touch up painting, hopefully open a bank account, and figure out where the heck we are going to put everything.
We realized we really need to leave NiceState next week in order to get everything taken care of before Spouse has to be at work on Aug. 16. The fact that I have to be at a conference the first week in August is not helping with this. But we'll make it, I think.
We spent the last two nights with Spouse's younger brother and his family, which will be expanding to a family of 5 next week. I like them and like visiting them, but I also always feel really bad because they already have 2 kids under 5, and we blow out their schedules (read: no naps), so their behavior is usually age and situation appropriate, but a little histrionic as afternoon turns into dinner turns into evening.
Our youngest is the same as as one of theirs, but Bun is a little less emotional, and has the benefit of a calming older sister, so she's usually not out of control. I think SIL feels bad about the kids' behavior (again, completely what I'd expect, so no worries here), and it makes it a little hard to visit them. I hope it will get better as all the kids get older.
We realized we really need to leave NiceState next week in order to get everything taken care of before Spouse has to be at work on Aug. 16. The fact that I have to be at a conference the first week in August is not helping with this. But we'll make it, I think.
We spent the last two nights with Spouse's younger brother and his family, which will be expanding to a family of 5 next week. I like them and like visiting them, but I also always feel really bad because they already have 2 kids under 5, and we blow out their schedules (read: no naps), so their behavior is usually age and situation appropriate, but a little histrionic as afternoon turns into dinner turns into evening.
Our youngest is the same as as one of theirs, but Bun is a little less emotional, and has the benefit of a calming older sister, so she's usually not out of control. I think SIL feels bad about the kids' behavior (again, completely what I'd expect, so no worries here), and it makes it a little hard to visit them. I hope it will get better as all the kids get older.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Still on the road
So we STILL have not closed on our place in NewState, because the sellers keep forgetting to send back paperwork. We make some money every time they do, but come on, people!
It has been pretty silent on our home in Central State, as well, but I think we are going to go ahead and move our furniture to NewState at the end of the summer. We are, all four of us, going into stressful new situations this fall, and I think the more "together" we can have our lives, the happier we are going to be. Our realtor felt that our house could do as well at not selling empty. We are quite fortunate that we can afford to wait a while for the house to sell.
We are presently visiting my parents. Every visit is a saddening reminder of how they are getting older. They are deciding on things like when they are going to retire, and I hope it is sooner rather than later. At the rate at which they are slowing down, if they wait too long, they won't be able to make choices.
Bun got stung by a jellyfish at the beach today. It was bad, but not as bad as I had imagined it might be.
It has been pretty silent on our home in Central State, as well, but I think we are going to go ahead and move our furniture to NewState at the end of the summer. We are, all four of us, going into stressful new situations this fall, and I think the more "together" we can have our lives, the happier we are going to be. Our realtor felt that our house could do as well at not selling empty. We are quite fortunate that we can afford to wait a while for the house to sell.
We are presently visiting my parents. Every visit is a saddening reminder of how they are getting older. They are deciding on things like when they are going to retire, and I hope it is sooner rather than later. At the rate at which they are slowing down, if they wait too long, they won't be able to make choices.
Bun got stung by a jellyfish at the beach today. It was bad, but not as bad as I had imagined it might be.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Still here
I am spending some time with my head in the sand (classes? What classes?) visiting family, etc. Can't say much because my laptop battery is about to die, but Spouse did hear from his new school, and they are still planning on him coming, so yay.
I also got to eat butter tarts and poutine recently. Where have I been?
I also got to eat butter tarts and poutine recently. Where have I been?
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Time to get real
So we are supposed to be closing on our townhouse in five minutes, but the seller didn't get their paperwork completed and back, so we can't. This is a bit of a problem, since we off to Canada tomorrow and won't have e-mail and phone is doubtful. It'll close eventually, but it sure is irritating.
But before we found out about that (at 9:30 last night), we got a call from our realtor in Central State, and we have an offer on our house. It's very low - to the point that we thought about not answering it at all, but decided to counter with something pretty similar to our asking price, which itself is a little lower than we are comfortable with. We shall see.
But it made me mindful that I need to start seeing about movers, etc.
Oh, and Spouse still doesn't have a contract.
But before we found out about that (at 9:30 last night), we got a call from our realtor in Central State, and we have an offer on our house. It's very low - to the point that we thought about not answering it at all, but decided to counter with something pretty similar to our asking price, which itself is a little lower than we are comfortable with. We shall see.
But it made me mindful that I need to start seeing about movers, etc.
Oh, and Spouse still doesn't have a contract.
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Now for something rather different
NewSchool has a common book requirement prior to the freshman year, and this year's seniors read Savage Inequalities. Since I am teaching seniors in the fall, I thought I should read it, and I just finished.
It made me think a lot about the situation Offspring is going into. New State has county-wide school districts and, after consulting with her teachers and counselors from last year, we decided to put her in the one with a big urban center, as a large district could offer more opportunities. As I've posted before, Offspring will attend a school downtown with an interesting mix of campus residents. It is 1/4 highly gifted (the whole late elementary and middle school group is at this campus), 1/2 magnet programs and 1/4 attendance zone.
This is going to be a big change for Offspring, who spent all of her schooling in a rural district in Central State. The campus is not in a good part of town. They can't have outside basketball goals, for example, because they attract urban youths and gang violence, or so they tell me. She will also be riding a bus about 1 1/2 hours each way.
In the book, the author seems by the end to advocate busing as the only way to provide fair educational opportunities for poor children, so I guess we going to be supporting that idea.
But I've done some reading on the history of the consolidated highly gifted program, and it is a little concerning. Apparently, they have a history of moving the program to various campuses that have problems with passing rates on the NCLB tests. Putting a bunch of high-scoring students on your campus does help your passing rate, I guess, but it seems to just mask a larger problem of why kids on these campus are failing.
Then there was this post in the New York Times about the benefits of New York City testing children for gifted programs at age 3. One of the respondents essentially says that there's no point in gifted services for young children at all (maybe in middle school), which has some gifted parents up in arms. The idea is supposed to help them identify more minority children, who are underrepresented in programs around the country (including in Offspring's new district). This seems pretty contradictory to many of the statements in the book about how impoverished home environments make some children start with disadvantages that they never overcome. I'm not sure there is an age where testing is meaningful yet the effects of the home environment wouldn't have already caused some damages.
But I do think some of the situations described in the book, although clearly written to be inflammatory, are unacceptable. And I think that systematically missing minority kids is wrong, but also a tough problem to fix. One of the points in the book was that impoverished children often come from families where the parents don't have the skills to advocate for their child (filling out magnet school information, for example). I wonder if support with this (kind of like the free tax form help volunteer groups give) could be useful?
It made me think a lot about the situation Offspring is going into. New State has county-wide school districts and, after consulting with her teachers and counselors from last year, we decided to put her in the one with a big urban center, as a large district could offer more opportunities. As I've posted before, Offspring will attend a school downtown with an interesting mix of campus residents. It is 1/4 highly gifted (the whole late elementary and middle school group is at this campus), 1/2 magnet programs and 1/4 attendance zone.
This is going to be a big change for Offspring, who spent all of her schooling in a rural district in Central State. The campus is not in a good part of town. They can't have outside basketball goals, for example, because they attract urban youths and gang violence, or so they tell me. She will also be riding a bus about 1 1/2 hours each way.
In the book, the author seems by the end to advocate busing as the only way to provide fair educational opportunities for poor children, so I guess we going to be supporting that idea.
But I've done some reading on the history of the consolidated highly gifted program, and it is a little concerning. Apparently, they have a history of moving the program to various campuses that have problems with passing rates on the NCLB tests. Putting a bunch of high-scoring students on your campus does help your passing rate, I guess, but it seems to just mask a larger problem of why kids on these campus are failing.
Then there was this post in the New York Times about the benefits of New York City testing children for gifted programs at age 3. One of the respondents essentially says that there's no point in gifted services for young children at all (maybe in middle school), which has some gifted parents up in arms. The idea is supposed to help them identify more minority children, who are underrepresented in programs around the country (including in Offspring's new district). This seems pretty contradictory to many of the statements in the book about how impoverished home environments make some children start with disadvantages that they never overcome. I'm not sure there is an age where testing is meaningful yet the effects of the home environment wouldn't have already caused some damages.
But I do think some of the situations described in the book, although clearly written to be inflammatory, are unacceptable. And I think that systematically missing minority kids is wrong, but also a tough problem to fix. One of the points in the book was that impoverished children often come from families where the parents don't have the skills to advocate for their child (filling out magnet school information, for example). I wonder if support with this (kind of like the free tax form help volunteer groups give) could be useful?
Monday, July 05, 2010
Death by details
There are a million little things to be done here this week - we are closing on the townhouse and leaving for a northern sweep that involves visiting my family in Canada, wasting time until the next weekend (anyone got any recommendations on stuff to do in Quebec City?), visiting my parents and then stopping by my brother-in-law's place. Then we come back here to Nice State, pack up the apartment.
Our house isn't going to sell before we have to be in New State, so we are debating if we should go ahead and move out or not. We have enough furniture here in Nice State, which adjoins New State, that we could manage indefinitely with it. But I hate for Offspring to start middle school and to have all the other changes that are upcoming with the rest of us with all of our furniture that folds or deflates for storage. Maybe I'm too particular.
Still no definitive word on the job for Spouse, and I am really starting to wonder if we have made a foolish decision.
Our house isn't going to sell before we have to be in New State, so we are debating if we should go ahead and move out or not. We have enough furniture here in Nice State, which adjoins New State, that we could manage indefinitely with it. But I hate for Offspring to start middle school and to have all the other changes that are upcoming with the rest of us with all of our furniture that folds or deflates for storage. Maybe I'm too particular.
Still no definitive word on the job for Spouse, and I am really starting to wonder if we have made a foolish decision.
Saturday, July 03, 2010
How to concern the people next to you at the Drive In
- See miracle fruit on Food Network while watching with your kid
- Purchase miracle fruit tablets at Think Geek
- Give miracle fruit tablets to Offspring for 11th birthday
- Fill cooler with cut up limes, lemons, oranges, grapefruit, dill pickles and sauerkraut
- Take tablets and coolers to drive in when you arrive 1 hour before showtime
- Use tablets; eat items from cooler
- Wait for Offspring's less-than-dulcet tones to carry with phrases like "Wow, this is the best stuff ever. I LOVE this. I can't believe you got this for my birthday."
The tablets do work. It's pretty neat. I don't recommend public consumption with your loud children.
Thursday, July 01, 2010
This and that
So Spouse returns today. I think he had a good trip - got a few things done at work, quite a bit done around the house,* and enjoyed seeing some friends in Central State. The girls were a little bit difficult while he was gone, especially Bun. This reminds me that a) tag team parenting really does work well, b) I am glad I'm not a single Mom and c) I would be a much poorer mother if I stayed at home.
Sadly, there is still no contract for Spouse, so I guess there is still a chance he might stay at PrettyGood next (they again made noises about wanting him to stay for a transition year while he was down there), so perhaps I will be an inferior single Mom next year. NewState did finally pass a budget, so I hope this means we will hear soon? I am not familiar with the machinations of state budgets, but his new school is publishing a comparison between what the university system asked for and what it ended up getting. Apparently, it wasn't all that was wanted, but was much better than feared. I hope this bodes well.
Sadly, there is still no contract for Spouse, so I guess there is still a chance he might stay at PrettyGood next (they again made noises about wanting him to stay for a transition year while he was down there), so perhaps I will be an inferior single Mom next year. NewState did finally pass a budget, so I hope this means we will hear soon? I am not familiar with the machinations of state budgets, but his new school is publishing a comparison between what the university system asked for and what it ended up getting. Apparently, it wasn't all that was wanted, but was much better than feared. I hope this bodes well.
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