M read to his class

M’s new first grade teacher is very into reading (as she should be).  I told M to show her that he can read very well (thinking he would read to her).  Instead, he decided he wanted to take a book to school and read it to his class.  He’s such a brave kid.  I would never have done that when I was a kid .. never ever!  He took a level 3 (Step Into Reading) book to school and asked his teacher if he could read it to the class.  She said yes and he did.  I’m so proud of him!  Not just that he reads well but that he had the courage and confidence to want to get up in front of class and do it.  Wow!

Tired Kids

Reality is setting on for the kids.  Last year M had almost no homework (had a not so great teacher).  This year he has homework much more and Z has his own homework as well.  We make the kids read to us each night as well so that all amounts to what should be about 30-45 minutes of work per kid.  Last night it took a few hours to get through it.  M got 3 timeouts.  Z got 2 timeouts.  Both kids just wanted to complain and whine and fuss about like kids do.  My theory is that they are tired when the get home because they don’t sleep enough or eat enough or both.  We’ve been putting them to bed by 7-7:30 PM so they are alone in their rooms by 8 PM.  That would give them plenty of sleep.  We feed the breakfast (have to force M to eat pancakes this morning) and feed them dinner (had to force Z to eat grapes last night) so hopefully they’ll settle in to a routine soon.  It is a bit harsh when you wake up and realize that you have to go to school EVERY day and do homework EVERY day.  Such is life kids

Z has a cold

Z started school and immediately got a cold.  He has a stuffy/runny nose.  He had a low fever the first day but now he doesn’t seem to anymore.  His sniffles are so pathetic.  D gave him an extra pillow for his bed so he can sleep on an angle and let his nose drain.

Quiet House

Both kids are in school.  D is on the treadmill in the basement.  The house is so quiet it is hard to believe.  Amazing!

Forgotten Homework

When I was a kid I forgot my homework or books everyday from school.  My mom would drive me back and try to get me to remember it on my own so I could just bring it home in my bag.  Today M forgot his homework at school and D just left the house to drive him back to get it.  M has a much better memory than I do so hopefully forgetting his homework will be rare.  If not.. bad genes maybe.

Crestor And Knee Pain

Today after putting ice on my knee after my lunch walk (not running since the knee pain has been so bad lately) I started thinking about why my knees hurt so much lately. I haven’t really been running that much but my knee pain is much worse than usual. A quick google search for Crestor and joint pain and I found out that joint pain can be a side effect of taking crestor. I take crestor to lower my cholesterol (which it is doing pretty well). I scheduled an appointment with my doctor to talk about it and see if I can go on something else for my cholesterol or just stop it for a month or two to see if the knee pain improves.

Bret Stopping By

Today Bret should be stopping by on his way to his tattoo removal treatment.  He stops here so I can put this numbing creme on his back so the laser treatment doesn’t hurt too bad.  This one should be a bad one for him.  He just had one two weeks ago and usually he waits a month between treatments.  This will be the first time since the kids went back to school that he is stopping over and seeing a clean and empty house (D is out shopping somewhere).

Michelle Obama’s DNC Speech

Last night I watched Michelle Obama give her DNC speech.  It was VERY good.  I think she did better than Hillary Clinton will do tonight which is saying something since Hillary is a professional politician.  I think I liked her speech last night better than most of Barack’s speeches so far (and I’ve seen a lot of them).  Go Michelle!

Recycling

Recently we started recycling. I have called my garbage company twice to try to get a recycling bin (big yellow plastic bin) to use. They said the would drop one off but never did. We finally just decided to start using our own plastic bins. Now our garbage is about half of what it used to be and the other half is in the recycling bin (mostly plastic and cardboard). The recycling truck dumps it all in 1 bin so they must do post pickup sorting. The upside for us.. we use fewer garbage bags and get to feel good about trying to help the planet.

2Checkout

I recently called 2checkout to reactivate my old account to use for our new business.  I used 2Checkout.com when I first started our colic business several years ago.  We later switched to a merchant account but it was a good way to get started.  Now I’m going to use them again to try to jump start our new business.  Basically they act as a payment processor but you have to refer to them as a “reseller” because otherwise they wouldn’t be able to do what they are doing.  No big deal to me.  I’m happy to call them a “reseller” all over our site and also to follow their rules about privacy policies and refund policies if it makes it easier to prove that this business model has legs.