Ramblings: 11/01/2006

Ramblings

Friday, November 17, 2006

Last night on my way home from my Shaklee meeting I go to (we meet at Tom's Pancake House in Beaverton), I checked out the new New Seasons Market at Cedar Hills Crossing (another aside...Claire is in the background scolding her brother "don't fais pas ca." he's playing with the lamp on the table and has yet to pull it off the table, but likes to slide it around. claire's finding the scolding role to be her job these days. my scolding tends to be in French so it's interesting Claire choses to do the same...it's cute, kinda funny too).

Anyway, back to New Seasons...I ran into a former colleague from the private high school where I used to teach French. This lady teaches Physics and Chemistry, used to work for Intel, has a daughter...She's a nice lady. We never talked much while I was there, she came during my last year/semester, but I always thought I'd like to get to know her better. Well, she unloaded on me about how stressful the school year already seemed to be...how she didn't think the principal was very flexible, how there were too many assemblies and forums and teachers and students seemed frustrated and burned out! This conversation made me really glad I could go home and not have to wake up at 6am, cart my kids off somewhere, then get to school! I made the best choice for me and my family... (actual post date 11/17/06)

¶ 1:50 PM 0 comments

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Last Saturday's bazaar was pretty busy, but not as busy as I would have liked! We gave out lots of free samples of Shaklee's Basic-H2 so maybe we'll hear back from people later... All the vendors were excited to be there so that was a fun energy to feed off of!

I realized how tiring it can be to meet lots of new people when my present reality involves taking care of two small children. They need their alone time so I don't have to interact with them face to face for 5 hours like working a bazaar requires. I love meeting people, don't get me wrong...it's not something I've been building up endurance towards lately!!!

I have another bazaar this Saturday with a new crew of gals! It should be fun!!! This Monday night is another bazaar, but also a fundraiser for a pre-school so hopefully that'll bring a different crowd of customers too!

Shaklee's not exactly a one-time fun type of gift. It's more a general, long-term emphasis on good health. Sometimes, people just don't want to get healthy... I love my ice cream & potato chips too, but I like knowing that if I'm "bad" one day with my food choices, at least I took some high quality vitamins that may make up for my choice to yes, in fact, eat potato chips after I've just eaten a bowl of chocolate ice cream...hee! hee!

Elliot is almost walking two-three steps at a time more than one time a day! He'll be 11 months old tomorrow! Wow! He can really book it up the stairs too and I may have to get that gate out to block him... So far he hasn't tried to come down by himself. When he starts doing that, I'll need to be extra vigilant!!!

Claire is skipping afternoon naps....or maybe I'm allowing her to skip them so she doesn't go too bed too late at night!!! We get a grumpy girl at night, but at least she doesn't go to bed a 11pm! Potty training isn't even a daily occurrence so we'll see when that happens...maybe after the holidays.

Wow! One week 'til Thanksgiving... I'm excited for Christmas... It'll be nice this year. Last year was a blur since Elliot was born December 17th... I think I slept through the end of December! Then it rained and rained....35 days straight I think from December 18th until whenever. We had the best view from our 9th floor hospital room window of the storm coming in from the south. It snowed, was stormy, then rained! I can put into words how beautiful it was to have a newborn in my arms and my husband at my side in the warmth and safety of a hospital room... Babies are miracles and so are beautiful snow storms when everyone is safe and snug at home...

¶ 2:49 PM 1 comments

Friday, November 10, 2006

Tomorrow I'm participating in a 5 hour bazaar with 12 different vendors at Hillsboro UMC 9-2pm. My mom and I will be "doing Shaklee." We'll probably omit the little dance Claire does when she says she's "doing Shaklee." I'm so pumped for tomorrow! It took a long time to get ready. I don't do this every day so it was a lot of prep work. I'll update tomorrow on how it went! At least I'll get to meet a lot of people....At most, I could gain a couple more customers or a business builder...or two...or three...

¶ 10:17 PM 0 comments

Friday, November 03, 2006

Neighbors moving is a hard thing... Our next door neighbor told me she was moving to Washington with only a week's notice. Her life is changing.... She separated from her husband in late August or early September and now is packing up her things and her 3 year-old son and moving away. Neighbors separating is a hard thing too. I think of their son and how he'll live. It's crazy how angry it makes me. There wasn't any clear reason for their separation.... She was maybe tired of staying home so much (she did work one day a week so she did have an outlet)... Maybe it was his schedule of working 3-11 that made family life hard.... I don't know and neither of them want to share.

Urgh! I heard their garage door open and I went out to say "good-bye and good luck." She came over the other night to check her email, but we really didn't visit. It was awkward.

In my ideal world, I'd be surrounded by homes with families who had children about the same ages as mine and the mothers stayed home with their kids. The other moms and I would share things like babysitting or recipes or feelings. We'd help each other with small things that would make the day a little easier. Right now in our neighborhood people are moving. People work. Kids are older. A lady I know who is home runs a daycare so the little kids at her house at her own (they are in elementary school).

I think I need to live in the present, in the modern world, not in the t.v. world of 1950's suburbia. If we lived somewhere else there would be new problems. I have two great kids and I'm glad I'm home to raise them and love them and feed them and watch Elliot almost take his first step! Claire is learning how to sing French Christmas songs on her own.... I admit, yes, I have started playing Christmas music during the day :-) Only I could teach her some French... I don't know any daycares who do that.

I started Shaklee to earn money to put Claire in the French American school here in town. Well, I'm not earning enough, but I realized that I don't want to put my daughter in school for 7 hours a day at age 3 1/2. That's too young for that many school hours...I realize that I'm teaching her French too...maybe not in an academic setting, but still, she's learning..... Yesterday she looked out the window and said "Il pleut" (it's raining) without prompting.

So goals change, life changes and that is part of keeps us fresh. Now I'd like to do Shaklee to earn money, but not necessarily for French school....maybe to save to be able to move into a neighborhood that has more little children and stay-at-home moms and someday, a nice extended vacation in France.

¶ 8:21 AM 2 comments

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