Victory is mine!

I love my car. Her name is Sally, but really it's Penelope. Originally named Penelope after Penelope Pitstop, Hoot calls her Sally because she is the same color as Sally from the movie Cars. So, Sally it is.

Unfortunately, Sally recently burned out her low beam headlight on the driver's side of the car. Sad. The dealer here, which I refuse to patronize, charges $80 or more to replace the bulb. Our wonderful local mechanic charges only $25. However, I just spent almost a grand replacing the master timing belt, water pump, and thermostat. Not because it broke, but because I hit the 100K marker on the odometer. I will need tires and an alignment soon, so I really didn't want to have to take it in for a headlight.

Years ago, one of the No Buy gals on the Disboards sent me a link with instructions on changing the bulb myself. I tried it and fought with it for several hours. Then, I gave up and took it to my mechanic.

Today, I decided to give it another go! For $6 and some bruised fingertips, I changed that dang bulb myself! Hooray! I can't tell you how happy I am! It took quite a bit of work, but I managed to get the assembly out, bulb changed and the assembly snuggly back into its tracks. However, I don't have the brutal man strength to get the knob back in place, but no worries. It is snug enough for now... yes, really. Trust me that bad boy is not going anywhere. I will have big man slide the latch back in place tonight.

Wow, if I had learned this skill 7 years ago, I could have saved a bundle. I had them changed at least four times at a dealership (at least $80 a pop) and once at our family mechanic for $25. That's $345 I could've saved over the years! Never again! LOL!

And now, I can take the main roads home tonight!

At the Jellyfish Ranch: Hoot is doing so well. He's not the picture perfect student, but he is so much better. He loves them; they love him. Life is good for the Hooter Bear! And, sleeping at night is so much better. We may be able to transition back out of the night time pull ups again soon!

At the bookstore: I keep forgetting to pick up the new book by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. I loved The Shadow of the Wind so much, it became one of my top five books of all time. Now, I finally have another one of his books within my grasp and I can't remember to bring it home! Bad Susie. Bad, bad Susie. Tonight, I will start The Angel's Game. I promise!

Jellyfish at the Beach

Do we really have to wrinkle our nose every time someone stops us to take a picture?

Yes, I guess we do!

This past weekend, we went on our annual trip to Corpus Christi so that we could frolic in the surf at Mustang Island. And, wow, what surf it was! I can't remember the last time the waves were that big! We watched a few surfers go way out and actually surf for a very long time. We do love the beach!

Our usual budget for this trip is $500. That includes everything and we take my parents. This is a trade off of Mother's Day and Father's Day for myself, my mom, DH, and my dad. So, $500 for four presents isn't bad. This usually includes two hotel rooms for two nights, most meals, gas money, annual beach pass, and any miscellaneous flotsam and jetsam picked up at the beach stores. My mom would usually bring a cooler full of drinks and sandwich stuff for picnicking on the beach.

This year, due to the not thinking before speaking habit of DH and a whole lot of family politics, we ended up only spending one night in Corpus. Yeah, I'm not really going to go there, it'll just make me angry again. So, we had a new plan. A cheaper plan. Ah, hindsight, baby, hindsight....

We drove to my parents' house on Thursday night, as they live just under 2 hours from Corpus. We spent the night and headed out late the next morning. Along the drive, my mom kept Hoot busy in the back seat cutting paper and making tiny crabs with her paper punch kit. They must have made close to 100 of those little crabs as we found them all weekend long!

Upon arrival, we had lunch at Joe's Crab Shack over the water along Shoreline Drive. It was a blast and Hoot jumped up to join the floor show when the waiters danced. It was wonderful. I spent $93 including tip for the five of us. Not bad, as this was supposed to be our big expensive meal out for the trip.

After lunch, we headed out onto the island, but didn't want to change into our swimsuits in a gas station bathroom. So, we spent $16 to get us into the State Park. We changed, but since the park was busy, decided to head back out to our usual spot off of Beach Access Road Number 2. We love being able to back right up to the water with all our gear to set up camp. Thankfully, my mom's new Trailblazer had four wheel drive. The sand was so loose this year because they've had no rain. (I made her drive. I haven't driven on the beach since I had to get a beach hunk in a big truck pull the bug out in 2006!... but, oh, what a hunk....) Then, we popped off another $12 for our annual beach parking permit.

The water was fantastic and we stayed for hours. Hoot is still so fearless in the water. The waves knock him down, he pops back up. Lather, rinse, repeat. I know people always stare at him in his life vest, but he's too quick and fearless to go without it. We'll have to upgrade a size before next year.

We checked in to the Holiday Inn Convention Center out by the airport. This is a very nice hotel, and I Pricelined two rooms for one night and it came out to $114 with taxes. We cleaned up and headed out to dinner, stopping to put $48 in gas in the Trailblazer along the way. Wow, what a big improvement over the money in gas we put in their old truck last year!

No one could quite decide what they wanted for dinner, but we were super hungry! I don't know who spoke first, but when the word OUTBACK came up, everyone got excited. Um, not quite the budget meal I had hoped for, but okay. I mean it's vacation, right? Yeah, $123 later, I announced that I hoped everyone enjoyed it because tomorrow meant bologna on the beach. And you know what? They didn't believe me! Will they ever learn?

After dinner, we headed out to the cheesy beach shops on North Padre Island. We were looking for shells to take to Hoot's Jellyfish class. I spent $28 on 20 shells, two t-shirts, a metal Space shuttle toy, and a light up shark. Not too bad, really!

Back at the hotel, DH took Hoot for a swim, slapped him in jammie's, and we dropped him off with the old people. We then headed off to the bar. Wow, out for a drink. Just like grown ups! We spent $20 on four drinks and enjoyed the last period of the Stanley Cup finals. In a bar. Just like grown ups. Oh, had I mentioned that? Sorry. (just like grown ups.)

After checking out, we headed back out to the beach. I stopped at CVS and spent $15 on drinks, chips, and bread. Unfortunately, they didn't have any sandwich meat or cheese, so we had to stop again at another small store for those, which came out to $12. They laughed at me, but for lunch, I fed them bologna sandwiches on the beach!

We had a great afternoon, but then everyone got really tired. At the last minute, as I was breaking camp, the wind snapped one of our beach umbrellas into an early retirement. Well, I say early, but the thing was at least ten years old. I shall search for a replacement at the end of the season, or maybe upgrade to a small canopy if the price is right. My dad kept coveting the neighbors canopy, even though I know they can be a pain to anchor in the sea breeze.

Everyone was snacky hungry as we left, and we wanted to wait until we got back to my parents' house before we ate, so we pulled in to Whataburger for a round of shakes that set me back $14.

I also need to add in the gas for my car ($28), two convenience store stops on the road (totaling $16), dinner when we got back late Sunday night ($13), and the kennel costs for Miss Luna since we took our dog sitters with us on this trip ($78.)

So, let's see how we did. I figure we were way over in our quest to save money.

Yep. WAY OVER! The grand total comes out to $630. See, sometimes to save money- like staying only one night in a hotel, makes you seem like you have more money to burn. That sure seemed to be our attitude this time. Its almost easier to stay two nights, take two cars, and bring more picnic stuff from home. That makes us a little more careful. Lesson learned.

We're gonna love being a Jellyfish!

Wow, my last post was April 8th! I'm shocked but not. Life has been so very tough for Team Stone. Like, Super Tough. Hoot had started preschool around March 15th. Last week, we removed him from his old school. Poor Hoot. He could be a poster child for what Preschools should not do. As a parent, I am ashamed that I allowed it to continue for as long as it did. Honestly, I just didn't know better. Looking back, I should have seen the signs.

On his first day, I had to go get him. Sure. Happens to a lot of preschoolers. But, here's what really went down. Daddy walked in with Hoot and it took several minutes before the "teacher" acknowledged them and showed Daddy where to put Hoot's nap mat, blankie, and pillow. Daddy gave Hoot a hug and left. "Teacher" never bothered to introduce herself or talk to Hoot about the rules. He immediately began to move a play stove so that it was next to the sink. "Teacher" tried to put him in time out. Meltdown.

We went half days the rest of the week. Then all day the next. Then, he got a new "Teacher" and we learned that this was the real teacher (yes, she was the one we met when we toured the school). From there, we had so many meltdowns. And I began to really watch. He was in the office every single day. They would knee jerk timeout for every tiny infraction, and not just with my kid. And they would pounce you on Fridays with every tiny detail.

Then, we had another new "Teacher" at the beginning of May and that's when the nightmares began. And we had the hair incident....

I received a call that I had to come and get Hoot. He had cut a "hunk" of hair off of a little girls head. Now, cutting hair is a bad thing to do. I will never deny that. But, I had to totally rearrange other manager's schedules to get my shift covered. Then, when I got there, I was shown the "hunk" of hair. Well, as I'm posting, I'm listening to my Ipod. The cord on my ear buds are about twice as thick as the "hunk" of hair. Really? And seriously, isn't this the teacher's fault? Where was she? Again, not denying guilt, just questioning the environment.

When I went to pick up Hoot for the hair incident. I asked the owner/administrator if she thought this was going to work out. She said she honestly didn't know. Not the right answer. You really just said you don't have faith in my child. I began shopping for schools again the next day.

Then, I found the Jellyfish. Really, they had been my first choice all along, but they NEVER have openings. They are a hippy momma chain based out of Austin. They are so wonderful and optimistic that I cried when I signed him up. But, I had to wait until the beginning of June. Surely we could make it one more month.

Right?

But, time out wasn't working at home anymore. TV banning and rewards/punishments with video games were DESTROYING my family. I didn't even want to go get my child from preschool because I was tired of being beaten down.

The next week, Hoot was sent home for peeing on the playground. Um, yeah, again not right, but boys do that. Really, on some level they don't really grow out of that. And, it all went downhill from there. Yeah, I didn't know we could go any lower. We did.

Every single night, we had nightmares or night terrors. The night terrors were the worst with the thrashing and screaming and hitting. As they occur outside of the REM cycle that nightmares occur in, he didn't remember them and you had to wake him up to break the cycle. Not an easy task. Like waking a sleepwalker.

Every meal was a battle. Every morning a fight. Every night sleepless. Our household was riddled with landmines and pitfalls.

Then, I had six days of vacation. I kept Hoot at home and you know what? After four nights, no more nightmares or night terrors. And, after a few days, he was a delight to be around. Really, he was a great kid.

But, he had three more days of the old school left between my days off and the new school.

We could make it three more days, right? Just three days.

No. On Wednesday, he had a really rough day with another kid that had been one of his big problems in the fighting category. (This kid's name came up in our screaming nightmares most of the time.)

On Thursday, I received a call to talk to Hoot on the phone as he had been in trouble again. The ***** in the office was super nasty to me and we had a few words on the phone. I had absolutely no one to take Hoot for me. When Daddy arrived to pick him up that evening, he was on the bottom of a dogpile being hit and punched by other kids. He came home with a giant goose egg on his forehead, a gouge out of his neck, his brand new shirt from Tee had its neck stretched out beyond wearing, and bruises up and down his legs. It is such a good thing I didn't go get him. They would've had to take me out of there in cuffs.

Thankfully, Daddy's boss allowed him to work a half day on Friday and Hoot never went back.

On Monday, we became Jellyfish together. Hoot and I went around 10 am and stayed with the class for an hour and a half. It was awesome. We explored the room together and set down some boundaries. We learned where his cubby was and met everyone. It was awesome. There is even a kid that matches Hoot's height! Yeah! He's not the only "giant" in class. Before we left, Hoot told me, "Momma, you go home! I'm gonna stay!" But, we had a lunch date so he came home with me.

Tuesday was his first day. He was excited and nervous, heck, so was I! But, he showed no anxiety at me leaving. When Daddy picked him up from school, the teacher said it was a great day. Now, I'm sure it wasn't crime free. Heck, sharing and rules are what preschool is about! And the other kids tried to rat him out to Daddy, but Daddy knows to listen to the teacher.

Same story today! Again, I'm sure he did something naughty. But, this school gets that. It gets kids. It knows that kids are what you think they are. If you think they are monsters, they will be monsters. If you keep a positive winning attitude, you will get positive winners.

I had a lovely dinner tonight with a positive winner. He was polite, talkative, and, when dinner was over, he put all our plates in the sink without having to be asked. At bedtime, Team Stone gathered for story time on the big bed and had a great time. No fights. No sass. No stress.

I'm gonna love this Jellyfish thing.

Bee's Business

Now that I am getting back to my blog, (oh, how I've missed it!) there is so much I want to write about: money triumphs, troubles, family issues, upcoming trips, finishing an old trip report, the list goes on and on. However, this post won't be about any of that.

This post is about a book that I read last week. Yes, my favorite thing. A book that won't let you go. And this book will probably never let me go. Ah, my favorite kind.

Little Bee by Chris Cleave is an amazing flower that is so steeped in the real world that it will not matter that it is a work of fiction. When I first read the back cover of the advanced reader, I was skeptical. The blurb suggested that if I read it, I would want to tell everyone about it. Then it asks you to not tell too much about the book. But, these book jacket promises don't always deliver. This one delivered and oh, I want to tell you absolutely everything. I'm just bursting!

Originally published in the UK as The Other Hand, this advanced reader was handed to me by another manager who was also just bursting. As I read it, we had a few conversations where she was very guarded. In fact, every conversation began with, "So, how much do you know?" Its a very adept way to talk about this book when someone hasn't finished it. But, you still have to be very careful. Last night, I recommended it to one of my booksellers. I can't wait to see her again so that I can ask the same question.

I know, you're thinking, but what about the book! Get back to the book. But, really I can't tell you much. But, I will tell you a little. And, I'll give you a link to the author's website posting of the first chapter.

Little Bee is a Nigerian refugee. But it is not just her story. It also belongs to a highly successful London magazine editor and the people who populate her world. The relationships between these characters are intense, special, and real. We get gripping narration from both sides of the story.

The story begins in the middle, and the past is woven into the future so that each petal of steel is revealed slowly. But, as the beautiful flower is opened, handle it carefully, the truthful ugliness is not just in the thorns.

And that's it. That's all I'm going to say about the book. But, know this, when I am at work, I will be saying it over and over and over. Chris Cleave deserves to have this book on every bestseller list out there. You can bet I'm going to do my part.

Oh, and one last thing. If you seek out more reviews of Little Bee, please be careful. You really, really, really don't want spoilers and there are many out there.

Dare I say... Routine?

Do I dare say it? We may be establishing a routine? This whole preschool thing has turned us upside down and inside out. But, we're on our fourth week, and we had a good day.

Okay, so I haven't spoken with his morning teacher, but I am declaring it a good day. Why? Because he didn't go to the office today! Hooray! No horrible, Hitler's mommy feeling when I went to pick him up!

Seriously, I have felt so down and depressed with this whole preschool thing. And it wasn't all about missing my Hooter Bear. Sure, I missed him horribly, especially while I was on vacation last week and home all day. But, what was getting to me was that dread pit in my stomach when I went to get him every day.

I would get so horribly rattled by the things that they would tell me:
Hoot hit his teacher.
Hoot told his teacher he was "gonna get her fired!"
Hoot ran with scissors. (Yes, really.)
Hoot poked a kid in the eye.
Hoot slapped at the pregnant teacher.
Hoot wouldn't stop barking. (I never got up the guts to ask if it was a Chihuahua bark or Bolt's Super Bark.)
Hoot had to take his shoes off because he wouldn't stop kicking the door while in the office.
Really, this list could go on and on.

Then, I got in trouble for not signing him in one morning. That really got to me. I mean, I'm not stupid. I run a five million dollar business. I am an intelligent adult. I successfully got him to school, helped him put away his things, told the teacher good morning, got a progress report, then kissed and hugged my love goodbye and left. *sigh*

I know it is all still new, but I felt a little hope this afternoon. There were papers in his box, and they showed very promising work. He hadn't gone to the office. He was polite and in a good mood. Yeah, it felt really good.

Oh, then I followed through with my desperation promise: I returned the power cord to the Game Cube. Yeah, I know. Desperate times, desperate measures. I hated it the whole time they played because Hoot becomes so dang obsessed. But, sometimes you have to take a horrible thing, throw it in the forge, then pound it against an anvil until it becomes something good. It is hot sweaty work, but I guess I can live with it.

Now maybe I can start getting control back into the other areas of my life.

Preschool Blues

I'm back! Wow, talk about forever since I last posted. But... I have a serious case of the preschool blues.

With all the talk about my bookstore changing its hours, and DH's plant talking about some new contracts, we began to seriously talk about Hoot going to preschool/daycare. We found a place we loved and Hoot REALLY wanted to go there and be with other kids during the day.

I thought he'd be a model citizen.


Turns out he needs Mr Bubbles to make him a model citizen.

Seriously, I thought it might have a few challenges and would be rough for a few weeks. I did not know he would turn feral. On the first day, he moved furniture around in a fit of rage. On the second day, he tried to hit a teacher and told her he was going to get her fired. On the third day, we didn't have to go to the office until almost noon.

This week, we are just shooting for noon. Every day. Get him through the morning routine with a few successes under his belt, since I really felt like, in the end, we had set him up for some big time failure with this one.

Next week, we're going to try and make it through the entire day. God only knows what nap time will bring.

This morning, I'll be sitting here by the phone until noon. With a huge pit in my stomach. Jumping out of my skin every time the phone rings.

Where in the world is Siouxstone?

Home. Off of her computer. Sad. But, there is hope! After some tough decisions, we are sending Hoot to preschool/daycare full time starting on March 16th. I can't really write about it yet because I am totally devastated, even if I do feel like it is the right thing to do.

So, with all this change coming at me, I feel like I have a third full time job getting it all planned out and well, just dealing with it. I've been planning to post for a while that I will be taking a hiatus until Hoot starts school. I will be taking the first day off so that I can cry all morning. But, then I will be back posting and kicking on Tuesday March 17th. I promise. I even have a goal to get back to a minimum of three posts a week. (Lord knows my sanity needs it. I kind of fall apart if I don't write regularly.)

In the mean time, I will be spending gobs of time with Hoot and making him a custom cover, blanket, and pillowcase for his nap mat. Nap mat. I have to get a nap mat for my baby. Somebody hold me...