Adventures of Gnomes, Penguin, and Baby Bee

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Accepted

I have officially been accepted to the Art Institute's Interior Design Bachelor's program. Now we wait to see if I can actually afford it!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

What do you do to discipline your child?

I've been curious about this for some time. Brian and I always seem at a loss for whether or not we are disciplining our children properly or whether we are being effective in what we do with them. We don't want to be overly harsh for things that should be left alone. As I mentioned earlier we have Naomi's eating situation, but there are behavioral things that just come along with being 4 years old. So I'm curious - what do you do with your children if you have them? Any reading material that would assist us in this situation?

Guess what I did?

I just filled out my FAFSA forms. And I'm about to fill out the Art Institute application for interior decorating...

Our Pottery

From 2009

Brian's mug is the "watermelon" on the left. He says

this wasn't what he intended it to look like. We'll

have to go back and try again! Yay! The entire

inside of his is the bright orange-y color. Mine is

the grey and green with red vines. I did all of the

vining in a matter of minutes! We realized it was

time to leave, but I hadn't even started on the vines.

Next time they can be more thought out.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

So I just read this for fun to see what maids do skimp on when you stay in a hotel. Little did I know I would discover the bold red type. Even if you only read the red type you'll see my point.

Confessions of a Hotel Housekeeper

"Instead of Vacuuming, I Picked Up Some Crumbs"

Budget Travel, February 2009

Allison Rupp worked at Yellowstone National Park's historic Old Faithful Inn in 2004.

The best guests sleep in

Three simple letters could inspire the "Hallelujah" chorus: DND, or do not disturb. One sign hanging on a doorknob, and the day's work was shortened by half an hour. Two signs? Pure heaven, but only if they remained there until my eight-hour shift ended—otherwise I'd have to circle back and clean the rooms. My daily list of 15 rooms (out of 325 in the hotel) consisted of DOs (due out) and Os (occupied), which in housekeeping lingo meant the guests were scheduled to check out or were staying another night. An occupied room was less labor-intensive (making the beds rather than changing the sheets saved me 20 minutes), but there was always the possibility the guest would stay in the room while you worked. One man watched me clean his entire room, from scrubbing the toilet to emptying the trash—and told me at the end that I was "building character." Condescension is not nearly as encouraging to a maid as a couple of dollars.

As long as it looked clean

I cut corners everywhere I could. Instead of vacuuming, I found that just picking up the larger crumbs from the carpet would do. Rather than scrub the tub with hot water, sometimes it was just a spray-and-wipe kind of day. After several weeks on the job, I discovered that the staff leader who inspected the rooms couldn't tell the difference between a clean sink and one that was simply dry, so I would often just run a rag over the wet spots. But I never skipped changing the sheets. I wouldn't sink that low, no matter how lazy I was feeling.

A bacterial wonderland

I was disgusted by the many guests I came in contact with through the things they left behind: the hairs on the pillow, the urine on the toilet seat, the half-eaten cookie, the stained sheets. One woman had soiled her sheets so thoroughly that we had to toss them in a biohazard bag—they could never be used again. Rooms where young kids stayed were the worst, with food ground into the carpet and piles of used diapers in the trash. That kind of demoralizing mess could take 45 minutes to clean up. Most maids wore rubber gloves when they worked, but mine were too big, so I discarded them. Unsurprisingly, I got the flu twice.

Not for love — or money

I didn't know maids received tips, so it took me weeks to realize that the coins left in rooms were an intentional gift. My tips were paltry: I almost never received more than $1, and at times guests left religious pamphlets. One day, however, I was shocked to find a crisp $100 bill lying on a table. Although the generous tip put a little spring in my step and compelled me to do a better job that day, it didn't change my work ethic for long. I apologize to you now if you ever stayed in one of my rooms. You deserved better. But if housekeepers were paid more than minimum wage—and the tips were a bit better—I might have cleaned your toilet rather than just flushed it.

Isn't it lovely to know that the work I do every day is demoralizing?? Nice lady, thanks a lot!

Its quite a shame isn't it? I haven't the slightest clue why people all over the world dislike children so much. It really is beyond me! I like kids and even though it is tough, I am more than willing to put in the extra effort for such a "demoralizing" life!

Monday, February 16, 2009

I've got the blues...

No, not the craft macaroni and cheese kind - the kinda down and depressed blues. I've been worse before - a lot of times actually, but I've just got the don't wanna do anything, feel kinda sad blues. I don't even know where they come from and I think that is what frustrates me. Often I feel like it comes from being overwhelmed with my small apartment. I like things in order and somewhat cleanly. But as I look around right now I see piles and messes. There is just too much to fit into these tiny apartments! I don't feel like I even have a lot of stuff, but everywhere I turn there it is! Stuff, stuff everywhere! So next Saturday Brian and I are going to go through the toys and get rid of the extras, stuff that has never been played with or just doesn't go with anything anymore. So there will be a trip to D.I. Gwen is at that destructo stage where everything that is in a drawer needs to be out of it. So that always puts a lot of work on the table - like when every single measuring cup and spoon is strewn about the house they all need to be cleaned. Maybe I wore myself out with all the V-day treats. There was a lot of dishes after that. That would have been a good picture to include after the treats display. huh?

And then there is little Naomi. She is just the most stubborn kid I've ever known. She isn't bad by any means, but when she get something in her head someone is gonna go down. Its never pleasant. We struggle so much with her eating. Her repertoire is definitely going down. She eats next to nothing! We try the whole take one bite and taste it at least. Doesn't work. We try the eat 5 bites and then you can be done technique. Doesn't work. We just tonight tried the eat that much before this time idea. Did not work! Any suggestions? I feel like we've tried it all, but we may not know.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was an up/ down day for us. Brian and I celebrated on Friday night by going to a pottery painting store called Color Me Mine. It was quite fun! In my naivety I thought we would maybe spend 20 minutes painting our mugs that we picked out. WRONG! 2 hours later I could have kept going, but it was time to get back to pick up the girls. We get the mugs back on Tuesday so I will post pictures then. I planned the date so I had thought we would have time for a dessert, but we just painted instead. I would really like to go back. For those in the area its really fun and easy!

Saturday morning I took Brian to school with the plan from him that he would be working ALL day. So I had planned to make tons of fun V-day treats with the girls. However, I did not go shopping prior to that day. So we went over and purchased as many V-day treat ideas as we could. There were no pink and red sprinkles anywhere!

We headed home and here are the results: