Secular Confessions

[daylilies]

I don't know about the daycare...maybe. It might be great for Josh, who has been bugging me about wanting a brother AND a sister I'm not great with kids though. I'd rather put my cooking skills to use though...I'm much better at that ;) I was thinking about emailing my minister asking if she knew of anybody who would benefit from home cooked meals delivered to them, but I didn't know how to ask or if she'd even know anything about that.
DH was all pessimistic about the car thing, saying "You gave her our phone number? Great, now she can find out where we live" and then "She probably didn't want to go through insurance because she doesn't have any" Jeez. No "I'm sorry that happened" or "You handled it well", just negativity. Then he rolled out 6 different kinds of pastries he picked up at a bakery today. I'm try to diet, dammit! LOL

He's been gone all day and now he's going to be on a raid on world of warcraft all night.
Josh made a dreamcatcher at church today. It's adorable.

[Cosmosmom]

We have a litter box for the cat but I think Gwennie is too big to get in it - she's not as big as Nero but much bigger than the cat. She's about 55 lbs. Puppy pads are not a bad idea, though. I think I might pick some up. I notice she tries to find a good surface, like the dog bed, and not go on the floor most of the time (I threw the dog bed out after she peed on it last time so she had to use the floor). So she might prefer a puppy pad. She's never tried to use the litter box even though she can see the cat uses it.

.

Ah 55 lbs is a bit big....cosmo is at 26 right now. The dog litter and pans are different than cats though i do not know how much since I know nothing of cats.

My MIL has been using the pads for her dog a springer spaniel as he's getting a bit old and seemed to have a lot of accidents. We all think he's not the brightest dog ever but he seems to have taken well to using the pads.

[missychrissy]

Geesh Kate, I don't even know what to say to that. I know in NY you have to exchange information, it's against the law not to...so I dunno what your dh thought you should do. Even if you call the police and have them do a report, they give the person your info.

[daylilies]

Yeah, he just wished I had given her my cell phone number, but I don't keep good track of my cell phone. It's a phone only, not a smartphone so I don't use it a lot.

[The10Eels]

I confess I have to brag for a minute.....

Look at my new ticker! Look at my new ticker!!

[daylilies]

Cool Ash!

[AmeriBrit]

Brilliant, Ashley! One of these days, I'd like to take the family to Alaska!

[missychrissy]

Awesome!!!

It's like 5 degrees out. I hate the cold.

[Cosmosmom]

Love the new name Ashley!

And Ashley...way to save! Are you going on vacation or thinking about moving back?

Chrissy, I don't mind the cold if it's at least sunny out. We get below zero a lot here....think that our coldest was -26 this year before wind chill. That was not fun!
I am more tired of the snow...it's fun a few times but it's been more than two months with one huge 22 inch snow fall and lots of couple inches ones. I would love to be able to see again when I'm trying to turn and pull out. I think next time we buy a car, we are going to look at jeeps because at least we would be a little higher up.
Looks like we are supposed to get another four inches today after one last night and maybe another tomorrow night.

[missychrissy]

It's predicted to be below 20 all week here, below zero at night of course. And sleet/snow as well, but I'll believe that when I see it. So far, we've been missed by all the really big storms that have hit the rest of the nation. I'm glad-we usually have more than our share.

We did get a bit a couple weeks ago and after the neighbor plowed our driveway we had quite an accumulation on each side. I laughed because the only thing you could see of my car coming up it was the roof. I gotta say, even though it had drifted and was knee deep on the right side and over ankle deep on the left, it walked up the driveway without slipping/spinning once, and it has summer tires on it. 4X4's are highly overrated, I've never been stuck not able to go wherever I wanted to in a car...even rear-wheel drive. I was even stopped on a very steep hill in Ithaca with a lot of that greasy, slushy, slippery wet stuff on the brick road and was able to get going....even I was surprised. I my little Cabrio.

[Bridget]

I'm breastfeeding!
I can't tell y'all how happy I am about this. I haven't pumped at all. My midwife came over yesterday and Sawyer is gaining weight again after the initial newborn loss. Before she weighed him she told me not to be surprised if he was less than the last time they weighed him that would still be within the range of normal. But nope. He's gaining. I'm thrilled.
The nights are still really hard. He gets hungry but won't eat and he screams until he finally poops or burps so something is bothering his tummy.

My cousin and her husband came over yesterday and she told me that her husband thinks that I have scarred my kids for life because they watched Sawyer being born.

Of course what I actually said was, "Really? That's interesting," but what I meant was:
Bite me

[Cosmosmom]

Jeez, I mean I don't think that I would have had kids in the room if I was giving birth (I don't even want to be in the room if I ever get pg and have to give birth!....I somehow missed the giving birth video in school so I have actually never seen it and just figured I wouldn't think about it until it was too late LOL)....doesn't mean anything. Sounds like your kids were very well prepared for it and wanted to be there. Wasn't like they went from thinking baby would magically appear by stork to being forced to watch the reality. That would be scary! But instead they knew the truth and into things like national geographic movies.

Love your response!

[Cosmosmom]

Chrissy, I'm not that great of a driver. I drive sort of like a grandma. Pretty careful and don't speed and taking my time pulling out...that sort of thing. I have never driven rear wheel or manual. I have never gotten stuck in the snow but than again if we were getting 8in or more, I probably wouldn't leave my house. When we had that monster record breaking snow, I know people were saying that it took 2 hours to go a couple of blocks because they were getting stuck and things like ambulances were getting stuck (so they were sending a plow ahead of them).
I know after about 8-9 inches, my car starts to have a lot of trouble with snow and we have bigger tires on it. I just would like to sit up a little bit higher to see better when pulling out onto the main road.

I just don't really like driving. I hate it at night and pretty much avoid it for the most part. I'm glad my town isn't too huge and it's like 10-15 minutes to get to the other side and we don't have a real rush hour. And I'm only 3.1 miles from work.

[missychrissy]

I'm glad Sawyer is gaining weight!! Boo on your family for even thinking such a thing, much less saying it. wtf?

[3andMe]

My cousin and her husband came over yesterday and she told me that her husband thinks that I have scarred my kids for life because they watched Sawyer being born.

Of course what I actually said was, "Really? That's interesting," but what I meant was:
Bite me

I think what might be more traumatic is having your cousin and your husband over as guests. Sheesh.

Not to make too weird a comparison, but you know how kids are always way more involved and interested in things they helped make happen? Like they're more likely to eat a dinner they helped cook? I think they will be better siblings for having taken part in the birth and feeling like contributors to the process. They'll be more invested in him, you know?

And congratulations for breastfeeding! That is totally awesome!

[The10Eels]

And Ashley...way to save! Are you going on vacation or thinking about moving back?

oh, heeeeeelllllllllllllllll no. lol... Just a vacation...

I think what might be more traumatic is having your cousin and your husband over as guests. Sheesh.

Bwahahaha... This, even though I could have never thought of it myself!

[Cosmosmom]

A summer vacation? LOL

[The10Eels]

Absolutely

[missychrissy]

I'd love to visit Alaska. It always looks amazing in pictures and on tv.

[daylilies]

Lydia, is that Claire and Ronin yawning at the same time in your sig? LOL It's too funny.
Awesome for bfing, Bridget.

Today we had a conference with Josh's teacher. He's doing great. One cool thing she did was she had them draw a self portrait in September and another one this month. The difference was astounding. The first one looks like a big scribble, and you can kind of make out the shape of a face and ears. This month's self portrait has a whole body, head, arms and legs It's so awesome to see that. When it sometimes feels like not much has changed since he turned 4, it's good to see that.

He's doing great in class, and when I told her about the problems listening he has at home, she offered to make me some visuals she uses, like the pictures for quiet, and listen, and look, and the transitions they make during the day. I think that will really help.

[missychrissy]

Yay for doing well at school!!

I need a sign for my door that says, "If I know your password on the first try without looking it up in the database, you're doing something wrong." There's this woman that has 5 computers and since I've been here I've worked on various ones at least 2-3 times per year because she continuously gets viruses. Right now, I have 2 laptops in my office that are hers.

She denies it, but I know she's letting her adolescent daughter on them and she installs everything! Dealio toolbar (among others), coupon savers and smiley central...just to name a few of the craptastic malware programs I've found on the 1st laptop. I'm positive the other one will be just as bad.

I know this is my job, but when it's the same user with multiple machines, and she makes no attempt to educate herself or change her ways (I've even given her daughter her own limited user account)...it's just aggravating!!

[daylilies]

Ugh...I can't stand those toolbars!
I read an interesting article about passwords...one thing I never though of was using phrases, such as "foursaltycashews" which are really easy to change when needed. Also I didn't know that there was such a thing as Google documents, where the article suggested you keep all your passwords and you can access it from online. I'm going to try that!

[missychrissy]

I'd be hesitant to use Google...I mean, they claim they strive to be secure and I'm sure they intend to, and maybe I'm being old fashioned but I fear anything 'out there' on the world wide web is vulnerable. Although, cloud computing is becoming more and more prevalent.

There are data encryption software packages that are designed specifically to keep and store your passwords safely.

[daylilies]

Yeah, I was thinking about that...like when I was going to tell DH about it I decided not to because I knew he'd be skeptical
I suppose I could do it the old fashioned way and just write my passwords in a notebook

[missychrissy]

Aghhghghghgh! lol. That's better than post-it notes on the monitor though I see that all the time.

Here's 1 password security program:

http://download.cnet.com/KeePass-Pas...ml?tag=mncol;8

It's free and has a favorable review from Cnet (whom I trust).

[demigraf]

I have one "base" password that I've used for the last dozen years. I have that one memorized. And in the last 12 years or so, I've developed about 7 or 8 variations of it to make it more complex. So for me to keep track of all my passwords for my different accounts, I have a list that I e-mail myself with the account user name and a cryptic "hint" at which variation of the password I used for that account. That's usually enough for me to keep a breadcrumb trail to all my accounts without storing the actual password verbatim anywhere.

Kate, I LOLed when you said you kicked your MIL out for calling you lazy for post-3 potty training. You seem so sweet, and I love it that you showed her to the door. I'm sorry that you hit a lady's mirror though. Car mishaps and fender benders are always a pain whether you're dealing with insurance or not.

Regarding dogs doing their business, I never heard of a dog using a litter box. That's so impressive! I guess our dogs were so big when we adopted them that we saw no alternative to the whole crate training thing. Our bigger dog was psycho when we rescued him, and on his first night spent in a crate he howled all night long until I actually yelled at him to let us sleep (I was pretty mean to be honest, but at 3 am I point to my lack of sleep). But he stopped whimpering, and learned to love his crate, like almost instantly. I guess both dogs saw their crates as safe dens after awhile, and they would go in and hang out even with the door open because I guess they liked their scent in there. Anyway, I am getting off track... with the crate training, we took them out every 1-2 hours to teach them where they were supposed to go, the idea being that dogs instinctively won't poop in their own homes (the crate being the home in their minds)and will remember where to go if you praise them for going in the right place. It worked very well for us. I'm sorry if I'm just repeating stuff you already know. So ignore me if you this is just rehashing old news, or feel free to ping me if want more info on the crate training.

bridget, I am so happy for you that BFing is working for you. I totally second lydia on using the shield. I would not have been able to continue without it. Even if you don't need it, keep it in mind as a tool to make BFing easier for the tough times. My nipples are short, but not inverted. I used it for 6-7 months, and was afraid Bodhi would never get off of it. Then one day, he just ripped it off and started drinking like any other nursling would. I have almost nothing I can say in response to your cousin's comment. I guess people just have a very different way of looking at the world. For me, I think it would have been one of the most amazing life lessons you could have given your kids. They sure don't sound scarred to me.

ashley - where would you recommend people visit in Alaska? DH is big on backpacking and flyfishing. There's gotta be a little of that there, right? I would be very into going anywhere I wouldn't have to take a light plane anywhere. I could tell horror stories about 6-seater flights I've had to take in the past. Never again.

ashley(AmeriBrit) - LOVE the new handle.

[missychrissy]

I do the same thing with having a base password with various character combinations attached.

I need all the crate training reminders I can get. My 2 dogs go through phases where they start pottying in the house. Grrr. So far, keeping them shut in my bedroom during the day and at night is working, but if they fall off the wagon again they're going to be crated. If they're loud, I swear I'll crate them in the shed outside!! lol

[missychrissy]

Bobbie might be back on track (after taking an emotional detour due to a boy). She's applying for Cornell's Summer College program right now!! (in case you're interested: http://www.sce.cornell.edu/sc/index.php) I hope she gets accepted!

[Gwenn]

Bridget, so glad to hear you're breastfeeding! And WTF about your cousins? That's insane.

Kate, I think I'm in love with Josh's teacher. I work so hard to get people to use visual supports and most of them completely ignore me. She's a wise teacher! Listen to her!

Myles, I have a "base" password also. If I don't remember the password on the first try, I can figure it out very quickly after that. Works like a charm and I don't write things down, either.

I know crate training is the best way to house break a dog, and I've used it successfully with other dogs, but it just isn't going to work with my little one. Her anxiety levels are through the roof and if she is ever separated from my other dog, even accidentally, she flips out and destroys everything. She literally can't take it - she was the last puppy to find a home out of a litter of 13 and it has left her with serious abandonment issues. I deal with it - what can I say, I work with special needs kids and come home to a special needs dog. It's my lot in life, I guess.

Bobbie might be back on track (after taking an emotional detour due to a boy). She's applying for Cornell's Summer College program right now!! (in case you're interested: http://www.sce.cornell.edu/sc/index.php) I hope she gets accepted!

Soooo glad to hear this! Go Bobbie!

[Gwenn]

I confess I started my new job today! And so far it's going really well (except for the Child Find director telling everyone I was a new speech pathologist - people kept looking at me funny and saying "but you've worked for the district for years, haven't you?" - she's a lovely woman and means well, though). For the first time, I wasn't physically exhausted when I left work. And, I actually have time to DO my work during the work day and don't have to either stay 2 hours late or take it home with me! I can't say how exciting that is!