Secular Confessions

[Bridget]

I was/am pretty horrible at math too. I remember my mom yelling at me after I got the results of my college entrance exam and found out I tested into high school algebra. She always thought I wasn't putting enough effort in but the reality is that I was trying but I couldn't get it. Then I guess I eventually decided that if i was going to be accused of not trying then why should I? I never excelled in my higher education endeavors.

Myles, that sucks that you forgot your book! I hate when I do stuff like that. And as far as the car goes, I drive a silver odysey(sp?) mini van and so does everyone else it seems. I walk out of the store and see my car everywhere! Oh, and also about dbf, I totally agree with you on the whole trust thing. If I'm going to stay with him I can't only trust him when he's in the living room. I have to trust him no matter where he is. A part of me thinks that if this works out for him that I should just be super supportive because it will be good for him to be successful and make a decent salary. And it would take a lot of pressure off me. But yeah, either way I'm not overthinking it right now. Can you tell? lol

I finally had to speak to my friend about her dirtbag husband if any of y'all remember that story. A whole slew of the old highschool gang is coming over to my house on friday since our friend from Alaska will be here. I had to let her know not to invite him. She understood completely. Thank goodness. I was just sick about having that conversation with her but as usual I worked myself up over very little.

Jennifer, I think once you and dh get that call you will know what you want/need. Like you said, it's just too much time to think about it.

Mandy, I am sorry your mom is not understanding. I withheld a lot, LOT of information about my life from my mom so I wouldn't have to be dissappointed by her reactions and opinions about it.

[girlwonder]

I have been keeping up but haven't been able to respond.


Chrissy- I don't know what to say about Jesi - I'm glad she is okay but I would have a difficult time with the magnitude of the lie.

Jennifer - sorry about you and dh. from how you have described him, I cannot imagine that he would not adore a little baby just to pieces. You can't know/plan for everything, but you can only know that however difficult one night or stretch of time is, that you will still love that little human beyond anything else so all is possible, even lack of sleep, disorganization, annoyance, mess, noise, etc.

Mandy - I wish your mother wouldn't say such thoughtless things. I might just start being more general and less "share-y" with someone who was so insensitive.

Bridget - I agree with PP who said to just let it roll right now with the Ohio thing. There's nothing to do but watch and when the time comes for a decision you can make it, but until then see if you can't just let the idea exist without weighing on you. Much easier said than done. Does he still want to get to Hawaii?

I know I am missing people, but I have to go get myself together for my first graphic design class tomorrow!

[Cosmosmom]

Yeah I am going to try really hard to just roll with it. Not easy when you are pretty type A and likes things planned out. I think I need a project....I'm good when plotting out something. First it was the house and all that went into building that, than it was all the adoption paperwork.....and now I mean I have the puppy and she takes time but I think I need a project or something.

If it helps any, my DH is excellent at math. I mean he almost majored in it in college and thinks doing math is fun. he's designing a lego tower in the program and was using trig to figure out the supports. I was like, dude you remember that stuff....he said sure, I use it when I program my graphing calculator. His degree and grad degree are in geophysics. Yet he does factory work and all the time feels like a loser. He's super smart and finds math easy....and it still got him nowhere.

[Suja]

Jennifer, meant to point you to this, for your DH: http://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Ideas-Boo.../dp/0756686067. It got good reviews in the newspaper.

[Gwenn]

I shared this on my facebook page, but I thought this article was really sweet and well worth the read.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/us...pagewanted=all

[AmeriBrit]

Ugh, my head is all in a swirl. Cash and Travis were both up all through the night and then we managed to oversleep! We got up at 8 whereas we are usually up by 7. We still got out of the house by 8:25, but I had to put a hat on over my hair as it's very wild this morning. It's thrown my whole morning off. I need to go sort my hair out!

Regarding forgetting where you've parked your car, I sometimes get in on the wrong side of the car to drive....LOL....that's pretty bad, right? Usually when it happens, I just pretend, I was looking for something on the passenger side and just make my way over to the drivers side...hehehe.

I'm pretty good at math; I think the subject I struggled most with at school was chemistry. I have a pretty sharp memory, so English and history were always a breeze. Math and physics were pretty easy for me, too (I played clarinet in the band and they always said back then that music helped your brain with math). I guess I was lucky in that respect. The worst part of high school for me was the social aspect of it. I was such an awkward kid/teenager....I'm still outgrowing that awkwardness!

[Bridget]

I hope you get your hair sorted!
They still say playing a musical instruments sharpens your math skills. I really, really, really want my kids to learn to play an instrument. I keep bugging dbf that we should get a piano but so far he is not biting.

[daylilies]

I'm not so good at math either. I just don't understand the concepts unless someone walks me through them every time. So I'd do fine in class and then draw a blank when I had to do homework or tests.

So remember I put in an application for the school district cafeterias? I got a call at 7 a.m. yesterday from the head of one of the elementary school kitchens. I was completely confused (I had just woken up a few minutes before) but I guess the jist of it was that their other backup had called out so she called me. I went in at 10:30 and worked until a little past two. It was like "restaurant lite" in that you're doing the same thing as you'd do in a restaurant but with lower quality products and less picky customers

Unfortunately I'm a backup which means I don't have a steady schedule and I'll probably just be called for emergencies. But I hope if I work enough I'll be hired to a more permanent position someday.

[missychrissy]

I was horrible horrible horrible at all math classes, high school and college. I just couldn't get the ideas to stick for more than a second or two. I know exactly how she feels about being a loser, and really do feel like my inability to do math the way it was taught has very negatively affected my life. I love science but there's no way I could really every do it because I was so weak in math. I was really proud of myself when I passed Astronomy II with a B - I've never worked so hard in all my life for just a B. I would have liked to go back to grad school and study book and paper conservation, but to even get in I needed two semesters of chemistry which I had terrible trouble with in high school. I do feel that I am smart enough, but the people who teach math are the people who are good at it and they cannot imagine how a person couldn't just "get it" the way they can. I had math tutors through high school, but they didn't help because they were just like the teachers. I still don't know what would have been a better way, but nothing worked for me. It makes me sad - I feel like I could have had an interesting life/career if I had just been able to do math. As it is, I'm good for slinging coffee and drawing pretty pictures but those don't really pay.

This makes me so sad for you, but kind of relieved at the same time because YES YES YES it was exactly like that for me too. I bet that's how it is for Jesi too. I've always said that if there can be dyslexia for reading (and their is), then why can't there be something as fundamentally road-blocking for math? It certainly felt to me like I had a learning disability of some sort. It only pertained to math though.

Anyway, if you don't mind I'm going to share this post with Jesi. I think it might help her feel better about herself if she knows she's not the only one that has experienced such strong feelings about math...and that others have managed to get through it and survive and so can she.

Oh, the thought of doing math gives me cold sweats! That awful dreadful cold pit in my stomach feeling has never gone away. You don't want to be around me when I am balancing my checkbook or doing taxes - I make strange unintelligible screaming sounds and then start crying. So no, though I appreciate the gesture, I do not want to do math together!

this is me too. One of my biggest complaints right now is I no longer have an office to shut myself away in as I try to sort our bills. I want to cry just thinking about doing our taxes in our 'open floor plan' house.

I finally had to speak to my friend about her dirtbag husband if any of y'all remember that story. A whole slew of the old highschool gang is coming over to my house on friday since our friend from Alaska will be here. I had to let her know not to invite him. She understood completely. Thank goodness. I was just sick about having that conversation with her but as usual I worked myself up over very little.

I'm glad it worked out. I feel bad for her and I don't even know her.

I know I am missing people, but I have to go get myself together for my first graphic design class tomorrow!

Let us know how it went!!!

If it helps any, my DH is excellent at math. I mean he almost majored in it in college and thinks doing math is fun. he's designing a lego tower in the program and was using trig to figure out the supports. I was like, dude you remember that stuff....he said sure, I use it when I program my graphing calculator. His degree and grad degree are in geophysics. Yet he does factory work and all the time feels like a loser. He's super smart and finds math easy....and it still got him nowhere.

This actually makes me feel really bad for him. He's capable of so much more.

I guess I was lucky in that respect. The worst part of high school for me was the social aspect of it. I was such an awkward kid/teenager....I'm still outgrowing that awkwardness!

I have such trouble envisioning you as an awkward teen. You're so beautiful now :-) I assumed you were one of the popular ones.

I do hope you got your hair sorted out.

They still say playing a musical instruments sharpens your math skills. I really, really, really want my kids to learn to play an instrument. I keep bugging dbf that we should get a piano but so far he is not biting.

I see pianos offered on Freecycle all the time. Most say they need to be tuned, but the frequency is astounding to me. I always wonder how many end up in a landfill because people seem to have trouble giving them away.

So remember I put in an application for the school district cafeterias? I got a call at 7 a.m. yesterday from the head of one of the elementary school kitchens. I was completely confused (I had just woken up a few minutes before) but I guess the jist of it was that their other backup had called out so she called me. I went in at 10:30 and worked until a little past two. It was like "restaurant lite" in that you're doing the same thing as you'd do in a restaurant but with lower quality products and less picky customers

Unfortunately I'm a backup which means I don't have a steady schedule and I'll probably just be called for emergencies. But I hope if I work enough I'll be hired to a more permanent position someday.

I do remember and I'm glad they called you! I bet it will turn into a more permanent, steady schedule if you hang with it. Ewe about the lower quality products though. I mean, I knew that about cafeteria food but still. I try not to think about it too much.

[Cosmosmom]

Jennifer, meant to point you to this, for your DH: http://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Ideas-Boo.../dp/0756686067. It got good reviews in the newspaper.

That looks cool. What DH is doing is building a city. He was going to do a model train layout but started to look into that and it was seeming too difficult (we are not artsy and so making trees and painting foam to look like rocks or making water). So instead he's doing it out of legos. Some of it is their kits and most are really detailed and for 14 or 16 and up. And some he's designing himself like a lego version of our house and a gas station. Most of the stuff I bought the past month we haven't put together yet but eventually need to figure out what size table in the basement and there will be a downtown street, residential area, lake with lighthouse and habor and of course the train.

[Cosmosmom]

Regarding forgetting where you've parked your car, I sometimes get in on the wrong side of the car to drive....LOL....that's pretty bad, right? Usually when it happens, I just pretend, I was looking for something on the passenger side and just make my way over to the drivers side...hehehe.

!

Umm, I think that we would all do that if we had to switch up which side we drive on!

[missychrissy]

That sounds really neat Jennifer. I hope you post pictures when you're done. Maybe 1 project you could do (since you mentioned maybe you needed one to fill in some void time right now) is creating a scrap book of your dh's progress on his lego town.

Umm, I think that we would all do that if we had to switch up which side we drive on!

And yeah, this Ash. I meant to say something like that when I quoted everyone above

[Cosmosmom]

Kate that is cool! And it could definitely lead to something more often.

Ashley I thought the same thing....hard to imagine someone as cute as you not being one of the popular girls!

Yup my DH is definitely capable of more. He did work in his area of study for almost a year but was let go when the company lost a major contract (not his fault....he was the low guy so was let go). Looked for a job at the same time I was and I got an offer first. So we moved for my job knowing he likely wouldn't find something up here....we are just too environmentally clean. He was able to get something that paid big money but was in TX and we didn't want to live there and it would have involved him being gone much of the time. When he was working in the field, it was stressful and he did a ton of traveling. When we moved up here, he considered going back to school and looked into accounting and nanotechnology (would be great at that but the teacher who taught all the classes had a strange style that he didn't gel with) and did a paralegal class but found that wasn't a good fit (he got pretty much an A+ but thought the job environment would be too fast paced and stressful). He's so smart but a slow reader....he reads for comprehension and not a good skimmer like me. There is something to be said for having a job like he does now in a factory setting where the stress is low, no travel, no bringing work home, no billing for every minute of work you do. He just wishes sometimes that he had a cool job but doesn't really want to do the school route again at least not right now.

I'm fine in math. Not my easiest subject, not my worst. I did pre-alegbra in 7th grade, alegbra 1 in 8th, alegbra 2 in 9th, geometry and trig in 10th, forgot what it was called in 11th but like a pre-calc I think. I stopped there because calc in 12th grade was at 7:30 am. I didn't need it to graduate so I dropped it and slept in an hour later. I hardly remember any math....just not something that is used in life beyond basics for most of us.
Gym was my worst subject. And funny enough but keyboarding. LOL I didn't really learn to type well until senior year when we got the internet at home and I found chat rooms.

I kind of like doing my taxes. It's not hard when you use the programs like tax cut or turbo tax. I just hope that this year we don't have to pay in like we usually do. Not having a kid really hurts at tax time.
I don't pay bills, DH does and he keeps the books balanced to the penny.

I told DH this morning that i still wanted a baby and asked if he knew that and he said he wasn't sure because he thinks I keep changing my mind. Ugh. He said that he still kind of wants one too but is scared. that I can deal with because he gets scared of things easily (why it took so long to get married and again so long to get a house).

Hey Chrissy, you complained about 15 being cold....it was negative 3 when I left this morning. LOL Tomorrow we have a high of 2 and wind chills might be -20 to -30. Now THAT is cold.

[missychrissy]

Hey Chrissy, you complained about 15 being cold....it was negative 3 when I left this morning. LOL Tomorrow we have a high of 2 and wind chills might be -20 to -30. Now THAT is cold.

That's what it's been here too for the last few days (week? I've lost track). Last night we had wind gusts up to 45 mph as well as below zero temps.

[Ky'sMom]

Hi all!!

Been out of the loop for my long weekend. I was off of work yesterday too. I always find it difficult to get online at home. I joke at work, which I probably shouldn't, that I do WAY more work at home than at work. I also have told my co-workers that I do not want a laptop or blackberry or iphone due to they will be wasting money on me since I am not going to work at home unless I'm sick. I have too much to do and cannot even get online to look up my secular girls much on weekends so actual work would be a joke and they would end up getting mad at me for not answering calls. I don't even answer my mom's calls sometimes because she calls during the hours I tell her not to call because I am too busy (between 5pm and 7pm are my busiest hours). She gets upset at me, but hell I talk to her almost every day so I don't see the big deal.

Wanted to give a big sigh of relief for you Chrissy with dealing with Jesi's situation. I am so dreading the teenage years even though I know deep down that I will hopefully still have a great relationship with my kids but I dread the worrying about them since they are older and as parents we have less control over where they go and who they are with and that is just frightening to me. I already let Ky do a lot of things by himself but he still has his right mind (I joke to my nephew who is 14 that he is losing his right mind and getting adolescent mind now) and Ky listens to my directions and will still do as I ask even with peer pressure because he thinks I know more than his friends, which I do of course! But I know I only have a few more years until he starts to think I am idiotic.

And I feel so bad for Jesi with her math problems. I struggled with math for a while until 10th grade. I remember being in tears because I got a D in trigonometry. I was an AP/Honors student so had to take all the complicated math classes and I cried about that D in class and went to my counselor and dropped the class. I put myself in Algebra 1 to start over and I luckily got a teacher named Mr. Merrit (his wife Mrs. Merrit was my trig teacher and she kept telling me to apply myself, which would also make me tear up because I WAS applying myself but I just didn't understand the basic concepts). Mr Merrit was a wonderful teacher and he explained everything to me in a very simple, direct fashion and I ended up acing all the rest of my math classes, including Calculus, which he also taught. I have since forgotten a lot of math and I am upset about that. Thanks for the website Suja!! I think I will go through it. I need to take my GRE and even though I have in recent years wanted to be a college professor of English Lit, I am thinking of going back to my first love of science and getting a degree in science. I was good at Biology, Physiology, and even Physics but I chickened out on Chemistry because I heard it was hard and I was taking enough hard classes so didn't want to attempt it...ever!

I hope Jesi can find someone like Mr. Merrit who can go back all the way to the basics and teach her adequately. I agree that everyone has different learning styles. Ky is doing algebra already in the 4th grade. His teacher is new and IMO she is not that great an explaining things to children so I usually end up teaching Ky via his homework. I was excited to teach him a formula Mr. Merrit taught me in how to find X when dealing with percentages, Is/Of = %/100 and you just plug in the info, seems confusing but to me it was very simple.

I did take a lot of music classes as a child. I have also heard that helped with math comprehension. I played piano, all the brass instruments except Tuba (too big), percussion, and a little violin. Maybe it helped me in some way.

Erin

[missychrissy]

That is/of=%/100 is my favorite equation. I use it all the time, even now. It's probably the only one I remember.

at you being busier at home than work. I can soooo relate to that!

[missychrissy]

heehee adolescent brain. It's a good way to look at it. And very true. The human brain isn't completely formed until you're 25 anyway. That's why teens/early 20's make some poor choices. Or so they say.

[daylilies]

Well, FWIW, the food is better than I remember it. Remember canned peas sitting in their own juice? LOL The ones I served were frozen. They had ravioli, not sure if that came frozen or what because it was cooked by the time I got there. Milk, fruit juice, fruit snacks, tuna sandwiches, decent looking salads, etc. It didn't look terrible. Still a far cry from my last job.

[missychrissy]

Ewe-canned veggies are so gross! I definitely prefer frozen. I didn't think our school lunches were that bad growing up, but i know kids from neighboring schools complained that their hotdogs had a green tinge to them (and other such complaints).

[daylilies]

Ew! That's not good.

My public school food was around average but once I got to my private high school it was pretty good.

[AmeriBrit]

I have such trouble envisioning you as an awkward teen. You're so beautiful now :-) I assumed you were one of the popular ones.

I do hope you got your hair sorted out.

Ashley I thought the same thing....hard to imagine someone as cute as you not being one of the popular girls!

I got my hair all straightened and then there was so much moisture in the air, that I probably shouldn't have bothered...it ended up with a wave in it after all that! And y'all are too kind with your comments above....and I'll make sure to never share pictures of myself from high school since y'all have that impression of me. LOL. I was like Anne Hathaway from the Princess Diaries at the beginning of the movie. I guess you could call me a late bloomer!

Kate, that is really cool about the cooking job; I bet one of the schools will hire you on. That's how a lot of people get in to schools here with teaching assistant jobs and getting on the sub teachers list.

Erin, it's good to see your post. I thought you had been quiet the past few days. That's funny about the adolescent brain quote. And oh so true! It's like once they turn 13 and you can call them a teen, people go a little crazy.

I've been working with the younger kids the past few weeks; whereas before I was helping out the middle school aged kids, I'm now with the 5 and 6 year olds....today, they were reading "Cinderella" and they got to the part where the step sisters try on the glass slipper and one boy shouted out after the teacher read that their feet were too big for the shoes, "They have fat feet because they just can't stop eating." Oh my. To be 6 and have no social filter!

[Smplyme89]

I guess I'll be the weirdo and say I love math The class I am taking now is about the application of statistics in the business world. While I am having a hard time applying them to 'real' settings, I love the equations and the challenge I stink big time when it comes to anything remotely history/geography related though!

Green tinted hot dogs sounds kind of scary I always ate the uncrustable PB&Js when I was in school. We had some questionable looking cafeteria ladies though, they were scary!

[Smplyme89]

I've been working with the younger kids the past few weeks; whereas before I was helping out the middle school aged kids, I'm now with the 5 and 6 year olds....today, they were reading "Cinderella" and they got to the part where the step sisters try on the glass slipper and one boy shouted out after the teacher read that their feet were too big for the shoes, "They have fat feet because they just can't stop eating." Oh my. To be 6 and have no social filter!

That is too cute I love that age!!

[Suja]

Jennifer, make sure you guys put the lego stuff where a kid can't get to it. I know I'd be upset if I went to so much trouble and it got unintentionally destroyed.

Mandy, that article was interesting. Must be so hard being with someone that cannot read your emotions.

Chrissy, I totally believe there is some equivalent of dyslexia for math. I have a friend who is exceedingly smart, but has trouble with math. Look what turned up! http://www.dyscalculia.org/.

[Bridget]

Hi Erin! Was wondering where you have been!

[Cosmosmom]

Jennifer, make sure you guys put the lego stuff where a kid can't get to it. I know I'd be upset if I went to so much trouble and it got unintentionally destroyed.

.

Oh yeah for sure. He already said kid will need his or her own legos. This layout will be going into the basement....which we are probably going to finish out, for sure if MIL moves in down there. It's already framed for a family room, bedroom and bathroom on one half and the other half will be storage and his hobby room.
Plus on top of it there are some VERY small pieces....already keeping it away from the puppy.

Speaking of puppy, she's decided to try to start eating poo. Ugggg. Cosmo briefly did this also as a puppy...might have been right about the same age too. I mean we have a litter box and check it all the time and usually go in right after they do to pick it up. Except sometimes one of them will sneak in there very quickly. I haven't seen her doing it but DH caught her twice and he thinks it was Cosmo's (sometimes she will go outside too but it's been cold so her trips outside have been very fast...my princess doesn't like being cold).
Molly is about 17.5 weeks old.

[Suja]

This is funny! Love David Mitchell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4AXOmPZ6fo

[missychrissy]

I've been working with the younger kids the past few weeks; whereas before I was helping out the middle school aged kids, I'm now with the 5 and 6 year olds....today, they were reading "Cinderella" and they got to the part where the step sisters try on the glass slipper and one boy shouted out after the teacher read that their feet were too big for the shoes, "They have fat feet because they just can't stop eating." Oh my. To be 6 and have no social filter!

Chrissy, I totally believe there is some equivalent of dyslexia for math. I have a friend who is exceedingly smart, but has trouble with math. Look what turned up! http://www.dyscalculia.org/.

Neat!

Erin! I didn't properly welcome you back. You were definitely missed!

[missychrissy]

Jennifer-I think the poo eating is relatively normal. Older dogs will do it if they're lacking nutrients. I can't remember which ones though.

[AmeriBrit]

This is funny! Love David Mitchell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4AXOmPZ6fo

Mmmm...cream cakes in heaven; I like it! I sure could eat a vanilla slice right now that I'm thinking of cakes!

DH has promised me a foot rub, so I'm going to kick back and enjoy that while I watch Battle Star Galactica. I've only got a few more episodes left til the very end of the show!