Oh-kaaayyyy

Now with emotional freakout #2 out of the way, and a bath, I think I'm good, lol. This whole last few days has been a textbook example of different sexes communicating differently and thus allowing for enormous misunderstandings. Dh was being somewhat of a jerk. I was being somewhat of a biotch. He was withdrawing because I was "upset with him for doing something we thought we agreed on". I was not upset that he went through with it. I was upset that he was withdrawing, lol. I needed him to comfort me, he thought I wanted him to leave. I'm sure a therapist would have nodded knowingly at this one. Classic miscommunication. We're fine now. The tears have stopped (at least for now), he is on the mend and feeling more comfortable, life is nearly back to normal. At least, until the next big thing, lol.

Neall starts his new schedule this week, working Wed and Thurs, then is off Friday, works Saturday and Sunday, Monday, Tues and Wednesday, then off again next Thurs and Fri. I'm sure this new schedule will be an adjustment but it's a good one so I know we'll get used to it quickly.

School starts next week, I think, lol. Probably should find that out huh? I have Intro to Early Care and Education online which you'd think would have been dealt with early in my schooling. I couldn't take it before because it requires quite a bit of observation of learning settings and I just didn't have a way to do that before with Neall working and in school. Now with Neall off on weekdays I can actually make it work. I'll be busy for sure but I think it'll be fun and interesting. I also have an evening class Early Care and Special Education which I am hoping is not too redundant with Intro. Then again, maybe I can buddy up my assignments and do one for each at the same time or something. I'm only a bit nervous about this one because I don't know who is instructing. I know the instructor for Intro and she knows me. It's always easier to manage when you already know (and like) the instructor. I know I like her teaching style. I know what to expect from her in class and I know what she expects me to learn. The other class is a big old question mark. If I'm lucky it'll be the same teacher. The other cool thing is that this program is relatively small so many of my classmates will be the same in each course. This is nice when one class is online because you get to put a face with a name.

School starts with the kids next week too. My goal today is to have the kitchen clean and to get their school stuff organized or the next 3 weeks. I think having it all ready will 1. ease the chaos when we transition to Neall's new schedule and 2. allow me to focus on getting back into the swing with MY school stuff without compromising their routine. I'm sure they'd be fine with another week or so off but we've taken our time a lot this year and I want to make an example of myself while I'm in school. We'll work on school together ;). I also want to make a menu for the next 3 weeks. I need to clean out the fridge and use up some random stuff that's been laying around then get back into the swing of things. I used to do this religiously when we got food stamps since they came regularly on a specific day and I knew exactly what was going to happen. I knew how much money I had and what I could buy with it. It's been hard without them since the grocery money isn't in one chunk. I had to shift gears in my head and so far I haven't done a great job. After tax returns come we'll be a month or 2 ahead of the bills and then I'm going to pay myself out of that savings so I can shop all at once, then pay it back over 2 paychecks so I can do it again the next month. Neall will be Mr. Money at that point so it actually will work. I hope. LOL.

And on a totally random note, Webkinz are weird. I am still not sure if I like them or hate them. I like the idea. I'm not sure Webkinz has done a fantastic job of making it work. The section of the game for 5-6 year olds is way way way too hard. The quiz questions and games are much harder than a 5yo can be expected to manage. The site is a bit confusing and there are tons of off-limits unless you buy this or do that places. There's a place where you mine for gems. Once you have all 20 gems you get some stupid crown. This is all virtual mind you. Anyway, you are only allowed to mine once/day. Fine. Except that you're only allowed to click on 3 rocks. If there's no gem in one of those 3 you're out of luck until tomorrow. Now explain to me why it's such a big deal to not let them at least click until they find *A* gem. There are several things like that that make me wrinkle my eyebrows in wonder at whether the people designing the site actually have children, lol. The quiz questions are WAY too hard. You have 5 seconds to read and comprehend a question, then another 5 to read and comprehend and CHOOSE the answer. This is the 5-6yo section. The questions are like: What is another name for a pouched animal? A: cephalopod, marsupial, mammal, reptile. They are supposed to READ those then choose one. If it takes more than 5 seconds you lose your chance to answer. Ridiculous. Especially since this is a virtual thing, playing for virtual money to buy virtual furniture for the virtual version of this stuffed animal mama paid $15 for. They could make this a much better tool if they worked at it a bit. I'm guessing most parents of 5-6yo's are doing what I do, which is play the games and answer the questions while the kids are still asleep so that the kids will have money with which to purchase that really cute bathing suit for their pony. I like the premise of this, the earn money to buy things idea is a good one, the caring every day for your pet idea is a good one, the learning to navigate the computer is a good one, answering questions and doing quizzes should be good but it's not there yet. Anyway, I'm hoping the Webkinz thing wears off quickly around here. It's fun, but a bit much. I should have researched more before bringing the craze here, lol.

I hope everyone's holidays were great and that the coming new year is full of blessings and prosperity.