Cool « Journals of Journeys

23Aug/09Off

Back-to-School Shopping – Part One

Early this morning the boys and I went back-to-school shopping.

When I was a kid, my parents figured out while they were still responsible for my care which included buying clothes for me, that back-to-school shopping should be done a week or two after school starts. The reason is simple. The clothes my mother and I thought were "cute" or "cool" or "fashionable" on the racks turned out to be quite the opposite among my peers and were quickly relegated to live a life of exile at the very back of my closet. Waiting a couple of weeks (they weren't terribly cruel, they did buy us one new outfit before the start of the school year) gave us the opportunity to check out our classmates, see what the fashions were, what we could get away with wearing on a fairly regular basis.

The R. Kelly Experiment - Stay in that closet

I'd do the same with my own kids, but they're boys. They don't care and there's only so much you can do with jeans and t-shirts. I suspect that'll change soon. It'll be all about the labels. Little do they know how adept I am at removing labels or tacking them onto a second-hand shirt picked up at a nice little thrift shop down the street.

Oh wait. They do know how to read. Ha, like they'll be reading their mother's blog.

But that doesn't mean I'm completely out of the mother-child bonding ceremonial rituals. You forget, I'm my mother's child. I learnt well.

A few years ago the kids were going to a school that raised their own vegetables and fruits. The meals where very healthy, prepared exquisitely and thus we happily forked over the money to let them buy lunches (and breakfasts too!). However, they're back to a school where it's a bunch of #10 cans, watered down syrupy fruits that haven't seen fresh since 1982, and packaged crap. So we've instituted a new routine. We go grocery shopping for a week of school days, each kid allotted the amount that they'd pay for school breakfast and lunch and any savings they could scrape out of it while still putting together healthy, filling meals goes towards extracurricular trips, retreats and so on.

It's a wonderful experience because the kids are able to apply math skills, develop a sense of nutrition and health, and actively contribute to the household finances while learning how to budget as well as trim expenses in an effort to save money for something else. Adding to this, we're now establishing a new bonus round. If you opt to take out the items a bit too high in sugar carbs and/or fat and replace it with something far more balanced (not that they can get away with Ho-Hos, Ding-Dongs, Twinkies or crap like that), three more bucks are added to whatever savings they had by the time we're done with the shopping trip.

bak2skool

See? Here's a kidlet weighing some bananas he opted to get over a box of Twix cookie snacks (that barely scraped by the 'healthy food item' list) and figuring out his grand total as he worked his way towards earning an added $3.00.

And just because you wanted to know, both boys saved over $8.00 and the banana man had swung the bonus money. Of course, they're using my lunch meat, bread, condiments and milk for the week, but that's okay, they're trying to save money to go on two fall church retreats. I'm hip to that. Down with that? Cool with it?

Yeah, you get my point.

So what do you do? Share, please!

Filed under: 2009, Cool, Education, Family, Journals, Kathie, Parenting, School, Thoughts, money, travel No Comments

7Jun/09Off

So Ya Wanna Know What Mom’s Up To, Eh?

Surprise, Mom! My mother, in her 68 years of youth, is up in Tahoe, riding around the lake on the back of her sleek bicycle doing her first century ride while raising $5,000 (all on her own) for Leukemia. What a woman, huh? As of this very moment (as I get ready to post this), she's still riding around the lake, but we got to catch up with her in Truckee just a bit ago. In fact, this shot here is just after I tapped her on her shoulder and said "mother?" She had no idea we were going to be there, so it took her by complete surprise. You can take a look at the map of the route she's taking [here] (we met her at point 79 on the map).

In support/memory of tags

Here are all of the ribbons for people she's wearing in memory of, or in support of, on this trek.

And below, she's off and running for the last segment of her ride, due in around 4:00 pm where my brother and sister-in-law are supposed to be waiting. Back on the Road

Filed under: 2009, Cool, Family, Journals, Kathie, Photo Essay, Thoughts, travel 7 Comments

4May/09Off

Boeing Air Museum, Seattle

I'm busy.

Very busy. I'm working my fingers to the bone, burning the candle at both ends and any other related cliche you'd like to apply here - trying to get a manuscript finished up, the synopsis written (and we all know what a joy that is) and shipped off. On a deadline.

In the meantime, I bring you this fun little photo essay from our recent trip to Seattle. Enjoy and leave me lots of love you lurkers! (Ah, that would mean comments.)

Z-dude and Popular Science.
They go together like peanut butter and jelly.

Ry-guy: Look Alikes?
Ry-guy and Astronaut
Look alikes? New haircut might change that...

The moon?

Nope, underside of a command module
Nope, it's the underside of this - a command module!

This is Pilot Z-Dude ready for take off.

Ry-Guy
Ry-Guy manning the manual side rocket guns.

Like it? Want more? There are thousands of pictures from our week-long trip to Seattle and Port Angeles. But I don't work for free. I take payment in nice little comments being left, so send me the money!

Filed under: 2009, Cool, Family, Journals, Kathie, Photo Essay, travel No Comments

3Apr/09Off

Prankfest

April Fool's Day, the day to get your prank on lest you be pranked. Good times for most.

I'm old faithful when it comes to pranks. I love them and take great joy in pulling them.

Back when I was growing up, some friends of ours played a really good prank on my sister and me. Just recently, when visiting our friends, I

Filed under: 2009, Article, Cool, Journals, Kathie, Series, funny Continue reading

30Mar/09Off

My Man: Mr. Creativity

I've always said to my husband when asked for a gift list that I prefer things with careful thought and consideration, home/handmade for instance. He's caused himself immense amount of pain trying to come up with any satisfactory ideas and winds up having to rely upon the "can't go wrong" list I grudgingly supply him with.

I know, I know. This from the very same man who manages to make me laugh (even though I grouse about his teasing that can go overboard and me, Miss Sensitivity on a rather frequent basis, overreacts - shhh... that's our little secret), has created some pretty interesting ways to Topsy-Turvy our tomato plants, did a fair job at reupholstering the boat seats during the short 4 months or so we actually owned a boat. I was pretty surprised myself he couldn't come up with anything.

In his defense, I must say that he was pretty good about involving the kids in coming up with some thoughtful, personal creations; such as the ceramic plate they put their handprints on and then painted, had it fired and presented it to me when they were about five or the beautiful beaded necklace and bracelets they created and gave to me for Mother's Day a few years ago (ones that I still get raving comments about whenever I wear them and can proudly say "my sons made these for me").

But then, something truly amazing happened. Oh, I won't just tell you, how about I show you? Let's take a gander:

(c) 2009 All Rights Reserved
After unwrapping this very heavy box, I see that it's a case of the only diet soda I can drink, Pepsi One, because it has Splenda in it (I can't drink saccharine or aspartame because it gives me an instant migraine that shuts me down for several hours). Nice. But then I break it open and find that it already was opened once before. Inside, each individual can is wrapped with Press-n-Seal plastic wrap with a Dutch Bros. $1 gift certificate underneath. Twenty-four (he gave me the remaining 6 after I got them all off the cans.

This was a few years after I'd found these (see below) in my Easter basket from him...

Which was seven months before I opened this...

a photo album with printed copies of all the digital pictures we'd taken over the past year, with...

(c) 2009 All Rights Reserved
you guessed it, Dutch Bros. certificates tucked into several (about 19 in total not including the one in the front pocket) of the sleeves. But that one I figured out already because they had been in such a hurry to get the gift assembled and then out the door to go play a round of golf before sunset and forgot to clean up after themselves. The only trick was, trying to figure out how they "hid" the certificates.

This particular gift, a table-top Lazy Susan style rack of seasonings, was more-or-less regifted. I'd bought my husband, a master chef (well, more or less, he's one mean tri-tip griller among other things) a similar rack but several of the lids were broken and so he took it back. There weren't any more left and then along came my birthday, so, voila! Anyway, this was the hardest one the boys and he put together for me. They wrapped the bottles with the certificates and then put them back inside the rack. The problem was, the paper kept uncoiling and sliding down the center. I was completely surprised, though!

And finally, the recreated picture of the very first time he did this little project and presented it to me. He bought $20 worth of certificates and then pushed each one into a paperclip strung through the end of a zip-tie to create a colorful bouquet and then used a travel mug as the vase. I burst out into tears when he gave that to me, it was so very moving. It's now become a joke to see (a) if he can outdo the previous gifts he's given me and (b) if he can surprise me with the new creation.

Does this mean I'm cheap? That I can be easy with a mere $20 worth of coffee certificates? Oh, I won't answer that one! Only he gets to know that answer! ;0)