Living in a Male Dominated World!

Growing up I often thought about my poor dad, and how he would have probably enjoyed having a son, so that he could have some male-bonding time, but instead was trapped in a house with three females. Well, I am now living a parallel life to dear old dad, except that I am the only female in my household. Even the dog we recently got is a boy! It is quite interesting, being the only female. I haven't had to do things like play dolls, or put makeup on, but I now know more about trains and superheroes than I ever thought I would. Yesterday there was an incident at the Day household that really hit home the fact that I am going to be surrounded by a testosterone filled bubble for the next 15 or so years. Our Internet went out on Monday night, and when it was still not working on Tuesday, I called AT&T and they scheduled someone to come by yesterday morning. The technician calls at about 9:00am and says that he is on his way, and will check the outside box, but that he may need to come into the house. Okay, that is fine, as housing maintenance had already been by for their yearly inspection of the house, so we were all up and at'em. So, the technician does have to come in and he and Randy (who didn't have school yesterday) have some sort of techno geek conversation and the technician heads back outside. It was at this time that Randy shut himself in his man cave (the downstairs half bath) for a little light reading. Well, about 30 seconds after he goes in there, the technician comes back in the house and asks to speak to my husband. He follows me, as I go knock on the door and let Randy know that the guy needs to talk to him. So, the technician and I are standing outside the bathroom, looking at each other and waiting for Randy to finish his article, when we were approached by Carter. This is where the story becomes horrifying! Carter looks up at the technician and the following conversation begins:

Carter: What was that noise?

Dude: What noise?

Carter: It was Carter's heinie!

Dude: What...???

Carter (turning around and pointing at his rear end): It was Carter's heinie..see, see!

It was at this point that I wanted to die! The poor dude didn't know what to do, and we were all just standing around waiting for Randy to get off the throne! Luckily I was able to find something else to occupy Carter, but I am afraid that this is going to be a long 15 years. I wouldn't trade them in though, and I can relish in the fact (I hope) that no one will be wanting to borrow my shoes or make-up ever!

Bogie

Randy and I are both dog lovers and when we met and married, I had a chihuahua/dachshund mix named Rebel. All was good with Rebel, until Carter came along. Once there were two little ones in the house, poor Rebel did nothing but stand on the couch and bark and shake! Neither boy ever did anything to Rebel, but I think there was just too much going on in the household for him to relax. So, we found a new home for Rebel with a lucky fourteen year old who had recently lost her pet of ten years and was really looking for another "baby." This was the perfect job for Rebel, and I still keep in touch with the family and he is doing great. After the Rebel incident, we decided that we would not have anymore pets until the boys got older, and were able to appreciate having a pet around, and were also able to respect the fact that this was a living creature and they had to be gentle with it. I started getting "puppy fever," about four or five months ago and have been checking out petfinder.com since then. We knew that when we decided to get another dog, we had to have one that was good with kids, and also we decided we wanted one that was a little older and past that whole puppy stage. I have looked and looked, but just never found a dog that was calling out to be a member of our family. This is where my mom comes into the story. She and my dad lost their Pomeranian, Jingle, about four years ago. They went for a while without a dog, but decided about two years ago that it was time for another house pet. I started looking around while they were visiting us in Texas and found a Yorkie that looked promising. I took my mom and dad to meet "Jackie" and it was love at first sight. Jack is the greatest dog. He is gentle and jut loves to be loved, and is wonderful with my boys. So, when my mom was reading Sunday's paper (she is here in Kansas visiting us) she ran across an ad for a 1 1/2 year old Yorkie poo for sale. I contacted the owners and found out that Bogie was indeed, great with kids and an all around great dog, but that the family just didn't have the time to devote to Bogie that they felt he needed. They had four daughters, ages 7-14, that were very involved in many activities, and Bogie was just spending too much time crated up. Well, the Day family decided to lead up, Beverly Hillbillies style (except we did not strap my mom to the roof) and go meet Bogie. What a great dog he is. He is playful, yet gentle with the boys, and has a great disposition. He has been well trained, and other than a couple of chewing toy incidents, has been a perfect gentleman. We are so happy to have him in our family and are looking forward to many, many years with him!

Parenting is scary stuff!!

Two nights ago I wrote an entire blog with this same title, ranting about how scared I was that Cash was going to be starting kindergarten in the fall, and I just wasn't positive that I was going to like the elementary school in Louisiana, but for whatever reason, I could not get that blog to post. Well, yesterday my friend Keala posted something on Facebook about doing research on the elementary schools around Bliss (where they will be stationed next year) and how she was not very happy with her findings, so I decided to sit down and do some more research on the school that Cash was supposed to attend next year. What I found almost sent me into a panic attack! Apparently this school is all about discipline and not academics. They also do not have walls that seperate the classrooms, but 3/4 partitions and curtains! Both of these things disturbed me, but what finally sent me over the edge was the school policy called "lips and hips." It seems that kindergateners, when walking in line, must keep one hand on their lips and one on their hips so they don't talk or touch the walls. Oh HELL no!! I taught public school for 14 years, and I did not run my classroom like this, and I do not want my child to be treated like this. My husband may be in the Army, but my child is not. I want my precious, creative, smart boy to continue to love life and learning, and I just had such a bad feeling about this school. So, of course, I called my mom and talked it over with her. She was also appalled by some of the things I read to her, and so we decided that a private Christian school would be better for Cash. I think things were a lot easier before everyone in the nation decided they knew what was best for "my" kid. Before standardized testing and sucking the creative juices from the teachers and the students. I want my boys to love school, not be afraid of it. This parenting stuff is just so scary!!