May 19th: Parenting Class

Tonight Katherine's school hosted a parenting seminar.

Ok. First I'll say I know I'm not a perfect parent. By no means do I get it right all of the time. Heck. Half the time I think for every dollar that goes towards her future education we should be doubling the savings for therapy.

Tonight the lesson was about using positive words to encourage the behavior you want. ie you shouldn't say things like "if you don't stop X I'm gonna Y!!!"  We should say, "if you do A then you will be able to B!" It sounds easy... But seriously it's kinda hard. Threats are sooooo much easier to think of! Now instead of reacting I must try responding. Interesting... Very interesting. She says this concept works in husbands too. Hmmmmm. Curiouser and curiouser.

At dinner k asked what our lesson was about. I told her they said if we say the right things to her she will listen better. It went like this:

K: what did they teach you tonight?
Me: they told us that if we use the right words you will listen to what we tell you and we won't have to fight so much.
K: they're right.
Me: (thinking... Whoa!!! Is it already happening?! Seriously?! I'm bringing this lady home!!!) *out loud* oh really?! How do you think...
K: well if you say you'll buy me toys, ice cream, books and stuff I'll listen to you.

Epic fail.

I'm not giving up. I was told tonight I have the power to change things. Tomorrow craps gettin real in this house!! #powertothemama

May 13, 2014: 20th book!!! SCORE!!!

Tonight Katherine completed reading her 20th AR book!! 

She's pretty excited!  Heck, so am I!!  We're wondering what do we do next? Do we turn the paper over and keep going?  What to do, what to do!!!

I guess we'll find out tomorrow.  She said that she doesn't think anyone else has read 20 books so she doesn't know what happens!!

Very exciting!! We already have the next book picked out.  And sshhhh I ordered some hot off the presses books for her as a surprise!!  Just released this week!! I know - you can hardly contain yourself.  Me either!!! 

I see a Pinkalicious weekend in our future!!! :) (Provided she doesn't get any X's this week in school.) 

Man, I hope she behaves in school so that I can read Crazy Hair Day!! :) 

May 12, 2014: It seemed so easy.

how hard could it be?

put the paper on the (insanely) sticky mat.

put it in the thingy loader majiggy.

pick your design.

"print".

I was so excited!!! eeeepppppp there it goessssssss!!!

that ended in disaster.

And there's where it ended up.

The second time I decided to try what they show in all of the videos (instead of some complicated tag design that I assumed I was advanced enough to try #fail).  I printed some text.  plain ole letters. Okay - so not soooo plain. Disney font letters!

Before I pulled it off of the printing mat. 

it worked it worked it worked!!!!

Take 3 failed again.  I can see I'm going to have a lot of opportunity for "practice".  Glad I bought so much paper!! :)

things I learned

1. even rubbing the mat on my fleece pj bottoms did not seem to decrease the molecular stickiness of it. I can see I'm going to have approximately 3 cuts where I love the mat.  The three right before it gets too sticky to hold the paper onto the mat right. 
2. it would be impossible to cut anything other than card stock weight. regular paper? You're nuts. 
3. tools are important. oooohhhhh that's what the pointy thingy is for?? It seemed dangerous so I didn't open it at first. 
4. reading the manual helps. 
5. watching the tutorial helps.
6. I may be laminating the cheat sheet page with what all of the functions in the software does. For real? who can remember all that? 
7. I don't think I'm ready for the advanced software... much as I think I "need" it. Maybe by Saturday I'll be ready.
8. i have enough vinyl to wallpaper a room ---oooohhhh that might be a cool idea!!