life. faithful.

I had a meltdown last night. When I picked the kids up from daycare yesterday I let them know that I had some homework I had to do and that I would need them to help me out by playing together and letting me have some time to work. Actually, I told them I had some really yucky homework to do. That prompted a discussion with Raiden on how no, homework isn't really yucky, but the work I had to do was really hard so I just used that word to describe it. Not the best way to talk about homework to your child who is just about to start school, I know. oops. So, when we got home what did the kids do? Basically, anything besides what I had asked them to do. They had dinner at daycare, but they asked for popcorn when we got home. Thinking that would keep them occupied for a bit, I made some. We don't do microwave popcorn anymore. No, I don't have anything against it. It's just that I can buy a bag of kernels for $1.50 that will last a lot longer than the b...

i know every parent thinks they have the best , most brilliant , incredibly insightful kids on the planet...and of course i'm no different. i'll temper it first by reassuring you that i know my kids aren't perfect: just this morning they somehow managed to turn opposite directions when we stepped out of the house and ran smack into each other--conan's hard head right into raiden's cheekbone. they are pretty amazing though, so today i have a quick story for you... just over a week ago, raiden came home from daycare (kindergarten doesn't start until the day after labor day, so we still have a few days to wait for her "first day of school" story that i'm sure will be...entertaining) talking about gravity. i don't know if that was something she had asked her teachers about that day or not, but when we got home our conversation went something like this: raiden: "mommy, gravity is what makes us stay on the earth, right? that keeps us fro...

...and i feel a bit like i'm drowning! i'll start with my schedule for the semester. 1) i have a seminar class, where basically we will meet and discuss journal articles. we'll be responsible for doing presentations on what we read at some point, but i haven't had that first class yet so i don't really know too much about it. 2) i have a colloquium class. i'm looking forward to that one because i'll get to listen to lectures by a bunch of different people. it will be interesting--the first one is tomorrow. 3) i'm taking modern physics, a class that we've been told will be taught at the undergraduate level. it is supposed to be a refresher, something to help me pass my phD qualifying exam next fall (i get a shot at the test this september, but it's considered the "0th attempt" and doesn't really count so i'm not too incredibly stressed about it at the moment). 4) i'm in quantum mechanics. at the moment, that one do...

so, i've been out of the loop for quite a while now (and most likely will be for a while longer) since we don't have the internet set up at home yet...i did find my way to the library, though, so i'm getting the chance to reconnect with the world for just a bit! we are in toledo now...it was a long trip, but pretty uneventful compared to other trips nathan and i have taken. we made it in about 14 hours because of all the stops the kids made necessary. we are slowly getting settled in at our new house. my living room is pretty much intact, along with the kitchen, so at least we have two rooms that are comfortable. our bedroom is piled high with boxes still, but the kids are able to play in theirs. the crazy room is the one that was made to be a dining room but is going to be turned into our office/study/library/extra kids' space. that room is full of boxes, mostly because we are on hold for a bit before we can get the new bookshelves we need. the two bookcases in the ...