Random ramblings on a wintery weekend

I've been pondering my dry, dry, drrrrrryyyyyyy skin this morning. I'm not sure if my skin is closer to this:
this:

or perhaps this: Now, while I've never touched an alligator, they are the animals that one usually sees in the commercials for dry skin remedies. I have actually touched both a rhino and an elephant, and I think overall, my skin (especially in winter, when I'm not as likely to shave my legs quite as often as I do in the summer) is more similar to that of an elephant, as elephants have hairier skin than I recall rhinos having. I remember the rhinos' skin as being surprisingly smooth, whereas the elephants were a bit prickly.

At any rate, my skin definitely doesn't feel terribly human this time of year. Between the weather, the wind, and the more-frequent handwashing/sanitizing due to it being cold and flu season, my skin is suffering. It always does in the winters.

When I mentioned in my last post that my skin is dry and that I have tried many, many products with which to moisturize it, I wasn't kidding.
This is just a random sampling of the products I had close at hand when I decided to take a picture of them today. There are others lurking on shelves and counters, in cabinets and drawers. Some of the smaller tubes came out of my purse, because as well as carrying a small bottle of hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes with me, I also carry lotion to try and counteract the damage I'm doing by sanitizing. As to the rest of them... clearly, I am a woman who is swayed by marketing, willing to believe any promise of smooth, soft skin that resembles none of the wildlife pictures above. Clearly, I am also a woman who does not frequently throw things away. Like, for example, those two bottles of "makes you look tanner" moisturizer/lotion. I'd heard good - even great! - things about those, so I cut out a coupon for them one Sunday and trotted off to the store. I bought the kind designated for "fair" skin, because at my absolute darkest, I'm still pretty dang fair. I did not at all like the color they turned either my legs (the body lotion stuff) or my face (the facial moisturizer stuff). It did darken my skin, but only in a "my goodness, but she looks like she could stand to have a liver transplant" jaundiced sort of way. Haven't opened either of those in years. They're still mostly full. I haven't thrown them out, though, because you never know when I might want to look orangey-yellow again, I mean, maybe the next time I try them, they'll work better.... ha. (Actually, those tanny-tinty ones kind of *do* make my skin look like that Rhino in the picture above!)

Anyhow, thanks for all the suggestions on moisturizers and lotions. Maybe this winter, I will find something that works well and yet doesn't make me break the heck out, too!

***
So, two weeks down, with five workouts a week. I no longer am quite like this, and with any luck, I'll be all buff like Homer (ha ha ha) in two months, too, though I'm eating oatmeal and drinking green tea for breakfast instead of eating Powersauce bars....


Hee! At the very least, I can pronounce the name of the place I've been dragging myself to each morning after Kiddo gets on the bus..... it's the "why?!?!?!"



***

Hubby and I are planning on going to the movies on Monday, sans Kiddo. (Woo-hoo!) We really want to see Slumdog Millionaire, but we also really want to use our Fandango gift card that my brother and sister-in-law gave us for Christmas, and it isn't playing at any of the local theaters that use Fandango. Grrrr. So, our options are either going to be to (a) see something else and use our Fandango gift card - and goodness knows, we haven't seen *anything* that's playing now other than Bolt, so we ought to have plenty of options, or (b) pay for the tickets ourselves to see Slumdog Millionaire. We haven't quite decided yet which option we will go with, but either way, a movie.....in a theater.....that isn't animated.....possibly with popcorn, even....... *swooooooon*

***

Speaking of *swooooooning* - Ellen has finally landed George Clooney as a guest. I love Ellen, but don't watch daytime TV really, other than the news first thing in the morning (so, before 6:30am) and then the Today Show or Regis and Kelly while I'm at the gym. I sort of vaguely knew that Ellen's had some recurring thing about getting George Clooney to be on her show, and I just read that he will be on this coming Monday. Totally setting the DVR for that one, woot woot!

***
In other TV-related news, only FIVE MORE DAYS until Lost finally premieres!!!! Lost is one of my most favorite shows EVER in the history of television, so needless to say, I'm a wee bit excited. Then, adding to the "oh my goodness!" levels of excitement, I came across this story on E! Online this morning.... The season of Sawyer?!?! Be still, my beating heart!!!

***
It is currently five degrees outside. (That'd be Fahrenheit, for all you international folks out there who wonder why I'm pointing this out. Then again, I suppose 5 degrees Celsius is also not terribly warm.) This cold spell we're in is supposed to end by tomorrow though, with temperatures soaring all the way back up into the 20s. (That'd be a wee bit of sarcasm...) At the rate this weather is going, it will be May before Hubby braves the outdoors long enough to take down the outside Christmas lights. I unplugged them the weekend after New Year's, but they're still up there. At least all the other Christmas stuff (aka the indoor stuff) has been put away for weeks now.

***
We have started giving Kiddo a weekly allowance. She has three piggy banks (thanks to her aunt and uncle who gave them to her for Christmas, knowing this was our allowance plan), designated as SPEND, SAVE and CHARITY respectively. Each week, she gets $.75 that gets divided evenly between the three banks. (Hey, I said we were giving her an allowance, I didn't say it was a BIG allowance...) Her current plan is to save up enough money in her SPEND piggy bank to buy some new clothes for her Barbie dolls (she has three; Birthday Barbie, Surfing Ken and Cinderella Barbie). Right now, the SAVE piggy bank is earmarked for our trip to Disney World next summer, but it may not last quite that long. She wants to use the CHARITY earnings for helping kids who don't have food or toys, so we'll figure out an appropriate charity to donate that money to once there is enough collected.

I never had an allowance when I was growing up. (I did have a savings account at the bank - one of the old-school, passbook kind of accounts - into which I put the money I earned through my 4-H market lamb and other endeavors each year.) Hubby and I think there are valuable lessons to be learned with an allowance, and Kiddo is now old enough to understand the concept of money to some decent degree, so we decided we'd go for it. One of the biggest perks to it for me that I've found so far is that now, if we're out at a store and Kiddo starts asking me to buy her something, I can defer her to her allowance and it makes her stop asking (or whining) and also makes her think more seriously about whether the item that has momentarily caught her fancy is really worth spending money to acquire.

***
So, those of you with kids, do you give them an allowance? If so, how much at what age and how do you do it? Is everyone else sticking with their New Year's Resolutions (if you made any)? If your resolution was like mine - to get in shape - how are you doing? (Thus far, I've lost a measly two pounds, but I haven't been killing it at the gym, though I intend to step it up a bit starting next week. There's a Latin dance exercise class I walked past on my way out yesterday that looked intriguing, and I'm going to see if I can join it for the rest of this session. If not, it will definitely be a next-session goal!) Any good movie suggestions in case we opt for the non-Slumdog Millionaire route? Any hints on how to do better at Wii Mario Kart, like which character to race as and which vehicle to drive? What daytime TV shows do you watch? Anyone else psyched for the start of Lost on Wednesday? (Boy, the PTA meeting better get out on time so I don't miss a second of it!!) Anyone have exciting weekend plans? We're going to Disney on Ice tomorrow, and I can't wait!

In closing, I will leave you with the link to the Human video from The Killers. I caught about 15 seconds of it while flipping channels early the other morning, and the song has been firmly lodged in my head ever since. I am going to download it to my iPod, I think... the lyrics may be silly, but it is downright catchy nonetheless, and I am a fan of the band. So, one last question: Are we human, or are we dancer?

From the heart, for the heart

I know I've talked before about how I'm not a big fan of school fundraising. However, Kiddo is participating in a fundraiser that I fully support. That fundraiser is the Jump Rope for Heart that the American Heart Association does each year. (This is their thirtieth anniversary of Jump Rope for Heart, actually!)

Now, I'm pretty sure that we all know someone who has had their life affected by or even died from heart disease or stroke. Personally, we've lost family members this way. According to the AHA's website,

Coronary heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death in the United States. Stroke is the No. 3 cause of death in the United States and a leading cause of serious disability.

That is why I'm wholeheartedly (um, pun intended) supporting Kiddo's fundraising efforts for this particular event. Kiddo is very excited at the prospect of jumping rope, more than anything else. She loves to jump rope! They've even been learning jump roping skills in P.E. class in preparation. (If you think that jumping rope doesn't take skill, then you've obviously never seen *me* trying to jump!) Since Kiddo is just in kindergarten and doesn't really get the whole "fundraising" part of things so much, I'm leading the charge to help her. Yes, I'm even throwing it out there to the whole, wide blogosphere:

If anyone would like to sponsor Kiddo in Jump for the Heart, please let me know and I will most gladly email you the link to her online donation page. Her school is trying to raise a total of $5,000 which is not completely out of reach, as they raised just over $4,000 last year. I'm hoping Kiddo will help boost them over the $5,000 mark this year!

(Of course, if you have kid(s) jumping for the heart already, don't feel like you need to sponsor mine. I mean, even if you don't have kids, don't feel like you need to sponsor mine. I hate the whole pressure-guilt-obligation feeling thing. I'm just saying, if you do feel like sponsoring Kiddo, we'd be thrilled and grateful, that's all. I also promise not to hit the blogosphere up for any further fundraising efforts this year, too!)

In any event, thanks for reading and the next post will return you to your regularly scheduled ramblings, I promise!

There is no "fun" in fundraising

I understand that there is a shortage of funding for schools and education. I understand that schools need to raise extra money - as much as possible - to help make ends meet and that they constantly have to do more with less. I understand all of this, and yet I cringe when fundraising time comes around, no matter how worthy the cause. I'm not new to the world of school fundraisers; the preschool Kiddo attended last year had several. Well, we now have the first fundraiser for her elementary school sitting downstairs on the kitchen table.

It isn't that I object to fundraisers in general, but I do strenuously dislike the "catalog" fundraisers, like the one presently buried under a pile of coupon inserts I have yet to sort through and clip. My problem is that these are little kids, these supposed salespeople. Kids who really don't have the wherewithal to sell things via a catalog to their nearest and dearest, much less to strangers in the neighborhood. So, to whom does it fall to hit up friends-n-relations to buy overpriced, teensy rolls of wrapping paper or ridiculously expensive, tiny boxes of chocolate? To the parents. Of course.

Now, I did my share of fundraising when I was a kid. I didn't rely solely upon my dad taking the order form into work and passing it around, either (though he did sell more than any other parent and even won an award for that one year at his office, hee hee). I went door-to-door with Girl Scout Cookies and that ridiculous 4-H Goat's Milk Fudge sale (which I thought I'd blogged about, but I can't find in my archives - I'll have to tell you that story another time). I'd even dress my little sister up in my old Brownie uniform (complete with adorable pigtails done by my mom under the beanie) and take her with me. She was shy as heck and didn't say a word beyond maybe a mumbled "hello" but I only needed her for the cuteness factor. She was the "awwww, look how cute" and I was the huckster, pushing the cookies on the folks with my charm and persistence. But still, I wasn't five. I was maybe seven or eight by the time I started my fundraising days. You know, the Girl Scouts get it - they don't allow the girls Kiddo's age (who are now "Daisies" which didn't exist back in my Scouting days) to even sell cookies yet. Not so much for the schools, though.

I hate asking people for money. I hate having them feel obligated to buy something that they don't particularly want just to support Kiddo. Not to mention there's always a glut of fundraisers at any one time - you can't chitchat over a cup of lemonade at church on any given Sunday without being hit up to buy cases of fruit or magazine subscriptions or ginormous tins of popcorn. And nine times out of ten, it's the parent who is waving the form, not the student in question.

Part of me feels like "Okay, I have bought stuff from YOUR kid(s) for years, now it's payback time." That's the part that doesn't mind pushing the catalog on someone else. (I'll even admit there were times when I supported some kid's band trip fundraiser or Scouting troop or what-have-you with the precise thought in my mind that one day, it would be Kiddo's turn.) But the other part of me still cringes. Blech. I wish I could feel firmly enough in my convictions - catalog sales by kindergartners are ridiculous and wrong! - to just not do the dang fundraiser. I learned from helping out with fundraising at Kiddo's preschool last year that plenty of parents just ignore such things entirely and don't think twice, but I just can't do it. I can't NOT help. (This would be why I joined the PTA and am already chairing a special event for Halloween next month...) Last year when the dreaded catalog fundraiser came home, I took a picture of Kiddo holding the catalog and sent a low-pressure email out to our family and friends (oh yeah, that's another problem - most of the folks that we would hit up for such things live out of state) and a few folks did order some stuff via the catalog's website, for which I was profoundly grateful. (A word of warning - I'll probably do that again this year...) I'm pretty sure that Hubby's company has a rule against bringing in the forms and leaving them in the break room or passing them around, which I can appreciate as someone who felt obliged to buy stuff from each sheet handed to me by a coworker myself, though now that I'm on the selling instead of the buying end of things, I wish his company allowed it just for the ease of effort that would entail.

According to the PTA ladies who chose this fundraiser, this catalog - Kathryn Beich - is really fantastic. The stuff is really high quality - made by the same manufacturers who make things for Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel and LL Bean, supposedly. The PTA ladies positively raved about how delicious the humongous tubs of gourmet cookie dough are, in particular. The prices, well, they're what you'd expect for a catalog of this sort, and yes, along with the cool, funky things there are those dang rolls of giftwrap and boxes of chocolate. They have an online ordering site, too. So, if anyone out there in the blogosphere has a hankering for tubs of gourmet cookie dough, wrapping paper, candy or any other fundraiser type item, give me a shout and I'll happily supply you with the link and code to order things on behalf of Kiddo's school. Of course, you probably are dealing with your own fundraisers yourself, aren't you?

Ah well, at least this is the only catalog fundraiser on this year's schedule for our school. Whew!

Hmmm, think I can raise $10k by 9/2?

I really would love to come up with $10k by September 2nd - oh, and I'd need to renew my passport in a very expedited way and get a plane ticket, too.... But it would totally be worth it. Why, you ask? To make my dream come true - in other words, so that I could dine with George Clooney!!!

*swoon*

And hey, the money would go to my personal choice for US Prez to boot, so really, it would all be in the name of supporting change for America and just one more way to show I'm a good Democrat...

Now, how to convince Hubby that I really need $11k (might as well round up - a girl's gonna need some new clothes and possibly some liposuction for this event) and that he'll have to hold the fort for a few days? Hmmmm.....

Eye carumba: the outcome

First, the good news: the kiddo totally cowboyed up and didn't fuss one bit for any part of the exam, including the dreaded eye drops (two in each eye, no less). This eye doc did an extremely thorough exam (it lasted almost 90 minutes!) and the kiddo enjoyed the parts where she got to wear 3-D glasses and look at different pages to see what "jumped out" at her and where she got to look in the various machines, too. Plus, they had Lion King playing there, which the kiddo knows by heart and was thrilled to get to watch - we don't allow TV during the day so that was an extra treat!

Now, the frustrating news: This eye doctor immediately detected an issue with Kiddo's eyes. The same issue that we've thought we've noticed (in our admittedly inexpert opinions) since she was an infant. The same issue we've taken her repeatedly to the other eye doctor for checking for the past five years. ARGH. We had no reason to not believe what the other eye doctor was telling us, but now I wish we'd trusted his opinion less and had sought a second opinion sooner. Thank goodness the kiddo's OT suggested we get her checked out by someone else, or we still would be blindly traipsing along (pun intended) with her having vision issues.

So, the verdict is that the kiddo has exotropia in both eyes, more so the right than the left. It is intermittent, which is good, and not in both eyes simultaneously either, which is also good. Treatment options to start with were either patching or glasses. We opted for glasses, and have now ordered the kiddo her first pair. (They're PINK! With SPARKLES!) They were crazy expensive - more expensive than my own Mega-Magoo specs - but they're warrantied and the special, super-flexible and bendy kind that hopefully will withstand the kiddo's SPD sensory-seeking and klutzy behaviors. The glasses will be in next week, so she'll have time to get used to them before school starts.

The bad news to the verdict is that glasses and patching each only work 50% of the time. The eye doctor (the new one - we're NOT going back to the other one now!) will re-examine the kiddo in 3 months and will determine at that point if we need to just keep going with the glasses or if we need to look at surgery. Boy, I hope the glasses do the trick.

We're really selling the whole excitement factor on the glasses to the kiddo. So far, she is viewing it as a treat to be able to wear glasses (that are PINK! With SPARKLES!) just like Mommy and Daddy (and Grandma and Grandpa in NJ, Gramma in FL, Grandma G and Grandpa A, several of her aunts and uncles.....) and was upset that she couldn't wear the sample pair home today. We're gonna keep focusing on how cool and exciting it is, and hopefully when she gets the actual prescription lenses, she will be good about wearing them and this won't turn into a battle of wills. (Especially for the amount that these PINK! With SPARKLES! glasses are costing us............)

So please keep your fingers crossed that these glasses do the trick and no surgery will be required down the road! (Um, and that the kiddo wears the glasses without a struggle, too!)

Let's go to the movies!

Back in the pre-kiddo days, Hubby and I went to the movies a lot. We saw everything. Seriously. There were some really not-very-good or utterly random movies that we saw in the theater. Movies that now, when we flip past them on TV, we turn to each other and say "Can you believe we once paid money to see this in the theater?" But back then, it wasn't odd. The only time we didn't go to the movies was when we'd already seen everything that was playing in town. We'd see at least one movie a week, sometimes two or three. By the time the Oscars rolled around, we'd already seen all the nominated films and performances. I was an ace at picking winners in the various Oscar pools back in those days...

That all changed, as we feared it would, once the kiddo was born. Now, going to the movies is a Major Event for us. (Case in point: we didn't see Million Dollar Baby, despite all its Oscar gold, until it was on TV. Not even in DVD new release, but when it was the Saturday night movie on HBO.) All the other parents out there reading this will be nodding understandingly right now, I'm sure. It somehow becomes exponentially more challenging to go to the movies once there are younger children in the mix. First, there's the money issue. I'm not even talking about the insane cost of tickets or the popcorn and sodas. (Though that "golden flavored topping" must really contain actual gold to cost what it does for a nickel's worth of unpopped corn kernels, not that we ever get the "topping" because ew, could there be a more chemical-rich, natural food ingredient-free substance on Earth?) Movies were pretty expensive five years ago, too. But, when one adds in the price of a babysitter, well that doubles the cost of an evening at the movies before we've even walked out the door. Then, there's the time factor. Most of the time, we're too pooped by Friday night to head out in the evening, and by the time Saturday night rolls around, we're pooped again. (Perhaps this has less to do with having a kid and more to do with the fact that we're just getting oooooolder...) We used to go to matinees a lot, pre-Kiddo, but now our weekend days are taken up with family activities, so there isn't as much free time to spend a couple of hours at a movie theater except in the evenings, when, like I said, we can barely keep our eyes open long enough to watch a movie from the comfort of our own couch.

What winds up happening is that nowadays, we judge which movies to see in the theater much more discriminatingly than we did pre-Kiddo. It takes something like a Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings to get us to go through the effort of lining up a sitter, ingesting sufficient caffeine and/or napping in preparation for a night out, and spending the money. Whereas before, a passing interest was enough to get us to plunk down our dough and park ourselves in stadium seats in the dark, now, it has to be something BIG.

That was, happily, the case this weekend. We secured a babysitter, took out a second mortgage to amply stuff our wallets with cash (not really, but seriously - $17 for a popcorn and two sodas? Oy!) and headed out to the multiplex. The movie that got us out to the theater was The Dark Knight. (The last movie we saw in the theater prior to today was VeggieTales Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, last January. Oh, and I did see Sweeney Todd - can't miss Alan Rickman, after all, plus it was a musical! Not just any musical, but Sondheim! So, that is TWO movies in the theater, seven months ago. Pathetic!)

Yes, the movie was great, just as we'd hoped - yay! (Hubby and I both loved Batman Begins, which, sadly, we did not see in the theater but on DVD. One more reason we really wanted to catch this one on the big screen.) Heath Ledger definitely warrants all the good press, though I do wonder if he'd be considered such a sure thing for an Oscar nod if he hadn't died... The one thing that took me by surprise, considering that I'm a spoilery kinda girl - I cannot resist reading a spoiler, yep, I'll always click the link or scroll down or keep reading - was Aaron Eckhart. I was not expecting what I saw regarding his character at all, and yes, I am familiar with the characters in the Batman story. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone else (there must be a few folks out there who haven't seen the movie yet besides us, right?) so I'll try not to get too specific here. Let me just say that Eckhart's character is going to give me nightmares, I'm sure of it. I wound up trying to block things out on screen with my hand but it was too late. I'm the owner of a very active imagination, and Eckhart ties in nicely to two of my worst, recurring nightmare themes. There are images now seared on my brain that will be waking me up around 2am for weeks to come. Dagnabit. This is totally like when I went to see Pet Semetary, and was greeting characters from that film in my dreams for weeks thereafter. I've already warned Hubby, so he will be prepared should I wake up screaming in terror... I'm just hoping that some nice, white noise rainfall sounds on my iPod will be enough to lull my subconscious into dream-free submission...

But potential nightmare issues aside, I'm really glad we went to the movies today. I can't wait until the kiddo is old enough to see more grown-up fare and we can resume our more regular movie-going habit again. I wonder what the next movie we'll go to see in the theater will be? Probably Harry Potter in November... It certainly won't be The Mummy 3 or even Mamma Mia, which are two films I betcha we'd have seen as new releases back in the day...

Hiatus

***I revised this a few hours after initially posting, down at the bottom with an ETA***

Up until the kiddo was born, I always worked outside the home. Other than when I was a full time college student, I worked full time from the age of 17. I'd always wanted to be a Stay at Home mom, and that was what Hubby and I planned for, and I've considered myself extremely fortunate that this is what I've been able to do for the past five years. Now that the kiddo will be starting full-day kindergarten in just over a month, the time has come for my hiatus from "working out in the world" to end and I'm starting to get a bit stressed out about that.

Not because I don't want to go back to work, mind you. I certainly don't want to just sit at home and my plan always has been to find a job - something part time, at least for the next year or two, then back to full time once the kiddo is older. I mean, sure, if we had the means for me to not have to work, I'd happily volunteer instead of finding a paying job, and I've always held the dream of someday getting an MSW, so if it was possible for me to go back to school, that'd be awesome too. Since we're not members of the idle (or any other kind of) rich, though, any money that is earmarked for college at this point is going into the kiddo's education fund, not mine.

So, it isn't a distaste for work. It's just that I am feeling a bit at sea when it comes to what exactly I want to do. I've done many things in my employment lifetime... I've done secretarial/administrative office work, I've worked retail (albeit briefly), I've worked in a grocery store, I even had a (thankfully short) stint in telemarketing. (That was enough to convince me I do not want to do that kind of outside or inside sales. *shudder*) I've nannied and done farm work (though that wasn't for pay as much as "because I lived on a farm and Mom and Dad made me...."). Back when I was fluent in Spanish, I once worked in an office where being bilingual was required. (Alas, my Spanish skills are now seriously rusty after decades of disuse.) I temped quite a bit in my early 20s, and enjoyed that. I didn't mind being the new face in an office and would happily take short-term or longer-term assignments. I also worked in the staffing industry as a recruiter/account rep, and so I know the industry from both sides.

In my most recent career, I worked in vocational rehabilitation for individuals with disabilities. Basically, that meant that I helped folks with disabilities (from high school aged on up to senior citizens) find and keep jobs in the community. I loved this job, I loved this line of work. I started in this area as a "Job Developer" which meant I worked with clients to help them identify a job, put together a resume and get ready for an interview. I'd identify a job that met their needs and desires, assist them with the application/interview process, and then if they were hired, I'd work with the employer to ensure success on the job. We had separate job coaches, but we were a small agency so I did a good bit of coaching as well. After a few years job developing, the boss of our department left and I got his job. That meant less working with the clients and more managing and paperwork and grant writing type stuff, but again, we were a smaller agency so I still carried a caseload.

So, considering that I used to write resumes and teach interviewing skills, that isn't the part of finding a job that I'm stressing about. It's more about finding a job that meets all the parameters I presently require. (I think that I might be considered "hard to place" by my old job's standards, sigh...) If I could have my dream job, it would at this point be something that I didn't have to take home with me at night. My old job was really a 24-7 on-call type of situation, as our clients worked all hours of the day, night and week. I'd stress about the old job, I'd expend energy thinking about it and planning for it and even dream about it. Now, when my first priority is my kid and not my career, I don't want that. When I'm home, I want to be home, if you know what I mean. That limits the job options a bit. I've heard from some of my former colleagues and even have been offered jobs in my old field. While I loved that type of work (if not the pay that came with working in a not-for-profit realm), like I said, I don't want to be bringing it home with me, not to mention that the jobs that have been mentioned have been full time. I've thought about just working per diem as a job coach or job developer, but the hours I'm available put a serious crimp in that.

That's the second criterion for my next job - the hours. Ideally, I'd want to work 20-25 hours a week. I'm envisioning something like a Monday-Thursday, 9-2 type position. I would prefer to have a day free each week to do things with the kiddo's school, and I absolutely need to be home to put her on and take her off the bus each day.

Thirdly, the job needs to be close enough to our home and school that I'm not spending whatever I earn on gas. Before Kiddo, I used to drive 20 minutes one way to get to work, and then for my job I was driving all over creation. Now, I want to be able to get to her school within 10-15 minutes at the most, so I'm geographically limited.

Then there is the question of money. There are some jobs I'd love to do, but the pay doesn't justify the effort. I've got a not-for-profit heart and need a for-profit paycheck. Benefits aren't important as I'm (fortunately) covered by Hubby, but even taking that out of the equation won't necessarily translate to a higher salary. In today's economy, I can't afford to work for minimum wage or close to it, like a nonprofit gig would pay.

Finally, there's the question of wardrobe. One of the benefits of my last job was that the agency I worked for was definitely "business casual" and my working wardrobe therefore was as well. I do own a few suits, but I don't want to have to wear them often. I'd actually rather not have to wear nylons and heels at all, truth be told. I certainly don't want to have to go out and buy a wardrobe so I have clothes to wear for a part time job...

So, while I harbor romantic ideas about working part time in a diner (without actually ever having waitressed, mind you - the closest I've come is working for a caterer at parties and country clubs, totally different ball game) or at a shop at the mall, likely I'm going to wind up doing some sort of office work. I just have to hope that I can find a part time, decently paying, business casual gig someplace where the coworkers are friendly and the work's not a total bore. (Yeah, I don't want to take it home with me but I don't want it to be mind-deadening, either.) Think that job is out there somewhere?

Practically speaking, I've already spoken to one of my two most recent supervisors (the other, sadly, passed away this past winter) and she is willing to provide me with a reference. I haven't yet dusted off my resume, but I have been perusing the classifieds. I think I may start inquiring at the various staffing agencies in town and see if they have any part time office positions. I'm also going to start networking to see if someone knows of something that I might be able to do. Hubby keeps telling me how he's heard of So-and-So that just hired someone for my exact "dream" job (well, the practical dream job of right now - the dream dream job, being George Clooney's personal assistant, of course, isn't really within practical grasp at the mo...) so he is fairly certain I'll be able to find something. We shall see.......

In the meantime, if you know of any job that fits my bill, I'm a quick learner, great at computer work and type over 100wpm, can handle a multi-line telephone, learn names quickly and file like nobody's business...

ETA: Oh, Jen just had an excellent point in the comments! I also need to be home during the summer when the kiddo is off from school! Crapola - that is another level of difficulty. I absolutely will not put the kiddo in daycare (and I mean no offense to those of you out there who use daycare for your kids - for our kiddo with her special needs, daycare isn't an option we could consider) so I'd need to be free around whatever her summer schedule will be next year. The more I think about it, the more I'm thinking that finding something in an office through a staffing agency might be my best bet. How else, unless maybe I get a job working at a school, will I be able to have the summers off?

Working from home would be a decent option, if the pay was good enough. I have a friend who just suggested the idea of doing freelance writing from home earlier today. That's something to consider, too. If I could get some sort of writing/computer work from home gig (that wasn't a total scam!) that would rock.

Well, I can't really start applying for anything just yet since I won't be able to start until September, so I guess I still have time to puzzle this one out. I know I'm not the first SAHM (which truly has been my dream job, other than the George Clooney personal assistant thing, of course) to re-enter the work force after a child-rearing hiatus, and I doubt I'm the only one who has requirements in a job like I do. So, fingers crossed that there is something out there for me with a paycheck attached!

Bullseye! I'm a WINNER!

So, how excited am I this morning? SO, SOOOOOOOO excited! I never win ANYTHING (heck, I even came in second when I was on Jeopardy) but this morning, I'm a winner! And not just a winner of any old thing, either, mind you, but the winner of a FIFTY DOLLAR TARGET GIFT CARD!

WOO!

(Um, sorry about all the caps, but I'm really flippin' excited here!)

Boy, I loved SITS even before I won anything, but now? *swoooooooooon*

THANK YOU so very, VERY much, SITS ladies! Heather and Tiffany - you guys ROCK! And by the way, this week's giveaway over there is a super-cool, red digital camera! Check it out and join in on spreading the comment love!!

(I've typed this entire post with a big ole cheeeeesy grin on my face, and now my kiddo is a bit worried about mama, hee hee!)

Heck, I may go out and buy a lottery ticket today - the Mega Millions jackpot is up to $125 million..........

Well, that's not utterly ridiculous...

Remember last week's episode of Splintery Badness with the Worst Pediatrician's Office Visit, EVER?

Well, in today's mail came the notice from our insurance company detailing the cost for that visit. Wanna know how much the charge was?

$156.48.

Yes, you read that right. $156.48 for partial splinter removal, a squeeze of polysporin and a Tasmanian Devil band aid. Oh, and of course we can't forget the Tinkerbell sticker the kiddo chose out of the basket at the check-out desk. Less our copay of $10 and that is $146.48 that our insurance is paying the doctor's office. (Um, thanks, Preferred Care!)

You think it was because this counted as some sort of surgical procedure, or because of pain and suffering? I'm not thinking of the kiddo and her Screams of Doom here, either, I'm thinking more along the lines of the doctor's double-kicked groin. Hmmmm.

It's in the bag

As long as I can remember, I've been a Big, Honkin' Bag girl. Even back in junior high and high school, my purse was large enough to hold a few paperback books, an umbrella, a bottle of soda and my Walkman along with several tapes (and those of you who are of a certain age, like me, will recall that back in the day, Walkmen were ginormous - a far cry from the itty-bitty iPods of today) as well as the "typical" purse items, like a wallet, make-up, etc. For a brief stretch in college, I way, way downsized to a wallet/keychain combo, but that didn't last more than a semester before I gave up and went back to the big bag. As a mom, I've found the big bag comes in very handy, and as the mom of a kiddo with SPD, especially so. While many other moms out there may carry such items as wet wipes and band-aids, I've also got mini-containers of Play-doh and other good, sensory items like that for a fidgety, sensory-seeking kid. Oh, and the band-aids, well, I don't have just one or two. Over the past five years, I've learned to carry a wide variety of sizes, shapes and styles. Need a Princess "tattoo" band-aid? Who do you want, Ariel or Jasmine? Ripped the skin clear off your knee? I've got the giant, rectangular ones - with or without the built-in antibiotic goo. (These especially have come in handy several times with my kiddo, whose bare knees have never met a sidewalk or chunk of asphalt they didn't like.) How about a Diego or Curious George for that cut on your finger? Check! When the kiddo was younger, I also carried a baggie with a spare diaper/pull-up, scented disposal bag and a mini-pack of wipes, just in case I was without the spares in the diaper bag or the mini-van. (I was a firm believer in always having a spare for my spare, back in the Pre-Potty Trained days.)

The reason I raise this topic right now is because I bought a new bag yesterday and I've just finished transferring stuff from my old purse into the new one. Now, I know there are women out there who have Many Cute Handbags - women who switch from one bag to another to suit their whim or match their outfit or mood. I am not one of these women. I'm definitely a more Utilitarian Handbag kind of gal. I do have a "dressy" black clutch that I will use on those very infrequent occasions when I am going out to a fancy shindig, but that happens maybe once or twice a year at best. While my grandmother was a strict "matching bag, belt and shoes" woman who tried her hardest to instill the same fashion ethic in me, I have strayed far from that particular rule. (Well, first off, I rarely wear belts these days, and secondly, my choice of footwear is generally either my Birks or a pair of clogs or boots, all somewhere in the brown family. The only exception to this is church on Sundays, and now that I think of it, I generally wear my Birks or clogs or boots to church, too...) I do occasionally have a small twinge of "Grandma is rolling over in her grave" when I'm slinging my brown bag over my shoulder in a black-based outfit - especially for church, but I shrug it off and head on my way.

Yes, my brown bag. My beloved, gigantic, prepared for war, I-can-fit-a-small-child-in-there brown bag. My most recent purse was a brown leather (pleather? it sure wasn't too expensive anyhow) messenger bag from Target. It was large, it was roomy, it had convenient storage compartments for all my stuff. I could even toss my camera in there with room to spare. Sure, it's heavy when fully loaded, but I'm used to it, having carried a Big, Honkin' Bag for decades now.

I have rules for my bags. Obviously, they must be large. They must have a shoulder strap that is long enough to allow the bag to rest about hip-high. My mother gave me a lovely handbag for my birthday two years ago, it was large, brown, and a gorgeous, real leather - it even was a Cool Brand (not that I recall what brand name it was) - this was a bag that Carrie Bradshaw et al might be seen carrying with pride. Unfortunately, it had short handles, so when I did put the straps up onto my shoulder, the bag was wedged underneath my armpit. Ew. I believe it is meant to be carried on one's forearm (and indeed, I've seen several of the same style carried just like that in the Star Tracks section of People's website), but that just doesn't work for me. It feels awkward and impeding of movement and with all the stuff I lug around, uncomfortably heavy, too. Hence, the shoulder strap-hip length rule.

I have found one style of bag once that isn't a shoulder strap-hip length bag that works for me. Two years ago, my handbag purchase (again from Target) was actually a leather backpack. I mourned its passing (one of the shoulder straps blew) because I'd gotten very used to having both hands/arms free without a bag dangling at my hip. It was quite helpful when toddler-wrangling, yet I still had all my Stuff with me, too. I envy those women who can go purse-less or who can carry a teensy-tiny, cute, little bag. I've got friends who don't carry any bag at all, but along with my envy, I just don't get how they can get by without all the necessary stuff. It befuddles me as much as I long to have the freedom of no purse to contend with. The backpack is the closest I've been able to come to No Bag at All, yet still have all my stuff.

This brings me to my current handbag. (Hmm, do you think I've now said "handbag" enough times to drive away any possible men that might be reading this? I guess I just assume that only women read my blog, anyhow...) Yesterday, Hubby, the kiddo and I ventured to the outlet mall in search of a sunhat for the kiddo for our upcoming vacation (we're going to Disney World, woo!), along with some other odds and ends. I've sort of been on a quest for a new bag for a few months now. The downside to buying inexpensive purses at Target, especially when they're subjected to heavy, daily use, is that eventually, they wear out. My messenger bag purse has been held together with a fair amount of superglue for a few months now. With our upcoming vacation, I'd been keeping an eye out for another backpack-style bag, but had yet to find one that is big enough to carry what I need to carry and also not utterly heinous looking. Not an easy quest, let me tell you. This bag is my dream bag, but the price tag on it means that I will not be placing my order at LL Bean until after I collect my lottery winnings. I have yet to find a more reasonably priced knock-off of my dream LL Bean bag, so I've been looking for a backpack like the last one I got at Target (which alas, is no longer available, because believe me, I've checked) instead.

Now, the outlet mall has a Wilson Leather store. I decided I'd pop in and check out the offerings. While Hubby and the kiddo sat on a bench outside the shop, growing more and more grumpy as they baked in the sun, I perused the selection of backpacks as quickly as I could. I found one, marked down from $98 to $19, that seemed like it would fit the bill, though it was significantly smaller than my messenger bag. The lure of the good deal (look! It was NINETY EIGHT DOLLARS and I'm getting it for ONLY NINETEEN!) and the need for a backpack coupled with the sight of my increasingly impatient family sweating on the bench outside finally overwhelmed me and I bought the backpack. Hubby was dubious when I showed him my purchase. "It seems kinda small, dontcha think?" I waved off his misgivings - clearly, his brain was addled from all that sun - and we went on our way.

Which brings me to this morning. I did The Big Transfer, moving stuff from the messenger bag over to the backpack. As it turns out? It's kinda small. Everything that I need fits, with some modifications - one container of Play-doh instead of three, not carrying my contact lens solution unless I happen to be wearing my contacts, that sort of thing. My wallet takes up a lot more room in the inside pouch than I had thought it would, so I think my next step will be to buy a smaller wallet (my wallet's been on the verge of total disintegration for aeons now) to free up some more room inside. (No, I will not admit to Hubby that the backpack I got is too small. Let's just keep that between us, shall we?) That way, I can carry this backpack for at least a few months - until Hubby forgets that I just bought it, and then I can get a new, bigger bag. This is my plan and I'm sticking to it, unless the LL Bean Fairy delivers one of my dream bags to my doorstep or I win the lottery. (Which, incidentally, is hard to do as I don't buy lottery tickets unless the Megamillions jackpot is over $100 million. I mean, really, why bother trying to win the lottery if it is only a few million, right?)

Those of you who are Cute, Little Purse women, or even No Bag at All women, how do you do it? How do you have the things you might need without carrying a BHB, especially if you're a mom? Please share your secrets - maybe it will help me adjust to the too-small backpack! Otherwise, when the time comes that I buy yet another BHB in a few months, at least I'll be happy I only spent $19 on the too-small backpack currently sitting downstairs in the kitchen.

Bookworm

I am, and have always been, a bookworm. Back in the days of more unfettered discretionary income, I loved nothing more than browsing the shelves at the bookstore, and I vastly preferred to spend said discretionary income at B&N instead of on, say, clothes, shoes or handbags. (What's wrong with me? Books instead of shoes? What kind of female am I? I know, I know, I'm a big word nerd, what can I say?)

Once I stopped working to be home with the kiddo, there was no more such thing as "unfettered discretionary income" so I dug out my sadly neglected library card and became a library junkie once more. I got my first library card when I was in kindergarten, which was a banner day in my childhood. I'm such a bookworm that I actually made a deal with our elementary school librarian to allow me to check out MORE than the maximum number of books allowed to students per 2 week period; I'd fill my backpack with as many books as it could hold and devour them in short order, always returning them on time - they didn't have a chance to become overdue when I was through with them and on to the next pile of books.

As a kid, I read through entire sections of the library, semi-systematically working my way through the Dewey Decimal System. The 900s were my favorite through elementary and middle school. I adored reading biographies of anyone and everyone. There was this series in our elementary school library of biographies of famous Americans, and inside the front and back cover were these illustrations of various milestones in the featured person's life, in chronological order. I'd memorize those pages and then mark my progress as I reached each part of the book that matched one of those illustrations. It never bothered me to know what was coming before I got there - I've always been a fan of spoilers, I guess! They never really spoil the experience for me. The 300s were good, too, as were the 700s.

In my later years, I've stuck mainly to fiction. I read a lot of chick lit, historical fiction, mystery and suspense, and whatever one might consider Stephen King these days - not quite horror anymore, is it? (I may've mentioned this before, but in case I haven't: No book has ever scared me more than Stephen King's It. I read it the year it came out, borrowed in hardcover from a friend, and was convinced for weeks afterward that I'd hear voices coming up out of the sink in my bathroom, which was at the very back of the house. So, as a teenage girl, I gladly gave up the use of my very own bathroom in favor of the heavier traveled bathroom in the front of the house that was shared by both of my sisters or my parents' master bath. Eventually I convinced myself it was safe to go back into my own bathroom alone, but even to this day, I wouldn't be surprised to hear something sinister burbling up through those back pipes...) I do read some nonfiction, too, if a subject or title catches my eye. I generally check out fewer books now than I did as a child, reading an average of just four to six in a two week period. Something about having a kid in the house seems to eat up many of the hours I once spent buried in a book...

I also developed a bit of an obsession with reading reference books as a kid. From the dictionary to the encyclopedias, I was endlessly fascinated with learning new things. (This has likely contributed to my sometimes awe-inspiring ability to answer trivia game questions, not to mention going on Jeopardy. Of course, having an insanely sharp long-term memory helps in this regard as well.) This obsession hasn't waned in my older age, either. When I was studying for my Jeopardy appearance, I gleefully purchased the latest edition of the World Almanac, and I've been known to drive Hubby crazy by reading the atlas during long car trips. As it turns out, he isn't nearly as excited as I am to learn the highest elevation of a particular state or that state's motto or largest lake... Most recently, I've been driving him nuts with our newly acquired Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America. I've had to give up keeping it on my nightstand for bedtime reading for fear of being kicked out to the guest room. Humph.

I love to discover new authors. Well, not new as in brand new, but new to me. My most recent discovery is Kristin Hannah. I came across one of her books on the new release shelf, checked it out and read it in a matter of a few hours. I felt that thrill I always do when I turned to the page listing other works by the same author and realized she's written several other books. I've been bingeing on her books for over a month now, and have worked my way through her catalog. She's not quite "chick lit" but isn't heavy reading either. I think I've cried at least once reading every one of her books. She's like Danielle Steel used to be back in the 80s (um, that is meant as a compliment - I used to love Danielle Steel back before her plots became entirely predictable and the characters were always the same). I've also recently discovered Jodi Picoult (I know, she's written a zillion books, but somehow I never read her until this past fall) and I've been catching up on the backlog of other authors I've read in the past, like Tami Hoag, Jonathan Kellerman and Catherine Coulter as well.

Once I "discover" a new-to-me author, I stay with them, making a point of reading their latest book as soon as it comes out. Well, as soon as it comes out and my turn comes up on the library hold request list - it took me over two months before my number was up for Jennifer Weiner's Certain Girls. I fear I will be old and gray before I get my turn with Jeff Alexander's new book, A TV Guide to Life. It's times like these, when I'm impatiently checking the library's website several times a day to check the status of my place on the holds list as it much-too-slowly creeps towards #1, that I long for the days of unfettered discretionary income... I can just see it now, though: "Sorry, kiddo, there won't be any college for you. You see, Mommy is a book junkie and spent what was supposed to go into your 529 plan on books........" I am planning to return to the world of Working Outside the Home in the fall when the kiddo starts kindergarten (unless Ed McMahon drops by with an oversized check full of zeroes, and I hear he's been having some financial issues of his own lately...), so perhaps then I'll feel more comfortable with spending money on new books instead of spending patience at the library waiting for a hold to come in for me.

Speaking of the kiddo, she is completely turning into Bookworm, the Next Generation. Shortly after her fifth birthday last month, we went to the public library, where she marched up to the librarian and requested her very own card. She'd been counting down for over a year now, asking me each time we visited the library if she could get her own card yet, so she knew that as soon as she was five, she could have her own card. Now she does, in a green, leather pouch that she carried around for days (I also have the keytag version of her card on my keychain, just in case that card ever gets lost amidst the stuff in her room), and she's already checked out several books and even placed her first hold request (for a Disney Princess story collection, of course). I couldn't be more proud! Hubby and I are both thrilled that she has already developed a fierce passion for books, even if she's at the beginning stages of actually reading on her own yet.

So, tell me - what are your favorite genres? Who are your favorite authors? I'm always looking for tips and suggestions! Please leave a comment and share!

Baby birdie and busted AC update

The presumptive sparrow baby is no longer in the nest, so I guess I was right on his status, sadly enough. (Special thanks to Mama Finch for disposing of the corpse someplace out of sight and not just kicking it to the floor of the porch for me to find.) There is a newly hatched baby finch alongside the one that hatched yesterday, so total nest count at this point is two baby finches and three eggs yet to hatch.

Also, the problem with the Sienna's AC seems to be actually related to the work they did on it the last time. Then, they'd said the problem was one of two things (or possibly both) and at their suggestion, we had them do the lesser of the two fixes and hoped that would take care of it. Since it was the larger, more complicated and expensive issue, they are going to credit the work they did last time towards this fix, which knocks a good bit off of the still-costly bill, but they think this will take care of it once and for all. (As it should since we've now replaced just about the entire AC system...) The bad news is that they don't have the part they need on hand so we'll have to do the complicated Drop Off the Van routine again either on Friday or Saturday. The mechanic did say that he thinks we should have a few more good, problem-free years at least left on the van, given the state of everything else in it and the shape it's in, now that the AC issue will be resolved. Hope he's right!!

Hot mess

As most people living in the northeast of the US are already aware, we're in the midst of a hot spell. I'm not sure how many days it takes of consecutive hot days to officially constitute a heat wave, but we've been above normal - way above normal - since late last week. Looking at the 10 day forecast on the Weather Channel's site, it doesn't look like we'll be back to more seasonably warm-but-not-roasting temperatures 'til early next week. That means several more days of "oh my goodness, have we moved to the face of the Sun?" type heat to get through.

And, yes it is a cliché, but it is true: it's not the heat, it's the humidity. I don't mind heat, so long as it's a dry heat. I've happily hung out outdoors in Vegas when it was over 110 in the shade. I'm talking Vegas in July and August, with nary a complaint. The humidity, though, that's the thing that I abhor - when you walk outside and the air touching your skin has the feeling of a large dog's tongue licking you, if that large dog had just run a marathon then drunk warm chocolate syrup. That is what makes air conditioning so delightful, no?

Unfortunately, this week's heat coincides with the AC in our minivan failing. This in and of itself is a bad thing, but it is compounded by the fact that this isn't the first time the AC has gone kaput. It isn't even the second time. No, this is the fourth time within a 13 month period that it's died on us. The first time was last May, when it was warm but not crazy hot. We took it in, had it repaired, paid the bill and thought that was that. When it conked out a little over a month later, we were in the midst of a six-hours-each-way road trip for a family wedding. It was significantly hotter that weekend and driving home especially was most unpleasant. We called the dealership from the road and made arrangements to have it re-fixed. We were a bit less thrilled with the bill the second time around, but we really thought that was that. Which it was, until May rolled around this year and it died for a third time. This time, Hubby called the dealership with a good deal of righteous indignation. We certainly didn't feel like forking over several hundred dollars for something they'd supposedly fixed twice already. Well, whaddya know - this time, the problem was in an entirely different part of the AC system, and a more expensive, extensive repair-required part to boot. Crapola. Several hours and over a grand later, the van was cool once again, until this past weekend, when the AC once more gave up the ghost.

Now, we have a Toyota. We love Toyotas. We've driven nothing but Toyotas since we bought a Tercel back when we were newlyweds. That Tercel lasted through 14 years of bad upstate NY and northern New England winters, driving from NY to Florida and back, driving between NY and NH through the mountains and mud season for over a year - it was a great car. We had the most minimal maintenance/repair expenses over its hard-driven 14 years and it was just ridiculously reliable. Our Tercel had close to 200,000 miles on it when we traded it in for a new Camry last summer. We also had a Corolla for a few years on a lease, that we turned in for the Sienna back in 2000. We've been hoping that the Sienna will last us another couple of years, which doesn't seem too far-fetched, and we certainly don't want a second car payment added into the budget. I don't think we've had two simultaneous car payments in ten years, back when gas was less than a buck a gallon. But then again, we're not keen on dropping a thousand dollars every other month to get the AC working again either.

So, we are taking the van in on Wednesday to find out what's broken this time and how much it's going to cost us. With our luck, it will be a new problem so not something they'll graciously fix for free. The forecasted high for tomorrow is 85, with thunderstorms. That'll be one toasty drive to preschool. At least today, we could drive with the windows open. (Which, by the by, doesn't do the Wolverine Fawcett-Van Beethoven 'do any favors. "Windswept" isn't exactly the adjective one wants to add to "ginormous, Jersey hair" you know. It literally becomes one hot mess of hair. I could hairspray the heck out of my hair - I'm talking Sally Field in Steel Magnolias levels of helmet-head - and the wind pattern through the van with both windows rolled down would still kill it. Egad.) That would be one advantage if it does wind up being more cost-effective to replace the Sienna instead of repairing the AC again - the new models have back windows that roll down. That might come in handy some day...

So, hopefully the current AC issue is easily, quickly, cheaply and permanently resolved. If not, hopefully there are some really excellent deals to be had both on trading in an 8 year old Sienna with a bum AC system and buying a new Sienna with functioning AC...

Birthday party budget blues

So, the kiddo has asked us if she can invite her entire preschool class to her birthday party this year. Other parents at preschool have done this - the party we went to a few weekends ago had more than 2/3 of her class in attendance. On the one hand, we'd be totally happy to honor this request, especially given the fact that we didn't have any sort of big, kid-centered birthday party last year. On the other hand, however, the kiddo has a HUGE class - we're talking 22 kids. Add to that her two best friends, who do not attend her preschool but who would definitely be invited, and my nephews, who will be in town that weekend, and we're up to 26 kids. Then there's the fact that the kids are not yet at the "drop them off and pick 'em up again in a couple of hours" age, either, so we have to take at least one grown-up per kid/sibling group into account as well. And that? Is a LOT of people.

We've been bouncing around various ideas for party venues. (Hubby is adamant that such a large party will NOT be taking place at our home. I'd be more inclined just because there are no additional rental fees involved, but yeah, that is a lot of people. The most we've ever had here before is 36 for the kiddo's baptism, but that was all adults besides 3 kids, and adults are less inclined to create total mayhem, and even then it was a bit crowded and a lot of cleaning up afterwards.) Top places we've been considering include the YMCA (we're members), the zoo (we're members there as well), a really cool farm that is also kind of a hike (45 mins - an hourish away, depending on from where in town one is driving), another farm that is significantly closer and renting a pavilion at a local park. Unfortunately, the going rate for a birthday party at the venues I've mentioned is in the $12-15 per kid range, and that doesn't include feeding the adults present. Yikes.

Even the park idea isn't cheap. There's a park 10 minutes away from our house with an awesome playground (the kiddo and I are planning on visiting it later today, as a matter of fact), and they have some nice pavilions there as well. Unfortunately, this park is not in our town, but the next town over, and since we're not residents, the fee more than doubles to rent a pavilion. Add to the rental fee the cost of feeding the masses, decorations (even if it's just a bunch o' balloons), paper products etc, and it starts looking about as expensive as going to the YMCA or the zoo or wherever, plus then we'd be doing the set-up and clean-up.

One thing I'd suggested to the hubby was having the party at such a time that a meal wouldn't be implied. Most of the venues will do a party with just cake, ice cream and juice but no pizza (the meal option of choice) and that way, we've eliminated the whole "feeding the grown-ups" cost altogether. Hubby wasn't too keen on that idea, however. He thinks that it is expected and also customary to feed everyone who attends a party an actual meal.

So, I've got the birthday party budget blues. I don't feel that we're being overindulgent parents or that we're spoiling the kiddo by attempting a whole-class party. Goodness knows, she hears "no" a heck of a lot more than she hears "yes" about things in our everyday life. She truly adores all the kids in her class and wants to have them come and play with her and have fun with her for her birthday. We may wind up having to limit the number of kids, though, since it seems a bit risky to just hope/assume that a good portion of them will not attend. The number we've been using for cost estimates is 20 out of 26, which may be high but doesn't seem improbable.

At this point, I'm leaning towards doing the park thing, (so if anyone out there lives in Parma and wants to help us save $65 in rental fees, we'd be most grateful and appreciative) but we're still crunching numbers. If we do have a whole-class party, this will most likely be the last year we'd do it. Once the kiddo gets to elementary school, we'll start limiting the number of friends she can invite, in part because I'm assuming friendships will start being more selective as the kiddo get older. I don't want to use the "clique" word, but you know what I mean - different social groups start forming, and it seems like that starts a lot earlier nowadays than it did when I was a kid. I guess I'm thinking of this as sort of the end of an era in a way, because it feels like a certain amount of childhood innocence will be disappearing forever once the kiddo climbs on the school bus in September and heads out into the big, bad world of elementary school. Hmmm, I just don't know.

So tell me, dear readers, what are your thoughts on the whole children's birthday party subject and our budget-busting dilemma? Do you think that people have a general expectation of being fed an entire meal (even if that's just pizza and juice) at a birthday party? Would it be chintzy to just have cake and juice and let the kids run around the playground together? Are we being hideously overindulgent by even considering the kiddo's request? Any brilliant suggestions?