Our library "friend"

So. I work at the library, and part of my job at the library is putting books on the shelves and making sure that the books on the shelves are in the correct order. And so i'm usually the first one to notice when this one guy has come been there. It's obvious, see, because he is rabidly Republican, and when the library owns anything that is opposed to his worldview, he gets extremely upset about it.

The first time i noticed him was when we changed the way we did the shelves. Instead of just having all of the books spine-out, we started taking one book per shelf and facing it outwards so people could see the cover. One day i came in, and a book by Hilary Clinton had been hidden behind the shelved books. Other books that were possibly Democrat-leaning had been covered up or moved. I fixed everything and then mentioned it to the ladies who work behind the desk. One of them was all, "Oh. I know who that probably was. He's ... outspoken."

So every few weeks, i'll come in and find books moved and hidden. We all roll our eyes at him. A couple of days ago, after finding an unusually high number of the books being moved, i was up talking to the ladies at the desk again, and our new girl was all, "OH! I think i know who you mean! Yeah, he was complaining that James Comey's book should be in the fiction section." (He had moved the copies to the fiction section.) Apparently he was also very upset that so many of the picture books facing outward had black children on them. It was explained to him that that's because it's Black History month, and his response was, "Well. There should be an old white guy month!"

This is the guy who apparently had a huge problem with a board book named "A is for Activist." His response for that was to check out the book, bring it to the parking lot, throw it on the ground, and intentionally drive over it. Because he is mature.

This week when he was in our library, complaining about all of the "liberal" books, he mentioned to our (old white) guy working the desk that maybe he would just check some of them out and destroy them. He was all, "Oh, sure. You could do that. Of course, you'd be responsible for any damage, and if it's damaged enough to discard, the library would just buy a new copy, which would be good for the author...."

ANYHOW. The question that all of us keep asking each other is this: How angry and unreasonable do you have to be to continue going to the library just to move books around and complain about the ones you disagree with? I don't even understand.

It's February, and i'm done with winter now.

This February has been somewhat insane, weather-wise. After a couple of winter months with virtually no wintery weather, we suddenly got hammered with a couple of ice storms and a polar vortex. The kids had an entire week off of school for snow days, then went back for two days and then had another 3 days of snow days. A good portion of the city shut down - the schools and libraries were closed, the mail didn't run, the YMCA closed, and...other stuff, but it didn't actually affect me because we stayed home where it was warm. We watched movies and played games and read books and it was kind of awesome, honestly. (Of course i'm sure it'll suck if/when the kids have to go to school until July....)

In-between crazy weather days, we did manage to do a few things. Here are some of them.

On the 2nd, Beth and i had all of our youth group girls over to Beth's house to decorate cookies.

On the 4th, Zane got to go to the doctor for his yearly checkup. He's completely healthy and awesome and was completely thrilled that he didn't need to get any shots at all. (He just got all of his shots a couple of months ago.)

On the 5th, the kids and i all had dentist appointments. Nobody had any cavities. Yay!

On the 7th, we had book club at my house. Our book this month was "The Miniataurist," so we had all miniature food. And even though the weather was atrocious, nearly everybody was there. Fun!

On the 8th, we had pizza-movie night. Beth and my parents all came over, and it was super fun.

On the 9th, Katrina got a haircut. She got 5 inches cut off, and it's barely even noticeable.

On the 11th, the kids finally went back to school after almost two full weeks of snow days. Houston and Katrina actually had school every day this week. Zane had a snow day on Wednesday and then had a planned day off on Friday. He's going to die when he has to actually have a full week of school again.

On the 12th, we got another bout of terrible weather. The roads were horrible - that's a picture when i was sitting three cars back from my street, waiting and waiting and waiting to be able to just get home. There's a hill, though, and nobody could get up it going either direction. And yet, this was one day when all of the kids actually DID have school. I'm sure they would have had a snow day if they hadn't just had TEN SNOW DAYS in TWO WEEKS.

The 13th was Katrina's birthday! It was freezing cold and the snow was super deep, but she was a trooper and went out with me to take birthday pictures anyhow. Beth and my parents came over to celebrate her, and we had cake and ice cream, and she opened presents, and it was a really fun and laid-back birthday. And i really, really love this girl. She is just amazing and beautiful and just the sweetest girl in the history of the world. I keep waiting for her to become a typical bratty teenager, and she still hasn't.

And that brings us to today! It's Katrina's birthday weekend, so she has some friends over for the night. But tonight is also the school dance (Katrina's first real dance!), and so her friends all came over here to get ready and then came back afterwards to sleep, which is awesome, because that means that i get to take pictures beforehand and then hear all about the dance afterwards! Katrina was Very Unsure about going to the dance at all, and only decided to go after she found out that the friends she invited over were going and after i sort of totally pushed her to go.

But they just got home, and they all had lots of fun, and now they're all in their sleeping bags talking about everything, and they're close enough that i can hear, which is awesome because i'm nosy.

COLD!

As i sit here right now, the wind chill factor outside is -25 degrees, and our heater is working really hard to try to keep our house warmish. And also it's been snowing for three days, and the plows have completely not been able to keep up (our street hasn't been plowed yet). And so the entire city has pretty much shut down. The schools have all been closed for three days, and even the library is closed today.

It's the kind of cold where it's too cold to actually go outside, and so we're planning a day filled with snuggling up and watching movies and trying to huddle together to stay warm.

Update: And all of the city's schools have been cancelled for the next two days. So! A full week of snow days!

Snow! And doctor!

We finally got snow, and Zane is extraordinarily thrilled. He spent hours outside building a little snow fort in our front yard, and then when i got home from work, he begged to go sledding, so we went to the park near our house. He gleefully went up and down the hill while i watched until i was freezing and went to read in the car, and after another 15 minutes, he came and said, "I'm just not having fun...." And so we were just getting ready to leave when Katrina texted and said, "I'm coming sledding!" So then we stayed for another hour or so. And as we were leaving, Zane was all, "Can we go sledding again tomorrow?!" Such a weird kid. Snow is cold!

They already called (and texted and emailed and called two more phones) to say that Zane's school is cancelled for tomorrow, for a giant snowfall that we're expected to get overnight. I half expect us to get no snow at all now, because that would be par for the course, snow-day-wise. (Terrible roads? Have school. No problem at all? Snow day.) Houston and Katrina are keeping their fingers crossed that they'll have a snow day as well.

Oh! I never wrote about Houston and Katrina's doctor visit! I mean, it wasn't anything mind-blowingly interesting for the most part. Except a couple of notes.

1. Katrina and needles. Guys. She has developed herself a full-blown phobia of needles. I intentionally didn't tell her about the doctor's appointment until the day before, because as soon as i told her, he asked, "Do i need any shots?!?" I didn't know, and so for the next 20-ish hours, she worried and freaked out and annoyed everyone around her with her worries. My friend Linda sent me a screen shot of a text conversation between Katrina and Linda's daughter Ella that went like this:

Katrina - I'M KINDA FREAKING OUT
ELLA WHAT IF I NEED A FLU SHOT?
I'M NOT EVEN THERE YET AND I'M SHAKING
HELP ME
I'M IN THE FREAKING LUNCH LINE

And so when we got to the doctor's office, i immediately asked the nurse if Katrina was going to need a shot, and if so, if she could get that first, before seeing the doctor, which is one of the very best parenting decisions i've ever made. She was an absolute disaster until the shot was finished, and the entire appointment would have been horrible if she needed to wait until the end.

On the bright side, she didn't have a full-blown panic attack like she did last time she got shots, so...yay!

2. My kids are tall. Houston is 6'2" and still growing. Katrina is 5'7" and still growing.

3. Both Houston and Katrina have phenomenal eyesight. They could both read the bottom line of the eye chart without even squinting.

4. Both kids are super healthy and completely awesome. Yay!

Winter Camp!

So after having school on the incredibly icy Tuesday last week, the kids all had a snow day on Wednesday, when the roads were completely not bad at all. I'm pretty sure that the schools all got yelled at on Tuesday, so they over-reacted on Wednesday and called it when it wasn't actually necessary. The upshot of it was that the high school's exams got moved one day back, which means that their last exams are tomorrow, which kind of sucks, because instead of having the long weekend to relax, the kids have to study.

But! It was also winter camp weekend! Houston never wants to go to winter camp, so he stayed home with Juanito while Katrina, Zane, and i headed off to Camp Geneva. Katrina was over in the high school side this year, which meant that i almost never saw her, but she had fun and was sad to leave her life group. Zane had fun too - he said that he spent almost the entire Saturday outside in the snow, which is pretty much his perfect winter day. (It snowed for the first time all winter! And Zane forgot his snowpants and boots! But he didn't care!)

Beth and my group of girls are definitely getting older and more mature, which is awesome! They're also getting more drama-filled, which is ... not as awesome. But we had a fun and exhausting time.

We got home on Sunday, and Katrina, Zane, and i all immediately took naps. I slept 3 hours. Katrina slept almost 5. I'm not sure exactly how long Zane slept, but at least a couple of hours. So yes. Fun! But exhausting!

Ice and exams

Juanito called this morning and the first thing he asked was, "Do the kids have school?!" I was all, "Um, yes. It's Tuesday?" But what i didn't know was that the roads were all icy and horrible, so it was totally a legitimate question. The did, and so Katrina and Houston headed off to school and i woke up Zane and he got all ready, and just before we were going to leave for school, we got a phone call that, "Due to inclement weather, school has been closed for today." Zane was super happy, obviously.

So the first time i went outside, it was when i was on my way to work. I knew it had been icy, but everything looked normal, so i walked down the steps, stepped onto the sidewalk, and immediately my foot slid straight down the sidewalk and i almost did the splits. And then, when i tried to get up, i totally couldn't! I tried 2-3 times, but my feet just couldn't get any purchase until finally i'd slid far enough down that i was on level ground and could get up. (If there was a video of THAT, it would be hilarious. I was totally laughing at myself.) So yeah. This was the slipperiest ice i have ever, ever experienced. I'm the girl who always mocks people on movies who can't walk on ice, because it's not THAT hard, but today? Oh yeah. Two of my coworkers also wiped out, so that makes me feel better.

Exams are this week, and with Houston, that means that I am doing a LOT of studying. I don't know why he's SO BAD at studying, but he really is! I just totally taught him a semester's worth of biology. To add to the fun, Zane has a giant math interim that counts for a giant part of his trimester grade, so i am also trying to study with him.

Here is the difference between studying with each of my kids:

Houston - Swears that he's never learned any of this in class, totally pays attention as i teach him as well as i can, goofs off in spurts, but learns quickly and tries hard.

Zane - Is miserable that he has to do work, so he does the absolutely bare minimum. Seriously - if the answer is $3.50, he will write 3.5, so yes, technically he did the math right, but DUDE. It takes an additional 1 second to add the rest of that answer! He knows math and kind of likes math, but doesn't want to actually have to WRITE anything, so he does all of the work in his head, which makes it impossible to know where mistakes are made when he gets one wrong. And did i mention that he spends 3/4 of the time being distracted so that everything takes longer? BUT he knows how to do most of it, and when he didn't understand something, he did focus really well on learning how to do it. So it's not all bad.

Katrina - Carefully spends days recopying notes and filling out study guides. Studies for everything on her own, and just has me quiz her when she already basically knows all of the answers and all i have to do is say, "Yep. Good."

I know i've said it many times before, but i hate exams. 

Books and stuff

 

The awesome thing about working at the library is that i am constantly surrounded by books, so i am constantly finding books that i want to read. For the past year and a half, i have constantly had a pile of books that i've been working my way through. I read fairly quickly, but i find new books to read even more quickly. And it's GREAT! I never have that, "What should i read now?" problem, unless it's "Which of these 8 books should i read next?"

The downside of this constant stream of books is that i haven't re-read any of my books for the past year and a half. And that's not a huge problem or anything, except that i miss reading my old books. There are certain books that i have a habit of reading every year or two - "Pride and Prejudice," "Les Miserables," the Harry Potter series - and i haven't read most of them for 3 or 4 years now. I miss my friends! (I am a dork!)

So i'm not checking out any books during January. (Except for 2 - one that i've had on hold for a long time, that just came in and if i don't check it out i'll have to wait for a long time again, and the book club book for this month.) This month - and maybe next month too - is dedicated to re-reading books in my house. So far i've been re-reading the Gallagher Girls series, and i've been completely enjoying it again.

And besides that, it's mostly been homework here. Homework, homework, and more homework.