Below are the 15 most recent journal entries recorded in telosphilos' InsaneJournal:

Sunday, November 16th, 2008
9:16 pm	merry christmas to me! er.. happy birthday? um.. well trees anyway I got permission from the husband to go ahead and order my trees from out of state. He knows this is a huge experiement and might not work out. Still, I love cherries. Cherries cost a fortune in the stores. If I can grow just a few bowls worth for a couple years it will be worth it. Admittedly, I'll be putting in a lot of labor and love into it. We are getting a Royal Rainier on Mazzard rootstock and a Lapin on Colt rootstock. The Royal Rainier is a lot like a regular Rainier cherry, but it doesn't need as much chilling time. It is pollinated by Lapin which happens to also be self-fertile. The Lapin is a dark red cherry that should be right in early June. All in all, I find the prospects to be delicious. What sweet rewards for my hard work! The Mazzard rootstock is for standard fruit tree sizes, it is actually a good quality stock. Unpruned a tree on Mazzard rootstock could get to be 40 feet tall, so this will go farthest away from the house. The Colt rootstock is a good semi-dwarfing rootstock. It puts up with less wonderful soils and keeps the tree sizes down to an unpruned height of 30 feet. I don't actually expect either tree to reach their full potential and for good reasons. To grow my cherry trees, I'll have to start by digging a very large hole. I'll amend the soil with compost, mulch, potting soil, a bit of sand, some lime or pete moss for improving the acidity since our soil is actually the wrong pH by enough to stop a lot of things from fruiting, and doing a few fancy tricks to improve the drainage. Yes, my dear friends, this is a lot of work. Worse, I'll have to do it four times. I have two trees for my yard and my sister in law has two trees for her's that I promised to help her with since I'm the one who has been doing all the research. Once the soil has been taken care of, the trees should do all right. It won't be like Oregon or California where the trees grow particularly well. Also, once the tree grows past the amended soil it will have a harder time. I expect that to wind up having a dwarfing effect in the end. I'll do what I can to help with that, but I'm not going to dig up my entire yard. I'm moving one of the pear trees since it is on a semi-dwarf rootstock and will only get to 14-16 feet. It will wind up around 11 feet from the house. The reason being that is where I have a good spot where it won't effect the house and I need the spot it is currently in for one of the cherries, the Royal Rainier. It makes the beloved and myself a lot more comfortable that I plan for the trees to reach their full potential before I plant them. I'm looking out just how big they could get and see if that were to happen where would the roots be growing? I want the trees to be healthy, but more importantly, I don't want my home's foundation damaged. He in particular is a lot happier to know that I'm thinking this one through. My sister in law is giving me one of her crab apple trees from the Arbor Day Foundation membership she got. She got the ten flowering tree gift. I'm also taking a golden rain tree off her hands. I'm going to prune the crab apple relentlessly to keep it a shrub size and stick it outside the new gate where we are moving the fence. In the center of the veggie garden will go a Golden Delicious apple tree. Suposedly self-fertile, the crab apple tree on the other side of the fence should actually help pollinate it. That's really about my favorite apple. I also love Honeycrisp apples, but they don't do well here and the Golden Delicious apples do. Joining the crab apple tree in the new decorative flowerbeds will be two more special shrubs. Two pomegranet trees/shrubs? Which are they, small trees or large shrubs? Regardless, I have already bought and brought home a Wonderful pom, I kid you not, that is the cultivar name. A new cultivar has come out that is supposed to be even sweeter and just as showy called the White pom which has white-ish colored fruit, but the same big showy blooms. I might move those into the garden instead, but I think they would better serve us by being in the more visible spot. Even if I never get the veggie garden done, the back yard orchard is really tickling my fancy. (Comment on this)
Friday, November 14th, 2008
6:08 pm	I am a silly pickle. Just as I call my kids silly pickles and happy peas from time to time, I recognize exactly where they get some of it from. I've been nattering on and planning just how I want to do my garden in the side yard. I've taken measurements and retaken a few measurements. I've planted trees and at least once had to dig out my hole for the tree and make it bigger before replanting that tree. The kids have gotten involved with hauling dirt and looking at the beautiful pictures in my gardening books. What the kids are thinking and getting out of this, I'm not sure. The time spent outside does them good. The fresh air has been very nice. Hopefully, in the long run, they will get a shady yard that also has all kinds of treats for them to nibble on. It will be a couple years before the trees start fruiting. The current tree list is: one Elbertha Peach (not expected to fruit), two Keiffer Pears, two Brown Turkey Figs, two Methley Plums, one Chinese Pistache (for shade only), and one Wonderful Pomegrante. I bought the Pom today. It's really more of a shrub and according to the books and should max out at 10 feet in height. It isn't a big shrub yet, but it is a reasonably full and tall one. It's about four feet tall. None of my new fruit trees should produce fruit for us for another couple years. Once they do, we will be in fruit heaven and giving stuff away. I have a nice plan for the raised garden. Our clay soil is such that you pretty much have to do raised beds if you want to be sucessful. It's dense thick clay that is full of moisture for long periods after it rains. Overall, it isn't bad. It just isn't soil you are going to till, plop a seed in, and expect a veggie to grow out of it. I like the notion of growing some food of my own. The gist of the plan is to move the fence to create an enclosed space for the side yard. Once the side yard is created then I dig out the sod from where the beds will be. Then we rototill that muck with compost and sand. After that, we build up the wooden plant beds and add in imported top soil. We then rototill the imported top soil with the ammended clay soil so that the roots can grow as deep as they need to in all cases. We will never need to rototill again if we do this right. After everything has been tilled we dump a bunch of mulch on it and get to planting. The total bed space we have planned is an astounding 328 square feet with 375 square feet left for walkways, trees, and compost. The trees are the plum trees. Right smack in the middle of all the beds will be the Pomegrante tree/shrub to both be decoration and another fun thing to watch grow. In all honesty the excessive seeming bedspace won't be as intensively cropped as you'd expect. The plants will be planted further apart to lower the water use. I know that sounds a little odd. Texas, particularly here, doesn't get a huge amount of rain every year. Our summers have water restrictions for very good reasons. I'll get about 75% of what a more intensely cropped space would get if I do it right. Of course, I expect I won't do it right, at least for the first year. Still, there is nothing like eating stuff fresh from the garden. (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008
3:01 pm	Of life and death I don't like to think about death much or often. I try to focus on the here and now. Sure I do have a morbid interest in forensic pathology and would probably be willing to work as a medical investicator for the coronor if I could stand the smell. Today, I was heads down in my own little world of trying to get my kids all dressed for their school photos, the baby needs another consultation with the doctor about the horendous allergies, and I'm trying to keep consistant about my workouts to lose the weight. All in all, it's rather self-absorbed. I worry about the little things keeping my little family unit healthy and happy. We went to the YMCA late today. Not long after I went in and dropped Vivi off at the childwatch, I did my lower body workout on the weights. I would have done the upper body work right after, but some man was using the machines and not whiping them down afterwards leaving sweat pools all over the place. Rather than deal with the rudeness, I went to go do my cardio on the treadmill. Sometime between arriving at the treadmill and fifteen minutes in, a man on a motorcycle right outside the front window impacted a truck. He wasn't wearing a helment and was speeding. Lost in my world of music and the news on the overhead screen, I didn't see the accident happen. I just saw the aftermath full of emergency crews. We know it was fatal only really because they got out the fancy measuring equipment and closed down that side of the road. This marks the second time I have seen a fatal motorcyle accident in my life. This time I know from other people that the man was driving recklessly before it. I pray for him and for the person who was driving the truck he hit. I never want to see another incident like this again. Current Mood: sad (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 20th, 2008
8:52 am	stolen memeage You are a Social Liberal (65% permissive) and an... Economic Moderate (55% permissive) You are best described as a: Centrist Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also : The OkCupid Dating Persona Test </center> (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 13th, 2008
4:05 pm	two entries for the price of one! I have me a box of Hatch Chili! I'm currently in the middle of blistering their skins off. I think I'll put about a third of them in my freezer for later use. The rest will go to making pepper jelly. Six minutes per side under the broiler to shock the tough outer skins off and then douse them in ice water. It works remarkably well, it's just time consuming. School has started not only for Alex, but also for Maeve. She had her first day of preschool yesterday. It went well. She is going to need to work on sitting in her own chair for lunch and eating only out of her own lunch box, but this is why she's there. We want her to learn basic social skills and to have fun playing with her peers. ......................... Well, two weeks later I open this client again. Silly me. I opened it up to comment on my workout program at the YMCA and to laugh that Ike needs to take a hike, but he hasn't bothered me. I'm spending between 45 minutes and just over an hour at the YMCA every week day. I do about a half hour worth of cardio work either on the treadmill or on the rowing machine. I tried the epiliptical machines, but I really don't feel comfortable on them. The problem is that I can't seem to find my balance point while using them to feel like I'm moving well. There sis also always either way too little resistance or way too much speed. The stationary bikes just don't have a lot of attraction to me since i really do like riding my actual bike with the kids. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Maeve is in preschool so I take advantage of that to go and do my longer workouts. I do mild weight lifting for tone. One day I do the legs and lowerbody muscle groups, the other I do my arms an the rest of the upper body muscles. By waiting a week between lifts my muscles have the time to actually fully recover. I'm hoping to get to the point where nothing wiggles that shouldn't, but that's months away. Delayed gratification is no fun. Pretty much every day I do some abdominal work in an attempt to tighten my tummy. I've only just barely started losing weight as of today. I don't count weight loss as real until it is over the three pound mark because my weight can fluctuate by three pounds over the course of a single day. Initially, I actually gained weight which was discouraging. I know full well mucle weighs more than fat. I've always been heavier than I appear. What I'm really after is not even to lose weight. I just want to wear my skinny clothes again. I'm currently wearing a US size 10 and I want to wear a US size 6. My size 8s are fitting better so I'm going to take that as a hopeful sign. I did my OB/GYN appointment. We decided that Nuva Ring would be the birth control of choice to see how it goes. Her experience with the shot has been that most women gain weight and since I'm trying to lose weight that would not be a good option. The other options were the old fashioned pill and the patch. The patch has a higher hormone content, but I'm already known to be pretty sensetive to hormones. The good news is I don't have to compromise on my ethics about contraception. The hormones prevent ovulation which prevents conception entirely. I'm satisfied. Still if somethign should happen and we wind up with a fourth little one, then I'll just get my tubes tied on the delivery table. Now I just need to start my period so that I can start the new birth control. We had a brief visit from my son's godmother. That felt very good. She is one of the few people I can discuss theology with without constantly having to agree to disagree. She is a very devout catholic. We had an interesting discussion about the decision to move the alter that went with Vatican II which is something we both have very mixed feelings about. She is lucky enough to go to a parish that does the Latin Mass. Her pastor is a former Anglican minister who is married and converted. She was very proud and pleased to hear that Alex is going to catechism classes for First Communion. Those classes should be starting this week. I've been procrastinating on getting Alex a new speech therapist. The break from all the driving has been nice, but he still needs the help. Once I know for sure what is going on with the catechism classes I'll have a better idea of when we have open to do the therapy. He does like the Kid Zone at the YMCA so I can take him there with the girls from time to time to bleed off some extra energy after school should it be a day with ugly weather. We should start doing a regular bike ride around the block or something too just for fun. Vivienne has been miserable with alergies. The poor little love has had the snot faucet stuck on near full blast all week or so. She is absolutely primed for an ear or sinus infection and amazingly hasn't caught one yet. Odds are she's alergic to ragweed since that's what just suddenly spike on the pollen counts. She has not been easy to get down and keep down at night. It's been hard. Ike has pretty much been a non-event up here. So far we haven't even had a problem with rain or wind. There has been a breeze. There has been some mild rain. There have not been the sort of winds we get from time to time that blow the shingles off the roofs. It's just been kind of blah. I've not done much beyond indoor activities with the kids and fiddlingly with my interior/exterior design program in an effort to figure out what I'd do the back yard to improve it and make it more of a usable space. Current Mood: calm (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
12:54 pm	banking banking banking Well, I took the girls with me to the bank to do some much needed errands. Generally not a big deal, but it is a pain to take the girls in with me since there is so much waiting and so little for them to do. They did as well as they could to be good little girls and I'm grateful. We finally managed to get and keep our savings balance up at a nice place so I went ahead and did a CD at 3.00%. The rate is so low because it is only a 12 month CD. We did much the same with most of Alex's savings account. The kids all now have their own savings accounts. Everyone gets 20 dollars a month deposited into their accounts automatically. It works very very well for slowly and steadily increasing the size of their accounts. We also got Vivienne a savings bond with her birthday money. For some reason, at B(A) you can only have one parent's name on a child's account. Since we do the online banking through my husband's name most of the time, I couldn't do transfers and such online. Now I have to go reset this up to eliminate the problem. Talk about a pain. Because I was using a check we were depositing today to start Vivi's account I actually need to use the new online id under my name. They wouldn't do the deposit the way I had it set up and transfered the minimum deposit to open it instead and told me to just do the transfer for the balance of the total tomorrow after the check clears. (Comment on this)
Monday, June 23rd, 2008
10:27 am	Good things Well, we cleared out on Friday and invaded the inlaws. We were only expecting to be there for the day, but I packed stuff for going to sleep on the way home and wound up spending the night instead. The beloved had work stuff going on on Saturday that he was going to need to concentrate on, so this was a very good thing. Poor love, his work stuff was supposed to have finished in the morning and wound up taking a full business day's worth of time. I kept the kids happy by seeing to it they enjoyed time with their cousins. On Friday, we went to a splash park near my mother in law's. We spent around an hour, to an hour and a half in the warm sunshine letting everyone get good and soaked. Vivienne wasn't much interested in the water and opted to practice walking holding one of the garden walls instead. That night we tried to do a sleep over with my nephew and son in the same bed. Sadly, that didn't work. Alex wanted the light off and the door closed, Hadley, the opposite. Hadley wound up going home instead. All would have been fine had Vivi-Jo not rolled out of the big bed next to me and onto the floor. It took a bit to get her back to sleep and this time she was tucked in on the floor. The next day after a leisurely breakfast we all got together to visit GranGran. The paternal great grandmother is much loved. I hope we get to visit her several more times this summer. She really enjoys seeing the kids play at her house. Somehow, while I was busy elsewhere, Vivi-Jo decided to take a couple steps without holding on to things between her grandparents. I'm upset I missed it, but I do see the humor in it. We tried to get a recording of her walking between her granny and me, but she would only do it every time the camera was put down and not while it was on. We got her to take three or four steps between us before she would get too excited and fall over instead. On Sunday, we went to church. The mass went well for us. We got through with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of participation for my crew. They sang along. Alex got up and down with the rest of the people. We managed to get through the sermon without anyone throwing a fit. All in all, I'm proud of them for that. When I got home, we got some interesting good news. My sister in law out in New York is expecting baby number two! We are excited and delighted. They have wanted another child for a long time. Their first was a premie delivered by emergency c-section, so we are hoping for a much easier pregnancy and simpler delivery. I'll call this a very good weekend despite everything. :) (Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
5:40 pm	meme lemming create your own visited countries map or vertaling Duits Nederlands Yes, I want to travel the world for part of our retirement. create your own visited states map or check out these Google Hacks. And yet, I'm a Yankie by birth. I was born in Emerson Hospital outside Boston, near Waldon Pond. (Comment on this)
3:16 pm	back yard pools There is something to be said for watching your kids play in a back yard kiddy pool. They love that they can splash with impunity, unlike in the bathtub where mommy gets upset about it. It is a lot lower stress for me, much as I love the regular pool since it is so much easier to keep track of everyone. Alex has already been playing for over an hour out here. Maeve just woke up and joined him. She needed a bit of time to really wake up from a good nap. She is now out here in just a swim diaper and some sun screen trying to figure out how everything works. Alex keeps dumping a bucket of water over here head and she isn't sure she is so keen on that. Vivienne insisted on heading out to the yard herself to observe all of this. She didn't want to be left behind inside with her daddy for company. The beloved is working from home so this is working out fairly well for us. By keeping the kids out in the yard they can't make a fuss and keep him from actually working. Vivi-Jo is just sitting in the grass watching the other two. She hasn't decided to crawl off and do something else yet. I am stuck sitting on a folding chair by the grill debating on how to get started on my summer project of redesigning the back yard to actually be functional for us. Our yard is quite big, but utterly lacking in shade. Considering this is the mildest day it's been in a while and it is 88F out, 31.1 for the metric users, and only going to get hotter, finding the right shade is a priority. I also want to make it easier to sit with my computer and read outside. I do like the fresh air and natural light. It is just a matter of figuring out how to do it right. Mostly I think I need to dig out the papers that have the measurements for everything and then plug them in and start just messing around. There is nothing as intimidating as a blank canvas. My art teacher always insisted on that and so had us make sure to make a mess on a few pages first before really starting anything. (Comment on this)
Monday, June 2nd, 2008
12:12 pm	summer plans So far the summer plans aren't big. We plan to do bowling with the Miracle League. We plan to do swimming with the Special Olympics. We plan to do storytime at the Bookwork bookstore near us on Wednesday mornings while Alex is in school. We have plans to go to speech once a week on Tuesdays at 1 in Plano. We'll be doing occupational therapy on Mondays in Frisco. What we do with all the rest of the time is up for debate. I want to spend more time with my inlaws letting the kids all play together. Gas prices are unpleasant dealbreaker in that case. The distance between our homes is enough to keep people from just turning up unexpectedly, but it also works out that we can't just go turn up unexpectedly either. I want to find things we can all do that will keep everying on an even keel. It isn't easy because we need to do at least one thing every day of the week and it gets bloody hot out. If I can shift Vivi's naptime to the afternoon we should be able to do more mornings outside, but when it is 110 out, I want my a/c. (Comment on this)
Friday, April 18th, 2008
8:48 pm	New furniture! I went. I saw. I spent a lot of money. I bought a bedroom set. It isn't as dark a stain on the wood as I had intended, but it is a very nice set with good lines. It isn't near as oversized as half the things I saw. It isn't undersized either and should suit us nicely. I bought what I was looking for. I'm still in sticker shock. Normally the set I bought would be around 6k, but we got it for considerably less then that since we went to a furniture liquidator named "The Dump" over near the airport. When I checked over my numbers I calculated that it was 37% off so it was probably closer to 40% with all the mark ups for delivery. Check that, I googled it and the normal cost is 6116 usd pre sales tax which means we saved 2220 usd before taxes and the delivery/set up fee. The set is a queen faux-sleigh bed, two night stands, a dresser with mirror, a chest of drawers, and an armoire that is meant to have a TV in it. The finish is much lighter then I was looking for, but since I was looking for black, or very dark stains, that isn't entirely unusual. I got this set because of the way they played with the grains to put pattern on everything, the cedar drawers on the bottoms of all the pieces with drawers, the dovetails on the drawers and the fact that they didn't skimp on any of the details. I got to have a nice lunch with my mother in law who went with me. She is still one of the cutest little grannies around. She encouraged me to go ahead and get the full set rather then just getting a partial set and leaving off the chest of drawers. She reminded me that I'd never find that chest of drawers again if I passed it by. There were three runners up. The one I would have bought instead was a sweet black set, but it was missing a TV armoire and I just wasn't willing to deal with that. She also got the puppy toy back that we lost just before she arrived. Just after we left, she went back to go look at the china hutches that we hadn't had the opportunity to really browse through. On her way back from the restroom one of the salesmen caught her and handed over Maeve's puppy. Current Mood: silly (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 13th, 2008
12:48 pm	taxes and choices Well, our taxes are done for this year. Since I had done all the leg work and had my files in order it wasn't near as bad as last year when I was scrambling to get all my data together. I'd call it a pretty steep learning curve considering how bad the scrabbling was last year, but I did learn enough to make this year comparatively simple. We claimed nearly six thousand in dental work for fixing Alex's teeth, for having him knocked out to do the work, and for the obligatory check ups for everyone ever after. We met our ten thousand dollar deductible for health insurance. I added up the mileage and found it was over three thousand miles. All put together this made our medical deductions exceed sixteen grand. I find this sum vaguely disgusting, but I'm very glad we've had the care we have. When we added up all the deductions our net income was about a third less then our gross income. I find that rather startling since we were pushed up into another tax bracket last year. If you were just looking at our tax filings you'd think we had a rather large reversal of fortunes when really we didn't. We just had some short term capital gains last year. It makes me wonder when we will be audited. The good news for us is that we will get a fair sized check back from the IRS this year. Add the economic stimulus package and our savings just got a nice boost. The lucky part for me is that my beloved has finally agreed to buy furniture. We have only bought one thing for our house since we moved in in the furniture department. We bought the kitchen table. Right now we don't have any furniture in our bedroom beyond a TV stand and a bed. The kids have my childhood dresser and chest of drawers. I want a full set that actually goes together in my room. I'm simply weary of delayed gratification on this subject. I want night tables beside the bed. I want drawers to put clothes in in a dresser and chest of drawers rather then the mess that is the shelves in our closet. A small recliner and a TV armoire to have a quiet place to sit and talk on the phone or watch tv away from the kids would be ideal. We also need furniture in the living rooms and kids rooms, but that can wait. If I really can't find anything for us we'll just get the girls their set now instead since that is a heck of a lot easier to find. The girls will be getting a set of bunk beds with a trundle bed. The top bunk will be off limits for a while, but not forever. I'd almost certainly claim my dresser back if that were to happen even though it is a bit small for my needs now. Speaking of dressers, what's with this fashion of making dressers so tall that you can only see your shoulders and up in the mirror? I mean seriously, when we were looking yesterday I saw a bunch of dressers meant for children that were nearly as tall as me. It was a glorified chest of drawers that was completely useless to a child. The beloved and I have the most amusing point of conflict over our furniture, at least according to everyone else. The beloved wants very sturdy high quality furniture. I'm less worried about quality, and more worried about actually getting something, anything at this point. We agree on the styles, I like the elegance of simplicity. The darker finishes are more attractive to me as well. He isn't so picky so long as it isn't ostentatious. This would be simple if it weren't for the fact most of the stuff I like seems to be more cheaply made then he wants to deal with. I'm off to the furniture liquidator to see if they have some higher end stuff that will make him happier that I can deal with paying for next weekend. Wish me luck this is getting rather silly. (Comment on this)
Monday, April 7th, 2008
3:06 pm	The tax day cometh Taxes are annoying. We can do them and get them done this week, that should not be a problem. What's a little tricky is getting all of my ducks in a row so that we spend as little time as possible in the office of the tax preparer. Trying to do taxes with two little ones underfoot is not my idea of fun. Fortunately for us, if your medical expenses exceed 7% of your income you can claim them. Even better for me, you can claim the mileage too. So, I'm going through and seeing how many times did we go to which office so that we can calculate exactly how many miles got put on the cars purely because of medical appointments. I did get my files in order for the most part. I still need to finish up with putting the EOBs from the insurance company in order in the ring file and the HOA statements to check them against. The sheer volume of paperwork being vaguely shocking to people who aren't used to seeing it makes me feel slightly better about it having gotten out of hand again. Our poor shredder overheated when we went through the other papers and destroyed all the credit card offers. I need to stop by the bank and deposit a couple checks. We also get to go down to the pediatricians' office and the dentist's office to pick up statements from them that will tell us how often we have traveled down there for mileage purposes. On the way back we'll peek into the CVS where they will have print outs of how much we spent on medications with them. I'm still trying to get ahold of the OB/GYN's office to check with them too, but they will probably want to mail them to me. I have no idea what sort of tax return all this work is going to grant us, but I hope it is a good one. Our savings are only now recovering from having bought the house. The rebate/spend money now/save the economy woe! thing that congress sent out will no doubt be helpful too. I wonder if when all is said and done we might be able to actually get some furniture. (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 6th, 2008
7:56 pm	Icon Meme Icons, let me show you them 1. Reply to this post, and I will pick four of your icons. 2. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose. 3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts. 4. This will create a never-ending cycle of icon squee! alchemia chose four of mine. I'm a little surprised at the choices, but hey, why not? They chose: 1. psycho flash bunny I like this one because it is highly annoying much like certain plot bunnies. It is generally meant to be used in reference to plot bunnies and not much else as it really is that blinding. 2. giesha A friend of mine has a thing for giesha. She plays a character that does a credible impersonation of a giesha on an rp for Naruto!fandom. I don't remember if she found it or if I did, but it is incredibly pretty so I kept it. 3. mom! shikamaru The character is considered one of the single smartest in the entire Naruto universe. The idea of him calling for his mom just makes me want to laugh because it is wildly OOC by the start of the series. 4. choji butterfly Choji is a pretty simple character. He's the fat kid with a very sweet nature that everyone unintentionally discounts. I made the icon for some one who was role playing him. I wanted to do several that were more uplifting and positive. It is too easy to discount based on looks. Many years ago, I was a solidly built little girl that couldn't be called a waif by anyone. I was always athletic, but short and somewhat round all the same. Puberty gave me muscle tone I never had before and the fat? melted into a curvy figure. Choji is a bit more sensitive about his weight then I ever was, but I certainly remember just how much it hurt to be discounted because of my build. So this icon came out of that. The rp fell apart and I have no idea if it has ever really been used since by the person it was made for, but I like it all the same. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
9:49 pm	live marches on on little feet My little loves are getting bigger. I'm looking into preschools for Maeve. She needs the social interaction with other children. She taking after her brother a little much right now for anyone's sanity. It's just a matter of finding the right one. We have a slew of places that while very focused and fancy, are not developmentally appropriate. Two year olds should not be doing desk work or expected to sit for any extended period of time. Last night was our usual trip to the Plano office for Speech Therapy. We do that trip once a week and visit with our friends in the waiting room. Unfortunately the lay out of the offices isn't the best. We have to do time outs in the car when she starts shrieking. It's a bit difficult to do because Alex and Maeve set each other off. I feel like I'm getting blamed for it all. I know that isn't entirely rational, but it is the way I feel. I encouraged a mother with two autistic little boys who is having a hard time. I like her. She is a very sweet Indian woman with a very difficult road ahead of her. I encouraged her to get the boys tested for wheat and gluten allergies as the test is simple enough and if that is the case then the effects are dramatic and wonderful. I'm surprised her developmental pediatrician hasn't suggested she try it already just to rule it out. I told her it seems to work for about one in six kids so it is worth a try even if the odds are it won't work. One of the boys has pica. She hadn't known that it was a diagnosable disorder that they could do something for. Likely the boy will get more occupational therapy to help him with more foods and flavors. Also, he should get a work up with a nutritionist as his diet is pretty limited. I wish i could do more to help her. English is not her first language and the sheer activity level of the children is such that she has a very hard time doing the research to help them. Afterwards, we went to dinner with the daddy. Two cars and off to Chick Fil'A went our little family. There is a little indoor playground there that the kids just love and they always eat when we go. Interestingly, I had a conversation with an OT about vaccines and autism while we were waiting on the kids to burn off some extra energy. She was very surprised that I didn't blame the vaccinations for my son's problems. She was even more surprised at my reasons why. It seems far too many people get to thinking the vaccinations have something to do with it when there really is no scientific basis for that. Now I'm going to rant a little so bear with me. ( pro vaccination rant ) x-posted from my lj (Comment on this)