tag:www.nelsonfamily.org,2009:/mary//9 2008-11-20T01:09:07Z (Or Mommy) Movable Type 3.31 tag:www.nelsonfamily.org,2008:/mary//9.1957 2008-11-20T01:02:01Z 2008-11-20T01:09:07Z

A few years ago I had no way to interpret some of the parent letters I sent home into Spanish, so I innocently used a computer translating program. This year, I am so fortunate to have a paraprofessional who is...

Mary http://www.nelsonfamily.org/mary/ A few years ago I had no way to interpret some of the parent letters I sent home into Spanish, so I innocently used a computer translating program. This year, I am so fortunate to have a paraprofessional who is fluent in Spanish and used to work for a written translating service. Well...today I asked her to revise a letter that I send out every year about a field trip our class takes. I told her it should be pretty easy because I already had a Spanish version that just needed dates and times to be updated. Boy was I wrong. I English I had written "The Cherry Creek Mall." The computer translated this to "the main road in the cherry quarry." I had also written "You may meet us at school at 9:00." The computer translated this to "you may come satisfy us at school at 9:00." And yes, that phrase does have the same connotation in Spanish that it does in English. So, to translate in terms that everyone will understand, I sent home a letter to the parents of my preschoolers telling them that, "You can come to school and have an orgy with us at 9:00 before we head over the the main street in the cherry quarry." Surprisingly, none of my Spanish-speaking parents showed up that year!!!!! tag:www.nelsonfamily.org,2008:/mary//9.1950 2008-09-02T04:24:00Z 2008-09-02T04:47:21Z

As I'm sure you have all heard, I got into an accident on Thursday morning on my way to work. It was my fault as I completely failed to find the brake petal. Yes, that's right, I have been driving...

Mary http://www.nelsonfamily.org/mary/ airbags deployed and my car was a total loss. The bad news is that I now have careless driving on my record and I have to go to court in October, and our insurance premiums are going to go way up. The good news is that no one was hurt and I got a new car! We now are a mini van family with a 2008 Honda Odyssey. I really like it, but feel that we need to have more kids to fill it up...we'll keep you posted on that one:) Everyone has been so nice in the situation, from the lady I hit, to the policewoman, to the the tow truck guy, to the insurance agent, to my husband (who is now thrilled that my driving record is worse than his since he's never been in an accident), to my parents (thanks!!!), to all the neighbors/friends/family who have shared their stories of driving idiocy which make me feel less inadequate as a driver. It has been an experience that I hope to never repeat, but as things go it has all worked out great and I couldn't have been luckier.]]> tag:www.nelsonfamily.org,2008:/mary//9.1925 2008-04-06T23:17:25Z 2008-04-06T23:23:12Z

Tim and I got our anniversary present a little early this year...after playing guitar hero at Scott's house I can finally say I found a video game that I actually like! But sorry Scott, we got Rockband and it is...

Mary http://www.nelsonfamily.org/mary/ Tim and I got our anniversary present a little early this year...after playing guitar hero at Scott's house I can finally say I found a video game that I actually like! But sorry Scott, we got Rockband and it is WAY BETTER THAN GUITAR HERO!!! It has a guitar, drum set (w/ foot pedals) and microphone. And the songs are a bit less hardcore (which I appreciate) and the guitar has an area to do solos. So, we plan to have neighborhood Rockband parties and you will all know what we are doing with our spare time nowadays. And Hailey will have fun banging on the drums. And if she gets bored on the drums, she can go into her playroom (coming soon) and play house...Tim and I are going to set the office (which we NEVER use since we have laptops) up into a playroom for Hailey complete with kitchen set, building area, etc. It will be awesome, but get ready Herb because Tim is going to have some play furniture building to do:) Our goal is to have it finished by her 2nd birthday, but we will slowly get it ready so she can start playing now. I wish I had something like it when I was a kid! tag:www.nelsonfamily.org,2008:/mary//9.1908 2008-03-09T00:57:36Z 2008-03-09T01:07:03Z

I took Hailey out for the morning so that Tim could get some homework done. I have been sick and tired of lugging around the huge diaper bag and never needing anything in it, so Tim and I switched to...

Mary http://www.nelsonfamily.org/mary/ I took Hailey out for the morning so that Tim could get some homework done. I have been sick and tired of lugging around the huge diaper bag and never needing anything in it, so Tim and I switched to a kids backpack just big enough to hold 2-3 diapers, wipes, a sippy cup and a snack. First, we went to Lollilocks and got her haircut. Then we did some shopping at Costco. Last, we stopped at Chic Filet to play in the play area and get some lunch. Hailey played in the play area for 45 minutes when I started to smell something foul. Uh-oh...you all know what that meant. So, we packed up and headed into the bathroom to change her diaper and then order our food. Laying on the changing table, while I had her dirty diaper off, but before I had the clean one on, she PEES:( Of course, the hard plastic of the changing table let the pee go everywhere before I could do anything about it. Shirt soaked, pants soaked, shoes exposed. Quickly, I took off all her clothes and did what I could to mop up the pee on the table (but not having anything with me that disinfects, it makes me think twice about ever using one of those again!!!). Not having the big diaper bag, I did not have a change of clothes for her. So, on a 40 degree day in March, I took my baby out of the Chic Filet, into the parking lot and strapped into the car seat wearing only a diaper. The people in the restaurant looked at me like I was a MORON, and I figured service would be denied since we were breaking the cardinal rule, "no shirt, no shoes, no service." We went through the drive-thru instead and took our meal home. Maybe I will have to switch back to the massive diaper bag - ugh. tag:www.nelsonfamily.org,2008:/mary//9.1904 2008-03-04T04:17:57Z 2008-03-04T04:21:45Z

Today, I forgot to pick Hailey up from daycare. Hailey is supposed to be picked up by 5:00. I had a meeting that was supposed to go until 5:00, but I always leave 15 minutes early to go get her....

Mary http://www.nelsonfamily.org/mary/ Today, I forgot to pick Hailey up from daycare. Hailey is supposed to be picked up by 5:00. I had a meeting that was supposed to go until 5:00, but I always leave 15 minutes early to go get her. Today I kept watching the clock to see how much longer the meeting was going to last. I remember feeling excited when it was 4:45, but it didn't occur to me that I had to leave. At 5:00, I started chit-chatting with my colleagues. At 5:15 something entered the back of my brain and I went S-H-I-T, realizing that I was 15 minutes late picking her up and still another 15 minutes away from my final destination. At 5:30 I finally picked my poor daughter up, and I feel just awful. Has anybody else ever done that so I don't feel like the worst mother ever??? tag:www.nelsonfamily.org,2008:/mary//9.1902 2008-03-03T04:10:35Z 2008-03-03T04:25:04Z

This afternoon Tim and I decided to have spaghetti & meatballs for dinner, so we put out some ground buffalo to thaw. Tim went upstairs at about 6:00 to begin dinner. Shortly after, he asks me where more spaghetti sauce...

Mary http://www.nelsonfamily.org/mary/ This afternoon Tim and I decided to have spaghetti & meatballs for dinner, so we put out some ground buffalo to thaw. Tim went upstairs at about 6:00 to begin dinner. Shortly after, he asks me where more spaghetti sauce would be located. When I directed him to the pantry, he informed me there was none. Ok...so what else can we do? After some searching, we decide to put the meat (which has already been seasoned for meatballs) back in the fridge and we will get some spaghetti sauce for tomorrow night. Tonight, we will finish up the turkey-ham with some baked potatoes. New plan is a go, and Tim goes downstairs with Hailey to entertain her. Two-minutes later I ask Tim to come back upstairs and look at the microwave, because while it was cooking the potatoes it just quit, no lights, no sound, no nothing. Tim's diagnosis - dead. Ok...what else could we have instead of baked potatoes (which would have taken way too long to cook in the oven)? Found some tomato soup in the fridge, but not sure how good it still was. Decided on perogies in the freezer. While dumping the perogies into the boiling water we notice they look REALLY freezer burned. Are you kidding me!!! Finally, we cut up some ham with cottage cheese and applesauce for Hailey (who needed to eat ASAP) and ordered a flippin' pizza. Tomorrow...buy a new microwave! In other news (considering it has been two months since I last posted)... - Spent a week with my parents as they recovered from bilateral knee surgery (dad) and a broken ankle (mom). - Just finished writing a 25-page paper, and if I am lucky it will be the last paper I EVER write! - In the process of redesigning the preschool program, which means that my job next year will definitely not be the same. Is this good or bad? Don't know yet, but I'll let you know by May. - Just booked our trip to Vegas for spring break. We will be staying at the Mirage (way cool) and seeing Cirque de Soleil and Wayne Brady's improv act. We couldn't be more excited, considering our last vacation got canceled when we had to go take care of my parents. Will be spending some time with Scott and Staci later in the week (last week of March). - Tim is a chemistry nerd, but listening to him drone on about boring chemistry stuff actually helped me on a test I just had to take to get my early childhood teaching license. Basically, the test was a high school equivalency exam (let's hope I passed). Isn't it annoying when it turns out that your husband's boring stories could one day help you out of a pickle! - Hailey is 18 months old. Super scary! Getting her 18 month pictures taken in a few weeks. tag:www.nelsonfamily.org,2007:/mary//9.1836 2007-12-07T04:27:39Z 2007-12-07T04:47:08Z

OMG, I can't believe that Russ is married! It was a beautiful wedding - Jackie decorated the church with Christmas trees and poinsettias and it was lovely. And I would assume that they had a nice reception, but I wouldn't...

Mary http://www.nelsonfamily.org/mary/ OMG, I can't believe that Russ is married! It was a beautiful wedding - Jackie decorated the church with Christmas trees and poinsettias and it was lovely. And I would assume that they had a nice reception, but I wouldn't know because I didn't get to go. That's right, I flew all the way to Michigan in December and didn't even get to go to the damn reception. Let me back up a bit and explain... After the wedding the plan was for me to drive Russ' car (piece of crap) to the reception with Georgia, and Ernie would drive grandma in the rental van we got. Well, change of plans when the rental van wouldn't start because the battery was dead - yes, it was that cold! So, we all piled in Russ' car (piece of crap) and headed over to the reception, leaving the van at the church. A few minutes in I got on the phone with Dollar Rent A Car, trying to figure out what to do since we had to get to the airport in a few hours. Of course we had left the rental car paperwork in the van that was still at the church, and the rental company couldn't find any record of a Tim Nelson renting a van. So, I had to get back in Russ' car (piece of crap) and go get the rental paperwork. When I got there, there was a sleeve with some phone numbers on it, but it really didn't have any of our rental information. I looked around, but didn't see anything, so I got back in Russ' car (piece of crap) to go back to the reception and give it to Tim so he could call Dollar Rent a Car (as they had informed me that when they did find our information they would not be able to speak to me about anything because I hadn't rented the van). When I got back and gave it to Tim he promptly told me there was another paper with all the information he needed. Round 2... I got back into Russ' car (piece of crap) and drove back to the church. After much searching, I finally found said paperwork underneath the passenger side seat. Back into Russ' car (piece of crap) to go back to the reception hall. I am now very hungry and very pissed off -you do the math. I walked in while Tim was giving his toast, and five minutes later Jackie threw the bouquet and everything was over. When Tim finally got them on the phone they realized that we couldn't find a record of Tim renting the van because they had written his name as David Nelson!!! We all piled back into Russ' car (piece of crap) to go back to the church, tear down the decorations and wait for roadside assistance. On our way over to the church, the interior lights in Russ' car (piece of crap) came on and we had no idea how to get them to turn off. We tried every button and switch, but nothing worked. Back at the church Russ couldn't figure out how to get them off either, so Russ, Tim and Jackie's dad stood outside in the rain for a very long time working on Russ' car (piece of crap) until they jiggled something just right and they went off. An hour later someone from roadside assistance came, jump started the van, and we never turned it off again until we got back to the airport. I love you Russ, but maybe you should ask Santa for a new car, since your current car leaves much to be desired (piece of crap) and Dollar Rent a Car will not be receiving any more business from the David Nelson family! tag:www.nelsonfamily.org,2007:/mary//9.1835 2007-12-07T02:04:03Z 2007-12-07T02:12:47Z

One of the other preschool teachers I work with, Ashley, and I take turns buying each other Starbucks in the mornings. Well, this morning I had to go to the grocery store to get some strawberries and chocolate pudding, and...

Mary http://www.nelsonfamily.org/mary/ One of the other preschool teachers I work with, Ashley, and I take turns buying each other Starbucks in the mornings. Well, this morning I had to go to the grocery store to get some strawberries and chocolate pudding, and since there is a Starbucks in the grocery store I decided to get us some. Lately, however, she has been changing her order, so I called her to see what she wanted. The conversation went something like this... "Hello?" "Hey, it's Mary. I'm at Starbucks, what do you want?" In a confused tone, "Oh, no thanks, I'm ok." "Are you sure, I'm buying?" Even more confused tone, "That's ok. I'm fine." Now my tone is confused as well, "OK, see you in a little bit." I hung up, very perplexed because we never turn down Starbucks. And then it hit me. I have two Ashleys in my phone. One is the Ashley that I work with. The other is a 16-year-old neighbor girl who babysat Hailey once, and I put her number in my phone in case we needed to call her again. Boy, was that one confused 10th grader, wondering why the hell her adult neighbor was randomly offering to bring her Starbucks at 7:00 in the morning. I need to call her an explain, but I'll let her think about it for a few days:) tag:www.nelsonfamily.org,2007:/mary//9.1795 2007-10-12T02:40:07Z 2007-10-12T02:41:31Z

Hailey took her first real steps today. She stands up and can walk over to you (around 10 steps or so). Still pretty wobbly, but she is getting better and better!!!...

Mary http://www.nelsonfamily.org/mary/ Hailey took her first real steps today. She stands up and can walk over to you (around 10 steps or so). Still pretty wobbly, but she is getting better and better!!! tag:www.nelsonfamily.org,2007:/mary//9.1789 2007-10-06T02:23:27Z 2007-10-06T02:27:39Z

Hailey turned 13 months today! Just this week she learned to say the word "no" (we're thrilled about that, by the way). She also learned to stand up by herself without holding onto anything. She just gets on her hands...

Mary http://www.nelsonfamily.org/mary/ Hailey turned 13 months today! Just this week she learned to say the word "no" (we're thrilled about that, by the way). She also learned to stand up by herself without holding onto anything. She just gets on her hands and feet and then up she goes...she gets excited sometimes and falls down, but she is starting to really balance and can stand for up to 20 seconds! Any day now she will just take off walking. She is eating mostly solids, with only a morning and night bottle (which makes us kind of sad, because we loved giving her a bottle). Still loves going to daycare and playing with her friends. tag:www.nelsonfamily.org,2007:/mary//9.1787 2007-09-25T02:08:19Z 2007-09-25T02:18:44Z

Gotta love preschool...I'm trying to teach my older class how to tell their friends what they did last night or over the weekend as part of morning circle. My typical kids (hearing, no disabilities) understand but my deafies are really...

Mary http://www.nelsonfamily.org/mary/ Gotta love preschool...I'm trying to teach my older class how to tell their friends what they did last night or over the weekend as part of morning circle. My typical kids (hearing, no disabilities) understand but my deafies are really having a hard time. So, this morning I modeled what I did over the weekend for the group. Since I helped Tim and Herb with the deck, I thought that would be a good concrete example. I got all our play tools out of the garage and modeled hammering, using the drill, sawing, etc. I talked about how I worked with my husband doing all of these things to build a deck. When I was finished, I asked the group what Teacher Mary did this weekend. One of my typical little girls replied very proudly, "You and your husband screwed all weekend!" Apparently the image of me using the drill was particularly striking to her:) I thought my paraprofessionals were going to fall out of their chairs from laughter!!! tag:www.nelsonfamily.org,2007:/mary//9.1785 2007-09-20T23:59:25Z 2007-09-21T00:05:17Z

If there was an award for getting the sickest in this family, I would win hands down. I came down with a cold on Sept. 1. I gave it to Tim, but he was over it in a day. I...

Mary http://www.nelsonfamily.org/mary/ neti pot. Needles to say, I've been having a great September:( Maybe October will be lucky in the health department for me. ]]> tag:www.nelsonfamily.org,2007:/mary//9.1781 2007-08-30T04:11:39Z 2007-08-30T04:17:21Z

Today was the first day of school for my preschoolers. In the older class there was a lot of excitement to see their friends again, and in the younger class there were a lot of tears when leaving mom for...

Mary http://www.nelsonfamily.org/mary/ Today was the first day of school for my preschoolers. In the older class there was a lot of excitement to see their friends again, and in the younger class there were a lot of tears when leaving mom for the first time. I'm used to all this, but I had one little kiddo who just couldn't leave mom behind...while the kids were outside playing I went through backpacks collecting their school supplies. I was going through one little boy's supplies - Markers (check), Notebook (check), Glue sticks (check), Pink satin panties (check)...Wait a gosh darn minute, those were not on the list!!! We decided to just toss the panties and save mom the embarrassment that her son had slipped them in, but we sure are hoping that we don't get a negligee tomorrow:) tag:www.nelsonfamily.org,2007:/mary//9.1777 2007-08-27T03:26:56Z 2007-08-27T03:31:42Z

I think we are finally starting to settle in to "normal" life with me back at work. We had an exhausting but good week and a nice weekend. Tim & I have split up the chores and so far it...

Mary http://www.nelsonfamily.org/mary/ I think we are finally starting to settle in to "normal" life with me back at work. We had an exhausting but good week and a nice weekend. Tim & I have split up the chores and so far it is working well - he is doing a great job of taking on more responsibility. But...we both start class tomorrow, so hopefully that won't throw a wrench into things. Speaking of Tim, he has become my new preschool artist extraordinaire - he has been making lots of materials for me for the classroom. Last week he made some awesome crayon boxes (poster size) for my bulletin boards and now he is painting a cardboard box to look like a TV and covering a shoe box to create a CD player. Is he the best husband or what?!!! Don't worry Scott, I'll have some projects for you to work on next week while you are sitting around waiting for us to get home from work:) Bet you can't wait!!! tag:www.nelsonfamily.org,2007:/mary//9.1772 2007-08-19T21:00:19Z 2007-08-20T04:19:01Z

Hailey titled this post - she is amazing with the computer. She manages to do some really wild things with the computer...how she pushes just that combination of keys to remove toolbars and turn on strange functions you have never...

Mary http://www.nelsonfamily.org/mary/ Hailey titled this post - she is amazing with the computer. She manages to do some really wild things with the computer...how she pushes just that combination of keys to remove toolbars and turn on strange functions you have never heard of escapes me, but maybe she will make millions some day programming computers! More on Hailey Watch 2007 - she is now crawling normal style and boy is she fast. She can pull-up on her feet, but usually only goes to her knees (she is so tall that is as far as she needs to go to reach what she wants:) She has started walking while in her exerciser, and you should see her go round and round and round and round and round...whew, it makes me dizzy just thinking about it. She can walk some while holding onto your hands, but it is pretty shaky. She can say & sign bye-bye and all done. She can sign milk, more and eat. She can say night-night, hi jake, mama and dada. She understands jake, taylor, hungry, all done, mommy, daddy, night-night, milk, come here and no-no. Wow!!! I can't believe how much she has changed in such a short amount of time. I was back at work last week. It was a long week full of sitting through meetings. This next week should be better as I get to work in the classroom getting ready for kids. Hailey LOVES going to Val's for daycare. She follows the older kids all around, and she and the other 1-year-old have become best buds. I did ok last week dropping her off, but I was pretty reluctant to leave by Friday. I'm not looking forward to this week, I think it will be pretty tough for me. Tim and I are trying to adjust to life with me back at work. For me, it means lots less time to do the things I want to do (like working out and blogging.) For Tim it means that he has to start helping me with the chores again. Who do you think is going to have the tougher time??? I am starting to realize just how amazing my mom was - worked full time and always had dinner on the table, a clean house and clean clothes, and I can hardly remember seeing her do any of it!!!!!