It's a rainy Friday here in the twin cities. I'm in my cube and it's not busy, so I've slipped on my headphones and put on some music. It's kind of quiet at work. It's been kind of crazy for the past few weeks and I'm grateful for a respite from the feeling of push push push to ensure that students are back in their classes. That's the reality of working for a "for profit" college. Everything is about the number of students sitting in classes...If a student sits in classes, they can be billed for tuition. Butts in the seats...that's what we work for. We don't have any state funding, no endowments, nor do we have a rich alumnus tossing money at the school in order to name a library or residence hall after himself. Tuition is our only means of making money and reinvesting it for equipment and services for students. This is definitely a business.
Don't get me wrong...I am grateful that I have the honor of helping students get through school. It's a special feeling when you have the trust of a student because you have their best interest in mind. Despite the fact that we try to keep students in school because it pays our salaries, I want everyone here to succeed. Yes, I like what I do...but it's not a profession that rakes in cash hand over fist. However, I can go home at night knowing that I've done something good for people. Plus, there are perks being an advisor for a culinary program...they feed me.
On to domestic bliss...The Bun has started using her potty chair with great regularity. She still wets her pull ups, but she's making a great deal of progress. She gets to wear stickers on her clothes when she successfully uses the potty. She's quite choosey when we show her the sticker book. This sticker book is huge and she's taken ten minutes to choose...there are surfing princesses, angel kitties, happy faces, twisting dolphins, cute polar bears, and a whole lot of other things. J and I have concluded it's better to just pick out a cute sticker and slap it on her rather than let her choose. Giving her the continued opportunity to choose stickers may lead us to sitting with the book and waiting until mid-October before she makes a choice. She's gone along with mom and dad making the choice so far...so we'll just keep running with that.
Goobs has been watching too much Jetix. We've trimmed down the cable to the family level, which is local channels and a couple of kids/cartoon channels. One of the kid channels is Jetix. It's got a lot of superhero comics. I'm fundmentally not opposed to him digging on Spiderman, Batman, or any of the Superfriends, for that matter...But...J found him sleeping in the hallway last night. She asked him why he had his blanket in the hallway...he said..."Monsters." The villians and monsters on these shows seem kind of frightening, so it's a good possibility it is the combination the villians of Jetix and an overactive imagination of a soon to be five year old. J climbed back into bed last night and said..."No more Jetix for Richard." So...we'll go with mom's assessment. Looks like he'll be watching Sprout with his sister.
I know it's been a long time since I've posted and I can't remember if I mentioned that i got a new grill for father's day. I have been going crazy on the grilling. I've been doing a lot of pork chops lately. We've found this seasoning that rocks...It's a combination of ground garlic and bell pepper. It really puts those pork chops over the top. J's also been prepping veggies for me to grill. She's soaked them in extra virgin olive oil and seasoned them. I throw them on the grill with low heat and flip them over now and then...oh boy...asparagus...carrots...some squash...it's been great. We're trying to stay away from brats this year. I do love a good bratwurst, but absence does wonders. I get to eat a greater variety of grilled foods and I enjoy a brat more if I don't eat them every week.
Hey...one last thing. We are getting fired up for a little family vacation in the Black Hills at the end of August. Does anyone else have anything planned or have you already done something this summer? I'd love to hear what other people are doing.
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i had originally planned to take the kids to the beach this summer, but then again i thought i'd be working by now . . . so that ideas gone. but i think we'll probably make it out to the river at least once again and maybe even do a night at a local hotel for a "stay-cation".
We are heading to Hayward, WI which is where I grew up before going to college in River Falls, WI. We are leaving in a week, and it can't come to fast!!
Our daughter is 2 and is constantly wanting to sit on her training potty, but she will not go in it. How do you get a child to start using it, and not just sitting on it?
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