Go vote for the best lookalike in Sonia’s Blogger/Celebrity lookalike contest.

Does your family have any -isms? We have a few, like “trees” which is what my kids called broccoli for years.

Is John McCain’s VP choice, Sarah Palin, the ultimate working mom or is she biting off more than she can chew?

New York is considering math tests for kindergartens. Test that could last as long at 90 minutes. Are New York educators and administrators high?

Well that’s one way to get out of a speeding ticket.

Shhh…don’t tell, but you can get pot clips at Publix.

Turns out Midwestern Mommy’s “cancer” was actually food poisoning. Thank goodness. What a scary experience.

Our next president will be a lefty. Odd? What’s really odd is three of my kids are left-handed and both Lee and I are right-handed. Maybe one of them will be president.

Today was my first day back to school. I switched schools this year leaving behind the state university that hates doesn’t really accommodate non-traditional students and went back to the very expensive small college I was attending when I was pregnant with Caleb. (In fact I missed my final because I was in the hospital having just given birth the day before.)

I had forgotten one very important piece of information about very expensive small college. For a college that costs more than a brand new car for just one semester you’d think they’d be able to invest in some damn air conditioning. Because I got to tell you. The big oscillating fan at the front of the room? Did nothing. Nothing at all. I spent the entire class glowing (you know, because girls glow and boys sweat). In fact I was glowing so much I could almost wring out my shirt.

In the mornings I have Introduction to Mass Media Industry. In this class we will be discussing the law, ethics and history of mass media. Looking at the syllabus I was starting to get a little scared. There is a helluva lot of reading. Like at least three chapters a week, sometimes four. And each Tuesday we have a study guide to complete and a 2 page paper to write. And every Thursday we have a quiz. That’s a lot of stuff to do each week for a girl with five kids who works full-time and has a small blogging obsession. I hope I don’t have to give up my night time reading. Because I’m right in the middle of Jen Lancaster’s Bright Lights, Big Ass and I. must. finish. it. She is so funny she almost makes me pee my pants when I read her books.

My professor is also the adviser for the school newspaper and he’s pretty gun ho about it. I think he mentioned the newspaper no less then 47 times. He even had the editors that were in the class stand up so he could introduce them. And if we volunteer to right an article for the newspaper we get extra credit. He’s also my academic adviser and when I went in to meet him for the first time and pick my classes for this year he told me I should write for the school newspaper. So he’s a big school newspaper pusher.

At night I have Photography I. Now I enjoy photography and I have that super awesome camera so I was excited about this class. Until I read the syllabus and found out I’m going to have to spend a few hundred dollars for supplies. I have to get a 35mm SLR camera. Who uses a 35mm camera these days? Nobody. Well, nobody except my instructor. He’s old school and you can tell it’s just breaking his heart that film cameras are almost obsolete. He was willing to admit that nobody uses film anymore (even National Geographic uses digital now), but he still wants us to use one. He wants us to process our own black and whites in the dark room. It sounds very interesting to learn about developing film in a dark room, but is it necessary? Is it a skill I will ever use again? No. I will use Photoshop and a printer and get the same result. Or better.

But it’s not just the camera I have to buy. I have to buy a particular type of paper. A particular type of paper that will cost me $72 for a pack of 100 sheets. $72! You know what I could do with $72? I could pay my gas bill with $72. You know how I could save $72? I could have Walgreens develop my pictures for about $12 a roll. And I could get doubles. Or even better. They will develop my digital prints for $0.15 a photo.

Sigh.

But at least I’m a senior now. I may actually graduate before I turn 40. Woo hoo.

My work/life balance has been a little off kilter recently. Rather than a well balanced scale it’s more of a roller coaster ride. One of those coasters with steep hills and big loopty loops that send you flying upside down. It’s starting to make me a little nauseous.

At the beginning of every school year I have these big expectations of being the perfect mom who always signs her kids agenda, attends every PTO meeting, volunteers in the classroom and bakes cookies for the holiday parties. It never happens that way, but I never give up hope. One day.

The kids have been in school for a week now. So far I have forgotten to sign their agendas once, forgot to remind them to read for 15 minutes of Monday night and forgot to send the picture form to school with Justis today for picture retakes (he wasn’t in town during registration when they did pictures originally). Now we won’t have school pictures for Justis this year. I could just kick myself.

Clearly I’m not using my Blackberry calendar to it’s full capacity.

The first PTO meeting is next month. I can’t go because it’s on Tuesday night and I have class on Tuesday nights. I signed up for the Valentine’s party, but I wimped out on bringing a baked good and instead signed up for napkins. And volunteering? Like I have time for that.

I guess my Super Mom cape is getting a little tattered. I might have to retire it.

Caleb and Spencer have been walking around with big ol’ mops on their heads for several weeks now. I’ve been nagging Lee to buzz their hair since before school started. Finally, he got the clippers out yesterday to cut their hair.

And here’s Spencer’s new haircut.

Kidding. I’m just kidding. Although doesn’t that cut totally rock? If it was 1988. It’s all business in the front. Party in the back. Cool beans.

So anyway…

Lee cut their hair outside to keep the mess off the kitchen floor. We usually find hair for weeks after buzzing their heads in middle of the kitchen floor. But not this time. This time we can grow hair balls outside in the yard because there’s still hair stuck in the dirt of our (now) leveled backyard.

And what made haircuts outside even more cool? To get the hair off the boys shirts, shoulders and backs, Lee blew it off with the air compressor. Now that’s something you won’t see at your neighborhood hair salon. You might be a redneck…

After the haircuts we headed to the pool. As soon as we stepped out of the van to walk up to the pool Spencer said, “Oh, the air feels good on my scallop.” Scalp. Scallop. Same thing.