He’s A Big Boy Now

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

I just returned home from dropping Noah at his first day of Mom’s Day Out.  He’ll go on Monday’s and Thursday’s from 9am-1pm.  I know.  That’s what I am thinking…4 whole hours with only a baby who will sleep for at least an hour or so of that.  I know…even better.  Noah will nap for at least 3 hours when he gets home because he’ll be so tired from playing all morning. 

He is awesome.  He didn’t blink twice about me leaving.  He’s all like “Bye mom”  could you go already? 

I already feel more relaxed and a little less on edge.  Thank you Mom’s day out.

I Should Not Be Allowed To Navigate–Ever

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 1 Comment

Well almost never.  Sometimes I do an OK job, other times it’s quite comical.  This weekend provided two examples of my poor navigational skills.  I have no sense of direction and never really have.  This is not new and I am quite use to not exactly knowing where I am or where I am going if it is somewhere new.  I luckily know my way around the immediate area that I live in. 

I am so lucky that my best friend moved back to town after years of living in Los Angeles.  She moved out to SoCal after I did and she stayed quite a bit longer than I did.  But she has returned home to her family and me.  It is so  nice to have her home.  We met our freshman year of high school and have been friends ever since.  Our 20 year reunion is coming up in 09.  That’s just how long we have been friends.  She is awesome.  So, I was really doing her a favor by taking her the complete wrong way on Saturday night as we went to dinner.  I wanted to go to this Tapas restaurant that I went to once with hubby.  I figured I would make a reservation.  I couldn’t remember the name of the place we went which is really where my problem started.  As we have more than one tapas restaurant here in town. 

I made reservations but it turns out I made reservations at a place on the hill not in Clayton–we went to Clayton.  I am trying to find the address for a street that doesn’t exist in the part of town I dragged her to.  It really is comical.  Once I figured out my faux pas, I got us to our destination without much of a problem.  The sad part is that our original destination was about 5-8 minutes from my house–it took us close to 45. 

I’m lucky she loves me.  I’ll have to tell the story about the time we went to Vegas.  It’ll make a small detour look like nothing.

so, I had a great birthday weekend.  I ate and drank too much and certainly don’t feel as relaxed as I would like to have felt–but I have two kiddos and they are exhausting.  Hope everyone had a great weekend.

37

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 8 Comments

Today I turned 37.  I am not exactly sure how I feel about that–I am certainly happy to be alive. But 37 is so much closer to 40.  I never use to worry about getting old.  I actually welcomed each birthday and was happy to creep up in age.  But last year, turning 36 really got me.  I think part of it is because I am still in school working towards my dream.  I feel as though I should be closer.  I guess I am closer to my dream but I certainly am not where I thought I would be at this age.  I thought my kids would be older and that we would be better off financially. 

I know I can’t measure my success against that of anyone else, I just feel behind.  I know that I have yet to live half of my life and that really the best is ahead of me.  I am just not that happy about the years moving as fast as they have.  I certainly know that they won’t be moving any slower. 

I have had an awesome Birthday Weekend so far.  I’ll post more about it on Tuesday.  Have a great weekend.

Let The Games Begin

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 7 Comments

I am sure many of you are aware that McCain has chosen his running mate.  How many are surprised it’s a woman with virtually no political experience-aself-declared “hockey mom”.  I am not surprised that the GOP thinks it can win Hillary supporters by selecting a woman.  I don’t know much about Mrs. Palin from Alaska, but I do think that McCain believes this will woo all of those Hillary supporters who are upset that she didn’t win the nomination. 

I have to think that those great women and men who supported Hillary did so because of her politics and not her mere possession of two X chromosomes.  I am not naive, I know that there are certainly folks out there who stood by and voted for Hillary because she was a woman, just like there are folks who will vote for McCain because he’s old.  But I have faith that vision will win out and that Obama’s message will spread across our country as quickly as it has around the world.  It is a time for change.  A time for real change. 

There are many of us dem’s out there who worry about McCain winning the election and how it is a done deal.  Really?  The election isn’t until November and if Obama speak and presents himself like he did yesterday–how can we not elect this man to lead our country in this new world.  Because it is a new world.  It is time for a new mindset to govern our country and lead us on. 

I am ready.  Are you?

One Size–Many Problems

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 1 Comment

So here I am back in academic/teacher mode.  I am not teaching this semester but I am studenting this semester and every semester for the next 5-6 years as I complete (or attempt to complete) my PhD.  I am taking a secondary curriculum course–where we will examine curriculums and learn what makes a good one.  I am excited about this as it will really help me in the future–one of my post PhD goals/dream jobs in as an English curriculum coordinator for a district.  We’ll see. 

Anyway to the whole reason for this post–other than a brain purge.  We watched this great video the really quite succintly express and exposes the problems inherent with our one size fits all educational system. 

Click her to Watch it…

What animal are you?