Kris Chambers

Me - down under

noreply@blogger.com (Kris Chambers) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 22:07:00 +0000

Get a Voki now!

ho ho Quote(s) of the day

noreply@blogger.com (Kris Chambers) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:05:00 +0000

Jac, eating his first Hoho "It's like my teeth found magic!"

Beckett puts on a blue construction hat "Arg! I'm a pirate!"

Jac says "Here Bec, put on this santa hat and you can be Santa! Ho Ho Ho!"

Bec puts the hat on and says "Arg! I'm santa!"

Boogie Boy

noreply@blogger.com (Kris Chambers) — Wed, 14 May 2008 22:28:00 +0000

Whooo Hoo, Whoo Hoo

noreply@blogger.com (Kris Chambers) — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:20:00 +0000

Conversations of a 7 and 3 year old

noreply@blogger.com (Kris Chambers) — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:48:00 +0000

Nic is showing Jac where his teeth have come out and explaining the process:

Nic – First, your teeth have to move back and forth

Jac – Like the sunwheel at Disneyland?

Nic – Well, no, Kinda.

Jac – I like the sunwheel. It goes whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa…

Nic – Then after your tooth wiggles, you can pull it out

Jac – I want to go on the sunwheel. Whoa…whao… It goes whoa…whoa..

Nic – Yes. Then you put it under your pillow and the toothfairy comes and gives you money.

Jac – So then you can go to Disneyland and go on the sunwheel!

Funny Pictures of Me

noreply@blogger.com (Kris Chambers) — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 03:46:00 +0000

I like this one. I like my smile and I look really happy. Maybe taken in the backyard. This one cracks me up because I look so serious. Like "Great, I'm already trying to learn to walk and now I have this baby to take care of!" I'm sure I use this same expression with my kids now.

Senior Prom 1998 with my friend Nancy. She married Mike, the guy she's with, too. I love blue lame fabric. Notice how it's pronounced la-mae but spelled lame. Huh.

show off kid

noreply@blogger.com (Kris Chambers) — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 22:02:00 +0000

Wow, this is amazing. My 3 year old wouldn't even be able to point at the united states. I wonder if he'd know what I meant when I said the word, map, let alone point out the Congo?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r43yCiKlbCo

insight

noreply@blogger.com (Kris Chambers) — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 20:55:00 +0000

http://www.bored.com/drawthings/save.php?id=1586950

Punk Influences

noreply@blogger.com (Kris Chambers) — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 21:01:00 +0000

Who knew I liked music with punk influences? Pandora Radio. They are the ones who told me. I also apparently prefer electric rock instrumentation, mild rhythmic syncopation (which sounds more like a medical problem than a choice in music), a dynamic male vocalist and vocal-centric aesthetic. If you haven't listened to pandora radio before, you're missing out.

www.pandora.com

Go there and create a new station based on someone you already like. Type in Incubus and you get Incubus and Incubus-like music like Smashing Pumpkins. Don't like the song, give it a thumbs down and help pandora narrow down their music for you.

Unfortunately just because you're an Eagles fan, they will assume you also want to listen to the Doobie Brothers. Just give them a thumbs down and they go away. Next up Eddie Money - hey, who knew the Eagles were like Eddie Money? "Think I'm in Love" - it's like I'm 15 again. Eddie Money was chosen because I like dirty electric guitar riffs. Again, who knew? Now my Eagles station is playing Queen. How cool is this?!

The song 1985 by Bowling for Soup was on the radio this morning. I look in my mirror and Beckett is dancing like a crazy boy. Both arms and legs are waving, only restrained by his 5-point harness. I just made a 1985 station so I'll hear songs like that one. You can't request a song by name, licensing and such, but they are playing a Bowling for Soup song called Ohio. That's funny. But I do get to listen to Fall Out Boy. More punk influences and that dirty electric guitar.

Macarena Cartoon

noreply@blogger.com (Kris Chambers) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 05:52:00 +0000

Bob and Horsey... By Nic

noreply@blogger.com (Kris Chambers) — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 02:58:00 +0000

20 (or so) questions answered

noreply@blogger.com (Kris Chambers) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 05:48:00 +0000

I came across this and it made me laugh. They don't mention the need for a yellow, rubber parking mat, but I'm sure it was just an oversight.

By Steven Cole Smith

Orlando Sentinel

March 31, 2007

Answers to common questions heard while driving a 2007 Cadillac Escalade ESV:
No, it does not have its own ZIP code.
No, you can't actually see the fuel gauge go down when you stomp on the accelerator. Almost, maybe, but no.
Yes, you do feel a little like breaking into a rap song while driving it.
Yes, I feel a bit guilty, but that's true with everything. Woody Allen has less guilt than I do.
I really have no idea how many cows died to upholster all these seats.
It weighs almost three tons.
403 horsepower.
13 miles per gallon in the city, 19 on the highway. Yes, I know that is just the EPA estimate. Yes, I know that "my mileage may differ." It does, in fact.
The gas tank holds 31 gallons. At $2.60 a gallon, that would be $80 to fill it up.
Yes, I am rich. Quite rich. Now go away.
Indeed, there is a very long list of problems with the 2007 Cadillac Escalade ESV; however, none concern the vehicle itself. It is, in fact, pretty excellent. It might be, in fact, the best big SUV built. Certainly I can't think of one I would prefer over the Escalade ESV.
But you might find yourself justifying the ESV, especially if your seat is the only one of the eight that is occupied, and you aren't towing a horse trailer, and you aren't carrying groceries to the nearest food bank.
The Environmental Protection Agency's Web site, fueleconomy.gov, breaks it down for you. The Escalade ESV's "energy score" is 22.8, representing how many barrels of oil per year the average driver will use. The Toyota Prius' energy score is 6.2 barrels. Apparently, this is like golf: Low score wins. Luckily, I don't play golf.
The ESV is the largest of the three Escalade models. The EXT is the one with the little pickup bed, like the Chevrolet Avalanche. The regular Escalade is like the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon. And the ESV is 21 inches longer than the regular Escalade, about the size of a Chevrolet Suburban, upon which the ESV is based. This means that you have three usable rows of seats and still have 45.8 cubic feet of storage space in the back, with all seats occupied.
To the driver, the ESV feels smaller than it is, and I mean that as a compliment. Handling is surprisingly good, though enter a tight corner quickly, and there's no way to mask the inertia. The engine is just superb, and the six-speed automatic transmission could not be much better. No one, I mean no one, is building a better truck powertrain.
Inside, there's luxury, without being tacky or ostentatious. DVD players, a navigation system, lots of air bags and electronic safety features -- if General Motors makes it, it is probably here.
And the price reflects it, though it's pretty close to the competition. Base price on the all-wheel-drive ESV is $59,470, and the test model lists for $69,675. You can save money if, say, you don't want heated and cooled seats, but who doesn't?
I do. And that's the last question I'm answering.

These should be standard issue...

noreply@blogger.com (Kris Chambers) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 19:54:00 +0000

I love my truck. Sure, it's short on storage and I feel like throwing a party when I eek out 13 miles per gallon. Yes, it takes forever to fill the tank with premium fuel and I feel a little in-your-face when I catch someone looking at me.

But it goes fast and has a growling noise that accompanies it. It holds all my kids, my double stroller, AND groceries. It has rain sensing wipers and dark sensing high beam lights. It has bling. It's also long.

It's quite long.

And up until this week, parking it in my garage must have been quite a site to watch. I'd pull in and put it in park, hop out and run to the back to make sure the entire truck was inside the garage. Not in yet, jump back into the drivers seat and pull up a little more. If I pulled in too far, I'd bump the dog crate and scratch the front of my rig. (Or as I thought I might refer to it, my pig, although that name hasn't really stuck yet.) If I was in, I'd have to make sure it was enough that the kids could make it around the back and not rub against the wet/dirty bumper. It was a fine line between being in and running into things.

Until now. Now I have what should come with every big truck. If you spend enough on a vehicle that you could buy a house in your home town, it should come with this. A parking mat. Yup. There is it. A yellow, rubber parking mat.

Now I pull in like a pro. I go over the first bump, but not the second. The dog crate doesn't move because I don't bump it. The kids can get around the truck. I can actually get out of the truck and turn it off. My neighbors are probably sad that the Great Chambers Parking Experience is over. They have Mike to thank. Thanks, Mike P!

If only we could cover all of the curbs so I don't bang up my wheels on them...The world really needs more rubber and less concrete.

For the love of Smarties

noreply@blogger.com (Kris Chambers) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 21:02:00 +0000

No, not those chalky ones that come in the tube shape wrapper that we used to write on the sidewalk with as kids. You know, the ones we used to write on top of ants with, and then eat? Not those.

These are squashed flat M&M's that have a thicker candy shell, bright colors, and chocolat au lait. Not just chocolate, but chocolat au lait, I say!

These, I admit, played a larger roll than you'd think in deciding to go to Vancouver, Canada.

We haven't been for years but I had memories of a pretty good time from our last trip. Funny how time does that, huh? It's been at least 3 years and probably more since we drove up there. That means 3+ years without Smarties. I do have a friend that is from Canada and goes up every month or so, and she even brought me some Smarties back one time, but I don't talk to her much and feel a little strange calling her up and asking for a Smartie fix. Plus, they are quite expensive. A little box of them is $1.19 canadian, which converts to just about $1.19 which is a lot to spend on something I can eat in about 30 seconds and then want more of.

Anyway, the trip this time was fine. But I'm not going back for a while. Crossing the border takes far too much time. The return back into the US was estimated at 2 hours. Two hours, sitting in the truck, scooting up 10 feet or so every 3 minutes. It's not like you can leave a marker in line and go and do something else. You are a prisoner in your car until it's your turn to get the third degree about why you're going to Canada, where you're going to stay, how long you're staying. What do you do for a living? I love my Smarties but it'll be a few years before I forget how annoying the border crossing is and want to go back.

The highlight was finding out my new truck can switch from standard measurement to metric. From miles to kilometers. With a push of a couple of buttons, it went from 72 degrees to 20 degrees Celsius, which I wasn't sure if that was a nice day or not. The navigation system started telling me to turn in 2 kilometers. I have no idea how far that is. But, when the speed limit said 100 KmH, I actually got to see my speedometer go to over 100. Not going to be seeing that anytime again soon. That's okay, they tried to teach me the metric system back in elementary school but it didn't stick.

So I'll try to save my Smarties that I brought home with me until I forget how annoying Canada can be and maybe next time I'll bring along an extra suitcase just for Smarties.

My New Favorite TV Shows.. and why I'm brilliant

noreply@blogger.com (Kris Chambers) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 21:02:00 +0000

I'm a big fan of House. I love that show, even though the premise is always the same. Someone gets sick and House finds out why and typically is able to fix them by the end of the show. Gordon Ramsey is great on Hell's Kitchen, too, but you see more of the aspiring chefs than you see Ramsey. Kind of like watching Survivor if you really like Jeff Probst. I even heard Bob, Spike and Joe on the radio last week, playing an interview from a little boy who was lost in the mountains, forest, I don't know. The kid was lost for days and said he survived on berries and his own spit. He said he learned how to survive by watching Man versus Wild. Makes me think I should add that to my tivo list, but really, how likely am I to get lost in the wild and have to learn to use my pee wisely? There are two shows that I'm watching now that prove I'm brilliant.

West Wing

This show seems to have been on during the late 90's but I never watched it. I don't even remember hearing a lot about it. We've just started watching it on DVD from Netflix and it's a GREAT show! I really like all of the actors and I can hardly wait to watch it each night. I've given up on having other DVD's from Netflix in the house because I don't want to run out of West Wings to watch. Finishing a DVD on Saturday night means days without West Wing.

Now, the reason this show makes me brilliant is because I know it goes for like, 7 seasons, and it's not going to get really dumb and get canceled. Like when Digger was chasing Dominic Purcell on the show John Doe that was canceled. Why was Digger chasing him?? Digger was his only friend! We'll never know because the show got dropped and I wasted that part of my life wondering about John Doe only to have to make up my own ending. I can still see Dominic Purcell on Prison Break, which is also a great show, but how long are they going to be able to run. A lot of the guys have already been killed so I'm worried about where this show is going, too. But not West Wing. I know West Wing will keep going because my Netflix que is filled with the DVD's.

The Lyric Shows

There are two of them, I don't recall the names but I prefer the one with Wayne Brady over the strange little in sync guy. Wayne Brady doesn't need women dressed as bees in the background, and the dude can dance! This show may be short lived but I like it because I'm good at it. It's not like Jeopardy where I know none of the answers. I don't know history or geography. But man, do I know my song lyrics. Turns out I even know the lyrics to obscure Barry Manilow songs. So this show makes me feel really smart. Rob, who knows a few words of the chorus isn't as thrilled with the show as I am, but I could watch it all night. After I've watched a few West Wings, that is.

Twenty minutes in my life...

noreply@blogger.com (Kris Chambers) — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 23:13:00 +0000

Okay, it may have all taken place in under 20 minutes, but here is a glimpse of yesterday morning.

Me up at 6 to shower, 2 kids up at 6:20 to...what? Who knows what they think there is to do at 6:20 in the morning? Maybe they like to listen to me complain that I have to start getting up at 5:30 so I can take a shower, although we don't leave the house until 8:30.

3 year old is in my bed, resting. Got up too early apparently. Risky since he's naked but I don't have time to worry about that. Last night, the shelf in the fridge that holds the milk was flooded because the whole milk sprung a leak. I poured the whole milk into various random containers last night. This morning, the shelf is flooded again with fat free milk. Why do these plastic containers keep leaking? Again, more sopping up milk and more random containers. Ten year old asking why milk is in different water bottles and which one does he use. Um...now which ones have the fat free milk? If I pour the whole milk on his cereal, he won't eat it. No time to worry about that, though, 1 year old has dirty diaper.

On the way to change diaper, notice cat vomit in hall. Tell 3 year old not to step in cat vomit. He's still in my bed. "You don't have to pee, do you?"

Don't feed your 1 year old too many blue berries. The blue stains their butt black. Scrubbing black off baby butt. 6 year old asking which milk to use. He also can't find a cereal bowl. Dishwasher was run last night be dishes are still dirty. Must not have worked. Distract six year old while wiping out used cereal bowl with random paper towel from the counter.

Take 1 year old to kitchen and deposit on floor, far from cat vomit. Get paper towels. Hear 3 year old screaming. Stepped in cat vomit. Tracked all down hallway and it's all over top of his foot. Take him to the bathroom to wash off. Back just in time to keep 1 year old out of tracked vomit.

Three year old slips and falls on hardwood floor because his foot is wet. Screams. Comfort him.

Take one year old back to kitchen and back to clean up vomit. Hear one year old yell, tipped over dog's water dish. His clothes and the floor are soaked.

Put one year old in high chair to restrain. Finish cleaning up cat vomit and remember to feed dog. Food container is empty. Go to wash room to refill container. One year old screaming because he's in his high chair and has no food. Toss hand full of cheerios on high chair tray. Now the dog doesn't want to go outside because one year old is throwing cheerios to him.

I definitely deserve a bubble tea.

Repeat after me...

noreply@blogger.com (Kris Chambers) — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 22:30:00 +0000

Jac, while being coerced to use the potty says "I can't take it anymore!" Now, where could he have possibly heard that?

Dear Prospective Upper Elementary Arbor Parent,

noreply@blogger.com (Kris Chambers) — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 18:39:00 +0000

For third grade, Zac had Mrs. Hindman and she was doing a great job for us. Zac was working far ahead of what they would typically do in lower elementary so Mrs. Hindman got advanced workbooks for him and actually made a book for him called “The Book of Zac” so he’d have interesting, challenging work. She individualized the work for him. Like Montessori is supposed to.

Then in fourth grade with Mr. H, he started the year with a lot of review, nothing new. That’s fine for the first few weeks of school, but this entire year has been review. Instead of individual lessons, Mr. H breaks the kids into groups by age and gender. All of the fourth grade boys get lessons together and all of the fourth grade girls get lessons together. This not only separates the boys and girls and makes tension between them (Zac has never had so many girls calling him fat and stupid and ugly and I don’t think it has to do with them being 10 year olds) but it also means no more individual lessons. Rob and I have both talked to Mr. H and Mary over and over about grouping the kids this way but Mr. H isn’t budging and Mary is backing him up.

I purchased a subscription to an online education site called edhelper.com. I printed out some fourth grade review work and Zac didn’t know half of it. He knew none of the history, he doesn’t know how to convert measurements, and he struggled with simple story problems. We had his IQ tested when we were considering sending him to Open Window school, and he’s nearly genius level but doesn’t know how to do standard fourth grade work because Arbor doesn’t teach it. Instead, he spends his time tracing circle cut outs and coloring them to show how big a fraction is, which oddly enough is the same thing Nic our kindergartner is doing at his Montessori school this year.

Mr. H has some personal rules that he insists the kids follow. I sent a mix of multi grain cheerios and raisins with Zac for snack and he couldn’t eat it because Mr. H didn’t have the box and couldn’t see if they were healthy enough. Zac also brought back home sugar free pudding because Mr. H said it had “no nutritional value.” And no lemonade because it’s not 100% juice. At the beginning of the year, the kids had to lay out their food and order it from most healthy to least healthy. They had to start eating the healthiest things and finish with what Mr. H deemed least healthy. That meant if I packed pretzels to dip in peanut butter, the peanut butter had to be eaten before the pretzels. I swear, Julie, I am not making this stuff up. I think enough parents complained about it, though, because now they can eat food in the order they like, as long as Mr. H “allows” that food to be eaten at school.

Oh, and back to the coloring circles for fraction work, Zac did 10 fraction problems which involved him coloring red circles to show the fractions. Mr. H decided that Zac could have fit more than one problem on each page if he had arranged them better so he made Zac erase five problems done in red colored pencil and squeeze them onto the other pages. Here is the email I sent to him:

Good morning Mr. H,

Zac and I are going over what he plans to do at school today. He said he needs to do “multiplication of a fraction by a fraction” again today. His impression is that he has to erase 5 of the 10 problems and do them again so there is less paper wasted. Apparently he used an entire sheet for each problem when he could have fit 2 problems to a sheet. Zac’s feelings are he’s making his math book messy because he can’t erase colored pencil completely and he has to spend time doing the same work again. Is your goal to teach Zac not to waste paper or are there other reasons that Zac may not know? I’d like to know so I can help Zac understand. Thanks for your reply.

His reply:

Yes, Zac finished the fraction lesson today, and yes, he was wasting paper as there was room for several of these problems per page and no need to skip facing pages. If I had to guess the “why”, I’d say possibly he’d hoped to be the first one to complete his second math notebook. Sometimes the guy just needs to slow down.

When Zac got home, he told me that Mr. H pulled him aside and asked why his mom was sending him emails, saying he had no work to do. This makes me nuts because anytime I send Mr. H an email asking him a question, he talks to Zac about it. I had already asked Mr. H not to pull Zac into conversations that he and I are having because it makes Zac uncomfortable and it’s a private conversation between parent and teacher. That’s why I ended my mail with “Thanks for your reply” so he wouldn’t corner Zac and make him feel bad. My email also didn’t mention Zac not having any work to do. And what does he mean “sometimes the guy just needs to slow down”?

So my reply to Mr. H:

Thanks for getting back to me, Mr. H. Zac brought his math book home last night and although he did use the backs of pages, I agree that he could possibly have fit more work on each page. We talked about how you would like him to make better use of the paper in his notebook and Zac agrees that he could also save a lot of time and erasers if he arranged more work on each page. I’m not sure what you mean by him needing to slow down. It looks like his work is pretty neat and done correctly. Do you feel he’s rushing through the work?

Zac also mentioned you spoke to him about an email I sent to you regarding him not having any work to do. I’m confused about that as my email didn’t mention a lack of work. Also, as we’ve talked about before, it puts Zac on the spot and makes him uncomfortable when you question him about things you and I talk about in private. I don’t mention our emails to Zac because I don’t want Zac to feel we are not in agreement with his work. If I have a question about your reasons, I’d like to be able to ask you in private and for Zac not to think I’m constantly questioning your decisions. Once I know your goals, I can help Zac understand.

Mr. H didn’t reply. I’ve talked to several other parents and that seems to be what happens when you send an email asking a question that he doesn’t want to answer. He just ignores it. Communication is horrible.

I know this email is getting incredibly long but if I knew all this when I was signing Zac up for fourth grade, we would not have continued at Arbor. There is a site called greatschools.net. They rate public schools based on test scores and allow people to post comments about the school. If you read about arbor, you’ll see the people praising the school are the ones with kids who have learning disabilities or are in the preschool program. I haven’t posted to that site but I agree with most of what is said on it. Here’s the link http://www.greatschools.net/modperl/parents/wa/2600?currpage=1&sortval=&perpage=125

Zac and Nic are going to Cascade Ridge next year. When I was dropping off their paperwork, I ran into a former arbor parent. Mary actually kicked them out of the school this year because the parents were asking for more advanced work for their son. They were concerned that he wasn’t learning anything new so they had him tested at Cascade Ridge and he was behind in every subject. Now that he’s at Cascade Ridge, he’s caught up and either at average or above in all subjects.

I’m sure we’ll miss the small, community feel that Arbor has and I know Zac will miss the friends he made but there is no way I would subject him to Mr. H for 2 more years. Good luck with your child. I know I’ve lost a lot of sleep trying to figure out what is best for Zac.

Montessori or Fascism

noreply@blogger.com (Kris Chambers) — Fri, 04 May 2007 19:19:00 +0000

Montessori defined: Developed child education advocating self-expression and spontaneity. Each child learns at their own pace guided by the technique promoting individual initiative and creativity rather than group activity.

Fascism defined: A philosophy or system of government that is marked by stringent social and economic control, a strong, centralized government usually headed by a dictator, and often a policy of belligerent nationalism. Fascism is an authoritarian ideology that considers individual and other societal interests inferior to the needs of the state.

How long has it been?

noreply@blogger.com (Kris Chambers) — Tue, 01 May 2007 16:15:00 +0000

I haven't posted for so long, I don't remember how. In fact, I don't think I've ever done this. I'm pretty sure Bean (the only one reading this Hi Bean!) was the one who typed my first post. He was very encouraging that everyone in the family needed their own blog. I think Zac posted a few times but other things won out when he has time to do things like this. Once I post this, I think I'll be tied with him.

Beckett is sick. He has a fever, runny nose, and from what I've been told, green poop. I haven't witnessed the poop yet but I believe it to be true. He's very mad, probably thinking I'm responsible for him not feeling well and if I would just make him feel better, he'd like me again. I gave him Tylenol and put him down for a nap. Think good thoughts for me. Jac wants to play Uno. He has approximately 187 cards spread over the dining room table. We're playing by the dealers rules. Should be fun.

New Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Kris Chambers) — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 03:10:00 +0000

Here is my very first post on my new blog.

And here is a picture of my espresso machine.

If you look closely, you can see my reflection in the chrome part.