Another Try

I am trying out my second name...Coffeehouse Confessions. I happen to be at a coffeehouse right now hopped up on caffeine so I thought it was fitting to try this one out today. Aside from being with my family there is little else that makes me as happy as sitting at The Woods with my laptop, latte and earbuds listening to my customized radio stations on Pandora Radio. I can't really explain what it is but I absolutely love it here. When do I ever even get to listen to my own music? Only here! After having kids I forgot how much I love music since we are always listening to theirs. I also never get to sit at my computer and take care of stuff uninterrupted, it's just so nice to do it here without interruptions, I could (and have...many times) spend all day here. I love seeing the same people here all the time too. It's almost like we share office space, they are always doing something that looks so important...I wonder what? I think one guy is writing a book or something. Another one is working on his sermons I think, he's a pastor at Cornwall. I almost never talk to anyone but I feel like I know them all. I love smelling the coffee and seeing the fire burning on a chilly day or the big doors open on a warm one. I even love the noisy sound of grinding coffee beans and the whooshing noise of milk being steamed. Ah, I love it here.
On the agenda today is to catch up on a few things...I need to fill out a couple of scholarship applications for BTC in hopes of some supplemental funding. I also need to fill out some forms that I never seem to get time to do at home (new patient paperwork stuff for the dentist), I also just ordered some tickets for Western's production of High School Musical. Madison LOVES HSM and will be beside herself to go see it. We had so much fun at Annie the other night that I am so excited to take her to another one and what could be better than HSM? Nothing in her opinion, I'm sure. After I am done here I need to go pick up my books for school tomorrow at the BTC bookstore. It will feel weird packing a lunch and being gone all day again. Weird.
I will be going to school about 7 hours a day, 4 days a week for 4 weeks. I'm not looking forward to being away from the girls that much but I've got to get this class out of the way. It's actually a few different classes under the nursing assistant program. I'll be taking nursing assistant essentials, HIV/AIDS, CPR and spending the last week and a half in clinicals at a nursing home (likely). It should be interesting but I just didn't have much time to prepare for this since I got in at the last minute.
My car stereo has not worked in months. Eric took the girls (after they dropped me off) to see if it could be fixed. It's shot and couldn't be repaired so he had to go to another place to get a new one. I wasn't going to spend the money to get this fixed but I can't go without it any longer. We are going on a long trip next month to Oregon and I can't imagine going that far with no music. Eric just called and all the new stereos have iPod hookups so I'm excited about that. I don't listen to my iPod very much but I think it will be cool to just plug it into my car now.
I'm adding a few links on this post if anyone is interested. I read a lot about environmental safety and some of my main interests are in food pesticides and also body care products (as well as household cleaners) and these websites are some of my most visited. I never go grocery shopping without my tattered list of the "Dirty Dozen" & "Clean 15". These lists show the 12 "dirtiest" products (highest amount of pesticides) and the cleanest which are worth buying conventionally. Buying organic is expensive so I avoid some of the dirty dozen if the organic price is too high. I always buy apples organically which are always high on the dirty dozen list but I save buying organic bell peppers until they go on sale or when I need them for a recipe. In other words, I never buy the "dirty dozen" conventionally. If organic is too expensive I try to buy something else in place of it.
Sunscreens are a very interesting topic too. There is so much junk in sunscreens and if you think about how much you slather all over yourself and your kids in the summer it's pretty scary. My feelings are mixed because to get a low rated sunscreen (on the EWG's site) you can't get the mineral free ones, they rate really high but the jury is out if the nano particles in the mineral sunscreens cause free radicals. For the past 2-3 years I have bought Soleo Organics (I buy this online) and Badger (Co-op has Badger sunscreens). They are both expensive (about $15.00 a tube) but the peace of mind is worth it to me.
Lastly, I linked Pandora Radio just because I'm listening to my Chris Daughtry station right now and it's playing Bon Jovi. Love it!
I had better quit avoiding what I need to get done and get busy. I need to get these things done since I will likely have very little free time after tomorrow for a month.

http://www.foodnews.org/walletguide.php
http://www.pandora.com/#/
http://www.ewg.org/2010sunscreen/finding-the-best-sunscreens/?ptype=sunscreen