milestones

We've hit two milestones on the same day: Timothy wore underwear yesterday with no accidents and Luke moved out of his crib and onto a mattress last night. He does not sleep well, and I've reached the point where I no longer recognize my sleep deprived self any more. We did this with Timothy and it worked, so it's worth a try with Luke. When he wakes for his nightly hour to two hour chat, I can stretch out on the bed with him and doze until he goes back to sleep. We've moved the mattress from the spare bed to his room. If this works, we'll get him a full sized bed of his own and return the queen mattress to its rightful place. If this doesn't work, you'll have to call Paul to find out what he's done because I'll have checked into a mental institute.

luke's temporary bed

tim's underwear peeking above his jeans

Although these milestones mean that the boys are growing up, we no longer have a baby in the house, they are exciting as well. I ran into an old friend today. She and I met in fourth grade and her husband and I met in Kindergarten. She told me that her son is going to graduate from college this spring. He's being checked out by two major baseball leagues! Her daughter starts college in the fall; she's going to a small school near Chicago on a soccer scholarship. She spoke of empty nest syndrome. That's a milestone that I can't even imagine right now. I wouldn't trade places for anything.

turn out the lights, the party is over

I'm a bit naive when it comes to the dark world of advertising and money making in general. After all, I'm a teacher, and teachers live in a sort of parallel universe where we work to prepare our students for the hard knocks of the work world but few of us have ever actually worked in it.

Google Ads has shut me down. In their recent email, they explain: "After reviewing our records, we've determined that your AdSense account poses a risk of generating invalid activity. Because we have a responsibility to protect our AdWords advertisers from inflated costs due to invalid activity, we've found it necessary to disable your AdSense account."

It was stupid of me to thank you in my blog for clicking on ads,which is what I think they consider invalid activity. I just never really thought it through. In my mind, those advertisers were getting attention, end of story. Google doesn't see it that way, and now I understand. I mean even I know that 'there is no such thing as a free lunch.'

That's okay. I like systems that work. I like to know that corruption, even unintentional, is not allowed free reign. I thought some of the ads were good, attractions in Denver, coupons, travel: the kinds of things that I would have been tempted to click if I were clicking. Oh well.

So it's back to an ad-free blog. I'm a little wiser, a little poorer, and unharmed. Don't worry. Tim will still get to take his Amazing Athletes class and his swimming class.

keep on clicking

Yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Thanks to all of you or some of you or one of you (but I know that's not true), we've earned enough from your ad clicks to pay for Tim's athletics class. I'm going to double check the dates and register him today. If there's an open spot and he gets registered, I'm going to make a point of taking him to the Youth Center before class begins so that he'll be familiar with the surroundings. I really appreciate your help with this little fund raiser. When I signed the contract to put ads on my blog, I agreed not to click myself, so it's all you. Our next goal is to pay for a swimming class for both boys!

another birthday

Having a birthday makes me stop and think a little. How old do I really feel? 36. How many years can I remember with some detail? 39. When was the best year of my life? 40 and 43. What do I regret? Little. What is yet to come? A lifetime. And so on.

Because I am so happy, I find myself occasionally wishing that I could have started on this path a lot sooner so that more of my life could be as good as it is now. However, I don't really feel that way. I had to go there to get here. Robert Frost says it better than I can say it with his extended metaphor in his poem Happiness Makes Up in Height What it Lacks for in Length.

Oh, stormy stormy world,
The days you were not swirled
Around with mist and cloud,
Or wrapped as in a shroud,
And the sun’s brilliant ball
Was not in part or all
Obscured from mortal view –
Were days so very few
I can but wonder whence
I get the lasting sense
Of so much warmth and light,
If my mistrust is right
It may be altogether
From one day’s perfect weather,
When starting clear at dawn,
The day swept clearly on
To finish clear at eve.
I verily believe
My fair impression may
Be all from that one day
No shadow crossed but ours
As through its blazing flowers
We went from house to wood
For change of solitude.

Paul has given me 'one day's perfect weather' and the height of my happiness is beyond measure.

Happy Birthday to me.

many thanks

I've earned my first dollar! And it's all because of you!

I'm not really surprised because my friends and family are the greatest people on the planet, but I am very touched. Thank you for clicking on the ads and helping me earn some money. It's only a little bit in cash, but it's precious as gold in sentiment. You all really are wonderful people!

I think I've used more exclamation points in this post than I've used in the entire blog.