Aggravation

You know you have those days when you have to check the calendar to make sure God isn't playing some kind of joke and it isn't really a Monday, Again? This is one of those days. It seems amazing to me that on the days that everyone is home to pitch in cleaning, something always manages to come up. Spectacular phenomenon that leaves me to clean up after 6 other people. Many mini battles being fought daily that I am tired of.

There is the school. I am becoming less and less in love with the whole thing. If you have a student that has turned in 1 assignment out of 8, wouldn't you think there is a problem? I told the principal and whoever else would listen that Blondie was behind the curve. They finally scheduled testing last week and it won't be till Oct. 9th (at the earliest) that they do anything about it. I completely understand that she isn't the only student that needs help BUT!! I get a letter saying that she is failing 4 classes because she won't do her work. Really? Think that might be a problem? I have been trying to get some help since before school started and they are just now coming to that conclusion???

There is my niece, the fascinating psychological study, that is pissed at me because I wouldn't lie for her. It seems pretty easy to me, you pay your bills, you get good references.

I have insurance to deal with, yeah that is fun. Trying to deal with all that red tape and stupid applications and forms is enough to make me wanna scream.

Then there is Chick and her jealousy. I don't even know where to start with that. I have tried talking to her, rationalizing with her and all she wants to focus on is so and so is talking about/with/to Blondie. She is feeling so insecure which I get, it goes with the age. I just wish she had a little more self confidence. I had to move Blondie in with 411 last night, we'll see how long that lasts.

And on top of all of it, I get my mother calling me semi guilt tripping me about my grandmother. Or my lack of visits to be more precise. I feel bad that I don't take the time, but she doesn't have a clue who I am and doesn't talk anymore. The last visit that my mom went to at the nursing home, she found out that Grandma has to have her diaper changed every hour and is confined/restrained to a wheelchair. She doesn't recognize anyone and doesn't talk or even acknowledge that you are talking. If I had had an even semi close relationship with her I might be more apt to drive the 2 hours up there. As it is I feel I have enough on my plate and don't see the point when she doesn't understand what is going on around her. And truthfully, that makes me feel like such a bitch. It is one thing in my head but I can't stamp out that little morsel of guilt.

So, that is how this day is going and it is barely noon. Did I mention Mikey wants to go camping this weekend and it is supposed to rain all weekend? Perfect.

Now tell me why the rest of the world can't get along??

My niece sent this to me and I had to share..

In a zoo in California, a mother tiger gave birth to a rare set of triplet tiger cubs. Unfortunately,due to complications in the pregnancy, the cubs were born prematurely and due to their tinysize, they died shortly after birth.?The mother tiger after recovering from the delivery, suddenly started to decline in health,although physically she was fine. The veterinari ans felt that the loss of her litter had causedthe tigress to fall into a depression. The doctors decided that if the tigress could surrogateanother mother's cubs, perhaps she would improve.?After checking with many other zoos across the country, the depressing news was that therewere no tiger cubs of the right age to introduce to the mourning mother The veterinariansdecided to try something that had never been tried in a zoo environment Sometimes a motherof one species will take on the care of a different species. The only orphans" that could befound quickly, were a litter of weanling pigs. The zoo keepers and vets wrapped the piglets intiger skin and placed the babies around the mother tiger. Would they become cubs or pork chops?Take a look...you won't believe your eyes!!
??

So today...

Nothing terribly exciting, same old same old. I helped my landlady clean an apartment this morning (that is what I needed the paint chips for), got Mr off to the bus, took care of Miss Smiley, got a call saying Bubba has detention on Thursday, AGAIN, got another call saying Chick was tossing her cookies at school. Yeah, real excitement. I ran into the teacher that is doing Bubba's testing for the Excel program. She told me that he blew her away. She asked him to name 2 of the US's enemies in WWII.( She said to me most kids in the 4th grade can't get Germany,Japan or Italy.) Bubba piped up with Hitler and Mussolini. That is my boy. Then she asked him how a private and a corporal were alike. I was like sure, anything military and he is a walking encyclopedia. This is the kid that was checking out WWII books in the first grade. I am kind of anxious to see the results of the testing.
I made a total of $10 at the craft show this weekend. Everyone says that I undercharge for the quilts but then no one will buy them. I was telling Mikey that it doesn't matter if I charge $1 or $1000 if no one is buying them. The kids were all excited because they got to keep one. I am on the lookout for more Bratz material, I have a niece with a birthday coming up that really wants a quilt with them and 411 snatched it up as soon as I set the box down after the show. At least my children think I am cool! ;)

Quilts

Sleep?

This morning is the craft show that I so stupidly agreed to participate in. I say stupidly because I had nothing ready and tried to whip some stuff up. I am washing and drying as we speak (hee hee) because I am that unorganized. I ended up with 2 throws, 2 kid's blankets, 4 afghans, and 3 table runners. Not enough to justify the stress I put on myself. I did another denim quilt that I was so excited about and didn't get it clipped before I gave up at 12:30 last night. I get so mad at myself for not getting it all done, then I take a deep breath and mentally slap myself and say "hey stupid, you were doing 12 other things too so it is ok" I can call me stupid because I know me well enough. Anywho, off to get 2 sleeping teens and a talkative 7 year old up. Oh the joy!

I spoke too soon

This morning as I was putting Mr on the big boy bus (yee haw all by itself) I was thinking ' oh, a day with no running. No games, no meetings, no appointments I can really catch up!' YEAH, that was until I realized I need to grocery shop, get craft supplies, get tennis shoes and pick up paint swatches. All of which I have to drive 30 miles for. SIIGGHHH I will be glad when I get a new van maybe then I won't mind it so much. Who am I kidding? I will be inventing errands just to drive ;)

Blondie had another game yesterday, she got to play front row this time. Me, Bubba, 411, Chick and Mr cheered her on. Well, Mr went to sleep on the bleachers......





Then we came home and got haircuts from the family beautician. The girls LOVE the new looks and were excited to go to school and show them off....

Random weekend stuff

Riles new shoes!

Junior graciously posing after the parade

My little runaway. I went to the grocery store (about 3 blocks away) and he was playing outside while Mike watched tv. Mr decided he wanted to go to the store so he walked up there, across the main drag and everything all by himself without his jacket or shoes. In 50 degree weather. Yeah, he is going to make me have totally white hair by the time he graduates. I was so upset with him, all I could do was make him sit down on the couch when we got home. This is 5 minutes later.





Here is my Sunday afternoon. Guess what I am doing? 2 days of not doing laundry will do that to ya....

Homecoming '07

Kizzie







Logan







Chick










Mr. Peanut


411

Bubba


Dan-o

my daughter the photographer

This is what happens when I give 411 the freedom to play with the camera. It kept her busy and she had a ball...


We kept telling her her face would freeze like that..






See, Cindy brushes her teeth
ME! Shelf butt and all












411's treasures she found. Anyone else see a lot of broken glass?







POBs in full swing, notice the 30# of flour, this is after 6 hours of baking!

There is something to be said for this

Have ya'll seen this?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/12/youssif.arrives/index.html

I stand corrected

Apparently I spoke too soon. Chelle ended up selling $323 worth of stuff. That is AWESOME for our party. Plus we still have to do cream puffs this weekend. I think Whimp was really close in her guess of $500. And the people at her work requested we do breads for the holidays. Another ego boost! It is always wonderful to get those unconditional compliments from strangers out of the blue.
This week is homecoming week for our school. My girls are all into it this year in Jr high. Chick even volunteered for a committee. You could have knocked me over with a feather. She has such a big heart but it is surrounded by this cranky, surly teen that isn't always pleasant to be around. At least me, other people don't always see that side. That is a good thing, I would rather any of my kids show me their ass and be good around people. IF they have to act up that is. I would much rather not deal with it at all but hello, here on planet reality, ass is going to show.

Pimpin noodle sellin fool

Chelle took a list of stuff that we had made to work with her to see if anyone wanted to buy some. The woman got $286 in orders. The downside to this was she didn't take inventory of what we had made so we had to make more. I know there was at least 3 more batches of noodles made, dinner rolls, banana bread and pumpkin breads made. It was crazy but in a really happy kinda way.
Chick is exploring her fashionista side. She wore a shirt with tiny flowers on it (there is a picture in an earlier post) with a tan camo skirt with black semi heels. It would have been a really cute out fit if she had a plain denim mini skirt but she felt she was rockin it as is. What do I know? I am just mom.
Ya'll wanna hear a sad commentary on today's society? The other day I took my niece Kizzie up to my moms with my kids to do some lawn work. Chick and Kizzie were showing the peace sign (you know the first and second finger V) at cars we passed. Guess how many of them flipped these girls off? Almost 3/4 of them. It was interesting.
Bubba has decided to pull his head out of his butt and get his classwork done. He does need the occasional prod (with a pitchfork) but he is doing a lot better, thank goodness.
Mister is LOVIN' school. His teacher has even gotten him to participate in music time. It is funny though because she lives in the same apartment building as us and when he sees her here, he will not talk to her. But at school, she is the greatest person ever.
411 has started fall soccer again. She loves it. I think it is more a social thing for her but maybe I am wrong.
Mikey is loving his new job. I had to giggle because he was complaining that he kept getting interrupted when he was trying to fix something on a truck. Yeah, honey, that is why they pay you the big bucks ;) He has a guy working under him and soon another one. The plus side for me is now he has to shave regularly and keep his hair trimmed. YEAH!!

The day after..

OMG! I don't want to look at noodles or sweet breads for a loooong time. Till next Saturday ;) Most of the POB's got together yesterday and made stuff for the bake sale. We ended up with 13 varieties of mini loaves (apple,pineapple,tropical,chocolate raspberry, banana, pumpkin, pumpkin raisin nut, coffee date, butterscotch, cranberry, mixed berry, spiced plum, and banana nut) 6 loaves of beer bread, loaves of white bread, white dinner rolls, wheat dinner rolls, wheat bread, raisin bread, apricot bread, apple bread, pumpkin bread and banana bread. All that is on top of 6 batches of homemade noodles. See what 12 hours and a handful of determined bitches can do?

I need to work on some craft show stuff, I am running out of time. My sister in law Dianne asked me if I wanted to make some stuff up and I was like sure, why not? Yeah me and my dumb big mouth :)

Days of our lives

It has been a busy week and it looks like it is going to keep being busy. Blondie had her fist volleyball game Thursday and they won! Friday 411 started her fall soccer practice, she just loves it. Today I have to go make obscene amounts of noodles with the POBs but I have to skip out of the breads because I have to go help my mother get her yard ready for winter. The city is bitching at her to get it mowed and with her banks, she can't do it by herself. Then tomorrow Mikey has to go haul a load of iron up to the junk yard. Monday we get our lre-icensing interview. So Sunday I am spending the day cleaning. My favorite activity. NOT!! I finally got laundry caught up, that was a chore. Then Blondie brings out all her clothes to be washed. And I got to get all the towels out of my bathroom. It was nice while it lasted. :)

It wasn't even CNN this time

As you all know, or should know by now, CNN makes my blood boil on a regular basis. This time it was KETV.COM with this article...
http://www.ketv.com/family/14048203/detail.html

To sum it up, a woman left a baby at the hospital in Omaha and there is a manhunt on for her to the point they are issuing her photo to the news. Nebraska is one of two out of 50 states that doesn't have a safe haven law. I think it is ridiculous. There is obviously something terribly out of whack for a woman to abandon her baby but sometimes, they feel as if there is no choice. When that is the case, shouldn't the first concern be to take care of the child and not to criminalize the mother that makes that heartbreaking choice? The argument against safe haven laws is that adoptive parents won't have medical histories of the children. Now call me nutty but I would think the safety and well being of these babies is a tad more important. What do you think is going to happen if it is criminal for a woman to leave her baby at a hospital? She will more then likely leave it to hopefully be found somewhere out in the elements(as a woman in May did) or kill it. Every person I know, if given the option, would want a baby left at the hospital with no medical record versus no care at all.

EDIT: I found the follow up story on wowt.com this morning. They have found the mother of the baby and aren't charging her with neglect although the police made sure it was known that they could. She is an 18 year old and had given birth at home. She had heard about the safe haven laws and didn't know that Nebraska doesn't have them. She was taking the baby to the maternity ward and got scared so she left it in the restroom. The message boards are alive with all kinds of comments, some of them nutso but most of them questioning why the state doesn't have safe haven laws. Most people were really shocked to find out they don't have any laws on the books. Apparently it isn't such a no brainer in the state senate--

State Sen. Enie Chambers isn't in a hurry to change that, saying on his Wednesday cable access show, "When a child is born, there is a responsibility that the mother has to that child and the child should not be considered a throwaway."
VS.

“If you are under distress and you don't know what to do, it's better to drop it off at a hospital or fire station because you're making the right decision instead of dumping the child as was earlier this summer at a dump, trash," says Sen. Rich Pahls

I know which one I would vote for.

I am loving today

Mr got to rid the big boy bus home yesterday after school and then again to school this morning. On Wednesdays he goes in the morning so I have till noon to party like a rock star! Yeah right, yesterday's party included scrubbing the tub with comet and cleaning my kitchen. I wonder what wonderful joys are in store for me today.

I went to the Halloween planning party the other day. For those that are not familiar, between my sister in laws (pack o bitches, POB'S)and myself there is a kid in every grade for 7 grades. (then there is a 2 year break and Mr and Riles will be in the same class) and my loving sister in law Chelle thought it would be a fabulous idea to have a Halloween spooktakular and invite everybodies whole class. All the sisters and myself agreed to help out and we had a ball doing it. It was a lot of fun thinking of the ideas and carving the pumpkins and making the treat bags. I don't have any pictures of last year but bet I will get some this year. Anyway, we ended up having 84 kids show up and that isn't including our 9. The kids were still talking about it at Christmas! So, this year we are doing it again and trying to make it even more fun. We are pretty sure that there will be at least the same number of kids, if not more, since everyone had a good time. There was so much for them to do but the biggest hit was Mesmerelda. She is a gypsy fortune teller and the kids LOVED her. You know, stuff like you will get a new boy/girl friend, your zit will clear up, you will have a pop quiz , etc. Things that are going to happen regardless and they thought she was DA BOMB! I was in the main building taking down everyone's name and numbers and could hear the kids talking about their visits- 'what did she tell you?' "this is what she told me' ' I hope she is right' ' I hope it isn't so and so that has a crush on me' It was a riot!!

So anyway, we got together to discuss what games, what kind of prizes, are we doing treat bags, all the details. We started talking about the money aspect of it (the decorations are bought but we still have to buy all the food and treats and black plastic to cover the garage) and someone suggested selling homemade noodles at the town celebration. I don't know if ya'll know what I am talking about, but here each little town has an annual celebration that involves a parade various activities. Back to the noodles, they are cheap and easy and a lot of people love them around here and don't have the know how or time to make their own. So that is a great idea and take the money from that and put it towards the party. Then someone suggested breads, banana,zucchini,applesauce,pumpkin. Then someone suggested cream puffs. I have never made cream puffs. Well ok maybe once and it was a horrible experience. I don't remember what happened exactly but I remember a doughy, liquid filling mess. So it was with great trepidation that I agreed to these. The POB's were all, oh they are so easy, it is a snap. I made an experimental batch last night, didn't do too bad if I say so myself. I messed up the filling a little but I'll get the kinks worked out. The kids don't mind poison checking for me.
They are all excited and already talking about what they want to be, who they are going to invite, which games they are looking forward to. I am looking forward to being entertained by the kid's excitement!

more pictures

Aunt Dianne visiting till the wee hours of 10 PM.


Mister's first day of 4 yr old preschool. He is so proud!















Here is what happens when Mr and Riles have to sit still for 5 minutes after a day of playing.



love this picture of 411, doesn't she just look like she is about to ask a question?






My daughter, the diva!





Uncle BOB! This man is one of Mr's favoritest people in the world.