Saturday, January 3, 2009

Almost Normal

I've spent most of my Christmas and New Years vacation repairing my broken body - well, mostly nasal cavities.

I am now able to walk without becoming dizzy.

I can speak without my lungs burning.

I cough much less frequent.

Maybe by tomorrow, I will be healed.

GREAT. Yep. I've spent my 8 days off doing mostly nothing but pop meds and hack up lungs.

What a way to bring in the new year.

The biggest bummer, I didn't any pictures for new years. Oh, and the fact that the weather turned suddenly out of season and wonderful but I was stuck indoors. I was unable to enjoy the 40-50 degree days we've had around here. SERIOUS Bummer. We love to visit the zoo when the weather turns like this ... it better be nice for my birthday (oh yeah, 1 week away - UGH!).

My New Year Resolution? TO STAY HEALTHY! I'll be popping vitamin C, zinc and anything and everything that provide me with a superhuman immune system. I'll be the superhero to the villan, cold/flu. I will not get sick the rest of the winter. I'm so very done with all that.

I've stocked up on zicam.

SO do yourself a favor germs - stay away from this house. You will not last long here. Move on - we are totally done with you.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Dysfunctional but Wonderful

I wanted to write all about the crazies in my family, because I have my share but I have to say this was the most beautiful Christmas I've had in a very long time.

On Christmas Eve we were all dismissed at noon from work - what a wonderful surprise that was ... so I was able to get home early and go to Church. It was a beautiful service.

Then I had a lovely dinner with wonderful friends and family, and some gorgeous teens (I remember when they were babies, ugh!).

And Carolers sang to us.

And Santa stopped by before his long trip around the world.

And my little WildChild knew who Santa was ... she knew by the eyes ... most adults didn't know who was in the Santa costume, but the WildChild KNEW. She is freakishly observant.

The kids told jokes. They just LOVE the spotlight.

This is Mr.T's sister ... I think my WildChild looks a lot like her.

Then I got sick. VERY SICK. Disgustingly sick.

I spent over $50 on drugs to help me feel better - and I only feel about $5 worth of better.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

In the Spirit of Dysfunctional Christmas'

I was all whiney before about Christmas but I knew at least one of my fellow blogger buddies would help me to see the wonderfulnesses of Christmas time.

Shameless Sassy THANK YOU!

I now have a goal. There are some serious dysfunctions going on every Christmas Eve party and I'm so going to record them for all of you.

This is what Christmas is all about.

'Tis the season to be jolly falalalala la la la la

Monday, December 22, 2008

Doing Nottin' All Day

We had a crazy insane weekend, really seriously crazy insane.

Non-stop.

The girlys were sick with a pretty bad head cold...stuffy, runny, itchy nose, watery, itchy eyes, lots of coughing, lots of sniffling.

But we just kept going and going and going, little energizer bunnies we were.

I washed everything in the house - all pillows, blankets, towels, rugs, carpets ... everything because that is exactly the stuff the sickly germy things like to CLING to. Until my dryer broke. Then I drove around with a ton of wet stuff in my car looking for a laundromat - and now I know they do not exist anymore.

I drove to mom's and dried some stuff while no one was home (oh, and I still haven't mentioned it to her yet ... guess I should do that).

Then there was all sorts of crazy going on...Christmas School Play, Birthday Party for Jesus at Church (which I had to plan, coordinate, and purchase everything) picked out, bought and wrapped presents for teachers, the principal, the office manager, grab bags for school and the bus driver (awesome guy!), and rushed to a family Christmas party.

Needless to say the girls received NO rest in order to nurse these serious head colds.

So, the girlys and I stayed home today. All day.

They planted themselves on the couch and watched movie after movie after movie, while playing with an occasional toy or drawing an occasional drawing or writing in the occasional secret diary. (All new things they received yesterday at the Christmas party).

And I ran around the house like a freakin maid. Changing the movies every so often, not being able to sit down for half a second to write this posting. I even had a dryer delivered, installed and up and running before 3:00pm today and it only cost me $125 - gotta love Craigs list!

So I'm FINALLY sitting down, now.

I popped in 'Nim's Island' because if you are doomed to watch kids movies all day you might as well put in something that mommies enjoy watching too. Am I right? He is so very 'Yum Yum Yum delicioso'.

The sickie wanted her picture taken. She loves the camera and the camera loves her.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

*EXCLUSIVE* Ghost Town Trailer!

Decent flick, has some make you smile moments, and a couple laugh out loud ones. It did take me two nights to watch this, however ... but that is pretty typical now-a-days. I am not the night owl I once was....

Thursday, December 18, 2008

A Cool Site - Jinni

Do you like movies?

Would you benifit from some recommendations based on what types of movies you like? Do you think that your taste is so off the wall that NOBODY on the planet would be able to find a good movie for you? Do you think you saw everything that is worth seeing? Well, if you answer yes to any of these questions, try out Jinni.

I have some invites because it's still in Beta, but let me know if you are interested, and I'll send you an invite. Hey, many movies are available to watch online.

Now there is some work getting it setup so it can understand your brain (if that is at all possible), but it's fun getting there.

I've already found movies I never heard of and added them to my list. Oh and I have several lists...I have an imdb list and a netflix list ... yeah, I think I've mentioned my infactuation with lists already.

But it does more than just recommend. I think it's a more superiour than imdb in searching for types of movies or plots.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

I hate my job

There are some days when I really hate my job.

Nothing but Shit Storms.

Shit yesterday.

Shit today.

Shit tomorrow.

The forcast is NOT looking good.

I freakin hate when every thing I do is questioned.

Thanks for letting me get that off of my shoulders.

P.S. It's official, the offending ornament was tossed. It is now in a landfill in Jersey. Garbage men came today....honestly I don't know if it's really in Jersey, but I would assume that is where all the garbage goes to retire.

Just kidding (if there are any jersey readers - but I don't think there are).

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Sisterly Love

My girls love each other very much, they truly love each other and the love is obvious (most times). When one girly is in trouble the other defends; when one girly is given a cookie, she asks for another one, for her sister.

BUT...

...they also love to torture each other.

T.O.R.T.U.R.E.

As in Pain and Torture.

As in cruel and unusual T.O.R.T.U.R.E.

We have an ornament that was given to our family the Christmas of 2001 (Key year...ShowStopper was 6 months, the other was just about starting it's little life as a fertilized egg). The ornament is a sleigh, the steering wheel of the sleigh has our family name and there are 3 wooden mittens laying on the sleigh...one says "Mr.T", one says "Missy", and the final one says, "ShowStopper". My WildChild HATES this ornament and last year I was able to put it away before it caused distress.

The WildChild is so very disturbed that her name is missing from the ornament. I've told her on several occasions that the ornament was made before she was born, this does not comfort her ... nor should it. She sees it as a family ornament and her name is missing - it's cruel that the thing exists (at least in her eyes).

This year the girlys decorated all of the trees in the house while I was out.

This year I wasn't able to 'hide' the offensive ornament.

The ornament was proudly placed on the tree in the girlys room by the precious tiny hands of the ever loving and sweet ShowStopper. PROUDLY. She LOVES this ornament. It signifies she was FIRST, there really was a time when WildChild didn't exist, there was a time when she received all of the attention and all gifts from Santa.

The other night WildChild took the ornament off of the tree and disappeared into the playroom for about an hour or so. She arose from the room beaming with pride from ear to ear. Showstopper ripped the ornament from her tiny paws. WildChild cried the saddest tears I have ever heard. I rushed to her side.

The ornament had a spot of wet glue on the sled. On the ground was a crumpled piece of construction paper, in the shape of a mitten, with the WildChilds name of it.

Breaks my heart.

I know my ShowStopper wasn't intentionally being cruel ... she is all about what is right, what is true, and what should be ... the ornament was given to us before the WildChild was born (this is TRUTH), and it should remain true and always be about the 3 of us...and then there is the pride thing and the ego thing going on. ShowStopper is all about ego and pride.

Saturday we ventured to the Mall. I hate Mall's. Did you know WildChild had to check every kiosk for crafty ornaments with handwritten names on them?

I know ShowStopper didn't want to hurt her sister, but she did.

My mom bought a new ornament with all of our names on it.

The WildChild will be so very pleased.

Monday, December 15, 2008

CRAZY INSANE

Crazy weekend. C.R.A.Z.Y.

When I am president, one of the first laws I will pass, "There will be NO Birthdays in December. NONE. No Exceptions. All Birthday celebrations will have to wait until after the Christmas Holiday. Birthday's can resume as normal effective January 1st."

We attended TWO birthday parties this weekend.

The first party will conjur nightmares for months.

I have never heard several kids cry because they wanted to leave A PARTY. I have never seen my girlys sit in the corner and stare at total amazement at the chaos in front of them. 21 kids ages 5-10 (mostly GIRLS). In a small house. No planned activities. No organization. No control. A phone call from a parent saying one of the kids father had to be rushed to the hospital...yeah that kid was in a total funk. One kid called his dad to pick him up early - he was so very ready to go home. I was very very proud of my girls... and me, well, you know me, I had to do something. There was no way I could sit here and watch the chaos. My girlys were ready to go home.

Yesterdays party was at a the local high schools swimming pool. 20 plus kids in a pool staffed with lifeguards. BONUS. There was no need for mommies to don their suit, displaying their winter white jiggly bodies. It was controlled. The kids were well behaved. The kids were OCCUPIED. It was organized. It was controlled. There were many parents attending and all kids were smiling and happy. Noone was ready to get out of the pool. Noone wanted to go home. The girlys had a blast. They wore themselves out totally and slept like little rocks last night.

Today I came across something that was so very insane to me, disturbingly insane. I just don't get it. I seriously don't. We are removing personal responsibility from our schools. Making every excuse and accommodating children over and above the call. My girls have responsibilities, and if they fail to do the responsible thing they are punished (of course the punishment fits the crime). If they do not do an assignment, I welcome, I INSIST that the teacher do whatever they feel is necessary to punish the kids. If they do not finish their seat work during class (and all of the other children had more than enough time to finish) then they miss out on recess or another activity. There are no excuses. Do your work and then you can play.

This is the very reason we attend a private school because I do not believe in the public schools philosophy on personal responsibility.

Read this article.

In a nutshell: "Pittsburgh Public Schools officials may change a policy that makes 50 percent the lowest grade students can receive -- even if they do zero work. The policy is meant to help students recover from a bad grade or the odd missed assignment. But the district's teachers complain that some students refuse to hand in assignments because they're content to get the "50 percent" grade for doing nothing."

In my day (yes I am old, and I think like an oldtimer) if you missed a random assignment you were allowed to turn it in late and receive a lesser grade, but you had to turn in all assignments to receive credit, if you did not then your grade reflected YOUR inability to meet the required standard of work.

I do not agree, Pittsburgh. Nope. Nope. Nope.

Did you know that Pittsburgh also provides at most 5K/year towards college tuition for any student maintaining a 'C' average. A 'C' average. Mediocre. AVERAGE. Just AVERAGE, not excellent. No extra effort, just average work, average effort. That is a 2.0. Many universities will not accept students with a 2.0 average.

Did you know that Pittsburgh has a literacy rate as low as 20% in some of their schools.

We as a society keep LOWERING our expectations, of our children, of our fellow neighbors, of our employees, of our work, of our family, of our lives. When will it stop? How low is too low? What are we allowed to accept without causing serious hurt to our children, to our fellow neighbors, to our employees, to our family, to our own lives?

I feel sorry for these kids. Pushed forward for doing nothing or practically nothing. I realize 50 percent is still a fail, but how many nothings can you do in a year and still maintain a passing grade? If a D is 60 percent, not many. Not many at all. That is one A (100 %) for every 4 assignments you decide to NOT finish. 20% - you only have to finish 20% of your work. To get 5K for college, you only have to do about 33 percent of your assignments.

What would happen if I only did 33 percent of my work at my job?

Friday, December 12, 2008

♪ I got my letter ♪ I got my letter ♪ tra la la la

Dear Melissa,

Your recent mammography examination shows an area that we believe is benign (not cancer). However, a follow up mammogram is recommended in 6 months.

√ Left Breast
√ Right Breast

Please call blah blah blah to schedule an appointment for these tests if you have not already done so. A new script is needed for your appointment.

...and more blah blah blah

I don't know why I'm singing really, it's not like totally great news...but it's not really bad news, so there's that.

So now I know I have cleavage for another 6 months - YIPPEE!

I thought that a little Christmas reindeer cleavage would be a nice suprise for my male readers.