what the crap, thursday? i mean SERIOUSLY.
so i woke up this morning. cause middlest wanted her hair straightened for cheerleading pictures. annnnnd no one else was up. yes, someone's alarm was playing music LOUD enough for the alarm to wake up the neighbors but no one in our house was awake. so i turned on lights & wiggled beds & such & everyone got up & started running. never a good way to start the day.
and littlest was a crabby patty about doing school. for some reason, the baby doll needed to come to school today. no she doesn't. yes she does. baby got grounded to the other side of the table. and littlest was still a crab.
and then i cleaned the living room floors. more on that later. just remember it.
and then i decided to go dye my hair. littlest was playing outside & had been out there happy for hours. HOURS i tell ya. so forgive me if i thought it was a good idea to sneak upstairs for a few minutes to attend to something for MYSELF for a change.
because then all hell broke loose. -ish. hair dye EVERYWHERE because for some reason i think it's a good idea to try different kinds. and none of them are the same consistency. and this one was the consistency of...oh, koolaid. heh. that was fun. and then comes littlest whining up the stairs. apparently the road had bitten her little knees & her little friend doctored her up but apparently the band-aids little friend used weren't up to littlest's standards. so she needed new ones. i pleaded with her to give me a few minutes so i wouldn't shed hair dye all over the house. she was content.
and then she was thirsty. and went downstairs after water. and apparently climbed up on the counter & helped herself to bandaids. and it really just occurred to me but i guess she threw the wrappers away because i haven't seen them lying around anywhere? hmm. good job. and then i discovered she'd been gone for awhile & went looking for her & met her on the steps & holy hannah! WHAT IS ALL OVER YOUR FACE? of course it was blood. of course. guess she joins her daddy & her bubba with the delightful nosebleeds. but then it was time to rinse the hair dye out before it ate my hair into nothingness. so here's a massive wad of toilet paper & please sit down before blood gets on more stuff than just your shirt & skirt & chest & face. and finally it stopped & the hair dye was rinsed out & back outside she went to play again.
and THEN i discovered that that little jackass baby weiner decided to pee all over my newly cleaned living room floor. and then not much later, he pooped on it. after being fine all stinkin day, he waited until the floor was clean.
and to top it all off, 1 was snappy for no reason. at least what i considered no reason. and apparently decided that spending the evening playing video games while the world spun on around him with cleaning & things was a good plan. not today, buddy. not today.
almost TGIF. but then another whirlwind weekend. but maybe next thursday will be better. but probably not since dear korea gives us a middle of the week holiday that the big kids get off of school. so thursday will be another monday.
who thinks i will lose my mind sometime in the next 19 years? cause, yeah, that's what i'm looking at, in case anyone missed that bulletin.
***oh, and p.s., more stuff than this went on today. in case you thought i had no right to gripe since my day seemed relatively empty if you were comparing catastrophes to hours. BUT IT WASN'T. the aforementioned events were the highlights.
also. does anyone else find it amusing that i posted something on my facebook referring to a group of people that are just exasperating as all get out & one of the group members responded to the post? clueless, i tell ya. just clueless. but i guess that's the way it is when you think you run the world. once you get yourself up there so high on the pedestal, i guess it's pretty hard to see what's going on down below. morons.
Showing posts with label AGH. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AGH. Show all posts
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Friday, May 1, 2009
great. just great.
first of all, anyone who was waiting for the continuation of the spring break post, you'll have to keep waiting. i had a whole post typed up & when i discovered that blogger will only allow a few pictures to be posted per post (wtf? did that make any sense?) - at least on this blog since i read another one recently that said she could put something like 89 on hers - i decided to break the spring break post up into chunks so as to get all the pictures in. and then the computer went a little nuts, warranting a restart and for some stupid reason, i hadn't backed up the spring break post, rendering it lost forever. and since everything has been just enough off center lately that i spend most of my time in a fog, making no sense to anyone around me, including myself, you'll all just have to wait until my brain returns from the vacation that it apparently decided to take without telling me to get the rest of the story about spring break. thankfully i have all of those not postable to blogger except one at a time pictures to remind me of what we did.
and back to the whole point of this post. haha. fooled you, didn't i? you thought i forgot, huh?
it appears that i am on my way to being railroaded into another dog. did you hear me? ANOTHER DOG. the dog that we have
- the one who houdini-ed his way out of his crate years ago during one of his first nights in our home, the one who tried to eat the vet tech at his neuter appointment (i still stand by my opinion that she needed some retraining on how to approach a strange dog, especially a strange dog accompanying a very pregnant woman & who is extremely protective of said pregnant woman), the dog who accompanied us to korea & made it here alive even after being fed untold amounts of tranquilizers by his grandma to try to get the whining to cease, the dog who has resurrected his houdini skills & manages to bust himself out of the bathroom where he is confined whenever we leave the house - apparently isn't enough of a pain in the ass that we need another one. because the vet clinic/airlines/dog food & treat manufacturers don't get enough of our money already. and we haven't even had the joy of kenneling this one yet.
but apparently there is an adopt-a-dog up in seoul that 1 found out about during a work trip this week. it seems to be a dachshund except perhaps with longer legs (of course! he'll fit in just fine in our family!) and is of indeterminate age. now, mind you, 1 is the one (haha) who got us involved in having more weiners than we have males (haha again) in this family to begin with. i NEEEEEED a dog, he moaned. i NEEEEEEED a weiner dog! and it should be a GIRL. and we'll call her dixie, because that was the name of the fat little weiner dog girl that i used to torture when i was little (i've seen pictures). and sucker that i am, i went looking. and found weiners in the paper (shouldn't that be illegal? weiners in the paper? see...my head is NOT RIGHT.) and the whole family went over to look. and we didn't end up with a girl dog. we ended up with a boy dog. and his name is DIXON. and he is rotten (see above). and littlest tortures him, much like i'm sure her dad tortured his dixie back in the day.
but i guess the newness of the weiner & the baby has worn off so now we need something else in this house to keep us company. or busy. something like that. and since the foot has been put down about new babies in our house, i guess everyone (except me) thinks that that something needs to be a dog. biggest & middlest have been lobbying for months for a dog. BUT. for the same reasons my mother didn't want any more animals at her house, neither do i. why? because no matter whose dog it is, no matter who has sworn to protect & vet & keep & bathe & walk & clean & play with it, the mama is always the one who ends up on pup duty. why do you think I'M the one who ended up carting the damn dog over here, anyway? along with the 3 kids, 8 suitcases, 1 carseat, 1 stroller & a grandma?
don't get me wrong. i may be a dog person now. i kind of like the little bugger that is currently sleeping on my legs (well, and the bed, since he is a weiner & my legs, frankly, aren't that wide). i don't mind bathing him sometimes & littlest likes to help. and i took him to the vet this week & put my finger over the hole in his leg after the blood was drawn for a heartworm test & didn't fall down on the floor (although i was a little bit sicked out by it). i just don't know if i want another weiner around that i'll end up being responsible for.
but i think i'm being railroaded. which means my say in the matter probably went out the window weeks ago. sigh.
**and right now, yes, really right now, while i'm sitting here waiting for blogger to upload the weiner pictures, middlest came in here & started bugging me about the new dog AGAIN. i think this is their plan...get me so tired of hearing about the damn thing, that i just give in & say "fine! get the dog! just STOP talking to me about it!" maybe if i tried the same tactic about a vacation. think it would work?
and back to the whole point of this post. haha. fooled you, didn't i? you thought i forgot, huh?
it appears that i am on my way to being railroaded into another dog. did you hear me? ANOTHER DOG. the dog that we have
- the one who houdini-ed his way out of his crate years ago during one of his first nights in our home, the one who tried to eat the vet tech at his neuter appointment (i still stand by my opinion that she needed some retraining on how to approach a strange dog, especially a strange dog accompanying a very pregnant woman & who is extremely protective of said pregnant woman), the dog who accompanied us to korea & made it here alive even after being fed untold amounts of tranquilizers by his grandma to try to get the whining to cease, the dog who has resurrected his houdini skills & manages to bust himself out of the bathroom where he is confined whenever we leave the house - apparently isn't enough of a pain in the ass that we need another one. because the vet clinic/airlines/dog food & treat manufacturers don't get enough of our money already. and we haven't even had the joy of kenneling this one yet.
but apparently there is an adopt-a-dog up in seoul that 1 found out about during a work trip this week. it seems to be a dachshund except perhaps with longer legs (of course! he'll fit in just fine in our family!) and is of indeterminate age. now, mind you, 1 is the one (haha) who got us involved in having more weiners than we have males (haha again) in this family to begin with. i NEEEEEED a dog, he moaned. i NEEEEEEED a weiner dog! and it should be a GIRL. and we'll call her dixie, because that was the name of the fat little weiner dog girl that i used to torture when i was little (i've seen pictures). and sucker that i am, i went looking. and found weiners in the paper (shouldn't that be illegal? weiners in the paper? see...my head is NOT RIGHT.) and the whole family went over to look. and we didn't end up with a girl dog. we ended up with a boy dog. and his name is DIXON. and he is rotten (see above). and littlest tortures him, much like i'm sure her dad tortured his dixie back in the day.
but i guess the newness of the weiner & the baby has worn off so now we need something else in this house to keep us company. or busy. something like that. and since the foot has been put down about new babies in our house, i guess everyone (except me) thinks that that something needs to be a dog. biggest & middlest have been lobbying for months for a dog. BUT. for the same reasons my mother didn't want any more animals at her house, neither do i. why? because no matter whose dog it is, no matter who has sworn to protect & vet & keep & bathe & walk & clean & play with it, the mama is always the one who ends up on pup duty. why do you think I'M the one who ended up carting the damn dog over here, anyway? along with the 3 kids, 8 suitcases, 1 carseat, 1 stroller & a grandma?
don't get me wrong. i may be a dog person now. i kind of like the little bugger that is currently sleeping on my legs (well, and the bed, since he is a weiner & my legs, frankly, aren't that wide). i don't mind bathing him sometimes & littlest likes to help. and i took him to the vet this week & put my finger over the hole in his leg after the blood was drawn for a heartworm test & didn't fall down on the floor (although i was a little bit sicked out by it). i just don't know if i want another weiner around that i'll end up being responsible for.
but i think i'm being railroaded. which means my say in the matter probably went out the window weeks ago. sigh.
**and right now, yes, really right now, while i'm sitting here waiting for blogger to upload the weiner pictures, middlest came in here & started bugging me about the new dog AGAIN. i think this is their plan...get me so tired of hearing about the damn thing, that i just give in & say "fine! get the dog! just STOP talking to me about it!" maybe if i tried the same tactic about a vacation. think it would work?
Friday, March 20, 2009
me or them?
so, someone posted a few weeks ago that her bloggy buddies weren't holding up their ends of the bargain. where was her reading material? didn't we know that she needed something to do at work? (not trying to pick on you here, B, just that i've been thinking about this for awhile & your post helped spur it on).
it's nice to be needed. really, it is. but during this long, ridiculously cold, ridiculously sick winter, most of my fodder for blogging has gone out the window. it's hard to come up with new stuff when you get to eyeball the same walls everyday. and visit the doctor i don't know how many times in how many weeks (including the hospital visit we threw in there for kicks) to get yet another nebulizer treatment & some medicine you aren't sure you know what it is or, for that matter, agree with.
and so, the muse is reduced to analyzing the everyday minutiae of life. the stuff of psychiatry journals & parenting magazines. and even that presents a roadblock. which brings me to my point (3 paragraphs later cause hell, yeah, that's what i do best!)
why do people blog? is it SUPPOSED to be for the blogosphere? to make sure they have something to do at work? to make sure they have something waiting for them when they open up their readers or just type in your address? i can't count how many times i have read blogs stating that it drives them crazy when people don't blog regularly. that they will cancel their subscriptions or just flat out refuse to visit the URL anymore if there isn't something waiting for them daily.
i guess that is the guilt method? to guilt people into posting? cause, yeah, that totally works for me! i have a reader with Lord-only-knows how many blogs on it. lost of people are faithful, some aren't. it doesn't ruin my day if someone goes missing for a week. it wasn't any extra effort on my part to not see their name on the list. don't read me the wrong way, i wouldn't wish anything to happen to anyone. but life sometimes gets in the way (see my last post & some before that) & sometimes you are too busy cleaning up puke or playing phone tag with the insurance company or pulling the 2-year-old off the ceiling fan or attempting to maybe-not-so-gently push your teenagers into being viable, sensible, friendly human beings to remember to post about the puke, insurance, ceiling fan flier or surly offspring. i get it. i do all of that and more on a daily basis. it's cool. i'll let you slide-no worries. i'll see you around again.
the thing that gets me is that i thought that blogging was a way to blow off steam. some bloggers have important info to share. but lots are just, like i said, posting daily minutiae for the world to read. maybe so we can know that we aren't alone sometimes? maybe so that they can blow off steam and, by typing it out and sharing it, get most of the weight off their chests. because we all know that a sorrow shared is a sorrow divided.
i guess i didn't realize that someone's world would come to an end if i didn't post a little blurb every day of my life. i thought i'd start this & hit it up everytime i had something neat to share or silly to recount. i think that the bloggy greed is another symptom of the world gone mad. feed me, seymour. heaven forbid we rest on our eternally busy tail ends for a time without adding our two cents to the teeming world of internet. we might upset someone's daily balance. forget about our own.
and one final point? i may have sorted out yet another reason for my disinterest lately. posting on here is something of a therapy session for me. where i can bitch about things that have long since ceased interesting 1. where i can put it down on "paper", if you will, which has always helped me work out the details in the past. but it seems i have been located in internet anonymity by more people than i was interested in having know my innermost turmoil. and that kind of turns me off. no longer can i use this therapy session to the best of my ability, for fear that it will come back to bite me in the ass. not interested in all that, thank you very much.
and yes, thank you, i know that i can privatize. i could go to the other blog & selectively privatize posts. i could start yet another blog & leave that one in the black hole where no one could find it or me. and those options really piss me off. i've about had it with this garbage of watching what i say for fear that someone may twist & turn it to suit their own purposes & use my words, my thoughts, my observations & interpretations to shit on someone else just because of some sort of something that i have nothing to do with. i mean, hell, if you can't tell your blog, who can you tell?
see ya in another few weeks. unless something breaks before then.
it's nice to be needed. really, it is. but during this long, ridiculously cold, ridiculously sick winter, most of my fodder for blogging has gone out the window. it's hard to come up with new stuff when you get to eyeball the same walls everyday. and visit the doctor i don't know how many times in how many weeks (including the hospital visit we threw in there for kicks) to get yet another nebulizer treatment & some medicine you aren't sure you know what it is or, for that matter, agree with.
and so, the muse is reduced to analyzing the everyday minutiae of life. the stuff of psychiatry journals & parenting magazines. and even that presents a roadblock. which brings me to my point (3 paragraphs later cause hell, yeah, that's what i do best!)
why do people blog? is it SUPPOSED to be for the blogosphere? to make sure they have something to do at work? to make sure they have something waiting for them when they open up their readers or just type in your address? i can't count how many times i have read blogs stating that it drives them crazy when people don't blog regularly. that they will cancel their subscriptions or just flat out refuse to visit the URL anymore if there isn't something waiting for them daily.
i guess that is the guilt method? to guilt people into posting? cause, yeah, that totally works for me! i have a reader with Lord-only-knows how many blogs on it. lost of people are faithful, some aren't. it doesn't ruin my day if someone goes missing for a week. it wasn't any extra effort on my part to not see their name on the list. don't read me the wrong way, i wouldn't wish anything to happen to anyone. but life sometimes gets in the way (see my last post & some before that) & sometimes you are too busy cleaning up puke or playing phone tag with the insurance company or pulling the 2-year-old off the ceiling fan or attempting to maybe-not-so-gently push your teenagers into being viable, sensible, friendly human beings to remember to post about the puke, insurance, ceiling fan flier or surly offspring. i get it. i do all of that and more on a daily basis. it's cool. i'll let you slide-no worries. i'll see you around again.
the thing that gets me is that i thought that blogging was a way to blow off steam. some bloggers have important info to share. but lots are just, like i said, posting daily minutiae for the world to read. maybe so we can know that we aren't alone sometimes? maybe so that they can blow off steam and, by typing it out and sharing it, get most of the weight off their chests. because we all know that a sorrow shared is a sorrow divided.
i guess i didn't realize that someone's world would come to an end if i didn't post a little blurb every day of my life. i thought i'd start this & hit it up everytime i had something neat to share or silly to recount. i think that the bloggy greed is another symptom of the world gone mad. feed me, seymour. heaven forbid we rest on our eternally busy tail ends for a time without adding our two cents to the teeming world of internet. we might upset someone's daily balance. forget about our own.
and one final point? i may have sorted out yet another reason for my disinterest lately. posting on here is something of a therapy session for me. where i can bitch about things that have long since ceased interesting 1. where i can put it down on "paper", if you will, which has always helped me work out the details in the past. but it seems i have been located in internet anonymity by more people than i was interested in having know my innermost turmoil. and that kind of turns me off. no longer can i use this therapy session to the best of my ability, for fear that it will come back to bite me in the ass. not interested in all that, thank you very much.
and yes, thank you, i know that i can privatize. i could go to the other blog & selectively privatize posts. i could start yet another blog & leave that one in the black hole where no one could find it or me. and those options really piss me off. i've about had it with this garbage of watching what i say for fear that someone may twist & turn it to suit their own purposes & use my words, my thoughts, my observations & interpretations to shit on someone else just because of some sort of something that i have nothing to do with. i mean, hell, if you can't tell your blog, who can you tell?
see ya in another few weeks. unless something breaks before then.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
slacker (again)
i just haven't had the energy to get on here & impress everyone with my scintilating wit & biting sarcasm. several things have happened in the lives of people i'm close to that have sucked up all my time, thought processes & energy. i feel like i'm needed in two places at once for different people and different reasons and i can't figure out how to spread myself between that, the family and school.
i feel as if the world is imploding around me and thank Heaven that mine seems to be, at the moment, shakily stable. and then i feel guilty because what right do i have to have a stable world in the face of all this other pain and need?
i think my girls will be ok. one seems to have a plan that is exciting her more and more each day. the other will cope, as she always does. strong, that one is. and i think there is someone in her life who can draw her out of herself like no one else ever has been able to.
but that won't stop me from worrying about them both. and wanting to sacrifice myself-my sleep, my sanity, my fantastic story-telling skills-to try to plan anything, everything, all things to make their worlds right again. i can't take back what has gone before. i so desperately want to pick up the pieces, turn back time, re-erect the towers that fell but i can't. for one, i can't even hold her hand or rub her back or let her sleep like i so desperately want to. it is driving me MAD.
B-i love you. i hurt for you. i'm glad G is there to do all the things i wish i could.
G-i hate that this happened to you. i'll be mad if you want me to. barring that, i'll be available for therapy whenever you need.
and for other people who will remain nameless for various reasons...i hope things can straighten out. i don't know that there is much else i can say.
i feel as if the world is imploding around me and thank Heaven that mine seems to be, at the moment, shakily stable. and then i feel guilty because what right do i have to have a stable world in the face of all this other pain and need?
i think my girls will be ok. one seems to have a plan that is exciting her more and more each day. the other will cope, as she always does. strong, that one is. and i think there is someone in her life who can draw her out of herself like no one else ever has been able to.
but that won't stop me from worrying about them both. and wanting to sacrifice myself-my sleep, my sanity, my fantastic story-telling skills-to try to plan anything, everything, all things to make their worlds right again. i can't take back what has gone before. i so desperately want to pick up the pieces, turn back time, re-erect the towers that fell but i can't. for one, i can't even hold her hand or rub her back or let her sleep like i so desperately want to. it is driving me MAD.
B-i love you. i hurt for you. i'm glad G is there to do all the things i wish i could.
G-i hate that this happened to you. i'll be mad if you want me to. barring that, i'll be available for therapy whenever you need.
and for other people who will remain nameless for various reasons...i hope things can straighten out. i don't know that there is much else i can say.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
wow.
30 Day Shred. that's about all i have to say.
i did the 1st day yesterday at about 3:30. by 12:30 last night, i was lying prone on the floor & it almost took a crane to get me up. today? my quads hurt. my abs hurt. my pecs hurt. muscles i don't have a name for hurt.
i don't think i'm that terribly out of shape. i have my "problem" areas & then there is the fact that littlest is almost completely done nursing so my #1 calorie burner has bitten the dust & also my metabolism seems to have finally taken a turn for the worst (gotta love growing up!). i don't get as much exercise as i should. ok, well, fine, i don't get much of any exercise-especially in the cold. but i'm still not a lump on the couch. so i'm surprised how much damage that little 25 minutes worth of workout has done me.
i didn't even use weights-as i don't have any & didn't realize i needed them. maybe i'll get some today. or maybe not. if i feel this broken without them, i'm a little concerned to see how bad it is with.
30 Day Shred - Jillian Michaels of Biggest Loser fame. check it out. but don't come cryin to me.
i did the 1st day yesterday at about 3:30. by 12:30 last night, i was lying prone on the floor & it almost took a crane to get me up. today? my quads hurt. my abs hurt. my pecs hurt. muscles i don't have a name for hurt.
i don't think i'm that terribly out of shape. i have my "problem" areas & then there is the fact that littlest is almost completely done nursing so my #1 calorie burner has bitten the dust & also my metabolism seems to have finally taken a turn for the worst (gotta love growing up!). i don't get as much exercise as i should. ok, well, fine, i don't get much of any exercise-especially in the cold. but i'm still not a lump on the couch. so i'm surprised how much damage that little 25 minutes worth of workout has done me.
i didn't even use weights-as i don't have any & didn't realize i needed them. maybe i'll get some today. or maybe not. if i feel this broken without them, i'm a little concerned to see how bad it is with.
30 Day Shred - Jillian Michaels of Biggest Loser fame. check it out. but don't come cryin to me.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
#%^@$&%^*&#$^W%#
you know when you are on a road trip & you are really hungry & you finally get to an exit on the interstate that has a convenience store with regular sized bags of chips instead of some scummy rest area that has the stupid snack size bags that are worth about 2 cents even though they charge you $1.25 for them and you run in the store & grab a bag because you are so hungry you could fall down flat in the oil splotch in the parking lot & not notice & then you get back to the car after shelling out $5.00 for a bag that would cost you like $2.00 in the grocery store but you don't care because you are just that hungry & you go to open the bag but it is stuck?
so you sit in the car & wrestle with it for 10 minutes & the asshole behind you is beeping his horn because you are hogging up a gas pump but you are determined to get the damn bag of chips open so you can get on the road without starving to death but you keep tugging on it every which way & it STILL won't open so then you are biting on it & your filling falls out so now not only are you hungry but now your tooth hurts as well & you're on a road trip so you don't really have a dentist sitting in your backseat on call for potato chip related injuries but you REALLY want those chips & you finally manage to get it open but in the worst possible way so it explodes into your face & your car & all your delicious chips are scattered in bits and pieces on your upholstery & in your console & your hair & one seems to have wedged its way into your seat belt since you didn't bother buckling up yet because you weren't actually driving since you've been sitting in the parking lot for 20 minutes now wrestling with a bag of potato chips.
and at this point you're just over the bag of chips so you jam the seat belt buckle in, chip and all, and drive on down the road until you find some crappy fast food joint where you settle for a bag of limp fries and a flat soda.
have you been there? i'm there, right now.
right at the very last point of frustration before the chip bag explodes in my face. and damn it, i don't like it.
so you sit in the car & wrestle with it for 10 minutes & the asshole behind you is beeping his horn because you are hogging up a gas pump but you are determined to get the damn bag of chips open so you can get on the road without starving to death but you keep tugging on it every which way & it STILL won't open so then you are biting on it & your filling falls out so now not only are you hungry but now your tooth hurts as well & you're on a road trip so you don't really have a dentist sitting in your backseat on call for potato chip related injuries but you REALLY want those chips & you finally manage to get it open but in the worst possible way so it explodes into your face & your car & all your delicious chips are scattered in bits and pieces on your upholstery & in your console & your hair & one seems to have wedged its way into your seat belt since you didn't bother buckling up yet because you weren't actually driving since you've been sitting in the parking lot for 20 minutes now wrestling with a bag of potato chips.
and at this point you're just over the bag of chips so you jam the seat belt buckle in, chip and all, and drive on down the road until you find some crappy fast food joint where you settle for a bag of limp fries and a flat soda.
have you been there? i'm there, right now.
right at the very last point of frustration before the chip bag explodes in my face. and damn it, i don't like it.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
just for you, j.b.
so, last night was 1's bowling night. which means it was also 1's go out night. he promised he wouldn't be late as biggest had to be up at the butt crack of dawn to go warm up for his game. and he rolled in later than expected. but he had a good excuse.
remember "R", mr. "homeschool's the debil"? apparently he is also "general civility is the debil" man, too. the normal hangout is a little bitty bar with about 15 bar stools, 2 tables & a pool table. it's a nice little place. it's...just...little. no biggie. when everyone has their manners on. and last night they didn't.
a fella was playing pool & was in a position where he needed to take a corner shot. which meant he would either have to 1-stab the person in the corner bar chair in the belly with his pool stick or 2-ask the person in that chair to move momentarily so that he can take his shot. he chose 2. he had his manners on. guess who was in the corner bar chair?
apparently chaos ensued. R refused to move. period. his excuse? i'm drinking a drink here in this chair & i'm not moving because i don't have to. quite a few people attempted gently assisting him with seeing the error of his ways but no good. the bartender/owner & the previous owner came on the scene. funny thing that the bartender pointed out? that R didn't have a drink. so his flimsy little argument held no water. or jack. or whatever assholes drink.
what the hell is his problem? again with the sense of entitlement. was this a parenting failure? did his parents instill this sense in him? this sense that he has to listen to no one about anything and that, no matter the subject, he wrote the book. or is his ego just naturally supersized? i will never understand how a person can get to the age of (approximately) 40 and not be able to fit themselves into the world without constantly bumping heads & knocking shoulders with the other inhabitants.
is it really that difficult to move your tail for 30 seconds so a man can make a shot? i'm sure that doing that would have endeared him more to everyone-instead he seems to have accomplished the opposite. he was gently removed from the bar. i don't guess it's a lifetime ban & judging by his attitude, he'll be back in there next week stirring the pot just because he can.
and, oh yeah, the kicker? he was out last night. on his wife's birthday. so i guess it's not just complete strangers and/or acquaintances that he treats like dirt. i feel like that should make me feel better. i don't think it does, though. it makes me feel bad for her.
remember "R", mr. "homeschool's the debil"? apparently he is also "general civility is the debil" man, too. the normal hangout is a little bitty bar with about 15 bar stools, 2 tables & a pool table. it's a nice little place. it's...just...little. no biggie. when everyone has their manners on. and last night they didn't.
a fella was playing pool & was in a position where he needed to take a corner shot. which meant he would either have to 1-stab the person in the corner bar chair in the belly with his pool stick or 2-ask the person in that chair to move momentarily so that he can take his shot. he chose 2. he had his manners on. guess who was in the corner bar chair?
apparently chaos ensued. R refused to move. period. his excuse? i'm drinking a drink here in this chair & i'm not moving because i don't have to. quite a few people attempted gently assisting him with seeing the error of his ways but no good. the bartender/owner & the previous owner came on the scene. funny thing that the bartender pointed out? that R didn't have a drink. so his flimsy little argument held no water. or jack. or whatever assholes drink.
what the hell is his problem? again with the sense of entitlement. was this a parenting failure? did his parents instill this sense in him? this sense that he has to listen to no one about anything and that, no matter the subject, he wrote the book. or is his ego just naturally supersized? i will never understand how a person can get to the age of (approximately) 40 and not be able to fit themselves into the world without constantly bumping heads & knocking shoulders with the other inhabitants.
is it really that difficult to move your tail for 30 seconds so a man can make a shot? i'm sure that doing that would have endeared him more to everyone-instead he seems to have accomplished the opposite. he was gently removed from the bar. i don't guess it's a lifetime ban & judging by his attitude, he'll be back in there next week stirring the pot just because he can.
and, oh yeah, the kicker? he was out last night. on his wife's birthday. so i guess it's not just complete strangers and/or acquaintances that he treats like dirt. i feel like that should make me feel better. i don't think it does, though. it makes me feel bad for her.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
more crazy
except this is real world crazy. in the midst of a family "meeting" today, we discovered something sad. the coaches of the 13-15 y.o. boys basketball team here on post have been cursing around the kids. the claim is that it only happened the very last time they had practice. but i have a hard time believing that. so we have our eyes out for this week.
this hurts my heart. i am familiar with some of the boys on the team & they aren't the type of children i'd really like my kid to be associating with by choice. we're limited to sports teams around here so i've sucked it up for basketball season. it doesn't last forever. but before the season/practice even started, i talked to biggest about some of the influences he would be facing by playing with these boys. and that he needed to be sure that those influences didn't find their way into his heart & mind.
i know at this age it is SO hard to use discernment while with peers. some kids don't have any issue holding their own in their own space while others are more subject to being tainted by undue influence. some kids are trying so hard to fit in that their common sense goes completely out the window when it comes to proper decision making skills while with their peer group. it's a hard fact of life. i'm trying very hard to stay out of this process with biggest & middlest so that they can learn the process on their own. sometimes it's hard to keep my mouth shut. it's a learning process for us all.
it REALLY ticks me off that someone who has been tasked...actually, VOLUNTEERED for the job...is not using their adult sense when interacting with these children. these sports are meant to build skills & confidence in these children so that when they play on a less recreational team, they will have a place on that team rather than bench warmer. these skills are meant to be taught in a reasonable environment. i don't consider cursing at players to be a reasonable environment.
granted, 1 and i aren't perfect angels when it comes to keeping our words consistently civil. but i have NEVER until last night heard biggest use anything near a curse word. he's been playing ball with this group for 3 weeks. it leads me to believe that this new found vocabulary wasn't picked up around here. he confirmed that when he told us that most of the players on his team use those words on a regular basis. which is to be expected, i suppose. most of them live on an army post where the soldiers don't know to watch their mouths-i've been witness to that myself. but i don't live on an army post & neither does biggest. i'd appreciate it if the adults responsible for my child several times a week would watch their mouths during their interactions. we're keeping an eye on the situation for the next week. if it doesn't improve, it will go higher up. if it still doesn't improve, i'm gonna have a little talk with the coaches. i'm sure it will embarrass the pieces out of biggest. eventually he will get over it.
he tells us that no one else really cares about the potty mouths on the court. i refuse to be the parent that doesn't care. i can't control everything but you can believe that i am going to work to take care of the things that need to be controlled. i'm learning how to choose my battles. i think this is one worth fighting.
this hurts my heart. i am familiar with some of the boys on the team & they aren't the type of children i'd really like my kid to be associating with by choice. we're limited to sports teams around here so i've sucked it up for basketball season. it doesn't last forever. but before the season/practice even started, i talked to biggest about some of the influences he would be facing by playing with these boys. and that he needed to be sure that those influences didn't find their way into his heart & mind.
i know at this age it is SO hard to use discernment while with peers. some kids don't have any issue holding their own in their own space while others are more subject to being tainted by undue influence. some kids are trying so hard to fit in that their common sense goes completely out the window when it comes to proper decision making skills while with their peer group. it's a hard fact of life. i'm trying very hard to stay out of this process with biggest & middlest so that they can learn the process on their own. sometimes it's hard to keep my mouth shut. it's a learning process for us all.
it REALLY ticks me off that someone who has been tasked...actually, VOLUNTEERED for the job...is not using their adult sense when interacting with these children. these sports are meant to build skills & confidence in these children so that when they play on a less recreational team, they will have a place on that team rather than bench warmer. these skills are meant to be taught in a reasonable environment. i don't consider cursing at players to be a reasonable environment.
granted, 1 and i aren't perfect angels when it comes to keeping our words consistently civil. but i have NEVER until last night heard biggest use anything near a curse word. he's been playing ball with this group for 3 weeks. it leads me to believe that this new found vocabulary wasn't picked up around here. he confirmed that when he told us that most of the players on his team use those words on a regular basis. which is to be expected, i suppose. most of them live on an army post where the soldiers don't know to watch their mouths-i've been witness to that myself. but i don't live on an army post & neither does biggest. i'd appreciate it if the adults responsible for my child several times a week would watch their mouths during their interactions. we're keeping an eye on the situation for the next week. if it doesn't improve, it will go higher up. if it still doesn't improve, i'm gonna have a little talk with the coaches. i'm sure it will embarrass the pieces out of biggest. eventually he will get over it.
he tells us that no one else really cares about the potty mouths on the court. i refuse to be the parent that doesn't care. i can't control everything but you can believe that i am going to work to take care of the things that need to be controlled. i'm learning how to choose my battles. i think this is one worth fighting.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
we interrupt this rant to bring you...
a different rant!
you know how sometimes you have your day all set up & then something stupid happens that causes it to all come crashing down around your ears? well, that was my evening.
middlest had basketball practice tonight. the original plan is for middlest & biggest to walk/ride the bus to practice - thus not forcing me to drive all over God's green earth 4 times a week (we've finally discovered the joys of having children on two different teams in the same sport. with practices on opposite days. but games on the same day. argh.) but today it was raining. and i needed to grocery shop. and hit the library. so basically, if anyone is counting, i needed to be in three places at once...cooking dinner, grocery shopping & taking middlest to the gym. oh, yes, and then later was supposed to be at a basketball meeting
1 volunteered to take middlest to the gym so that i only had to be in two places at once. and that was just fine b/c what mama isn't used to being in two places at one time? and that's when it all came crashing down. it started with this phone call. "uh, you're going to have to cancel or reschedule grocery shopping. (not so easy when there is NO FOOD IN THE HOUSE since we spent the weekend in 1-seoul or 2-traffic) my car overheated & i don't think i should drive it." see, i could take the baby to the grocery store. but i learned a couple of months ago that with a littlest like i have - houdini-esque you could say - you don't take her to the grocery store unless you have back-up. which doesn't work very well, either, as the back-up is very good at asking for everything. which means that i usually end up spending about two times as much on groceries as i normally do. so back-up is really better known as fill-up (the cart, that is). so i don't take littlest to the grocery store if i can help it. so we still have no groceries.
because shortly after the overheating phone call, i got another phone call. and this time 1 & his hot-rod were broken down, of all places, directly in front of the front gate. and he was begging for antifreeze. oh for pete's sake. at least littlest had clothes on. hair wasn't combed but at least she had clothes. race over to post, locate the antifreeze, bite the head off the guy in the gas station who was kind enough to offer to help even after having his head bitten off (yes, i apologized), drove back around post with said antifreeze, car starts. thank goodness. break the traffic rules getting out of the gate to journey down the street so the mechanic who should know us by name & have us on his christmas card list at this point can look at the hot rod & tell us that the water pump has gone out.
so we're back to being a one car family. and i've decided that, but for the exchange rate, the car is, by all rights, totalled by now. as we've spent as much, in won, on it as we spent, in dollars, to purchase it. the next thing that goes out on that bugger, the bugger itself goes. 1 loves his hot rod but, dangit, i refuse to spend anything else on it. forget it. not gonna happen.
so let's recap.
groceries gotten? nope
library trip? nope again
dinner cooked? actually, yes, but then had to be reheated & just wasn't the same
basketball meeting attended? yes, again. by the whole collette/coaxum family. that was ridiculous.
it's christmas time. i don't want to spend money on a gosh-darn car. blah. a radiator, window motor, window regulator, door lock & water pump later, let's pray this is the end of it. if not, i have a sneaking suspicion that hot rod is gonna find himself in the han river. if you see it on the news, forget you know me.
you know how sometimes you have your day all set up & then something stupid happens that causes it to all come crashing down around your ears? well, that was my evening.
middlest had basketball practice tonight. the original plan is for middlest & biggest to walk/ride the bus to practice - thus not forcing me to drive all over God's green earth 4 times a week (we've finally discovered the joys of having children on two different teams in the same sport. with practices on opposite days. but games on the same day. argh.) but today it was raining. and i needed to grocery shop. and hit the library. so basically, if anyone is counting, i needed to be in three places at once...cooking dinner, grocery shopping & taking middlest to the gym. oh, yes, and then later was supposed to be at a basketball meeting
1 volunteered to take middlest to the gym so that i only had to be in two places at once. and that was just fine b/c what mama isn't used to being in two places at one time? and that's when it all came crashing down. it started with this phone call. "uh, you're going to have to cancel or reschedule grocery shopping. (not so easy when there is NO FOOD IN THE HOUSE since we spent the weekend in 1-seoul or 2-traffic) my car overheated & i don't think i should drive it." see, i could take the baby to the grocery store. but i learned a couple of months ago that with a littlest like i have - houdini-esque you could say - you don't take her to the grocery store unless you have back-up. which doesn't work very well, either, as the back-up is very good at asking for everything. which means that i usually end up spending about two times as much on groceries as i normally do. so back-up is really better known as fill-up (the cart, that is). so i don't take littlest to the grocery store if i can help it. so we still have no groceries.
because shortly after the overheating phone call, i got another phone call. and this time 1 & his hot-rod were broken down, of all places, directly in front of the front gate. and he was begging for antifreeze. oh for pete's sake. at least littlest had clothes on. hair wasn't combed but at least she had clothes. race over to post, locate the antifreeze, bite the head off the guy in the gas station who was kind enough to offer to help even after having his head bitten off (yes, i apologized), drove back around post with said antifreeze, car starts. thank goodness. break the traffic rules getting out of the gate to journey down the street so the mechanic who should know us by name & have us on his christmas card list at this point can look at the hot rod & tell us that the water pump has gone out.
so we're back to being a one car family. and i've decided that, but for the exchange rate, the car is, by all rights, totalled by now. as we've spent as much, in won, on it as we spent, in dollars, to purchase it. the next thing that goes out on that bugger, the bugger itself goes. 1 loves his hot rod but, dangit, i refuse to spend anything else on it. forget it. not gonna happen.
so let's recap.
groceries gotten? nope
library trip? nope again
dinner cooked? actually, yes, but then had to be reheated & just wasn't the same
basketball meeting attended? yes, again. by the whole collette/coaxum family. that was ridiculous.
it's christmas time. i don't want to spend money on a gosh-darn car. blah. a radiator, window motor, window regulator, door lock & water pump later, let's pray this is the end of it. if not, i have a sneaking suspicion that hot rod is gonna find himself in the han river. if you see it on the news, forget you know me.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
and the rant goes on
You didn't think I'd forget, did you?
Ah, yes, breastfeeding. Nature's first food. Asshole's second target.
Somehow he managed to draw a parallel between homeschool & breastfeeding. I THINK it had something to do with mamas having issues with letting their children go, thus keeping them home for school & also encouraging extended breastfeeding. I think that's where it came from. This was the second part of his monologue so I may have been confused by all the BS the first part held.
I was (quite luckily, I might add) informed of the fact that DOCTORS (oh, very important! i better listen up!) have said that breastfeeding past 4 months is BAD for babies! And does anyone want to know the reason that doctors say this? (looks around to make sure everyone is paying very close attention) It's because of the PAIN involved to the mother due to the fact that at 4 months, most babies are teething. Yes, that's right, folks! You heard it here! Everybody put away that boob right now if your baby is more than 4 months old! Don't you know that the fact that baby MAY at this point in his life be teething &, therefore, could cause a little pain to your boobies at some point is MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than the antibodies, health benefits and generalized well-being that nursing imparts? *coughcoughbullshitcoughcough** I took a deep breath. The bar has a new owner & I'm still trying to make friends so I didn't want to make a scene. But if some jackass 40 year old with one child & no boobs thinks he's going to tell me that breastfeeding mothers are doing irreparable damage to their children by feeding them the way God intended and that I would smile & nod & agree with him, he had another think coming. The entire time he was rambling along, I had my eyes on 1. Who was biting his lip & watching me out of the corner of his eye. Possibly waiting for me to explode. He's known me too long.
Here's what my research tells me. Nursing with no other form of supplement or food is recommended until the age of 6 months. Nursing a child provides that child with antibodies from the mother, provides them with the proper amount of calories to help them grow without becoming little fatties, creates a bond between mother & child that, in my opinion, cannot be matched, produces children with fewer (I did not say no) allergies and promotes mental & physical development. One of my mother's favorite sayings is that breastmilk builds brains, not bones. Not to mention the convenience (no stumbling to the kitchen in the middle of the night to groggily mix a bottle), the smaller amount of "stuff" that has to fit in the diaper bag, never having to worry if the milk is at the proper temperature. This list could take over my blog. Once baby food and, eventually, table food is started, supplemental nursing to one year is accepted in most pediatric circles. Should a family take a "no vaccination" or even "selective vaccination" stance, breastfeeding is recommended until the age of 2, due to the additional antibodies & health benefits imparted by mother's milk.
We are a selective vaccination (at least for littlest) family. Had I known as much about vaccines with middlest as I do now, I may well have been even more selective that I was. (middlest is allergic to pertussis vaccine and to this day does not get it). That & if I had had a more parent-supporting pediatrician at the time, that probably would have helped too. But I digress, as usual.
Littlest is still nursing. She will be 21 months 2 days after Christmas. We are down to morning, nap & night. She asks to nurse several times during the day but, for the most part, does not get it. Littlest has a wheat allergy &, as such, her diet is rather limited. Nursing does not take the place of any meals but I do feel that it supplements her nutrition enough that she is not in need of any additional vitamins or medical intervention of any sort. I am seeing signs that our nursing journey is coming to an end but am not forcing it. Apparently I have also become a member of the child-led weaning camp (or is it cult, R? hahaha!), as well. Also there is the fact that littlest has not had an ear infection in her life. Lots of children littlest's age that I know have had quite a few & several already have tubes in their ears. I'm not saying that this can definitely be attributed solely to their mothers' decisions to nurse or not. I understand that genetics play a big part in health. I'm reasonably healthy and, as such, so are my girls. But I do feel that nursing littlest this long has certainly played a big part in keeping her healthy. To date, she has had several colds, a case of the stomach flu (thanks, dad!), one case of undetermined cause of barfing all night and a case of roseola. All normal childhood issues. Nothing out of the ordinary.
R rambled on for awhile about breastfeeding & when 1 could get a word in edgewise, he spoke up. The look on that man's face when he found out that littlest is 20 months & still nursing was close to priceless. To his credit, he didn't backtrack on his views. He just continued to spew out more ridiculousness. We did our best to defend our stance but when you are dealing with an arrogant idiot of this caliber, there is no penetrating his armor. He has girded himself with stupidity for so long that he has finally managed to convince himself that he is right, be all & end all.
Next up - the breastfeeding/homeschooling cult. AKA "why I should move to California".
Oh, and Belynda? I'll fight you for first in line. Bring your easter eggs, traffic cones & forks. (how'd ya like that plug?!
)
Ah, yes, breastfeeding. Nature's first food. Asshole's second target.
Somehow he managed to draw a parallel between homeschool & breastfeeding. I THINK it had something to do with mamas having issues with letting their children go, thus keeping them home for school & also encouraging extended breastfeeding. I think that's where it came from. This was the second part of his monologue so I may have been confused by all the BS the first part held.
I was (quite luckily, I might add) informed of the fact that DOCTORS (oh, very important! i better listen up!) have said that breastfeeding past 4 months is BAD for babies! And does anyone want to know the reason that doctors say this? (looks around to make sure everyone is paying very close attention) It's because of the PAIN involved to the mother due to the fact that at 4 months, most babies are teething. Yes, that's right, folks! You heard it here! Everybody put away that boob right now if your baby is more than 4 months old! Don't you know that the fact that baby MAY at this point in his life be teething &, therefore, could cause a little pain to your boobies at some point is MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than the antibodies, health benefits and generalized well-being that nursing imparts? *coughcoughbullshitcoughcough** I took a deep breath. The bar has a new owner & I'm still trying to make friends so I didn't want to make a scene. But if some jackass 40 year old with one child & no boobs thinks he's going to tell me that breastfeeding mothers are doing irreparable damage to their children by feeding them the way God intended and that I would smile & nod & agree with him, he had another think coming. The entire time he was rambling along, I had my eyes on 1. Who was biting his lip & watching me out of the corner of his eye. Possibly waiting for me to explode. He's known me too long.
Here's what my research tells me. Nursing with no other form of supplement or food is recommended until the age of 6 months. Nursing a child provides that child with antibodies from the mother, provides them with the proper amount of calories to help them grow without becoming little fatties, creates a bond between mother & child that, in my opinion, cannot be matched, produces children with fewer (I did not say no) allergies and promotes mental & physical development. One of my mother's favorite sayings is that breastmilk builds brains, not bones. Not to mention the convenience (no stumbling to the kitchen in the middle of the night to groggily mix a bottle), the smaller amount of "stuff" that has to fit in the diaper bag, never having to worry if the milk is at the proper temperature. This list could take over my blog. Once baby food and, eventually, table food is started, supplemental nursing to one year is accepted in most pediatric circles. Should a family take a "no vaccination" or even "selective vaccination" stance, breastfeeding is recommended until the age of 2, due to the additional antibodies & health benefits imparted by mother's milk.
We are a selective vaccination (at least for littlest) family. Had I known as much about vaccines with middlest as I do now, I may well have been even more selective that I was. (middlest is allergic to pertussis vaccine and to this day does not get it). That & if I had had a more parent-supporting pediatrician at the time, that probably would have helped too. But I digress, as usual.
Littlest is still nursing. She will be 21 months 2 days after Christmas. We are down to morning, nap & night. She asks to nurse several times during the day but, for the most part, does not get it. Littlest has a wheat allergy &, as such, her diet is rather limited. Nursing does not take the place of any meals but I do feel that it supplements her nutrition enough that she is not in need of any additional vitamins or medical intervention of any sort. I am seeing signs that our nursing journey is coming to an end but am not forcing it. Apparently I have also become a member of the child-led weaning camp (or is it cult, R? hahaha!), as well. Also there is the fact that littlest has not had an ear infection in her life. Lots of children littlest's age that I know have had quite a few & several already have tubes in their ears. I'm not saying that this can definitely be attributed solely to their mothers' decisions to nurse or not. I understand that genetics play a big part in health. I'm reasonably healthy and, as such, so are my girls. But I do feel that nursing littlest this long has certainly played a big part in keeping her healthy. To date, she has had several colds, a case of the stomach flu (thanks, dad!), one case of undetermined cause of barfing all night and a case of roseola. All normal childhood issues. Nothing out of the ordinary.
R rambled on for awhile about breastfeeding & when 1 could get a word in edgewise, he spoke up. The look on that man's face when he found out that littlest is 20 months & still nursing was close to priceless. To his credit, he didn't backtrack on his views. He just continued to spew out more ridiculousness. We did our best to defend our stance but when you are dealing with an arrogant idiot of this caliber, there is no penetrating his armor. He has girded himself with stupidity for so long that he has finally managed to convince himself that he is right, be all & end all.
Next up - the breastfeeding/homeschooling cult. AKA "why I should move to California".
Oh, and Belynda? I'll fight you for first in line. Bring your easter eggs, traffic cones & forks. (how'd ya like that plug?!
)
Sunday, December 7, 2008
caution...rant/tirade ahead
If someone comes up with a miracle drug to rid the world of assholes, please do let me know. I’ll be first in line to purchase.
1 & I went out for a bit Friday night. (Ok, well, I went out for a bit & came home due to mommy guilt. He stayed out for quite a bit & boy did he pay for it the next day & the next. Hungover people can be quite annoying. Nuff said). So we're sitting at the bar & some fella (R) walks in. Apparently 1 knows him. He introduces me & the first thing R says is "homeschooler, huh?" And I’m all "how did you know" which, of course, if 1 knows him, maybe that's how he knows. But I don't know how well 1 knows him so I discount that idea for the moment. The 2nd thing R says is "you've just got that ultra conservative look about you." !!! And he says it with a look on his face like he just bit into something nasty. And then the fun begins.
That man is apparently against EVERYTHING I am "for". Or, as will be revealed, have been "for" at some time in my life. I was treated to an oral dissertation on how homeschooling beyond 6th grade is a grave disservice to children, that breastfeeding beyond 4 months is NOT recommended by doctors, that it is "interesting" that middlest's bio-asshole (see! another one!) is black & that homeschoolers who breastfeed past 4 months are a cult. Oh, yeah, and that I should move to California because I’d fit in well there. There may have been more but by that point, I had decided it was either tune out or get out & it was way too cold to venture back out yet.
This man is 40 years old, has one daughter the same age as middlest & apparently thinks he owns the world & all the information in it. Thus, anyone who disagrees with his narrow-minded &, at times, incorrect & backed up by research incorrect views must be beat about the head with said views until they fall down on the floor & acquiesce to his larger brain, thus assuaging his super ego which was the whole point of the treatise to begin with. I could not believe his audacity.
First he attacked our decision to homeschool. I’ve had to defend it before so that was no big deal. Sometimes I attack our decision to homeschool after a particularly miserable week, or day, or hour. I’m ok with that. Practice makes perfect. He had all kinds of reasons for why homeschool is a poor decision. Let’s see if I can recall...
1-the socialization myth. Good try. Biggest & middlest have all kinds of buddies on post. They don't see them every day (see: miserable day) but do see them at least every weekend, if not more. With basketball season starting up, they'll see them even more. I don't keep my kids isolated in my home. If we were in the states there would be even more of an exposure to other people. Alas, homeschool co-ops here = nonexistent in this area so we make do with what we've got. Neither one of these children is lacking in social skills. Cleaning skills? Listening skills? Acting like a decent human being rather than a teenager skills? Yes! Social skills? No!
2-socialization myth spin-off. Something along the lines of if my children were in public school, they would ALREADY KNOW ALL ABOUT SEX & SEXUALITY & therefore wouldn’t have any curiosity about it. Part of his "research" to substantiate this pig-headed opinion was that a "friend" of his homeschooled & sent her 2 children off to college in other states. One of them came home pregnant 8 months later. (don’t people always have friends of the same race, color, creed or mentality of the people they are currently de-
meaning?) That’s plain out & out stupid. My children don’t NEED to be exposed to garbage to make them “normal”. Again, they are not completely sheltered in our home. Their father & I allow them freedoms based on their age & our estimation of their maturity level. This does not include movies based on gratuitous sexuality, pornography or video games with sexuality or great amounts of profanity. I know that they have both seen & heard & played these things before since, try as I might, I cannot control the world, other people’s children, other children’s parents or bio-idiots. But they don’t get that garbage in my home. They’ll be out there in that big, bad world soon enough. My job is to give them enough of a moral background to stand on to support themselves in all manners - social, moral, intellectual, logical - the list could go on. Should they choose to take a different road than the one I set them on, I can only hope & pray that they find their way home again quickly. I feel that garbage in = garbage out (as they have proven to me in the past). I refuse to feed the landfill.
3-And I can’t forget the blurb where told me something about “if your daughter goes off to college with her virginity intact…blah, blah, blah”. I had tuned out the sex talk at that point. I really wonder what he will do the first time he walks in on his daughter in bed with her boyfriend. Break out the champagne?
I think I’ve pretty much covered the gist of his stance on homeschooling. Are you disgusted yet? I was. I haven’t figured out why I stayed around for my ears to be further abused. I’ll have to plea the BELOW FREEZING weather outside. We hadn’t been there for that long & I really wasn’t ready to brave it yet again. And since this post is threatening to turn into a massive book, I think I’ll continue it further next post. Stay tuned!
1 & I went out for a bit Friday night. (Ok, well, I went out for a bit & came home due to mommy guilt. He stayed out for quite a bit & boy did he pay for it the next day & the next. Hungover people can be quite annoying. Nuff said). So we're sitting at the bar & some fella (R) walks in. Apparently 1 knows him. He introduces me & the first thing R says is "homeschooler, huh?" And I’m all "how did you know" which, of course, if 1 knows him, maybe that's how he knows. But I don't know how well 1 knows him so I discount that idea for the moment. The 2nd thing R says is "you've just got that ultra conservative look about you." !!! And he says it with a look on his face like he just bit into something nasty. And then the fun begins.
That man is apparently against EVERYTHING I am "for". Or, as will be revealed, have been "for" at some time in my life. I was treated to an oral dissertation on how homeschooling beyond 6th grade is a grave disservice to children, that breastfeeding beyond 4 months is NOT recommended by doctors, that it is "interesting" that middlest's bio-asshole (see! another one!) is black & that homeschoolers who breastfeed past 4 months are a cult. Oh, yeah, and that I should move to California because I’d fit in well there. There may have been more but by that point, I had decided it was either tune out or get out & it was way too cold to venture back out yet.
This man is 40 years old, has one daughter the same age as middlest & apparently thinks he owns the world & all the information in it. Thus, anyone who disagrees with his narrow-minded &, at times, incorrect & backed up by research incorrect views must be beat about the head with said views until they fall down on the floor & acquiesce to his larger brain, thus assuaging his super ego which was the whole point of the treatise to begin with. I could not believe his audacity.
First he attacked our decision to homeschool. I’ve had to defend it before so that was no big deal. Sometimes I attack our decision to homeschool after a particularly miserable week, or day, or hour. I’m ok with that. Practice makes perfect. He had all kinds of reasons for why homeschool is a poor decision. Let’s see if I can recall...
1-the socialization myth. Good try. Biggest & middlest have all kinds of buddies on post. They don't see them every day (see: miserable day) but do see them at least every weekend, if not more. With basketball season starting up, they'll see them even more. I don't keep my kids isolated in my home. If we were in the states there would be even more of an exposure to other people. Alas, homeschool co-ops here = nonexistent in this area so we make do with what we've got. Neither one of these children is lacking in social skills. Cleaning skills? Listening skills? Acting like a decent human being rather than a teenager skills? Yes! Social skills? No!
2-socialization myth spin-off. Something along the lines of if my children were in public school, they would ALREADY KNOW ALL ABOUT SEX & SEXUALITY & therefore wouldn’t have any curiosity about it. Part of his "research" to substantiate this pig-headed opinion was that a "friend" of his homeschooled & sent her 2 children off to college in other states. One of them came home pregnant 8 months later. (don’t people always have friends of the same race, color, creed or mentality of the people they are currently de-
meaning?) That’s plain out & out stupid. My children don’t NEED to be exposed to garbage to make them “normal”. Again, they are not completely sheltered in our home. Their father & I allow them freedoms based on their age & our estimation of their maturity level. This does not include movies based on gratuitous sexuality, pornography or video games with sexuality or great amounts of profanity. I know that they have both seen & heard & played these things before since, try as I might, I cannot control the world, other people’s children, other children’s parents or bio-idiots. But they don’t get that garbage in my home. They’ll be out there in that big, bad world soon enough. My job is to give them enough of a moral background to stand on to support themselves in all manners - social, moral, intellectual, logical - the list could go on. Should they choose to take a different road than the one I set them on, I can only hope & pray that they find their way home again quickly. I feel that garbage in = garbage out (as they have proven to me in the past). I refuse to feed the landfill.
3-And I can’t forget the blurb where told me something about “if your daughter goes off to college with her virginity intact…blah, blah, blah”. I had tuned out the sex talk at that point. I really wonder what he will do the first time he walks in on his daughter in bed with her boyfriend. Break out the champagne?
I think I’ve pretty much covered the gist of his stance on homeschooling. Are you disgusted yet? I was. I haven’t figured out why I stayed around for my ears to be further abused. I’ll have to plea the BELOW FREEZING weather outside. We hadn’t been there for that long & I really wasn’t ready to brave it yet again. And since this post is threatening to turn into a massive book, I think I’ll continue it further next post. Stay tuned!
Saturday, August 23, 2008
profanity warning
FUCK!!! FUCK!!! FUCK!!! FUCK!!!
ok, so i figured out how to hide it but it's still there. my laptop died tonight. dead. like "hi, use me as a doorstop b/c i'm not any good for anything else" dead. and all my stuff has gone with it. 1 is trying to figure out how to rescue it but i'm more than a little worried that it is gone forever. i want to curl up in a fetal position & cry. i want to beat my fists on the floor. i want to hurl the damn thing out the window.
what stuff, you ask? what stuff, exactly, has you so spun up?
1-homeschool downloads...this includes different side lessons, ideas, sources, things like this. most of these were free but one time things. and some of them i paid for. if i dug around in my inbox, i may be able to resurrect the paid things. but where would i resurrect them to since my faithful partner is dead?
2-pictures. that got taken (deleted!) off the camera but never placed on a disk. yeah, yeah, i know. don't tell me.
3-(should be #1 on the list but i think you'll be able to figure that out) a semester's worth of homeschool lesson plans. A SEMESTER. that is roughly 85 lessons...17 weeks...of 7 classes a day.... someone please shoot me now. right now. here, i'll mark a spot on my forehead for you.
1 was trying to tell me what might could be wrong with it. i had to tell him to hush before i threw up. all that work is dead. and we start school in a week. a week full of jet lag, new orders (and all the new ID's, etc. that come with them!), sports registrations, unpacking & organizing, grocery shopping for EVERYTHING since we've been gone for a month. and now i've got to squeeze in a least a week's worth of lesson plans. excuse me while i go throw up. and then lay on the floor & cry.
ok, so i figured out how to hide it but it's still there. my laptop died tonight. dead. like "hi, use me as a doorstop b/c i'm not any good for anything else" dead. and all my stuff has gone with it. 1 is trying to figure out how to rescue it but i'm more than a little worried that it is gone forever. i want to curl up in a fetal position & cry. i want to beat my fists on the floor. i want to hurl the damn thing out the window.
what stuff, you ask? what stuff, exactly, has you so spun up?
1-homeschool downloads...this includes different side lessons, ideas, sources, things like this. most of these were free but one time things. and some of them i paid for. if i dug around in my inbox, i may be able to resurrect the paid things. but where would i resurrect them to since my faithful partner is dead?
2-pictures. that got taken (deleted!) off the camera but never placed on a disk. yeah, yeah, i know. don't tell me.
3-(should be #1 on the list but i think you'll be able to figure that out) a semester's worth of homeschool lesson plans. A SEMESTER. that is roughly 85 lessons...17 weeks...of 7 classes a day.... someone please shoot me now. right now. here, i'll mark a spot on my forehead for you.
1 was trying to tell me what might could be wrong with it. i had to tell him to hush before i threw up. all that work is dead. and we start school in a week. a week full of jet lag, new orders (and all the new ID's, etc. that come with them!), sports registrations, unpacking & organizing, grocery shopping for EVERYTHING since we've been gone for a month. and now i've got to squeeze in a least a week's worth of lesson plans. excuse me while i go throw up. and then lay on the floor & cry.
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