I haven’t been around. Have you noticed. Oh I am sure you have. I have in fact been dealing with a situation and HG’s school. I am not happy about it at all. In fact I am so unhappy about it that I am going to let you in on it. It deals with a dead mouse, mittened hands, and bullying.
HG came home on Monday quite pale. When I asked her what was wrong she started to cry and of course told me nothing. I reassured her that everything would be ok. I had hoped that she would let me in, but I could not get through. Monday evening she finally confided in me. She started with explaining that she hoped I wouldn’t be upset with her. I told her to just let me know whatwas wrong. Then the floodgates were opened. She explained how at school the group she hangs out with came upon a dead mouse on the playground. She went to go tell her teacher about it but one of the girls picked it up with her glove and explained that it was so cute and how she had to keep it. She then made a bed for it and put it down. One of the other girls (that generally picks very hard on HG) picked up the mouse and gave it a little squish. She then got grossed out and threw it over the fence behind them. After that she proceeded to wipe her mittened hands on HG’s face. HG is EXTREMELY germaphobic. In complete horror she stood there and took the abuse. She did not know how to react. She did not want to be a tattle tale. She wanted to do the right thing and just take it. She’s a by the book kind of gal.
As she was explaining thing I felt my anger get hotter and hotter. The girl that picks on her is the principal’s daughter and is generally untouchable. That HG also knew. She felt embarrassed and horrified. I told her that we would handle it but we would wait to see what came of it.
The next day she was a little grey, but I kind of figured she would be. The day after that she was definately not feeling well. I was volunteering in the lunch room that day. I explained to her teacher that I would probably be taking her out early. I needed to get her to the doctor. I felt that it might have something to do with what had happened. I then explained to her what had happened. She was mortified.
I took HG to the doctor and as it turned out she had strept. The short term test showed nothing but the long term test showed she had it. They also took samples from her nose, ears, throat, and then drew blood. Because of the rodent issues in Colorado with diseased rodents they decided to error on the side of safety. This of course was a horrible experience for her. They wanted to rule as much out as possible.
Today the teacher pulled me aside. She informed me that she addressed the situation with the parents in question. The children were given in house suspension. This meant that they had to go to school and do their work but all by themselves in the detention room. The teacher took it seriously and wanted to make sure that I knew that it had been addressed.
So, what did I do this last week? Nothing fun that’s for sure. Thinking about a dead rat gives me the willies.

I am finding women my age, married for 8 plus years with children saying the same thing over and over about their husbands. It seems as if at around the ages of 32-40 that they go a little bananas. I thought midlife crisis started at say…45-50. Apparently either the age has moved up or I was clueless from the beginning.
Someone please explain to me why this happens. I have had three friends call in the last week to say they are seperating from their husbands and they are all for the same reason. The reason is that their husband has lost good sense of himself and either had an affair, went out and bought something terribly expensive without discussion, had an inappropriate friendship that had potential for trouble…etc. On top of that they all ask their wives the same question, “Is this all there is?” I don’t understand.
When they look around do they in fact see responsibility without acknowledging the gift of a good wife and children? Do they see a messy house and disorganization instead of being thankful that they have the means to support the household? Do they want to be footloose and fancy free…really? Because if so, doesn’t an affair constitute another woman and another responsibility? If I am half off my rocker let me know because frankly…I don’t get it.

I think one of the saddest things about children these days is the fact that they do not have many people to look up to. My mother said when she was a child she looked up to Florence Nightingale. When I was a child I looked up to Jackie Kennedy. (I know I know it’s silly) These days there is no one to look up to in the same wondrous way that I did as a child. Obviously, Brittany for us is out of the question. HH use to really enjoy Hillary Duff. Now that she has grown up a little, she is starting down the path of the teen girls that grow up. Granted she’s not as provocative but still…. not exactly what I want for my 10-year-old daughter.
Recently HH started watching Hannah Montana She really enjoys her. Actually I enjoy sitting along side of her and watching it myself. I cringe after watching and wonder if she will follow the grown up path of others that have gone before. I hope not.
It is hard for a child to differentiate between the “stage life” of a person and their real life. Of course they understand that there is a difference between reality and non-reality, but in general they cannot understand the way that the person is may not be appropriate to them. The way that most dress there is no way in Banana County that I will let my daughter out of her room let alone our home wearing some items. I would not purchase them in the first place. Some day she will be making her own choices and like all of those gone before she will come to the fork in the road as to what she will portray on her body as part of her body image.
I wish I could place an add for an older tween that was spunky, kind, doesn’t drink, does not sleep around or do drugs. Mor than that I would want one that has a solid understanding of who she is and confidence enough in herself to withstand the teen years.
I know that she looks up to me. I know that she thinks the world of me. I also know that I would be naive to not realize that the things she hears and sees every day more than affect her. She makes those choices now on a daily basis. I just hope that I can guide her to make good choices without squelching her spirit.
If you should know a good tween…feel free to share.

For those of you that are my regular readers you know that back a while there was a situation that happened with 5 boys. As of tonight I have an update.

The oldest is enjoying his foster home. I see him almost every Sunday that we are at church. He is a joy. He is loving the environment that they have in their home. He told me that they might raise their voices to their children (especially when they aren’t listening) but they NEVER hit them in the face. He said that one of their children was fighting with another and the parents stepped in and raised their voice. It made him nervous. Then he saw that they made up, said they were sorry and went on. No blood, no fits of despair, no anger….just love and concern. He is doing summer school to make up for missing 62 days of school. Now how in HE** do you miss 62 days of school. He said he was taking care of his brothers. I honestly believe him. That woman.
The next one (9) is still in a temp foster home. He is doing ok. He is a very different and dark child. His foster home seems to be good but they are having trouble finding him a permanent foster home. He is working with a child therapist. He feels guilty for the baby’s death. I don’t know how he took that on himself. I honestly don’t know much more than that on him
#3 is one year older now and LOVED his birthday with the foster family he is with. He’s happy and healthy. Not much more on him.
The last one is doing better. His arm has healed nicely. He likes to pretend it’s still hurt. (silly boy) I think he liked the attention the cast gave him. The bad news is that the original break they had to go back and reset. (OUCH) The growth plate in his arm was touched but not severly damaged. I guess we will know more in the coming years.
The baby of course as most of you know passed away. He was buried in an unmarked grave somewhere. I can not for the life of me remember the wording they used to describe the name of the area but it made me shudder a bit. Wherever he is, I know that he is more peaceful now than when he was here.
That is the update on the boys. I know I have had a ton of requests trying to know what happened. This is the last news as of last night.

Who am I? Lately, I have been hearing that a lot from my friends. It seems as if my group of energetic mommies of newborns have become lethargic mommies of tweens and now wonder if they can run away. I haven’t just heard this once or twice. Has it crossed my mind? A break once in a while…YES but leaving for months at a time, I don’t think I could do it.
What is it that makes moms want to run away join the circus, make a fresh starts, seek greener pastures…etc. when our children and our marriage hit this age. I am curious. I kind of think that it is the day to day responsibility that makes us crack. May be it is the redundancy of those days I don’t know. May be we want to relive our fun years as a teenager and young adult.
Could it be that in becoming a mom the identity of who we were and who we are gets lost in the day to day shuffle of cleaning up and taking care of our families? We greeted motherhood with such zest and energy and then suddenly we are older, and what do we have to show for it? Per my dear friend her answer is that we have a semi clean house and tween agers that hate us and are mouthy.
I am just putting this out there for discussion.

Just a little FYI…..NEVER EVER EVER EVER USE CHEAPSEATS.COM FOR ANYTHING. Pay the extra cost to go through someone else. REPEAT DO NOT DO IT. Their customer service is the absolute WORST experience I have ever rummaged through. Thank heavens for Miss R there in the Atlanta office or I would have been spouting horrible things in their general direction. (ok so I already was a few days ago) I think the blue streak would have reached to Atlanta.
I went to order tickets. Everything seemed to be ok. Everything seemed to be wonderful. NO! I got an email saying that the airline did not accept the reservation. The airline did not accept the credit card that I paid with. They would only accept American Express. Fine…I called and put it on hubby’s American Express. (of course I talked to him first…it’s his sister we are buying the tickets for for Pete’s sake!) I called….was on hold yesterday (our anniversary) from 2:42 pm until 5:25 pm. That was just yesterday. These people can not get it straight.
So tonight I called to make sure everything was ok. They wouldn’t speak to me. Even though I already paid for the ticket because it’s under my husband’s card THAT I CALLED IN IN THE FIRST FREAKING PLACE they won’t talk to me until today at 3:00 pm. Oh and get this…NO ONE WILL LET ME TALK TO ANOTHER SUPERVISOR. IDIOTS.
Oh Miss R. you are going to get a phone call today. I will wait until 3:00 pm and dial you up. There’s going to be havoc to pay for the hired helps non help. Little Miss H doesn’t know who she is dealing with. I’m a woman that’s been on hold for hours on end. Never a good thing.
Bottom line…I just wanted the reservation. Normally it has never been an issue. Just an FYI for future purposes….AVOID CHEAPSEATS. Unless of course you want the cheap treatment to go along with it.

I despise getting a cheap toy from a restaurant or a salon and watching the disappointment in the children’s eyes when it lasts 5 minutes. Either get a better quality of toy or just skip the toy and lower the price. Just saying.

Can someone please tell me why it takes so freaking long to get a problem resolved. For instance when something I ordered for Christmas did not come I called. They had their people call my people (me) and we had a chit chat on customer service. Then after that they called back and said that it was shipped but they did not know who signed for it. Then the next response is that it was shipped, no one signed for it. It’s out in limbo somewhere. It has taken me way too much of my time to get one lousy gift.
We recently changed insurance for like the 3rd time in 8 months. (lovely corporate buyouts and changing jobs) I had some tests ran in October and then had some more done in November and December. Because they can’t seem to catch up with our tag team insurance they want us to pay over 500.00 for this. So again I have to call, get the doctor’s office to file it differently and get the insurance to recognize that we have officially changed to a different plan. You would think that this should be all together.
It seems like automation has helped with some things, yet with others it seems to just makes things more difficult. Some days I just want to scream at the top of my lungs because I waste so much of my time doing other the job of others.
The other thing that just bites me is the misuse of information. Let me clarify. I am sick and tired of there being no litigation for those who steal identities. Meaning….there is no litigation for companies to secure their records. There is no charge to a company if someone hacks into their system. There is no punishment for such a thing. There also is not any accountability or legislation for such things. After being a victim of identity theft it infuriates me that it is still happening. It literally puts a person on hold for years. For example recently Marriott lost a back up disk. They don’t know whether it was stolen or what happened to it. All that happened was an, “Oh we’re very sorry and we have notified those who’s SS#’s were stolen. WHAT THE HECK? Their hands have been washed. They have fines, no nothing. Meanwhile over 280,000 customers have to worry about their credit score. Freaking thieves. Hubby and I had a HUGE disagreement over this last night. Because we were victim to identity theft in the past we have a SS guard on our account. If we want credit we have to apply, go home, wait for the call and then go back to the business. IT SUCKS! This all happened because some lame person decided that greed was more important than their own dignity. It took us 6 years to recover from that one. SUCKS!
Don’t mind me today. I’m grumpy. I did not sleep well and I’m bugged by all the redo and back tracking I have to do today.
**grumble grumble moan…cuss ( which I rarely do)

Dear McDo*alds,
I have a small “beef” with your current advertising. Your current slogan is, “i’m lovin’ it!” I am all for love that is for sure. There is one technicality that my 8 year old daughter pointed out and I wanted to pass it on.
According to your track record in the past you have always been big on education for children. There are many ways that you are supportive and I acknowledge that. The current campaign may be appeals to the teen hip crowd but it only causes confusion for the younger children. One of the basic grammar rules that children learn is that capitalization is important and how it is used. When you start a sentence the first letter is always capital. There is not an exception to this rule that I know of.
I found it interesting that my 8 year old was correcting English in an add campaign. Her response to your ad was simply, ” I love McDonalds but I’m not lovin’ their advertising. I just want to get my red pen out and mark it up every time I see it!”
Your advertising reached people that is for sure. Although I am not sure that it was positive. If you stand for education then show it in what you say, do and advertise!
Sincerely,

A proud mom of an 8 year old girl

After school I went to go pick HG up from school. I had all day to let my blood boil. I was still very upset when I pulled into the parking lot. When I approached the teacher she said, “Oh good, I want to speak with you.” I waited until the other parents had left and HG was with a friend playing on the playground. The conversation was very calm and under control.
She explained that she was a little shocked when she receive the note. She tried to remember what HG had done to lose an apple and then she remembered. Losing an apple this year is two fold. #1 Responsibility #2 Behavior.
I spoke with the teacher and
she was horrified that HG felt afraid of her. She also explained her
reasoning why HG had lost an apple. She had forgotten to write her name on
the paper. Also the teacher forgot to tell her.
I have a perfectionist not a perfect daughter what can I say.
I think she is use to having a much larger and more out of control class.
There are only 17 in the class. This class is also a quiet and controlled
class. Not the norm. She did her regular approach and yelled at the class while giving her responsibility speech.
We discussed that all she has to do is give HG the “hairy eyeball” and she
will striaghten right up. Works wonders. She just has a different
viewpoint on children and learning.
When HG was approached by the teacher regarding her problem she said that
she shrunk down and looked like a caged rabbit. I explained that that was
how she felt. She understood and apologized to both HG and I. I never
expected that. She did apologize for forgetting to tell HG why she had
lost her apple. I apologized for freaking out. We “kissed and made up”
and now things are better!
WHEW now on o the day!