As the parent of 2 teenagers and one 'almost' teen I could only laugh when I read this in the news yesterday. I thought it was brilliant! Kudos to the kid that thought of it and no... I obviously don't agree with the punishment they received (I believe it's too harsh... whatever happened to letting the punishment fit the crime? Our society is just run amok ever since that whole 'sue McDonalds for making their coffee too hot' moment back in the 90's) but my son would TOTALLY DO THIS and I would totally support him.

The only thing I would suggest is that he not do it during a game or at school, in public, etc... using this news article as the reason why. But the rest of it? Won't surprise me a bit if Coffeekid pulls this one at some point in the next few years.








ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Thirteen members of a high school lacrosse team have been disciplined for baring their bottoms on which was written a prom invitation from one player to a girl.

Carolyn Campbell, a senior at Huron High School, accepted the invitation to go to the prom with fellow senior Kristoff Wennersten.

The varsity lacrosse players displayed the question, "Will You Go To The Prom With Me? Yes or No?" on their bottoms, which they bared during a junior varsity game last Thursday.

Officials suspended the 13 players for an undetermined number of games and ordered them to perform 20 hours of community service. They also were suspended from school for one day.

"Inappropriate is inappropriate," school athletic director Dottie Davis told The Ann Arbor News. "It disrespects women, and that's the clear message we need to have the students understand — what may be fun to them isn't necessarily fun to everyone else."

Campbell accepted the invitation by patting the back of the player who displayed the word "Yes."

"People get pretty creative with prom. Anyone who's done anything has been pretty outlandish," she said. "This is pretty epic, I would say. I didn't think it would become this big of a deal."

Wennersten said he understood the decision to discipline him and his teammates, adding, "I enjoyed every bit of it."

Labels: coffeekid, kids, News, Pathetic, vent

For the last 2 days I've been trying to think of the very first meal I made for my husband after we were married and moved into our new apartment.

I have to preface "... and moved into our own apartment" because in our case we married, went on the honeymoon and then while I returned home from the airport, he continued on to fly to Los Angeles for a week to look for housing for us while I stayed in the Midwest. We stayed at my parents home and slept in my bedroom for a couple weeks and a few nights at his Dads house before we loaded up the U-haul and headed West. Once we arrived at our apartment complex at 9:00 am we found the office didn't open until 10:00 am AND our apartment was not ready AND they were turning off the water that day at 10:00 to work on the pipes at the apartment complex. (I obviously didn't cook that first day.) In addition to this, my family helped move us out there and my parents and brother were also staying for a few days.

It was a little ironic that my new husband flew out to Southern California and found an apartment that happened to be just about 6 blocks away from my cousins home. (He didn't have a clue I even had family in the area!) She took us to Costco the 2nd (or 3rd?) day as we had NOTHING to our names. We moved in with a hand-me-down dining room table circa 1970, a waterbed mattress, a homemade waterbed frame and 1 dresser. Other than the clothes that could fit in 1 box, we had nothing else. Our first trip to Costco netted us not only groceries, but a foam couch and a television. Our 'groceries' had to start from scratch in bare cupboards... all the way down to salt and pepper!

Now... this was almost 20 years ago so I'm reaching pretty far back in my brain to try to remember what the very first meal I ever made was, but I'm pretty sure it was stuffed jumbo shells with spaghetti sauce and garlic bread. (All purchased from Costco of course! LOL). I'm not 100% sure this was our first meal but I'm about 90% sure. We ended up having this quite a bit that first year of marriage... along with waaaaay too many Ramen Noodles. (Can you say 'poor'? But remember; I was 18 years old, newly graduated from high school and we made just $10,000 that first year of marriage... and $6,000 of it went for rent!).

So... Do you remember your first 'homemade' meal as a newlywed couple?

Labels: Happy Housewife, rambling

First: The news article;



Dad's Oversight Lands Son In Foster Care

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- An Ann Arbor couple's 7-year-old son ended up in foster care over Mike's Hard Lemonade.

Christopher Ratte, 47, a professor at University of Michigan, claims he accidentally gave his son, Leo, some of the alcoholic beverage at Comerica Park a few weeks ago. He said he didn't even know the alcoholic lemonade existed.

"I got a beer for myself and asked Leo if he wanted a lemonade because there is a sign that said, 'Mike's Lemonade,'" said Ratte.

He said he bought his son the drink at the beginning of the Tigers game and it wasn't until the ninth inning when a security guard noticed the bottle in Leo's hand.

The security guard asked Ratte if he knew it contained alcohol. He said he didn't and when he went to grab the bottle out of the child's hand, the security guard grabbed it first.

"It's just the simple fact that I didn’t know this brand and didn’t suspect some of the lemonade sold in ballparks are alcoholic."

A short time later, Ratte was being questioned by Detroit police at Children's Hospital, where the child was taken by ambulance.

The child said he was feeling a little nauseated, but showed no other symptoms of being intoxicated.

The security guard said the boy drank about 12 ounces of the hard lemonade, which is about 5 percent alcohol.

However, the child's bloodwork detected no trace of alcohol.

The child remained in foster care for two days before his mother, Claire Zimmerman, a U-M architecture professor, was able to take their son home as long as the father relocated to a hotel.

It was two more weeks before the father could move back home. The last hearing closed the case.

Ratte and his wife have filed a formal complaint with the Child Protective Services ombudsman's office stating they thought the treatment was excessive.

"Fine this guy bought this drink for his son. We need to look into it, but we don't need to take the most extreme measures," Ratte said in reference to Child Protective Services.

Ratte has apologized for his mistake.

Labels: News, Pathetic, politically correct, Useless information, venting

Ooops... got busy and never got back. LOL. Imagine that!

Ok - well as busy as we already are guess what? At 5:06 pm last night I was sitting on the kitchen floor cutting out a pattern for a 1760's style dress while I was also in the process of making dinner and talking on the phone to a board member of the Booster Club when my cell phone beeped, but I couldn't answer as I was already talking to the booster club lady. It beeped a second call but again, I had to ignore. Then the home phone rang as well - so I knew it must be one of the kids. Luckily Coffeehusband was here so he answered it and then walked directly to my youngest daughters school bag by the door and started rifling through papers.

The next thing I know I'm standing with pattern and scissors in hand while still listening to the booster club lady and my husband is trying to show me a bright red form from school. I glance at it and see "Track Club" at the top... I knew exactly what it was but geesh - why three phone calls and showing me while I'm already doing 4 other things? Ya know?

I hang up the phone and put away the pattern as it's crunch time with dinner and kids returning from track practice and I knew I wouldn't have time to deal with it. I look at the paper and laugh. Sixth graders (6th) are not allowed to participate in the Junior High Track and Field at their school until they are in 7th and 8th grade; instead, a lot of them sign up for the nation-wide association of the 'track club' instead to get them geared up. Sure enough, this was it.

It's 5:10 pm and registration starts at 5:30.

Bianca isn't a sports-personality. She is more like me. Her short lived soccer career ended after the season we had to have 'pretty curls' in her hair before the game and she would come off the field to throw herself in my lap and declare she was 'tired' and would just rest a bit before going back into the game. LOL. She was 4.

She did dance from the age of 3 until she was about 9 or 10 but since then? Nothing. The ONLY thing she is interested in and has been looking forward to is... track. She has legs that go up to my armpits, they are so long and she loves to run. She's been looking forward to track forever. Coffeehusband agree'd to register her as he had to go there anyway to pick up our son from practice. So... now it seems we have three kids in track practice only now when I pick up one child on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5:40 I'm going to keep driving another 15 minutes to the next town to drop a second child off at practice. Meets are on Saturdays and Sundays and are all 'away' meets - sometimes up to 50 miles away. There go the weekends. LOL.

And you know what? In another 7 years when all the kids are graduated and gone I'll be missing every single crazy minute.

*This isn't even what I intended on posting today but you know what happens when I get a couple cups of coffee in me........ it's just the coffee talking!

Labels: Bianca, Coffeehusband, coffeekid, kids, school

Coffee is almost ready... I keep glancing that way to see if it's ready yet as yawn after yawn break upon my face like waves on the beach. I'm sooo tired! Yet... I shouldn't be. I fell into bed exhausted last night at 8:30 and while I attempted to read my book I found myself jerking awake many times before I admitted defeat and turned out the light.

Yes. 8:30 pm. I felt like such a loser! But I had been going 100 mph since 8:00 am and I was just so tired. My list of things that had to get done yesterday were so varied; from dishes and laundry to filing papers to balancing the checkbook onto things like painting the entryway and the main floor bathroom to designing and starting Bianca's school costume (Phillis Wheatley) to ... making those stupid dentist and orthodontist appointments and getting Drivers Ed information. I had 27 things on the 'to do' list. Some are moved over to today. :)

OK... I'm laughing because as I attempted to write this post one child called down the stairs "Mom... will you cut up the cheese in the fridge into squares and put it on a platter for school?" and within 10 seconds I hear a second child call out; "Mom, I need lunch money!" So I guess I'm going to pause... cut up cheese for French class and write out 3 checks for hot lunch and then make sure Coffeekid has all he needs for the track meet tonight.. AND THEN attempt to finish this post. (He's RUNNING VARSITY! Only 2 Freshman are running in tonights meet and CK is one of them!)

I'll be back.

Although I could easily handle having 5 or 7 kids, it's probably a good thing I only have three. I seem to be busy enough as it is.

I just spent 20 minutes on the phone with the dentist's office trying to make appointments for the three kids. Between what she had open, and my own kids schedules we managed to get one (1) appointment made and finally, with both of us exasperated, gave up trying to schedule the other two and drew a truce that I would call when I knew more of their summer schedules.

Between school, track practice, track meets, part time jobs, dance recitals, summer jobs for both the 15 and 17 year olds, Drivers Education classes and cheer camps we could not come up with a date/time for an appointment for the two older kids.

I gave up.

The 12 year old has an appointment on the 21st. The other two? I'm sure it will probably be August. Sigh. (It would help if the dentist office was open on Saturday mornings... but no. 7:30 - 5:30 Monday through Friday only.)

Labels: errands, Happy Housewife, kids, rambling, vent

In addition to laundry, dishes and the cleaning I'm doing, I'm also trying to get birthday cards mailed out, numerous appointments made and registrations taken care of. One of those 'registrations' I thought was going to be a quick, simple task ended up being quite time consuming. It was registration for ACT testing for my 17 year old in preparation for college next year.

During the process we had to list what colleges she wanted her scores sent to, what courses she wanted to take in college and a lot of other information that all led to one startling revelation; My daughter is graduating next Spring! That means in just a couple months we have to start our Fall scramble to do senior pictures, step up the collage visits, start the scholarship applications and, for my husband and my part we also have to come up with a graduation gift!


We aren't in the ranks of people that can afford to give our kids a car upon graduation. We are more in the ranks of what our parents were; I got a sewing machine (don't ask). Other friends received a cedar chest, pearl jewelry, or diamond jewelry, a beautiful watch or something else meaningful to them.

Something I think every female can use Pearls. From graduation throughout her entire adult life, she'll have plenty of occasions to wear a nice pearl necklace. Whether formal or semi-formal, pearls can top off the perfect outfit whether it's a sweater with dress pants or a 'little black dress' for the perfect night out. It's also a heirloom piece she'll be proud to hand down to her own daughters or granddaughters one day.

Living in a very small town at the time of my graduation, and being born to a Mother who didn't enjoy nor did any sort of shopping unless forced to, it's no wonder she marched down to the local appliance store in town and bought me a sewing machine for graduation. Luckily for everyone else they have easy access to online shopping so clicking on a website like thepearloutlet.com and ordering a gift for any of their pearl needs, from Mother's Day, to Birthdays to weddings or graduation is only a couple clicks away.

Labels: PP

After you've kept a kid for 17 years, is it too late to give them back? Change your mind? Ask for a new model? Sigh. I tell ya, Kat's been driving me insane for the past year. She has the personality and conversation skills of her fathers side of the family so communication with her is like pulling teeth... (out of a ferocious tiger in her case - she adds that little touch herself). Well, I had a nice 45 minute morning before I had to deal with her and now the rest of my morning is going to suck. I'm just not in a good mood anymore.

In Other News: Did I mention on the blog the whole 'concession stand' track schedule thing last week? Because there is now a second part to it.

Old News: My daughter practices with the track team to stay in shape and get conditioned but she isn't actually a competing part of the team. We don't go to track meets, she doesn't have a uniform, etc. She just practices with them 3 or 4 days out of the week. My son however, is part of the track team. So... two kids do track practice, only one is actually in track.

The day before we left on vacation I went into Coffeekids room to get some clothes to pack for South Carolina and saw a parents track schedule on his floor. Our name was highlighted in yellow.

I had never seen this schedule before. It was two weeks old already.

The schedule was for the track parents to work the concession stands during track meets. We were scheduled for Tuesday the 15th... when we would be 1800 miles away, in the middle of vacation. I asked my son about it and he said, "Oh, I know. I didn't give it to you because I saw the date and told the coach we were going to be gone. He said ok and not to worry about it."

Great. Cool. No problem.

Fast forward 1 1/2 weeks. We return home from vacation and there was an old message on our answer machine;

"This is the Booster Club just calling to remind you that you work the concession stand tomorrow at 4:30!" This was indeed, to work on the 15th.

Ummm... yeah. Apparently the coach never got the message to them. They probably think we bailed.

Nothing to do about a week later so I just let it go.

Last night I got out of the shower and Bianca handed me a telephone message; Reminder you work tomorrow at the track meet concession stand. She said you probably already know about it but they just wanted to remind you.


blink...

blink...

blink...


No. I don't already know about it. I actually have NO idea what she is talking about and after checking my calendar I don't even have a track meet on the schedule.

I don't have the ladies name but there was a number left so I called it. I introduced myself and told her I was returning a phone call re; the concession stand schedule.

I got a very stern, unhappy, "YES?"

Hmmm... no sunshine was shining out this ladies butt, that's for sure.

I told her I was confused. I didn't have any track meet on my calendar and had no idea I was to work.

She informed me in a very rude manner that it was on my schedule.

I've never seen a schedule.

They were handed out at the track meet to all the parents they could find.

(Umm, ok, like that is a good way of getting information out???? But anyway....)

I've never received one. Was it possible it was handed out at a track meet when we were away in South Carolina for a week?

Well, if they didn't catch you then, they would have tried to hook it up with your child at practice.

(At this point I'm still confused... thinking I already saw my sons 'old' schedule, which we were gone on our date so this is a new one perhaps? I had no idea. Still confused.)

I asked her if this meet was a rescheduled one due to snow or rain? Because I don't have a meet on my calendar at all.

She rudely and impatiently informed me (something I already knew that still didn't make sense); This is a Junior High meet! We schedule you to work when your child isn't competing. This way you can still watch your daughter compete in HER track meets. (With a silent 'duh' in the tone of her voice.)

They were talking about Kat! Not Coffeekid! Ohhhh.

Ahhh, that's why I didn't get a schedule. My daughter doesn't compete.

Silence.

She's not actually ON the track team. She practices with them to stay fit and conditioned for cheerleading but she doesn't go to the track meets and she doesn't compete. That's why I didn't get a schedule. I wasn't at the girls track meet. We don't even have those on our calendar.

She was not happy. Ok... she wasn't happy at the beginning of the conversation but she was even more rude now.

After I explained that to her she bit my head off. Apparently the coach had my daughters name down on the original roster. Obviously I didn't know any of this as again.... she's not actually on the team, we don't go to the track meets, she doesn't have a uniform and I have NO IDEA what the girls track team does or doesn't do. I personally know nothing about it.

I told her I wouldn't mind working if they need me but that was why I didn't know anything about the meet or the schedule and it's why we were never given a copy of it.

She angrily told me they obviously could always use help... and she went off on a mini-rant.

By this point I was tired of being friendly and smiling and trying to keep the conversation light hearted when she had not been friendly or smiled ONCE during our entire conversation. So... instead of volunteering to work anyway I just let it slide. When she was fuming and ready to hang up I WAS going to tell her I'd work today anyhow... but figured she was already ranting and hanging up so I'd just let her. And I did. I timidly just said "Ok... bye."

What a confusing phone call. It was half way through it before I figured out she was talking about my daughter and not my son. It just went downhill from there.

She needs to learn a little honey is sweeter than pure vinegar.

Labels: coffeekid, Kat, kids, school

Judy and Fantastagirl... your wish is 'kindof', 'sortof' my command. LOL. I heavily edited the faces of the kids friends (and one of them even my own kids faces!) so you could get a glimpse of some of the dresses.

Labels: kids, school

This years prom is almost officially over. Once the tuxes are returned and the kids are awake to tell me about it I will cross '2nd prom' off my list and think to myself; "only about 7 or 8 more to go!" Kat went last year as a Sophomore, of course this year as a Junior and still has next years Senior. My son went this year as a Freshman (the only male Freshman asked to go out of the whole school!) and quite possibly (probably) will be asked next year and then he has his junior and senior proms. By that time our youngest, Bianca has a possibility of being asked as a Freshman and Sophomore before her junior and senior proms. So? We could have upwards of 11 proms between the three of them. I should be able to pull this stuff out of my hat with a blindfold on by then.

The Boyfriends Mom picked up his tux the night before and brought it home after work. She got home at 9:pm only to find out the tux shop had messed up his order. Instead of a cool silver vest and silver European tie they gave him a vest that he described as "my old grandma's couch material" and a big old bow tie! He was mad! But his Mom went back to the store with his receipt in hand and showed them what was ordered and came home with a different vest and better tie.

The other little flub was actually two of them and they happened to my daughters friend J. J had ordered her flowers 4 weeks ago from a large florist in the area. She arrived to pick up her flower order yesterday morning only to be told they had no order on file. She placed it almost 4 weeks ago! Nope. No order. Next please! Wait... can you make one up for me now then? No. We are far too busy for that! Next please!

Wow.

Poor kid. But she went to another store that has a florist department and explained why she needed to place a last minute order and they got the job done. She returned home for her 11:00 hair appointment only to find out the girl was running late. Ok... but at 12:noon found out the girl bailed on her! She was also going to the prom and was running late and wouldn't have time to do her hair.

Wow. Again, J jumped in her car and went on a quest to find someone to do it at the last second. She found a CostCutters hair place way out of the way in another part of the city that wasn't holding prom that day so she figured they wouldn't be as busy and got right in. They were happy to do her hair and I must say it turned out gorgeous! So although stressful to have your flowers and hair appointment both fall through the cracks at the last second, all turned out well in the end.

I stared at photos this morning trying to decide which I could/should post. In the interest of privacy for the 'other' kids I decided I couldn't really post their photos so you get a close up shot of my daughters dress and my sons dates dress... just a random shot I snapped as they all lined up for a group photo. I love it though it doesn't show anyone's face.

The last kind of funny story is that I had bought the kids 3 bottles of Welch's Sparkling Grape juice for the limo ride. The limo provides ice, glasses and napkins but the kids are under age so no champagne. No problem! I searched 3 stores to find the bottled sparkling juice that looks like a wine bottle, wrapped with foil on top and very elegant. Last night I and about 200 other parents all were converged in an auditorium waiting for the Grand March to start where the couples are announced and walk out on stage for a picture. The last of the kids were still arriving to the prom and as our group walked in my daughter saw that I happened to be sitting in the front row and found me right away. Her eyes lit up and she turned to tell her brother something. As he walked around the corner sheepishly had to walk across the stage and over to where I was sitting, in front of all the parents and teachers that were in the auditorium waiting.... with two bottles of 'wine' in his hands! LOL.

They had not used all of the sparkling juice up and limo driver gave it to them as they exited the limo. Oh sure... make the Freshman kid carry the booze in front of the parents! Ha ha ha. As he bent over to hand the bottles to me he whispered, "You should have seen the principals face when we walked in!" LOL.

Yes, I made sure the WELCHES juice brand name was turned 'outward' the rest of the evening as I carried them in my hands. :)

The kids attended 'after prom' at the high school and got home around 5:45 am this morning. They are all sleeping, including the Boyfriend, who informed me he doesn't plan to get up until 3:00 this afternoon. Ha ha. As for Kat - she has dance recital practice and dance pictures today so she'll be up by 1:00 to get ready.

I can't wait until they are awake so I can hear about the night and how everything went!

Labels: coffeekid, Kat, kids, school

The day started early and although it's been a nice slow pace thus far the race will be on soon enough.

Kat was gone to 'downtown' in the city to decorate. Around 9:40 Coffeekid and I left to go pick up both his date and Kat's dates flowers. The florist saw us and exclaimed "Oh! We totally changed it!" and proceeded to tell us what CK's date had not. Apparently she brought her dress into the flower shop since it's such an incredibly odd color. Orange, copper, bronze, iridescent with a dark purple overtone and silver beads. So the florist changed our flower order (which is fine) but hello? You would think the 'date' would have mentioned it. I think she left the un-needed straps of her dress for the florist to use to make the corsage so when we got home we checked the color of the ribbon against the vest and tie CK got with his tux and... ? Score! Looks like we may have gotten lucky with our 'guess' when the information we had to go on when we rented it was "orange iridescent'.

Kat is doing the Boyfriends Sister's hair for prom right now. I finished straightening CK's and Kat is finishing Boyfriends Sisters hair now before we have to leave for her own hair appointment at 12:40. Boyfriend is due to get off work in about 10 minutes and is going to come pick his sister up.

In the meantime! I asked the Sister what time Boyfriend was coming tonight for pictures. She said their family would come around 4:00. Ummm... the limo would be here at 3:10!~ So she said she would tell her parents they had to leave earlier.

At this point we have a hair appointment to make, then back home quickly to put her makeup on and throw her dress on before doing Boyfriend photos with his family here and then his parents will take The Sister to her prom group for photos and I'll follow the limo to the next town for Coffeekid/date photos and 'whole group' photos as we pick up the last of their group there. The kids have a dinner reservation (that no one verified) at 5:15 pm downtown.

Grand March registration starts at 7:00-7:15 and Grand March is at 8:00. I ran into another Mom when I was picking up flowers and I carpool with her downtown for that as parents are allowed to come see Grand March and then leave again. LOL.

We are still working out the details of leaving vehicles for the kids to all get back to our hometown after prom is over and then change clothes and do 'afterprom' from 12:00 - 5:00 am at the high school. I'll pick the kids up at 5:00.

So... at this point I just need to talk to the Boyfriend and change the time his family is coming to our home to 3:10 and uh... remember to load the limo with the 3 bottles of 'fake' champagne. And the flowers and camera! Can't forget those.

Those of you with younger kids... are you taking notes?

Labels: coffeekid, Kat, kids

Coffee.

Strong. Coffee.

Ahhh.

This morning started bright and early at 5:15 when I woke to blow my nose (yet again). At 5:45 my husband got up to get ready for work. At 6:30 my oldest daughter got up and got ready to drive downtown with friends to decorate the auditorium they rented for junior prom. At 7:45 I heard the home phone ringing but since it's a cordless and wasn't in it's cradle I didn't know where it was. (That would be Bianca's doing...) Sprinting up the stairs to beat the answering machine that would pick up on the fourth ring, I charged into the master bedroom and grabbed the bedroom phone just in time only to be reprimanded by my father; "You didn't start to sleep in did you!?" Ahhh... no Dad. I'm not 'sleeping in' until 7:45 am on a Saturday. I am up.

Which brings back a quick memory of my childhood. I'm about 9 or 10 years old. I have the smaller upstairs bedroom that is decorated in light blue with tiny flowers. It's a Saturday morning. 7:00 am. My bedroom door swings open and his body fills the doorway. "Time to get up! It's 7:00!" There was no sleeping in in that household. Thirty years later he's still making sure I'm up by 7:am on Saturday mornings. At least I don't have to hear his voice say, "Vacuum the living room for your mother." Or spend my morning cleaning the house while my three younger brothers sit in their underwear in front of Saturday morning cartoons while they eat bowls of Cheerios. Now... I can sit in my underwear and eat Cherrios if I choose to do so and I certainly don't make my girls work while my son does this.

Gee, this wouldn't be why I have issues with sleep and sitting still 'not doing anything' would it? LOL.

Off to refill my mug with steaming HOT coffee. Preparing for an intense 24 hours as we get thru the second of 8 years of proms.

Labels: Childhood, I should be sleeping, Inlaws and Outlaws, kids, rambling, Useless information

I don't think this makes sense, but 'tis true; when I have a horrible head cold I am very, very hungry but I only want junk food.

I've noticed this before, but since I rarely get truly sick, it's not something I think about often. When I have the flu I don't want to eat or drink anything at all. When I have a cold I am very hungry, but the only things that sound good are... well, crap.

Today for instance I started out well enough with 1/2 of a sub sandwich... but then found myself eating an ice cream sandwich, 1/2 cup worth of onion dip (with a spoon... no chips) and 2 cups of Chex Mix and then I felt so horrible for it that I drank 2 tall glasses of orange juice and ate an apple in order to atone for my gluttony. Yesterday was much the same.

Why in the world don't I crave a nice, hot healthy soup when I am sick?

Labels: rambling, Useless information

I was actually surfing to find ideas for a costume I need to have made for my daughter by next Monday for her to dress as Phillis Wheatley for school, but you know how things go on the internet... one click leads to another, to another, to another and I found a pattern to make a purse from an old bra (tacky and cheap... I'm not sending you there) but also on the site was a very simple, no sew option for a bootie bag.

What is funny to me is that I think I made my first version of one of these back around circa 1982 when I was about 11 or 12 years old! And now I'm told they are latest and greatest fad. Some people make a different, much more labor intense style with straight sides and plywood... others go for a finished look they are proud to claim you can't even tell it's made from a pair of jeans, but I'm left wondering; why bother then? Isn't the whole idea to not only recycle jeans but show off that it is indeed, made from a pair of pants? That's the whole idea! LOL. You can find this particular persons instructions by clicking the words that are bold above. I've not made a bag using these instructions, but wanted to pass it along for those that want to give it a go. Me? Heck, I'm going to be busy enough trying to make a dress and bonnet to resemble 1773's fashions.

Labels: Frugal, Happy Housewife, Useless information

A couple months ago I was with my daughter and one of her friends and the issue of my birthday came up. My daughter and I joked about whether or not I would finally get a watch from my husband. I got a great laugh when my daughters friend asked, "You want what?"

"A watch."

"Why? Don't you have a cell phone?"

LOL... yes I have a cell phone but I still would like a watch! A watch is not only functional, but pretty! And some of them even could double as a bracelet as they are so beautiful. Although I could look for luxury watches like Cartier, Chanel, Bulova, Harry Winsoton or Ebel watches my needs aren't even that grand. I just want a simple, elegant, beautiful silver and gold watch. My husband however, is making a huge deal out of picking out a watch and declares he doesn't know what I want. You would think he's not been married to me for 19 years!

In the end, my birthday just passed 2 weeks ago and... no watch. I admit, I was a little surprised as I thought perhaps this year, with my daughter egging him on, he might actually spring for one. As it is, I will probably end up buying myself one. LOL. At least sites like TheWatchery offer a free 2nd watch with purchase - you know if I was nice I could order myself a watch and get a second free for him. Then again, after 5 years of waiting maybe I'd just get two for myself instead. *Grin* Just kidding. Actually, if you don't want or need a second watch they allow you to choose a watch at 80% off instead... which is probably more in my budget anyway.

Although I don't regularly talk politics or religion, those who visit for morning coffee talk regularly know that I have no qualms saying I absolutely do not trust Obama and think anyone who votes for him simply has not done enough homework. Although I don't care for Hillary either, at least she is a true American at heart.

Heidianne has posted a great blog entry here that may be a little lengthy but worth the read.

Labels: News, politically correct, ranting, Useless information

Question: Should one even bother to drink coffee when one can't taste it anyway?

Yes, I'm still battling a nasty head cold that leaves me zapped of all energy and cough, sneezing and blowing my nose constantly. As a matter of fact my husband informed me yesterday he knows no one who has ever blown their nose as much as I do.

Yeah bub... keep talking. We'll see how many tissues you go through when you get this next week.

Yesterday I made a double layer lemon cream cake with vanilla crumbles that I've been craving, only to find out it tastes like cardboard with just a faint hint of lemon if I blow my nose and then quickly take a bite. Otherwise, pure cardboard. No lemon. My family however, tells me it tastes like vanilla and lemon... and that's it's delicious. So delicious they were each having 2 pieces last night for dessert. Me? I just sighed. Eating cardboard isn't high on my list of 'fun things to do' right now. But if I wait a day or two maybe I can taste some of that vanillay lemony goodness too. Recipe is on the recipe site btw.

Today I realized I had to go pick up Coffeekids tux at the mall some time today only then I realized that I'm not going to have a vehicle. Oh, I have Coffeehusbands car here but we are trying not to drive it.

We had the new starter put in, but couldn't afford to have the struts or antifreeze reservoir replaced and since the struts are just 'laying there' our mechanic is realllllly nervous about letting us on the road. But you see, we just have to bide time. My Dad found some and is bringing them down next Monday or Tuesday and is going to put them in (on?) for us for about 1/4 the cost of the mechanic so until then we make do with 1 vehicle. Not an issue when/if the spouse works close to home but my spouse commutes. So... thinking I may have to tell the Coffeehusband to leave early and swing by the tux rental place to get it. That will be the extent of him 'helping' with the prom preparations but at least he can say he helped, right?

*edited part here * Yeah, you knew THAT wouldn't happen, right? LOL. I'm getting ready to head to the mall now to pick it up when the store opens and then come back in time for my husband to take my truck to work.

I'm just going to admit right here and now that I'm going to be one happy woman as of Sunday when prom is ovvvvvver!! It's nothing like prom was a few years ago. Now, prom is much like a mini wedding. But... then again, with about 8 years of mini-weddings to plan and get thru between all the kids I'll be pretty darn good at planning Kat and Bianca's weddings now won't I?

Labels: kids, rambling

Have you guys read the news that broke this week claiming that men who m*sturbate at least 5 times a week have a lower incident of prostate cancer? If not - let me enlighten you first;




Men who frequently m*sturbate appear to have a lower risk of developing prostate cancer, Australian researchers reported.

Researchers from the Cancer Council of Victoria found that men who m*sturbated more than five times each week were one-third less likely to develop the cancer.

The study surveyed 1,000 men who developed prostate cancer and 1,250 who did not, and all were between the ages of 20 and 50, according to a report on Monday on the gay and lesbian news site PlanetOut.

Researchers told the BBC last week that the prostate produces one of the fluids involved in ej*culation and that frequent m*sturbation appears to flush out carcinogens.

Sexual intercourse may not have the same effect because it increases the risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease, which could raise the risk of cancer, the Web site reported.

Source here





Ok. Yesterday I read this and I laughed out loud. My husband asked me "What?" so I read the article to him and as soon as I finished the last line;

".... Sexual intercourse may not have the same effect because it increases the risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease, which could raise the risk of cancer"


We both responded with the exact same sentence at the same time;

"Not if you're only having sex with one person!"

Which is probably why we are still married after almost 20 years. But how sad that the article automatically assumes that all men m*sturbate (not true) and that everyone has multiple partners (again, not true). Why not just put both down as options? Why discredit monogamous sex right off the bat?

Labels: News, ranting, Useless information

Those following the ongoing mini-saga of the missing orthodontic retainers were cheering me on getting the hotel to reimburse me, but there is a lingering issue that I'm afraid could come back and haunt me regarding the process I had to go through to get reimbursed.

Remember how I posted that they had me fill out a typical Lost and Found paper that I assumed would be transferred into their computer files or at least kept in a file cabinet at the front desk? It asked for my name, address, phone number, email address and also lines for the complete credit card number and expiration date of the card I wanted reimbursement on if it was granted.

And remember where I found out the paper goes to?

Housekeeping. It goes up on the housekeeping bulletin board, never seen by management or front desk, not entered into the computer. Anyone on the maintenance and housekeeping staff of this very, very large hotel/resort has access to everything they would need to make fraudulent purchases or pretend to be me. That is a LOT of people that are often low-paid, uneducated, and many times so transient that sometimes they only work for one or two days before never showing up again.

And my credit card and every bit of personal information about me is at their disposal.

Gulp.

A personal friend of ours is a hotel manager. After speaking to him to try to dispel my fears that my information could be used to steal my identity or make purchases in my name, speaking to him (with 16 years of hotel management experience) actually only convinced me that I may indeed, have a problem in the future with having my identity stolen.

I called my credit card to tell them about the situation and ask if I could put a lock or notice on my account to have all charges approved but he said at this point, 'no'. My options were to either just wait and see... and if any charges were made I could call and dispute them and not be liable for them or I could declare the card lost or stolen and wait for a new card with a new number.

I've spent this entire week logging into my credit card and bank accounts to check for unauthorized purchases and although nothing has happened yet, the time it takes to watch over this situation and the stress it is causes is not worth it! I'm thinking using a service such as lifelock would certainly be worthwhile as they would put the 'lock' on my account for me and keep track of the updates to locking my account from unauthorized and save me a heck of a lot of time renewing it and checking it all the time! I also am considering just closing that account number out and getting a new card and number.

In this day and age with identity theft so rampant, how in the world could a 4 star resort still do business this way????

My best friend emailed me last night to invite me to 'help' her paint this weekend as they are desperately trying to get their home on the market and move before their baby comes (it's due in a month... I don't think this is going to happen) and I had to respond that although painting on Saturday sounded great, I'd have to decline as I would be trying to get two kids off to prom and that prom sure wasn't this 'involved' back when we were in high school!

Her reply was basically; Yeah - the only thing her Mom did was snap a few pictures as they walked out the door. Mine? Didn't even do that much.

I went to 5 proms in the grand scheme of things. Although it wasn't as exciting as that may sound.

When I was a Freshman I happened to be dating a guy - we'll call him Farm Boy because well, that's what he was. They raised dairy cattle. So ok, I was dating Farm Boy, who was a 17 year old Junior from a neighboring town. For prom I ordered a long white and lavender dress from the Sears or JC Penney's catalog and that was my 'prom dress shopping' expedition. Farm Boy couldn't afford a tux so while I was in white and light purple, he wore a dark blue suit. His family had 8 kids so they owned a big old utility van (minivans weren't invented yet in those days) and a truck. Farm Boy drove my families Cadillac that night.

Their school did prom a little differently than most. Prom was held from 8-11 and then 'dinner' was served in the lunch room of the school after the dance. So prom consisted of being picked up before the dance, driving there, dancing there, eating in the lunch room and then going home... or in my case, Farm Boy and I went to my house and made out on the couch for an hour until my Dad came out of his bedroom and caught us and Farm Boy went home rather quickly after that.

I even had to fight to stay out late enough to finish the dance. My Dad gave me an 11:00 curfew. I had to call and beg him to let me stay out later. He said midnight. I explained that the school offered the dinner after the dance and it came with the price of the prom ticket so he angrily relented and let me stay out until 1:00 am as it was a 30 minute drive to our town from Farm Boys town.

My parents had little or nothing to do with prom or planning, and the photos I have of me and Farm Boy before we left were taken by my friend Nicole, who also helped me get ready by curling my hair and sticking a 'comb' with 4 ribbons hanging from it into my hair, up on one side.

Farm Boy and I didn't last long and soon I was dating the guy who would later become 'Coffeehusband'. Since he also lived in a rival town, we had two (2) Junior Proms to attend. The parental involvement?

Zilch.

I bought my pink prom dress on clearance the year before at a tiny mall with a store going out of business. It was $15, which is about all I could afford, seeing that my income was making $1.00 an hour babysitting on Friday and Saturday nights. I needed a second dress for my boyfriends prom so I dug out the white dress from my Freshman year and wore that again.

I did my own hair (which is fairly obvious from the pictures... LOL) and when I said parental involvement was zilch I wasn't kidding. My family actually left town. My parents took my brothers to visit my Grandmother that weekend so we handed the camera to the couple we double dated with and asked them to get a picture of us. Thankfully we had the 'formal' photos taken at the school or I wouldn't have any prom pictures at all.

Labels: Childhood, Coffeehusband, Frugal

Oh... everything and nothing. Typical busy days but that's to be expected.

Last night I spent over 3 hours sitting at my sons track meet. During his first run he was first place, at least 5 feet in front of the next runner but when they read off the results later of that run his name wasn't even mentioned.

The only thing I can think of is that he happened to be wearing the exact same colors as the guy that came in second behind him from another school. The uniforms are almost exactly the same, down to the stripe on the side. My son and a couple other kids on the track team don't wear the 'regular' school track uniform the rest of the team wears because he's a sprinter so his has a different uniform with a stripe and a thing across the chest like the other school does, but not our own team. For this reason I suspect the guy in 2nd place was mistaken for my son. No one in the stands had an answer and we were all confused.*

He was supposed to run 3 races but got put in at the last second to two more so he ran 5 different events. I'm anxious for him to get home tonight from practice to see what medals he won and what happened with that first race.

Later last night my husband got home from Minneapolis and after returning the rental vehicle, his car was dead in the parking lot at work. He suspected it was the starter so he and a friend got it started and he drove it to our hometown, directly to our mechanics shop. They called today to let us know it was indeed, the starter but he also has an antifreeze leak in the reservoir and something else wrong as well... to the tune of $800. Well, we don't have that kind of money and the starter could be replaced for about $300 so we told him to do that, but it's all we could come up with right now. After they got it up in the shop he called back to say our struts are completely broken and literally 'resting' in place. Got another $550? Ouch.

No, we don't have $1400 so my Dad is calling around to salvage lots right now to see if he can track down some struts and things and he said if we drive the car up he'll work on it. So.....


Let's see... I have a kick-butt head cold and I'm basically a zombie who coughs, sneezes and blows her nose all the time but I did get outside today to burn off last years marigolds and other things that I had heaped in the garden. I started to till the soil and found......... grubs. So after coffeehusband and I got most of those picked out (about 1.5 per square foot) I was online looking up how to kill them off without killing my earthworms, as I'm very excited to see I have a great bunch of worms this year! DiPel seems to be the answer for killing the grubs but I'm still concerned about it also killing my earth worms. Anyone have advice for me?


We have white Christmas lights bagged up for prom decoration donations to be sent in and I've ran English papers and track shoes to school for the kids who forgot them. Kat had her new retainer 'moldings' this morning at the Orthodontist at 7:30 (see the posts below for more on the retainer saga if you missed the story about housekeeping throwing them away while we were on vacation). Although the hotel said they'd reimburse us, it has yet to show up in the account but I'm watching....

Actually, my nose is running right now and I must quickly get yet another tissue... my 1,385th of the day and hurry to pick up my son from track practice.

So... what are YOU up to today?



*updated to add*

My daughter asked one of her coaches about the boys race yesterday. He said that when we compete against smaller schools and have more runners they sometimes cross off a random name from the list before the race to make it more even to the smaller schools. It's possible my sons name was one of the names randomly 'dropped' before the race began so no matter how he did he couldn't place because we had more runners than they did. Sigh.

Labels: Happy Housewife, I should be sleeping, rambling

We've met a lot of 'stars' during our time living in Los Angeles and Nashville and I have to say that Lita looked exactly the same in person as she did on her album covers. Not too many stars look that good in real life but she did!

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