Monday Madness

It's Monday, can you tell? Although today, there's a different kind of feel in the air. Today has been a day of celebration for many, as the word began spreading last night that Osama bin Laden had been killed in a firefight between his forces and US Troops. While I haven't seen most of the reports, and I totally missed the President's speech ( I fell asleep. Sorry, Mr. President!), I know so many people in the world are relieved and feel that justice has been served. I think of all the lives this man and his followers have affected, even beyond 9/11, and I can't say I'm sorry to see him go. I hate the thought of the loss of human life. Of course I always hope for reconciliation, I can see where it would never happen in this case.

It is interesting to note that Hitler was taken out on the same day, in nearly the same way.

Hmmmmmm....

Yours, wondering how this will change things,

Melissa

Friday Funny- Seriously.

"How. Did. You..."

"I...I.. I don't even .."

Glaring look.

Shrug and raised eyebrows.

$2000 damage to the car.

$150 to the newly installed garage track.

An amount to be determined to the brick facing on the front of the garage.

I have not had an accident that has been my fault in 12+ years. I'm a decent driver- safe and slow.

But give me two fighting children in the back seat and wow, I can take the left back door (same place I had my last accident 12+ years ago) and crunch it nicely. And not even get out of the garage.

I. Am. GOOD!

Yours, wishing you an accident free weekend,

Melissa

TEEN LOVE, OR IS IT?

Teenagers falling in love certainly isn’t like it was when I was in high school. Or maybe I just have selective memory and remember it like a Molly Ringwald film. But I sure don’t remember girls backstabbing each other and boys stringing girls along until they find they find one better.

Here’s a sample of a what’s happening in the life of a friend’s son:

• Boy meets girl.
• After one or two dates, boy and girl profess love for each other. (Because, really, who needs more time than that?)
• Girl assumes they are going steady (or whatever they call it nowadays), boy knows nothing of the sort.
• Boy decides girl is not “exciting” enough and breaks up. (Read into that whatever you want.)
• Boy quickly meets another girl (we’ll call her girl2).
• Girl #1 is heartbroken.
• Boy and girl2 break up after a week for whatever reason.
• Boy doesn’t like being without a girlfriend so he gets back together with girl.
• Of course she takes him back.
• Girl and boy go out one night with a friend of hers.
• BIG MISTAKE!
• Boy decides he likes girl’s friend. (We’ll call her girl3.)
• Boy and girl3 go out behind girl’s back.
• THEN boy breaks up with girl.
• Boy and girl3 start dating.
• (This is where is gets a bit shady for me.) Somehow girl3 catches boy and girl kissing and breaks up with boy. Now everyone is mad at everyone and everyone is single.

SO glad my kids aren’t teenagers yet!

Karen

Monday Madness- And we ARE talking Madness

Here in the Rockwood School District, I'm beginning to wonder if we really like going to school. You see, there is not one single month of the school year that does not include some sort of three day weekend. No one. Last month was Spring Break. This month, it's Easter Weekend. For Spring Break they had the Friday before and then an entire week. This past weekend, the Z Kids had a half day on Thursday, off for Good Friday, and off for Easter Monday. Now, as a Believer and Church Musician, I am all for celebrating Easter. Bur ALL of these days off school???? This is getting ridiculous. It's madness, I tell you. At least, that's what it has become in the B House. To the following extent....

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I lost it as a mom on Friday. I mean lost it. Remember the mention of my car door snafu last week? Still not ready to talk about it. (I'll get there, I will.)But what preceded it was the verbal shenanigans of my children's mouths. My Z2 will make a lovely lawyer one day, but her mouth just DOES.NOT.STOP. After Thursday's ordeal, I was still a bit on edge (read:only one nerve left and I can't promise you it was even whole). On Friday, after dropping off my car to be repaired, I had plenty of Easter errands to run. So I load the kids into the car and off we go. And the mouths began. I told them nicely FOUR times within EIGHT minutes to stop and they didn't. So I don't know what came over me, but I whipped around with the mean stank eye, pointed my finger at their surprised faces and said,"Knock it off!!! Knock this crap off. RIGHT. NOW. And if you (pointing at Z2) don't wipe that smirk off your face right now, I am going to beat you within an inch of your life! (No, I really don't lay a hand to them, but sometimes fear is a healthy thing). And FEAR NOT! Should I go a little too far and take you out, I am CONfident that I will pray and the Lord Jesus Himself will raise you up so I can beat you again!!!!!!" And then I turned around, put both hands on the wheel and said,"Are we CLEAR?"

There was a sheepish reply of,"Yes ma'am," from the backseat.

I'm not proud of this, mind you. I try very hard not to lose it. But sometimes being nice just doesn't work. Suffice to say, they were pretty much well behaved for the rest of the trip. Pretty quiet too.

Until we hit the last grocery store. Z2 began to get exceedingly verbal. This time, I held my cool. I looked at her and said,"Z2, the last time we were here at the end of errands, you had a complete meltdown. Do you remember what happened after that?" (She was grounded from playdates for an entire month. Mama ain't playin'.)

"Yep," she replied,"And I don't need a repeat."

Good girl.

Honestly, I think this five day weekend is a ploy to motivate me to sign my kids up for summer camps. Guess what I'll be doing this afternoon....

Yours, mentally deliberating to which camps I will send my Zs,

Melissa

Friday Funny- It's Been a Long Time Coming...

It's been a week at the B House. Last night I topped it off by backing out of the garage while Z1 was holding his door open. Yyyyepp. I'm certain that will be blogged about in the coming weeks. Frankly, I'm still rather incoherent about it. I'm still processing.

Earlier this week, report cards came out. It's not that my Zs are bad students, they are pretty good, actually. School comes very easy for Z2. For Z1, not as much. This time, he was running home to show me his report card. He could not have been prouder. He had all A's and B's. One of those B's brought up from a midquarter grade of a D. He's been working so hard. It's not that he can't. He's just a child of preferred tasks. And if he doesn't prefer it, it can be heck getting him to complete it. He's a bit stubborn that way.

So he and I were going over his report card and suddenly, he throws his arms up in the air and yells,"YYEEEESSSS!!!! YES!YES!YES!" He begins to shake his tail feathers as if he was in a Fredbird audition. "What! What???" I exclaimed.

"I did it! I finally did it! I met my personal school goal!!!!!!"

"What was that, my love?" expecting something grand and magnanimous.

"Do you see these boxes, Mom?"

"Yes."

"Not one single mark in them. Not one 'Needs Improvement'. I DID it! I. FINALLY. FOLLOWED. DIRECTIONS!!!!!!!"

And at that, I had to shake my own tail feathers. Ten years in the making, that one was, and if you think we are through celebrating, you're dead wrong. I'm riding this wave to the shore and back again, Baby! I am going to milk this achievement for all it's worth because now that we know he can, he'll be able to do it all the time!

Should have seen his face when I made THAT statement. :D

Yours, wishing you a wonderful Easter Weekend where EVERYONE behaves and follows directions,

Melissa

SISTER’S TRIP 2011 PICS!!!

OMGosh, I forgot to blog yesterday! And Melissa didn’t even call me on it! (Bless her sweet little forgetful heart!) But I kind-of get a pass, don’t I, since I blogged a day early last week, getting ready for Sister’s Trip 2011?

First things first: NOTHING happened to middle sister, Margee. We were looking for it, waiting for it, but nothing. Nada. Zip. Damn! Maybe her curse is broken. (I hope not. I mean, this is what great blog posts are made of!)

Our resort was nice, but not one of our favorites. They had this stupid “one towel” rule which really pissed us off! And I couldn’t find any refried beans ANYWHERE. Really? I’m in MEXICO people! But the beach was beautiful and we met some really great folks there and ate WAY too much. All in all, it was a FABULOUSLY WONDERFUL vacation!!!

See for yourselves:

 

      (I’m 3 of 3, in case you couldn’t tell!)

                            

Yep, already counting down the days until the next trip!

Karen

Monday Madness

Oh Monday, you are true to form today. You are requiring inordinate amounts of coffee. Feels like a three shot espresso sort of day. My hair is bigger than I've ever seen it in all my years. And let me tell you, I've seen it pretty big. I feel like I'm nearly a match for David Crowder (that would be the artist in the photo to the left) this morning. And that dude has hair. When my precious Z1 came downstairs (with hair even bigger than mine, mind you), she looked at me, flopped her head face down on the table and whined,"I'm tired and I don't want to go to school." It took everything within me not to say,"I know honey. Why don't I call in to work and we can get back in bed and watch 'Pride and Predjudice' all day?" But since I have a hair therapy appointment today, I didn't want to have to cancel that. It's the only thing that will keep me looking presentable for the next six weeks. And with Easter coming up on Sunday, I remind myself that pictures last FOREVER and are generally brought to everyone's attention at a most inconvenient moment when it is your sibling who is producing said evidence of horrid hair days.

Oh Monday, lend a girl a hand and produce my shopping list for me, help me focus and get all my Easter prep done, and if you could help me sell some books, that would be fabulous too. It's a tall order, but not to tall for you, Monday!

Yours, wishing you a productive Monday,

Melissa