Where's the Respect?

I am not sure if it's a Midwest thing or just a sign of our current times.....

My stepson Teddy is a sensitive soul. Certain things just hurt him. I don't want to be TOO protective of him but I don't like seeing his little heart broken.

He had a friend, we'll call him C. C has a troubled background. His mom has five kids and I don't think even one of them shares a father. He came over to our house quite a bit and we were happy to have him. Until one day he flipped Teddy off.

In previous blogs I've said how I felt about a kid flipping people off. I called his mother and C swore he didn't but he did apologize. Things went okay after that.

I friended C on my facebook so Teddy and him could talk that way. I post hundreds of pictures on my facebook of all my kids (and pets, and flowers, and artwork....well you get the idea).

C commented on a picture of Teddy that "you look gay."

Now I don't think being called "gay" is an insult by any means. But I have family and friends who look at that picture and I didn't want it to be taken the wrong way and quite frankly, in type it looked mean-spirited. I removed the comment and sent C a message saying how many people looked at MY pictures and I would appreciate it if he could be respectful and if he couldn't post anything nice about my kids to please not post anything at all.

He responded by sending me a note saying "shut up."

I don't know why but seeing "shut up" sent to me by a 10 year-old was like being slapped in the face. He is now removed from my friend's list and if I knew his mom's new number I'd be on the phone with her right now. I may be overreacting but never in my LIFE would I have disrespected ANY adult by telling them shut up!

Unfortunately that just proves what kind of bringing up this poor boy has. I am becoming extremely concerned with some of the kids my children are becoming friends with. Is this a small school thing? Is it a midwest thing? It makes me want to take all my kids and run to a different state. Some of these kids have problems I just can't handle. Like the little girl who attempted to run away.

I don't think C will be allowed in my house anymore. Sorry, C.

Camera Drama

I am a photographer. No, I'm not a professional and no one has ever paid me to take pictures, but it is a passion of mine. I have a particularly horrible memory and without pictures I forget. I am missing entire years of my life because I don't have pictures to remind me. (I am secretly afraid of what I can't remember from those years).

Since my 16th or 17th birthday I have had a camera. When digital cameras came out and I started my very first (free) website and started posting pictures they weren't great. Not nearly as great as my "real" films.

Eventually I went from a digital camera that took 12 shots at a time to one that took around 50. Then I got a good camera. I don't remember what kind it was but it lasted quite a while and I could take really decent pictures with it, and even a few seconds of soundless video! Since then I haven't used my "real" camera that cost me $40 every time I wanted to print out pictures.

One fateful year at my friend's child's birthday my camera fell eleven inches from my hand to the floor. When I picked it up it wouldn't turn back on and you could actually HEAR something rattling around inside of it. I was very upset.

A few months later my husband purchased what has been the best camera I've ever owned!! It was a FujiFilm FinePix s700 with 7.1 mega pixels a 10X optical zoom, and preset macros (night, museum, sport, landscape, snow, beach, even portrait!! and MY FAVORITE: the close-up macro). I loved this camera SO MUCH you can not even imagine. I carted this thing EVERYWHERE! I took pictures of EVERYTHING! I even took pictures and videos of other people's kids and pets and made CDs and DVDs for them later. (Did I mention this camera had a video function - this time WITH sound??)

I had this camera a little over two years. I had let my stepson Teddy use the camera a few times. Then my 6 year-old wanted to borrow it. I let her take one picture. I am told this was my mistake.

One day my son The Star had a friend spend the night. My Angel took the camera without asking (she stole it) and took about 25 pictures and two videos. Then she dropped it from an unknown (to me anyway) distance. Then she put it back so I wouldn't know.

I took the camera out to take some pictures of a rose I was tearing up and take close-up shots of the petals for a drawing I was planning on doing someday. I noticed that the display was radically altered from it's usual clarity. There were huge bright and dark horizontal bars all over it to the point where you could hardly tell what the subject was!

I quickly found out about Angels theft and destruction. I hoped it was just the DISPLAY that was malfunctioning and I took out the memory card and moved all the pictures to my computer for further analysis. Can you guess it?

The bars were permanently part of the pictures. There was nothing I could do.

I was SO HEARTBROKEN I just sat in my computer chair and cried. I tried to explain to my 6 year-old how important that camera was to me because I KNEW we could never afford another camera like that one. It was $400 ON SALE!! And it wasn't even top of the line back then!

I cannot live without a camera.

I just can't.

So I told my husband she broke it (that was a HARD conversation - I get sad, he gets angry) and I told him I wanted another camera. I told him I was okay with it being a cheap little camera that didn't take great pics like the FujiFilm did, but I NEEDED a camera. It's just who I am now.

So we went out and found out that our camera is probably a busted processor (aka "computer") and it could be fixed. The problem was since the camera was DROPPED then other problems most likely will come up and the camera will continually degrade until it is just worth nothing anymore.

We looked at cameras. My husband showed me the FujiFilm upgrade (I think the s2700) that was only around $300. I felt if he was willing to get me a camera that would be perfect. I already knew FujiFilm! It would be like my old camera! My only real problem with it was the display. In my s700 the display is kind of protected - there is plastic all around it and it's kind of "sunk in" to the back panel. With the s2700 it's flat against the back and no where you can really put a thumb if you need to (I often do one-handed photography with five kids and three pets and sometimes taking pictures while I'm driving....don't worry I still keep my eyes on the road). This exposed display left me feeling uncomfortable about spending that much money on it.

Our friend Ken showed us "the best" camera in the store. It was a Canon PowerShot SX20 IS, with ultrasonic image stabilizer, a 20X optical zoom, 12.1 mega pixels, video, macros, a space to add another flash, a place to put a microphone, and a display that you can open, close, turn, rotate - it's just amazing. Of course, the PRICE was amazing, too .... but it was on sale. It was still pretty amazing, though.

I thought it was an amazing camera. I know my sister's husband bought her the "best" he could find and I believe it was a Canon - but I couldn't remember what kind. I mentioned this to my husband and said if we had enough money I would certainly consider buying that camera because it was so awesome. But I walked away. I was trying to decide between the FujiFilm and another much CHEAPER Canon that didn't have any features but it was small and it would take pictures for me. We had been in the store for two hours at this time and my husband walked over and picked up the PowerShot and handed it to me.

I vehemently objected because we honestly can't afford it. But he assured me the extra jobs he had been taking would pay for it and he thought my happiness would be worth it. Well, you know me, I had to cry some more for having such a sweet husband.

So now I have an awesome camera. And kids aren't allowed to touch it PERIOD! It's possible I have not ever been this happy - except I feel I owe my husband BIG TIME!!

Yay For the Mr.!!

My husband has taken a great leap in his man-volution. I have known this man for fourteen years and he has never EVER even ONCE gotten rid of a shirt. He has a physically demanding job and his shirts frequently get terribly stained and get rips in them. He has a couple of shirts that have so many huge holes in them that even HE can't tell which holes are for his arms and head!!

Still he always adamantly refused to throw away even one ragged held-together-by-only-a-couple-strings shirt.

In the past I have gotten around this by "accidentally" throwing shirts away, "loosing" them, or in one desperate attempt - burning particularly awful "shirts."

So you can IMAGINE my SHOCK when my husband handed me what used to be a Cubs Tshirt that he's had since I've known him and told me I might as well throw that one away.

SHOCKED!!

Yay! My husband has evolved!! It's only taken 14 years LOL!!

noooooooooooooooo!

My six year-old daughter took my camera without asking and used it and then dropped it on the floor. She then left it so she could claim she didn't know what happened to it when I started looking for it. I found it easy and started taking pictures and I noticed something was wrong. There were huge horizontal lines covering everything.

I quickly found out Angel had taken it and dropped it (figures, since the warranty just expired) and I was hoping the lines were only on the display.

Nope.

Long LONG story short it's busted. It still will take video so I guess this is now a really expensive video camera. This is ironic because the video camera we just bought from the pawn shop only takes pictures. So I have a camcorder that only takes photographs and a camera that only takes videos.

Only in my life, people; only in my life.

Gardening = Exercise

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - raking is the BEST exercise for your abs, sides, and back EVER! I only raked one yard and I feel like I've done 1,000 of those side-crunch (twist crunch?) things. I also love raking cuz I can get a lot done and let my mind wander. Of course now I'm all sweaty and dirty, but oh well. If we end up moving I am going to miss this yard SO MUCH!

I love spring and I love my yard. Bossman also had fun running around the yard while I was working. He'd jump over my piles of leaves and branches.

The puppies did NOT enjoy our time outside, however *giggles*. Unlike my TBone they only like staying outside for about a half an hour. Then they're done and want to come back in the house. It's probably because I put them on the dog run and they can't be right next to me, but they were quickly bored and after I refused to give their crying and yelping any attention they turned to digging in my rosebushes (BAD!). Next time they do that they're going straight to somebody's room!

But I got the whole front yard raked. If I feel like it (and my back, sides, and arms are sore so I doubt it) I may go back out and work on the rose bed and the driveway bed. When the kids get home I may have them help me move the piles to the fire pit so the hubs can burn it all. It feels good to get things done! After I get the whole front yard done I'll have to decide if I'll do the orchard or the smoke-tree's yard next. After that I'll either do the side yard or TBone's yard. Lastly will be the backyard and then the garden. I have a LOT of yard!! I have to separate them all to get anything done!

I LOVE SPRING!!

Preteen Presents:

The dish fight.

We have a new dishwasher. The kids don't know how to use it so they just load it (it's a regular chore all three oldest kids share with me). Last night I was busy sanitizing the house (see The L Word, below) so I forgot to run it.

This morning we find we have no bowls. The dishes were not done the night before because we didn't have a dishwasher. I loaded and ran the dishes the first night the new washer was installed but that did not get all the dishes done and I was gone most of the day the next day (mostly picking up kids from school and dealing with the L word). I told the kids they would have to wash bowls themselves if they wanted cereal because we woke up a little late and I was busy getting Bossman ready (this kid is DIFFICULT to wake up and even more difficult to keep awake and get dressed - NOT a morning person is he!!).

I came out to see Poinsettia getting a bowl out of the dishwaher. I told her it was dirty. She said it wasn't. I opened the dishwasher to show her all the nasty bowls in it. She insisted her bowl was clean. She then tried to tell me that bowl was clean because the dishwasher was run it just didn't clean the other dishes.

??

I really couldn't wrap my mind around any of that. I told her the dishwasher was brand-new and had a garbage-disposal type function so there would be NO dirty bowls, I told her just because there wasn't stuck-on food on a bowl had nothing to do with whether or not it is SANITIZED (the only reason I got a dishwasher is so I know the dishes are SANITIZED) and she needed to not be eating out of that bowl.

I'm pretty sure she ate out of it anyway (DISGUSTING!!!) because she feels I'm wrong and she's right. Well fine, then, but if she gets sick I'm going to kick her butt!!! NASTY!

I'll admit I have germaphobic tendancies but PLEASE don't eat out of a dirty bowl!!!!!!

The L Word

The L Word. The word that causes your kids to be sent home from school and makes your head itch for no apparent reason. It's a four letter word.

Lice.

EEEEEEWWWWWWWWW!!

I have had lice before. Many times. My girls are unusually friendly and share everything with anybody. Before I moved here (Farfa Yccono - my present house) I would say my stepdaughter had lice roughly 5 or 6 times. Since we've moved (3 1/2 years ago) we only had it once and that was when we FIRST moved, so it's been a while.

I am well educated on these disgusting little blood suckers. I know even the cleanest kids can get them. They are a pest uniquely evolved to survive soley on humans, and have lived on only humans since probably the stone age. They are fast, they produce 300 eggs in a week and they look nasty.

Well my house has them again. My stepdaughter was embarrassed when she got called into the office to have her head checked but I'm not embarrassed. So we have lice? So what? But as it turns out only Angel has any. I know where she got them. Two days after she spent the night with a friend that friend called to say her daughter had lice and I started checking all my kids heads every day. After what I thought was the appropriate timeframe I stopped checking. Well next time I will just go ahead and shampoo everybody because she has lice!

EEEEEEWWW!! (Your head itching yet?)

I went ahead and shampooed everyone's head, and after spending four hours nit-picking (combs don't work on fine hair) I started ripping up everyone's beds. Got a LOOOOOT of laundry to do today!!! Then I started spraying. I sprayed mattresses, backpacks and car seats. I will be boiling all hairbrushes and combs in the house today (I didn't get it done last night so no one could brush their hair today - oops) and throwing every hair tie I find in the wash. I have a special bag for hairties that I originally bought for baby socks that works quite well! Now I have to mop and/or vacuum every room in the house and bag up any stuffed animals too big for the washing machine (since we're using my brother in-law's apartment washing machine that will be quite a lot). Just to be safe I'll bag up the Barbies and Bratz Dolls, too. Lice are icky - I don't want any other kid to get them.

I've already got my computer calendar to tell me to shampoo everyone's head again in ten days.

I'm all set.

I don't like the icky little buggers, but lice isn't the worst thing to happen to kids.

Top Ten Lies I Tell My Kids.

I usually check out the daily AOL news while I'm messing around on facebook in the mornings and I came across this article:

Original Article

I was interested because I agreed with the headline. I do tell my kids not to lie and lying is wrong but I also tell them a fib or two. Mostly to not hurt their feelings. Of course I read the article and I have never EVER used even one of those top ten lies parents supposedly tell their children.

Here's MY top ten list of lies I tell my kids:

1. I believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.
2. You weren't invited to their party because they don't know our address. Or our phone number (aparently).
3. You look great in those jeans!
4. You are the best looking/most beautiful child I've ever seen!
5. Your hair looks so great that way!
6. That is an excellent drawing/painting/sculpture - as an artist I find talent in most creations, but nothing I'd buy myself lol
7. Daddy and I were just wrestling.
8. There's no such thing as monsters.
9. I think your best friend is a very nice person.
10. You can't watch that because it's not appropriate for the younger kids. (mostly true, but we have other televisions)

I don't feel I lie often - most of the time they really do look great in their jeans and their hair is likewise mostly great. Add to that most of their best friends I really do like. A couple of them I feel could do a lot better in the best friend department, but who am I to judge? Unless they are doing something illegal or morally just WRONG (which one did and I had to put my foot down on not hanging out with THAT person anymore) I don't see a problem with letting the kids work out for themselves who's a good friend and who isn't. As for the clothes and hair - if we're not going anywhere important I'm all for them experimenting with their own looks.

The Santa Claus and Tooth Fairy thing I lay solely on my husband. HE'S the one who keeps pushing them on my kids. And because I agreed to let him fill my kid's heads up with these ideas I feel forced to keep up with them myself even though I never once recieved anything from Santa Claus.

So, yes, I do lie to my kids. When they're old enough (and a little less fragile - at least in my stepkids cases) I'll start letting a little more of the truth come out. "Those leather pants with the fringe look good on you, but I wouldn't wear them to school...."

At least I'm honest enough to admit I lie!

um

Ug I just don't feel motivated to do anything for any reason these last few days. I am currently blaming the fact that my husband brought root beer back into the house and I haven't been able to stop myself from drinking it. I haven't weighed myself yet cuz I'm afraid to.

I don't feel like blogging I haven't read ANYTHING I don't even hardly get on facebook. Everything sucks LOL. I'm going to try to start taking a multivitamin again and see if that helps.

I am super excited for Spring though!

Loves:

No Stress? No Way!

I haven't been blogging lately. Two new puppies is like having two new babies: They take up a lot of time. I am still house-training the both of them. I know Porkchop is pretty much house-trained but the little girl just doesn't want to go outside. She'd rather go inside where it immediately gets cleaned up. I don't yell or smack them for accidents, but I might start growling at them when they do it because it's highly annoying to clean up poopies off the floor (ever since my last child I've had a superaversion to poop in general, which makes it harder - but at least it's little tiny puppy poopies LOL)

Either because of stress or hormonal changes or because my hair was just too long, I had been having a real problem with massive amounts of hair falling out. It was really disturbing in the bathtub, because even though I tried to gently pull out any loose hairs and set them in the trash can I'd still find gobs of hair in the water. It was really quite disturbing. Well nothing adds to the stress of our current situation than not being able to run a brush through your hair because of a horrible snarl (my husband called them "rat's nests" although you couldn't SEE the snarls) and then finally getting through it but having to empty your hairbrush four or five times before you coudl finish! Finally I'd had enough and I started researching shorter haircuts online. I finally came up with a page of possibilities and I took it to my local hair salon, where we quickly agreed on one and we got to choping! My hair went from 24 inches in length to around six. Everyone LOVES this haircut .... except my husband. He can't stand it. I know him, though, and once he gets used to the change, he'll really like the fact that he's not choking to death on hair every night, or having to see wads of it in the garbage can.

As for my current situation you'll all have to wait until it's over before I can give you the gory details heh heh. I'll explain it all once we have all our little ducks in a row.

In the meantime I'm so excited for Spring I can hardly stand it!! Every day it's a little above freezing I want to go out and start cleaning up my yard but above freezing is still pretty cold and soon enough I'm driven back indoors. Can't wait for Spring!!

I guess that's it....see you next time!