The Other Side of the Coin

Our boys are thrill seekers and rambunctious, random comedians. The flip side of this nail biting roller coaster we have a wonderful daughter. She's dramatic, pre-hormonal, creative and moody, but she is our sweet buttercup....our baby girl.

Lately, there is drama on Abby's mind every time she walks in the door from school. There's a tale about someone who was mean to her on the playground, or someone who was not listening to the teacher again (eyes rolling and head bobbing for emphasis), and/or someone who just thinks that they are cooler than she is.... AS IF?!? And so it goes, that as this tender morsel of feminine youth develops into her own "self" I often wonder how she will handle herself when she is out there in the real world....and I'm NOT THERE WITH HER!?!

Will she be a leader or a follower?

What kind of friends will she choose?

Will she sit on the sidelines, or stand on a chair in the middle of the room and lip sync the latest hits while her friends sing back-up?

Will she be the tutor, or the tutored?

Will she set a good example for others, or be the kid that the other mothers scowl and whisper about under their breath?

I want her to be a spit-fire who knows who she is. A girl who won't take any guff off of boys who just want another dumb girl who will be lead around by the nose. I want her to be independent, not dependent. I want her to be fun and silly when it's time to have fun, but respectful and have poise when the occasion presents itself. She needs to respect authority, but not be afraid to push the limits when her honor, integrity, or rights are in jeopardy.

As I was going through some of my older "back shelf" emails the other day (you know, the ones that you skim over but don't really read until much later), I clicked on an email containing pictures of a Girl Scout event that Abby had attended in our area. As I was scrolling through the pictures I was pleasantly surprised at what I saw! Little Miss Personality was laughing, hugging, playing, crafting, whispering, listening, smiling, participating.....she was AWESOME! It was a treat to see her candid personality unveiled. She was vibrant, fun, and the life of the party!

And a BIG gold star goes to the mother of this awesome young lady!

Why, THANK YOU!

The Wooden Spoon Incident

My youngest two are pretty close in age, and when they were younger there were many days when I felt like I was being tag teamed between two heavy weight boxers. When their behavior was "off", wrangling one of them sometimes meant that the other little scoundrel was taking full advantage of the situation by skillfully dismanteling another part of the house. And then there were the occasions when they were so out out of line (they were toddlers after all) that I would employ the backup assistance of my handy dandy wooden spoon when FIRM words and time-out weren't quite getting the job done. Don't judge.

On one such afternoon I had gone Round 8 with the dynamic duo and was seriously about to unravel at the seams. Too much mischief, sassy back talk, and bullheaded defiance had me worked into quite a lather, and the wooden spoon had gotten a little bit of a workout, honestly. I felt like I was running a losing race at the hands of my toddlers, and so I finally just tucked the spoon in the back pocket of my jeans. Ugh! I mean really - why put it away just to get it back out again?!

Somehow we managed to turn the corner and get things back on track and were making some headway. Realizing that the oldest would be getting out of school before too long, I decided to run to the drugstore for a few quick items that we needed. Once we got to the store, I was pleasantly surprised at how the two of them were behaving! It was like little aliens had taken over their bodies - they were sitting in the cart, being sweet to eachother, and using their inside voices - it was GREAT!

The thing that WAS interesting to me, was that people seemed to be paying quite a bit of attention to us as we were walking through the store. I mean, the kids were being really good and we were just minding our own business but people just kept giving me these weird looks! So when we were almost ready to get into the checkout line, I had an itch on my back that a reached around to scratch....and that's when I discovered that I still had the wooden spoon tucked in my back pocket.

Nice. No wonder everyone was staring at me! I was walking around the drugstore with two perfectly behaving children, but had a monster "enforcer" boldly displayed in pocket as if to say, "Yeah, I dare my kids to ask for Lik-M-Aid again!".

NOT a cool feeling.

Linking up with Mama Kat this morning.

Prompt #3 - Wardrobe malfunction

Saturday Morning Silliness

Abby with one of her very favorite BFFs.

After a late night, followed by a sleepover, these two woke up ready to take on the world.

...more giggles and funny stories to share.

When I uploaded the photos from my camera this morning, these pix really stood out to me. I remember how much fun it was to have sleepovers, stay up as late as we possibly could, and eat junk food. LOTS of junk food!

Great memories!

Car Salesmen Continue to EARN Their Reputation

Top 10 things that a car salesmen should never say:

1. I think this is how you get the seat to lay down... As he's getting ready to do a WWF pile-driver move on the seat to get it into the desired position. Nice job there Cletus. I bet those repairs won't be covered under the power train warranty, will they?
2. I would never try to take advantage of my customers, I walk with Jesus every day. Yeah, well He walks with me too, and He's saying that you measure an 9.8 on His full-of-crap-o-meter.
3. I've already been back to my floor manager THREE times to adjust the number - this never happens! REALLY? Because Diego earned extra Weight Watcher points walking back and forth when we purchased our last vehicle from this same dealership.
4. Now, if you were looking at a (lesser quality vehicle) instead of a (what we're negotiating on) I could easily get you into the number that you want to pay. But those vehicles are stupid, and that's why I want the pretty one.
5. I'm not really familiar with those cars. FAIL.
6. Now, we (the dealership) have to be able to make some money here. This is so stupid that no comment is really necessary.
7. Most of my customers look at the price that we give them (on the negotiating paper) and say "That sounds good to me!" To which I replied, "Well, then you should be out there busting your ASS to find those customers, 'cause I don't know ANYONE who takes a car salesman's first offer."
8. There's just no more room to negotiate. That's about the point when I smell blood because now I KNOW that we must be getting close to the "sweet spot". Buckle up Cletus!!
9. That car's only been on the lot for a few days. Then you guys have an aggressive marketing strategy since it was listed as "Just Reduced" on the internet....or was that my "room for negotiation" that just evaporated?
10. You wouldn't believe how the crash in the market has crushed car sales. Pretty brazen thing to say since this dude is pimping for an auto house that was bailed out by the government in the not-so-distant past. Wouldn'tcha say?

Skid Marks, a Sharpie, and Other Ramblings

Lately I feel uninteresting, overwhelmed by motherhood, and seems to have a mild case of writer's block. Therefore, rather than force myself to write something that I am not behind 100%, I thought I would share some random conversations between my children and I.

Enjoy!

~~~

Sunday we were driving with just the boys in the car, and we were talking about clothes that we needed to get/replace before long.

Me: Lucas, we are going to have to go through and weed out some of your underwear, dude. You've got a bunch of drawers with some nasty skids and some holes in 'em.

Lucas: (without missing a beat) Well, it's cuz I fart!

....can't argue with that logic.

~~~

This afternoon when she came home from school:

Abby: Momma, guess what?!

Me: What?

Abby: *BEAMING* Today my teacher gave me a brand new Sharpie to keep in my school box!!

Me: Really? What color is it?

Abby: It's baby blue and it's brand new! I brought it home in my backpack so that I could use it a little bit. YAY!! I love new Sharpies!!!

Yep, she's mine all right. The only thing that could have made her day any better would've been if the teacher had given her a pink spiral notebook to go along with it. I'm so proud!

~~~

Last weekend Lucas had a falling out with one of the boys on our block, When he came in crying to tell Richard about it, this is how it went down:

Lucas: *emotionally tells his dad about the incident between he and a friend*

Richard: Well did you hit him back?

Lucas: NO.

Richard: You are going to have to start learning to stand up for yourself rather than running inside and fussing about it everytime. He shouldn't have ****ed you, but next time you need to punch him back, and make it count!

Lucas dries his tears up and goes back outside to play. As a protective mother bear precautionary measure, I decided to follow him out and read a book while keeping an eye on things. After about 10min I could see that Lucas is still pretty worked up and agitated, so I ask him what was up.

Lucas: I'm waiting for **** to come back outside so that I can beat him up!

Me: WHAT?!?

Lucas: Well dad said to hit him back next time, so that's what I'm gonna do!

Me: Well, I don't think your dad meant for you to come out and settle the score after the fact, he means for you not to take crap WHEN someone hurts you.

Lucas: Well that's what I'm gonna do! I'm not taking crap!

I marched back into the house and let Richard know that he needed to get himself outside PROMPTLY, and clarify the "ass kicking policy" before we had an even bigger problem on our hands... Nice.

~~~

The oldest can't seem to understand why I am not "on board" with letting him roaming aimlessly around his girlfriend's neighborhood on Halloween night. I mean really, they're "just going for a walk in the woods".

Now that I think about it, I'm starting to seem a little uptight to myself, too! I mean, it would make total sense to just let my hormonal-almost-driving-age teenager walk in the woods with boobies and groping hands, right? And surely letting them go unattended (unless you consider the other COUPLE of teenagers as chaperons) makes even more sense. They are teenagers, after all, and know more than we (the parents) do. Right!? Or do I just have it bass-ackwards again? I don't know. I might need a little help on this one.

Can I use my life line, Meredith?

~~~

Hunting For Wabbits!

"We're hunting for wabbits!"

I love the uninhibited look of seriousness and

determination on their faces. You can almost sense the crazy

testosterone of little boys with the power of a pellet gun in their hands.

And here they are examining the target for accuracy.

This was Lucas' first time to handle a pellet gun, and merely stating that "he was excited"doesn't even begin to describe his exhuberance. His buddy had all the right gear - protective eyewear, targets, and a huge sheet of solid wood to mount the targets on. The wooden target mount particularly struck me as genius since little pellets are quite prone to finding their passageway to freedom in between fence pickets. :)

Not that we've learned this firsthand or anything... I've just heard.

Stop The Clock!!

If I could stop time for 24 hours....

**Warning: This is not going to be deep or thought provoking. It's just where I am and what I would want to do at this particular moment in time.**

I would catch up on scrapbooking. I have so many pretty papers, stickers, and wonderful photos that are just dying to be put into a place that they can be shown off and adored. I have cute kids, in case you didn't already know.

I would go splurge on some new clothes. I rarely have time to shop BY MYSELF, and let's face it, even when I do have time...I'm rushed because there are other things that need to be tended to. I would catch up on all of the reality/trash TV that is dying to be watched on our DVR. Project Runway, RHWofAtlanta, RHWofDC, Brothers & Sisters, etc...

I would read. Currently reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Need to be better about reading the B-I-B-L-E (are you singing the song in your head now?) so I would give that some love. Don't judge. I have room for improvement.

I would Facebook, Twitter, WWF/Scrabble, and BLOG.

In between all of these fun little ME THINGS, I would get a slice of White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory....and call some friends while I am jetting around in my car. Bluetooth is awesome, BTW.

It would be awesome.

....maybe I should find a reason for Richard and the kids to leave town for a day to two (or three), so that I can work this out! Hmmm....

Prompt #5 - If you could stop time for 24 hours, what would you accomplish?