Give Me Hope!

This is my new anti aging miracle. I "hope"!
I'm not sure I trust the name...."hope in a jar"...
I need something much more certain and concrete!
Hmmm, "concrete in a jar"...don't think so. Not a
good selling point - putting concrete on your face.

Speaking of things that AREN'T good selling points...
To Ackerman Associates and Kirby Vacuum Company:
It's not a great "selling point" to have your 21 yr old high school drop outs go door to door with your "free gifts" only to take them back. Here's my story...
It is 4:10 pm in the Clay Cottage and Miss. Tonja is getting her daycare kiddos snack when the doorbell rings. Thinking that it's A's father picking up a little early, I get "A" down from his booster seat and head for the door. I open it and there is a very young male species on my front porch to which I say..."Oh, it's not your daddy!" The young male species looks at me and asks if I'm the happy homeowner. I said "well, I don't know about the happy part." (small talk -ok)
So, he had a round tube of wipes that say "orange cleaner". He proceeds to hand this to me while saying that he is from Ackerman Associates and they want to give me this free gift so I will remember their name. I say "Thank you" (knowing there's a catch) and wait for the selling to begin. He says "Ok, do you remember our name?" to which I say "Yes, Ackerman Associates" His eyes get big and he says "WOW! Most people never remember." Umm, hello, you just told me 2 seconds ago. Although I must say I was pretty darn impressed with myself. I usually don't listen to people who are trying to sell me things. Anyhoo...he tells me that he is with a van of people and his van is competing with another van and that there is a girl out in his van that only needs to do ONE more demonstration of their wonderful Kirby vacuum cleaners and they will win. (Ok, for the record oh young one...I wasn't born yesterday, although you look like you may have been!) So I look at him and say "Right now?" and he says yes, they really need to get this done. So, I look at him and say "I'm sorry, but I run a daycare out of my home and we're just finishing snack, I still have preschool to finish up and I have parents coming and going from now until 5:00". He just looks at me and then looks at the "free gift" he just handed me. I said "Do you need these back?" He looks down with this half smile / half "I'm so sorry" look on his face and said "Ya, I'm going to need those back..." So I hand them back. He tells me to have a nice day and I shut the door. Hard. WHAT? Did they just hand me a free gift so that I would remember their name, then ask me their name, I REMEMBERED, and they just took it back?!
See, this is where my harmful good upbringing comes into play. I do the right thing first, by politely handing back the wipes, when really I should have chucked them across my front lawn and told him to go get them! GRRRRRRR!!! I have plans for this "Ackerman Associates"...I will write, I will email, I will call, I will complain, I did blog, I will send to all my email groups and everyone in my address book, I will warn everyone I see, and I WILL GET MY FREE WIPES BACK!!!!! Darn it!!!

I am going to Walmart tonight and buying a NO SOLICITING sign!!

Happy Birthday T1! ~ My Big 12 Year Old

What can I say...it's been a great 12 years babe!!
I love you, I love you, I love you!!
You're my big boy! You've been there with me through it ALL! Leaving your father, moving to a different state and starting over on our own, staying up late with me watching Lifetime when I was preggers with your brother... (You poor thing, I'm sorry for exposing you to The Golden Girls at such a young formative age!! - Is that why you wanted a cheesecake for your birthday last year?) Anyway, it just seems like you've always been there (for/with) me. We were laying in bed a couple nights ago...(this time watching Nick at Night, not Lifetime...) and I just started laughing out loud. You asked me why I was laughing and I said "because in a few days I will have a 12 year old!" That is so funny to me. I can't believe I have a 12 yr old!! And boy...what a great 12 yr old I have!! You're the best. Period! There is no other 12 yr old better than you! I can't believe 12 yrs ago tonight, at this very moment, 9:47 pm, you were only 45 minutes old. WOW what I would give to go back! Ok, so maybe I'd add a couple weeks to that...you know with the C-section recovery and all...but still, I would give anything to go back! Just for a minute, just to hold your little body in my arms again. Just to smell your little baby smell. Ok, now I'm sitting here bawling and you're on the couch playing your new Gameboy SP and you're going to look over here and figure out I'm writing about you. I hope you read this tomorrow and I hope you know how much you're loved. How much I deeply, truly, LOVE you!! With all my heart!! You're my first love! My first true love! You are the one who gave me my favorite title in all the world..."MOM"! So thank you... thank you for that title! I love it and I cherish it, even if I don't live up to everything that title should stand for on a daily basis! And thanks for forgiving me for all those days that I didn't do a good job of living up to that title! You're a good kid!! Even if I wasn't your mother, I would STILL want to know you!! Ok, bawling again...just tell me this... how did I get so lucky? Not only do I love you because I'm your mother and I have to, I love you because you're fun to be around! You just walked over here, you saw me crying and you just said what I love to hear you say...MOM!! Even if it was in that, "I can't believe she's crying again" voice....like you do when all the sad parts of movies come on. Ok, enough...I don't want you to think I'm depressed because it's your birthday, NO WAY!! Rock on little man, cause we got many more FUN years ahead!! I mean we've only begun...we still have acne, dates, driving, getting you through high school, your first job, college...and we'll stop there. I don't think I can handle thinking about marriage and grandkids!

If I have to witness one more dramatic "goodbye"...

Oh my gosh, seriously. I just stumbled upon yet another dramatic , sad, heart wrenching "goodbye blog" post. Ok, I'm trying not to be judgmental, and all in all, these dramatic goodbyes have a good meaning, but STILL....it's a BLOG people!
These women with their "last posts" , like it's their last breath... And their "I'm sorry, it had to be done, it was either the blog or my family/marriage/children's welfare" I'm not even kidding here!! And their "I've consulted with my husband, my psychiatrist, my friends and my family and I think this is for the best." Consulted?? A.R.E. Y.O.U. S.E.R.I.O.U.S? Really? Are you serious people?! It's a blog. These women really take this THAT seriously that they feel if they don't pull the plug completely on their blog that their lives are going to be in total ruins. What the heck? Blog when and if you can. There are no rules. And if you belong to some blogring that dictates when and how much you must post, maybe you just need to leave it. This isn't a blogging issue here people, this is an addiction problem. If you can't shut your computer down to make sure the your children are fed, your husband is taken care of, your house is clean, you get a daily shower, and your kids get to school on time...maybe you shouldn't have internet at all, period! I just don't see how these women can honestly blame their home/work/marriage/children issues on having a blog. PUHLEEZE! Take some responsibility here...I don't think these issues, lie within having a blog. Good grief, so you have responsibilities that will keep you from blogging for a couple days...so then DON'T blog for a couple days!! See how easy that is? Just don't blog every second of every day! Simple! Do it for fun in your spare time. Is it THAT hard? Really?

Get a grip ladies and up the prozac dosage!

Quick Note

Not much is going on, just a quick note to keep all my fans happy. LOL

This week is going so far, so good. T1 is finally starting to feel better and hasn't coughed today. I'm happy about that. I thought I was going to have to call the doctor again this week, but I think he's getting better.

I'm only working Mon. - Thurs. this week and took Friday off for T1. His birthday is Thursday and since I'm always off for his brothers birthday in December, he asked if I would take off for him this year. Well, YES!! Of course I would! We don't have any big plans for Friday. He wants to go to the mall or to a movie. Sounds good to me. Thursday night we will go out to eat with grandpa and grandma, come home, open presents and have cake and ice cream. My mom has to work til 11pm, so she'll miss the presents and cake, but we'll meet her somewhere for her lunch break at 6:30...probably Applebees.

Saturday we are getting up early and heading to Michigan. The kids and I will go to my aunts first and have a birthday celebration for my grandpa who is turning 83 and then we'll make our way over to Gwen's house to spend the night. I can't wait to see her baby. Well, her 'baby' is 19 months old now, but I haven't seen her yet, so I'm excited for her to finally meet her "Auntie T". Ok, and I'm excited to see my best friend too!! We'll come home on Sunday. Hopefully early enough for me to clean the house up a little and get ready for work Monday morning. I think this weekend is going to go by too fast!! Why can't we work 4 days and have 3 off?

Hope everyone is having a great week! I can't complain!

God is good, All the time! All the time, God is good!