Finish that Sentence Friday and this week’s I thought I was so cool when I….

I had to really go to the recesses of my mind for this prompt! If you read Kate’s post from yesterday you will understand why. I never really thought I was cool. Except this one time, in Spain. I was 16 and if my long-term memory is correct this is how it went:


Tia and I were sophomores in high school and had the for-real coolest Spanish teacher in the history of Spanish teachers. Her name was Ms. Bertucci (like the restaurant, not sure if she was related). After saving our babysitting money and working part-time we convinced our parents to let us go. Across the ocean to a foreign country where we barely spoke the language.

What could go wrong, right?

The first night in Madrid we were allowed to go to a discotheque. There we were in our Guess watches (well, I was wearing a knock off), Benetton shirts, white socks scrunched down over our white sneakers and mini-skirts. (Okay, now you know how long ago this was!)

We were in the discotheque having a great time dancing to music we couldn’t understand, rocking our mall bangs and thinking we were the coolest things in the world. These fine  old Spanish gentlemen men were being so nice to us. Offering to buy us drinks (legal in a foreign country go us!) and laughing when we ordered soda instead. They started asking all about us, where we were staying, how long, did we know where our hotel was….

Sure, you know this is going no where nice…but we were 16 and idiots!

Thankfully, one of our classmates who understood Spanish a LOT better than either of us quickly figured it out and we learned….

In the 80’s if you were in Madrid and wearing a mini-skirt it meant you were a hooker!

That is probably that last time we, I mean, “I” felt cool!

And I should probably apologize publically for outting Tia’s experience with cool. But she is cool all the time so she will probably forgive me for a little embarrassment. After all, the tampon story was much worse!



Be sure you find out how everyone else felt cool by visiting the hosts of Finish that Sentence Friday

Kate (Twitter, Facebook)
Janine’s Confessions of a Mommyaholic (Twitter, Facebook)
Mommy, for Real (Twitter, Facebook)
Dawn’s Disaster (Twitter, Facebook)



And if you haven’t had a chance, would you take a moment to visit Babble and “like” my nomination for Best of the Blogs? It is super simple. Just visit the page and click: like on Facebook or Tweet or Google+ (G+ can be multiple times, Facebook just once per person dang it!)

http://www.babble.com/mom/a-letter-to-new-special-moms/

The girls are on Spring break this week. After a whirlwind trip to visit the grandparents that included a trip to Busch Gardens, pedicures and dinners out I thought they would be bored sitting at home.

Luckily Allie had an idea of how to pass the time. She got the stomach bug. The good kind that arrives at midnight one day and leaves by midnight the next.

Why, oh why, do throw up bugs never arrive when it is daylight? Seriously, I am thinking it is some kind of conspiracy.

Why, oh why, when you place the bucket right next to their heads children miss the bucket entirely and proceed to hit everything else in the room? Again, conspiracy.

When I couldn’t convince Allie that moaning that she didn’t feel good was not helping, I joined her. Not in acquiring the bug but in the moaning that I was tired and couldn’t we just lay there….

Speaking of laying there, why oh why can children only sleep comfortably if they are on top of you and to achieve the most comfort they have to be obscuring your airway? Or your bladder?

Boo on the other hand is having the time of her life. She is hitting Allie on the head saying “et up” (her version of wake up). Husband tried to do laundry. When tried, I mean he put the clothes through the wash. It was folding with Boo’s help that kind of messed up his process.

That and Boo’s insistence that the puppy should be covered with the clean clothes.

It just so happens that this is their vacation fall on most of my husband’s off days. Leaving him home with them and me….well

Why oh why do I escape to work? Because I can! (Sorry husband!) 

I wrote yesterday about the overwhelming number of victims that have been murdered by people jerks that cannot see the beauty in the world. I limited my posting to those in the USA but in truth, senseless killing is not an American product. Look around the globe and you will find similar tragedies.

The latest killings happened in my area of the Globe. And Newtown is just a short distance away. Needless to say, the horrors have been on my (an I am sure your) mind. So imagine my surprise when I read that the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health is holding a hearing to eliminate almost half the beds that treat children and teens with mental illness in three hospitals.

Hospital officials said this month that they planned to consolidate their child and adolescent units, the latest in years of steady statewide cuts to pediatric services. While several other hospitals have psychiatry units that serve children of all ages, Cambridge Health Alliance’s Child Assessment Unit accounts for nearly one-third of the hospital mental health beds in Massachusetts designated specifically for the younger age group, typically under 12.
(Source: Boston Globe http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/blogs/white-coat-notes/2013/04/17/hearings-scheduled-proposed-pediatric-care-cuts-cambridge-taunton-hospitals/2P8eOkPit0TlY7X5MvF8dP/blog.html)

Did we not learn anything?

How can we obtain my utopia if we are unwilling to treat children and provide them with the strength they will need in the future? What about their parents who strive every day to make their child the best they can be. To not have them defined by their mental illness but by their strength and character.

I am in no way an expert or know enough. Of course I know that mental illness may not have played a part in any of the senseless killings.

But I believe that if the services needed to equipt children with mental illness are not provided the results could be catastrophic.

End of rant. I promise to get off my soap box by tomorrow.

We thought it was safe to run, to fly, to go to school, to play. I am heartbroken that my children are being raised in a world that has such evil. 

I am heartbroken at the absurd violence that seems to have taken over our lives. I am saddened that we seem to be innoculated to the mayhem that has taken over our daily news.

But I am more than grateful that for every one person who takes a life there are hundreds that speak up and say IT IS NOT OKAY. That for every person who ran away from a massacre, they were outnumbered by those who ran towards to help.

All of these deaths/victims/lives and the many that I did not include, are across gender/race/faith/moral upbringings. All of these deaths are not the sole result of a gun, bomb, knife, automobile, airplane or other weapon. Their only commonality is that their lives were shortened for absolutely no reason at all.

Their deaths are the result of some person (for lack of a better word) who did not see the beauty in this World.

There are no words to alleviate the pain and suffering of any person affected by violence.

Not yesterday, not today, not a decade ago and not tomorrow. I do not want to live in a police state or a state of fear. I want to enjoy the beauty of this world and pass it on to my children. All I can do is strive to raise our children (and ourselves) to stand up and say enough.

The ONE murder of Robert Saylor is equal to the murders of 9/11. Every life counts.

No more bigotry, off-color jokes. No more child abuse. No more elder abuse or spousal. No more killing for the sake of killing. No more hate.

No more using non-combatants as chess pieces in your war against whatever you are against.

Utopia, peace-filled world is hard to attain. But until we say ENOUGH we will never be able to get there.

Peace. Love. Understanding. Comfort.

I will not forget your pain.
Those are the only words that I can offer to any who are suffering today.


 

Stephanie over at Mommy, for Real had an awesome post the other day that I am totally stealing. It was an open thank you letter to her friends that get her not only through her day, but through her life. Stephanie is the host of HerStories, a link-up where we can express what our friendships mean to us. You should definitely check them out, especially Dana’s recent post about a Friendship Mourned.

I did warn her I was stealing–not plagiarizing 🙂

I recently wrote about my friendship with Tia, but I am beyond lucky to have more than one Tia in my life. So here I am taking a moment or two to thank those who help me get through, well everything in my life.

Thank you to the friend who offered to do a family vacation with us, even though it means that plans have to be modified for Boo.

Thank you to the friend who does crafty playdates with Allie so I don’t have to.

Thank you to the friend who is leaving for a cruise, but still took Allie for a playdate on a half-day so she did not have to attend Boo’s 3 hour, multiple therapy appointments. Oh, and thank you for also feeding her.

Thank you to the friend who calls me unexpectedly because a P!nk song is on that you know I love.

Thank you to the newfound friends in the blog-world. For letting me know we are not alone in this world of undiagnosis, but that we can laugh at one another and ourselves.

Thank you to the friend who dropped off a bottle of wine when she learned I was home with sick children.

Thank you to the friend who is now Googling Jimmy Buffet because I told her it should be that kind of day.

Thank you to the friend who will let us come over for dinner because Allie likes playing at their house more than ours.

Thank you to the friend who tricked convinced me to join the PTA I have made friendships that I never expected.

Thank you to the friends who join up every year to walk with us for Children’s Hospital, even though it is 7 miles in June when you could be on the beach.

Thank you to the friend that gave me great parenting advice when I first had Allie and did not hurt me when I started every sentence, Jenn said….

Thank you to the friend who will meet us at the Pub at the last minute because we got a babysitter.

Thank you to the friend with a house on the beach that lets us mooch off you every year.

Thank you to the friend who lets me call her daughter at the last minute so we can go to a Pub.

Thank you to the friend who became my sista from another mista in the world of the Blog. You crack me up on a daily basis and it is not just because of the drawings.

Thank you to the friend that told me it is okay to cry and held me when I did.

Thank you to the friend who when Boo was very young and very scary still offered to have us over for dinner. Even when Boo threw up all over your floor, you still invited us back.

Thank you to the therapists who became friends. Thank you for being more than Boo’s caretaker but mine as well.

Thank you to the friend who brings me a chocolate covered donut in the morning for no other reason than you could.

Thank you to the friend who let us sit on their boat on the 4th of July and then takes Allie to see the fireworks while we hang back at the marina.

Thank you to the friend who does my hair at a discounted rate so I do not look like Roseannadanna as often as I should.

Thank you to the friend who not only let us stay with them in their condo, but watched Boo for the entire day so I could go skiing. And then offered again the next year.

Thank you for the friends who attend Girls Night In, I think it is time to schedule the next one.

Thank you to the friends who came to our house on Easter so Allie could hunt with more than just Boo.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all our friends who accept Boo for who she is and never makes our family feel that we are all alone.

Thank you to the friend that texts me during TV shows so it is like we are watching them in the same room.

My life would be so much harder without all of you in it. Thank you for everything you do and more. I may not always remember to tell you, but you mean the world to me.

Thank you for being a better friend to me, than I could ever be to you.

Kerri

It is time to join Lisa-Jo for 5-minute Friday. The time of day where you write for 5 minutes,unedited, just to show you can. Today’s prompt: After

Ready, set, go….

Be sure to link up at:

Time for Finish that Sentence Friday. And today’s snippet is….

“If I could live anywhere I’d live…”

Now I know you are expecting me to say a tropical island with a nice cabana boy who brings me wine at regular intervals…and yes that would be super cool (or warm, I guess). But if I could live anywhere?

I would live in Allie’s brain. Ew, gross you might be thinking? Really who would want to live in squishy brain matter….But I think it would be super cool.

I would be able to talk to fairies, sprites and nymphs (and I would also be able to figure out why they are different). I could look outside and see the fairy houses that were created overnight rather than looking at the leaves that have overtaken my flowerbeds. Instead of seeing a messy bedroom I would see a horse farm in one corner, a Barbie paradise in another and the oh so important stuffed animal corral on the top bunk. The only part of Allie world that Boo cannot be destructo baby in.

Then there is  the man cave that Allie has taken over. The playhouse that is where the American Girl Dolls live and have high adventures. Under the pool table? That’s not a pool table MOM (exaggerated sigh) that is where Tinkerbell hid the leprechaun so we can get his gold (thank you Auntie Krafty K for that trap by the way). Oh and that dollhouse? That is where Periwinkle lives in the winter. She travels (who knew) between Allie’s room and the man cave dependent on the season.

I don’t have a summer home, let alone a winter home. Yet Allie’s fairies have vacation homes, condos and leprechauns who give them gold. Maybe I can start charging them rent!

Yes, it would be awesome, wicked awesome, to live in Allie’s brain. If just for a day.

Most importantly, my mind would not be concerned with magnets, every day math or math facts! 

Please be sure to visit the hosts of Finish that Sentence Friday:

Small disclaimer. I am not to be trusted with an IPHONE. No seriously, my Kindle has taught me that I would get nothing done if I have an IPHONE. This is why it took me over a week for my Easter post. Oh well, I am nothing if not prompt!  So here we go, a week and a half late….

I am always nervous at the holidays. Boo doesn’t always react well to disruptions in her routine. Easter was no exception. The baskets kind of freaked her out. Not bad, not nearly as bad as the Christmas stockings. We kept it low-key, just us. She had fun decorating the Easter Eggs, until she tried to drink the vinegar.

The Eggs had cracks, but she had fun!

After Church when friends and family arrived for the Egg Hunt Boo was under the desk watching Austin & Allie on her IPAD. This holiday we were determined to be smart and not force her be involved. Rather we would celebrate and allow her to join us at her own speed.

We had hidden over 200 eggs (yep, we are crazy like that) in the yard. We gave the other children explicit instructions that the eggs on the deck were for Boo. They were welcome to the other 185 throughout the yard. We brought Boo outside, she took one look at the other kids running around and….JOINED IN!!! 

Boo was so excited by the eggs. She ran around the deck shouting EGG. She put them in her basket (way to go PT/OT). And while finding her 10 or so eggs took her as long as the other children finding their 180, she had just as much fun.

She spent the rest of the day carrying around her basket. Where she drew the line? Well, that was with the leaves….

The day was awesome. When it got too much for Boo, she retreated to her happy place. And we were all okay with that!

Crazy Puppy Bailey keeping watch

Happy (very) late Easter everyone! 

And because I am now almost in the top 10 and want to be there…if you haven’t had a chance please would you take a moment to visit Babble and “like” my nomination for Best of the Blogs? It is super simple. Just visit the page and click: like on Facebook or Tweet or Google+ (G+ can be multiple times, Facebook just once per person dang it!)

http://www.babble.com/mom/a-letter-to-new-special-moms/

Mother Nature is still going through “the change“. Saturday? Gorgeous! Sunday? Freezing! Monday? Gorgeous! Tuesday? Raining and freaking freezing (yes that is colder than just freezing because it includes rain).

As I sit in my office rocking working to Jimmy Buffet I was thinking how much nicer aka warmer it would be if life was a Buffet song. Think about it:

Boat drinks–20 degrees and the hockey game is on! Okay, not quite 20 degrees but it still works since I did have the Bruins on!

Cheeseburger in Paradise–we could have cheeseburgers without feeling guilty. Okay, I would take the cheese off. But burgers on the grill sound good, right?

A Pirate looks at 40–who wouldn’t want to go to Paris? 

Changes in Lattitudes, changes in Attitudes–who doesn’t need an attitude adjustment?

Margaritaville–one word: YUM and second word: flipflops and a third thought, would help with our attitudes!

Why don’t we get drunk and….–token song for the husband.

Fruitcakes–so our true friends join us 🙂

One Particular Harbor–who wouldn’t want to live on that beach?

Coast of Carolina–for those, like me, who cannot afford the airfare to St Somewhere.

It’s 5 o’clock somewhere–hence the margaritas and cheeseburgers at 11 am.

Happy Wednesday everyone! We are halfway through the week and almost to Buffet time!


And since a little self-promotion never hurt anyone. Would you take a moment to visit Babble and “like” my nomination for Best of the Blogs? It is super simple. Just visit the page and click: like on Facebook or Tweet or Google+

http://www.babble.com/mom/a-letter-to-new-special-moms/

Thanks!