When children are 15 years old, they are still innocent to most adult situations. Of course, they hear stuff at school and use crude language that is used by others in their peer groups, but for the most part they don’t really have all of the information, only bits and pieces of it. So when a racy commercial airs over and over again, the 15 year old is compelled to call their parent at work and ask what it all means… “because I must know now mom!”
To the makers of the KY Pleasure Jelly For Him and For Her Commercial: Please know that 15 year olds watch MTV and whatever other Cable, Dish, Satellite, channel that air your adult oriented commercials! I will forever be horrified with memories of an office filled with smirky, wide eyed people who always have a perked ear for information (I work at a News Station for heaven sake!!) and over heard my end of the conversation explaining to a young teen what they use that for!
Panic! Thoughts of the mandatory sexual harassment training video came flooding into mind and all the raised eyebrows staring at me…can I get into trouble talking with my child on my cell phone at work about this? Hummm… I told her that we could talk about it when I got home.Big sigh when we hung up, but sad that I couldn’t tackle the subject right then.
I’ve always told her that she can ask me anything and get the straight and honest answer. Sometimes I wish that I never said such a thing and sometimes I brace myself and wince, buying time to offer a prayer to get me through this delicate conversation without turning her onto the subject or scaring her for life! It’s a difficult balance!
The King and Queen of Hearts! And in my humble opinion, the best dress couple at the Halloween party on Saturday night! I don't think that the Queen has ever seen the movie "Alice in Wonderland" so we looked online what the Queen of Hearts was all about.
The relationship between the King and Queen of Hearts is oddly familiar with the relationship of these two! She's not as dramatic as "Off with their heads", but just as grumpy! And he seems to be behind the scenes trying to smooth ruffled feathers and keeping the peace.
They are always teasing each other and self promoting to each other! It really cracks me up! I'm so glad that they are such good friends!
My poor child has horrible test anxiety and always has. Last year, in her Algebra 1 class she had 114 points (extra credit is her specialty) but didn't pass the standardized test at the end of the year (as usual). Today at the dreadful parent teacher confrontation, I mean conference, we learned that she has to take a semester class to make her proficient in Algebra 1 and if she doesn't they will take her Algebra 1 credit away from her. WHAT?!? The class to make her proficient is a "No Credit" class!! So she can't even earn an elective credit for it!! Again WHAT???! I about hit the roof! I cornered the principal and asked her what this was all about. She expressed that this is a new state law and encouraged me to write my state legislator! What a crock of crap! She told me that there is nothing she can do to help us! She said that she will try to see if she can make the it an after school or before school thing because she knows that other kids are going to be dealing with the same issues as we are, but she will not know for sure. I'm so not happy about this! Based on her ending grade in the class last May, she doesn't need another no credit Algebra 1 class (by the way the high school doesn't even offer Algebra 1!) she needs a class to improve her test taking ability!
This was such a blow to a girl who has struggled to adjust to high school and in the last week or two has lost some self esteem because of her 9 weeks grades. She is so hard on herself and has literally come home from school depressed and hopeless. I have never seen her this way, ever! This just adds to the stress and disappointment in high school!
I just wanted to brag to you that my Real Hero fixed Betsy!!! HOORAY! I'm Free! It's just the strangest feeling when you don't have a car. I felt trapped and had to rely on my real hero to let me drive his car (which isn't my favorite!). So when I drove into the driveway and saw that Betsy had been moved to the carport, I just about jumped out of my skin with happiness! Thanks Hunny!
1. I had lived in Arkansas for one year. 2. I went to Florida for the Pepsi 400 Nascar Race. 3. I bought my first dining room set. 4. I painted the bathroom. 5. I remodeled the princess' bedroom.
5 things on my list for today:
1. Work. 2. Make Dinner. 3. Go to Walmart. 4. Sew the straps on the Queen of Hearts Costume for K's Party on Saturday. 5. Blog.
5 Snacks that I enjoy:
1. Chips and Guacamole! YUM! 2. Chocolate anything! 3. M&Ms and Popcorn 4. Cheddar Jacks Cheezits 5. Dr. Pepper
5 things that i would do if I were a millionaire:
1. Save enough money for K's college and law school. 2. Buy Sally her new house...the one that she really wants. 3. Volunteer instead of work. 4. Buy a scrapbook store for me 5. Buy a flooring store for Kez.
5 Places that I have lived:
1. Salt Lake City, UT 2. Bountiful, UT 3. Herriman, UT 4. Magna, UT 5. Van Buren, AR
5 Jobs that I have had:
1. Hardee's Clown! LOL! 2. Customer Service Rep for a food distributor. 3. National Sales Assistant for FM-100 4. Media Coordinator for an Advertising Agency 5. Collections for Hearst Argyle Television.
5 people I tag:
1. Sally (I think that you already did this, but I don't think I have 5 so I put you!) 2. Darci 3. Debbie 4. Kim 5. Anyone else who reads this! LOL
This last weekend I went to “Tales of the Crypt” located in FairviewCemetery by my house. What a way to learn about the history of this little knock about place!
I learned that the cemetery was recently placed on the National Historical Registry. It has Confederate soldiers, slaves, criminals, and the town founders buried there. The earliest grave there was one of De Soto’s men from as early as the late 1700s.
Tales from the crypt is the reenactment of six persons who are buried in the cemetery. They dress as the person did when they were living and tell a story about their accomplishments, trials, family, and anything else about their lives. It was fascinating learning about each them. One in particular was a man named Dr. Addison Bourland. He was born in Alabama 1825 and lived all over the south. His grandfather was granted some land in Arkansas before it became a state. He went to University of Nashville, which is now Vanderbilt. He spoke six different languages and even though it was taboo to educate girls in his time period, he taught his daughter and she grew up to become a French scholar. He passed away in 1913…the year that my grandpa was born.
All of the “actors” stood above the graves and talked about their loved ones and it got me thinking of all the wonderful stories that I have of my own ancestors buried in the cemeteries in Utah. I love genealogy and know so much and yet so little about them.
It would be really fun to hear stories of yours and see pictures of them if you have them. Maybe our ancestors were friends or helped each other on their way to Utah. Maybe they were together in Far West or Nauvoo. Maybe they were friends with Joseph Smith. Maybe they shared food with each other during the depression. Maybe they took one another in when they arrived in Utah for the first time. Maybe they were accomplished and maybe they were just a fruit farmer.
Here’s what you do: Image Google your answer for each topic and pick the picture you like best from the first three pages. I had a lot of fun, but it was really hard to pick something I liked for some of the topics, and I actually left a couple off (A pet’s name and your best friend’s nickname) because it was so hard! So now I tag anyone who has not done this yet!
1. My Name: Kate
2. My middle name is my maiden name...I've also used X but for this I used my maiden name.3. My last name:
4. My bad habit: Tardy. I'm terminally late everywhere I go! 5. What I'm doing right now: Relaxing
6. My Grandma's name is Fay and this woman looks like she did when she was younger!
7. My first job: I was the Hardee's Clown! My clown name was Bubbles and my daughter makes fun of me by saying it in a scary voice "Hi kids! I'm Bubbles the clown!"
8. My age: I haven't had my birthday yet this year! 9. I grew up in Cottonwood heights, UT.
10. A past crush: Who didn't like Patrick Swazy?
11. My favorite place to be: Bear Lake!!!!
12. If I went back to school, I'd study to be a Forensic Scientist.
13. A place that I'd like to visit is Ireland:
14. My favorite color is sage green:15. My favorite food is Guacamole:
We haven’t had a super bad day in a long time, so I guess that yesterday was just our turn.
7:30am: Sister (daughter) decided to tell me that she had yet another (4 in two weeks!) project to do for school. But since we had tickets to the “So You Think You Can Dance” Tour in Tulsa she didn’t think that she would have time to do the project. Unfortunately, we didn’t have all the supplies so before work, I went to Wal Mart to pick up the Styrofoam balls and drop them off at the house for her to work on when she gets out of school…But no! Everyone and their brother must have had the same project because there wasn’t one Styrofoam ball to be had in the whole store!
Hobby Lobby opens at 9am…it’s about a 20 minute drive…She needs to get a good grade…I’m the mom who comes to the rescue…I’m already late for work…I could just get them and ask my hero to pick them up from my work…she can just work on project in the car on the way to the show….he has a busy work day…I could stop at Sonic on the way…
They were $3.79 for 12 at Hobby Lobby! I got 2 bags just in case!
Back in the car, I figure that I’m late to work anyway! It would make my husband and daughter’s lives easier if I just take them back home for her to do the project when she gets home from school.
Getting on the freeway, Betsy (my car) does a kinda chug chug thing and once I get going it seems alright…
As I exited the interstate I get a phone call from my other Hero at the driver control office who tells me that Sister was approved for her age waiver driver’s license! (YAY!) During which Betsy was acting really strange, chug chug chugging and then my other Hero tells me to have a blessed day…at those very words, Betsy pulled it’s last chug and completely died on the side of the road! Blessed huh? Ok.
I called my real hero to rescue the rescuer of science project paraphernalia who is extremely later for work that originally planned. An hour and a tow later, my hero promises to pick up Sister at 3pm from school so she has a least an hour to do the project. Betsy will be dealt with over the weekend.
At work, Sister (daughter) sent a text that she gets out of school at 2:00! Pros say she has an extra hour to work on project and cons tell me my real hero might have a problem getting her an hour earlier than planned. Hero picks her up after learning that the real time changed to 2:30pm…
4:30pm: project done and we depart for the show in Tulsa. Cell phone strangely powers down during the drive and refuses to turn back on. The show was spectacular, minus the rude people who kept standing up during dances and not at the end of dances! Other than that, the show was amazing! Glad we went! We noticed at the show that Sister’s camera’s LCD has been shattered! We still took pictures just to see if it actually worked.
11:30pm: On the interstate in Tulsa, it’s raining buckets, hero’s car windshield wipers stop! Blind to everything on the road, hero exits highway. In the rain he looks under the hood, bangs around, turns them on again and nothing. Hero asks for directions to the nearest Wal Mart…it’s a neighborhood market…nothing there to help. The nearest Super Center Wal Mart is 5 miles…blindly we crawl there in the pouring rain.
12:30am: RainX and Wal Mart are our friends! Hey, there is a Hilton across the parking lot! Hero said let’s see how the RainX does.
RainX on the windshield and 7 miles from Wal Mart it stops raining! Onward with the 2 ½ hour drive home!
Saturday was what we used to call “Regional” Dance Competition. At the end of last year The Arkansas Athletic Association decided to recognize dancers and cheerleaders as athletes. Many rule changes have taken place, for example: “Regional” Competition is now called “Invitational” Competition.
22 dance teams squared off on Saturday at K’s high school. It was really exciting that it was in our hometown because the last two years we’ve had to travel to both Regional and State. It was more work but well worth the savings in gas, food and hotel!
The Prancers won first place for their Jazz, Hip Hop, and Pom dances, and second place for their Kick dance!And the Blazerettes’ (K’s junior high school team) won first place for their Jazz, Kick and Pom dances too! It was a really entertaining day. All three of us were exhausted from all the hard work that we put in that day!
The rules: Go to the fourth picture folder on your computer and post the fourth picture in the file. Mine is a picture that I "took" from someone who posted it on KSL, of my beloved Bear Lake. I'm not proud that I "took" it, but it's the only way I get to see the beautiful blue since I live so far away from it now. Also, why do most people upload 15 pictures of flowers that they have taken, but only 1 picture of Bear Lake?!? You're turn!
I read an article about a woman who let her nine year old son navigate the New York City subway system alone. He was begging her to allow him to find his own way home from anyplace in the city. Buying into the adventure (and their basic way of life) she let him. She gave him a subway map, a transit card, $20 for emergencies, and 2 quarters just in case he had to call her. No cell phone, because she said nine year olds lose things. (uhmm, like the times they lose their way?).
The article goes onto telling how after she was on all kinds of talk shows and radio programs, people inundated her with letters about how they don’t allow their kids to play in their own driveway, or walk to their friends house without calling home with news that they arrived there safely. Her answer to this was and I quote “Playing has morphed into an act of daring, like shark hunting in a hamburger suit.”
Ok, I agree that kids need to be able to play outside, but how is allowing a nine year old unattended on the subway an act of play?
Programs like Oprah shows about human trafficking, and the many amber alerts over the internet has made me into a paranoid parent. I have no plans of taking a cruise because someone may take my daughter off the boat and force her to be a sex slave (Thanks Oprah!)! I do let my daughter go to her friend’s house but usually we drive because they don’t live within walking distance. I have allowed my daughter to walk alone to school for the last three years because it is down the street. No other kids do you see walking to school or playing in our neighborhood.
Here are the stats listed in the article: “Crime against children is down to levels that we haven’t seen since the ‘70s”- Is that maybe because the kids are less accessible?“The typical child abuse case involves an acquaintance of the child”- Again is that maybe because the kids are less accessible except for perverts who know people with kids?
What “play” do you allow your kids to participate in alone? And what do you find to be a bit over the top?
My husband is the best man in the world! He has a sarcastic sense of humor, so life with him is rarely dull. He does little things to make me happy and my life easier. He’s the most patient person that I’ve ever met and his skilled wit is comprehensive. His favorite word is “Conundrum” and was thrilled when it was used by the commentators during a NASCAR race. NASCAR is an every Sunday event, and his driver is in the 24 car.
Vern
Because he can, he has an alter ego who drives others to discomfort. Vern is a serious girl magnet, loves "Shake & Bake" and delivering flowers or cakes to unsuspecting victims. Plus, this is the whole reason why I went out with him in the first place!
...and so she danced.
The Princess is at constant force between good and evil. Starting High School has been both exhilarating and melancholy. A cross between a daytime soap opera and a comedy sitcom, she conquers and coins drama with sarcastic wit and innocent intelligence. Not only is she clever, but she is also armed with a strong confidence, arrogant style, dedicated camaraderie and a gifted performer. She makes me proud to be her mother!
