Winner's privilege and Monday Minute

Another blogger's answers to The Daily Dose of Reality's Monday Minute, made me want to play along, so here we go.

1 - Ever take a shit in the woods?

Er, no.

2 - If you won $1,000, what's the first thing you would do with it besides give me a cut?
That would leave me with $9,990, enough to take my kids to Disney for a long weekend.*

3 - What's your favorite phrase?
I'm just plum fucking peachy.

4 - Fill in the blank - the world would be a better place if ______ left the planet.
insects and reptiles...and yes, I saw the bee movie...so I would settle with them leaving my neighborhood.

5 - How do you take your coffee or tea?
Tea, eeeuuw. I take my coffee with French Vanilla coconut creamer and agave nectar.

Over at My Mercurial Nature, she posted that winners can post twice today. And, I am a winner. I won Modern Mom's Perricone giveaway. Whoot! So, I am claiming my winner's multiple post privilege. Not that I needed a reason, but, it feels better to have one.

*Dude! I am in a sorry, sorry state. Maybe it was just the power of wishful thinking, but, I added nine grand to that prize money. It was more likely a combination of over medicating for my allergies and sleep deprivation. So...I guess with $990 I would take the family down to Universal for the opening of Hogwarts there. I suppose it might leave me enough change for a few fire whiskeys at The Three Broomsticks. Gah!!! I can't believe I did that. Thanks to Think Tank Momma for calling me out so I don't go down in history as the world's dumbest blogger.

You are what you eat

Can a person die from allergies, like a severe allergic reaction to be allergic? No? I didn't figure, but, the way I feel right now, I started to wonder. One of my adorable children asked if I ate Snow White's dwarves...or at least Grumpy and Sneezy. Kids...they're so cute, don't you think?

Looking like I ate a few dwarves, especially the 'you are what you eat' variety has me thinking that it is time for me to start climbing back on the wagon. It has been a rough year, Baby Girl's birth, my subsequent hospital stay, my husband's job insecurity, the step children induced drama, having three kids three and under while trying to stay on top of my three school aged children...has left me a shell of the person I once was. I need to start making myself a priority again.

Baby Girl will be one next month. My baby won't be a baby any more. I hate it. I see little tiny babies in a restaurant or a store and I want to sob. I don't want to not have babies around me. I also know on a different level, that my body couldn't handle another child. Nor perhaps could I. This year has been the most difficult of my life. I suffer from exhaustion like I never have before. I'm sure bringing up babies with Daddy so far away, is a contributing factor. The Little Lady will be two in July, and so I have been raising my family, and bringing up babies single handed for the last 20 months.

The sheer work involved in getting through my day is the largest contributing factor in letting myself go. I know it is so. Still, I need to change all that. I am going for a trim and to have my hair highlighted at the end of the week. I am also going to get a much needed mani/pedi. I have been shopping online for some new clothes, me being me, that means a few new snarky tee shirts. I have been watching what I eat a bit better than I had been. I am not exercising per se, my ankle isn't quite there yet, as a matter of fact, it protests loudly, but, I would like to start. It is time now that my baby is almost one, for me to start losing that 'new mom' pallor. Of course, if those babies would sleep through the night, it would help mightily with that.

Wish me luck guys. I have a feeling that I'm going to need it.

Parenting fails

Not very often do I speak out about other parents, this time I am bending that rule.

My son came home from school and told me that he loaned $20 to his friend. This 'friend' lives a couple of doors down from us. I wasn't happy on several different levels. I like the boy to whom he loaned the money but at their age $20 is quite a bit of money. Loaning money to a friend, especially money that took a couple of months to save, can be trying for any friendship. I also found out that the loan was supposed to be a secret. Red flag! Why a secret?

I insisted that we tell his parents. I walked down to their door, and his grandmother pulled up just as I was about to knock. I told his grandmother that I just needed them to know that 'friend' had borrowed the money, because even though I am pretty relaxed as a parent (though they are not) I couldn't in good conscience allow secrets to be kept from the parents.

His mother knocked on my door, she was almost confrontational about it. She was adamant that her son wouldn't borrow money, and that they would be aware immediately if he had $20 because he is never out of their sight. I just calmly suggested that she night wish to ask her son about it.

She came back a few moments later to say that her boy admitted to owing mine the money when she told him that my son had knocked on their door to collect it. She further stated that her son would have to repay the debt on his own. They came back a little bit later with a $15 gift card to a store we don't usually shop at and $5. Granted, she asked my son if it was okay, while stating that the alternative was for him to wait until 'friend' earned enough allowance to pay the rest. My son agreed, mostly because he didn't want his buddy to be in trouble, but, he is bummed about it.

So...a few parenting fails here.

• Lying to your child to catch him/her in a lie...FAIL!
• She might have 'purchased' the gift card from her son, as they do shop there, instead of giving it to my son...FAIL!
• Being rude to another parent who is trying to do the right thing? FAIL.

The buddy used the money his parents had given him to pay for his elective class fees, to buy tickets to an in-school sports event instead. He used the money from my son to pay for his elective. The reason that I wanted his parents to know, was because I had all sorts of crazy stuff going through my head. I worried about the child being bullied, or about him using the money to experiment with drugs, and even about him being afraid to tell his parents that he lost money. I would have wanted to know, so that is why I told the parents. I even made it a point to tell their son that if he needed money for school, I would be happy to loan it to him, or even give to him, just as long as his parents know. I understand being strapped for cash, I've been there. If he ever needs money for a field trip, etc., I will be happy to help if I can. I just don't want secrets.

G.W.A. the Father Time edition

Dear Father Time,

You are being cruel to me as of late. You and fate have conspired for me to meet up with a couple of people I used to know, who are about a decade older than I am. I am shocked to see how 'old' they look. Now I am panicked that I have about ten good years left. Frightening. (It would have been nice to arrange for me to have been wearing make-up and *not* wearing my cleaning sweats.)

Then yesterday, as I looked at pictures of my 18 year old nephew, you sucker punched me. All I can see is the little boy who used to sit in my lap and talk to me. How did that happen Father Time? How did it happen that fast?

The true test of my mettle was to have my oldest comment, "Cousin S turned 18? Cool. I didn't know he was only 5 years older than me!" My oldest son can't be leaving me in 5 short years. I an not ready for this. I am not ready at all. When he was small, these years were so far from being anything but a hazy dream in my mind, I hate the sharpening clarity of my vision of the future. I hate it Father Time, and I'm not too crazy about you either.

I owe you a grudging thanks, for reminding me in a most unpleasant way, that the time to make memories is now.

So, thank you Father Time, you arrogant bastard.

Sincerely,

Comparing my reflection, to those of my images taped to the mirror, trying to figure out how much deeper and longer my laugh lines are now.

Think Tank Momma is hosting her Gratitude With Attitude today. She needs some inspiration as you will see, even if you aren't wanting to join in and link up...leave a comment and help her get her mojo back.

Entry to petting zoo...free

So...because I am batshit crazy, I got my 7 year old son a parakeet yesterday as an early (and only) birthday gift. He is mucho in love with the bird, so he is a happy camper, the little dude even offered to trade his planned birthday trip to Disney, in for the parakeet. I will admit that the bird is cute. My cats are eyeing his cage (hung from a hook on the ceiling for his own safety) with soulful abandon. My dogs seem inclined to just be jealous.

I also had to set up a new aquarium this weekend. One of the friggin carnival fish went belly up, and I didn't panic until one of my little guys started swimming funny, and now I am worried about dropsy. The fish that passed first, had a hard white mass on the side, which I thought to be a tumor, but, with my little guy acting poorly I decided to quarantine him and the other carnival fish. I moved my older healthier fish to a new tank. Pain in my osh gosh b'gosh. I am now $50 into the death of a free fish. Grrrr!!!

My daughter and oldest son are saving their money for new hamsters. They have been looking at a teddy bear and black bear hamster. My daughter has even found a castle cage for hers. Ugh! Just what I needed, a few more things whose shit I have to clean. (Then why the bird? I know, I know.)

I was miserable having to send my babies back to school today. I want it to be Summer already...gosh darn it!!!

When was the last time you wore a toga?

It is pretty much official, I am in a funk. Just about everything overwhelms me right now. I am feeling terrible, a good portion of the 'terrible' has to do with the crazy pollen in the air here and my allergies. Then there is the roof which is still leaking, the faucet which is still dripping, the circuit breaker which trips every five seconds, the dryer which won't work properly because of the electrical problem, and the oven which is still broken. H's sprained finger, my broken nose, my sprained ankle, the Pink Eye, the fevers my small teething one has, and a whole bunch of other things. Losing so much food when the fridge went, made me terribly depressed. Hubby's job issues have me frightened again. The whole sleep deprivation and resulting exhaustion have turned me into a non functioning blob.

Right now, my eyes are threatening to close. I had a nap this morning, but, it did very little to help. I am so spent, that an hour or two of shut eye can't bring me back from this seeming point of no return. I am trying to gather enough strength to do the dishes and clean up. Hard to muster when your body betrays you by letting you fall asleep sitting up.

***************

A friend sent me an invitation to a Toga birthday party tomorrow. It is the only thing that I have found laugh out loud funny in days. Do people my age still do that crap? How do people my age still do that crap? My reaction was, "You've got to be [bleeping] kidding me!" and should I be depressed that I wasn't even tempted to go?

4:30 a.m.

What do most people do at 4:30 in the morning?

Today is the first day this week that my Baby Girl has been asleep at this witching hour, or bitching hour, as the case might be. So...as a special treat...vomit all over my bed courtesy of my three year old.

I sit here now, puked on, holding The Little Lady who has been fussing on and off and for the last couple of hours, after stripping my bed and turning my mattress in the dark.

My tummy is churning. Bad food? Or perhaps that icky barfed on feeling that only a shower and time can erase. Only time will tell.