Friday Fragments

It is Friday, right? Yes, I think so. And good thing since I can't form coherent thoughts yet.

Kids.... have spent the night with grandmothers the past 2 nights. It is so nice to wake up in the morning without someone wedging me out of my own bed, not to have to hear Playstation Justice League at full volume at 5:30am, not to have to find milk and cereal spilled all over the kitchen. I even get to watch the news while having my coffee, instead of cartoons.

Thanksgiving... was good. We all went to my mother-in-laws. I am thankful she is wonderful. WE had a good dinner, the kids played outside, upstairs, downstairs. Even our dog went and had a good time. As a side note, I forgot to medicate my ADHD child #4 so he was balls to the wall full force all day long. I am thankful he didn't get hurt.

Barry Manilow.... is on my tv? Barry is the featured singer this morning on the Today Show. For whatever reason I think this is really funny, maybe because he is singing 80's hits- Islands in the Stream...that is what we are.... Usually they have some hip singer... Barry? I think I have an 8-track of his.

School.... a new class has started. Actually 2 classes. So far Federal Courts is a LOT of reading. There is also a weekly quiz. And I haven't even read for Environmental Law yet...

Sayings.... I heard a good one this week about politics. "If good people don't get involved, bad people will". True that. Sign me up.

Child #1... is going on a cruise to South America with her grandmother for Christmas. They aren't going until early January, but that is her Christmas gift. She also needs a fancy dress for a school dance. The school dance also requires her to have a date. She is considering going with her best guy friend, and I am totally good with that. But not good with the dance idea... she is getting big. I am not old enough to have a child going to high school next year.

Home.... I have the house to myself for the majority of the day. Husband is at work today and will be picking up children on his way home this afternoon. He won't work a full day, but that still gives me nearly a whole day home alone. This is a rare treat. While I would love to read blogs and play all day, I have work to do. Cleaning before Christmas decorations go up, and reading and quizzes to be done.

Thankful.... I am thankful for all of you who are reading this. I really never expected anyone to read any of this, it was mostly for my own sanity. But I have been pleasantly surprised and I enjoy your comments, suggestions, and stories. Thank you all for being here.

Free at Last...

Well, I'm not really free... but my kids are. I recently learned that my parenting style is considered "Free-Range". That would be the opposite of "Helicopter". Its the difference between hovering over your children and allowing them freedom without constant supervision. As some of you may realize by now I have 5 children. The oldest is 12 nearly 13, and the youngest just turned 4. If I tried to watch them all at all times I'd either have to tie them together or have x-ray vision to see through walls. It would be impossible!

At age 7 I walked to school alone, stayed home alone after school, and rode my bike alone to the donut shop on Saturdays. When I was 12 I took the bus to the mall for the day or downtown to hang around the history museums. By the time I was 14 or 15 I rode my bike with my backpack of overnight clothes nearly 30 miles down country roads to my grandparents house- in an entirely different state!!! So, ever since I heard all the fuss on the Today Show about Lenore over at Free Range Kids, and how she let her 9 year old ride the subway home alone, I've been stalking.... ummm... following her blog. She has some great ideas. And I especially enjoy the comments from other parents. If you have children, no matter if you are helicopter or free-range, you should check her out. She isn't nearly as drastic as everyone makes her out to be. She was recently on the Dr. Phil show, and they are re-airing that episode on Thanksgiving Day- which may be the perfect time to watch because we all know the kids are going to be running around unsupervised with their cousins while the adults drink spiked eggnog so they don't maime or injure their in-laws.

So... along with my kids being free from my constant supervision, they will also be free from school after tomorrow. Until next week. I love holidays, but why do they have to cancel school? Oh, yeah... so that Vodka Mom over at I Need a Martini Mom can get a break and have some vodka martinis too. God bless you for your service to our children... your martinis are well deserved. (By the way, I tried some martinis made with blueberry vodka and they taste like blueberry muffins... dangerous stuff)Also, I am feeling pretty free. And No... I didn't confront friend's jackass husband. I will lie in wait and suprise him later. I actually got more awards!!! From Tova Darling... who has a perfectly evil mother-in-law (if you thought yours was bad check this one out!). She also has a secret identity since her name is not really Tova or Darling. She actually has a journalism degree, and felt it fit to bestow upon me the following awards:

The Superior Scribbler Award, which you can read about here....


She also bestowed upon me this award....Which translates as "This blog invests and believes in proximity" (meaning, that blogging makes us 'close'-being close through proxy). Or, if as Tova Darling believes, it translates however you like... then I think mine translates as "You are the hottest mother of 5 children and your brain power and ability in law school is freakin amazing"..... at least thats what I'm pretending it says...

And last she gave me this one of Marie Antionette...


Which is a really beautiful picture. MA was married at age 14 and later executed by her husband. It reminds me to tell you all that if you have not seen The Other Boleyn Girl, you should watch it. Mental Note: do not watch with small children- there are some fairly vivid sexually intimate scenes... and Eric Bana is pretty hot.

Some People are So Rude

To begin, let me apologize for my lack of comments lately, but I promise I will get all caught up on reading in the next few days. I actually worked on Friday, as in went to a real workplace outside of my home.... I know, I know, weird. Then Friday night I went out with a few friends. Ever since Friday night I have been puzzling over how some people can be so rude.

A friend of mine from work and I decided we would call a couple other girls and go out to a local bar we like to go to on Friday's for karaoke. We had also discussed the possibility of running over to our local gay bar for an hour or so to see a friend of mine that bartends there. My husband had a long day and he didn't want to go. Her husband had been flying back across country all day after being out of town on work all week. He said he wasn't sure if he wanted to go or not. As background- we have gone on vacations with this couple for the last couple years, and go out with them on weekends or hang out at their house pretty regularly. Another friend wanted to go, and her husband may come with her. We all get to the bar around 7:30pm. Myself, my friend, our other friend and her husband, and another couple- we all eat and have a beer. Karaoke starts and we decide it might be a good time to run over to see my buddy at the gay bar. Obviously (although not necessarily so), my bartending friend is a gay guy. He is also my study partner at school. I am friends with him, his boyfriend, and about 10 of their other friends. A bunch of great guys.

So my friend calls her husband to see if he is in fact going to come out or not- so that he doesn't show up at one bar just as we have run over to another one. She tells him what the plan is. That is when he goes ballistic. For the next 20 minutes he is screaming at her on the phone. He was not only disparaging her- calling her all sorts of names and telling her she was being irresponsible. He was also being extremely rude and disrespectful to gays in general. She held the phone for me to listen during part of his tirade and it was all I could do to keep my mouth shut. Now, if you don't like gays, so be it. But name calling is really childish. And just an FYI- gay bars are not a den of iniquity with guys all over each other while straight women hang all over them wishing they could get in on the action. Our gay bar anyway, looks like any other bar- except perhaps that it has a disproportionate amount of attractive men sitting around.

At any rate, they argued and the entire time he was driving over to check and see if we were really at the karaoke bar. Then he asks my friend if my husband knows we are planning on going to the gay bar. She says he does indeed. Her husband says, "we'll see about that", hangs up, and proceeds to call my husband! Which my husband tells him that he knows and could care less. Really- is a woman safer in a karaoke bar full of drunk straight guys, or a upscale bar full of gay guys? hmmmm..... At this point I am pretty pissed that he called my husband anyway, because it isn't like I needed his permission to go to the gay bar, although I did tell him I would likely be going there out of married courtesy. I mean WTF?!?! You actually called my husband to ask if I had permission? Are you freakin kidding me?!?!

Friend then asked her husband if he called my husband. He says he did. She asks what did my husband tell him. He says, "well I'm not going to tell you all what he thinks about it.." Insinuating that my husband actually had an opinion that I shouldn't be going. Now I am even more pissed because I had just gotten off the phone with my husband and he relayed a brief rundown of the conversation. Basically the "I don't care if she wants to go there, but I don't want to go, and I hope she doesn't spend too much money". To keep myself out of trouble and not make things worse, I went back inside the karaoke bar and waited for them to finish up their argument. Had I said anything it would have gotten really ugly. Partly because I had heard all his crappy remarks about gays and then for him to call my husband and say what he said... oh, it would have been really ugly.

So my friend tells him that if he will go back home, she will stay at karaoke bar. Fine with me. Her choice. I can be happy either way. Do I think its ridiculous? Sure. Do I think he is jackass? Yep. Do I want to ever hang out with him again? Not so much. Do I want to tell him exactly what I think of his bigoted filthy mouth? you bet. Would it do me any good? It might make me feel better, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't change his closed-mind. Do I stick up for my friends who are gay and tell him his attitude is rude and hateful and I refuse to go anywhere with him? Maybe I need to. So.... I ask all of you.... what would you do if you were me?

The Final Final Exam

This post is written in the most PC way possible. I mean absolutely no disrespect to either my beloved institute of higher learning, nor the knowledgeable professor to whom this refers. All incidents were a result of an act of God by which none can or will be held responsible.

Last Wednesday our exam was postponed because our dear professor could not access it from his work computer due to a power outage. The power outage was caused by our local power company in response to a gas leak in the downtown area. Power was cut off the entire day from a 10 block radius in the center of downtown so as not to spark some explosion. He did not feel it would be possible for him to bring his work computer to a location with power in order to print out the exam. When he realized at 10am that he would not be able to administer the exam, he did not feel he could do us justice by just writing a new exam in the following 8 hours so that we could have taken it anyway. Last week I was so frustrated I could not post about it, because it would not have been very PC. It would have been this...
and our professor would have understood it completely and perhaps been proud that I had used it in an appropriate context. (for you other law-geeks out there, you now know the topic of my exam)

So.... It was rescheduled for this evening. I will not be as prepared as I was last week. I do not have anyone to watch child #5 for me today so I can go to the school early and immerse myself in review. I believe my grade will suffer. Last week many of us called the school to express our dissatisfaction with this situation. Many of my classmates had travel plans, plane tickets, or had taken a day off work to prepare themselves like good accountable students would. We can not do that again this week. Many requests were made for a take-home style exam. No messages were returned. The exam will proceed as scheduled. This is the last exam of my round of final exams. I will overcome.

Are you Fur Real?

Eudea-Mamia posted a lovely reminder this morning about the beauty of Christmas and little children. The tinsel, twinkling lights, trees and beautiful ornaments that bring out the joy and amazement on the faces of our children. Who knew so much beauty could be had in a Super Target? However, there is a dark side to Christmas....

Commercials. It seems like every year for the ever-longer months of the Christmas season the retail world is bombarding our children with all the things they absolutely must have from Santa. Last night we were watching some television program, and each commercial break I was harassed with "I want that", "Santa needs to bring me this", "why do brothers get all the good stuff and we get clothes?".... you get the idea.

Well, to begin with, I have subliminally spoken with dear ol' Santa and he is bringing each child #1-4 one of these... in their favorite color so as to avoid confusion.

We do not need one of these...

We have a dog. A real one. Play with her. She is no fun you say? Well, there are children out there begging for a real dog and all they will get is one of these Fur Real Friends. Be thankful your Mama loves you enough to get you the real deal.... I mean WTF? I got you a For Real Dog. Is she chopped liver?

Neither do we need any of these....

Baby Alive? I have 5 kids, just the thought of more babies make me cringe, especially ones that pretend to be alive. Besides, what do you think you have younger brothers for? Play with them.

Its a no win situation in the end. While the gifts are cool, there will always be something missing. Something Santa forgot. Or more accurately something Santa refused to buy. And the dollar amount of the gifts has nothing to do with the joy of Christmas morning- its all about the size of the pile. I could give my kids each a $1000 piece of jewelry and it wouldn't be near as cool as a $20 huge ass bouncy ball. In their defense, I may have provoked that part, I mean really, who doesn't like to see a huge pile of stuff with their name on it? To make up for the relatively small size of the DS, I convinced Santa to bring new bikes as well. Hopefully between those 2 things and the rest of the little stuff like coloring books, crayons, underwear, a few shirts, and maybe some play-doh or a slinky thrown in, this year Santa will remain in their good graces as the guy with all the goods.

I Knew It!

I have had the nagging feeling for over a month now that there was something I needed to do. I couldn't place it though. I had talked to nearly every friend lately, my parents, my brother. I have listed all the band practices, holiday parties, snack days, and letter of the day on the calender. What on earth could I be forgetting?

Then I was cleaning out my car this weekend. I had taken 2 bags of clothes to Goodwill on Sunday. Bags that had been in my trunk for 3 months (sshhhh... don't tell my husband, he thought they were already gone). I drug a couple pair of my shoes out of the backseat, and a black suit I had taken to IN back in May for the funeral of my best friends mom. Buried beneath the junk....

The booklet and CD of my beautiful 5 year old boys pictures! I had taken him to have his special Kindergarten pictures made back in August. I totally forgot! I had made each of the girls a special smocked or pleated dress that they had fancy pictures made in, and I had dug out the outfit my husband wore in his special picture when he was 5 for my son to wear. He looked absolutely adorable. She even lets the kids bring their favorite thing and makes some less formal pictures with their special item. He picked the shotgun he got from his namesake grandfather who passed away the month before. This blessed photographer didn't flinch when I told her that was what he wanted to bring. She said it would be great and she would bring out the horse saddle and cowboy hat for him. Bless her heart- she is wonderful!

But then after a few days of showing off my beautiful child #4, I threw them in the back of the car in a rush and hadn't thought much of them since. I haven't ordered any, I haven't done anything. I showed them around when I first got the proofs, but after that- nada! So I made a note on my handy dandy calender to call this wonderful photographer, apologize profusely, and hope that I can still order the pictures.

Wish me luck

Helluva Week

I totally intended on doing this post Friday as part of Friday Fragments, however... its been one heck of a week. I've been busy, sidetracked at every turn, and distracted. Here goes:

- My dad called on Thursday and has been laid off his job. He lives in IN and the economy there is worse than it is here, and chances are slim he will find something. He is thinking of moving closer to me, so close in fact that he may very well be living in my spare bedroom. The good news about that is, as former military he is super duper clean. And he would probably clean my house because it would drive him crazy.

- My last final exam was supposed to be on Wednesday. I got Child #5 dropped off with my husband, and got over to the school for a few hours of study and down time before the exam began. And about that time, they canceled the exam. Actually, postponed it- to this coming Wednesday. I appreciate the extra study time, but I was ready for the hell to be over.

- Friday night I was supposed to go celebrate the end of exams with some friends. Since exams weren't over I was torn. I ended up going anyway, but it was hard to really have a good time
when I felt guilty for being there instead of home studying. However, watching really bad karaoke is always good to take your mind off whats bothering you.

- Some good news- my kids actually let me sleep in until 9am on both Saturday and Sunday mornings. I haven't slept in that late in a very very long time. I usually am up at 5:30 to start getting the kids ready for school, and I didn't even realize I could sleep so late.

- A friend of mine from school saw one of our professors on Thursday at a CLE class and was told he turned in our grades. He said the spread was 8 A's, 1 D, and the rest in between. The grades should be posted tomorrow. Please, sweet baby Jesus, let me have an A.

-Child #2 has been sick all day today. My twins (#2 & #3) had a friend spend the night Saturday night. Then Sunday morning #2 woke up not feeling well. Her stomach has been hurting all day, a slight fever, we've had the bowl nearby. One nice thing did come out of it- I was getting ready to leave and run errands this morning and she asked me "but who will take care of me while you are gone?" I told her Daddy was staying with her. Her lip quivered and she said, "but what if he doesn't know what to do?" I reassured her I told Daddy exactly what to do. At least I know I am needed.

There is probably more that has happened, but I have purged it from my mind already. Making room for exam materials up there. Tonight, after the kids get in bed, I am getting in the hot tub for a well deserved relaxing soak. Maybe my husband will quiz me with my notecards for the exam while we're at it...