Almost time!

A week from this Monday my kids go back to school. August 8th.

The time they will be in school is changing. Last year, at the beginning of the year the kids went to school from 8:20 to 2:20. Then close to the end of the year they changed it from 8:20 to 3:15.

Now this year the time is going to be from 8:00 to 3:30. So that means I have to get up at 6:15 every day. Because the kids always want to be at school at least 20 minutes before the bell rings. So I will need to have them at school around 7:30. Which means leaving my house at 7:15. And it takes about an hour to get them up, get them dressed, get them fed and awake enough to go to school.

It will mean longer days for me to have more alone time to sew, watch TV, do laundry, whatever I need to get done. But it is going to be a big adjustment for the kids being in school over an hour a day longer than what they were doing last year.

I also read in the paper that along with the longer days they are making the teachers give the kids another EXTRA HOUR for reading every day. The school my kids go to is BIG on reading. They have a LOT of required reading to do every 9 weeks. I have one kid who doesn't mind all the reading. He tries to find interesting and fun books. I have another one who would rather get a tooth pulled than read a book.

DD hates reading because reading has always been on the difficult side for her. She has come a long way with her reading. She can read on grade level just fine but she has trouble pronouncing words she doesn't know so she just skips over them and misses a lot of content she is suppose to be reading. Her comprehension of what she read isn't very good. SO this year should be more difficult for her.

Speaking of school... I read in the newspaper where ALL SCHOOLS nationwide will be giving ALL students free lunches starting in 2014. There are 4 or 5 states that got in the program already this year. My state, Mississippi, could have applied for it but didn't do it in time to qualify for the program this year. I think it is crazy. What kind of new tax are they going to come up with to pay for EVERY PUBLIC SCHOOL kid to eat free every day? It won't be a big tax burden in my school district because according to our local paper, 75% of our public school students are already getting free lunches. This is a very poor state. But if I am not mistaken, the reduced and free lunch program is a Federal thing isn't it? Or maybe I am wrong and it is state. I thought I read it was the Federal free lunch program. If anybody knows the answer to that let me know.

In a way I am looking forward to school starting back. It means a lot of free time for me to do whatever I want. But then it also means the evening homework struggle with my daughter. I dread that part. School starting back also means we are THAT MUCH CLOSER to our Disney trip in October!!

When do your kids start back to school? What hours do they go to school?

Now I'm cool like you!

I ordered my very first IPhone today. SO now sometime in the middle of next week, I will get my little Orange box from AT&T and I will be cool just like all of you who have probably had IPhones for years already! I'm catching up! Now I am just going to have to have my 10 yr old son show me how to use it! =)

Ushering my family into the 21st century

We made the decision today to become part of mainstream society. To become part of the 21st century. We are getting an ADT home security system installed.

I am always super paranoid about home invasion robberies because I watch way too much I Survived and am just sure it is going to happen to me. I am nervous all the time if I have to leave my house and come back after dark. I am just scared by nature mostly because of all the ominous TV shows and movies I watch. But THIS SHIT IS REAL PPL. They have ppl on those shows that it has actually happened to. I don't make this shit up. I just watch it on TV.

Anyway... Husband and I have discussed home security systems before and never really made a move on it because we thought you had to have a home land line phone to have a monitored security system. But, I got a pile of junk mail today. You know, the pile that comes with the local pizza coupons and ads for the Dollar Store all folded together and stuck in your mailbox once every week or two... I usually just chunk it, but today I flipped through it and on the very back page was an ad for ADT. They are running some kind of sale, yadda yadda... Well, I just decided to call them and ask if you HAVE to have a home phone for the system. It seems technology has caught up with those of us who refuse old fashioned home land line phones and you CAN get a monitored system without a home phone. You have to have something called a Cellular uplink installed. Oh Really you say? Yes. It makes you monthly monitoring go from 35.99 a month to 44.99 a month because ADT has to pay the local cell phone carrier $9 a month to use their towers to communicate with your security system. SO after listening to everything the guy had to say about the system, after checking my husband's credit, after I negotiated for free smoke sensor monitors we arranged for our new system to be installed 2 weeks from this Friday. My husband is leaving town tonight to go back to work so we can't do it until he comes home. He has to be here when it is installed since the account will be in his name.

I feel better already just knowing we are going to have a LOUD home security system installed. They said it has the loudest alarm siren allowed by law. That MF has got to be ear piercing.

Also...totally off topic... In those ads I saw a Papa John's circular. I didn't know we even had a Papa John's in this town until today. DD said it has been here for a few months already. So I went online and ordered a pizza from them to be delivered. It was an EXTRA LARGE pizza. SO I am expecting some GIANT ASS pizza that will barely fit through the door frame. NOPE. It was a 16 inch pizza. It appeared to me to be about the same size as a Pizza Hut LARGE. And they only cut the pizza into 8 pieces. The slices were huge. I found out later that you can request they double cut it and make smaller slices. I didn't know. I was a Papa John's virgin until today. The pizza was pretty good. The kids were fascinated that they stuck 2 green peppers in the box and nobody was brave enough to try the little carton of garlic sauce they give you with the pizza. I guess NO PIZZA PLACE in existence knows what extra sauce means. If you don't order extra sauce they don't really put ANY on. SO when you order extra you get normal amount of sauce. Same thing with cheese. I order extra cheese and pay $2 more per pizzas just so I can get a normal amount of cheese on it. That seems to be universal. However, for home delivery I found it to be kind of high. After you pay the pizza, the extra cheese fee, the tax, delivery fee and TIP the bill was almost $23 for ONE pizza. Now I could have saved the $2 delivery fee and the $5 tip if I had driven across town to get it myself but my laziness cost me today. I probably won't order from them again. But it was good to try it. I can't complain about the quality of the pizza. And what was weird is they had it to my door about 22 minutes after I ordered it. The online thing estimated delivery to be between 54 and 64 minutes and the girl called to get directions 19 minutes later and was at my house in less than 5 minutes. I was very impressed. Now when she got to the door she opened the pizza box and asked me if it looked OK. I said yeah sure, is that normal for y'all to do that? To show ppl the pizza before you leave? And she said yes they do it with everybody. I guess that cuts down on the people calling back in to complain that the pizza isn't right and requesting remakes or future free pizza. Whoever thought to do that probably saved the place a lot of money. Someone else I told about this said her local Papa John's has NEVER done that at her door so I am assuming each individually owned franchise does things a little bit differently.



Ok, tell me, do you have a home security system? Does it randomly go off and scare you and make you think someone is breaking in? Because if this loud MF goes off I won't know what to do. Get up and CHECK to see if someone came in? Let the alarm company call the police? The kids will be scared straight out of bed by it. I think our new instruction to them will be this... If you wake up and the alarm is going off get up and come straight to moms room. Their bedrooms doors are very close to my door so they don't have to go through the whole house to get to my room. Then what do you do? Lock yourself in your room and wait for police to come see what it was? Or do I take my gun and go walking through the house? I haven't discussed with my husband what I am suppose to do if the alarm actually goes off. SO that's why I am asking if you have one, what do you do? I will also ask the installer what he thinks you should do when the alarm goes off.

92 dead in Norway & Amy Winehouse dies at 27

Via Washington Post:

The man suspected of Norway's gun and bomb massacre liked guns and weight-lifting, had belonged to an anti-immigration party and opposed multi-culturalism, Islam and the "cultural Marxists" of the establishment.

Police said Anders Behring Breivik, 32, detained after 85 people were gunned down at a youth camp and another seven killed in a bomb attack on Friday, was previously unknown to them and people who knew him said he was quiet, if intense.
It was unclear what unleashed the bloodshed, though news agency NTB said Breivik was a member of a gun club and legally owned firearms. At the shooting, police said Breivik carried a pistol and an automatic weapon.
"He was rather introverted at school, even though he was a good student," said Michael Tomola, who knew Breivik from the age of 13 to 16 at the school they went to in an Oslo suburb.
"I'm very surprised by this (attack). I had a good impression, although he became very engaged in subjects he cared for. He got very extreme about things he cared for," Tomola told Reuters.
His Internet activity traced so far included no calls to violence.  Facebook page set up last week included a variety of interests such as hunting and political and stock analysis.

 Via Today show:

Amy Winehouse, the beehived soul-jazz diva whose self-destructive habits overshadowed a distinctive musical talent, was found dead Saturday in her London home, police said. She was 27.

"Everyone who was involved with Amy is shocked and devastated. Our thoughts are with her family and friends," said Chris Goodman, a spokesman for her publicity representatives. He said her family will issue a statement when they are ready.
The British singer's record label, Universal, confirmed her death on Saturday.
"We are deeply saddened at the sudden loss of such a gifted musician, artist and performer," the statement read. "Our prayers go out to Amy's family, friends and fans at this difficult time."

Singer and actress Kelly Osbourne, who helped Winehouse check into a drug addiction treatment facility in 2008, was one of many who grieved for the singer on Twitter.
"I cant even breath right now im crying so hard i just lost 1 of my best friends. i love you forever Amy and will never forget the real you!" she tweeted.

Winehouse shot to fame with the album "Back to Black," whose blend of jazz, soul, rock and classic pop was a global hit. It won five Grammys and made Winehouse — with her black beehive hairdo and old-fashioned sailor tattoos — one of music's most recognizable stars.
Police confirmed that a 27-year-old female was pronounced dead at the home in Camden Square northern London; the cause of death was not immediately known. London Ambulance Services said Winehouse had died before the two ambulance crews it sent arrived at the scene. An autopsy is scheduled for Sunday, TMZ.com reports.
"I didn't go out looking to be famous," Winehouse told the Associated Press when "Back to Black" was released. "I'm just a musician."
But in the end, the music was overshadowed by fame, and by Winehouse's demons. Tabloids lapped up the erratic stage appearances, drunken fights, stints in hospital and rehab clinics. Performances became shambling, stumbling train wrecks, watched around the world on the Internet.
Born in 1983 to taxi driver Mitch Winehouse and his pharmacist wife Janis, Winehouse grew up in the north London suburbs, and was set on a showbiz career from an early age. When she was 10, she and a friend formed a rap group, Sweet 'n' Sour — Winehouse was Sour — that she later described as "the little white Jewish Salt 'n' Pepa."
She attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School, a factory for British music and acting moppets, later went to the Brit School, a performing arts academy in the "Fame" mold, and was originally signed to "Pop Idol" svengali Simon Fuller's 19 Management.
But Winehouse was never a packaged teen star, and always resisted being pigeonholed.
Her jazz-influenced 2003 debut album, "Frank," was critically praised and sold well in Britain. It earned Winehouse an Ivor Novello songwriting award, two Brit nominations and a spot on the shortlist for the Mercury Music Prize.
But Winehouse soon expressed dissatisfaction with the disc, saying she was "only 80 percent behind" the album.
"Frank" was followed by a slump during which Winehouse broke up with her boyfriend, suffered a long period of writer's block and, she later said, smoked a lot of marijuana.

"I had writer's block for so long," she said in 2007. "And as a writer, your self-worth is literally based on the last thing you wrote. .. I used to think, 'What happened to me?'
"At one point it had been two years since the last record and (the record company) actually said to me, 'Do you even want to make another record?' I was like, 'I swear it's coming.' I said to them, 'Once I start writing I will write and write and write. But I just have to start it.'"

Where have I been hiding?

I am always the last one to know when there is a new trend, a new fad, some cool new music bands. I accidentally find out about thing.
Well, what I found out today is this... There was/is a trend called PLANKING. This is where young ppl, well mostly young ppl, go around to different locations and they lay down face down with their arms at their sides and someone takes a picture of them. So basically they are laying there like a plank. Here is a link of the top 60 planking pictures that are floating around the internet right now. Some are funny, some are not.

TOP 60 PLANKING PHOTOS

Now if that wasn't stupid enough, someone thought they would try to create another new trend once that planking wasn't so fun anymore. This new trend is called Owling. This is where the person gets up on something like a fence post or a trash can lid, something high, and perch on it like and owl would. They crouch down in a squatting position. Here is a little article that shows some examples of Owling. This one is just plain dumb. Planking was king of funny, Owling is just stupid.

OWLING

I think I will start a new trend called DAY DUMPING where people go out in public and drop their pants in a public spot and take a dump, then take a picture of it. The places need to be unique funny places to take your dump, because just taking a dump in and of itself is not funny, but taking a dump on the waiting room table in your doctor's office is. Taking a dump on the hood of a state trooper's car, yeah, kind of funny.

What new trend are you going to start?

Obese kids

I spend a lot of time over on the DisBoards, which is a Disney/Florida message board. Yesterday someone posted a thread asking should severely obese kids be removed from their home for their own well being.
Most of the ppl said NO they didn't think the kids should be removed from the home for the bad parenting going on that made the kids obese.
 I am on the fence about this one, because not ALL obese kids are obese because of bad parenting. Some kids may have medical conditions. How do you decide who gets taken away and who doesn't? How obese does the kid have to be before the state will step in and take charge of the situation?
Obviously MOST obese kids are obese because they over-eat. They are over fed by their parents and allowed to make very bad food choices. That is on the parent. That is the parents fault. The crappy food the kids get at school is not going to make a kid obese. That takes a lot of bad eating & junk food to make a kid obese.
Funny thing is... I know a family that would almost fit the bill for having an obese kid. But the parents are big too. The dad is severely over-weight and the kid is really big. They feed him junk and let him over eat and they cook really bad, fatty, greasy, cheesy foods for him. I have seen it. And since I do know someone who might fit the criteria if they were to introduce some new legislation like that, I have to say that NO I don't want to see kids taken away from their parents because they are obese.
How do you feel about it? Does the government have the right to step in if we are over-feeding our kids? They do step in if we are under-feeding our kids. So who should decide what is too fat?

Just a joke

What's the difference in Broccoli & boogers?


Kids won't eat Broccoli. =)

Caylee's Law

This new Caylee's Law (requires you report a dead or missing child within 24 hours) that is popping up all over the country is really not necessary because NOBODY ELSE ever DOESN'T report their child dead or missing. I think psycho Casey is probably the first one on record to do that. It's not common AT ALL. All other normal human being that DON'T murder their own child (like Casey did) report their child dead or missing.

 

I haven't posted about the not guilty verdict because I was just so much in shock my fingers wouldn't even type the words.

Verdict Watch

The Casey Anthony trial ended today with final rebuttal closing arguments by the prosecution, the judge read in the jury instructions and the jurors have been sent back to deliberate. There is a mountain of evidence exhibits in this case and is going to take days for the jury to go over everything. If this jury comes back on the first day, it is going to be a NOT GUILTY verdict. The OJ jury came back in less than 4 hours. But I figured after they elected a foreman they probably had an initial vote to see where they stand and see who is holding out for not guilty and then the work begins. Even after a 7 week trial, I still think the jury is going to be deadlocked and come back as a hung jury. They let that one iffy juror on the jury who claims she didn't want to JUDGE ANYBODY for anything they had done and didn't feel comfortable judging anybody. But they let her stay on the jury. If it is a hung jury I blame the prosecution for letting her stay on the jury. They are counting it down on HLN... verdict watch countdown. So we should all have at least 30 minutes notice when they jury comes back with a verdict. I will be watching until I hear one way or the other.

AND Happy July 4th!! Don't blow your fingers off tonight with fireworks!