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Death to Play Dates!
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Thursday, August 25, 2011
A Book Like The Help
If you read and liked The Help or saw the movie and liked it, or even if you didn't like it for whatever reason. I am reading a book called Like One Of The Family, Conversations From a Domestic's Life written by Alice Childress. It is a book like the help about a maid telling stories about her work, only this book was written by a black woman. It was originally published in the 50's, republished in the 80's and is now back on Amazon probably due to the popularity of The Help and ppl looking for more books like that. You can get it on Amazon for less than a dollar. Check it out. It's interesting.
Can't make up my mind
Ok, 3 weeks ago I finally joined the land of the living and got myself an Iphone. I loved it, the kids loved it. It ended up not having enough storage space. It can't hold as many apps as I need it to hold along with my 700 Ipod songs. (Yes I really do need 700 songs)
I sent the Iphone back a few days ago and am going to now order an android phone. I am going to get the same phone my husband has, the Samsung Captivate. He loves it. It has more storage than my Iphone had and he knows all about it so he can show me how to use it.
SO now I am no longer an Iphone-ee. I will be an android-er.
I sent the Iphone back a few days ago and am going to now order an android phone. I am going to get the same phone my husband has, the Samsung Captivate. He loves it. It has more storage than my Iphone had and he knows all about it so he can show me how to use it.
SO now I am no longer an Iphone-ee. I will be an android-er.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
THE HELP
I went on a date night last night with DH. We drove an hour over to Jackson and ate at Ruby Tuesday's then went to Tinseltown to see THE HELP. Then we had a Baskin Robbins Strawberry smoothie after the show! Perfect date night! Don't be jealous bitches!
OK. Now...I have read the book The Help. After reading it I saw on Twitter and Facebook and places that there was some kind of controversy stirring up about the movie. The book was amazing. It is Katherine Stockett's very first novel and it's a best seller.
Husband decided to take me to see it since I had been talking about it a lot during and after reading the book. The movie was EXCELLENT! I am going to have to be honest and say this movie is going in my top 10 all time favorite movies. After I watch it again it may go into my top 5. The movie was gripping, hard to watch in some places, touching, funny as hell in a lot of places and almost made me cry three different times. I had to choke it back because I didn't have any kleenex and when I cry my nose runs. I was struggling not to cry though. SO be warned. If you go see it take some Kleenex.
I think Viola David is going to get nominated for Best Actress for her role in this movie and I think Emma Stone is going to be nominated for best supporting actress. I hope this movie gets a shit ton of nominations. It deserves it.
I don't see any controversy over it. The ppl protesting it are saying it is white washing how it really was. That the movie didn't show the full brutality of how it really was for some ppl back then. There were rapes, beatings and lynchings, etc. Why in the hell would she put all that in this movie? That's not what this movie is about. It is about a white girl writer who enlists the help of a lot of black maids to tell the stories about what it was like to work for white families. This wasn't a movie about civil rights or the atrocities of the south in the 50's & 60's. It was about a girl trying to become a published book author. Nothing more. There's nothing that says she had to involve the civil rights movement in this story. It did have a sequence where it shows when Medgar Evers was shot and when JFK was shot. But my recommendation is, GO SEE IT! The whole theater was roaring with laughter in about 15 different scenes in the movie. There are some very serious scenes with tears and pain, but they almost immediately lighten it up with something funny.
In other news. If you follow me on Twitter you know I have an addiction to Cheddar BBQ Cheetos. Well Kroger was the only place you could buy them. A few weeks ago Kroger stopped carrying them all together. All the convenience stores stopped carrying them. I couldn't find them anywhere. And then I show up today at Walmart. I look down, the angels sang, the skies parted and I saw that Walmart now carries BBQ Cheetos!! I don't know if this is going to be a permnent thing they sell or if it is a limited run type of chip or did Walmart make a deal that only Walmart can sell them now. I dunno. But I am excited!!
I'm still reading Patricia Cornwell's Port Mortuary. It's been pretty good once you get past page 30 but it still never has lived up to the intense suspense and mystery that you usually get with Cornwell novels. I am not if I would even recommend it to anyone. Especially if they have never read Cornwell and aren't a fan yet. This is not the book to start with.
So that's my ramblings for today. Go see The Help. Go get yourself some BBQ Cheetos. And live it up!
OK. Now...I have read the book The Help. After reading it I saw on Twitter and Facebook and places that there was some kind of controversy stirring up about the movie. The book was amazing. It is Katherine Stockett's very first novel and it's a best seller.
Husband decided to take me to see it since I had been talking about it a lot during and after reading the book. The movie was EXCELLENT! I am going to have to be honest and say this movie is going in my top 10 all time favorite movies. After I watch it again it may go into my top 5. The movie was gripping, hard to watch in some places, touching, funny as hell in a lot of places and almost made me cry three different times. I had to choke it back because I didn't have any kleenex and when I cry my nose runs. I was struggling not to cry though. SO be warned. If you go see it take some Kleenex.
I think Viola David is going to get nominated for Best Actress for her role in this movie and I think Emma Stone is going to be nominated for best supporting actress. I hope this movie gets a shit ton of nominations. It deserves it.
I don't see any controversy over it. The ppl protesting it are saying it is white washing how it really was. That the movie didn't show the full brutality of how it really was for some ppl back then. There were rapes, beatings and lynchings, etc. Why in the hell would she put all that in this movie? That's not what this movie is about. It is about a white girl writer who enlists the help of a lot of black maids to tell the stories about what it was like to work for white families. This wasn't a movie about civil rights or the atrocities of the south in the 50's & 60's. It was about a girl trying to become a published book author. Nothing more. There's nothing that says she had to involve the civil rights movement in this story. It did have a sequence where it shows when Medgar Evers was shot and when JFK was shot. But my recommendation is, GO SEE IT! The whole theater was roaring with laughter in about 15 different scenes in the movie. There are some very serious scenes with tears and pain, but they almost immediately lighten it up with something funny.
In other news. If you follow me on Twitter you know I have an addiction to Cheddar BBQ Cheetos. Well Kroger was the only place you could buy them. A few weeks ago Kroger stopped carrying them all together. All the convenience stores stopped carrying them. I couldn't find them anywhere. And then I show up today at Walmart. I look down, the angels sang, the skies parted and I saw that Walmart now carries BBQ Cheetos!! I don't know if this is going to be a permnent thing they sell or if it is a limited run type of chip or did Walmart make a deal that only Walmart can sell them now. I dunno. But I am excited!!
I'm still reading Patricia Cornwell's Port Mortuary. It's been pretty good once you get past page 30 but it still never has lived up to the intense suspense and mystery that you usually get with Cornwell novels. I am not if I would even recommend it to anyone. Especially if they have never read Cornwell and aren't a fan yet. This is not the book to start with.
So that's my ramblings for today. Go see The Help. Go get yourself some BBQ Cheetos. And live it up!
Monday, August 15, 2011
Early to bed early to rise, so it seems.
Yesterday I woke up at 4:30. I couldn't go back to sleep. I just contributed it to the fact that I went to bed at 8:30 the night before and had had enough sleep.
I went to bed kind of early last night too. (I get to go to bed early when the kids aren't here) 9:00 bedtime last night. Then this morning I woke up at TWO THIRTY!! I laid in bed for over an hour trying to go back to sleep but I just couldn't. So now I will take the kids to school at 7:30 and probably come back home and have a little nap. Or maybe not, who knows.
I finished reading the book THE HELP and now that DH is back in town he is going to take me to see the movie tonight. There seems to be a lot of controversy over this book. A lot of ppl in the black community are upset because they think the book kind of white washed the actual mistreatment and brutality that some ppl faced from their white employers. But I say... The atrocities carried out by the white man on the black help was not really what this book was about. I won't spoil it for you if you haven't read it or seen the movie. The book is about the main character Skeeter who decided to write a book and she enlists the help of all the local maids to tell their stories of what experiences they have had working for white ppl. Some of the stories are bad, some of the stories are good, some of them are even funny. But in the time frame of this book, what was going on in Skeeter's life, and the maids she had interactions with weren't beaing beaten, or raped or lynched. So why show that? This wasn't a movie about civil rights, even though they do include a chapter about the killing of Medgar Evars. They do that because he was shot really close to where some of these maids lived. I don't think there is anything racist about it. I think there are groups of ppl who will cry racism at the drop of a hat. That's the popular thing to do when you don't like something. Call it racist. It's even more amusing at some of the white ppl on Twitter I follow protesting the movie because of their black friends. They are't going to go see the movie on principal. I think you don't have to go out of your way every day to post things and write things to PROVE to the world you aren't racist. That's trying a little too hard to seem like you aren't a racist. Anyway, I am going to see it. Tonight. =) (For the record... I say black ppl, which may not be the politically correct word to say nowadays but I think saying African American is a little redundant. I don't call myself an English American. I wouldn't call my Russian friends Russian American. You don't have to preface where your ancestors came from to acknowledge your race. Just wanted to get that out there so nobody gets offended thinking I am being disrespectful)
I found two new books, well one of them isn't new but new to me. One is called drive (It is the older one) And one is called The Killer is Dying by James Sallis. I saw his new book The Killer is Dying in a little blurb in Entertainment weekly and checked into him and saw he has the earlier book too. I am going to try those 2 right after I get through with these 2 Patricia Cornwell books I have checked out right now. Port Mortuary and Predator. Predator is older but when I saw it on the shelf at the library I don't remember ever reading it. I thought I had read everything she has written. I may get to reading it and start remembering that I have read it. I do that a lot. But this new one Port Mortuary starts off bad. It sucks for the first 30 pages. I almost put it down and was going to not even read it anymore, but they started a case at the beginning of the book that I really want to see how it turns out. So I kept reading a little bit further and it does get much better. So if you start it, don't be discouraged. Just trudge through the first 30 pages and you will be ok.
In other news... My kids went to 2 years of private christian school. They had bible class every day and learned about God & Jesus. Had to memorize scripture, etc. I sent them there because it was a small school. It was close to home. It was affordable. I also wanted to expose my kids to the other side. The side I am not on. I am Athiest. But I didn't want to automatically raise Athiest kids just because I was. That's what my dad did to me. So I let them go. They would probably still be there now if the school hadn't closed. But my point is. One kid came away from it (DD) claiming to be a christian and one came away from it not believing in God at all. I never really discussed my beliefs, or lack thereof, with the kids as to not sway them. I never even answered them when they asked me if I believe in God. After they left the school I told them the truth, that I don't. But you can expose 2 kids to the very same thing and get 2 very different results. What made me think to even bring it up was because I was on the phone with DD yesterday (she is at her dad's house) and she made the comment about her being christian. She says it every once in awhile. We do not go to church. I don't take her to church. But when she gets older she may decide to go herself. And that's fine. I would never discourage her from doing that if that's the path she wants to take.
So anyway... enough of my ramblings this morning. I will let you get back to your regularly scheduled programming. Until next time when I have a head full of thoughts I want to jam all into on blog post. I will see you when I see you. =)
I went to bed kind of early last night too. (I get to go to bed early when the kids aren't here) 9:00 bedtime last night. Then this morning I woke up at TWO THIRTY!! I laid in bed for over an hour trying to go back to sleep but I just couldn't. So now I will take the kids to school at 7:30 and probably come back home and have a little nap. Or maybe not, who knows.
I finished reading the book THE HELP and now that DH is back in town he is going to take me to see the movie tonight. There seems to be a lot of controversy over this book. A lot of ppl in the black community are upset because they think the book kind of white washed the actual mistreatment and brutality that some ppl faced from their white employers. But I say... The atrocities carried out by the white man on the black help was not really what this book was about. I won't spoil it for you if you haven't read it or seen the movie. The book is about the main character Skeeter who decided to write a book and she enlists the help of all the local maids to tell their stories of what experiences they have had working for white ppl. Some of the stories are bad, some of the stories are good, some of them are even funny. But in the time frame of this book, what was going on in Skeeter's life, and the maids she had interactions with weren't beaing beaten, or raped or lynched. So why show that? This wasn't a movie about civil rights, even though they do include a chapter about the killing of Medgar Evars. They do that because he was shot really close to where some of these maids lived. I don't think there is anything racist about it. I think there are groups of ppl who will cry racism at the drop of a hat. That's the popular thing to do when you don't like something. Call it racist. It's even more amusing at some of the white ppl on Twitter I follow protesting the movie because of their black friends. They are't going to go see the movie on principal. I think you don't have to go out of your way every day to post things and write things to PROVE to the world you aren't racist. That's trying a little too hard to seem like you aren't a racist. Anyway, I am going to see it. Tonight. =) (For the record... I say black ppl, which may not be the politically correct word to say nowadays but I think saying African American is a little redundant. I don't call myself an English American. I wouldn't call my Russian friends Russian American. You don't have to preface where your ancestors came from to acknowledge your race. Just wanted to get that out there so nobody gets offended thinking I am being disrespectful)
I found two new books, well one of them isn't new but new to me. One is called drive (It is the older one) And one is called The Killer is Dying by James Sallis. I saw his new book The Killer is Dying in a little blurb in Entertainment weekly and checked into him and saw he has the earlier book too. I am going to try those 2 right after I get through with these 2 Patricia Cornwell books I have checked out right now. Port Mortuary and Predator. Predator is older but when I saw it on the shelf at the library I don't remember ever reading it. I thought I had read everything she has written. I may get to reading it and start remembering that I have read it. I do that a lot. But this new one Port Mortuary starts off bad. It sucks for the first 30 pages. I almost put it down and was going to not even read it anymore, but they started a case at the beginning of the book that I really want to see how it turns out. So I kept reading a little bit further and it does get much better. So if you start it, don't be discouraged. Just trudge through the first 30 pages and you will be ok.
In other news... My kids went to 2 years of private christian school. They had bible class every day and learned about God & Jesus. Had to memorize scripture, etc. I sent them there because it was a small school. It was close to home. It was affordable. I also wanted to expose my kids to the other side. The side I am not on. I am Athiest. But I didn't want to automatically raise Athiest kids just because I was. That's what my dad did to me. So I let them go. They would probably still be there now if the school hadn't closed. But my point is. One kid came away from it (DD) claiming to be a christian and one came away from it not believing in God at all. I never really discussed my beliefs, or lack thereof, with the kids as to not sway them. I never even answered them when they asked me if I believe in God. After they left the school I told them the truth, that I don't. But you can expose 2 kids to the very same thing and get 2 very different results. What made me think to even bring it up was because I was on the phone with DD yesterday (she is at her dad's house) and she made the comment about her being christian. She says it every once in awhile. We do not go to church. I don't take her to church. But when she gets older she may decide to go herself. And that's fine. I would never discourage her from doing that if that's the path she wants to take.
So anyway... enough of my ramblings this morning. I will let you get back to your regularly scheduled programming. Until next time when I have a head full of thoughts I want to jam all into on blog post. I will see you when I see you. =)
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Something You MUST READ RIGHT THIS SECOND! And everything else I feel like talking about today!
I just finished reading THE HELP by Katherine Stockett. (It's her FIRST novel ever) And it is an amazing book! You HAVE TO read it. If you love reading that is. If you hate reading then have your mommy read it to you pansy ass just go see the movie but from what I hear the movie is only an adaptation of the book and doesn't follow the book exactly. SO I wanted to read the book before I saw the movie because the book is always 10 times better than the movie and has way more details in it that you can't convey through a movie screen.
Anyway it is about a group of high society young ppl in their early 20's back in late 50's early 60' Jackson, Mississippi. Think County Club and Society League ladies. Well, one of them starts writing a book about all the lives and stories of the black maids that work for all these white families. She even gets the maids themselves involved in the writing of the book by telling her their personal true stories, good and bad of the families they have worked for. Some things are funny, touching and downright disgusting and some stuff will piss you off.
I started reading it and couldn't put it down until I finished it. I would highly recommend it to anybody. Unless you are a racist and then you would probably enjoy the book for the wrong reasons. So if you wear a sheet over your head every Saturday night, just skip this book.
I returned THE HELP to the library this morning and check out 2 more books. Both by one of my favorite authors Patricia Cornwell (the other 2 being Steven King & James Patterson). I checked out her newest book PORT MORTUARY and I also checked out an older one called Predator. I thought I had read every book she has ever written but when I read the dust jacket of this one it just didn't seem familiar so I checked it out. I will read the new one first and then when I start reading the older on, if it all comes back to me and seems familiar I will just stop reading it, or I may just keep reading it, who knows!
Sometimes I can read a book then as little as one year later I can pick it back up and not remember if I have read it or not. I have re-read a lot of books that I am sure I have already read but just didn't seem familiar. I have a bad short and long term memory. I think I have sometimerz disease.
Well, in other news... We finally got our home security system installed by ADT. I never knew you could have a MONITORED security system without a home phone, but obviously you can. They use what they call a cellular uplink. It is a box they installed down at the bottom of my wall under the main front door keypad that beams the info they need to know up to a satellite I guess. I am not sure exactly how it works, but however it works, it has enabled us to get a real, monitored home security system. I feel much better now having it. We paid extra and got an extra siren. The one at the front door just didn't seem as loud to me as the guy described that it would be, and our front door is almost 90 feet down the hallway to our bedroom. I am not sure if I would be able to hear it back there with the door shut and me being hard of hearing. So we got one installed by the back door and it is louder than the one that comes out of the front keypad and the back door is very close to my room. I am more confident now that if someone comes in I will hear the alarm go off quickly.
I still have to go through our plan with the kids for what they need to do if they get awoken by the alarm going off but they are at their dad's house this weekend and next week. But when they come home we will get our plan in place. I have one kid who wakes up easily and one kid who sleeps dead to the world. It is HIM that I am worried about not waking up fast enough to get himself back to my room. But I am going to do a drill one night once I know they are asleep I am going to set the alarm off and see how fast they get up and back to my room. But I am going to have to wait until my husband comes back in from town next time. It is going to require two people to pull the drill off. I will have to be in my bedroom where they are suppose to run to when they hear the alarm and DH will be at the front door setting the alarm off. It might scare them for a minute but it will show them exactly what they need to do if they hear the alarm. You may only have a FEW SECONDS once you hear the alarm to get to the back of the house where we can lock ourselves away and wait for the Sheriff's Department to come. They could be anywhere in the county and it might take them 20 minutes to get to my house so we have to have a good solid plan in place.
In other other news... I got my new IPhone last week. My husband got me it for my birthday. (It's not my birthday yet) He also bought me a new purse. But I am more excited about the IPhone. I have never had a smart phone before so it is all new to me. I can now Facebook and Twitter from my phone. I can watch You Tube videos, surf the web, play video games. We have bought a handful of apps and games for it already like Wheel of Fortune (I have been playing the shit out of this game and mostly winning. I think I need to go n the real show because I can solve these puzzles), Jeopardy (not so great at this one but I love playing because you learn lots of new things even when you guess wrong) and I am thinking about trying out Family Fued. I use to love that show. We also have The Price is Right (I'm not too great at his one) game. The kids have an app that makes fart sounds. I have a barcode scanner that can scan a barcode and tell you what it is, how much it costs and where you can buy it. It was free for that app. I have 700 songs out of my Itunes uploaded onto my phone so now it is like I have an IPhone and an IPod touch all built into one. Now I can leave my other IPod back there in my room attached to my Elliptical machine at all times.
Summer has ended way too soon and the kids went back to school this past Monday, August 8th. For any of you moms who take your kids to school and pick your kids up, you know you either have to show up and hour early in the afternoons to the school to park and wait for the kids to get out or if you show up at time for them to get out you are in a 45 minute long line. Well, that's how it is at our school anyway. Out of 600 kids at this school, 450 of them are car riders. So you have to get 450 cars through the parking lot as quickly as possible. The first day I tried showing up at the school at 3:30 right when school let out and I got stuck in a 45 minute long line before I got to the kids. Then I decided I am going to have to do like I use to do last year and just show up at 2:30. Park in the line and wait for 3:30. But now that I have an hour to kill I can tweet and Facebook! So if you need to talk to me, you can catch me on Twitter or Facebook between the hours of 2:30 and 3:30 Monday through Friday. LOL!
In other other other news... I have had a semi sore throat for about 6 weeks now. Not a full on full blown ouch when I swallow sore throat but more of a lumpy feeling when I swallow. Like the lump you get in your throat when you are trying not to cry. Also my voice has been cracking. Any time I try to raise my voice it cracks and sounds like it sounds when your voice cracks when you are about to cry. Sometimes I don't even have to raise my voice I just have to strain it a little to say what I need to say and it will crack also. SO I finally broke down and went to the ENT doc that my BFF works for. He looked down in my throat with a mirror (didn't scope me) and decided to give me a regiment of drugs for 3 weeks to see if it helps. I am taking oral steroids (Medrol dose pack) antibiotics and an oral spray inhaler of steroids. (I may become a body builder with all these steroids) I have only been on them a few days but it sure isn't getting better. The cracking part seems to have gotten worse. But I think maybe this might be one of those cases where it has to get worse before it gets better. If it isn't cleared up in 3 weeks I think he is going to run that scope up my nose and down my throat and get a better look at my vocal cords.
I don't like going to the doctor. And I could have gone the rest of my life never having gone to the doctor for this. But what made me decide to do it is back when the actor Michael Douglas got throat cancer and they were writing articles about it and him in People magazine, he said his symptoms started as a sore throat that wouldn't go away. I don't care if my voice cracks the rest of my life. I can live with that. I just don't want cancer. My kids are too young and I don't want to die yet, so if it is cancer I need to know early enough to treat it. They seemed to have successfully treated Michael Douglas so far. They say he is better. He has gained weight and looks good so maybe they did. And if they can do it for him they can probably do it for me.
Have any of you started planning for or buying for Christmas yet? My kids have already started seeing things on TV that they want for Xmas and have even written me a list a few times of what they want for Christmas. It keeps changing though. My daughter always asks for 50 things or more and my son usually asks for just one or two things. She's all gimme gimme gimme. He just wants a few little things.
But one of the things that my daughter said she wanted was this new little stunt tricycle they came out with called a cyco cycle. It is small and yellow and doesn't have handle bars. I don't know how you are suppose to ride it or steer it. I may be able to watch some You Tube videos of it. I haven't searched for any yet. But it's pretty cheap. They have them on Amazon for 90 something dollars with free shipping. I just have to feel out my son about it and see if he wants one too so that I don't get her one and then she gets hers and he's all like MAN MOM I WANTED ONE OF THOSE. I usually try to get them gender neutral things that I can't get for both of them so that Christmas is always equal. Last year was the first year I ventured off and got them different things. But they shared the items they got that the other one wanted to play with. The biggest let down for me last Christmas was that GAWD DAYUM Fushigi ball thing. The kids saw that shit on TV the whole year and wanted one so bad. They make it look like a magic ball floating in the air and they do all thse fancy tricks with it. Yeah, BLOW ME Fushigi. They turned out to be a big flop. It comes with a DVD that shows you all these GROWN UPS doing these fancy tricks with them that no kid can ever figure out how to do. I doubt either one of my kids can even tell you where their Fushigi ball is now. They never even tried to keep up with it. It just got sucked into the great unknown.
Less than 80 days to go until our Disney trip!!!!!! AND. AND. I forgot to update about this. We already had an existing reservation for the room and tickets but we had not bought the dining plan. It was too much. For 5 of us for 10 days the dining plan was going to cost $1600 so we skipped it. But on August 3rd Disney announced some Fall dates that they were offering their free dining promotion and it just so happens that one of the weeks they are offering it falls exactly on our dates that we are going. So I got to call and have Disney apply the free dining promotion to our reservation!!! I was so excited when that happened. I had been crossing my fingers and hoping for the last few months that Disney would offer some new free dining dates for the Fall, and THEY DID! It didn't cover ALL of October, November and December. Just select weeks within each month. I don't know why it was so scattered or random, but we lucked out and landed into one of the time frames for it. Now it wouldn't have cost us $1600 to feed the 5 of us for 10 days but it would have costs us about $800-$1000 to eat OUT lunch and DINNER every day and feed ourselves in our room for breakfast. And to buy water and snacks and drinks for the room and to take into the park, it would have added up to over a grand easy. So even though getting the dining plan didn't really save us $1600 it did save us at least $1,000. And the dining plan gives you more food than you can even eat. You get two counter service meals a day (like where you walk up and order and get your food then go seat yourself) 2 snacks a day and a resort refillable drink mug that you can refill with soda, coffee or tea for your entire stay (at the resort not at the parks) But with each meal, lunch and dinner you get a meal of entree, drink and dessert. Plus the 2 snacks a day. And a Disney snack can be something as big as a cinnamon roll or a funnel cake. We aren't usually dessert eaters but the kids are going to love getting to eat dessert every day for 10 days!
Well, that's my update for the week. LOL. What's new in your world? Have your kids started back school yet? Are you Christmas shopping yet? Have you ever been to Disney?
One of the blogs I read Mochaface posted this little video to her blog and it made me laugh so hard I thought I would share it with you. Watch the lady walking up in the background.
Anyway it is about a group of high society young ppl in their early 20's back in late 50's early 60' Jackson, Mississippi. Think County Club and Society League ladies. Well, one of them starts writing a book about all the lives and stories of the black maids that work for all these white families. She even gets the maids themselves involved in the writing of the book by telling her their personal true stories, good and bad of the families they have worked for. Some things are funny, touching and downright disgusting and some stuff will piss you off.
I started reading it and couldn't put it down until I finished it. I would highly recommend it to anybody. Unless you are a racist and then you would probably enjoy the book for the wrong reasons. So if you wear a sheet over your head every Saturday night, just skip this book.
I returned THE HELP to the library this morning and check out 2 more books. Both by one of my favorite authors Patricia Cornwell (the other 2 being Steven King & James Patterson). I checked out her newest book PORT MORTUARY and I also checked out an older one called Predator. I thought I had read every book she has ever written but when I read the dust jacket of this one it just didn't seem familiar so I checked it out. I will read the new one first and then when I start reading the older on, if it all comes back to me and seems familiar I will just stop reading it, or I may just keep reading it, who knows!
Sometimes I can read a book then as little as one year later I can pick it back up and not remember if I have read it or not. I have re-read a lot of books that I am sure I have already read but just didn't seem familiar. I have a bad short and long term memory. I think I have sometimerz disease.
Well, in other news... We finally got our home security system installed by ADT. I never knew you could have a MONITORED security system without a home phone, but obviously you can. They use what they call a cellular uplink. It is a box they installed down at the bottom of my wall under the main front door keypad that beams the info they need to know up to a satellite I guess. I am not sure exactly how it works, but however it works, it has enabled us to get a real, monitored home security system. I feel much better now having it. We paid extra and got an extra siren. The one at the front door just didn't seem as loud to me as the guy described that it would be, and our front door is almost 90 feet down the hallway to our bedroom. I am not sure if I would be able to hear it back there with the door shut and me being hard of hearing. So we got one installed by the back door and it is louder than the one that comes out of the front keypad and the back door is very close to my room. I am more confident now that if someone comes in I will hear the alarm go off quickly.
I still have to go through our plan with the kids for what they need to do if they get awoken by the alarm going off but they are at their dad's house this weekend and next week. But when they come home we will get our plan in place. I have one kid who wakes up easily and one kid who sleeps dead to the world. It is HIM that I am worried about not waking up fast enough to get himself back to my room. But I am going to do a drill one night once I know they are asleep I am going to set the alarm off and see how fast they get up and back to my room. But I am going to have to wait until my husband comes back in from town next time. It is going to require two people to pull the drill off. I will have to be in my bedroom where they are suppose to run to when they hear the alarm and DH will be at the front door setting the alarm off. It might scare them for a minute but it will show them exactly what they need to do if they hear the alarm. You may only have a FEW SECONDS once you hear the alarm to get to the back of the house where we can lock ourselves away and wait for the Sheriff's Department to come. They could be anywhere in the county and it might take them 20 minutes to get to my house so we have to have a good solid plan in place.
In other other news... I got my new IPhone last week. My husband got me it for my birthday. (It's not my birthday yet) He also bought me a new purse. But I am more excited about the IPhone. I have never had a smart phone before so it is all new to me. I can now Facebook and Twitter from my phone. I can watch You Tube videos, surf the web, play video games. We have bought a handful of apps and games for it already like Wheel of Fortune (I have been playing the shit out of this game and mostly winning. I think I need to go n the real show because I can solve these puzzles), Jeopardy (not so great at this one but I love playing because you learn lots of new things even when you guess wrong) and I am thinking about trying out Family Fued. I use to love that show. We also have The Price is Right (I'm not too great at his one) game. The kids have an app that makes fart sounds. I have a barcode scanner that can scan a barcode and tell you what it is, how much it costs and where you can buy it. It was free for that app. I have 700 songs out of my Itunes uploaded onto my phone so now it is like I have an IPhone and an IPod touch all built into one. Now I can leave my other IPod back there in my room attached to my Elliptical machine at all times.
Summer has ended way too soon and the kids went back to school this past Monday, August 8th. For any of you moms who take your kids to school and pick your kids up, you know you either have to show up and hour early in the afternoons to the school to park and wait for the kids to get out or if you show up at time for them to get out you are in a 45 minute long line. Well, that's how it is at our school anyway. Out of 600 kids at this school, 450 of them are car riders. So you have to get 450 cars through the parking lot as quickly as possible. The first day I tried showing up at the school at 3:30 right when school let out and I got stuck in a 45 minute long line before I got to the kids. Then I decided I am going to have to do like I use to do last year and just show up at 2:30. Park in the line and wait for 3:30. But now that I have an hour to kill I can tweet and Facebook! So if you need to talk to me, you can catch me on Twitter or Facebook between the hours of 2:30 and 3:30 Monday through Friday. LOL!
In other other other news... I have had a semi sore throat for about 6 weeks now. Not a full on full blown ouch when I swallow sore throat but more of a lumpy feeling when I swallow. Like the lump you get in your throat when you are trying not to cry. Also my voice has been cracking. Any time I try to raise my voice it cracks and sounds like it sounds when your voice cracks when you are about to cry. Sometimes I don't even have to raise my voice I just have to strain it a little to say what I need to say and it will crack also. SO I finally broke down and went to the ENT doc that my BFF works for. He looked down in my throat with a mirror (didn't scope me) and decided to give me a regiment of drugs for 3 weeks to see if it helps. I am taking oral steroids (Medrol dose pack) antibiotics and an oral spray inhaler of steroids. (I may become a body builder with all these steroids) I have only been on them a few days but it sure isn't getting better. The cracking part seems to have gotten worse. But I think maybe this might be one of those cases where it has to get worse before it gets better. If it isn't cleared up in 3 weeks I think he is going to run that scope up my nose and down my throat and get a better look at my vocal cords.
I don't like going to the doctor. And I could have gone the rest of my life never having gone to the doctor for this. But what made me decide to do it is back when the actor Michael Douglas got throat cancer and they were writing articles about it and him in People magazine, he said his symptoms started as a sore throat that wouldn't go away. I don't care if my voice cracks the rest of my life. I can live with that. I just don't want cancer. My kids are too young and I don't want to die yet, so if it is cancer I need to know early enough to treat it. They seemed to have successfully treated Michael Douglas so far. They say he is better. He has gained weight and looks good so maybe they did. And if they can do it for him they can probably do it for me.
Have any of you started planning for or buying for Christmas yet? My kids have already started seeing things on TV that they want for Xmas and have even written me a list a few times of what they want for Christmas. It keeps changing though. My daughter always asks for 50 things or more and my son usually asks for just one or two things. She's all gimme gimme gimme. He just wants a few little things.
But one of the things that my daughter said she wanted was this new little stunt tricycle they came out with called a cyco cycle. It is small and yellow and doesn't have handle bars. I don't know how you are suppose to ride it or steer it. I may be able to watch some You Tube videos of it. I haven't searched for any yet. But it's pretty cheap. They have them on Amazon for 90 something dollars with free shipping. I just have to feel out my son about it and see if he wants one too so that I don't get her one and then she gets hers and he's all like MAN MOM I WANTED ONE OF THOSE. I usually try to get them gender neutral things that I can't get for both of them so that Christmas is always equal. Last year was the first year I ventured off and got them different things. But they shared the items they got that the other one wanted to play with. The biggest let down for me last Christmas was that GAWD DAYUM Fushigi ball thing. The kids saw that shit on TV the whole year and wanted one so bad. They make it look like a magic ball floating in the air and they do all thse fancy tricks with it. Yeah, BLOW ME Fushigi. They turned out to be a big flop. It comes with a DVD that shows you all these GROWN UPS doing these fancy tricks with them that no kid can ever figure out how to do. I doubt either one of my kids can even tell you where their Fushigi ball is now. They never even tried to keep up with it. It just got sucked into the great unknown.
Less than 80 days to go until our Disney trip!!!!!! AND. AND. I forgot to update about this. We already had an existing reservation for the room and tickets but we had not bought the dining plan. It was too much. For 5 of us for 10 days the dining plan was going to cost $1600 so we skipped it. But on August 3rd Disney announced some Fall dates that they were offering their free dining promotion and it just so happens that one of the weeks they are offering it falls exactly on our dates that we are going. So I got to call and have Disney apply the free dining promotion to our reservation!!! I was so excited when that happened. I had been crossing my fingers and hoping for the last few months that Disney would offer some new free dining dates for the Fall, and THEY DID! It didn't cover ALL of October, November and December. Just select weeks within each month. I don't know why it was so scattered or random, but we lucked out and landed into one of the time frames for it. Now it wouldn't have cost us $1600 to feed the 5 of us for 10 days but it would have costs us about $800-$1000 to eat OUT lunch and DINNER every day and feed ourselves in our room for breakfast. And to buy water and snacks and drinks for the room and to take into the park, it would have added up to over a grand easy. So even though getting the dining plan didn't really save us $1600 it did save us at least $1,000. And the dining plan gives you more food than you can even eat. You get two counter service meals a day (like where you walk up and order and get your food then go seat yourself) 2 snacks a day and a resort refillable drink mug that you can refill with soda, coffee or tea for your entire stay (at the resort not at the parks) But with each meal, lunch and dinner you get a meal of entree, drink and dessert. Plus the 2 snacks a day. And a Disney snack can be something as big as a cinnamon roll or a funnel cake. We aren't usually dessert eaters but the kids are going to love getting to eat dessert every day for 10 days!
Well, that's my update for the week. LOL. What's new in your world? Have your kids started back school yet? Are you Christmas shopping yet? Have you ever been to Disney?
One of the blogs I read Mochaface posted this little video to her blog and it made me laugh so hard I thought I would share it with you. Watch the lady walking up in the background.
Live Broadcast Fall - watch more funny videos
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Saw this on a friends blog.
I was reading someone's blog who I read through my Google Reader (Shauna Glenn) and she posted this video on her blog talking about how ppl use to sing it as Blinded by the light, wrapped up like a douche another runner in the night. It's funny because that is how everybody sang it. But I wanted to share the video she posted because it plays the whole song and shows the real lyrics. I love this song.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Drug testing to get food stamps & met the teachers
We went up to the school Thursday evening for meet the teacher back to school parent night thing. Each kid got to see which class they were going to be in and DD is not happy with her teacher. But like I told her it really doesn't matter who her homeroom teacher is because all 3 5th grade teachers will rotate through her class every day. The kids don't have to change classes, the teachers change classes. So even if she is unhappy with this teacher she would still have this teacher for part of the day anyway. So starting Monday I will be back to being kidless from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm. *high fives the air*
I read today where the state of Florida and Kentucky have made it law that anybody applying for welfare or food stamps will have to be drug tested. Some ppl are crying foul and saying this is unconstitutional. But the way I see it is this... If we can force ppl who work for a living to be drug tested we can also force ppl who live off the tax payers dime to be drug tested. I think all 50 states should do it. If my system would do it they would probably be able to save millions of dollars a month because of all the ppl who would no longer qualify for assistance. I not only think they should make NEW applicants be drug tested I think they should require all existing recipients to be tested and from here on out, randomly tested with no notice. Ppl will say OH BUT WHAT ABOUT THE KIDS who will have to go without now that the parents won't qualify for welfare? That's nobody's problem except the drug addict parents. Maybe the kids can go live with a relative or go into foster care. If the parent is an addict the kids are probably better off living somewhere else anyway. I have no tolerance or sympathy for anybody who chooses to take drugs and become an addict. We all make choices. If you choose to do drugs then my tax dollars won't help you. That's the way it should be everywhere. In my opinion. Hopefully other states will follow suit. It will initially cost the states some money doing the drug testing but in the long run it will save them TONS of money when the drug addicts no longer qualify for assistance. I think it is a step in the right direction.
I think they also need to reform the food stamp program and make changes to sort of mirror the WIC program. The WIC program dictates what items you can and cannot get with the WIC assistance. Food stamps should be the same way. I think you should NOT be allowed to buy any junk food like cookies, cakes, chips, Little Debbies, candy, cokes or luxury items like shrimp, crab legs, lobster, etc. I think if the person is going to get free food they should be required to buy nutritious food and not junk or luxury food that most tax payers cannot even afford to buy. This may never come about but it would be a good change in the right direction.
I think the only ppl who would be upset about it are the ppl getting food stamps. They want to be able to get whatever they want with the food stamps.
Something needs to be done about all the welfare fraud going on that is costing US, the tax payers, a lot of money every year. Ppl selling food stamps for cash to ppl who don't qualify for food stamps. Buying drugs with it instead of food.
I hope I never have to have public assistance in my life but if I do I would not be fraudulent with it and I wouldn't buy junk food with it. I sure wouldn't sell it for cash so that I could go buy some drugs or booze.
I read today where the state of Florida and Kentucky have made it law that anybody applying for welfare or food stamps will have to be drug tested. Some ppl are crying foul and saying this is unconstitutional. But the way I see it is this... If we can force ppl who work for a living to be drug tested we can also force ppl who live off the tax payers dime to be drug tested. I think all 50 states should do it. If my system would do it they would probably be able to save millions of dollars a month because of all the ppl who would no longer qualify for assistance. I not only think they should make NEW applicants be drug tested I think they should require all existing recipients to be tested and from here on out, randomly tested with no notice. Ppl will say OH BUT WHAT ABOUT THE KIDS who will have to go without now that the parents won't qualify for welfare? That's nobody's problem except the drug addict parents. Maybe the kids can go live with a relative or go into foster care. If the parent is an addict the kids are probably better off living somewhere else anyway. I have no tolerance or sympathy for anybody who chooses to take drugs and become an addict. We all make choices. If you choose to do drugs then my tax dollars won't help you. That's the way it should be everywhere. In my opinion. Hopefully other states will follow suit. It will initially cost the states some money doing the drug testing but in the long run it will save them TONS of money when the drug addicts no longer qualify for assistance. I think it is a step in the right direction.
I think they also need to reform the food stamp program and make changes to sort of mirror the WIC program. The WIC program dictates what items you can and cannot get with the WIC assistance. Food stamps should be the same way. I think you should NOT be allowed to buy any junk food like cookies, cakes, chips, Little Debbies, candy, cokes or luxury items like shrimp, crab legs, lobster, etc. I think if the person is going to get free food they should be required to buy nutritious food and not junk or luxury food that most tax payers cannot even afford to buy. This may never come about but it would be a good change in the right direction.
I think the only ppl who would be upset about it are the ppl getting food stamps. They want to be able to get whatever they want with the food stamps.
Something needs to be done about all the welfare fraud going on that is costing US, the tax payers, a lot of money every year. Ppl selling food stamps for cash to ppl who don't qualify for food stamps. Buying drugs with it instead of food.
I hope I never have to have public assistance in my life but if I do I would not be fraudulent with it and I wouldn't buy junk food with it. I sure wouldn't sell it for cash so that I could go buy some drugs or booze.
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