Toddlers & Tiaras with Tom Hanks

"sexy feet. sexy feet!!"

What Super Bowl?

Tonight DD1 and I had the house to ourselves.  The noisier half of our family (including the dog) headed to a friend's to watch the super bowl and we spent the evening doing anything but (a few sour grapes from a devoted Packers fan).  Following our anti-superbowl agenda, we boldly watched Toddlers and Tiaras while we indulged in mounds and mounds of nachos.  Count on TLC for a few shows to make you are glad you are sane (and even sometimes, confirm you are sane).  Watching pageant parents parade their "sexy babies" (see Tom Hanks clip posted next for reference on this) around is enough to make anyone feel a little superior in the parenting department.  And lest we feel good about gorging on nachos, the next show highlighted the story of a 600 pound woman confined to her bed eating fried foods and drinking pop.  Lesson learned.  We ate nothing more for the rest of the evening.  When the TLC program that followed started with the words, "The orgasm....", I lunged at the tv and turned it off.  On to project B--making tomorrow night's dinner.  We have some friends who celebrate Chinese New Year and always make us some Chinese Dumplings.  This year did not disappoint, they were as fabulous as always.  Only this year I got smart and decided to ask for the recipe.  DD1 and I made our first batch tonight and despite her disgust at handling raw pork, all went smoothly.
What a gift tonight was--whether we were just hanging out watching bad tv (training in the art of guilty pleasure starts early in our home), overeating (sadly, another family tradition), or learning to make something new, I truly enjoyed every minute of our time together.  I know teens can be difficult but under the eye rolls and the one-liners, my teen is a pretty great kid and I am grateful to share moments like these with her.

A Message To You Rudy

Loved The Specials in high school. Love The Specials now. That's what we're missing these days, a little brass and a little ska.

Pity Party---Table for One

For the past week or so I have indulged in a private Pity Party.  No guests.  Just me allowed.  Really and truly a pathetic little affair.  While I thought I was chugging along rather nicely on the outside, I am clearly not the oscar winning performer I had imagined I was.  Funnily enough, the raiding of the party started with a complete (well maybe not complete but there was not much control involved) meltdown over something that while admittedly was rather irksome, did not deserve the response it received.  Nor did the perpetrator of the offence.   Although, in my shallow defence, how many times can you tell a child not to open their car door into another car?  And imagine they were 10 years old--that's like telling them 500,000 times.  But there I go again....must let it go.
Eventually we arrive at home and all the while, the whole event has percolated into a sludgy mess in our brains.  DD2 goes into pleasing mode (and why is it that she only goes into pleasing mode when I am completely at wit's end??  I suspect I could fill some kind of psych text on that subject) and DD1 begins to shut down.  My happy-go-lucky girl is sullen and withdrawn and I am to blame.  Not a lovely thing to look in the face--downright ugly in fact.  And as I take this all in, it slowly sinks in--and trust me I am a slow learner--that I just need to get a grip and get over myself.  It was really just that simple.  And so I did.  And today was a better day.  Go figure.  Yes, work still is a swirling pit of chaos and yes, DH's health is still in limbo but I just don't have to live in all of that.  In fact, I choose not to live in all of that.  So far, so good. 

crap-tacular is the new "bad"

wow.  what a crap-tacular day it's been.  had the soul-crushing experience of visiting a school where passive aggressive posturing wins the day (and lest you think i am being overly dramatic, i defy any one of you to spend time there and leave unscathed).  forget about the kids, they're just in the room.  it's one of those places where you see it on your schedule and just wonder how you'll possibly make it through the experience with your optimism in tact.  now, there are a few bright spots in that building but not enough to redeem the overall situation.  i am telling you, after a few hours there even orphan annie would wonder if the sun was coming out tomorrow.  so there was that.  then came the two hour journey home through the squalls, around the closed bits of the highways, and avoidance of the trucks barrelling by at 130km per hour.  oh, i could really go on and on.  and indeed i have i suppose.
ended the day with a highschool visit for dd1 and so glad i did.  not only does her choice of school seem engaged with their community and committed to a camp-style sense of inclusion, there were some pretty cool electives to choose from.  it was really exciting to see her have a discussion with the enriched english teacher about novels and to hear her discuss getting a credit for a swim-gym course.  it seems like a perfect fit.  thank goodness.

Grown ups Behaving Badly

Spent the day (four hours of it anyway) volunteering in the canteen at the swim club's "Under 12 Celebration" swim meet.  This is a wonderful meet for all the younger swimmers where each child gets a plaque at the end with engraved plates of their races and best times to affix to it.  Usually so much fun.  This year DD2 is too old to swim in this meet but DH and I both have a few (22 but who is counting really?) credits to earn before the end of the swim season and so, we were both at the pool this afternoon.  And to be clear, each four hour stint of volunteer time earns one credit.  You can do the math to see just how much of a "family" sport swimming becomes.  Usually I do not mind (so much) as we've made some pretty good friends there and the parents of the competitors are generally good folk.
It must've been the day after Friday the 13th that brought the crazies to the pool today.  And come in droves they did.  With their attitudes.  With their lying.  With their all around childish behaviour.
Now I would just like to say that when someone buys a psych sheet (schedule of the races, heats, and lanes that your child will swim in--pretty much essential to knowing what the heck is going on since they mostly look when you can only see their heads) only to return 30 mins later saying "i don't need this anymore, my child isn't in it",  I pretty much know they are selling me a bill of goods.  That's just about enough time to scour the booklet and record all the relevant information.  After the third person attempted this I started to get a little testy.  Is $7 really a life or death situation?  But they were only the tip of the titanic sized ice burg to come.  The canteen, where we sell food for the swimmers and their supporters, is generally set up along the rail so that we can see people coming and going and, if we are lucky, see our child swim.  There were a few parents who were upset that we were "using up the good spot by the rail" for our canteen.  So be it.  Get to the swim meet early and get a good spot next time.  However, there was one woman who was not to be deterred and decided she would stand in our canteen.  Near the money boxes and generally, in our way.  Plus, it irritated me that she felt she could do as she wished.  When asked to move, she became immediately irate and abusive (classy) dropping a few f-bombs (even classier at an under 12 celebration right?) and finally shoved a table in to me.  Seriously.
Those of you who know me well probably have a mental picture right now of how the rest of the story went down but you would be wrong.  I know, can you believe it?  I kept my mouth shut (really and truly I did-- and that was no easy feat I'll tell you) and ignored her tantrum.  I know!!!  It just about killed me (really and truly it did).
God bless the swim friends in the kitchen who got to listen to my venting about it and thank goodness I played soccer today and had a chance to kick something hard.  It does wonders for the soul.  But that is a post for another day.

Sweet Sabotage

While trying to buy healthy grocery items today I encountered a new chocolate bar (why do they place these displays amongst the healthy goods?  sabotage indeed.)--Cadbury's Dairy Milk Pretzel and Peanut Butter.  Now it's no Choxie bar (Target rules) but it was pretty delish.  And, you know, I had to eat several pieces to fully determine it's worth.  DO NOT BUY this item unless you are okay with eating half the bar in one sitting (okay, two thirds of the bar if I am being truthful).  My plan B here?  Perhaps I'll just finish this little goodie off and pretend the whole thing never happened.  Best. Plan. B. Ever.