Oh, please.

(Eye rolling)

My daughter let her friend Jenny walk home with her. Jenny lives 10 miles away, and so is SUPPOSED to ride the bus. If she DOESN'T, her mom has to come get her, or I have to drive her, 20 miles round trip. They did this before, saying Jenny "missed" her bus. That time, her mom said, "Next time you call me from the SCHOOL. Do not turn up on Laurel's doorstep!"

So here they come today, saying they had some genetics assignment that they were partnered on, and they "had" to work together. They said it was on leaves. I said, "Um...ok. Call your mom."I could tell that her mom didn't believe Jenny, but said whatever. They went to my daughter's room, but a little while later, it was too quiet. I went to check, and they were GONE.

My kid doesn't HAVE her celly, b/c it got taken up at school last week. Jenny doesn't own one. They were gone for 2 hours, I had no idea where. It's POURING rain. I called Jenny's house, but got the machine. I said, "They can't be trusted!" (Her mom is totally cool--as in strict! She doesn't believe the crap that kids try to pull!) She called a while later, but hadn't gotten the messages. She said, "Is Jenny ready to come? I'm in your driveway. I don't want to get wet."

I told her that I didn't know WHERE the girls were. She and I both listed the tortures that they'd suffer. Just then they came waltzing down the street, SOAKING WET, BAREFOOT. They came in here (Mom still on the phone), and I said, "You didn't tell me you were leaving."

They said, "Yes, we did. We said it was about genetics and leaves. We went to get some."

I said, "We HAVE leaves, dear."

She said, "Tcha. Not in the front yard!"

Friends, I have 17 windows in this house. Big ones. Outside of EVERY window, you can see MILLIONS UPON BILLIONS of leaves, from at least 1000 SPECIES of plant life. I told them this. I gestured to the VERITABLE FOREST that we live in. "Furthermore, if you were collecting leaves, you would have had notebooks, pens, ziplocs, a worksheet, something."

"Well, we were just on our way ba-a-ck to GET a bag..."

"Oh, please!"

"We didn't TAKE notebooks because they'd get wet."

"Where are your LEAVES?!?" I asked. "It took you two hours to find NO leaves? We live in the bloody Forest Primeval."

"Tcha. Whatever, Mom. Don't believe us."

"I don't."

I don't blame Jenny, exactly, alone. It's the combo of those two that ALWAYS leads to deception. Last time, she had my kid cut her hair in some rocker chick thing, when her mother had said No.

Before that, they conned her mom into taking them to the Mall, and my angel bought gauges for her ears, and because of the haircut she'd given HERSELF, I didn't SEE her ears for weeks, and didn't even think about it. Now the child has stupid ass gaping holes in her ears. I told her the punishment will be that she has to live with a deformity she caused herself. She WILL regret it. And she'll have to live with it, or pay to fix it.

So, they lied to us about the assignment (WHO forces science partners OUTSIDE of school time? No one. Especially not at a rural school). If they DID need leaves, they had METRIC TONS of them RIGHT HERE. They must think we're stupid. They should have at LEAST filled their pockets with some damn LEAVES.

It was while she was gone that I snatched the tv out of her room. I am NOT retrieving her phone from the school (this is the 3rd time it's been taken up, and THIS time I'd have to go down there, stand in front of the principal's desk, ask for it back AND pay $25. Nope. Not gonna do it.

She's supposed to go to CA over Easter break. I'm not cancelling her trip, though, because she'd have to sit here alone all day, and I don't trust her an inch. And frankly, I could use the break from her. Our friends out there are very good with her--they take NO crap, and they make her do chores with their daughter. "If your eat our food, you can wash our dishes!" The mom asked me if there were any friends I didn't want her to see. I think I'll go the other way and say that she's only ALLOWED to see certain friends, and not to be LEFT at anyone's house except those people.

A tight leash is easier on them, as well as better for my kid. I was such a nerd. This is all new territory to me... :)

God hanged the sun...

My son thinks I hanged the moon. I didn't, quite, but I DID hang him some planets! And a whole bunch of stars.

They *GL-O-O-O-OW* in the dark!

Very, very cool!

Power in the Blood

My mom was an ICU nurse my whole growning up years. Back in the 60's and 70's, before AIDS and such, things were a lot different at hospitals, as far as restrictions and regulations. Every couple of weeks, my mom would bring home EXPIRED BAGS OF BLOOD.

"WHY?!?", you ask?

No, we're not characters from a Lyndsay Sands novel (and the post-dated blood would've made us sick, anyway).

My mom would feed the blood to her HOUSEPLANTS. I kid you not. She swore it made them thrive.Well, and we did have some damn fine looking plants, I'll say that.

It was a little disconcerting for guests, though, when they'd see the empty blood bags in the trash, or if they were lucky, they'd get to catch the bag SITTING IN THE PLANT, trickling blood into the soil.

And people wonder why I'm weird.

Yeah. They're white. Pretty! But Pink? No.

I took several shots with my traditional camera, since my digital one is broken. But I did take these with my cell phone.

It was a really nice spring day; the Festival was essentially a street fair, with a pink overtone. The boy child and I walked all around and had a nice time.

I tried boiled peanuts for the first time.

I'm thinkin' it may be the last time. Like congealed snot nuggets. Disgusting.

I also had frozen, chocolate-dipped key lime pie, on a stick. Weird. Very weird. But intriguing.

Kind of like my life. Weird. Yet intriguing...

"The Pinkest Party On Earth!"

We need an outing.

http://www.cherryblossom.com/

Tomorrow (Sun) is the last day. We're going to drive up there tomorrow after church. Try not to get lost (I DID print several maps!). I'm shooting for the Food Festival/Street Fair, the Kids' Chalk thingy, and the Heart Of Georgia Pipes And Drums.

Should be fun.

I just...

I haven't posted in a few weeks because I haven't been sure what to say.

The short version is this: My ex-husband announced that he's getting remarried.

Personally, I wish him all the best; all along, it has been my wish that he move on and be happy.

It was THE WAY in which he has gone about several things that has made everyone who knows about it say, "What is he thinking?!?"

The children, being of disparate ages and sensibilities, are at best perplexed, and at worst pissed off. So that's the damage control that I'm trying to manage right now.

That's it, in a nutshell, right now.

'Nuf Said.

This pretty much sums it up.

"Every Ten Years"

Oh, gosh, no! It doesn't snow here. Well, maybe every ten years or something, but you don't need to worry about that!


I-I-I'm worryin' about it! This is what it looked like around my house, yesterday. The news channels all said to stay off the roads, and the kids' were in Alabama with their dad. We agreed that we didn't want to each drive 200 miles round trip in this, so the kids are missing school today, and are staying there until tonight.



I'm afraid to even drive to work; it got below freezing last night (and still is), so all the slush will have turned to ice. So I dunno... I may have to call in.