To my Aunt Gail

My Aunt's birthday has been recent and yes I missed it as usual!! Even though I had it on my e-cards list; I still missed it!

Aunt Gail, you have ALWAYS been an inspiration to me. I love your strength, your beauty, your eye for the arts and your intelligence. Of course, these are only a few reasons why you are special to me. I do not show this enough! I know I don't. However, you know what it's like to be a single mom and have the similar struggles that I have.

As a child you introduced me to things that I would have never known about. The Brownies, roller skating, homemade cabbage patch doll babies, slumber parties, rewarding me with great words for a job well done (sometimes those were the words that I needed the most. Someone was paying attention.), Ahh... a creative and country Christmas, fireplaces (never saw one working until we visited your house), and finally the other little thing that you introduced me to undeniably, strength.

I admire you for all of the things that you do and the little things are always the greatest. You were one of the first people to call me after Emma was born. Thank you for making an effort as there were those who never did. I appreciate you! I thank you! I honor another year of you!

Thank you once again for knowing my pain, my frustrations, my troubles, my depression, my tears. Thank you for giving my childhood a chance when my sister and I really needed it. Hey... and thanks for Melissa. We needed her as well!

I love you with all of my heart!

Your Niece,
Crystal

Don't Talk Back To Me

My little one has finally developed the skill of TALKING BACK!! I have tried to figure out how to maintain and control this really crazy problem... I can't.

When she starts that talking back I cringe.

"Emma, please pick up the toy."

"No, you pick up the toy."

"Emma, please don't stand on my tummy."

"No, you leave me alone."

"Emma, please get your shoes on so we can leave. Mommy is running late for work."

"No, you find my shoes so we can go."

Sometimes I feel like saying...

"Mommy, go with me to the potty."

"No, go yourself." ... LOL... Muuhhhahahahhaaa

But, I don't. Instead I follow along behind her. Wait for her to finish her business. Watch her dangling her toes over the edge and reading the latest rag while she's pottying. Then afterwards I remind her that washing her hands keeps her from being friends with Mr. Germ.

I've tried ignoring the smart mouth. You know, that's a lot harder to do than it sounds. Any ideas would be appreciated! :)

Work.. idiots

I've always been the type of person that runs from chaos. I can't explain it, I just know that it's better for me emotionally. I don't like to feel that someone is angry at me or dislikes me. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there that doesn't like me; I'm okay with that!! I just hate it that the world has to be this way.

I have a job and the people at my job are trouble starters. They like to sit around and look for things to bitch about and then accuse people for their unhappiness. It's a vicious cycle and unfortunately I work in hell. My stress level has never been so high.

What do I do?? I don't know..

Society and Home Schooling

I am seriously considering home schooling Emma when the time comes. I know this sounds ridiculous but, I'm so frustrated with the schools in our area; it's sick. They don't bother to do SOL (Standards of Learning) testing and make excuses for not doing it. They only teach the things on the tests and to hell with the "life lessons" that the children should know as well. It's like telling a child that knowing your numbers are important but, we don't have the time to teach them how to tell time.. get a digital watch!

It's so frustrating to watch children attempt to do things that they should have already known how to do for their age group. In summer camp class I assigned everyone to a BINGO card. One little girl had to stop the whole session because I needed to explain to her that the numbers are to be read from left to right. She had the whole class messed up because she was reading her numbers backward. This immediately puts up a red flag, to me, that she should be tested for dyslexia. I asked her if the teachers had ever given her any special tests and she said no. When I talked with one of the lead teachers about it, she said that they aren't concerned with stuff like this. She will figure it out in time. Damn, I hate private schools. The teachers are ill educated (not completely UN educated) but, still they lack the classes that are needed to SEE this sort of trouble in educating children. Hell, I'm a MOM and I figured it out!!!

People wonder why more mothers in America are turning to homeschooling.. this is why!! What ever happened to being taught the way I was taught in school? I was taught the things that were not only required for tests but, also for life. The things that truly mattered to the teacher was the child leaving their class with a sense of purpose and pride. This doesn't happen anymore. Children leave their classes only to get to the next class. They count down the days to graduation and after receiving their diploma's they have no clue what they want to do with their lives. This is frustrating because we have this group of wayward children to look to for our futures. What the hell is the education system thinking??? They can't say it's because they don't have enough money.. it's bullshit and any right minded person can see it. The Amish teach their children and they aren't sitting them in front of high dollar computer systems and television sets. Those children are well educated and well behaved citizens of our society. I say horse pucky on the parents who blow off their children's education on lack of school revenue!

Take a POTTY

So today I am walking toward my daughters preschool classroom when I hear my daughters teachers laughing histerically. I went in and the teacher pulls me aside and tells me that they had just witnessed a funny interaction between my daughter Emma and another child in the class.

My daughter is potty trained now; all but night time hours. (Yes, we are proud!) Newest life's ambition.... soon to be posted!

Emma stands up and announces to the class that she has to go potty.

The little girl, upon hearing this, runs to the bathroom and stands in the doorway. She begins to taunt Emma about having to go potty.

Emma gets upset and pushed the little girl into the bathroom and says, "get your ass on the potty and pee then!"

Well, the teachers did nothing to her and I don't know if I am okay with that or not. Certainly they couldn't laugh at her about the event and still punish her. But still, I think it was the idea.

Once we got in the car I asked Emma why she did that.

She replied, "Mommy, ewery budy puts their asses on da potty!"

Maybe we need to use the less realistic words for body parts right now.. LOL...

Almost There

Things have been so hard for me this week. I can't beleive that Emma's 3rd Birthday just snuck up on me. It seems like yesterday my little baby was laying in my arms drinking a bottle. Now she's in daycare screaming and begging me not to leave her. Wanting to have books read to her all the time. Making her own mind up about the t-shirts she WILL NOT wear to school today. Having dance recitals and bringing home pieces of paper with tons of crayon colorings all over it. To anyone else, it's just a kids coloring but, to a mom is a priceless work of art that can't ever be replaced. I treasure all of her things. I place the little papers in her box were she has plenty of them for later years.

Dance Recital

Emma had her first dance recital on Friday. She was so adorable out there in her adorable little bubblegum pink dress. She strutted her stuff for a moment and then decided to pick her little nose instead.

Grandma Hutchins went to the recital. I asked her if she wanted to go see it since it was her first one. Emma got out on stage during her little Boogie Woogie Piggie act and screamed "Hey MeeMaw!" Then all of the other children started waving at her. Then 2 of the little ones started rough housing on stage. It was a total trainwreck but, everyone just loved it.