This Week's Hairbrained Musings (5)

Another week, another collection of moments and musings:

So what if she's my sister!  She's still a weirdo.

Are You Advertising Your Life on Your Car?

Ever think about what the bumper of your car says about you and your family?

Bumper stickers portray a small aspect of your life.  Most are just pithy little one-liners on the back of your car that could indicate any number of things about you, such as your smart-ass sense of humor, your political affiliation, your religion, or how you like to spend your free time.  One bumper sticker alone is just a blurb about you, and gives very little information about you and yours.  Several start to paint a picture about who you are, but still provide only limited info.

These days, however, car decor is veering away from the bumper sticker and is erring more on the side of TMI.  In particular, I am talking about the "my family" decals that the whole darn world seems to be putting on their rear windshields.  You know the ones I'm talking about-- the white (like they've been drawn in chalk) stick-figure families stuck to every mommy-mobile in America.  If you have one of these darling decorations on the back of your car, I'm not judging you.  I swear.  They really are cute-- downright adorable, I would even dare to venture.  When these stick figure groupings first started popping up, they were mostly generic things that basically indicated the number, ages and genders of the people that might be riding in your minivan.  Of course, generic isn't the way most mommies roll nowadays.  These once generic decals have turned into a miniature resume of the entire family's extracurricular activities and travels.  Other than a love of gratuitous cuteness, here is an example of what else a stick figure decal (not the one shown above) and other bumper decor tells me about a family: 

It's Never Just a Cloud

Car rides are always interesting with my crew.  You just never know what entertaining bits of conversation you will overhear coming from the backseat.  Remember the discussion on sexual activity I had to endure a couple of months ago?  (If you don't, you should refresh your memory so you will have more sympathy for my plight.)  Saturday's car ride was no exception-- I was definitely amused.

This Week's Hairbrained Musings (4)

Another week, another collection moments and musings.

Princess, the Pool, and the Purple Paper Kitty

Whew!  Today has been... interesting.

I obviously didn't take this photo today.
Read on and you'll see why.

For those of you that are up on the Crazy Train summer schedule, you know that today is our Wednesday Swim.  My girls LOVE the pool.  The sensation of weightlessness, plus the added bonus of uniform sensory input across all their skin at once, makes swimming very relaxing for my girls-- usually.  Today, the pool was a little less relaxing than I had hoped it would be.


Normally, we get to the pool early, before it gets crowded, and leave before the after-lunch crowd arrives.  Today, we were late getting to the pool AND the weather was swelteringly hot, so real estate in the pool was cramped-- like trailer park at the beach cramped.  We were elbow to elbow in the pool with about 90 of our neighbors.  As you can imagine, it got really ugly really fast for my personal space-loving ladies.  A little over an hour after we arrived, I was hauling my crew into the locker room so we could get out of Dodge.  You could say our autism was showing a little too much, and it was making several of the other pool patrons nervous.  

Enthusiasm in Pictures: Wednesday Disability Blog Hop

Welcome back to the Disability Blog Hop, hosted by Meriah at With A Little Moxie!  This week, our prompt was:

 SAY CHEESE! Let's have some photos - just post some fun pictures that have a connection with disability - your child with Down syndrome/special needs, yourself and your bad-ass chair, your hearing/seeing dog. What-have-you, but let's have us some FUN. 

 

Well, that's certainly easy enough!  My contribution follows.  :)

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One Special Daddy

Daddy's girls

Yesterday, my husband celebrated his ninth Father's Day.

Yesterday, my girls and I celebrated another year with the most amazingly perfect father I could ever dream of for my girls.

This Week's Hairbrained Musings... (3)

*Some playground pick-up lines are very ineffective, such as "Look at this cool beetle!  He has serrated mandibles.  Those thing rock!!"  Shoving the "serrated mandibles" into the face of an unprepared child right after saying this (such as Birdie did on Playground Monday) almost led to one little boy crapping his underoos.

The Ever-So-Necessary Summer Schedule

This being the first week of summer break and all, most people are at home basking in the glories of reduced responsibilities and increased relaxation time.  I, on the other hand, feel like I have been relegated to the Inner Circles of Hell.

Schooooool's Out for Sum-mah

Borrowed image

Friday, we said goodbye to second grade and hello to summer.  To start our summer off right, Birdie had a dance recital on Saturday morning.  The best part?  I didn't have get to go.

Why was Mom not there for the big show, you wonder?  When buying tickets to see this dance extravaganza back in May, Hubby didn't know whether or not he would be in town to see the recital.  Seeing that the tickets were $15 apiece, and Birdie's dance was all of two minutes long (and that's being generous), I couldn't bring myself to buy a third ticket, not knowing if we would use it.  So I bought only two-- one for Princess and one for the lucky grown-up that got to accompany her.  By now you've guessed that wasn't me.  The reason Daddy went instead of Mommy was simple:  I had seen the dress rehearsal the weekend before.  It only made sense that Dad should go to the live show and watch his little girl perform.

Boy, did Dad get screwed.

This Week's Hairbrained Musings from the Train (2)

I Am in Hate with NatGeo

Those that know me are well aware of my addiction to science information.  I love science factoids.  I love learning new science concepts and figuring out the way the things in our world interact with each other.  My innate geekiness is one of the reasons I chose to study chemistry in college.  My love of boring others with this geeky info is one of the main reasons I chose to study education in college.  The thought of having a captive audience classroom was just too much to pass up.

As a mom, I have the wonderful opportunity to share my interest in science with my daughters every day.  My girls are already naturally curious about the way things work, and I try to continually renew their interest in science-y things whenever I can. (A trip to a museum, an aquarium, a zoo, a park to go geocaching, or even a visit to the library's non-fiction section are fun science excursions.)  So, I am sure it comes as no surprise that my kids have subscriptions to Ranger Rick and National Geographic Kids magazines.  They are, most surely, two of the best kids' science magazines available.  And like good little geek-ettes, they love their science, too, which makes mama very proud.

Many moons ago, I subscribed to National Geographic-- the grown-up version.  For years I would get the bright yellow magazines in my mailbox every month and I absolutely couldn't wait to get them into the house so I could devour them.  I would find myself removing the plastic bag they are mailed in as I walked back up my driveway toward the house.  The articles were always captivating and the beauty of the photos was unrivaled by any other publication in existence-- I was in fully-geeked-out heaven with the turn of every page.  Aaaaahhhh.

About six months into my pregnancy with Princess and Birdie, however, I found that my lovely yellow magazines weren't getting the attention and adoration they deserved.  I had a stack of four NatGeos on my coffee table, and at least one of them was still in the plastic bag.  If I didn't have time to read my science mags before my bundles of joy even arrived, chances weren't in my favor that I would have time once I had two new bottoms to powder and mouths to feed.  In light of this revelation, I let my subscription to scientific and cultural heaven expire.

But those NatGeo marketing folks are no dummies.  Of course, a household buying the National Geographic Kids magazine is likely to buy the grown-up version of the magazine too... especially if you offer the magazine at a ridiculously low $1.25/mo.  *Hallelujah choirs*  For $15/yr, I could have my beautiful science fix every month again.  How could I say no to that?!  This would be AWE-SOME!

...or so I thought at first.  Now I'm not so sure.  Now I am pretty sure I hate my favorite magazine.

My Mess, My Memories

This past weekend, my family and I were invited to my friend's beautiful new home for a housewarming party.  Her house is so lovely!  Everything is so immaculately clean.  The decor is tasteful and eclectic, and reflects the personality of the hostess perfectly.  The yard is absolutely to die for, and the whole darn town has a very Mayberry kind of vibe.  Needless to say, I loved it!!!  I am green with envy over her yard, the abundance of open space in her new house, and the freshness of it all.  It is all so... new.

And my house is so... lived in.  Quite frankly, my place could use some serious "freshening up".  Some new carpet.  A coat of paint or ten.  Hell, even a once over with a soapy rag from top to bottom would help!  But alas, all the living we have done, and continue to do in this house-- the very living that has made this place the mess it is today, keeps getting in the way of the "freshening".  Well, the living and my reluctance to change some things.

I have two main reasons for not wanting to update my house.  You can decide if they are good reasons.


My first reason to delay home improvement is that "the kids are just going to mess it up again anyway."  Can you hear my dramatically put-out tone of voice when you read this?  I try to convince myself this is the practical voice in my head, helping me to wait until I will get more bang for my renovation buck.  In reality, it is probably the lazy-ass voice in my head, which knows from experience how much more fun it is to wield a crochet hook than a paint roller.

How Life Prepared Me to Be "Mom"

(stock photo)

For the last couple of months, there have been rumblings that my family may have to move (again) this summer due to Hubby's job.  Although we have not yet heard anything definitive on the subject, I decided a few weeks ago to start shining up my resume.  Yes, I have been working as a substitute teacher for the last nine months, and that should help the whole finding-a-new-job process, but it never hurts to be prepared.  I do, after all, have a seven year gap in my resume labelled "motherhood", which doesn't always go over very well when interviewing.

Hairbrained Musings from the Train

About being "interesting":

Happy Weekend, friends!