A task relinquished........

One thing I hate above all others is taking Whatever shopping. Not just grocery shopping or window shopping but the kind of shopping where you HAVE to buy something like a winter coat or school clothes. For me it is a nightmare. Whatever needed jeans, she had none. I mentioned this to her father, The Saint, he said he would take her. Huh? Come again? OK, go for it! This would have taken us 4 hours, 3 heated arguments, 2 storming offs, and 1 episode of tears from either her, myself, or the baby. So off they went together to Target to buy jeans. I lectured her on the "if you can bend over and I can see your butt crack you can't ahve them" rule. I lectured him about her plan "to wear him out so he says yes to anything". An hour later I called to check up on them, expecting to her screaming in the background. He says, "we're done, I am at my Moms". An hour?!?!?!? How does one take and eleven year old shopping for jeans and complete the task in under an hour?!?!?!? I am visioning low riders, studded with rhinestones, fringed with the butt cheeks cut out. What did he get her? Two pairs of identical Levi's. They fit great and she and I both like them. Go figure. Guess who is taking her shopping from now on? Phew.

Ashes, ashes, we all fall down...............

The Bug wanders around singing "ashes, ashes" now. Her sitter does Ring Around The Rosie with her and she loves the ashes part. It is too cute. Creeps The Saint out, though. He is convinced that the song originates from the Bubonic Plague. "Ring around the rosie" is the red ring rash that people got, "pocket full of posey" is because people carried herbs and flowers to keep the bad smell away, "ashes ashes, we all fall down" refers to people dying and being cremated. I looked on Wikipedia and the theory has been debunked but he is not convinced, he got it on a better authority (The History Channel) that it is true. So he cringes every time she sings "ashes, ashes". To me it is hysterical, only I would have a baby that liked the word ashes, not dolly, not baby, not mommy, she chooses ashes! Oh yeah and MINE!

I LOVE Halloween!

I took the girls to a Halloween party this weekend and they had a blast! The Bug wore her costume all night. Whatever was a Goth Girl. I really think she was just using it as an excuse to wear make-up. I took her to Goodwill to find an outfit and she was having none of it. She wanted leggings and black lipstick. That's it, nothing more. I give her a $5 budget just to spark her creativity and she only wants leggings and black lipstick! These are things she wanted even before Halloween. I used to come up with the craziest costumes for myself. I was a table, a cracker jack box, a bloody prom queen, Princess Lea. Mom and I would make my costumes on a very tight budget. I used Halloween as an excuse to step outside myself and be someone or something else. Whatever wants to be herself with makeup! Oh well, we can't make our kids into mini versions of us, right?

The Bug ran and ran all night on Saturday. She had so much fun at the party. She found a Trick or Treat bag with Mickey and Donald on it and fell in love. She held it and talked to it and kissed it. She wanted to carry it all night. Too bad it was connected to a little girl that was VERY preturbed at The Bug. She thought Bug wanted all of her candy but all she really wanted was to have a little time with the bag! We finally found on that was similar laying on the floor so she carried it around all night, stopping occasionally to lay it on the floor and tell it what was going on in her baby talk.

The Bug now likes her Ladybug costume. She wants me to help her put it on and take it off continually. She hands it to me, puts her arm out, slides it on, wants me to help her put the hood up, giggles, grabs at the hood, desperatly tries to rip it off, puts in on the floor, giggles, picks it back up and starts the process all over again. That's my girl..............

I am having an issue with the mother of one of Whatever's classmates. She keeps calling to get homework that her daughter has missed. She asks details that I just don't know because...IT'S NOT MY HOMEWORK!!! She wants to know what Whatever thought of the handout and if Whatever understood the packet. It is almost as if she is doing this homework for her kid. She called last night and left a message in a panic over some stuff. Now I do keep up online of Whatever's grades and I can tell if she has missed anything. As far as I am concerned, I did 7th grade, no need to do it again. Whatever is responsible for her work, if she messes up or misses something, she needs to suffer the consequences. I spent some time with both mother and daughter for a project 2 years ago. We met at the library and I left Whatever and the friend in the kids section with their materials and went to do my own thing (the mother had to run an errand). I didn't go far but let them do it themselves. I went to check on them and this mother was sitting there typing their paper!!! Not just what they had wrote, but adding her own ideas too. What good is this for your kid? This girl is 13 and acts like she is 5.

Oh well.....it's raing here, has been for two days. I want to curl up and snuggle in the bed with my Bug. Guess I will get some work done instead.

In the bag...........

The Bug getting a ride from

The Saint in an LL Bean bag.

This too shall pass....

My new mantra.
Whatever won't be a middle schooler forever, she will grow up. Man, she is going to take us for a ride until that happens! No details necessary, she is just wearing us out! She would much rather risk punishment than ask permission. The teen years are going to be hell.
This too shall pass..........
To top an already bad week off, my cat peed in the bed this morning. Right by The Bug's head! I spent the morning chasing her down and rubbing her nose in it. She is old and moody and when she gets mad she gets even. The Bug thought all of the hubub was pretty darn funny and Whatever was just happy my anger was not directed at her for once. I broke my broom, trying to get her out form under the bed.
This too shall pass.........
I answer phones at my work and lately we have had a plethora of hang up calls. I drives me nuts. I hate answering phones anyway but to rush to pick it up and have no one there, well that might just be what puts me in the home. Why do I answer phones for a living when I absolutely hate the sound of a ringing phone?? Money.
This too shall pass..........
Alright, whine session over, the phones are ringing..........................

So Whatever has a dress code at her school. Naturally she is trying to push it at all times. I have to inspect her every morning. Flashback to the second day of school this year. She is wearing her school clothes and on top of them she has one of her summer tops. Now why would there be a dress code if the kids were allowed to just put what they really wanted to wear on top of everything?!?! She told me it got cold in school, that is why she has to wear this light weight short sleeved shirt on top of her collared shirt. Makes sense to me! I told her to take it off. So today she tries to pull the same trick with the same clothes and the same excuse!! I told her no. She says to me "but you told me I could wear it when it got cold out and it is FREEZING this morning." Huh? I have to sit for a minute and try to figure out if it was crack or heroine that I was smoking when I told her that. Then I realized that I probaby said that it was way too hot to layer clothes like that when we originally had this discussion on the second day of school. In 12 year oldese, that translates to "give it another shot when it gets colder, see if she notices".

I just want to know when I became "That Mom". The one that is constantly nagging her kid to clean her room, checking her backpack for contraband or notes from school that "forget" to make their way into my hands, confiscating makeup, the one that awlways has to say NO. I want to be a cool Mom sometimes. I have told her that if she gets good grades, she can dye her hair, peirce her nose, whatever. She gets ok grades but not good enough to warrant all that!
Oh well, it is more important that we both survive the tween years than that she likes me.