wADmM5mNLtOv064mhMCS_CYE3Bc Just Dorothy: March 2012

Ringwork, cold sore and pinkeye? Oh my!

Nope, not me...I don't have any of it (knocking on wood, throwing salt over my shoulder, double holy crossing myself) but it's going around my work place.  I don't want any of it so I'm taking precautions.  I've got hand sanitizer, tons of it.  Even after washing my hands with warm soap and water and washing long enough (Row Your Boat song three times - I over kill by doing it 4 times), I soak my hands in hand sanitizer.  I don't touch the little one with ring-worm, even with gloves on.  Can't do it.  I'm so in the wrong profession....

When I was a kid...a short walk down memory lane

I'm of an age now where I can say "when I was a kid".  I'm also of an age now where when I say it, it makes me cringe because it makes me sound so old.  So mature.  But, when I was a kid (shudder) I remember watching The Muppet Show before ballet class.  I would not leave the house until the ending credits and music was rolling and Kermit the Frog waved wildly, jumped up and down and said "byyyyyyeeeeeee".  I also liked Sesame Street and the Electric Company.  Remember the 12 song? 123456789101112 do do do do do do do do...do do do 12!  Ok, writing it out doesn't make much sense, but I'm singing it in my head.  And if  you are of a certain age, you have the song stuck in your head now, too!  Gordon and Maria, Mr. Hooper, Bob, Big Bird, Mr. Snuffalufagus and Barkley were my favorites.  Telly kind of annoyed me.  Elmo was beyond my time but my kids liked him.  Those shows were comforting, entertaining and educational, even though we didn't know it at the time.  Ok, maybe The Muppet Show wasn't educational but still, a lot of fun!  I also used to watch Lil Rascals reruns and Abbott and Costello. Man, those were a blast!

My kids watched Sesame Street, Barney, Rugrats and Hey ArnoldOut of the Box on Disney and Gula Gula Island were favorites, too.  Now, I'm just not that impressed with today's programming.  Yes, I watch tv, yes my kids watch tv and no, I'm not at the point of banning it.  But it seems like the more vulgar, the more distasteful, the more on edge just for the sake of edge, the better.  There are shows that show videos of people breaking limbs, pranking people, being stupid just for stupid's sake.  When you're 12 and 16 fart jokes are still funny.  Ok, when you're 40, they're still pretty funny but for an entirely different reason.  Most of the shows today are geared towards dumbing down our society.  Snooki?  Really?  I guess it could be a great learning tool to sit down with your 16 year old and say, "you see honey, those kinds of girls will give you nothing but genital warts and herpes.  Stay far, far away."  And the Bachelor and Bachelorette....I can't say that I've watched any of those shows since maybe the very first one ever and even then just one time.  I found the concept completely weird that on a reality show with hundreds of cameras and people around, watching your every move and the cattiness of most of the ladies...how could you possibly find love?  It seems so far fetched.  And really, have any of them ever made it beyond the show?  Just my opinion, not judging you if you watch it, just think it's not really my cup of tea.  But I'm the one that likes shows like The First 48, which is pretty much the same thing all the time.  To each his own, I suppose.

Anyway, I kind of went off on a tangent here, got on my preachy soap box, when all I really meant to do was take a short walk down memory lane and reminisce about the shows I loved as a kid.  I wish those shows would resurface.  And I wish our kids weren't so desensitized by today's society that Abbott and Costello and The Three Stooges were still must see tv.

This week's good stuff

My menu planning is sporadic at best but I love doing it.  We don't live and die by the menu but it sure makes it easier to at least have an idea of what we're doing.  This week will be a little rough because I won't be here 2 nights to make dinner.  I hate having to go out of town for work.  I can throw some things in the slow cooker I suppose.  Anyway, in no particular order...

Grilled pork chops with side of baked beans and potatoes
Buffalo chicken pizza with side salad
Hamburgers with potato side
Southwest chicken and steamed veggies
Garlic spaghetti with side salad
Tacos with side of black beans, tomatoes & cilantro
Chili

If the wind doesn't pick up again this week, we should be able to grill out a lot, like the chops, the pizza, the hamburgers and the taco meat. 

What are your menu plans this week?

Spring break?

I wish all of life followed the school calendar.  I'd still have 3 more days off, time to read, surf the net, catch up on the ol' blog.  But I don't.  The boys do.  So...time to put their little butts to work. 

Yeah, right.

The boys and I did get to go out of town, if only for one day.  We left early Friday morning and headed into Lincoln to cheer the Minden basketball boys on at State.  Wow, talk about crowded little town!  But it was fun.  We headed out at 6am, watched the game, checked into the hotel, went shopping, went swimming, met with friends and had dinner at this cool place called Lazlo's where Zach ate what is called a "Widow Maker".  He's 12.  I told him he should have his own show called "Kid vs. Food".  I think he could totally give Adam Richman a run for his money.  And after that he still had room for fro-yo. 

Visited a store called "Licorice International".  Guess what they sell there?  Zach decided it would be fun to try licorice root.  I think I will let him guest post on my blog and let you know how that worked out.  Ryan bought chocolate covered espresso beans.  Back to the hotel room we went where he proceeded to eat one while sitting on the bed.  Somehow, some way choclolate got on the bleachy, bleachy pure white sheet and pillowcase.  I left a note for housekeeping on the little note pad they leave there for you...."Sorry about the CHOCOLATE mess!"

Being in the "big city" of Lincoln got us geared up for making the move back to Phoenix.  Traffic, traffic, traffic, sirens.  Diversity.  A shopping mall with more than 10 stores and 1 story.  Really good restaurants, a night life (not that the boys would know about night life, but at least we SAW it!).  I can't say I want to go back to all of that, but I want to go back to most of it.  I like big city.  I like little town.  It's a complicated dilema. 

Anyway, it was just nice to get away and shake off some of this cabin fever, see something different for a change. 

You suck at parenting....

Ok, I've been going back and forth on this blog topic because I don't want anyone that actually reads "me" to be offended or think it is specifically about them.  Because it's not.  Promise.  It is about lack of parental responsibility.  Lack of caring about your own precious children. 

Being in education, even at the preschool level, we hear a LOT of things.  Most we know (or really, really hope) are made up stories or gross exaggerations.  Like when one child tells us there are weeds and mushrooms growing in his basement.  And another little one tells us her mom spent the weekend in jail.  Deep breath, let it go.  Of course, some we can't ignore but that's another blog entirely. 

What really pisses me off and makes me all judgy and crap is when you blame ringworm on our fine establishment.  Even though we have no animals in the facility and the last time I was in your gross, disgusting, filthy pigsty of a house, you had 2 indoor/outdoor cats eating from your kitchen sink, not to mention the 12 or so inbred outside cats that were practically begging to be put out of their limping, cross-eyed misery, you blame your child's ringworm on us. 

And then there are the ones that want to get all pissy because you don't want their sick kid in class even though they just told you that the whole family has had flaming diarrhea and projectile vomiting within the last 12 hours.  Don't get me started on the ones that are all up in your face for a reason that I just can't bring up.  And the ones that think you nitpick every little thing. 

I'm sorry, but we're responsible for 17 other families besides yours.  We must think of their welfare, too.  If your kid has diarrhea running down her leg at school and we call you it's not because we just want to get rid of her.  It's because A. she's now completely mortified to be at school after shitting her pants, B. she's most likely coming down with something and we would like to keep it from spreading to the other families and to our own families.  Because if we can't make it to school, guess what?  We don't HAVE school. 

I get it that having small children is not always easy, not always fun.  But when you act indifferent towards your kid, I'm gonna judge you.  When you can't tell anyone what you actually like about your daughter without seriously being prompted, I'm going to judge you, too.  I know it's not easy to be put on the spot and you feel like you might say the wrong thing.  Been there, done that.  But once you think about it and get the ball rolling, it should be hard to stop the words flowing on how spectacular your kid is! 

So, that's my judgy blog on lack of parental responsibility. I could go on and on but.... ehh.  If any of our school parents are reading this, please know it's not about YOU!  Promise.  And please know this is MY blog and my opinion, not anyone else's at the facility or within the program. 

There's WHAT in my bread??

I read food labels.  Not religiously or anything but mostly for total carb count, calories and the first 5 ingredients.  I'm fully aware that most of our food items have artificial color and/or flavor and usually don't give it a second thought.  But after today I'm seriously considering becoming a raw foodie.  Foodist?  Raw-er?  Rawgetarian?  I dunno, but after hearing that human hair is a component in bread and that beaver anal glands are used to enhance vanilla used in things such as ice cream and to "spike" raspberry flavored things I'm all over it like white on rice.  IF the white isn't titanium dioxide used to make skim milk or your living room walls white. 

My friend just told me that she was talking to a lady that said she makes 2 or 3 loaves of homemade bread for her family every 2 days or so.  Because bread has hair in it.  And it's usually not hair from the United States, not that it matters much.  It apparently makes taste and texture so much better.  It's not like strands of hair sifted in with the flour, it's hair reformulated into a chemical concoction and poured into the batter.  For consistency.  Naaaahaaaassssty!

A month or so ago we all heard about the nastiness that is the Chicken McNugget after that girl collapsed and had trouble breathing, you know the one that ate nothing but McNuggets for 15 years...who apparently had no parents to slap that shit right out of her hands and offer up some fresh veggies instead.  Anyhoodle, that whole McNugget thing got me thinking about changing a lot of the way I look at foods and what I eat.  Now I'm thinking the only safe way to eat is to grow everything on your own and maintain a diet of "raw", unprocessed foods.  Like Gwyneth Paltrow and Woody Harrelson.  Except I don't think or live on the same level as them. 

Oh, and I found out that wood pulp is used in A LOT of stuff.  The upside of that is that even when you don't think you are getting fiber, you probably really are. 

So what's a meat loving, processed food adoring family to do?

The one where I go psycho and tell you how I really feel....

I seriously, seriously dislike my husband's family.  Those bitches have been telling lies about us for the last 4 1/2 years and I'm fed up.  When I hear the new lie come up I get really defensive and I want to call them out, punch them in their big nose faces and kick their super fat asses.  Huge. Honkin. Beaks. Super. Fat. Asses. 

Once I calm down I try to rationalize why I won't do exactly that.  (A). not worth my time or the bail money, (B) they aren't worth the drive to Kearney, or wherever it is they live now, and (C) I'm so much better than that and refuse to let them make me feel that way.  But mostly it's A. Definitely A.  Especially the bail money part.

Apparently we see them in the grocery store or the mall all the time (despite the fact we live at least 25 miles away from the nearest grocery store or mall) and turn our noses up at them.  They try to say hi and start a conversation but we simply shake our heads, ignore them and walk on by.  We have NEVER done that!  But I can guarantee I will now.  According to them, this has happened several times and when it does they call my mother in law to "tattle" on us.  Pathetic. 

Some people have no drama in their lives and feel the need to create it.  Whatever, just leave me out of it.  What really bothers me though is the fact that they don't even know me.  They barely know my husband.  When we moved here a little over 4 years ago they came by maybe twice.  We went to the wedding of one and the birthday for the other one's little girl.  And that's about it.  Other than that we haven't seen them, don't talk to them by phone or by social media so unless my mother in law is talking about us to them, they don't have access to information about us or what is going on in our lives. 

I think the next time I hear about one of these lies being told about us, I will track down a phone number and confront them with this.  If they're gonna talk about me anyway, might as well give them something to actually talk about. 

The one where I sound like a spoiled brat

So we're moving.  Soon, we hope.  We've had one offer out of 7 lookie lou's and it fell apart.  It felt like too much work with this one.  They wanted a lot for very little.  So back to the drawing board.  And we're completely ok with that.  Even though we'd really like to get the boys enrolled in AZ sooner rather than later it needs to be the right offer.  Anyway, when we move I don't want to work outside the home.  This is gonna make me sound spoiled but...I just don't want to.  I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it and get paid for it.  It's not asking too much, right?

I want to write, blog, review, etc and get paid enough to help support my family.  I've been trying to get my blog up and running and lately I haven't had a lot of time to tweak it to my exact liking.  I also haven't been able to work on getting sponsors, advertisers, etc.  I'm too busy "working" to do what I adore.  Ok, that's not entirely true.  I have days where I have nothing, NOTHING to do so I could totally dedicate time to this.  But, nothing exciting happens here.  I could blog about my job or my friends or my kids but I do have to respect privacy.  That's not entirely true either.  I could blog about those things but sometimes it's just wise to keep my mouth (and blog) shut.  Actually there is another blog I have in mind that is coming up next and it will probably piss some people off.  It gets all judgy and stuff.  Anyway....

I don't want to "work".  I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it and get paid for it.  Not asking much, right?