99 things

Yes, I'm passing this one along.. live with it.
Speaking of..  I better get cracking on this:

1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightening storm

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitchhiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David  (I'm counting this, there is a statue of this in Delaware park)

41. Sung karaoke 

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkelling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies 

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life 

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club

93. Got a tattoo

94. Had a baby 

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee 

Rules

This weekend was our end of year performance for Erin's Musical Theatre and Jazz dance.  Its a big production overall and the director strives for a professional performance.  This means a backstage crew.  We are the eyes and ears of the director.  So I am the mean mom.   During my time on Stage Left, I pissed of several performers and moms.

We have House rules.  These are not our rules but the building we are in.  We ALL have to follow them.  We have Studio rules.  This goes without saying.

I enforced these rules.  And people got mad.  Really?  Have we reached a point in our society where rules are now optional? You can do what pleases you?  No.  Sorry.  no. I'm not sorry.  You messed up. You didn't do what you were supposed to do. And yes.. we did put ALL of this in the news letter and Performance prep sheets we passed out and emailed to you.  If you didn't read them or listen to us repeat ourselves...you have no right to be upset with me.

I stood my ground and won.  My backstage was well run and all the quick changes went off  without a hitch.  Suck it Dance Moms..  Abby Lee is waiting for you.

I'm not old.

Yes, I am now 37. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to act. And as a matter of fact, I don't look like my age either. Thanks to both Mom and Dad and their Dorian Gray genes, I'm mistaken for a 25 year old. Yes. Awesome. I know. So I'm going to keep doing what I am doing. I don't care.  I like putting my hair in pig tails.

NO WAY!!

Yes.. thats me.. in the middle.  CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??  I did a bit on being the Mean mom and setting rules.   25 reads so far....  I'm going to freak out for a min.  thanks.

my odd bird

I have an odd bird.  She's 9.  And she's my kid.  This leads to some unfortunate issues.  Like making friends.  Its not that she's unfriendly or mean.  She's too smart for her own good.  We've always exposed her to things not in her age range.  When she was 1-2, we exposed her to the Muppet Show and Doctor Who.  Because of this, she now loves Alice Cooper and will scream "DON'T BLINK" when we drive by statues.

We also exposed her to a lot of animal documentaries and science shows (Yes, Mythbusters was a must for us).  So because of this, the questions she asks on field trips and in the classroom will often catch the adults off guard and make the kids look at her funny.   She loves to go to museums.  She loves hands on experiments.  We took a group of her friends to our Science Museum for the CSI exhibit and it really seemed that E was the only one really into it.  She had to help some of the Older girls.  I was shocked and proud at the same time.

This leads us to why she doesn't get along with kids her own age.  I was the same way.  I hung around with adults more than kids.  She does too.  My friends are a lot of geekiness through and through.  From Teachers, to IT folk to you name it.  But this lends it self to a whole set of issues.  Her friends don't get her. My friends do.  The kids poke fun at her because she likes to talk to the teacher.  E gets super frustrated with her peer group when they just don't see it her way or how they just don't know something so basic to her.  Its no one's fault - the kids just haven't been exposed to the same things she has.  Try explaining that to a 9 year old who was determined to make her school project Catapult shoot marshmallows as far as possible so it went through a redesign phase.

My odd bird was asked yesterday why she was wearing "funny clothes".  She was trying on some Medieval based garb for a fundraiser we are doing this weekend.  Our hobby is medieval living history (the SCA).  She loves it.  So when challenged with this question, she answered the same way I do.  The girls who asked it gave her a funny look.  Then I stepped in and repeated what E said and the girls were understanding.  Coming from an adult, it makes sense.  From a 9 year old.. she's off her rocker??

I know I'm not alone in this.  Some of my close friends who have kids are challenged with the same thing.  Kids too smart for their own good.  So I'll keep re-enforcing that 1) Science and Math are cool 2)Always ask questions 3)explore 4)the friends you have now are not the ones you'll have when you are older and 5) Don't Blink.

learning why a huge marble sphere can spin super fast with water flow at the Botanical Gardens

Easy isn't better sometimes

I just read this article from the Mirror.  And I have to say.. it makes sense.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/women-are-fatter-because-they-do-less-housework-846757

We have SOOO many modern conveniences.  Dishwashers, washers and dryers.  Toss stuff in and its done.  Propelled lawn mowers and snow blowers.  Spray and leave cleaning solutions where scrubbing isn't needed.  The desire to make it easier for women and men has left us bigger. On top of the modern home conveniences, we have tons of fast food options to make it easier for us.  It reminds me the passengers in WALL-E.  Always on the go.  

When was the last time you heard that someone did their laundry by hand? or scrubbed their floors once a week or more? Or used a push mower (no gas or electric here kids, just pure muscle power)?  I remember using a push mower at the cemetery and it was hard.  I used one when we first moved in since the lawn mower we had died.  It was hard.  But it felt good.  I often opt to shovel instead of snowblow .. (I hate dealing with her. she only likes Tim and not me).  Its hard!  Especially when the snow is wet and heavy.

I noticed when I was on a cleaning rampage, my spent calories was way up.  Somewhere between 700 and 1000 for the day.  That's a lot!

So think about it.  Modern cleaning conveniences, fast food and a busy schedule = thicker middle and spending extra money to try to get rid of it.

Doing chores the old fashion way (elbow grease) + ditching the fast food = me loosing a few inches.  I know it works.  I did it.

Go ahead..  bring on the arguments that the new vacuum cleaners, washers, dryers and so on are great time savers freeing up time to do other family things.  There is nothing like a good dance while I hang laundry with Erin.  Or a talk with Tim while we do the dishes.  Or the smiles I get when we tell Tim Erin helped cook dinner.  Now granted, I won't give up the lawn mower or snowblower.  Those are Tim's toys.  And no, you can't have my new washing machine and dryer.  Just move a little more, scrub instead of spray n'leave and skip the drive thru.  That's my plan.

HULK Smash!

for those that follow me on facebook, you know we've had issue with a girl down the street.  Erin has been very brave about this whole thing.  And today, some words against me were spoken by said girl and well, Erin had enough.  She ended it and there were tears and more words.

In the end, I ended up at this girls house  to talk to the mom.  She in fact was not told the whole story and I played the message for her.  She was shocked and embarrassed by what her daughter did.

As we talked like moms, I was told the girl has ADHD and ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder).  It made sense. She was clear it wasn't an excuse for what the girl did.  And I believed her.  And it really sounds like this girl has a learning disorder on top of things.  I'm not a clinician... but from everything I have read, its a possibility.  ODD paired with ADHD is hard.  Now that we know it, we can work with that.  But I called a time out for a month.  When school is out, we can re-group and try again.

So now we have to teach Erin how to deal with ODD and ADHD.  This is something that isn't in the Mom Handbook.  There is no chapter on "How to deal with my ODD friends".  I have books on how to deal with "difficult" kids.  They came in handy with Erin when she was little - simple tricks on how to defuse the situation.  But how can a 9 year old be asked to do that?  I told Erin the honest truth about ODD.  She wants to give it a try.  She wants to try again with this girl knowing that the ODD is out in the open and there ways to stop the conflict. She wants to help.  I think I did something right with Erin.

still here

I am still here.  Just off doing other things.  Its crunch time for the kiddo's dance school.  Not to mention exams for school.  So life has taken the front seat.  But its calming down now so I thought I'd get this in while I can.

We took a trip to Rochester to the Strong Museum of Play.  A friend of Tim was part of the Super Hero exhibit so we stopped by to see it.  They had a video game up in that section.. yes.. my loves together playing a video game

There is a full Video game room as well.  We turned the kid on to Gauntlet.  YES!  3 is way better than 2 when you are playing that game.

And of course, she had to ride the Merry Go Round... but she opted to sit with 2 little kids in the round spinny seat.  She wanted to make sure they were ok.  

She  struck up a conversation with kids and made sure she sat by the door.  So they wouldn't fall out.  I must have done something right with this kid.

picture perfect

Wouldn't you love to live here??  Sigh.. planning my next trip already




(I just really like these photos.. the lighting and color was perfect)

notions

I love to sew.  My closet in my dining room proves it.  I have fabric and notions all over the place.  But look at this:



And this




How awesome is that?!  Pardon me while I drool..

I love this Kitchen

SAM_1761
Originally uploaded by melblackrose

This is from the Octogon house located at Genesee Country Museum. Circa late 1800s. The crocks on the floor, the open layout and the tile floor. Love it!

Is it time yet?

I know I have to wait a bit longer to get the garden going.. but I need to behave.  Made a stop at Home Depot today to pick up a plant for a teacher gift.  I know, I know.. Support the local grower.  I will.  But Home Depot was there and I had time while Erin was in Dance.

The herbs and some veggies are out on display.  Lemon Verbana smells soo good.  But what the hell do I use it with?  I want more Rosemary, Basil, Mint and Thyme.. stuff I use all the time.  A tomato plant for Tim and lettuce for Erin.  My strawberries need to be moved into a bigger pot and I'm thinking of blueberries so I can freeze them.  I'd like to plant some carrots in pots so they have room to grow.

And the flowers...  oh I really need to get into my garden. It needs to be weeded and expanded and fenced...  Oh! Maybe corn....  that would be interesting... Corn.

One week to go....

In one week, Erin makes her First Holy Communion.  This is HUGE for her.  Dress, Party, no longer missing out on the whole Mass.  The kids had retreat today then Rehearsal after.  Some 25 kids.. that's a lot.  In fact, each kid has its own WHOLE PEW.  The kids and those family members that can fit in the pew make up more than HALF the church.  That's a lot of kids.  She didn't get selected for May Crowning (boooo) but she was OK with it.

Now on to the taste test of the Host. HAHAHHAHAH!  They were given an unconsecrated host to practice with and she did not like the taste.

So next weekend..  this will be my little girl.

So long hedges!

We have these privacy hedges that border our front yard. For the last few weeks, I have cutting them down to chest height (my chest, not Tim's).  Today, I am pleased to announce IT IS DONE!!  My hands are numb from using the hedge trimmer for the last 2 hrs to finish off the last big section but IT IS DONE!!

I just hope there is no karmic backlash for hacking off a foot or more of the hedges... that would really suck.

And they call it... Puppy love....

I just dropped the kid off at a friend's house (not the nasty one down the street who was extra nice to me today after she apologized for hanging up on me).  They got a new puppy - 8 week old lab boy.  SO STINKING CUTE!!

I got some puppy kisses and snuggles in... my day got better.

There is something to be said when an animal snuggles with you..  especially when its a puppy...

Mother Nature is a fickle bitch

Well.. she is.  I love Mother Nature.  I get 4 wonderful seasons.  But this 80 degree temps in March and 30 degree/snow combo when its almost May has got to stop.  Get your Daily Planner in order woman.  I wear flip flops on day and the next I'm bundled up in my winter coat and boots.  Does that seem normal to you?

It is currently 34 degrees and it was snowing as we waited for the bus.  There is a FREEZE warning issued (because of the crops, no other reason.  If you are home gardener and already planted your garden you are nuts.  This is Buffalo remember..  ).  The temps should be rising this week and settle in around 50-60 or so.. that is NORMAL SPRING WEATHER.

I'm going to go hide under my blanket until this gets straightened out.

Kids Today....

We've entered into the realm of BFFs...  and cat fights.. and phone calls.. and tears.  SHE'S NINE!  When I was nine, I was still playing with my Smurf figures and Barbies.  I had a curfew, I had a bedtime.  I had RULES that I needed to follow or there would be hell to pay.  We all knew it.  That is just how it was.

I am raising my kid the same way.  In before its dark (7:30pm now -  as the sun stays up longer, we adjust it).  Bedtime on school nights in 9pm.  Dinner is at around 5:30pm. If its nice out, get out of the house and go play.  There is no sleeping over on school nights.  If I say its time to go home, that means it is time to go home.  Somehow, I am the only mom in the neighborhood that has set these kinds of basic rules.   Yes.. I am that mom who .. enforces the rules.   Most of the girls the kid hangs out with have no bedtime.  I see one drag her sorry butt to the bus stop every morning.  She's out of school more than she is in.. or she's late. One other girl asked Erin to "beg" me to let her go and play when we got home from Dance.  Homework wasn't done, she needed a shower and it was dark already.  It was PAST CURFEW.  She wanted Erin to BREAK THE RULES.  Not to mention this girl was pissed when she called Erin to come over and Erin was out.  Its like "how dare she go play with someone else".. really?  And when she called, it was at 5:20pm.. on normal days, that's dinner time.  Thursdays its time to leave to for Dance.  Did she not understand that Erin couldn't come out to play?  And she called my cell phone 10 times.  And to boot, she never left a message.  Not one.  Do these kids not know phone etiquette? Leave me a freaking message!!

This drama should be occurring in a few years.  Not now.  I am proud of my kid too.  She refused to break the rules. She knew if she did, there would be consequences.  She voiced her opinion too to this one girl on how she saw the situation and how she was being treated (the 3rd wheel in most cases.  ignored).  Golden Rule Kids.... Treat others as you would want to be treated.  This is something these kids don't do.  Its all about 1)who has the most Monster High Dolls.
2) who has the newest MH doll
3) who can spend the night the most
4) who has a cell phone

As a mom, I look at what is going on and have to make a decision.  Do I butt in? Do I rescue her?  Do I let it play out?   I hope I have armed her with enough common sense to do the right thing.  I need to make sure there is chocolate in the house to help mend some wounds.

Spring as Sprung.. sort of

Spring Flower show Tulips
Originally uploaded by melblackrose

I've been off in real life of late. Work, Ice Dragon, getting ready for first Communion, Confirmation... so the blog took a back seat. There really hasn't been much to blog about anyways.. nothing over the top funny or worthy of going "Hey, did you hear about the time... "

We just got off of spring break at for the kiddo and we made a trip (down the street) to the Botanical Gardens. I love to go there. Especially during the Spring Flower Show. I love the colors and smells.  There were a ton of different flowers this year.




See.. pretty!    But I think this guy is my favorite:




It is a HOSTA BONSAI!!!!!!  I didn't even know they had them!  I need them....   I HAVE TO HAVE IT!!  I do love my hostas..

But today, I sit in the house, buried in my blanket fort because we got a Nor'easter and its cold.. and wet..  and was hailing..  we did have 80 degree weather last week.   I love my blanket.

9th Birthday Salon Party

She's 9 years old. 9!!! Can you believe it? In short, we survived the Salon party and sleepover. I'm still running on very little sleep from the girls midnight chattering and musical sleeping spots. But the Salon visit was a blast. The girls (6 of them) got their hair, nails and eyes done. They all looked beautiful! The salon is actually Continental School of Beauty.. a long standing beauty school who offers Birthday parties! How cool is that! Each of our girls had 1-2 students working on them. We get service, they get lessons. Its a win-win if you ask me.





And here is the cookie Cake I made.. with the Monster High symbol on it.

Enough is enough

My girly girl celebrates her 9th birthday this week. To celebrate, she is having like 8 girls of her choice to join her at the salon school for a makeover and then a slumber party.  Some girls are upset because they were not invited.  I can understand them being upset but that is no reason to get into my kid's face about it and tell her to uninvite someone so they can go.

This whole popularity contest with the girls in her grade is getting out of hand.  There are 15 girls and 2 boys in her class.  So you can imagine the spats and bickering that goes on.  Petty issues get blown out of proportion beyond all belief. I feel sad for her teacher.  And most of the Erin's friends are in the 4th grade.  This makes matters worse.  Even if we give out invites out of school, the girls all talk... "are you going to Erin's party??"... We can not simply please all the girls!!

Lord knows that Erin hasn't been invited to parties.  At first she was hurt then after having to go through the whole thing herself, she totally understands you can't have everyone over.  Space and cost.... 2 factors we can't get over.

The moral of the story..... Suck it up buttercup.  You can't win them all and you won't be invited to every party.