Just Another Day With Me

"Let it Stop, I Just Wanna Live My Life!"

"Let it stop, I just wanna live my life"-- this was shouted out in the agony that was my 11 year old son's middle of the night stomach virus.   Went shopping with Miss Gracie and returned home,  quite late.  Had intentions of waking up this morning, going to the bank and doing grocery shopping (a lot of times the intended grocery shop doesn't happen when I take a 13 year old to the mall).   But we have a good time anyways even if everything doesn't get done.  

My stomach feels fine, but I crawled into bed around 1am and slept pretty heavy.... and at four I hear... "MOM" and the agonizing heaving of a child throwing up....now this child is 11 years old 5 ft. 4 inches and weighs 115 pounds (more than I did when I was a senior) the voice is deepening....the face is pimply, the girls are on his mind.... Oh yeah, but when he has a stomach bug he is the most pitiful creature ON THIS EARTH.  He was crying out - lying on the bathroom floor....  screaming " Let it STOP, I just wanna live my life."  I was, trying not to laugh out loud.... because of the drama, but I thought what a suiting quote, thats how I've felt for quite a while now.... just let me live my life.   So,  he ended up in bed with me....  with the cartoons on (I refused to put Alien vs. Predator in the DVD).  He finally fell into a restless sleep.  He is misery when he's feeling sick.  Oh, man...  the towels I have to wash today.   He feels better now.  I slept until noon.   We almost went to the ER he had me convinced he was dying but I figured it was just queasy and not pain, pain....  He just had pizza so I hope he's gonna survive without being ill.  

OK so my Facebook addiction may not "stop"  but I'm not going to get on there as much and I created me a family/inlaw/relative free page..where I can post comfortably. Where just the people I actually TALK to are my page.  I hope it is inaccessable for the creepers (ha ha ha ha...note earlier posting). Where if I want to vent I can.  :-D 

Oh the puppy turned up :-D Relief.   I feel better today, nothing like filling the "gap"  ha, or a little much needed retail therapy.   So, I have some hot jeans...  which were on sale and super cute.  I'll never really wear fours I think but 28 inch waist is only 4 inches off what I was when I was a teen.   So I guess I won't complain or hope for smaller.   Plus I tried on skinny jeans and I can't wear them, because the size I need is too small for my calves, glad they didn't fit, because I thought they were great jeans-SUPER CUTE-... but the price tag would give someone a heart attack!   May follow with pics of the great jeans and the "To Write Love on Her Arms"  shirt, really like it hope it doesn't shrink, ha.   

Christmas Vacation

Do you ever have a night where you take three hundred pictures and you only have one decent one.  That seems to be my luck with Christmas programs.  A camera that is called Rebel, Rebels in much the same way that my little pink point and click does at Christmas programs.  They did have pretty lights strungalong the bleachers which I got a few good shots of (see above).  

I am relieved it is Christmas vacation time. I need the time off.  I'm so glad that I'm finished with a half a year of work! 

Sad, hearing of companies laying people off right now.  Apparently one school district nearby is about to close and the other neighboring district is laying off 15 teachers and telling them no more substitutes and its just crazy.  With the Stimulus package which gave schools a ton of money for special education to create short term jobs, has not seemed to have worked out?  Interesting that schools are beginning to feel the burn of the economic meltdown.   And yet, the recession was miraculously declared "over."  Well, it is stressful.  

Tomorrow is the big Christmas shopping day.  I'm half excited, half dreading it.  Its such a crowded time of year to go, but I seem to be at the store constantly!! 

Shopping Anyone?

I've been busy the last couple of nights.  Last night we had a very nice family night going to visit the Festival of Lights and looking at the beautiful light displays.  I will write a separate blog, well,  not write, but I'll create a posting of some of the good shots from the festival.  I finally got to play with custom camera adjustments on the Canon Rebel and learned that the ISO feature is handy.  This evening I had to take my daughter shopping to get a dress for the Winter Ball, since when did my hick cowboy school go formal on the holidays?   Well, it wasn't that way when I was in High School, it was Garth Brooks, Rocky Mountain Jeans and the sounds of Brooks and Dunn's Neon Moon filling the air.  

We went to the mall, ate a slice of pizza, then continued to Forever 21; a store both my daughter and I enjoy.  I love the 80s and 90s themed retro clothes (is the 90s retro?)-  but tonight, I viewed the selections and my hopes for the future of fashion fell in great disappointment.  I picked up a very cute shirt, and then I felt the shoulders and realized that they had SHOULDER PADS.   Yes, SHOULDER PADS.  Now, I don't know about any of you children of the 80s and 90s remember taking those shoulder pads out with a pair of scissors?  But, I do, I hated them.  It is one area of style that makes no sense to me.  Why would I want to have manly, football player shoulders?  OH THE HUMANITY.  Please, no more.   So,  after 45 minutes in the fitting room my darling says "I'd really like a dress Mom"- so we head on to another retailer and found one right away.  After that sour experience at Forever 21 (and by the way when I was 21 the thought of wearing shoulder pads would make me shudder).  When was I 21?  I was 21 in 1998.   When I was 21 I was a mother of two and married for three years!  Isn't that crazy?   I don't think I want to be Forever 21 afterall because I would be eternally changing diapers, when I was 21 I had two in diapers and was working on my History degree. 

In protest of Forever 21 and the hideous shoulder pads we stopped by The Gap to cleanse my mind of clothing past (that was donated to Goodwill or trashed).  The Gap actually had some very cute clothes.  Basics, you can't go wrong with basics that do not have shoulder pads.   After that we headed over to ULTA, where I learned that shopping with a 13 year old is a lot like Christmas shopping with a two year old.  When my baby girl was two we could go shopping and buy her presents while she was along with us, as she blindly pointed and begged while continually being distracted by other pretty things.  Well, a 13 year old is continually distracted by pretty shiny cosmetics, while telling me what she liked.  While she played I slyly picked out what she liked and checked out (I did find me a nice Urban Decay eyeliner).   Then we headed to Barnes and Noble, where I did not buy any books!  I did buy a Mountain Dew at Starbucks, because I hate coffee.     

It was a fun night with my daughter, I can't say I was really in the mood to go after working all day.  The temperature change was drastic.  It was in the 60s yesterday and in the low 20s this evening. Brrrrrr..gotta love our weather.  I still need to do more Christmas shopping but, I know next week will be the time to really finish up. Paying bills is something that must be done tomorrow.  This may be the Christmas of Gift Cards.  

The Joys of Shopping

We're all consumers right?  We are Americans after all right?   So, as I sit here while my eight year old works on writing his homework out I am online window shopping and would like to promote my favorite retail therapy outlets.   Now, I'm trying to spend less, being a very good American consumer.  Well, I guess I'm not a very good consumer, I dont' believe in credit cards (they are evil and that is why this country is bankrupt).  But, I DO love a good trip to the mall.  I didn't even go to town this weekend though.  So, I stayed home, can't say I was excessively "Suzie Homemaker" but I am working on laundry.  And thanks to my consumerism, I found a couple of shirts in the laundry that I've only worn once. 

OK, well I love makeup, cosmetics,  a miracle in a jar.  Now, I hate to tell you Avon Ladies and those of you working in the "Cult of Mary Kay" - omg, I could have a whole post dedicated to the Mary Kay ladies, I once went to a MK meeting held in a (I kid you not) pink barn,  filled with "Oh Hail Mary Kay" sugary sweet over aqua-netted middle aged women.  No, I escaped the hell that is the pushers of the pink Cadillacs quickly.   I would like to point out that there IS some truth in the "You get what you pay for," mantra.   The drugstore makeup just doesn't cut it, on my super oily skin (I swear I have the skin of an eternal  15 year old).   Now, when I started using M.A.C Cosmetics, I was, floored with the results.  My war paint lasted all day long.   And the more I learned about quality cosmetics and techniques for applications, the longer it lasted.  Guess what, girls you can learn to do a pro-job yourself, without paying some makeup artist (although that is a career that would be great fun) I'd love to do wedding makeup and charge an outrageous amount for something that is so simple.   maccosmetics.com.   I became a M.A.C girl, then proceeded to Sephora (wow, I never heard of Sephora, before a few of my bad influences introduced me to this "gold mine")  Sephora.   So, if the Mary Kay company sues me for badmouthing their crazies, I want to make sure M.A.C sends me a good lawyer. 

Clothing.... you know, ladies, when you pick up those fashion magazines, there is a reason there is "Fashion Week"  - and that is for the very rich to buy clothing to look very rediculous.   Now, there is also a reason there are websites such as People of Walmart, haute coture really isn't meant to be worn for real; well the Walmart  fashion, is not Haute, or Hot... or should be worn out of the house.  Now, fashion sets trends and I see a need for a magazine like Vogue; but, seriously, come on.  I've been to concerts in Dallas where people who have too much money and too few brains try to dress like they came from Vogue and end up looking rediculous in a setting with us mortals.   Now, don't be a Walmart Peoples either, lets go for classy.   OK, so my fashion advice (and seriously don't take me too seriously- I'm a huge fan of wife beaters and Daisy Dukes in the Summer) side note: it is 110 in Oklahoma in the Summer, and I fit right in.  So, I would point you in the direction of my favorite store; Banana Republic, first of all, with my tactile sensitivities, I love their super soft shirts.  They are expensive, but they sell the BASICS.  Which is what never looks bad, unless they fit poorly.  No print shirts, nice slacks... Classy.   It never seems to be crowded, perhaps because it is a bit over priced. But unlike Dillards and Macy's I don't get sensory overload in this store (perhaps I should relabel this post "Shopping for Borderline Autistics" -  Now Autism advocates don't bash me, because I'm quite sure I'm on the spectrum...  I qualify according to the DSMIV- esp with the eye contact issues.. 

OK this is my consumerism blog.  I do love shopping, because I love shiny, pretty things, that make me feel pretty.  I guess though, given adequate funding, I enjoy shopping at yard sales and Good Will, so I'm not that picky.  So, go spend money Americans, before you are spending it all on Health Care.