Things that make me smile.

My last post, Things That Piss Me Off was written after having a really bad week. This week hasn't been so bad so I decided I would follow up with a list of things that make me smile.

 1. My kids. They never cease to amaze me and make me really proud. I love watching them in their activities, I love watching them just hang out together, and I love that they have such big hearts. There is nothing I wouldn't do for either of them.

 2. My husband. He is such a great man. He puts up with my crap and loves me unconditionally. We don't always see eye to eye on things and we've had a couple rough patches but in the end, I think we were meant to be together.

 3. My parents. Let me start off by saying, I am an only child. Every move I make in my life is watched like a hawk by my parents and I don't always make the moves they believe I should but regardless, they would do anything for me and love me anyways.

 4. My friends. I've always been told that it's not how many friends you have, it's how many true friends you have. Someone that you could call and they'd be right there for you. Someone who doesn't expect something in return when they do you a favor. Someone that doesn't keep tally of what they've done for vs. what you've done for them. In the past few years I've found my true friends and cleaned house of the other type of friend.

 5. My job. I know, crazy right. Even on the bad days I'm still thankful for my job. I have worked my tail off for 12 years and my boss rewards me all of the time for my hard work and lets me know how much he appreciates the job I'm doing.

 6. When elderly people tell me stories. I love the fact that their eyes light up when they are telling stories of the crazy things they did in the past.

 7. Fun blogs. I've only recently started exploring the blog world and I cannot believe what I was missing. This started with a friend posting a link on FB to the blog, People I Want To Punch In The Throat .  If you haven't checked this blog out, I highly suggest it. After you get done laughing your arse off, check out some of the other blogs I have listed on my page. There are some seriously funny people out there!

 8. Vacations with my family. For the last 5 years we have spent a week down at the Lake of the Ozarks. We have such a great time down there. I've asked the kids if they'd rather go somewhere else but they always say no. The past few years we've been vacationing with the same family that also have 2 kids and they all love being able to bunk together, fish together, ride in the paddle boat or just searching for turtles. We've already got our place booked for our vacation this year and we cannot wait.

 9. My Fridays off. I love when I am able to take my kids to school in the morning and pick them up after school in the afternoon. I love that I can go to the store when most people are at work and not have to dodge people just to get around or wait in a check out line for what seems like an eternity. I love that I can spend time with one of my true friends that also is off and we can do our shopping together or just hang out. I love that I can schedule all of my appointments on a day and not feel guilty about missing work.

 10. My Life. After reviewing this list I can honestly say that I'm a pretty lucky person. I need to look at this list on my bad days to give myself a reminder that it's really not so bad.

Things That Piss Me Off

I am getting less and less tolerant of people it seems as I get older. Lots of things have come up in the past few weeks so I decided to jot some down and get them off my chest.

1. People who drive like they have no where to be and at least 10 mph under the speed limit. It never fails. When I'm running late in the morning or trying to get home to take or drop a kid off at something, it seems like I always encounter the guy/gal that apparently is out for their Sunday drive on the wrong day. Last night I followed someone on my way home from work and they clearly didn't understand that the road they were on was a 55mph zone. They drifted between 40 and 50 for most of the drive and slowed to 35-40 when they came to a curve in the road. Not some sharp oh shit curve, just a nice easy curve in the road. I have to wonder if this type of driver should actually be behind the wheel at all.

2. The overachieving mom that believes her kid should be in every activity out there when the child clearly has no desire to be. Let your kid be a kid for goodness sake. You don't need to relive your childhood through your obviously uninterested child. You are only making him/her miserable.

3. Needy people. I have 2 kids and their activities/plans take priority over your life. That's just the way it is. Please don't act like a 2 year old when you don't get your way. Please don't tell me you feel left out because I've been running my kids around for the last 2 weeks and haven't "made time for you". I have many other friends who understand this concept and don't whine about it. P.S. Maybe the reason you haven't seen me is because I'm tired of your needy shit so when I do have time, you aren't the one I'm going to call.

4. People who think people owe them something. My hubby and I do many things for people and never once have we expected anything in return. We live in a small town and that is just how it is. However, there are a few people in the town that don't understand that and feel like others owe them for nice things they have done for them. To me that's completely tacky and to tell other people how much you've done for someone else just makes you an attention seeking idiot searching for a pat on the back.

5. Kids on FB that post totally inappropriate things. Don't these kids realize that their future employers will see this garbage? Don't they realize they might not even get a job because of their disgusting posts on FB? And the absolute worst posts are when they take a picture of themselves in the mirror with the "hooker" lips. What is with that?

6. People that pull up to fast food drive ups with 5 people in their vehicle and they need each order rang up separate. Can these people really not get the bill and figure it out when they get back to wherever they are eating the food?

7. Telemarketers. Enough said.

8. Political Ads - Why do candidates spend tons of money only to bash another candidate. Do people really get swayed by a 30 second ad that rips another person apart? Most people I know just get a lower opinion of any candidate that resorts to this garbage. Instead, I suggest to all politicians running for office to make one, 2 minute ad telling everyone what you plan to do if elected and leave any other candidate out of it. Take the money you save on the multiple slander ads and donate it to a worthy cause.

9. People who constantly have to one up you. For example, during a casual conversation with another mom I mentioned that I was just wiped out because we'd had a really busy week running around. No sooner did I finish the sentence did she say, "You think your week was busy, listen to my last 3 weeks." Then she proceeded to go into detail about every stop her minivan had made in the last three weeks. Like I gave a shit.

10. People who take their children to the doctor for every little sniffle. If my child is running a low grade fever or have a stomach ache, they stay home from school, I give them chicken soup and make them rest all day. I can count on one hand how many times I've ran either of my kids directly to the doctor because they were sick. However, I hear many moms that say that as soon as they get the call from the school they rush their kid(s) to the doctor so they can get them on antibiotics right away so they can say they are antibiotics and send them back to school the next day. It seems like doctors are handing out antibiotics like candy anymore.

Valentine's Day

Ah Valentine's Day. A day that lovers proclaim their love for one another. The day that card companies salivate for. The day that flower shops and jewelry stores live for. I, on the other hand, am already ready for it to be done.

Last night I stopped by the local store to pick up cards and small gifts for the kids and the hubby. The place was packed full of others who, like me, decided to wait until the last minute. I saw all of the Valentine's "stuff" out during my other 5 trips to the store in the last 2 weeks but just kept thinking I didn't want to get anything too early. Dumb me. There I was, lost in a sea of people coming and going all around me. I am not a crowd person whatsoever. I quickly found the less busy section of the store and picked out all of my cards and got the heck out of there. I was going to hit the candy in that aisle but thought to myself, why would I pay more money for it to be in a pretty red box (special packaging for the day) when the kids don't care what it's in as long as they get it, so off to the check out I went to see what they had sitting up there. Yes, it's my lazy way out. I was surprised with the selections they had in the check out line and pleased that I could snag a couple packages and get out of the madness.

When I got home it was time to help my son with his gift for his special friend. I call her his special friend because I think he's way too young to have any sort of girlfriend at this point. He's 11, almost 12. I know, I know, other boys in his class have "girlfriends" but really, what do they do to make them their girlfriend except spend money on them each holiday? They are too young to go anywhere, they don't meet up after school to talk or have a pop together so what's with the girlfriend title? Ok, so maybe it's just me not wanting my youngest to grow up yet. Yeah, that's probably it.

So, my mom owns a bakery and thankfully she helped me out by making a huge heart shaped cookie for him to give to his special friend and also made me 30 cookies for my daughter to take for her Valentine's Party. She also sent down some of her decorating tools she uses at home and a tub full of frosting. Yeah, I know, she is the hero on any of the kids' parties that involve baked goods. We are complete opposites when it comes to the kitchen. She can bake circles around me and I can cook circles around her. When I met my hubby and his family around 16 years ago, I had no idea there was chili that didn't come out of a can, had no idea what potato salad was, and salmon was the stuff that came out of a can that had crushed crackers and eggs in it. I am proud to say that throughout the last 14 years I've expanded my palette and knowledge of food and the hubby says I'm a great cook. Well, when I have time to be.

Back to the cookies. We proceeded to get my son's cookie done for his special friend, then on to my daughter's cookies. At this point I'm looking at the frosting, the 7 bottles of cookies decorations and the huge Tupperware container full of cookies and thinking, "I signed up for this why?" and thinking that while the hubby is contently laying on the couch with a stomach full from supper. After about 18 cookies, he finally decided to help us out which made things go so much faster. What a guy! After finishing them we dove into the Valentine store bought cards that she had for each of her classmates. Who makes these things? I didn't realize when I'd picked out the ICarly cards that they were covered in glitter and that apparently it's all supposed to fall off before you actually give them to anyone. Now not only was the table covered in little tiny glitter, the rest of us were too. Including my 11 year old that is horrified it will stick to him forever! I asked my daughter where her class list was. She said they didn't get a list of students names this year. I'm thinking to myself, are you kidding me? How am I or my daughter (a 2nd grader) supposed to remember the names of 26 kids? Fortunately, the conference schedule was handed out this week so at least we had last names to go off of. Then I found out that there are only 18 kids on the conference list and I know there are 27 total in the class. Did the other 9 kids not have conferences? My daughter then informs me that some people in her class go to another teacher for part of the day so they have conferences with that teacher. Perfect, we'll just go through that conference list as well. Not that easy. Some of the kids that go to the other class are from the other 2nd grade class (confused yet, I know I was). There are 3, 2nd grade classes in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. The kids from the 3rd, 2nd grade class go back to the other 2 classes in the afternoon. Anyway, none of this helped us figure out who the missing child was that we hadn't made a Valentine for so I sent a blank one with her and emailed her teacher this morning to give her a heads up about what happened. At that point I didn't know what else to do. We finally got done about a half hour before the kids' bedtime and I was ready to unwind for the day.

This morning, I got the kids up and they gave their Valentine cards to their dad and I left mine for him on the table next to them. He thanked both of them and me and whispered in my ear...you'll get yours tonight. Translation: I forgot to get you anything from me or the kids so I'll scramble today to figure something out.

We all went about our morning ritual of getting ready, grabbing breakfast and just as we are about out the door my daughter does one of those, "oh no's". I ask her what she forgot and she proceeds to tell me that she was supposed to bring a decorated box for her Valentines to go into. Stupid me assumed they'd made them in class because we were supposed to send them to school with a shoe box about a week ago. Guess it wasn't for that. So, as I'm searching around for an empty shoe box, my son yells to me from the living room, "got one mom." What a kid! I dug into my stash of tissue paper, bows, and gift decorations and couldn't believe I found pink and silver tissue paper and a pink and white (store bought) curly bow. Lucked out on this one. I took the supplies to the table and we all started working on the box. It really didn't turn out too bad but as I looked at the clock, I realized I've got 10 minutes to make it to work which is 25 minutes away. Crap! Oh well, it is what it is. My daughter was happy when we left, my son couldn't wait to get to school to give his special friend her gift and my hubby...well, I'm sure his day will suck as he's scrambling around last minute to try to cover his tracks and get me at least a card. Poor hubby...yeah, right.