I'm Cooler Than This.....

About a year ago, corporate decided that the customer services managers should have "offices". Well, in order to do this they had to take the accounting offices away and put up panels. This is a souped up version of a CUBICLE. We fought it for about a month, but ultimately lost in the end. After having a private office for so long the noise level was just unbearable. I am easily annoyed anyway, but the little noises that people make were making me insane. Clicking of keyboards, hearing other people's conversations, rattling of change in pockets, that clicking noise people make with their mouths when "thinking". I couldn't stand it. The only solution I could come up with, was the purchase of a pair of headphones. So, I got myself a little 2G MP3 player. I downloaded the software and began searching song choices, playlists, albums, whatever.... I brought it to work the next day and as soon as I heard something annoying, I put them on. WOW!!! I was in my on little world. I became quite the guru with my new toy. For my daughters 7th birthday, I bought her an IPOD Nano and downloaded all of "her" music onto it. She listened to it all summer, taking it with her where ever we went. Well, when school started back a few weeks ago, I sort of....well....took her IPOD. It was laying on the counter in the kitchen and had been for 2 weeks untouched, so I figured that she wouldn't miss it anyway. The sound on this thing is ssooooo much better than mine. The screen is bigger, it has little pop up things, it can hold pictures, etc... It's COOL!!!
I have now downloaded all of my music on her IPOD and as soon as I get to work in the morning I put my headphones on and go into my own little world of Journey, Rod Stewart, Poison, Pearl Jam, Pink Floyd and most recently.....Rihanna, Jesse McCartney, Flo Rida, Jordin Sparks, and my favorite right now....Kardinal Offishall's "Dangerous". By lunch I feel like a Solid Gold dancer. My co workers concerns of my unstable mental state has now been confirmed. I can actual dance now in my chair while typing. Now I know why Ellen DeGeneres dances before every show...ITS FUN!!!! I love music, it can take you back to places in your mind that have long been filed away or bring you right back up to current time in seconds. Because of my recent discovery of just how cool I am, I began taking a Hip Hop dance class on Thursday nights when Bryleigh is in Gymnastics at the Arts Guild. It is 6 other women that are about my same age that too have recently realized how cool they are, in spite of what our kids say. It is great exercise and OH SO MUCH FUN!!
You might be wondering how I can concentrate on generating financial statements while listening to "...throw your hands in the Ayer, Ayer, Ayer" but it actually helps me concentrate. Maybe I'm just good at multi-tasking, or my job has now become so monotonus that I don't really have to think anymore. The only bad thing about this is that you ocassionally get interupted. If I am really into the song, and have a good flow going, it brings me out of "Ashleyville". Which is not good.
So, if you are like me and need to "get away" from your surroundings, I highly suggest this purchase. You too could find your inner coolness....put on a pair of headphones and dance like no one is watching!!!

Family Tree Project, It's a Learning Experience, NOT A COMPETITION!

As you might notice, one of my top 10 dislikes and or inconveniences are "La La Poo Poo Mothers". First, let me explain exactly what a "LLPPM" is. Unlike myself, they are non working, very wealthy, very pretty, mothers with nothing but time on their hands. They have all the time in the world to do....whatever.... They rear their ugly heads at various times in order to (I believe) make us working mothers feel more horrible and guilty about ourselves than we already do. They are the ones that give birthday parties at 3:30 pm on a Tuesday afternoon because it's more convenient. TO WHO!!!
You always know who the working mothers kids are because they are always catching a ride with the "LLPPM". For instance, my daughters Brownie troop meets every other Tuesday at 3:30 at the Presbyterian Church and of course she always has to ride with the troop leader. When I pick her up, I'm always greeted by the Leader of the "LLPPM" who will remain nameless with a... "You look pretty today, I can't imagine having to get dressed up like that everyday". Is that suppose to be a compliment? Once while picking Bryleigh up from a birthday party, I was approached by one of the "LLPPM" and she asked me if that was my mother that ALWAYS had Bryleigh. GOD!!! I have managed to stay as involved as I possibly can, keeping up pretty well with them. Volunteering as story mom, being cookie manager for the brownie troop, and creating pretty cool Valentine's and Christmas presents. But this past week, I realized that no matter what, I am just not going to be able to keep up. And I realized why. I DON'T CARE!
Word for word this is what the project request was "We would like for you to help your child crate a Family Tree. This will help the students see how families are different. Please allow the students to list parents, siblings (brothers and sisters) as well as their grandparents (mom's and dad's parents only). If they would like to include great-grandparents that is fine also, it is their choice. They may use anything they wish to create this and then share it with the class. As you are going over the family with the child please also help them fill in the blanks for the attached sheet. This will help them tell the story of their family and will help us to compare and contrast the families in the classroom-there are different cultures represented in the classroom and this is a great way to show how they can differ! This is a great learning opportunity for all of us. Thank you for your guidance and support!"
Bryleigh and I began work on this immediately. I let HER go through albums and pick the pictures she wanted. She picked this GREAT one of my mom and dad. My mom had that really really big hair and my dad had one of those really puffy 70's porno mustaches. She picked a picture of granny and grandpa Frazier at their 25th wedding anniversary and one of granny pib and pa at the beach. She also picked out pictures of Roger's family and we attached them to the poster board. We had long conversations about why Papa hill wasn't anywhere on the tree and where her grandpa David was. It was very cool. We ended up putting papa hill as an honorary mention in the right hand corner. Her idea, I thought it was pretty cute. We drew with green marker leaves and then put a big picture of her and Jaxon at the trunk of the tree. I let her write the names of each of the family members and of course her name was in big glitter letters. I thought it looked great. We filled out the attached worksheet and I let her put on there whatever she wanted. It asked questions like "Where does your family like to shop?" Bryleigh..."The Mall". "Where does your family buy clothes"..Bryleigh..."K-mart"..."Why?" Bryleigh..."Because they have good clothes".
So, we get out of the car the next morning to take it into school and she walked with it so proudly through the hall way, and then we turned the corner to her classroom and I could see the embarrassment on her face. There were family trees that looked like something out of the damn Smithsonian. One was an actual Ficus tree with laminated pictures and calligraphy writing on it. One was set up in a tri fold pattern with those frames attached that show pictures in a slide show. There was one trimmed with green fur from a boa, one with a pedestal, and another with actual leaves and bark attached to the poster board. Bryleigh looked at me, then at her poster board and said "Why didn't we do all that". I said "Honey, I promise that you learned more and had more fun than anyone else in your classroom doing this project, we didn't have to put fur, or leaves or spend a ton of money on it to make ours look the best. These people had to put all that extra stuff on it, because their families aren't as great as ours. YOU did yours just like you were suppose to and you should be very proud to show it off." She kind of shrugged her shoulders and took her poster board and propped it up against the base of the Ficus tree. I just winked at her and left.
When I got back to the van I sat there and had a pity party for about 10 minutes until I realized that what I had told her was completely true. I promise no one else had as great a time as we did. And I think it is sad that these mothers took such a wonderful opportunity to spend time with their children and turned it into another "LLPPM" competition. The family trees will be displayed at Open House this coming Tuesday and I am going to brag and brag on Bryleighs in my loudest Bartow voice I can, so everyone can hear me!!!

Proud Potty!!!

Never in my wildest dreams would I picture myself installing a toilet, or toilet parts for that matter. It's amazing what you will do when you realize that it's yours now. Even though you know that many people before you crapped in your crapper, it really didn't make any difference. It's now MY crapper!
In a desperate attempt to stay on my completion schedule, I was forced into fixing the upstairs toilet. After realizing that all the parts in the kit I purchased didn't fit a 1975 toilet, I had to go to the downstairs toilet to "borrow" parts. Now, this is not a bathroom that has been in operation yet, so it's...well.....gross. I think my 7 year old daughter actually gagged a few times while I was borrowing these parts, but it taught her a good lesson. WE CAN DO ANYTHING!!! I am woman hear me roar, or scream, whatever... Well, after a couple of hours, the toilet was fixed and now my master bath is in complete working order!!! YEAH!
However, this opened up a new and quite pressing problem. The toilet that I borrowed the parts from was shot. I have had a brand new toilet, with all the bells and whistles sitting in the garage for about a month now waiting on baby daddy (this is how he is referred to, because I am not likely at this point to take a husband) to install it. Since he was upstairs installing carpet, I thought I would give it a shot. It's really quite easy, the installation I mean. Now the removal of the old toilet is not so easy and is in so many words, NASTY! There was this wax ring do hickey that goes around the base of the toilet that had obviously been there since 1970. It took 6 pairs of rubber gloves and an entire roll of paper towels, but I managed to get it up. Since, I had made myself so familiar with the tank guts from the earlier installation this one went quite smoothly. Plus, it was manufactured after World War II, so everything fit very nicely. Then ta-da a brand new twallet! I stunk and looked like hell, but damn-it I had not one, but 2 fully functional crappers!
I gave myself a pat on the back and nodded up to my dad thanking him for his constant reminder growing up that I "can't depend on anyone but myself". That has always held true.... So, this toilets for you dad, even though I rolled my eyes EVERY TIME you said it, I really was listening.