If you don’t get the title reference, well, you’re too young and probably shouldn’t read my blog.


Moving on.


Pretty


Remember last week when I said I was all country – fied now?  Here’s where it all started.  The girls came home from vacation stating that they now loved Josh Turner.  Because he’s hot.  Which makes me cringe.  I do not like to hear my nine year old saying someone is hot.  But I’m guessing I used to call Shaun Cassidy foxy or something, so it’s fitting.


Anyhoo, back to Josh.  They’re right. He’s hot.  And that voice.  Oh Mah Gah.


So I gave Josh the honor of my first video pin.  And I totally wanted to embed that pin here, but you can’t watch the video from my blog.  Huhu.  So I’m gonna cheat and embed the video straight to mah blawg and give you a picture pin of Josh.

My girls have good taste, yes?


Now listen.

Funny

Obviously, I’m dumbing this series down a bit today. But this made me giggle. And I read plenty. So there.  


Yummy

Rolo cookies? Are you kidding me right now? I plan on making these for teachers this year. And blowing some educator minds.




Wise

We should remove the word “normal” from our vocabulary.


What have YOU pinned this week?

It’s true.


I’ve crossed over into full fledged dorkdom.  And I dragged my BFF She with me.  


Since the beginning of the summer, I’ve been telling my mom that my neck hurts.  And that it feels like I’m not sleeping right on it.  


Then one day we were in CVS and saw this. 

And I showed it to my mom and said, THIS!  I need this.  This is how I feel like I’m sleeping.  Wonder if that would work?  And she didn’t offer to buy it for me.  So I didn’t get it.  Of course.


Then a few weeks later I got one of those register coupons from CVS for 40% off my purchase.  So I HAD to get it, right?  


And then I slept on it.  And my neck felt better.  And I kept sleeping on it.  And my neck kept feeling better.  Who knew?


So then She told me her neck was hurting and I made her get one.  Well, I didn’t actually force her to.  But I strongly suggested she get one of these fabulous pillows that will cure your neck forever!  And she did!  And she loved it too!


Then last weekend I tagged along with She and her fam to Louisiana.  And we both took our pillows.  And we were gloriously dorky together.


And I talked about the pillow to everyone who would listen.  Even tried to convince She’s 21 year old niece to get one.  Because you are never too young to take care of your neck, right?  Right?


This is what my life has come to.  I sleep on an orthopedic pillow.  And I talk about it to anyone who will listen.  


Puh – thetic.


But I’ll tell you what.  I slept without that pillow last night.  And today?  Neck.  Hurts.


Might as well face it.  I’m addicted to pillow.  


Robert Palmer would be proud. 

Whew!  What a freaking week.  I woke up this morning, feeling somewhat recovered from the fist week of school.  Let’s hope I survive the second.  If you missed it tucked into my post about organization, I too headed back to school this week.  And when I say headed back, I mean opened up my computer and started a class.  But it’s back to college!  And it’s been a loooooong time!  And I’m scared!  But excited!  So much to say about it, so I’m linking up with Fadra today, to dump my brain.

I went back to school this week.  I have no idea what I’m doing.  Just that I finally got pissed enough that I put my education on hold all those years ago so that “someone” could finish his degree.  And when I say ‘someone’ you know I mean that asshole I was married to, right?And he, in turn, uses that degree to lose jobs and not pay child support.  It’s awesome.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t regret the path I took. (much)  I took years to stay home and raise little humans.  It was totally worth it.  But now it’s time to do something for ME.


Will this degree I get in emarketing help me obtain a job later?  I have no clue.  But it’s something that I’m interested in.  And if something doesn’t hold my interest?  Well, we all know where THAT’S gonna go. Right in the toilet.


I’ve finished my first week.  Two discussions and a quiz.  Which I aced. Boom.


So for now, I’m excited but nervous.  I don’t really see any keggers or late night cram sessions in my future. More like early mornings and coffee.


I do expect there to be tears when math comes along though.  


I hate math. 

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
• Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
• Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
• Link up your post below.
• Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

I’ve decided to take a cue from some awesome ladies Mary Ruth and She and have some regular features on my blog.  In my quest for organization, I’ve found it wold be pretty helpful to have a few prompts every week.


On Tuesdays, I will post my Pretty, Funny, Yummy and Wise, which are my favorite Pinterest pins of the week. And on Fridays, it’ll be What The Friday?  Cause let’s face it, we have more than our share of WTF moments every week.  


First up:  I like country music now.  Well, again.  I go through phases.  I’ve always been a 70′s and 80′s country music sort of gal.  It’s what I was raised on.  But I have not listened to mainstream country in years.  And now for some reason, I do.  It took 2.5 years of living in the country I guess.  Or maybe it’s the heavy crossover that’s going on between pop and country.  Who knows.  But I set one of my presets on my radio.  That’s serious business, right there.


Next, I found this.  

I wonder who Bob is and what he did to piss off Miss V?  Good thing she doesn’t have any money to hire that “chain saw master”.  Pretty sure my kids could use some therapy.


And lastly, in the ongoing “7th Grade Schedule Saga”, we FINALLY got the schedule worked out.  But, she had to drop a Pre Ap class to make that happen.  I tried not to stress TOO much about this and I know it’s super important to have a happy kid. She’s back in choir.  But the reason she couldn’t make it work with all Pre Ap classes is because the ones she needed to get into all had too many kids in them.  And her current classes? All have like 15 kids. Methinks there’s a breakdown somewhere. Maybe the school should take a look at that or something.  


So that’s it.  Our What The Friday?  moments for this week.


What were yours?

Most of my life I have thrived on chaos.  I can usually remember more when my brain is at it’s fullest. But it’s no secret.  I am getting old (er).  It’s a LOT harder to remember where I have to be when.  And not surprisingly, since I have two other humans I am responsible for getting from Point A to Point B.

Whew!  Back to school is kicking my booty! Plus my hand is in a permanent claw now from filling out all of those forms.  Needless to say, I’m not feeling super duper inspired.  So these may not be the BEST pins you’ve ever seen, but I like em.


Pretty


I always get my toes done.  Never my nails.  Ever.  Maybe like once every couple of years or something.  I want to change that.  And I super duper love this new OPI Touring America collection.  Love, love, love.

No denying it.  I’m longing for fall.  With pretty tips and toes.


Funny


It’s possible my tired/busy state has made me delirious.  But both of these made me giggle.


First a little bit of Texas humor for ya.

See, it’s funny cause…..oh, never mind.

Oh, Snuffy.  You were always my favorite.


Yummy

I love to make pizza out of just about anything.  This is pesto, mozzarella and tomatoes on Naan bread.  I bought all the stuff to make these this week.  Can’t wait to try them.


Wise

I actually printed some of these planners out yesterday.  I haven’t written anything on them yet.  But look for more on this tomorrow.  Things will be written on them.  Many, many things.


What did you pin today?

It’s kind of like bringing sexy back, except, you know, not.  It’s more like, I WANT to bring Summer back.  Let’s just say the first day of school was not smooth.


No one wanted to get out of bed.


No one wanted to eat.


No one wanted to get dressed.


No one wanted to fix their hair, put on their make up, brush their teeth.


And when I say no one, I don’t mean me.


Finally, things started moving a bit.  Everyone had clothes on.  Half of the children ate breakfast.  


Half of the children sat in the kitchen and cried because the radio played the damn Butterfly Kisses song.  And ALL of the children have an asshole for a father.  Thanks,  Kidd Kraddick for trying to tug at people’s heart strings this morning.  Maybe you should think about all the kids out there who don’t have dads in their lives.  Ugh.


Finally, first day pics were taken, kids were in the car.


The traffic was the suck, as usual.


One kid out!  No tears!


Now, to get the teary kid to school.  


I have to go in with her, because her schedule is screwed.  


You see, this really mean mom WE decided over the summer that band was not the best elective for Miss M. We already pay for guitar lessons.  She’s taking all Pre AP classes.  WE didn’t know how I could ever afford it plus listen to the freaking clarinet how we could fit it in to her schedule without something else suffering.  So we marched up to the school a few weeks ago and asked to have her schedule changed.  No problem, right? 


Wrong.  


Guess what got left off the schedule?  Choir. Miss M’s very , very, favorite thing in the wide world.  Now I’m feeling bad.  Really, really bad.  Because the one thing in the world that she loves is now missing from her schedule.  And it’s my fault.  Because I selfishly didn’t want her in band.


In my defense, (cause you know I gotta defend myself), I did find out she was only taking band because that’s where all her friends were AND she didn’t want to take P.E.  And she really needs the P.E.  All kids do.  Why they even make it an option not to is beyond me.


So as of this morning, the schedule is still not fixed.  The counselor promises it will be.  And I hope she’s right.  Or I’m gonna be taking Miss M to her office in her p.j.’s every morning and letting her deal with her until it is. I’ll bet she’ll fix it then.


I did manage to get a picture.  


I promise you I do not torture these children.  

As my lovely friend Jana just pointed out, my children hate me.  Obviously.


Please send wine.

We are crazy busy right now.  School is starting on Monday (hallelujah!), and OF COURSE we are going out of town this weekend.  Of course.  Because we couldn’t just sit at home and rest, now could we?


We are headed to Louisiana later today or maybe tomorrow morning, depending on how She  and her gang feel when they get to our house.  We are gonna go party with She’s crazy family and sing some karoke and do some water sliding. And I get to finally go to Nachitoches!  That’s where She grew up and I’ve been wanting to go there forever.  Did you know that’s where they filmed Steel Magnolias?  I’m hoping I can talk She into driving me around a bit.  How bout it, She?  Pretty please?

Okay, I’ve already written more than I want to.  But I need you guys to do me a favor, okay?


Everyone listening? 


Good.


I need you to do me a favor. 


I need you to hop on over and visit the lovely Mary Ruth  and her blog MommaRuthSays.  You should mainly go read her because she is awesome.  But also?  She is featuring ME today.  


Can you believe it?  Someone actually wanted to ask me questions and hear my answers to them.  And then, she actually wanted to publish those answers on her blog.  Unbelievable.  


It’s worth the read just for the answer to question number three where I tell you how I almost decked a bitch once. 


Happy Friday peeps, have a kick ass weekend!

One month.


That’s how long it’s been since the girls have spoken to their father. One. Whole. Month.  No phone calls.  No texts.  No nothing.


I don’t understand.


Two months. 


That’s how long it’s been since he’s seen one of them.  He took Miss V to lunch back in June while Miss M was on her school trip.  He hasn’t seen M since April.  Hasn’t kept them overnight since February.


I don’t understand.


How can he let school start without talking to them?  Doesn’t he want to hear about V’s teacher? Or to know about how we are having a hard time getting M’s schedule situated? (more about that later.)  Doesn’t he want to know about their new school clothes, supplies, haircuts even?  Doesn’t he want to know about his children?


I don’t understand. 


I read two or three posts yesterday from other bloggers about depression and suicide.  I have to admit, it changed my perspective a little on how I feel about him.  I know he’s depressed.  I know he’s hurting.  I wish there was something I could do.  Because honestly, as little as I care about him, I do care about my children.  And this is hurting them.  M’s feelings are turning to anger.  V is sad. I hate it. Hate.


I don’t understand.


At this point, no one really knows if he’s even alive.  He doesn’t answer me, doesn’t answer his family.  I’m struggling at the moment with having one of the kids call him and see if he will return their call.  Because right now we deal with it mainly by just not talking about it.  But I know my children.  Eventually they will ask.  Eventually they will act out.


I don’t understand.


I can forgive.  I have forgiven.  I will continue to forgive.


The understanding is the hard part.

Last week, I couldn’t stop looking at Fall outfits.  This week I’m a bit obsessed with Fall decorations.  Don’t get me wrong, summer has been good to us.  We’ve had a darn good time this summer.  I am NOT ready to get back to the schedules, the homework, the early mornings.  And the lunches, oh the packing of the lunches.


What I AM ready for is the weather.  The pretty leaves.  The decorations.  I love fall decor.  It leads to Christmas decor.  And let’s just say I have a slight obsession with the big guy in the red suit.  Stay tuned.


Pretty


I won’t be able to do this to my porch.  It’s not that pretty. Sigh.  But maybe a version of this loveliness is doable.

And I am definitely creating some version of this.

So cute.


Funny

This cracks me up.  Also?  People who like their own statuses are assholes.


Yummy


I’ve been trying to use my food boards as meal planners lately.  So I’ve been diversifying them a lot.  And let’s be real, I’m not over here making Almond Joy brownie bites every day.


It’s more likely I’m going to make something like this. Delicious.  And low cal.

It’s skinny baked potato soup.  Made with…….cauliflower!  Must try.


Wise


I’m going to print this and hang it on the wall at home.  So I can point to it.  Repeatedly.

Except math.  I can’t explain that.  


Haven’t signed up for Pinterest yet?  You should.  Unless you have stuff to do.  And then, well, you should just do it at the risk of not ever getting another thing done.  


What did you pin today?