Let me preface this entire post by saying that some of my very best friends are teachers and I widely respect teacher’s as a whole…but here is what is driving me nuts.

Ok, amongst my various titles as a mother:

Mom
Chef
Maid
Housekeeper
Taxi Cab Driver
Referee
Nurse
Coach
Tutor

I am now expected to basically continue to be a teacher. I have five children. What is the deal with teacher’s sending home assignments for mom and dad to do? Is it not enough that I cook for, clean up after, do laundry for, play with, and spend time with my children? I now have to be more than just an “after school tutor”?

Last year, my youngest daughter Jessica was assigned a Social Studies assignment in second grade that entailed her father and I, running all over the place taking pictures of street signs and traffic signs. It was then to be assembled into a book and I quite honestly cannot remember what we were supposed to do after that. Why? Because we didn’t do it. Why should we send in 50 school supplies off of a list at the start of the year and then proceed to have to print out photos, which hello - ink is not cheap, and neither is film processing for those that still use film cameras! Why must homework assignments involve parents to this extreme?

I have no problem sitting down with my daughters and son and helping them with worksheets, or to understand a math assignment or science report. What I have a problem with, is when I have to do these things that cost me additional money, cost me time away from four other children (yes we could have turned it into a family thing but nobody else thought it was fun either), and constantly takes my time away from things that matter to all of us.

Here is the latest assignment.

Same daughter Jessica who is now in third grade, comes home about a week ago with this package that is called “Science Buddies”. I’m rolling my eyes in expectation of something I’m going to be annoyed at, because as she handed it to me, in a sing songy voice she says “You have homework”. Like hell I do!

Sure enough, once a month we will be Science buddies. Oh yippee! Someone please hold me back because I might start doing back flips I’m just so flippin’ excited. Apparently this is due tomorrow and we ignored it until tonight. So now tonight we get to cut a circle out of a coffee filter and using a black NON permanent marker we get to make a line on it. Then we get to dunk it into a cup of water. Oh the joy. And then we get to make predictions about what is going to happen and fill out this five question lab report. I predict that I’m going to be greatly annoyed before, during and after this project! Think the prediction is right? And just think, I don’t even need an experiment OR lab report to let you all know that!

ETA: Oh! and my coffee maker has a built in filter. So guess what we got to go buy? Yep coffee filters, just so we could use ONE of them. What the heck am I going to do with the other 199? Please don’t say make sun catchers and butterflies. I was a preschool teacher, I’ve made enough of those and my children would not be in the least bit amused. LOL

Now that sounds like a new kind, huh?

I’ve decided that I haven’t been scrapbooking enough things about being a mom. Why does this matter? For no reason other than I think it would be cool to commemorate different aspects of being a mom.

I can write humor pretty well. And I seem to specialize in sarcastic humor. Especially parenting or mommy humor. You know the kind, where you are sitting there, nodding in agreement, like “Oh, I have so been there”. Yeah, that kind.

So I have decided to start doing that in my scrapbooks, and creating an entire album about being a mom and step-mom. I just have to figure out where to start. At first, I thought - well I’ll start with when my son was born, because well - that’s when I became a mom. Except I dreamed of being a mom well before that. Shouldn’t I include my dreams and what I thought would be (so I can basically say “Yeah this is not the life I ordered” LOL)

Anyway, it is in the beginning stages. I have a few lists made out, some pictures I want to take and some pictures I need to find, and I’m going to sit down and get started and work on it a little bit today. I plan to blog/write articles about it over at families.com once I get going a bit further, so watch for that soon.

So what are you all up to today?

LOL That sounds so angry doesn’t it? Well, I meant it that way.

I was wraped up in some stupid high school drama crap where a friend (the same friend I blogged about here) accused someone extremely close to me of doing something to someone close to her. It was a nightmare. And I am very angry, and afraid that I cannot remain friends with her anymore. Too many things she has done.

And she so needed to do this on my birthday? Oh, wait…yes. She has to always have the attention and it always has to be about her. The accusation was something so horrible it was ridiculous. And she had the audacity to say “You’re not mad at me, right?” Are you freakin’ insane? It wasn’t about YOU. It was about the people directly involved in the accusation, I don’t freakin’ care about you right now! UGH!

I hardly slept last night, I talked to a lot of different people to rant and get it all out and get advice and well…it’s over. I have lost a friend because it is what I wanted, and I am actually SO happy about that. Weird, I know. In the same breath, I made a new friend because of the situation (actually I’ve known the gal since high school so the reconnection is feeling great and no, she did not have anything directly to do with it either). Ah, well - That’s enough on that.

I also had my puppy start acting really weird yesterday. He was still eating so I gave him a day of just acting strange. Sleeping a lot more than normal, not really interested in playing. So weird. Anyway, so today he was all out of sorts - slept the whole day, wouldn’t eat, threw up about mid day and I rushed him to our vet. They ahren’t sure what the problem is, except that he was “diagnosed” with Canine Bronchitis (to the laymen - Kennel Cough) when we brought him home, and my vet thinks he is still not feeling good from all of that. So he will probably be out of sorts, but she got him to eat, and we purchased special food to mix with his for a couple of days. Plus, she gave him meds for his CB. It should be interesting to see if that makes him feel a bit better. He’s so damn sweet, and so good, I just want him to be healthy and feeling good.

So, that was my last 24 hours. Isn’t that great?

Did I really sign on for this again?

He’s so darn cute, but boy I forgot how hard it was having a puppy. I’ve been giving advice to a few friends for months to help them with theirs, I get mine and I feel like I’m a new mom with a newborn. Honestly, he’s a pretty good puppy. The very first night he slept through the WHOLE night. That was like 10:30pm to about 7:30am. It was weird, but good. Then the second night, he cried for about an hour off and on, then slept until 5:45am. Not as good as day 1. Then last night was better than night 2. He did cry a few times when I put him in his crate (which is close to my bed) and he fell asleep around 10:45pm. He got back up at 6am. I get up every morning around 5:30 so it actually works out and we hadn’t even tried that on purpose. Funny pup.

Anyway, his birthday was June 4. So I guess he turned 11 weeks old yesterday. He’s so darn tiny. The people we got him from told us we should feed him twice a day 1/3 cup. Yeah. Well. No.

See, there is one thing I know and its dogs/puppies. My mother ran the Newfoundland Rescue group of St. Louis during my childhood. We had dogs ALL the time among our FOUR dogs - one Australian Shepherd and three Newfoundlands (not to mention when I was REALLY young we had three Old English Sheep Dogs) I’m a dog girl. I grew up learning everything there was to know. My childhood vacations were not spent at Disney World and Disney Land like other people’s. Nope. Never even been to either. My childhood vacations were spent at dog shows. Yup. About a dozen a year or so, plus every single local one known to man.

So, Max is FAR to little to eat only twice a day and a whole 1/3 cup at a time. He barely eats 1/4 cup. Usually gets about halfway through it, and then is full and ready to play. So we took him to their vet (which we were told to do) and got him checked out yesterday. Their guy was nice, but I like my vet WAY better. Anyway, he did tell me he thought the people were loony if they told me 1/3 cup 2x’s a day and I could tell he thought I had heard wrong. No. It was written on his paperwork so I showed him. He agreed with me that it should be 1/4 cup three times a day instead and if he started finishing it faster to increase it about a tablespoon at a time/meal.

So, that’s my Max story for the week. I’ll share more next week.

We have rain again today so I’m hoping to get some serious writing done. I am two articles away from my minimum goal this month, so I figure I’m ahead of the game I might as well keep on writing.

See ya in a little bit.

I’ve mentioned before about the conflicts that occur occasionally around here, mostly surrounding the fairness in treatment of certain children in our family.

Last night we made some headway, or progress. The child involved and Mike have been on different pages for a long time, and I sincerely think that last night we really made some progress. There was a situation that occured where they both got their feelings hurt. So I talked to both of them (yeah - the mediator, ugh!) and made a ton of headway with both of them. That’s a really good thing, since before I couldn’t get Mike to respond at all. I have to say though, that lately he has made huge steps in the right direction. Last night was no exception. Persistance, patience and communication prevailed again! YAY!

So things on the homefront are beginning to settle down.

Kids are back in school, so I am getting far more accomplished during the day then I was before. Except we went and got a new puppy. You can see pictures of him on my other blog. He’s adorable, but a lot of work.

I’ll be around much more frequently now that kids are back in school. Talk soon! Leave me a comment to let me know you stopped by, and I’ll come stop by and say hi to you.

Have I completely lost my mind?

Meet Max. Yup. We added to the herd.

He’s a 9 week old Shih Tzu pup.

More on Max soon!

The X’s I mean. Why, oh why must she do this crap all the time? I am such a patient person, and I know that is why I get walked on all the time. I understand life happens, because excuse me, as a full-time mother of five children living in a blender, there is nobody that understands better than I, that life happens. *sigh*

So she calls me Monday night (like 9pm). Yeah…that’s right…ME! (not him). Tells me that Tuesday (her normal night) this week won’t work for her because she is having a tire keep go flat on her car (she has just recently moved more than an hour from our house - so she just comes up for dinner and the library).  So would Wednesday work? Sure, Wednesday is fine I say. Never mind that Brie could have had her other horse back riding lesson TUESDAY night, but it was too late. Never mind that I now had to find a way to entertain five children, rather than just two. It was aggravating, but I am accomodating and I did it with a smile (besides, I hate when they leave, just like to be prepared).

So I get everyone ready and we are waiting at the door watching country music videos on my laptop when the phone rings. hmmm…Mike is at work, one friend is at the pool, another just got home from work and is making dinner for her kiddo’s, my mom doesn’t call in the evenings, so who could possibly be calling my cell phone. Yep, you guessed it. HER.

And guess what? Yes, at 6pm she is telling me that she cannot make it because her tire went flat again on the highway and some stranger fixed it for her and now she has to go back home, so she will see them all on Friday for her weekend. *sigh*

Okay, not usually a problem. Except I was planning on taking my two to a sub shop for dinner, which I nixed cause it costs too much to take them all. So what in the heck do you prepare last minute for dinner? Especially when the entire household but one is on a pasta hiatus!

So we improvised. We are having Chicken Nuggets and Swiss and Bacon Mashed Potatoes. Healthy huh? It just drives me nuts that she has to do this last minute all the time. I would have taken out something frozen if I had known I’d have had the whole bunch. Anyone who knows me knows I don’t mind cooking at all and in fact love it -not so much tonight. *sigh*

Worst part? Mike doesn’t even know yet. Why oh why do I let her get to me? I know it was out of her hands, but still…..

Do you ever feel like you are living in a blender?

I can remember feeling like that before I became part of a blended family, but is sure has gotten stronger since we did this.

Some days are amazingly awesome, other days are okay, and then still they might be few and far between, but there are even the really crappy days. Thankfully, they really don’t happen too often.

The weird part is, that the crappy days we have, seem to be more like an average parents bad days, rather than being directly related to our blended family. Yay for that!

Anyway, life in a blender is full of surprises. You never know whats going to come pouring on you next. And how you handle it, depends on the speed of the blades.