My hamper floweth over

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Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but his "trousers" were unzipped, and I was close enough to notice, right in front of him, swelling the sweet sweat with Ginny and Ashli. Thanks Wade!!! Pick a kid, any kid, as a repayment!!

Our Coldplay tickets arrived via UPS yesterday. Hooray! And while we won't be able to smell the sweet aroma flowing from Chris's vented black shirt like Ginny and Ashli on the front row (do you think Ginny will be embarrassed when Ashli flings her maternity panties on stage?) I think our seats are pretty good. Could I BE more excited?

None of us really know what our husbands will be like when we have kids because none of us even know what WE will really be like when we have kids. Before we become parents, we throw around words like NEVER (my kids will never act that way in public, I will never say "because I said so",etc.) and ALWAYS ( I will always feed my children balanced meals, I will always be patient with my children, etc...) completely unaware that our ancestors are somewhere laughing until they pee their pants!

So, I have to feel sorry for the mother of the little girl whose husband I had this conversation with today:

ME: Did you ever find any bad spots where she cut her hair last week? (kid got hold of scissors at naptime...You know the drill)

DAD: No, but I wasn't really looking. You know, I don't really care if she cuts her hair. It actually bothers her mother how much I don't care, but I just feel like it's her hair, and she can do what she wants with it. I mean, I let my wife reprimand her, because I know it was a big deal to her, but I guess it's just not at all to me.

ME: Well, the problem with that is, what about when she decides to cut someone else's hair. I know some of the mothers, like Annaliese's mom, see how long Annalise's hair is? Some of them would care.

DAD: I guess, but if it's just her own hair....

Hey, why not let her tattoo herself at 3? It's her body, isn't it?

It's not just this one conversation that bugs me, it's everyday interactions that pile up. Like the day he got kinda mad at us for not giving her jellybeans when she asked us for some at the end of the day, even though he heard us explain to her that we were saving them for an art project that some of her friends hadn't had a chance to do yet... His response?
"okay honey, I'll make you a deal. If you don't eat a jellybean, I'll split a whole candybar with you when we get home."
I'm sorry, didn't I just make it clear that eating a jellybean wasn't an option?

Everyday, he let's her do puzzles and play with toys for at least 20-30 minutes when it's time to go, even though it is obvious that Ashli and I are trying to clean up the room and leave...

I'm done venting.

Pierce or Max?
whoever guesses correctly the names of the numbered photographs wins a free coffee at the next meeting.

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please feel free to give them comments, they love it!

Just wanted to let you know that I will not rest until this blog hosts a picture of you in the full glory of your high school band uniform....

The other day when I challenged my blog readers (both of you) to a putz off after I set my cordless phone on fire, Ginny gave it her all and dropped her rather expensive cell phone in the camode. Kudos, Ginny! I think that qualifies for at least a tie!

And you were afraid I was going to tell the melted diamonds story....

http://www.hcc.hawaii.edu/~pine/Phil110/waris-dirie.html

I wait a very long time before I consider my children "walkers" for fear of being the mom who tells everyone her kid walked at 9 months when they really took two lunging steps forward once.
But I think I can now officially say he is walking, although he still prefers to crawl a lot for speed. I'll try to get a picture or video up soon, because he is too cute!

While he progresses, I regress, although, not really, because I am a fairly consistent putz. I am always tripping, spilling, falling, that kind of thing, but yesterday I set a new personal putz record by setting my cordless phone ON FIRE while cooking dinner. I dare anyone to top that!

I'll admit it, I am a small town girl who was scared of many "big city" things when we decided to raise our family here. One of those things was the dreaded PUBLIC SCHOOLS!

We sent Jordan to a private Montessori preschool and were sure we would sell all of our organs to keep our children from these huge impersonal institutions full of kindergarteners with mustaches who smoked cigarettes and said horrible curse words that I myself had not heard and hot wired cars for fun. On her 2nd year at the Montessorri school, we returned after summer break to find the school under new management. Not only had they raised their rates, but made it a mandatory 5 day program as well---we had only been sending her 3 days a week.

Shockingly, I found I was quite fond of my kidneys, and started to look into other options. Someone told me Oklahoma City Public schools had a free pre-k program and I should at least go check it out. I was amazed to find a wonderful program with low ratios and normal children! Not a moustache or a cigarette in the bunch! (Although there was a four year old with a "binky" YUCK!)

Anyway, further examination of the school caused further amazement--It was an arts integration school where the students receive 6 hours of instruction in the arts a week, consisting of vocal music, drama, fine art, strings (every child learns to play the violin), rhythm and movement (this year, Jordan has learned ballroom dancing). Not only this, but it is also a core knowledge school, which has a fairly rigorous curriculum in all academic areas of study, and the teachers attend additional training in integrating the arts into academic lessons.

We have since moved into the neighbor that this school is in, and this is our sixth year at the school. Is it perfect? No. Have we had any problems? Yes. Is it fantastic? ABSOLUTELY!

One year the PTA paid for 2 teachers' salaries to avoid having split grade classes. There are many fantastic parents who helped make the school what it is today, who took a leap of faith and had their children be some of the first to attend the restructured school. Since then, more and more parents from the neighborhood are choosing to send their children to public school.

By the way, there are several schools in OKC with equally great programs.

I am NOT anti-private schools. There are a few private schools in OKC that I think are great, and one in particular that I would be torn between if we had the means to send our children there.

WHAT I AM AGAINST: Morons who think that any private school is better than any public school. I have the privilege of working with several of these insensitive oafs who say things to me like "I would love to have another baby, but we couldn't afford to send two to private school, and I would NEVER send my kids to public schools! TO ME, when THEY KNOW I send my kids to public schools! THE KICKER: Their private school sucks! We had 3 teachers whose children attended first grade at this school and could barely make it through a Dr. Suess book by the end of the year, they don't know how to read sheet music in sixth grade, they allowed a child with a severe speech problem to go without help until he was 11 years old, and then he went to the PUBLIC SCHOOLS to get help because they don't offer any!!!! Also, we have had several students transfer to our school from this private school who find they are way behind in math.

One more HUGE gripe: my boss sends her children to this private school, but decided to send her child to a public high school, largely because of financial reasons, even though all of her friends were going to a private high school. They had recently moved to Guthrie which is BARELY a suburb of OKC. So, do they send her to a Guthrie High school? NOOOO! They LIE about their address to send her to an OKC school!

Hope I don't offend anyone, hope I might educate someone!!!!!