A letter from the editor

For those of you who followed this post and this post, this email is the follow-up I had been waiting for. And unless I run across any other intolerant asswipes, this will be the last post on this subject for now.

Here's the email from the "leader" of the home school group:

Dear Robin, I see that you have unsubscribed from ****. I just wanted to take the time to let you know that I really enjoyed seeing you at the park. Also, thank you so much for helping with the Presidential Challenge. I am sorry if **** didn't meet your expectations. Please feel free to provide any feedback to me so that we can improve things for others. This past year had been a crazy year for me. However, my heart is still tugged toward helping people with their home school journey. Also, I truly hope that you were treated kindly. Again, please let me know if you weren't. Your feedback could help for the future. Thank you. :) Have a wonderful day and be blessed!

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Hi *******, The boys and I enjoyed **** very much. Unfortunately, it was an email that made this decision very easy for me. It was from ***** and was in regards to your email about the free products from McDonalds. I realize this is a Christian home school group and that some folks are going to be more conservative in their views than others. However, I was under the impression that this group was also inclusive. While her comment did not directly impact me or my relationships, I prefer to shelter my boys from that kind of thinking for as long as possible. And really, who knows if what she said caused any of the other members personal grief. I thought it was totally ignorant on her part and I feel a general message to the group on your part regarding this should have been made. Something about tolerance for others, etc etc. So thank you for putting together what I think is a terrific opportunity for home schoolers in our area. It just wasn't a terrific fit for our family. Sincerely, Me

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

And then she wrote back:

Dear Robin,

Thanks for the feedback.

I will probably send a gentle message to ***** personally.

The intent of **** is to glorify God in all we do while (this is where I zone out) blah blah blah.

Again, thanks for the feedback.

Blah blah blah

Have a wonderful day and be blessed!

******

P.S. I understand what you mean about tolerance for others. My own personal belief is that Jesus loves everyone. In fact, he made friends with the lepers, etc. Therefore, I think that I am to take His example and love all. I don't have to love their ways, but I can love them in order to hopefully shine the love of Jesus. Just my own opinion though. :)

Ummm. Alrighty then. On with life now.

~R

Round Robin - Tiny Things

Well this week's subject is something near and dear to me. I love tiny things. I've already shown you my shoes. Here's a sampling in case you missed the first time around. This display box is only about 9"x9".

And then for Mother's Day '08 I received this. BN found it in San Francisco and managed to get it home safely.

You may not find this as amusing as I do, but this little kid size frosty cup from Wendy's is about the cutiest thing ever. I used the tape measure for reference because that side of the tape measure is only 3 inches high.

And my MIL is so fantastic. She found these little shadow boxes that had doll-like stuff in them and she stripped them out and made them look old and created mini "aquariums" in them. That's a 12" ruler on top, not part of the frame.

Check out all the other tiny things by clicking here.

~R

Calling All Gardeners

You may remember this picture of Beaver's (aka Robinella's) home from a past Fun Monday.

Last weekend I decided to stop the talking and start the walking by pulling the shrubbery out of our front flower beds. BN and I really dislike those bushes and they dominated the beds. So, first BN used his chainsaw.

Work it baby!

And then because these shrubs have been growing for 14 years and their roots go deep, I got the bright idea to pull them out instead of digging them out.

Just after I took this shot, the stubby branches started to break and then the tie-down thingie went flying past the far side of BN's beloved vehicle. Not one of my better ideas, apparently. So then we had to dig all six of them out and it took about 4 hours. My buns and thighs were thanking me for that.

And now it looks like this.

Look how bare she is. I have no idea what to do next. I'll probably take this photo and the dimensions to our local garden shop and see what they can draft up.

Dimensions:

• Left side - 16 feet wide by 7 feet deep
• Right side - 16 feet wide by 10 feet deep

Requirements:

• No bushes
• I have to be able to see under any plantings
• Low maintenance
• Drought tolerant (I forget to water)
• Full sun from sun-up until about 4 pm.

Any ideas?

~R

We Fell Off the Wagon

...or is it that we are on the wagon. Wasn't there a Seinfeld episode about that. Anyway, I think it's fell OFF.

The Dish man just left. Unfortunately, I don't mean dishpanman. We couldn't live without 4000 channels on our tv any longer. It's so funny that we don't watch a lot of tv but we need the option. My kids are watching Ironman on Teen Disney with BN right now and I've got HGTV rolling in the background while I type. (Personally, I would have picked house #2, but that's just me.)

Now I need to find new motivation for going to the gym. I used to go to the gym and workout just so I could get my HGTV fix. Now I've got it at home 24-7.

Wait a minute. What's that annoying roll of skin above my hips? Oh yes, I remember why I need to go to the gym.

Recouping and Regrouping

It's been a long week!

• We drove back from Florida last Friday.
• I thought I was going to have to get into a fist fight at the playground on Monday because I overheard another mom say she would "whip him herself if he hit her son." She was referring to RePete hitting her son. I hope he gets over this behavior soon. So now I avoid the playground to avoid fist fights...mine!
• We were informed of Fraud on Wednesday and had to close our checking accounts.
• Saturday, I got the bright idea to remove all the bushes in front of our house and a huge thorny weird tree concoction beside our house. My muscles are aching, I have blisters on my hands and scratches from those 3 inch thorns.
• We found a dead male Cardinal beside our swingset which I promptly buried and something promptly dug it up. What do you do with dead birds anyway? He was beautiful and I cried.
• Oh, and now the laundry is piled up again.

Where does my time go?

~R

Math Whiz

I like to head over to this blog when I need to pump up my brain. Tonight I read her post on Lightening Fast Math Tricks and had to share.

Beware: You too may sit with your mouth gaping as you watch. Here's their site.

The bad photo years

Okay, so I am going through all the photos I took during our vacation. I'm planning to print the photos that are most representative of our time and scrapbook them.

However comma Pete has entered the goofy photo stage. My nephew did it around this age and still does come to think of it and now Pete has started. Why oh why do they have to get goofy? Or more importantly, why oh why do they have to mess up every photo taken.

Pete has three main poses. Allow me to demonstrate.

There's this one...

And this one...

And finally this...

I totally plan to show all my scrapbooks to the future ladies in his life. That is if he ever gets over this.

~R

I tried, I really tried.

On Wednesday, the homeschool group I mentioned here, is meeting for PE and handing out the Presidential Physical Fitness Certificates. Pete is dying to go and that is only because they will have cake! His award is meaningless to him - it's all about the sweets.

I had conceded to go to this one last PE so he could get a bellyful but today changed that.

I was talking to a fellow homeschooler, friend and member of this group. I asked if she saw the emails that went out about McD supporting homosexuals and she had. I mentioned that I would be leaving the group due to that and she said, "well, it is a Christian group." Very matter of factly. As if that made it alright. (K - I don't know if you still read my blog but if you do, I don't bring this up to slight you, but instead to bring light to my concerns.)

I've been thinking about the comments I received on that post. I thought long and hard about what Pamela had to say and though we have never met IRL, I believe her to be a person of much wisdom. She said, "here is your opportunity to be tolerant of people who think differently than you do". I thought about that and I thought about that and I just couldn't bring myself to return to the group. And then today, it struck me that I would definitely not be returning.

I realize that all Christians are not homophobic. I realize that all Christians are not intolerant of those who have a different belief system. But I plan to shelter my children from these venomous tongues for as long as possible while still discussing these issues with my children - on my terms.

It's bad enough we've had to explain, "you're so gay" to Pete. He learned that from a neighbor kid. Unfortunately, he didn't buy my definition of "happy". :-)

~R

Blue Dyes

One of the things we do to ensure happy healthy children, well healthy at least, is to limit dyes in their foods. Actually, we just don't do dyes at all. Until vacation rolled around.

While at Universal Studios, Pete and BN rode Twister (awesome, btw) and RePete and I looked around. What caught his eyes was a huge container of blue frozen stuff. I decided, what the heck, poor guy has been riding around in the stroller since these rides are too big for him and he needs a little fun. So I bought him one. He was tickled pink (or blue in this case).

He slurped and slurped ... and slurped. Then he looked at me with the biggest grin baring all his teeth. I immediately belly laughed and pulled out the camera.

Let me just say it looks the same going out as it did going in. His butt was stained blue for two days. Nasty stuff. Just another reason to avoid dyes.

~R

Round Robin -Wood

This time around we had to find pictures of "wood". Since I spent this last week on vacation I took my pictures in Florida at amusement parks - when I remembered! I didn't carry the zoom lens - way too much to fuss with. No wooden pics taken at Adventure Island in Tampa.

Busch Gardens, Tampa FL

In the Kiddie area:

Gnarly Palm near the entrance:

Fence at the Safari Train:

I don't do roller coasters, especially rickety wooden ones:

SeaWorld, Orlando, FL

A gift from Shamu:

A perfect ending to a perfect day:

Universal/Isle of Adventure, Orlando, FL

Old radio in a cityscape window:

Here's one that isn't wood, but had to show:

Loved it. Go check out the others at Round Robin.

~R

Lesbians and Gays

Or "Why I can't hang with Christian Home School groups"

I joined a homeschool group this past year because they have PE every Wednesday at the local park and great field trips each month. I knew they were a Christian group, but they claim that all are welcome. I've explained my beliefs before. I don't have a problem with the prayer before our warm-up. I don't have a problem with all the prayer requests or Blessings received via email.

I do have problem with things like this. The first text is what came down the horn on Friday. Our group leader believes in the all-inclusiveness of her group and passes on all kinds of info when she sees it.

Fast food chain McDonald's Inc. says it's giving out millions of free
samples of its two new chicken menu items.
On May 15th, the restaurant chain will give customers samples of its
"Southern style" chicken biscuits and sandwiches.
Customers can get the free lunch and breakfast items when they buy any
medium or large drink at the company's 14,000 U.S. restaurants.
The promotion's part of McDonald's efforts to convince customers to
Try their expanded chicken menu.
McDonald's says it expects to give away 8 million breakfast and lunch
sandwiches during the day long event.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press.

And then one of the other more conservative members passed on this tidbit.

Just to keep you informed for those of us who care not to put our money into the supporting the homesexual agenda. McDonald's is now supporting openly the gay movement. Just thought you want to know where your moneys going when you support McDonald's now. Here are three websites, check it out for yourself.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=60168
http://culturecampaign.blogspot.com/2008/04/mcdonalds-endorses-homosexuality.html
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=74691

See what I mean?
~R

PS If you plan to attend AFF's gay cyber wedding, then you should definitely eat at McD's on the 15th. I'm just sayin'.

PSS Oh and I'm not really here, but saw this email just prior to leaving for my trip and had to share. All responses welcome and I will read them when I return.

STOP!!! Don't change anything yet!

I am a do-er. When I make my mind up, I just do it. Sometimes I am a bit rash and don't think things through all the way. Like with this blog. I seem to be getting worse the older I get.

***************************

I really love that I can change so much with Blogger BUT I really found Wordpress easier to use.

Blogger Pros

• can personalize templates without paying
• uh..

Blogger Cons

• not enough allowance on image sizes.
• can only see a tiny page as you are typing the post.
• inability to have add'l pages ie home, about, etc
• dashboard kinda sucks.
• not able to see all new comments without looking at each posting.

Wordpress Pros

• very friendly for posting
• able to increase size of posting page
• allowance for add'l pages
• can import large files and images
• lots of different widgets (sidebar thingies) to use
• dashboard rocks, even though they changed it w/o my permission.

Wordpress Cons

• not easily modified without forking over mula
• not sure how to use all the widgets
• uh...

If seems that Wordpress wasn't so bad after all. What should I do? I think I am going back to Wordpress. I won't be posting for a few days until I have figured it all out.

Anybody else this fickle?

~R

Don't call - On Vacation and a Pete-ism

Friday I asked the boys to be extra good because I really needed to clean the house and start packing and Pete said they would be good and then:

Pete: But we can only be good every other day.
Me: Why not every day?
Pete: (sounding all exasperated) That's just too much pressure!

Here's an example of their "goodness".

******************************************

Pogo has generously offered to entertain my kids today for four hours so I can get last minute things done or just plain sit on my ass, whichever I fancy. I'll probably run a few errands and then head back over and veg at her house. We don't get to see each other as much these days and I refuse to miss out on spending time with her.

After Pogo's, the boys and I will have a little dinner, ride the scooters, build a skate park for their Techdecks where I'll show them how to do fakies, ollies and grinds (um, right) and then go to bed early. BN won't be home until about midnight and we are leaving at 5am on Sunday.

Yah, Happy Mother's Day to me. 12 hours in the car.

Actually it should work out great. You know how these new-fangled cars are these days. All the gadgetry. We've got videos to watch and Gamecube to play and the old standbys of books to read and pictures to draw. 400 bathroom stops. Loads of things to occupy our time.

So I hope all you Mothers (and I meant that to mean moms, of course, not the other thing my four year old keeps saying) have a most wonderful Mother's Day!

See you next week,
~R

Haircut, Beach and Soccer

What do those things have in common? They were my Wednesday activities.

My sister was able to spend most of the day with us afterall (remember all the whining I did?) and so she watched the boys while I got a much needed haircut and bought new lip gloss. Funny how something as simples a lip gloss makes you feel good.

And then we went to the beach for a few hours after my nephew was released from prison got out of school. The time of day was perfect. UV factor way down, still really warm, waves calm and lighting perfect. I took my camera and took many pictures of everyone. Apparently, others had the same idea, because there were several "pros" out there doing family photo shoots.

After the beach, we stopped at Mr Jims for some grub en route to my nephew's soccer game. Normally I would have made everyone shower before getting in the car but the showers weren't on yet we didn't have a lot of time. So I'll share my most favorite trick for getting sand off. Baby Powder. When the skin dries and the sand is still all stuck in every nook and cranny of your fingers and toes and everywhere in between, just sprinkle on the powder and gently brush the sand away. It literally falls off. Quite amazing really and I wonder why I only learned of this last year. Sand is my number one reason for not going to the beach so much. Now? As often as we can.

T-bone's team won their game. Woohoo. This year he played on the rec team since he missed the tryouts for the school team and let me say that the boy is a star. He's a star anyway, but next to the other kids playing, he really shines. *forgive my snickering* It was almost painful to watch but at the same time it was enjoyable because on the rec teams, everyone gets to play and you could see how much fun they all had.

Hopefully, next year, T-bone will make the school team and we'll get to see some real action on the field.

Anyway, it was a busy day, it helped me get through day 4 of the hubs being gone and now we are on the shorter countdown to not only BN's coming home, but our postponed and much needed vacation.

Here's a few pics of a little birdie at the beach. I loved his reflection in the surf. It's a Semipalmated Plover. Wow! I sound like I know what I'm talking about. Which is strange cause I have no idea. I'm starting my quest to be a bonafide birder and it's slow going. Those little suckers are so fast it's hard to get a nice shot and they all have so many stripes and caps and beak lengths and etc etc so it's hard to figure them all out. Luckily, we were at the beach to catch this one during his migration. I could not find a picture to ID him in our little pocket guide, but found this fabulous site for identifying birds. (I know Pamela will be grateful - she's id'd a few of my birds for me. And I think Lisa may have too.)

Oh, here's the site: http://www.whatbird.com/

~R

PS Don't miss Karmyn's cyber baby shower tomorrow hosted by Swampy.

Karmyn's Baby Shower

Thanks Swampy, for this lovely idea.

I love baby showers. I love buying presents and wrapping them. You know how much I like to wrap presents. I love the silly little games and the silly talk that always gets the Grandmas and Aunties hooting and howling. And I love the little sandwiches without crust and the cake and the other goodies.

And while I'd like to take part in the cutie wootie little party games, I'm almost 6 days into a 7 day stint without the man who caused me to have two baby showers myself. And so, in this current state, Karmyn I present you with these.

First you'll need Jo:

Then you'll need reservations at any luxury resort:

Which will provide you with these:

And lastly, these reservations are set for May 20th and your pedicure

will be scheduled at 3:20 so that in 7 minutes time, the massage will promote contractions and you'll have your new baby boy precisely as I guessed it would be.

I hope you enjoy your little bit of time before the baby arrives.

Love,
~R

Calgon? Where are you?

Well it's day three of my 7-day single parenting stint. BN's work decided last minute to send a few of them to San Francisco for a week long conference. I think when they up and decide last minute to not only cause us to postpone our vacation for this, they should send over nannys.

I am in desperate need of one right now.

My other choices include returning the children from whence they came or heavy doses of medication. Come to think of it, returning them would also require heavy doses of medication surgery and probably therapy as well. I think I'll seek out meds. Anybody know where I can get some...fast?

The problem with moving with jobs is that sometimes you are left without a support system. Our parents live 3 hours away and my Mom still works 9-5 and BN's is vacationing on the beach some where right now. Neither is of help to me at this point.

My two closest friends have both gone back to work in this past year. And they have young children themselves anyway, so dropping my kids off with them when they get out of work is just cruel.

My sister lives nearby but works a lot of hours. She's a nurse and her hours are long and arduous. She's not available.

I decided today that Pete will return to school in the fall. I'm apparently not equipped to deal with 24 hour a day care of my own children. I'm just too stressed out.

~R

I think I am in love

Or have you met Amanda? No? Me, neither, technically. That probably has a lot to do with my techno-challengedness.

Well, I am a very determined girl and by randomly click-click-clicking away, I found Amanda. Amanda just published an E-book and it's free. It's called:

The Cheats Guide to Customizing Blogger Templates

And I am all about cheating when it comes to technological stuffs. With her help I was able to change the header because she helped me find the code that told me the pixel size (I have no idea what this means, btw) and I was able to make my own custom background cause she told me where to find that code and then where to find the code to make my text background white so we could actually read my blog and.. and.. and I have more to do, but wanted to get this out quickly since I know some of you are dying to change your look.

This is veerrry simplified. It is exactly what I needed. So thanks, Amanda. Thanks a bunch. Now go on ya'll. Download that file and start prettying yourself up a bit.

~R

Happy Hump Day, Ya'll

this is for Beckie!

Did I mention I need medication?

~R

SEX! Huh, Good God,...

Yeah, I know it's supposed to be WAR! But once I typed sex in all caps the song just jumped into my head and it totally relates to this post, if you know the words...okay, okay I'll keep singing just so you know.

...huh, what is good for? Absolutely nothing.

Minivan conversations with an 8 year old.

Pete: Mom? What is a sex?
Mom: A sex? The answer to a query. (good job mom on trying to confuse the hell out of him)
Pete: (persistent little thang) No Mom. What is a sex?
Mom: Okay so like you are filling out a form and it asks, name, dob, sex and the answer is male or female.
Pete: Well, that's not what Cameron said.
Mom: Well, why don't you tell me what Cameron said and maybe I can clear things up a bit.
Pete: Cameron said it means kissing.
Mom: Okay.
Pete: and laying down naked on the bed.
Mom: Yes, it can mean those things. (daydreaming about quickie this morning)
Pete: (snapped out of daydream) Who does that?
Mom: Married people who love each other very much.
Pete: Have you and dad ever done that? Naked on the bed?
Mom: (shit. backed myself in a corner) Well, yes we have.
Pete: Ewwww. Grossss. Naked? Why did you do that?
Mom: I've answered your question about sex. That's all for now. Sex is private.
Pete: Well I hope I never have sex.

~R

Verizon DSL

I was going to do a write up on how moronic the customer service people are at Verizon. The same ones that looked at my account and said we logged in 600-700 hours on the internet each month. Um, okay, so that is like between 20-23 hours a day they think we are actually on the internet. Do they really believe this? I admit to about 2 a day and BN IF he is working from home, maybe 4, otherwise, less than 2.

We leave our computers on and our modem on as well. We never turn them off. Well I turned them off the other day when we had super bad weather, but otherwise, they stay on. I'm extremely impatient and the thought of having to wait for a computer to boot up drives me batty. So anyway, if you work for Verizon, specifically the DSL department, then FU okay. Except for Aaron, the repair technician, whom I met the other day. He fixed the problem after 6 months of this nonsense. He's also a neighbor so he left me his business card and wrote his personal cell phone number on it. Just in case. I think he was totally hitting on me. Of course in my mind I still think I'm as hot as I was at 25 and that is just not true, so he probably wasn't hitting on me after all. Just being neighborly. Thanks, neighbor.

~R

Jay Robb's Fat Burning Diet

Lots of you are sharing your trials and triumphs with weight loss, so I thought I'd share mine as well.

My BN, who is not fat at all, has been looking for his 6-pack since 1993. He found 2 of the 6 the other day. Now he's a little tipsy. For the past 15 years or so, the two of us have been focused on staying healthy. Part of that means exercising and part of it is diet. We've been tweaking both over these years trying to come up with that magic formula and we've come to realize that the magic is in whole foods. Things that are not processed or at least minimally so.

The minute I conceived my first son, my metabolism went on strike. It didn't shut down - which is just cruel - but it definitely slowed to a crawl. I've been fighting it ever since only I haven't been putting up a good fight. I love to eat out and I love breads and cakes and did I mention cookies. I love cookies.

A few months ago he ordered Jay Robb's Fat Burning Diet book and I decided that rather than cook for the boys, myself and BN three different things, I'd just follow BN with this meal plan. I think the sooner you think of it as changing your eating or meal plan instead of dieting, the better off you are.

So I've been following the meal plan in this book for the last almost 2 months and okay, I'm lying. I haven't really been following it. The boys and I eat out several times a week and I nibble on this and that, but for the last two weeks, I've really followed it with the exception of a few meals. And in those two weeks, I've lost 7 pounds. BN has willpower of steel and he never cheats. Not one single little bite. He's lost 20 pounds.

As far as working out, I average 3 days a week. I usually walk the treadmill for a minimum of 30 minutes but sometimes longer, depending on what is on HGTV at the Y. Then I'll use the weight machines. BN follows Crossfit 6 days a week. He's hardcore. I'm a wimp but I really wanna do Crossfit one day. We're starting to get the special equipment for our home gym and when we do, I'll pump it up, baby.

Anyway, I'd have to lose 35 pounds to be my pre-child weight but I think I'll aim for 20 because, frankly, I like a little junk in my trunk and so does BN.

Here's to our health, Friends. I may post pictures of me in a bathing suit. Be sure and tune in for that. Lying again. It's a habit. I will post pics of me this morning before the gym.

See how serious I am about this. BTW, do you find it hard to workout when you are constantly sucking your gut in? No, me neither. I totally let it all hang out.

A little Sompin' Sompin', 2

Lisa over at lisaschaos is so fantastic. If you love photos and I mean GOOOOD photos, and you don't read her already. You should. Yeah, it's okay, you can click on her now, I'll wait.

Wow, 2 of you came back. Great. So anyway, Lisa bestowed upon me an award. It's this one:

and she wrote:

At Not a Stepford Wife you will find the very fickle Robinella. She made me feel a little foolish yesterday because I had no clue that Organic furniture or bedding even existed!

While what she wrote was really sweet, did you really look at the picture? I think she's making a crack at my comment that I went to college for 10 years. I collected a few of those things in the picture and I'm happy to accept this one from Lisa. Thanks, darling!

And now I want to pass it on. I'd like to give this to Lady K and Give It A Try. Both have been promoting "green" a lot lately and I really love that. Kaytabug has been switching to green products and is a self-proclaimed tree hugger (don't ya want to squeeze her for that) and Beckie is busy making worm poop among other things. I'm just dying to see pictures even though I realize it will look exactly like...dirt.

I'd also like to pass it on to one other blogger that I recently found. When I signed up for Google, these, like totally popular bloggers were listed as a sort of who's who, I guess and I clicked on Heather because of her blog title: Playgrounds Are No Place For Children. I have been saying that for years! Anyway, I came into her life on that post and I am sooo about the face cloth and knew exactly what she meant and I really like the way she writes, but have just been lurking so far. I guess since she'll now know I've been reading her, I should probably just comment instead of stalking.

So there you are. Make sure you check these girls out. Fantastic!

~R