Broken.

I'm broken. Absolutely broken. Something happened to me the other day and I am completely stumped as to how this happened. I did something so out of character that I feel really lost. It was so unlike me, and so strange that I still can't believe it happened.

We spent 2 hours at Borders Friday night and I DIDN'T BUY ANY BOOKS!!!!

This is so strange for me because I LOVE to read. But here is the kicker. They had a GREAT history section. LOTS of local history about different cities, including Detroit. They must have had over 200 books just on this. Cute little paperback books. They were $19.99... and weren't even 1/2" thick. I just couldn't bring myself to buy it.

Then there were the romance novels. I LOVE romance novels. But I just couldn't bring myself to spend the $6 on something I would read in 2.2 seconds.

And then there were cookbooks. If you know me at all, you know I don't have to answer this one. Let's just say that my mom called me out on my love of recipes cookbooks. She cut this out of the paper, because that old bag is me, and the little girl is Emily... minus the glasses!

Another Conversation with Greg

The Scene... Paulees Restaurant.

The setting, an evening dinner with Emily & Greg. We sat in our cozy booth, talking about how our favorite waitress who has recently graduated from college, is moving to Wisconsin. She is took a job with a casino as a the promotions director. After a short conversation with her, she walks away.

Greg: "When I grow up, I'm moving to a COUNTRY!"
V: "You ARE in a country"
Greg: "I'm moving to Britain, because they speak ENGLISH there!"

On the Next Dancing with the Stars!!!

Product Review

The Swiffer duster

I'm not one for too many chemicals around the house. So as you can guess, I definitely have this product in my home. The concept of this product is great. It magnetically attracts the dust, picking it up. Unfortunately I am giving this product a thumbs down. This past week as I was dusting, I noticed more dust flying around, than was being picked up. I have a black wood TV stand, and a large black bookcase. As you can imagine, it shows EVERYTHING... but I love it. Seconds after dusting the tv stand, I immediately noticed the airborne dust landing on it again.

Hence, I had to get out the vacuum and use the dusting attachment for 100% success.

Meap Madness

Ahhh yes, it's that time of year again. Time for the Meap tests. Time for all of the studying to be put to good use. Time for Emily to show off her big brain. This morning she was up before I was. She was in and out of the shower before her Daddy and she had the biggest positive attitude I've seen in a long time. She chose a healthy breakfast, and had her snacks packed in her backpack. She chose comfortable clothes, and mentally prepared herself for the big day.

On the way to school, she chanted over and over "I hope I do good, I hope I do good", while I said over and over in my head, "I know she'll do great, I know she'll do great". As we pulled up to the school, she turned, gave me a kiss, told me she loves me, and popped out of the car. She turned towards the building, ready to take on the world, and the Meaps. Althought I tell her often, the child will never know how much I adore her. How I watch her while she sleeps, praying that she will always make good choices, and will continue to excel in her own life. How I pray that she will always be healthy, and how I thank god for the opportunity to be her mother. I am the luckiest person in the world.

This says it all!!!

My reaction if he becomes President!

Relief!

I'm sure I've mentioned before that sometimes when Greg speaks, I sweat. You NEVER know what is going to come out of that kids mouth. Trust me when I tell you that he is not the least bit shy.

Today I took the kids to Johnnie's Barber Shop. It's such a cool little "out of the way" place, where interesting conversations are held. I would LOVE to sit in there for a day and just listen to the barrage of stories that come and go.

While Emily's "edge trimming" took a mere 5 minutes, Greg's took much longer. Johnnie must be a perfectionist, and from the look of Greg's new doo, it shows. It was worth the wait... and so was the conversation.

Greg made small talk to Johnnie, and Johnnie told Greg jokes. My favorite? Why did the boy throw a stick of butter out of the car window? He wanted to see a butterfly, lol. OMG, I'm LMAO.

Anyhow, as we were leaving, and Greg finished his stories about Muskie, Sturgeon, and France, he turns to Johnnie and says, "You were very nice. I hope to see you next time I come in here."

All I heard was a gasp and saw a HUGE smile on Johnnie's face. My thoughts? THANK GOD... my child is polite!

Tink, Tink, Tink... Is this thing on?

Wow, where have I been? All of those blog links on the bottom right, are blogs that I look at EVERY DAY. From the looks of it, everyone else has been as busy as I have. Plus I must admit... lately I haven't been online much. I have been so busy trying to get some things done, that a couple days have gone by, where I didn't even turn on the computer.

Add to that my dark frame of mind. I will be fine though. Just sick of media hype.

I have some exciting news to share! Emily has been invited to join the EXCEL team at her school. It is a team of talented and gifted students. Something that I would have NEVER qualified to be a part of. She scored very high on her MEAP tests last year. I went to the parental meeting tonight, and was so excited to see a bunch of people that I know. Looks like her class must still be the bumper crop, that her preschool teacher loved so much.

As I was driving home from the school, I suddenly realized how many opportunities our children have, that we were never given. As far as I remember, I do not recall having any type of after school activities, other than sports. I do not remember the teachers pushing their students to be the best. I... am a product of that environment. I... am so glad that my kids won't be.

Shocker!!!

A Halloween favorite, Original Skittles, has 47 grams of sugar in one serving, some of it in the form of corn syrup. Would you ever have your child sit and eat 12 packets of sugar? That’s the amount they are getting from eating one bag of Skittles. This info came right from the maker of this candy at www.marshealthyliving.com. Their idea of healthy living must be different than ours?!?!

I found this in a newsletter I get from Nourish Your Kids

I'm Not Funny

I miss myself. Sometimes I find things so funny, that I just can't stop laughing. I'm not laughing lately, and I'm sorry, but here comes a dark post. I would like to say that I am witty, but I don't feel it right now. I would like to say that my glass is always half full, and the sun is always shining, but lately it isn't. I would like to say that the air feels so light, but it doesn't.

Yesterday while we were at Meijer, I had a very short conversation with a woman in the produce section. BTW, Meijer had cheese on sale... 3 for $6... thank you very much Kroger, you can stick your $4.49 cheese sideways up your hoohaa's.

Prior to this conversation with this lady, I definitely took notice of the faces people were wearing that day. Doom and gloom. I honestly don't think I saw even one person smile. Den and I noticed a sharp increase in many prices.

The conversation with the woman was brief. She commented on how 4 peppers in a cellophane bag for $4.99 will NEVER sell at that price. I agreed. She went on to say how she is a nervous wreck, as she had just left her bank, and was expecting a call from her banker. I mentioned to her that we too, were feeling the pinch. I only had in my basket, what I absolutely needed. The days of frivolous shopping are definitely on hiatus.

This whole thing is wearing on me. Personally, I think we are doing fine, and we will be ok... but as I look around, and especially on the news. OMG the news... It literally sucks the life out of me to watch it. Everything is so bad all the time.

It is absolutely shocking to see how bad things have gotten in 8 years under the village idiot. I am scared to death that the walking corpse (McCain) will get in, because he and the idiot seem to share a brain. On the flipside, I'm not so sure that Obama is any better. I am so scared for this country... so scared. Then there is that nitwit that is running with the corpse. Did you see the clip of her with Katie Couric? Katie asked her about which publications she reads as far as news papers goes, and nitwit goes on and says, "Oh I read all of them", and basically dodged the question. Can she even answer a question at all? BTW, GMA went to Alaska today to see if you really CAN see Russia from "her house". Unless she lives on Little Diomede, there is no way she can see Russia from her house.

Regardless, I hope I find my sense of humor soon. As of now it is just sitting at bay, and I hope that the fire isn't diminished completely before it surfaces again.