Eleven Days and Counting....

I thought I'd update you with my progress of revolutionizing my health plan. I'm still chubs, but I've gone 11 days with no refined sugar or white flour (the biggest culprits in MY body). Thank you, no really, thank you...no applause needed. It's only been a week and a half! Six pounds gone...thank you God!

I no longer rearrange furniture, attempt to enter and/or clean the teenagers' rooms, walk the dog a gazillion times a day, or growl and snap at every little noise. There is a peaceful ambiance about the house these days! My husband has actually spoken a few words to me without fear of great balls of fire spewing from my mouth.

But work is where I will need to make some amends. Some of the 12-14 year olds can be forgetful at times. Their loving parents don't want them to get any red checks for not having the assignments, books, PE clothes, bookbags, lunches (yes...food! I can't imagine how anyone could forget to bring their nutritional sustenance to school! You know, the cakesters, cookies, chips, snickers bars, candy and cafeinne drinks - oh, stop...will somebody shoot me?) Last week I drop kicked a child's lunch over to the counter to be delivered later. I sent one parent packing, telling them to "get a life and stop babying your child!" (I still delivered the pair of glasses to the student.) I need to apologize to these parents, buy a lunch for little Johnny because his chocolate pudding leaked all over his entire lunchbag, and convince the principal why I should be able to keep my job!

Then it occurred to me that...duh...I did the same thing when my kids were this age. I thought it was my job as a mom, and I couldn't say no to a remorseful sobbing child calling from the classroom for the assignment that was sitting on the kitchen table. It did make it from the bedroom to the kitchen, so there was some attempt to bring it to school. It didn't matter that there was no identification of the writer on it and it had pictures of potato people with names like "crabby mom" or "booger-eating-moron brother" under them.

In all, I think I'm having a good three day week (two snow days), and look forward to being a family again...until I decide to give up coffee!

Born in the Wrong Decade

My sweet, little Edwina. She thinks she may have had a previous life during the 60's or 70's. All the logos, styles, colors and attitudes are coming around again...at least here in "middle earth." No, she doesn't sleep around or take drugs. I told her if she did, we would take away her license, her phone, her computer time, TV time, and she'd have to quit her job (which is very dear to her as it is her only form of income right now). She knows that one of the most severe consequences would be that she would cease to "have a life." So far, so good!

To give you some background, when she was 15, she struck up a conversation with a friend's dad who buys old VW cars, gets them running and looking spiffy, and then resells them. He was currently working on a '77 VW Bus that immensely peaked her interest. It was all she could talk about for six months.

"When I get my bus...and all my friends will be with me...and I'll have tie-dye curtains, and speakers everywhere!" she would chatter. We managed to keep a lid on things and put off any kind of "sign" that she was going to get the car. Her dad and I felt that, for her first car...you know...the one that she would learn to drive in....have fender benders in...write "welcome to my party" on, we wanted a little more protection around her, and something that was a bit more generic when it came to replacing parts, or finding paint that matched.

A year ago, we were talking with a very good friend who actually drove one of these buses back in the 60's, telling him the story and our feelings about the car. He looked us straight in the eye and said "Just buy the damn car!" So, we did...because our friend was very persuasive and I was afraid of him!



Here is a picture of her seeing the bus for the first time. I called her downstairs by yelling and acting mad about something. As soon as she hit the bottom of the stairs, I gave her a loving shove out the front door. She couldn't believe that her "dream car" was sitting in the driveway!

Since that day, there have been no accidents, only one incident of someone leaving their mark with a key...along the entire side...and only one ticket. I've heard that red cars are very attractive to our men in blue. She first received a warning for a non-moving type violation, but this particular man in blue kept an eye out for her (she's not hard to miss). When she had turned on to a main street with traffic, the rear of the bus was left slightly inside the intersection space. Well, he jumped on this one. He and a friend in blue were standing on the side of the street about 50 feet away and immediately motioned for her to pull over. The ticket read "obstruction of intersection."

She plead "not guilty" and was "bound" over for trial. On her own, this (now 16 year old) returned to the scene of the crime and took pictures from several different angles. She went into court, prepared to battle with the ticketing officer, and waited for her name to be called. She was led into a private room with a District Attorney. There was no sign of the officer. She showed the DA the pictures of the intersection, as well as, the diagram that she made depicting the exact location of her car and where the officer had been standing. The DA was impressed, and began asking her questions about the car...how long had she been driving it...how well does it run...does she get a lot of guys with it, etc. She smiled and then added that the car goes from 0 to 60 in 15 minutes! He laughed and she relaxed. She was told that if she did not get any more tickets for three months, this infraction would be dismissed.

She made it to Thanksgiving, which was the three month period, and to this day...that we know...she has not said "howdy" to any more men in blue!