I no longer live here

Come see me at http://territerri.wordpress.com/

Feeds

I'm actually just playing here checking out something for a friend. But since I'm here, can anyone tell me why the feed from my new blog on wordpress is not reading at mybloglog??? I'm so technologically challenged! Since the new feed wasn't reading, I finally just took it out and put the blogger feed back in. If you want to see anything up-to-date from me, go to http://territerri.com/.

I'm moving!

Something big has been in the works for a while and I'm now ready to invite you all over to my new home at http://territerri.com/ where I'll be posting from now on instead of here! Come on over!

In which Terri is NOT complaining...

I am having SUCH an incredible day! Three days ago, I never would have believed things would look so much brighter. It's not that anything has really been resolved. It's just that I've realized what a difference some sleep and time off can make in my perspective. (That sleep concept is a novel idea! I might have to make this a regular thing. Next thing you know I'll be hitting the sack at 7:00 pm every night! That is, unless they can figure out some kind of daylight savings type thing where we get hours added to our days. If I could market that concept... I'd be rich.) What was I saying? Oh, yeah. Got a little off track there.

So... having a good day. For starters, it's Friday. So that's a win-win situation right off the bat. Jake was not crabby when I talked to him this morning (always a bonus when that happens!) Traffic was light. Then Trish got me laughing and totally made my day and we went and got us some breakfast burritos!

And then....

OH MY GOSH.... brace yourselves...

Trisha's sister-in-law brought in her 3 month old baby girl to visit. And oh man!!! She is SOOO beautiful, and adorable, and cuddly and....

I

LOVE

BABIES!

I got to look at her and make the googly faces and talk in that sing-song nonsense voice. And she looked at me with her gorgeous blue eyes, wondering, "Who is this babbling idiot? But hey, she's amusing for the moment, so I'll let her think she's a wonder with kids or something."

And then....

I GOT TO HOLD HER!

I know, right?

Ooooooh, the mommy instinct just kicked in, and I had to remind myself that she is someone else's child so it probably wouldn't be prudent to slobber all over her with kisses or anything, but if no one else was looking? I so totally would have. Then I reluctantly went back to my desk and I could hear her cooing and babbling and for a nano-second I wondered if we made the right decision when we decided three kids was enough.

And then...

The crying started. And I think she needed to poop. And my sanity returned. I remembered it's Friday, and I could go do something adultish tonight if I want to, and my children can care for themselves for a while if I choose to do so. I won't be lactating again any time in the near future.

Yep! All is right with the world. (For the moment. I'll take what I can get.)

Heads are gonna roll

I am ready to kick some teenage ass!

Generally, I am pleased with our public schools. In fact, my kids spent their grade school years in a private Catholic school, but after they made the move to public school, I regretted not having taken advantage of our public school system all along. Jake has ADD and some learning challenges that were not supported in the private school. It was only after making the switch to a public middle school that we found support.

However... I am REALLY, REALLY ticked off right now. On Monday, while Jake was at track practice, his brand new cell phone was stolen from his athletic locker. His LOCKED athletic locker, which was locked with the school issued and approved lock which we had to purchase. The kids are not supposed to use any lock other than those sold by the school. Well, I have news. We are purchasing our own lock and he will use it.

When Jake reported his cell phone was stolen, he was told, "Yeah... sorry about that. There have been several cell phones stolen in the past week."

I know the school could easily say that kids shouldn't have cell phones. But the reality is, for those kids whose parents work full time, it is a necessary means of communication. Jake doesn't drive yet. His practices and track meets never end at a consistent time. By having a cell phone, we can be sure of his whereabouts and needs at all times. He doesn't abuse it. His phone was a privilege he earned and believe me, we made him wait long beyond the point where he thought he should have one.

The locker room doors, which open to the outside of the building are supposed to be closed, locked and monitored during practices. Instead, they are propped open and left unmonitored.

And GOSH! There have been thefts. Imagine that!

You would think that after several reports of theft in the locker room, those in charge would, Gosh... I don't know.... abide by their own policy and LOCK and MONITOR the locker room! Well, if you're thinking this, you would be wrong. SILLY!

We learned a big lesson. We chalked it up to being too trusting. The cell phone has not been replaced, and I'm not sure if or when it will be right now. I was just cooling down over this issue, when last night Jake asked, "Mom, can we go to Target? I need to buy a lock for my athletic locker." I told him, "Jake, just don't put anything in that locker. Leave everything in your regular locker during Track." And then he gave me the bad news. "I put my backpack in the athletic locker today. My calculator got stolen."

This isn't just any calculator. It's a $100 graphing calculator, a required purchase for all students. So why anyone has a need to steal one is beyond me.

Steam comes out my ears as I wish I could put a face with the cocky little asses who think this is funny. I would love to grab a handful of hair, or maybe an ear and drag their sorry butts to the police station and show them how funny it is to earn yourself a criminal record because you think you're above the rules which most others respect and abide by.

I know it's juvenile, but now I'm trying to think of ways to set these little jerks up. I'd love to rig some sort of booby trap in the athletic lockers that would put them in their place, like an explosion of permanent ink when they open doors. Or just a nice slap upside the head or a good kick in the pants. Just wishful thinking really... I'll be an adult about this. I promise.

P.S. If you think of any good retaliation tactics, let me know.

My Boy, My Pride

You wish your life was this exciting

Before heading to the Wild Dental office, I made a pit stop at Sally Beauty to... let's just say, pick up some items necessary for the coming summer. Upon arrival at the register to pay for my purchases, the check-out chick with multi-colored hair and equally crazy fingernails asked if I'd like to add a bottle of cocoa-butter lotion for only $1.99. I'm normally not a sucker for these little specials, but when she pointed at the item in question, I saw that it was approximately one gallon of cocoa-delicious scented lotion, so of course, I told her to throw that in too.

I hit the road to head over to my appointment and arrived approximately 20 minutes early. So, to amuse myself, I took this lovely photo of myself. I knew you'd want me to share and I will, because I am just generous like that. You are welcome!So, like a responsible patient, I then went into the dental office just a few minutes early. They must have been running behind. I had time to read a review in the local paper of last night's Rod Stewart concert that took place here. Apparently, Rod, at the ripe old age of 62, is still drawing airborne panties to the stage, and sporting skin tight, rhinestoned, pleather pants. Rod is only 4 years younger than my dad!!! The thought of my dad in pleather pants... eew... let's just not go there.

I then had time to leaf through the Oprah magazine (only because I couldn't find anything of quality journalism, such as People Magazine.) I think Oprah's magazine is called "O." That's so clever isn't it? Wonder who came up with that little gem. I'm going to have to get me a subscription to that baby. I learned from "O" that the word snafu is actually an acronym for "situation normal, all f*#!ed up." I DID NOT KNOW THAT! Am I the only one? Do others know this? I think the President of the U.S. has used the word snafu. Kind of funny to think of the leader of the free world using the F bomb! I plan to use it more often, just for self entertainment purposes. Maybe in front of my dad. Just so I can tell my self that I secretly used the F word in front of my dad without him even realizing. ("Dad, we've got a little SNAFU here with your computer because you messed with my internet connecting job and now it's all kinds of messed up!")

So, finally, after broadening my vocabularic horizons, the hygienist came to call me back. She clipped on the little paper bib, in case I had a sudden case of uncontrollable drooling, or maybe in case she caused a bleeder in my gums, in which case that little paper dealy is NOT going to save my favorite Express t-shirt from permanent bloody stains. And why is it, at the dentist's office, they always try to carry on a conversation with you? She's poking around in my mouth with sharp pointed objects and asking me about the weather and my plans for the day. Excuse me? Ms. Hygienist? Pay attention in there. I want to leave without massive amounts of pain and swelling. I prefer to just lie back and let her do her thing. I won't be offended, really, if we don't become best friends. Besides, there's a constant rotation of hygienists there. They must not get paid enough. There's always someone new when I go in.

On the downside, my Diet Coke habit is starting to take it's toll. There's a "hole" in my back tooth. I was slightly confused when they kept referring to it as a hole. I guess "holes" are the new "cavities." So now I get to go back in a couple of weeks and since Dr. Wild always goes a little hog wild with the novacaine, I'll get shot up with enough of that stuff to numb my entire head and get that "hole" filled. Oh joy.

After my cleaning, I called up Gina and she told me she'd meet me in the parking lot and we'd go find some lunch somewhere. We found this little hole-in-the-wall sandwich and coffee shop and had the BEST paninni sandwiches ever. Let me just say, I LOVE ciabatta bread! It's the greatest thing since, well.... sliced bread. We gabbed, caught up a little on what's been going on with each of us in the past couple weeks and made plans to get together this weekend. Before we parted ways, I wanted to snap a picture of the two of us, but she wouldn't let me because she had her hair in a ponytail and thought she looked like s*#t. So, I was obnoxious and snapped one of her anyway. Because I am just a good friend like that. Lord knows WHY she loves me anyway!

And now, I've just realized it's time to go to Jake's track meet... maybe later I'll fill you in on more of the excitement known as Terri's Life!