Shelley’s Weblog

So we’ve hit the point in the summer where I’ve enrolled the kids in just about any camp I can afford.  Which means we are in the car quite a bit driving to and fro.  I am an avid radio surfer so we get our fill of Rick and Bubba, country, praise and worship music and of course, classic rock.

I’ve been hearing an advertisement for the Family Fun Pack you can win by being the 10th caller on Birmingham’s latest classic rock station.  The thing is, I can’t quite get past this being a family event.

Over the weekend my daughter picked up on it too.  If you look up “perceptive” in the dictionary her picture is right beside the word.  Basically, we live in an avid Guitar Hero house.  In fact, she is working on going from medium difficulty to hard.  And she is acing it!  Problem is, Daddy has currently banned the Poison song, “Talk Dirty to Me” from being played on the game, therefore she can’t get to the next level.  All the songs must be “mastered” before you move on… she officially has this on her agenda now.  And he officially has said, “you can listen to that song when you get married.”

What do we hear on the radio as our family of four moves along the interstate to church?  The banned song along with the words, “Win a Family Fun Pack, be the tenth caller!”  And she exclaims, “HOW can you win tickets for your family?”  Again, she is putting together her case very effectively.  “You mean the WHOLE FAMILY can go?  but isn’t that the song Daddy won’t let me do on Guitar Hero?”

I start laughing as Mike suggests along with a koozie for your beer you also get a sippy cup with Poison’s logo and a stripper pole for mom in the Family Fun Pack.  Honestly, what about Brett Michael’s suggest FAMILY?  Fun… yes, if you count 25 skanky women throwing up on your TV show fun.  Family?  Well, I just realized that I just described fun for some families.

 There are so many things not OK with this.

I was watching the morning news and learned this would be on the newstands today.  This prepared me, but not really.  One quick errand to the grocery store with my 9 year old reminded me that no matter how OK this picture on the OK magazine appears to be it’s not OK.  But thank you Jamie Lynn for throwing this “out there” for me to discuss before the spend the night party tonight.  I mean, this is my daughter’s age group, the Zoey 101 fan club.  And it has been discussed… on their level and on mine… which means, it will get discussed tonight.  I know, I was 9 years old once.

 Melodi:  It’s kind of like puppies mating isn’t it, Mom?

Mom (which is me):  Well, yes, but puppies don’t have babies before they finish highschool.  Puppies don’t have babies before they get married!

Melodi:  So she won’t go to college?

Mom (still me):  No… she needs to go to college… she needs to finish highschool… she needs to be married!

Melodi:  Her sister didn’t get it right either did she mom?

Mom (trying to keep it together):  Well, she actually finished highschool and got married and had two babies…

Melodi:  But she didn’t take care of them.

Mom:  (please, this conversation must be coming to an end!)  right.

Melodi:  It’s like their family is the worst case scenario.  I’ve heard you say that before.

Right now I am just glad that my opinion of what the worst case scenario is matters to her.  I do hope to keep up the influence on my daughter since Hollywood seems to be glamourizing Jamie Lynn’s teen motherhood.  Do you agree?  Am I crazy or over-sensitive?  Talk about the social innoculation theory.  Don’t get me started!  This magazine did a textbook job of it.

I am so proud!  Mike is completing the basement and built this room from scratch.  It’s kind of like the story about the fish and loaves.   Except there were credit cards involved.  And the economic stimulus package.

Honestly, it is a work of art!  And love!  The pictures won’t do it justice but here they are.  He hung an amazing (that means a tray-like ceiling giving us optimum headroom) drop ceiling that has like 400 pounds of tiles suspended above our heads.  And the woodwork is all his too.  Not to mention most of the drywall.  He even designed and installed the lighting.  We had some help on the carpet (installed just this morning)… and the paint we chose turned out to be the smurfiest blue ever!

I needed some extra rest today so I got off my feet with a really great book that I have been trying to read for over a year a now.  Yes, I know, I know.  It’s less than 150 pages long and I really should’ve finished it by now.  But that’s another post.

This book is a real treat, even if I only get to read a page at a time.  I was busy finishing chapter 12, thinking, “I’m almost there!” (there are 16 chapters) and next thing you know here come little feet running down the hall.  My son jumps on the bed and says, “mom, why don’t ya move that book?”  He wants to be right where the book is and well, he decides to sprawl across me where the book is (he’s not quite 4 years old yet).

He realizes he’s interrupted me as I tell him, “why don’t you move your body b/c my book was here first…” and he just turns on the charm.  Out of nowhere comes his next statement:

“Mom, if you was a bunny I would pick ya… and if Dad was a bunny I would pick him too.”

Anita Renfroe’s book of wisdom is tabled for later… I am sure she will understand!  Obviously, my little boy won that battle

We might be living in our generation’s worst economic mess but honestly, as a former advertising account executive I would so do this…

I would just have to pass the extensive background check and defensive driving class and it would be all good.

More on this later. In the meantime, feel free to visit my other site…

I see life like a mirror… And I see life so much clearer. We move so quickly, who knows where the time goes…

Forget what you are supposed to do with the sprinkler. Be the sprinkler.

I have only been to two highschool graduations. Tonight will be my third.

My first was my very own. It was May of 1990. The reason that’s significant is because somewhere there is a polaroid pic of me in my cap and gown with my baby sister, well, looking like a baby. Because she was a baby! She was only a mere 11 months old when I graduated highschool. Stacey’s graduation was next. I was seven years older, working my sales job and had been married to Mike for 2 years. I can remember that day well too. I even remember what I was wearing because I wore it to work and raced to the ceremony. I remember thinking here I am, where did the last seven years ago and why is my little sister graduating highschool? Well, now here we are.

There are a million thoughts going through my head right now and with two children asking me what I am doing every 2 minutes it is making it rather hard to even know where I am going with this post. Which reminds me, I am really looking forward to the next two highschool graduations I will attend.

So, there we go.

I’m done.

Not sure what I’m done with but I am definitely done with something.  I’m watching King Kong right now and the guy just said, “I’m an actor with a gun who has lost his motivation.”  I can relate.  I have often thought we are all born with a certain amount of motivation to get stuff  done and eventually we use it all it all up.  And I’ve often thought I used all of mine up in the first 24 years of my life.  Now I’m like the actor in the movie.  I’ve got a gun but not so sure about the motivation.

That could be a great country song come to think of it.  (more…)