INORITE?!

But, today? I had to write, because I just got a few text messages from Peppermist that made me so INCREDIBLY PROUD of that girl of mine. She is AMAZING in every sense of the word, and some days, I wonder how she’s managed to grow up so perfectly. And then I take all the credit. Because I’m her mom. And I can. Even if I’m a bad blogger and should have known about this already.

You see, today is apparently a National Day of Silence, to protest against Gay Bashing in schools. Today, across the nation, hundreds of thousands of students took a vow of silence to bring attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in their schools.

And my daughter? was one of them.

If you only knew how that girl LOVES to talk, you’d know what strength she possesses to take such a vow! She and Micki wore signs all day today, and though she’s going to the movies after school with the Twins, who would like her to talk after school, she has decided to continue on because according to her text to me: “That’s not the point, to just do it during school. I’m not going to stop until tonight.”

Damn, but that girl makes me proud to be her mom! So tell me, what will YOU do to end the silence?

Eighteen.

Eighteen years ago, The Boy did the most AMAZING thing – he made me a mother. After 28.5 hours of labor, an epidural and a c-section, they placed this wee little 7lb 6.5oz man in my arms, and said he was mine. He had reddish hair, a scream to wake the world, and little wrinkly toes and a cute button nose. I was 22, terrified and enthralled all at once. And I fell instantly in love.

Little did I know how much he would change me, change who I was into who I am today. I remember his first steps – that came before he crawled, because he preferred to roll around on Papa and Nana’s floor to get where he wanted to go. His first teeth, his first plate of spaghetti, his first chocolate bar, his first birthday, his first ride in car, his first pair of boxing gloves, his first friends, his first days at school – all the way to his first dance, his first time behind the wheel, his first job, his first girl, first heartache… Each of them were MY firsts too – the first time I discovered them through a Mama’s eyes, and knew the little tug of pride and heartache each bit of growing up caused.

He’s grown up into an amazing young man. He’s kind, he’s faithful, he’s strong, and strong willed, and even more important, strong of heart. He loves and protects his sisters, he is an amazing friend, he loves unconditionally, gives happily and understands the power of forgiveness and understanding. He’s still exploring, learning, striving. He isn’t quite sure what he wants to be doing with the rest of his life, yet and that’s perfectly ok, because what he’s doing RIGHT NOW, is the best thing ever – he’s being himself… something he and I have learned to do and be together.

He’s my son.
And today? He’s 18, and officially a man.
And he chose to let me start it with a hug, immortalized.

Happy Birthday, baby boy. I am so proud of you.
all my love,
Mama.

Oh. Hai There.

I’m Nutter Butter. The Hamster. I own the Pup.

Apparently the owner of this blog has pulled her typical first of the year hermit thing, and has not updated in a while. I’m here to tell you there WILL be a post today – even if I have to write it myself!

…heeeeeeeeeey… wait a minute…

Stay Tuned!

Observe:

Peppermist: OH! HEY! I’m in FLORIDA! ooooooooh lookit the pretty lights… SHINY.

Peppermist: HAPPY ME! We walked in a THUNDERSTORM. Real rain, mama! Lightening and thunder! Next to a highway! Kept getting splashed! Three miles! I’m DRENCHED! I LOVE THE RAIN!

Peppermist: Two Words. COLLEGE BOYS.
Me: One word. DEAD.

Peppermist: College student walked by on phone – all we heard was “It’s fuckin’ DIAGONAL!” HAHAHHHAHAHA!
Me: O_o.

Peppermist: My hips hurt!
Me: Why?
Peppermist: IDK. I have the insides of an 80 year old man.
Me: Well give them back! I’m sure he NEEDS his insides!
Peppermist: HAHAHAHAHA! I love you.

Peppermist: I’m watching the OLYMPIX! FROM THE FUTURE!
Me: What’s it like in the future?!
Peppermist: Full of stupid teachers and homework. Just like always. WHERE’S MY FLYING CAR?
Me: Hey! THAT’S MY LINE!
Peppermist: I stole it. FUTURISTICLY.

Peppermist: You need sleep?
Me: ….usually. Why?
Peppermist: Cuz I’m SO COVERED IN SAND that I could be the SANDMAN!
Me: Happy Beach Day!

Peppermist: I TOUCHED AN ALLIGATOR!
Me: WASH YER HANDS!

Peppermist: Uh. Sunburn. Also? Hives from sunscreen.
Me: Benedryl.
Peppermist: ow.ow.ow.ow.ow.ow.ow.

Peppermist: LOTS of pictures of Gators! And? I CAPTURED ONE! I’m bringing him HOME! He’s FEISTY!
Me: O_o….he’s living in your room.
Peppermist: Nah, the dog will eat him. He can live in the crawl space!
Me: SCORE. Home security!
Peppermist: That’s what I thought! Cant get him through airport security though. Have to ship him home UPS.
Me: Feed him first. Don’t want him to eat the UPS guy.
Peppermist: Of course. We won’t need the chaperons anymore by then, right?
Me: O_o.

That’s mah girl. I can’t wait till she comes home. My life is EVER so boring without her.

I love that Hey Josh. And I want to pet his hair. Is that so wrong?

It started when Peppermist decided she wanted to go on the band trip in February. I knew then that I’d need to get her at least a State ID for the trip, and of course SHE was certain that meant I would let her take her Drivers Permit test. The boy, of course, said no way – since I hadn’t let HIM get HIS until just before his 16th birthday, because I just wasn’t ready and he was already mad that she got her cell phone a year before he did. (….inorite?)

ANYWAY, I quickly ran into a problem – I’d put the kids Social Security cards in a safe place so that I wouldn’t lose them. And…promptly forgot where the hell that place was. Whoops. No problem, I knew where their birth certificates were, so it’d be simple to get them the cards right?

Wrong.

You see, apparently, to get a replacement SS card, you need a picture ID. And, as stated, I couldn’t get her a picture ID without a SS card. And her School ID wouldn’t count, because it doesn’t have her birthday on it. OH ISN’T THIS FUN? FINALLY, after getting the runaround for months, they said they’d accept a copy of their shot records, as long as it was stamped by the Health Center making it semi-official.

So, papers in hand, I get them all signed up, I’m told it’ll take two weeks for them to get here, which is plenty of time to get a State ID, so everything’s cool, right? RIGHT! So they arrive in the mail…. The Boy’s, the Pup’s… and that’s it.

The one. card. i. needed. and it. didn’t. come!

NOW I started to panic, but I gave it another week just to be sure, and FINALLY Peppermist’s card showed up. Which brings us to today…

You see, she leaves on Tuesday, and because I’m all about procrastinating (tomorrow…) and she had no school today, I took her over to the DMV to get her State ID. On the way there, I told her “If you think you can pass, I’ll let you take the test to.” KNOWING that she’d only read the book twice, and not for some time. She assured me she could, and that she’d thumb through the book while we waited.

Fine.
(NONONONONONONONONO)
Whatever.

So our number is called, and it turns out that the lady who we were dealing with, not only was the one who passed The Boy when he took his driver’s test, but ALSO happens to be a chaperon on the upcoming band trip! SCORE! I HAVE A SPY! We joked around a bit, and she went to take the test, and 15 minutes later?

She passed. In fact, she only missed 2, which is better than the Boy did (much to her delight). Which means?

I now have ANOTHER teenage driver in my house.

Hold me.

That’s stupid early for a Saturday, ya’ll.

But there we were, our collective four kids on deck, on time, with our spot in the bleachers staked out, programs and highlighters and cameras and sharpies in hand – the later gets a real workout, see the picture to the left, ready for five hours of cheering on The Pup, Ladybug, Bug, Dman and all their teammates. (Why yes, I am the crazy cheering mom. Why do you ask?)

It was an especially nervewracking day for the pup, as she had decided to swim a brand new event: The 100yd Individual medly. She knows all the strokes, of course, but there’s the ORDER to remember, and TWO HAND WALL TOUCHES, and DON’T DQ and OMG MOM I’M SO NERVOUS! Peppermist, loving big sister that she is, told the pup an “easy” way to remember the stroke order: just remember that you can BUTTER the BACK of your BREASTs, FREEly. This, naturally, spread through the team like wildfire, and MUCH laughter resulted – including laughter DURING THE BACKSTROKE LEG by the pup AS SHE SWAM.

INORITE?

All our kids had a VERY successful meet, though. Not only did the Pup swim that IM, but it got her her very first DUCKY! The winner of each heat gets a little rubber ducky as a prize, and the pup has been sure she’d NEVER win one – and then she did! VERY happy Pup – in fact, they handed it to her, she looked up to find us in the stands and held that ducky high in the air as we all cheered VERY LOUDLY for her. She could have fallen off the blocks in every race thereafter and not cared. She had a Ducky. A PRINCESS ducky, even, with a PURPLE crown.

She didn’t fall off the blocks though – in fact, she pulled out a 3rd place heat finish and a 2nd place heat finish as well, and improved on all of her times. The Ladybug swam her first 50yd Freestyle (She’s a wee bit of a thing, and usually swims 25s) AND she also won a ducky for herself! All Bug’s hard work paid off and he got to swim the Freestyle relay with the BIG BOYS – including his teammate who recently got the chance to swim with Michael Phelps. There is no SMALL amount of hero worship going on THERE, I’ll tell ya!

And then, Dman, my 13 year old nephew, he tells me “I’m never gonna win a ducky, you know.” I, of course, reminded him that the Pup felt the very same way and today was her day. His day was coming. NOT TEN MINUTES LATER – GUESS WHAT HE DID? That’s right, Dman came away from the pool with his very first Ducky too!

And in between it all, there was Dman and his Girlfriend, who also happens to be the Coach’s daughter. There’s nothing quite as fun as teasing two thirteen year olds as they follow each other around the pool. There were a lot of “Remember! 6inchs of light between you!” and nudges and winks, and chuckling. And then? We spotted them waaaaaaaaaaay across the pool, sitting in folding chairs under the yellow sign, waiting for Dman’s next event. I looked at Mama, and Nana, because I saw them first.

Me: That’s NOT 6 inches…
Mama: oooooooh HELL NAW.
Nana: BUSTED!

So we yelled the girls name across the pool, to get her attention – we knew Dman would just ignore us, and she’d answer – and followed it by “THAT’S NOT 6 INCHES!” complete with gestures demonstrating the proper distance between them, and were rewarded by them jumping apart, BRIGHT RED BLUSHING, and looks that could kill.

God, I love teenagers!

Needless to say, we spent the weekend pretty well pumped. The Boy even showered the Pup with affection and attention, and took her out to breakfast Sunday morning to celebrate. If you’d like to see the Pup – here’s her video of all her events. Note that she beat that girl for her ducky by a FULL POOL LENGTH. Yeaaaaaaaaaah, baby! Way to do it in STYLE, baby girl!

So how was YOUR weekend?

You see, my darling baby boy (Yeah, the one that’s a foot taller than me – what’s your point?) came home the other day flinging things and searching under and growling and muttering under his breath. It seems that when he was at the local superstore, he changed in the bathroom out of his work clothes – and apparently left his wallet sitting on the sink.

…

He realizes this a full 24 hours later, chaos ensues, and lo and behold -no wallet. So, we hit the bank right away to cancel his bank card, and then checked the lost and found and with the desk, and no one had turned it in. He had receipts and stuff in there that were pretty important, but mostly it was his bank card and his license. Which meant he couldn’t drive out to his buddies house that night, because with HIS luck, he’d get stopped. Not good. Unhappy boy.

So I calmed him down, and today, we head to the DMV when he got home from school. He woke me up (I tend to sleep in the mornings after they go to school – specially after being unable to sleep the night before, actually getting UP and starting a pot o’beans n ham at 5:30 am!) – and then nagged and rushed until I headed out the door to the DMV – his favorite place in the whole world.

Not.

I fill out the paperwork, and settle in to wait. It was less than 10 minutes, so I was like SCORE – we’re gonna get out of here fast! And then she asked for an alternative ID for my son and I realize… it’s still sitting on my desk.

Oy.
Supermom FAIL.

So I call Auntie, she says she’ll grab it and bring it to us, but she had to finish what she was doing, and then she picked up Peppermist and the dog, and then the dog got out, and then she finally got to the DMV and the dog got out AGAIN and we had to chase him down, and then! Finally! an hour after we started to do something simple…

Success! Replacement License procured!

Only for me to have to tell him he can’t have the car overnight because his little sister has a Swim Meet tomorrow and I need the car. Some days, I just can’t win.

At least we still have ham’n'beans still a slow cookin – and it smells FANTASTIC. Redemption approaches…

The one where you and you’re prom date make your prom outfits entirely from Duck Tape! INORITE?! Here in Alaska the joke is we can fix anything with duct tape and bailing wire, though shockingly the entries from Alaska for Stuck At Prom are few and far between!

Check out the gallery! There are some AMAZING outfits (that’s last year’s winner on the left here)! And it’s not all just for fun and giggles, oh no – they’re giving away 20 Scholarships to celebrate their 10th Anniversary!

It’s really very simple! Here are the rules, and then it’s just four steps, really. Create an outfit, Make the top 10, Earn Votes/Survive each Week/Win Scholarships! This year the first place winners receive a $3000 scholarship, second place will receive $2000, and third $1000. Runner’s up get $500.

If nothing else, if you enter, you KNOW that you’ll have the most unique prom outfit at your school – so there’s nothing to lose! So, what’re you waiting for? break out the Duck Tape and design away!

Wonder if THIS would convince my boy to go to prom this year…

The ever lovely Mary Ann dropped me a line recently (and I’ve been a BADBLOGGER, and kept her waiting while I hibernated! So sorry, Mary!) to let me know that Triamimic totally has our back once again. Worried that it’s not just a cold, and it’s that dreaded flu everyone’s talking about? Wondering just how much danger of contracting said flu you child is in? Absolutely fascinated to know exactly where all these flu germs are coming from in your state?

No problem! You can keep tabs on the spread of flu in your state by clicking around on the little map basted on data from SDI Fan and track the activity levels in your area so that you can prepare, and hopefully get YOUR teenagers to wear their coats! Maybe even a HAT that like, won’t totally mess up the ‘do! Though, if you discover how to make Teenage Boys wash their hands regularly, you may have done the impossible, and I might have to beg for lessons…

Not only that, but if you click on the image above, you can get a coupon for Triamintic, and you can click here to play with the map (those darn Anchoragites are in the red! Maybe I should move to Wyoming!) to check out the Could and Cough guide, get tips on how to fend off the Flu, and even FAQs about Triaminic itself!

See – I TOLD you they had our back! Check it out today!