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Mon, Aug 17, 2009 10:42 AM
Well the kids started Pre K and Kindergarten on Aug 11th @ Madison County Elem. BUT, the next day they were told to withdrawl b/c we live on a dead end street on top Keel Mtn that is actually annexed to Jackson County. All but one bill gets paid to Madison Co. Todd works in Madison Co. The closest school isn't close and would make it hard for him to take them in the morning and make it to work on time. And if I did, it would just mean more wear/tear on my van's transmission. The school does have a pre K, but it is full, so Zilya and Zander (who is staying with us) will not get to attend. It has been a long frustrating time talking to all these people w/the school. There is a school board meeting on Thursday where we will submit our case, ask for a waiver and keep our fingers crossed that they get to stay at that school. Now we will have to move, again..

On top of this, Sarah and her 24 yo idiotic loser, slacker of a boyfriend is still living here, working barely and contributing nothing.
And then, they add more pets to their room.

Also.....ugh too much for now.

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Christine: I've been wondering about you lately Sarah, haven't heard anything from you, especially photos. Guess I know why, sorry to hear all this stuff going on, it never seems to end. I wish you well and will be thinking of you.....oh, no chance of kickin' that 24 yo idiotic loser, slacker of a boyfriend still living there to the curb???!! I would be pulling my hair out.

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Fri, Sep 19, 2008 8:09 PM
OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF BABES:
Ok, I REALLY need to start typing out what these kids say. Sometimes just too cute and funny.

Almost daily Zilya tells me a lil about her dreams. Today it was a dream about a Tiger in the grocery store! The other day it was a dream where she was driving my van and wrecked..that was a scary dream.

Tonight at bed time, I did my x's and o's with Kon and ended w/"Go Tigers" and he said..tigers??? and I said that is your school mascot.. and he tells me how his teacher wears an elephant (alabama) And then he says, "daddy went to Georgia..G" and I said, your aunt Melissa went to Penn State.. what letter does that start with?" and he says P, and then I say,Rachel lives on Penn street..and he laughs, "A pen?? she lives on a penn?" "Like we lived on Lincoln street, like lincoln logs and a penny!!"

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Wed, Sep 10, 2008 9:23 PM
Wowza! time has gotten away with me and I haven't updated in nearly a year! The kids are great, beautiful and smart!

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Thu, Feb 7, 2008 9:42 PM
In other news, mommy too has the mutation :( Was to get breast MRI but have to wait until nxt cycle. I will have ultrasound done on ovaries and pap done soon..and every 6mos.
http://huntsvilleivf.com/

considering another child and even perhaps PGD.

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Thu, Feb 7, 2008 9:38 PM
Konor had his 4 year ck up today.. Poor fellow got 3 shots and pricked for iron check. What a trooper!
Not sure I like this new Ped/Dr either.. hmm.. and not confident will ever find one I do like. Anyway, Konor did his 'Denver' test and is like a 5.5yo and/or older. No real advice from him tho. Konor only grew an inch and a pound in a year and is very tiny, as we figured for his age.

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Thu, Jan 10, 2008 12:24 PM
Let's see:

In good news, Konor is out of pull-ups all together. He still wets in middle of night about half the time, but I'm not going back! I make them both go pee b4 bed. No drinks past 5pm or earlier if I can and I try to wake him when I go to bed to go again.
That seems to really help. Otherwise, he wakes, changes pants and comes into our bed.

Zilya is pretty much potty-trained too! She started again on her own and is actually running to the potty on her own w/o having to be reminded. I do put her in a pull-up for bed tho.

Now for the bad news. Friday, I learned that my sister has the mutation of the breast cancer gene, BRCA 1. :(
We talked to the dr's at the cancer institute on monday and I got my blood drawn. It has been sent to Salt Lake City where they do all the genetic testing. I should know in two weeks. 50% chance I have it too.

I think my sister has decided to remove her ovaries and breasts, just not this yr right yet. I am deeply saddened by this news, but kinda figured it to be so, due to our high risk history.

I am tired of reading and talking about it for now, so I will just sit n wait.

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Sat, Dec 29, 2007 7:50 PM
Zilya stayed dry ALL day! We even went to playground and took a potty break, and stayed dry thru grocery store afterward. Yea Zee!!

Konor is in bed tonite w/o a pull up on. I've been telling him they no longer make pull ups for 4yos... Lie, lie...I know....
But I know other kids who stay dry all nite at his age.. Then again there are 8yos that still have to wear good nights or something.

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Sat, Dec 1, 2007 8:53 PM
WEATHER:

It is soo strange to me how everyone perceives the weather.. It is either too cool, cold, too hot...
well it is 'winter' in some places...and yet in the southeast, I have to hear folk complain they are cold.Ahhem??? It is currently 60 tonite, the first day of DECEMBER..yup, I said 60
NOT 60 below.

BUT have what u will there will always be a complaint.

We had the xmas parade today and were in it.. soo fun and z had a blast, esp in the end when i let her out of jeep to 'walk' run ...EVERYONE CHEERED..it was soo funny n cute.
felt like celebrities.

STILL....
it is autumn in huntsville...

no snow...

just warm

but hey we LOVE it, and now our time to shine and rub in all's faces...

It is not JULY and on our 100th day of 100 degree
temps...

IT is HARD to not like living here when the weather is this wonderful right now. sooo hard...

I may miss snow...but I know where it is..I can see it later.. :)
I hope all of you loved ones out there are safe n warm... this winter.
Remember us come July/Sept when we are sick n tired of the heat/humidity and our a/c went out for a few days or what have you....

Love n Kisses,
US

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Sat, Nov 24, 2007 3:47 PM
1) The whole "fake" thing: I don't know... I think a lot of mom's first impression is that their child doesn't need the fake stuff - but then after you lose so much you either get the picture or quit or go to natural pageants. My daughter has been competing since she was 5 months old, and she didn't start really wearing the makeup and hair until she was 2. For awhile, she balked at lashes, so we didn't do them. But then she saw other kids getting them and she decided to have them, but only I can do them on her (she won't let anyone else.) The hair is really no big deal, because the bulk of the work is on the wiglet or fall (it takes me about two hours to roll a fall and about 5 min to get it on her head and fixed) and it spares the child's hair from damage from so much teasing and curling etc. I'm not crazy about the tanning, but she doesn't mind it and we actually have our own machine; and now instead of damaging my skin, my husband tans me with it...

2) Yes, pageants are expensive. I have a professional job and make a very good living and my husband is in a solid trade. We can only afford 2-3 nationals a year, maybe 2-3 state level pageants, and a few locals here and there. And it's not just money, it's time. My son and husband play a lot of golf, so princess and I have this as our "girl thing" to do. Although my daughter is showing some interest in golf, but they won't really start her at the club until she is 6 (she's four.) A lot of other hobbies can be other-worldly expensive, so I don't see the expense argument as a case against pageants.

3) No, I'm not too concerned about pedophiles. I noticed the comment about how you thought the gentleman with "Kennedee Belle" was looking at you with disdain, but he was probably checking you out - the pageant community is a very familiar group and we
are very wary of strangers (probably a journalist he thought.) Most of us know who the kids and their groups are and it's a pretty tight community. If ANY stranger comes in, or we see anyone who doesn't belong to someone participating, we immediately take notice.
Pageants are not put on for strangers or advertised as such for the very reason we don't want a bunch of weirdos there. I don't purport to be educated about pedophiles, but it seems like from the news they prey on kids that they have easier access too. I side with
the other mom, if anyone even looks at our kids funny it's all we can do to restrain from tearing them from limb to limb. It would be interesting to have a thinktank do a study about how many pageant kids have been (for lack of a better term "attacked") via pageantry. I respect facts, and so far really neither side of the love pageants/hate pageants has come up with any.

4) When they children are babies it's not about them for sure; anyone who says differently, is not honest with themselves. My daughter is 4 and she is now getting to the point where she understands win/lose. The natural pageants are REALLY about who is the prettiest, vs glitz where it's more about performance, smile, modeling, clothes etc. It's hard to explain to a child that she lost because another child was actually prettier than her. It's easy to explain "you need to pay attention on stage and look at the judges, or let's get you a new dress, or you need to smile more..." Then they feel more in control of the situation. You can't change what you were born with but you can improve your modeling and your clothes, and your smile etc. That's hard to explain, but hey! I gave it a shot.

As far as "bribery"... I do give my daughter a small treat or gift after each competition she enjoys being on stage, but the treat is like the icing on the cake! I give my son small
monetary rewards or gifts for good grades or when he reaches certain goals for himself (homerun on the ballfield, or does well at a golf tournament etc.) I don't much see the difference.

5) It's funny, the mentality of the public is that pageant kids don't do another damn thing. For some reason, I don't know why, people think we lock our children up like "show dogs" or something. I think to only participate in pageants would definitely be unhealthy. Only doing one activity of anything is unhealthy if you ask me. I had a friend growing up who was heavily involved in ballet, and she was MISERABLE. She was extremely talented, but her mom-from-hell wouldn't let her do ANYTHING else. So craziness can go for a lot of things. My daughter plays intramural soccer at school, she snow skis (started when she was 2 and she KICKS ASS on the slopes!!!) and she goes to dance lessons once a week. And the biggest title she ever won she had not one, but two skinned knees. I can't do theatre with her because I work and it takes way too much time and we live too far from the city. Plus I hate those musty old theatres. I also hated girl scouts when I was a kid, if I never see another damn cookie it will be too soon. BTW back to the snow skiing, the director was just so all over about my daughter's ability he was begging to have her back for some demo they were doing for the school (Lordy she was only 3.) When I told him she couldn't because she had a pageant that particular week the look on his face was priceless!! And in a couple of weeks I'm taking BOTH of the kids to help volunteer at the Special Olympics (It's a blast, you should try it.)

6) Like it or not, our society objectifies women. So instead of acting like it shouldn't happen, I say meet the devil head on and deal with it. Know how to use what you have. And not sexually either so get your head straight on this. If appearances don't matter, why take a bath and brush your hair to go to work? Why wear a suit to an interview? Do ties really add IQ points? These pageants aren't just about who's the prettiest, most often, it's about who can make the most of what they've got. It sucks and its wrong, but it's life. Both my kids go to private school, and I was actually "horrified" (if you can believe I am capable of that) because a mom in my son's second grade class had dyed her child's hair (and I did ask if she did pageants - the answer was NO and she was horrified about the thought). So lots of people can have mixed up priorities!!

7) Some of "The line" for me with pageants:
- screaming at your child or punishing them for "inadequate" performance
- spending way beyond your financial means
- telling your child she's not pretty w/o her pageant items
- dying a child's hair
- bashing and being ugly to others
- losing ungracefully
- winning ungracefully

8) About the respected "experts", it really depends. If they come with FACTS I would consider it. If they come with opinions, I'm smart enough to make my own thank you after reviewing a LOT of information. I've had enough cases where doctors have been wrong to have a healthy disrespect for one or two opinions.

9) Finally, I'm a pageant mom who did pageants as a child - I didn't start until I was 8 and it was my idea (had to BEG my parents to let me do one.) Unfortunately, adolescence was not kind and I had to be "talented" for a long time before I could be "pretty". You want to hear a funny story, I tried FOREVER to WIN a pageant, and my first uh, "major" title (and I'll give away who I am to a very select few if you print this) was Miss HELL HOLE SWAMP. And No, I didn't make that up. Go Google it!!! Best thing that ever happened to me, but funny as well, hell.

10) Why glitz pageants? You won't understand this answer for the life of you but we've done both – and frankly, the natural pageants just aren't as much fun... there's no excitement of having Mr. Tim sing to you (which my daughter gets sooo EXCITED about), the loud music, the momma's hollering, the getting ready with all your friends, prissing down the hallway in your glitzy clothes, the big party on Saturday night, staying in a hotel room with other mom's and your friends, going out to eat in big groups talking about how so-and-so did such-and-such on stage... I already KNOW my daughter is pretty so I don't need to know if she can win naturally, I really don't have to have that kind of acceptance. We went to a "middle of the road" pageant recently and they had little girls in the glitz pageant dresses w/o the hair and makeup etc. and frankly that looked weirder than with. So to end the tans and flippers etc. you have to end the loud music and the clothes and the sportswear and the routines...what would happen would be the end of glitz pageants. You just don't have the level of fun and excitement at a natural pageant that you do at a glitz pageant. Now I can't help it if you get a few mom's or dad's with mis-placed perspectives when they get there.

Another perspective on glitz in general: Years ago when I was involved in the Miss America program for our state (I went twice as a preliminary winner.) It was at the height of Miss America's popularity (okay my age is showing LOL.) Back then the dresses were over the top glamorous, and we wore the tape under our boobs and had spectacular costumes and spectacular talents etc. There were wigs, and breast implants and every one of us was two bites shy of an eating disorder ;o) Swimwear was a higher percentage of our score too. Then the Miss America program decided they didn't want to be a beauty pageant anymore and really pushed the whole "smart girls" in plain dresses. You had to get a platform and perform community service. You have to write an essay. It wasn't as glamorous anymore. That's great, but unfortunately on tv people don't care you wrote a great essay, they just want to be entertained! It's not "right" and it's shallow and it's not politically correct, but it's human nature. And then they wondered why nobody wanted to watch anymore. However, if you think all the girls who participated back in my day became "bimbos" think again. A couple became doctors, my friend the ballerina owns a HUGELY successful dance school in the lower part of the state, I'm an IT manager for a large international corporation (I sooooo which I had stayed in something more bohemian though.)

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Sun, Nov 18, 2007 9:51 PM
"Christmas Guy!, hey christmas guy"

Ha Ha.... that was and is what Konor is calling Satan claus...I mean Santa... hee hee...

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