My version of the truth...

I got the sweetest shout out from one of my favorite political bloggers.

I'm sure I've mentioned her before, you know me (in an internet stalker kind of way) I love to talk politics. Even a good argument with one of my few (perhaps only) republican friends can be a great opportunity to ruffle his feathers.

I do like to screw with people's sense of security.
Even if it's as juvenile as messing up my friend's overly organized OCD closet.
Or putting a rainbow bumper sticker on some red neck's jacked up 4 x 4 truck w/an NRA sticker and a gun rack.
Or even putting a tattoo on my then 2 year old, right before my in-laws once every 7 year visit.

It's true, I do like to push people's buttons...especially if they piss me off...or just for my own sick amusement.

Just like Maude said, "Well, if some people get upset because they feel they have a hold on some things, I'm merely acting as a gentle reminder: here today, gone tomorrow, so don't get attached to things."

So, ten truths about me...

1. I'm left handed.
2. I've always wanted to get a tattoo of Max from Where the Wild Things Are.
3. I use my vacuum to kill spiders.
4. I like to sleep diagonally in the bed.
   
5. Hence, I wish there was a bed bigger than king size.
6. I love the way my pillow smells.
7. I wear cologne instead of perfume. I prefer woodsy vs. flowery
8. I have eight scars on my body. Even though they're from surgeries, I tell people I've been in a knife fight.
9. I think Clive Owen and Gerard Butler are edible.
10. I think I'm going to be Mary Poppins this year for Halloween.

The one thing that probably won't happen is #2. I will definitely get a tattoo, however, now that the movie, Where the Wild Things Are is coming out, getting the Max tattoo now will just seem cheesy.

To all my favorite bloggers, you know who you are...thanks for the great writing and reading.

Do our kids really need an extra 3 hours in school?

Obama's new announcement yesterday got me thinking.

There is no doubt that the American school system needs an overhaul, but I don't think arbitrarily adding 3 extra hours to the school day is the answer.

I already see high burn out rates in teachers and students alike.
Compared to my elementary education in the 1970's, children are being pushed harder to learn concepts at an earlier age, given more homework/busy work and given less time to be 'a kid'.

Adding an additional 3 hours to the average school day will completely take away any chance for a childhood and severely impact parent/child relationships.

As it is now, most working parents only spend on average 3 hours or less a day (Monday-Friday) with their children. In that 3 hours, a parent needs to help with homework, make dinner, get their children ready for bed and spend quality time with their children. Forget running errands, cleaning, and extracurricular activities. Add more children to the scenario and it's next to impossible.

When we lived overseas the monkeys were in the American School system. Lucky for us, my husband's company paid for their tuition(can you say cha-ching).

Their school day started at 8am and ended at 3pm. Because most of the kids attending were from expat families, the school understood the difficulties expats experienced and kids were rarely given homework. All school work was finished at school (made sense to me). Every student attended a study hall class.

The differences here in America are staggering. Even though the girls attend one of the best public schools in America (98.7% of the students go on to 4 year university), the parents are expected to supplement the kids education, (i.e. I often feel like I'm repeating the 5th and 10th grade).

I remember my father helping every now and then with a book report, but my parents were never expected to sit down everyday at the kitchen table and help me with my homework. My brother and I still had plenty of time to be kids.
School was where the teachers educated the kids, home was where the parents parented the kids, weekends were for family time and the two never met except at fundraisers and parent/teacher conferences.

I already see kids who feel the pressure of enormous amounts of homework. My eldest spends approximately 2-3 hours a day on homework...my youngest 1-2 hours. I remember the time chart parents received when I was a kid...

Kindergarten - no homework

1st grade - 10 minutes/a day

2nd grade - 20 minutes/a day

3rd grade - 30 minutes/a day

4th grade - 40 minutes/a day

and so on...

Teachers didn't send home 20 pages of dittos of busy work.
I had time to go to piano lessons once a week, soccer practice twice a week, and still be home at 6pm for dinner.

Our teachers are already underpaid and our kids overworked, I'm just not sure this is the answer.

My brother...

I didn't know why she came for me.
Every Thursday for as long as I could remember.
Why me and not my brother?

She always took me for ice cream and then to the park.

Even at 5, I tried to understand what she wanted.
I tried to answer her questions without telling her my secrets.

And at the end of every visit, I'd get more and more scared, waiting...wanting to go home.
Hoping this time, she didn't move us to another home, another family.

Please don't ask us to move again.
Please don't ask us to move again.

After every visit, she'd drive me home.
We'd come around the corner, and I'd hold my breath till I could see him.

Sitting on the steps, waiting.
Right where I'd left him. Holding his paint chipped fire engine.

Always waiting.
Knowing I'd always come back for him.

Sex after 40...

Both my husband and I hit our 40's within the last two years.

I'll admit after 17 years of marriage, our sex life has gone through its share of changes.

We often marvel at how we had enough energy to have sex 5 times a day while going to college, working two part time jobs (his at school, mine off campus) and his water polo practice twice a day. When did we have time to sleep? Go to parties? Recover from drinking too much?

And then I remember I was 19/20 and he was 21/22.

A time where staying up till 4am frantically writing a paper due at 9am, didn't keep me from working a six hour shift, going to 3 classes and apparently fucking my brains out for 3 hours.

After 21 years(total) together, our sex life has gone through peaks and valleys. Babies and graveyard shifts.

And now at 41, I finally get the whole Demi Moore/Ashton Kutcher thing.

See, women go through their sexual peak sometime in their late 30's to early 40's whereas men peak sometime in their 20's.

You'd have to have a 20 year old on stand by...or risk giving your husband a heart attack.

Geez, I feel old...

It's official. I'm old.

It was the first day of middle school for my baby monkey today.

No more elementary school.
No more kisses out the door.
No more hugs goodbye at the bus stop.

She's no baby, she's a big girl now.

(weep)

It was like standing at the bus stop with a bunch of strangers.
Only one other parent (besides me) threw caution to the wind and waited it out till by bus came...much to the shame of my monkeys.

I had no one to high five after the bus had left.
Another social outlet gone.

(sniff)

This sucks.





BTW, my oldest monkey didn't even acknowledge leaving the house this morning, so she was either wearing too much make-up or flip-flops. Or both.