I'm a big fan of BBC America's 'How Clean Is Your House?'.  People write in and nominate their friend's, relatives or neighbors who have very dirty homes, and Kim Woodburn and Aggie MacKenzie go pay them a visit and help them clean the place up. There have been some FILTHY homes on that show.  Nasty, dirty, smelly, moldy....people who have had poo and pee smeared all over their toilet bowls and walls, mildew in all the wondows, laundry piled up 6' high, pee stained couches and carpe...

It was spring photo day for my children's school district a couple of weeks ago.  I haven't purchased school photos (spring and otherwise) for a couple of years, mainly because they've been incredibly expensive and generally not very good.  This year, though, I'm making an exception.  The photos they all brought home are very, very good, and I was very surprised - they're not what I would consider 'normal' school photos.  Well, Jake's photo is pretty much a standard schoo...

Tomorrow morning, I'lll be putting clean sheets on the bed in my daughter's room and doing a little light housework. Tomorrow lunchtime, I'll be having difficulty sitting still. Tomorrow afternoon, my husband and I will be driving to the other side of St Louis.  To Lambert Airport, to be exact.  No, I'm not going to be dropping him off, not this time.  This time we'll be picking someone up. We'll be picking my mum up.  She's arriving tomorrow for a slightly-over-...

My husband and I are going to my daughter's school for an assembly this afternoon. She's been nominated as Student Of The Month and the assembly is in her honor.  Dave and I will stand in front of the entire school and hand Shea her certificate and prize. Shea's ecstatically happy about it - she says that it's usually the Preps or the Plastics that get this award, and seeing as she identifies herself as a member of the Punk crowd she feels like she's going to be representin' for them...

In the midst of all the remembering and wishing and sadness that 9/11/2001 bought about, I'd like to wish my son (Davey) a happy 12th birthday. Make the most of this year, kid.  Next year you'll be lumped into the 'teenage' demographic....and whilst that would explain some of your behaviour already, don't wish your life away. Happy birthday kid.  We love you, boyo. Oh, and happy birthday also to Rebecca V, who was actually born on 9/11/2001 and whose father was really disap...

10 years ago today, I was busy. I was laboring with my son, Jake.  Actually, it was around this time that the morphine wore off and they wouldn't give me any more because I was 7cm.  I stayed there for 5 hours, and they refused to give me any more pain relief the entire time.  At 6:16pm MST, Jacob Solomon was born.  He was 8lbs 7oz and he was 20" long, and he was the calmest baby with the longest toes I'd ever seen. He's 10 today.  He's got his ID card now, so h...

When I was a teenager, my mother used to come into my room and look at the posters of Duran Duran, the Psychedelic Furs, Flock Of Seagulls, Simple Minds, Spandau Ballet and The Clash and make disparaging remarks: "he looks like he could use a bottle of shampoo and a comb" "is he wearing MAKEUP???!!" "what on earth's that he's wearing?  A bedsheet with holes cut in it?" "I simply do not understand why it's necessary to dye your hair those colors.  It's really most undig...

My daughter picked up her new glasses last night.  She wore them home from the store and marvelled at how much she could see. I had been worried about her not liking them, but this morning she sais "y'know Ma, the more I look at myself in these, the more I like myself in them". I feel the same way.  She's always been a pretty girl, but in the past year....she's blossomed, and when I see her wearing her new glasses I see the young woman she's becoming breaking through the little g...

Our daughter can't see. She needs to get an eye exam and glasses.  WE've been telling ehr this for weeks, and she's been saying for weeks that she can see fine and that she isn't going to wear glasses.  She's even run off to her room crying at the thought of having to wear "stupid dorky" glasses. Her arguments have ranged from "everyone will make fun of me" to "If you make me get them I just won't wear them".  Our counters have been "since when did you care what other people...

Well, the kids grandma and grandpa send us a Christmas card today, and in it was a check from them, the kid'd uncle and greatgrandma too. Jake's going to have enough to get his drum kit.  He knows, and he's incredibly excited.  When he first found out he said 'excuse me a moment', stepped out the back door and screamed 'YAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!' at the top of his lungs.  Then he got all of his sister's concert DVD's together and spent the rest of the evening watching the d...

Shea had me do the green hair and eyelashes again today, and this time didn't run off when I asked to take her picture.  She's feeling much better, btw....she went back to the Doc again this morning and we figured out what was wrong - she'd dislocated a rib.  Luckily one of the pediatricians is a doctor of ostopathy, and he was able to come in and pop it back into place.  Right after he'd done it she sat up and took in a deep breath - and didn't wince because it hurt.  She's ...

My daughter is slowly adopting a neo-punk style. She's listening to GreenDay and The Ramones, has hijacked my Converse and made them her own, had me wrap some strands of her hair and put beads on the end, and is experiementing with neck ties, Tshirts and ripped and then safety-pinned jeans and pants.  She hasn't been well the past few days, but today she said she felt well enough to come out with me for an hour and choose her Christmas gifts. We spent an hour and ...

I was dreading Dave being gone this time. This past summer was difficult, and the year that he was gone for was even harder.  The kids didn't deal well with their dad being gone; the boys fought like cat and dog and nobody wanted to co-operate with me or anyone else on anything . So, I was dreading him being gone again.  I'm not 100% yet, I'm still really limited to what I can do.  I was worried. My worries were unfounded. They've been great.  They've helped me o...

It rained all day today here.  The roads and sidewalks were covered with puddles, some of them 3 or 4 inches deep. The kids came home from school, all excited about going trick or treating.  Dave and I were going to ask them if they'd prefer that we took them, all dressed up, to WalMart and got them a giant size bag of candy each....but after seeing how their little faces lit up as they donned their costumes we decided that we'd brave the rain and the cold and take them trick or tre...

I had complained last week that my birth mother hadn't been in contact with me, despite having had contact info for myself AND a neutral third party. Some people said to give it some time, some said that she might not be able to handle it....there were various theories about her silence. So, I decided to go and do some digging.  I know all of her married names, so I searched for all of them in the local newspapers of the town where she lives. I was shocked at what I got.  It's...