Lookie Lookie!

After months of searching and many tears we have found a house!  We close next week.  Right now we are packing.  Oh, my, gosh.  My house is trashed.  There are no pictures of this because, well it's bad.  I have moved seven times in four years and Hopefully this will be our last for some time!  We are super super excited!  There will be more pictures when we are moved in and decorated, for the moment the pictures have all the other family's stuff in it haha.

Also, I want to brag on my husband.  I did not see eye to eye with our realtor.  She grated on my nerves.  Josh almost completely took over the house searching and realtor calling when I reached the end of my rope.  I am SOOOOOOO proud of Josh!  He doesn't like to make decisions and do all calling stuff but he stepped up and took care of it cause he loves me.  And he loves my sanity.   And values my sanity.  Thank you Love!  You da best!

Pretty!

Look what surprise I came home to this afternoon!  Aren't they pretty?  I think he loves me :D

QUICK Fashion Help Needed!!

Josh and I are going to a wedding tomorrow in West Virginia and I can't decide what I want to wear.  Nothing is blowing up my skirt lol.  The wedding is at 6 (I think).  It's outside.  A poll is on the sidebar because well I love polls!  Vote please!

 This has two views cause the front isn't exciting.  Front, look up.  Back, look down.

Ranting

You know how sometimes a conversation gets under your skin and it just nags at you?  You think of all the funny/biting/sarcastic/thoughtful answers you could have given at just the right moment to make the conversation go much smoother, but it is already after the fact and you can’t go back, lest you look like George Constanza in one particular Seinfeld episode when he tracked some guy down just to tell him a comeback.  This is one of those times.  I wish I had given my opinion a little more forcefully, had more time to think of an appropriate response, instead I just stood there looking shocked and offended.  Now you get to hear all the things I could have/should have/would have said.

I was talking to a woman the other day who was on a soapbox of her own about child abuse.  Child abuse is bad.  It’s that simple.  End of story, right?  Wrong.  This woman went on to say that people were taking their children out of the school system to be “homeschooled” so that teachers couldn’t see the bruises and report the parents to DCS.  To this end she would like for all homeschooling families to have regular visits from child protective services, to have a government mandated curriculum, and to have regular state testing.  Hold the phone.  I know a lot of homeschooling families, in fact my mom homeschooled my brother for two years.  It is BEYOND generalizing to say that people pull their kids out of public school in order to beat them.  There may be some, but there are also a lot of parents who beat their kids in places where the bruises don’t show and send them on to school.  That is NOT AT ALL homeschooling the sense of the word that pretty much everyone uses.

Homeschooling has a lot of critics.  A lot of people say that it isn’t good for kid because they aren’t socialized and/or the parents aren’t qualified to teach.  I disagree with both of those statements but they have been argued just about into the ground.  My real issue is making it out that all homeschooling families need to be under a governmental magnifying glass because they aren’t providing adequate care for their child, be it academically or physically, is absurd.  The government has more than they can handle now, let’s not add to it. 

 

As a general group, although far less general than the generalizations this woman was making (how many times can I use general in a sentence?), homeschooling parents are some of the most involved parents I’ve ever met.  I mean, it’s in the nature of what they are doing!  These parents are with their children for huge blocks of time, they naturally become enormously involved with their children’s schooling and life.  To paint them as parents to be suspicious of is offensive!  Homeschooling is NOT an easy task; I remember that from my mother homeschooling.  It is draining to be parent and teacher and it is not taken on lightly.  Parents who pull their kids out of the public school system do so at a great sacrifice of their own time and sanity; they do it in the best interests of their kids.

Because this is such a monumental decision for both parent and child, it takes something major to decide to leave the school system (probably more so than to never start public schooling, because then homeschooling is the norm, not any less difficult, but it isn’t that sudden change).  Oftentimes the reason to leave is directly related to the curriculum being taught.  Sometimes parents don’t agree with what is being taught, or with how, or with what is not being taught, or the quality of what is taught.  WHY should the government get to control what goes on in a homeschooling situation?  In my opinion, they shouldn’t.  The parents aren’t using tax payer money and so should not have to use any sort of mandatory curriculum.  It allows homeschoolers to have the latitude that so many crave to teach to specific interests or to take things “out of order” according to the local school systems.  That is my beef with mandatory testing. I don’t care if the kids need to be tested every couple of years to make sure they have the basics like reading and math, but I don’t think that testing should be so specific that parents are forced to “teach the test” as public school teachers are.  I think if a parent wants to teach the solar system in 2^nd grade instead of 3^rd then their kids shouldn’t be penalized on tests because they aren’t covering things in the order the state says they should.  Who made the state all knowing?  Waiting for an answer… hearing crickets…oh yeah, they aren’t.  

Moral of the story:  Back off homeschoolers.  They are like any other parent.  They are trying to do the very best they can do for their child.  They are NOT all abusive, controlling monsters who keep their kids in cages and beat them with plumbing pieces.  This is what I wish I had said, but didn’t articulate well in the moment.

Brain...Is...Mush

My brain is a lovely bowl of jelly, jellified goo.  Today abc Family had the most amazing lineup on tv and I have watched and watched and watched.  

First up was Dirty Dancing.  Ahhhhh, Dirty Dancing.  This is most definitely one of my top five favorite movies of all time.  The chemistry=amazing.  

Best Scene:  Toss-up between the dance lessons montage and the final dance scene.  Patrick Swayze can sing "I've Had the Time of My Life" to me any day.  Well, he's dead so I guess not.  Poor guy.  His legacy (and legs and abs) live on in a pop culture phenomenon.

Best Song:  Is there even a contest?  Naturally, I’ve Had the Time of My Life.

Best Line:  "I know Johnny didn't take the wallet.  I know because he was  in his room all night.  And the reason I know is because I was with him."  Baby just totally laid it all on the line and told it all to protect Johnny.

Of course the best known "Nobody puts Baby in a corner" is also great.

I really wanted to skip church to finish watching Dirty Dancing, but I didn't figure that was a legit reason to miss.

Grease came on next.  I sang my heart out.  Like, belting out Hopelessly Devoted.  I’m sure the neighbors were impressed.

Best Scene:  Definitely when Sandy comes out in those great black pants (BTW, I really want some of those) and all the guys turn and look at her with their mouths hanging open.

Best Song:  There Are Worse Things I Could Do.  Rizzo is my favorite character.  She may have been a little loose, perhaps a bit crude, but I love her “I don’t care” attitude.  

Best Line:  “Tell me about, stud.”

Then it was Sunday afternoon nap time because Grease 2 was on and it paled in comparison to the original.  Sad.

After naptime there was Two Weeks Notice.  I love Sandra Bullock.  She has great comedic timing.  I mean, know people write her scripts but she is still darn funny.

Best Scene:  When Lucy makes the mad dash to the RV bathroom and the kids inside are scared and George is trying to make conversation.  Haha, oh funny funny.

Best Line: “In high school, Rick Beck took me parking. You know, parking?  And the whole time I talked about Nelson Mandela.  Don't know why I did that.”  Somehow I just identify with rambling on about, well, nothing, in what should be a touchy feeling situation.  Really, who can blame you!

Best Song:  Now, this is obviously not a musical, but it did have one really great song that introduced me to a new artist.  “The Nearness of You” by Norah Jones, it makes my heart swoon.

Fourth up was Sweet Home Alabama.  That girl had everything didn’t she?  Great job, two super good looking men willing to pledge their lives to her, and great hair.  Just about makes you sick, except that it is so entertaining.

Best Scene:  Melanie and Bobby Ray showing the guy around the Carmichael plantation all the while faking that Melanie grew up there, that there are ghosts and so on.  I love Bobby Ray.  He’s a hoot.

Best Line:  “What d’you wanna go and marry me for?  So I can kiss you anytime I want.”  Josh sometimes says that to me.  It makes my heart melt.  J

Best Song:  Hmm, there aren’t tons of songs in this besides Sweet Home Alabama and I’m not a big country fan.  I guess if I have to choose, I’d say “Keep Your Hand to Yourself” (It’s from the scene where Jake comes in on his plane and finds his house all redecorated).

I hope you caught the great movies too!  Shout out your fav. scenes/lines/songs!