Almost NOT Class of 2007!

As I mentioned before, Too Smart graduated form high school this past Saturday. It was a bittersweet graduation that almost wasn't . . . Mr. Too Smart who has always been the top of his class, since Kindergarten, who at the age of nine aspired to attend MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) to become a computer engineer (even though he has limited usage of the household computers because he crashes them every time he touches them, but I digress), who has tested Post High School on his Standardized tests since Fourth Grade . . .

. . . who this year decided that doing homework wasn't important when you think you are invincible, and who also decided that since his Mom spends so much money on his education, they have to let him graduate (whoever the heck They is), who also got a girlfriend and a group of friends who leave a lot to be desired, who decided it was fun to be disrespectful to his parents and still expect to get his way, because once again, he is invincible . . . need I continue?

It wasn't until Monday of last week when we got the email from his counselor that he was indeed going to graduate . . .so the day was a bit bittersweet. The hardest part, for me anyway, was listening to all of the accomplishments of the graduates who had earned high honors and awards, and were off to great colleges, knowing Mr. Too Smart could have been one of them. Unfortunately his choices created a life lesson for himself, learned the hard way, in my opinion. Nonetheless, he graduated and we love him, most of the time, except when he lies to all of us about who is supposed to pick him up because at the age of 18 he still has no desire to get his driver's license, and who I believe to be the only 18 year old on the face of this planet who has a car already, yet still has no desire to get a driver's license!! AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

I guess he expects his Mommy to drive him to college next year, oh wait, he may not be attending college next year, not even a Junior College, because he has not taken the time to register . . .Okay, let me stop now, because I could go on and on and on!

I'll end with some pictures of the day . . . his step-dad took great pictures because he got up close and personal to the stage while I sat in my seat blubbering over the speeches, especially the one given by the Valedictorian who graduated with an Honors GPA of 4.87 . . . I literally almost fell over the balcony when I heard that - Way to go! Until I get the CD of the good pictures, you'll have to bear with mine . . Enjoy!

Here is the backdrop of the stage that I just had
to get a picture of, blurry or not, so we could all remember for the rest of our lives where all of the money went for the past four years!

Here is the sea of red . . . he's in there somewhere!

Here they are . . . Charming Child is proud of her big brother no matter what, and in this picture she is thinking, "Please hurry because I need to get home before he does, if he's coming over, so I can put his DVD player back in his room, so he doesn't beat me up!"

The above picture was supposed to post over to the left so there would be a pattern, but it didn't, and blogger is really getting on my nerves, so this will be the last picture today . . . Me, the blubbering maniac, and Mr. Too Smart, wondering if I'll drive him to Grad Night, and possibly pay for it too, since he didn't register on time!!
(Does anyone have any suggestions for chin exercises? If so, email me!)

P.S. The camera is intact!

Will someone please take a census already??!!

I was going to write about the high school graduation of Too Smart For His Own Britches (Charming Child's brother, for those of you who may not remember), but 1) I don't feel like going to my car to get the camera that holds the graduation pictures, that I threw on the floorboard in a mere moment of "slight" anger, 2) I don't feel like going to get the camera because I don't want to know if I broke it, or not, and 3) graduation was a bittersweet day, and I am still trying to gather my thoughts and feelings about the whole day, but mostly because I don't want to know whether or not I broke my camera. I do promise, the graduation post, with pictures (because I know I didn't damage the memory card) is coming soon.

So instead, I would like to know, are there any Young and the Restless fans out there? For those of you that may not know, Y & R is a Soap Opera that takes place in a city called Genoa City, and for all I know, the city has a population of about twenty, and all twenty people are somehow related! Am I right, all of you Y & R fans?

Seriously, let me give you an example . . .Jack Abbott, son of John Abbott, was at one time married to Nikki Newman, which meant he was Victoria and Nick Newman's stepfather, then had a brief encounter with some woman whom I do not rememember her name as she is no longer on the show, but they had a son, whom I also do not remember his name as he is also no longer on the show, anyway, who cares what happenend in between, Jack is now married to Sharon Newman, Nick's ex-wife, and is now the stepfather of his ex-stepson's son, while Nick Newman is married to Phyllis, who happens to be Jack's ex!! Are you still with me? That is eight people all related, just by one person!! The writers must sit around for days trying to figure out how they can make a storyline with the least amount of characters as possible. Talk about cutbacks!! Oh well, it is still my favorite show and has been for the past 16 years . . . .but, seriously, will someone please take a census? I would honestly like to know just how many people reside in Genoa City!

I understand the logic in your advice, but . . .

Do you ever just find yourself laughing out loud about something that happened in the past? This happens to me more than I can mention, sometimes I even find myself laughing about something that I didn't think was funny at the time, but is now hilarious. Tonight I decided to take a drive to Starbucks to get coffee, and as I was driving, for some reason my mind drifted back to a few days ago, to a conversation the Director of Charming Child's Musical had with the children at the end of rehearsal. Mr. Rick is a fabulous Director, he has an abundant amount of patience and he is so good with the children, they all love him! Each evening at the end of rehearsal he has a talk with all of the children about what they did great on, what they need to improve on, how proud he is of them, and then he allows them to ask questions. Usually the questions consist of silly little thoughts that the children conjure up just for the sake of being able to speak, such as, "I know I just asked you this at snack time, but do you know when the auditions are for the electronic voice?" To which Mr. Rick responds, "I didn't know an hour ago and I still don't know, but I promise just as I have promised you the last ten thousand times you have asked, you will be the first one to know when I find out!"
Mr. Rick also recently learned that when you are dealing with 72 children from ages 6 - 11, it is best not to mention 'pants on fire' as this could set the children off on a tangent for a half an hour!! A child asked a question about messing up his lines during the performance and Mr. Rick responded, "Don't worry about it, just keep going. Even if your pants catch on fire, just keep going!" You can imagine what happened next . . . 30 minutes of every possible scenario of pants catching on fire, my favorite though was, "What happens if the audience's pants catch on fire?" Mr. Rick responds, "Well, we will simply ask the audience to step outside, remove their pants, then kindly come back in very quietly as to not disturb all of you who are continuing your lines!"
So, this brings us to this past Thursday, end of rehearsal, Mr. Rick vs. the 72 children . . . Mr. Rick explains that it is a three-day weekend, which means it will be five days before practice, so he wants them to practice their lines and songs at home using the CD that the Music Director so kindly made each of them. He offers the suggestion to listen to the CD with Mom and Dad, teach them the songs and sing them together. "It will be a lot of fun! Mom and dad will realize how hard you have been working, they'll be really proud of you," he says. Then the little boy who is dying to be the electronic voice raises his hand. Now this little boy is probably at the far end of the age group, and whenever he speaks I have to remind myself that he is just a child although he sounds as if he is a doctor, seriously!! Teachbroeck, you know those smarty-pants kids, right? So he says, and I promise these are his exact words, and when I thought about them again today, I just had to laugh, "Mr. Rick, I understand the logic in your advice, but the last play I was in, I received the same advice, and I did teach my Mom the songs, and it was a lot of fun, but then during the performance she just WOULD NOT SHUT-UP!!"

Where's Charming Child?

Can you guess which one of these lovely children belongs to me? I'll post the answer in a few days . . .Don't pick the one with the blonde hair, that's me!! Can't you see the resemblance in me and the painted me (see Mother's Day post below)

I Don't Need a Disposable Toothbrush . . .

Yesterday I had the worst headache . . . it just refused to go away!! At first I thought maybe I needed a caffeine fix, so I trekked on over to Starbucks (one without the major bling episode going on 24 hours a day, every damn day!) and ordered my Iced Grande Extra Ice White Mocha, drank it like a crazy woman, and still had a headache!! Come to think of it, maybe the coffee didn't work because I drank it too fast, hmmm, oh well. Next, I decided that I needed Tylenol desperately, but I was nowhere near my house where I have the Costco sized bottle in the bathroom, so, for the very first time in my entire life (that I can remember) I stopped at a gas station to buy Tylenol!! I have no idea why I think this is a big deal . . . probably for the same reason I get all crazy when I have to use a public restroom because I am too far from home and don't have a change of clothes!

So, I walk into the little convenience store and look around the front wall where they keep all of the drugs, and all I could see was disposable toothbrushes, band-aids and neosporin, and miniature sewing kits . . . oh the horror, I finally get up enough courage to buy Tylenol from the gas station and they don't even have any, and my head is hurting, bad!! I turn to walk out, and there, beside the door, was a whole wall of Pain Relievers . . . I let out a huge sigh of relief, which caused the clerk to look at me, so I went on to tell him all about my headache, because you know, he didn't have anything better to do than listen to me complain! Finally, I had Tylenol, and it even came with a "convenient travel cup" which was basically a small envelope for which one is supposed to pour water in . .. if only I had water!!!!!!!!!

On a side note, I bought myself a pair of sandals yesterday, because I really needed them as much as I really need a hole in my head. Anyway, my sandals are called "Bling!" Now I can wear them everyday to Starbucks!!

Ryles, what did you do for the first time yesterday? Please tell . . .

Beware: Venting Post Below

Dear Certain Patrons of a Certain Starbucks,

I am going to skip all of the mushy -gushy "How are you?" and "What have you been up to lately?" because frankly I am not interested and I would rather just move on to business (it is now when you should ignore the run-on sentences and grammatical errors!)

Please be advised that Prom is an annual event. Annual means the event happens ONCE per year, usually in the Spring. Prom is also an event strictly for high school students. With that said, please also be advised that it is not necessary to sport your prom attire every single, solitary, freaking time you go to Starbucks to drink coffee! Now, I am not saying you shouldn't be able to dress nicely, because I am all for looking nice when going out of the house, I am simply saying, loud and clear, LEAVE THE PROM DRESSES, SHOES, HAIRSTYLES, JEWELRY, ETC at home when going to partake in a cup of coffee! Now, I am no stranger to bling, in fact I am all for wearing the bling, but please be aware that there is a limit to looking good with bling and just plain looking trashy!

If your intention of sporting your prom attire to Starbucks is to be noticed, let me inform you, everyone within a four block radius of the establishment already knows you are there, prom attire and bling, or not, because you are so damn loud!!!!

I hope that you have a great day!

Love,

A Starbucks Patron Who Is Tired Of Wearing Her Sunglasses To Drink Coffee

P.S. Please also advise your male friends that I am getting tired of seeing my refelection in their patent leather, white dress shoes (worn with jeans nonetheless) everytime I look down towards the ground. Also, it is not necessary to bathe in cologne, once again, we know you are there, we can hear you and every single word of your conversation!!

Love, The Girl Who Relly Appreciates You

I hope that all of the mom's out there had a fabulous Mother's Day! My day was pretty laid-back (until Little Sis emailed and text messaged with a wedding crisis) Okay, the crisis wasn't that bad, she just needed to be calmed down, however, by the time I received the text message that said to disregard the email, then read the email I was supposed to disregard, then call her, she had already calmed herself down . . . crisis averted!! So anyway, I digress yet again . . . the day was pretty laid back . . . went to breakfast with Mom, drove with her downtown so she knew where to report for jury duty today, managed to get out of going to Ikea with her, but did have to endure some crazy sporting goods store so she could get something for her beloved dog. We then gave her a Mother's Day gift, which was a pair of new slippers to replace the pair that her beloved dog chewed one of . . . so Little Sis and I spent a pretty penny on these fancy-smancy Cabela's slippers, fleece lined suede with hard soles, you know almost like Ugg boots, and she opened them and turned to her beloved dog and said, "Thank you Jackson, Mama likes her new slippers!" Then turned to me and said, "I only needed one!" I then informed her that 1)The slippers weren't from Jackson, the squeaky toy in her face at 7:00 a.m was, and 2) You can't just buy one slipper!!!!!

Now, back to the beginning of the day . . . I was also asked to wake up quite early in the morning by having presents shoved in my face, and if you know me, you know to not mess with me in the morning . . . apparently that slipped Charming Child's ever precious little mind!! Charming Child gave me a hand-painted paper mache` cup and saucer, that I have been informed I cannot drink my coffee in (which is not very helpful so early in the morning), and this beautiful, hand-painted portrait of me (for all of you who have been wondering what I look like!)

Attached to this lovely painting was this (Ryles and Ibeebarbie, make sure you are seated!). . .

You are careing because you take care of me no matter what.

You are funny because you always do something without thinking.

You do your very best to take care of me and you always help everybody. You try to make everybody happy. You drive me everywhere I need to be.

I need you to no I love you.

I hope this makes you feel great because you make me feel great everyday.

Love, The Girl who relly appreciates you

Charming Child

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After I read this letter, I took a few moments to enjoy the sweetness of its contents, then I promptly informed her that the next time she screams at me, I am going to read this to her, over and over and over again!! (Okay, as a teacher I just have to know, how does one charming 10 year old know how to spell "appreciate" and not "really"?! I mean, come on, it's one of the 100 Frequency Words that she should have been taught since First Grade!! Oh nevermind, who cares!)

Here's to hoping all of the Mom's out there had a fabulous day and have a wonderful year!!

It is about the time when I ask myself, "Huh??!!"

Wow! It is good to be back! I have been without internet for a few weeks, but that is a story for another day, and I am finally back in business! I have missed all of you and I have so much catching up to do!!

I have a million posts, yes literally one million, running through my head, but today I just have to share the dialogue of this "philosophical" conversation I had with Charming Child yesterday. Before I get into the conversation, let me give you a bit of background information . . . Charming Child has a boy in her Fourth grade class who, to put it lightly, has an odd imagination and personality . . . as his art teacher I often have to ask him to ease up a bit on the graphic violence he depicts in his artwork. I mean, seriously, the assignment was to use a ruler to draw a train . . .not, use a ruler to draw a train that is running over someone!! Anyway, I digress . . . This young man, N.K., is also extremely gifted and bright, I mean really smart. N.K. has a young mother, I believe she had him when she was 14, or maybe 15 . . . so, here is our conversation . . .

CC: Hey, you know how N.K. is really smart? And, you know how Rory (from Gilmore Girls) just graduated from Yale, the Ivy "Link" college?

Me: Yes

CC: Well, you know N.K.'s mom had him when she was in high school, and Rory's mom had her when she was in high school too.

Me: Yes

CC: So, I was thinking that maybe they are so smart because when their mom's were pregnant they had to go to school everyday and so they were already learning before they were born.

Me: Huh?