I Don't Want To Be Fabulous

Now that I'm spending my days at home, I often leave the TV on while I do everything from clean house to even nap.  Red Dog and Black Dog both seem to think we should keep the TV on 24/7, and after having worked at a television station for five years, I'm used to having the noise from one on, even when I'm not paying attention to what's on the air.  I have paid a little attention to what has been going on in TV Land lately though, and of course I have an opinion on it.

Last week after forty-three years, the soap opera One Life to Live was canceled.  Now, believe it or not I watched this particular soap opera off and on literally all of my life.  So, even though the quality of the writing had gone down hill exponentially over the years, I felt that since I could I should watch the last  episodes out of some loyalty to the stories and characters I did enjoy once upon a time.

All throughout the last episodes, ABC advertised the cheap talk show it was replacing One Life to Live with, The Revolution.  From what I can tell it's some sort of self-help show that looks just as ridiculous as The Chew, the cheap food talk show that ABC replaced All My Children with last fall.  Anyway, one of the hosts of the show, Project Runway's Tim Gunn, says something along the lines of "we're going to teach you how to be fabulous!"  The thing is, I don't want to be fabulous!  I just want to be me, and that's just fine with me.

I am so sick of all these so-called "reality" shows and talk shows telling us how we should live our lives.  As if these people live wonderfully happy lives that are fulfilled.  I imagine most of them don't even know what it is to really be happy.  They probably can't imagine the simple joy of enjoying a quite sunrise on a river bank, the wonder of just a quiet moment, curled up with a loved one, or just the ability to find happiness in all the every day things around us.

We can't all always look like runway models.  I don't really ever want to look like one, quite honestly.  I always just want to look neat and non-frumpy.  I'm not looking for some new fads to make me happy.  I find happiness every day in feeling my baby kick, seeing my husband smile at a joke, or watching Red Dog or Black Dog be their silly selves.  To me, that's far better than the fake plaster of being "fabulous" that shabbily covers of a world of hurts.

Things That Irritate Me #1: Toilet Roll Covers

There are a great many things on this planet that irritate me, but I'll pick and choose which ones I broadcast.  Today I'm focusing on Kleenex Cottonelle Roll Covers.  We're told to "Respect the Roll" and cover it up with a stylish (in some people's opinion) but probably cheaply made cover for our toilet paper. REALLY???  Do we really need these to be the next big thing in toilet stuff?

It seems that apparently the toilet paper industry has hit a wall in product development.  They have added extra softness, multiple ply paper, moisturizers, and who knows what else to toilet paper trying to one-up the competition over the years.  One company likes to make a big deal about their lack of leftover lint, while personally we've found them to leave more lint than any other brand.

They've developed and marketed flushable wipes, which over that past several years have become a staple in our home.  Heaven knows they've helped stave off the dreaded hemorrhoids during my pregnancy.  I imagine mothers of young children could have told the toilet paper companies that this would have been a good idea ages before they decided to market it.

Back to the roll covers though.  I just don't get it.  First of all, none of my bathrooms are decorated in some sort of modern, overly girly, feng shui decor.  They just don't appeal to me.  Secondly, I don't want to hide toilet paper from anyone in my house.  It's a necessity, and I would rather people know where it is and use all they need to (without clogging the toilet) than for them to possibly not use any because they can't find it.

Seriously, would you rather prefer to act like the stuff doesn't exist and run the risk of someone not having "a square to spare" or being clean?  So, I'm not going to waste however much money Cottonelle wants me to in order to place toilet roll covers in any of my three bathrooms.  I embrace the fact that we have toilet paper in our house, I don't worship (respect) it to the point of giving it it's own special throne (ha, ha), but it's here, it's not going anywhere, get used to it.  Don't try to hide it.

You Need Me To What???

In the almost two months since I left my job to prepare for baby and to be a Stay At Home Mom, I've been given some rather unusually different tasks to complete by my other half.  Today's task seems to be the most interesting thus far though, and I thought that I should share.

My husband has his Conceal to Carry license because he often has to spend time out on job sites that are often in rather dicey parts of towns around the region.  Due to this, he usually keeps a pistol with him when he travels.  It has become an automatic habit of his to pack his pistol just as he does shaving cream and contact solution.  This afternoon, he and a coworker are embarking to spend the next day or so at a job site on a military base to be present for some tests that must take place.

Without thinking this morning as he packed his belongings, he automatically packed the pistol and put it in his truck.  Thankfully the coworker he is going with reminded him that he cannot, under any circumstances take a weapon on a military base, or he (and the coworker with him) would most likely face if not jail time, a huge fine.

So, my task for the day?  Meet him this afternoon at his office before he leaves for his trip and bring said pistol home with me.  While not exactly what I planned to do this afternoon, it is a far better thing to do than to have to visit my husband in the GI Joe pokey occasionally, just because he wasn't thinking clearly one morning.

Second Chances At What?

Today I had a relative of mine post on Facebook a warning to all mothers how her sister managed to prevent a strange man from kidnapping her niece while shopping in the dairy aisle of the local Walmart.  Thankfully, he messed with the wrong mama, and and my relative screamed, scaring him away from her daughter.  That said, it's entirely too frightening an experience, and it's a shame that we can no longer feel like our children are safe anywhere.

Why is that?  Why is it that there seems to be so many more perverts lurking about these days, waiting to do unspeakable things to our children?  What has changed with this world?  Well, the first thing I can think of is that too many people are worried about the rights of the accused and not of the victims.  We're worried that the perpetrator be rehabbed and not have any civil rights violated, all the while the victims receive little to no justice.  The person who has done wrong is put on a list and is often allowed to go back to life as it was.

I've seen news stories where life was made near impossible for people listed as sex offenders.  For some reason, I suppose that I was supposed to feel sorry for them, but I don't.  I can't.  I have no sympathy for someone who commits such crimes.

Personally, if I had my way they wouldn't be walking the street.  They wouldn't be walking at all.  If they were allowed to live at all, they would be missing certain appendages and be speaking like Mickey Mouse for the rest of their lives.  They would live in misery constantly and never be able to prey on another innocent.

How many times have we heard news stories of people who have committed such unspeakable crimes are repeat offenders?  Sometimes people shouldn't be allowed a second chance.  After all, what are they getting a second chance at?  Are they getting another chance at changing their ways and walking the straight and narrow?  Or, are they getting another chance to hurt more people?  Unfortunately, more often than not it is the latter rather than the former, and the knowledge of this empowers others to commit the same or even more heinous crimes.

There's often a lot of talk about how we should forgive those who do us wrong.  I'm not against that.  It is, after all, Biblically sound.  However, my husband and I have often discussed that while there can be forgiveness in some situations, it is naive to blindly believe that someone like that will never commit that crime or one similar again.

An Introduction To the Politically Incorrect Mama

Today is the start of yet another new year.  It is the year in which I will turn 32 in the Spring, I will have been married nine years to my husband in December, and most importantly it is the year which in February I will finally become what I've always wanted, a mother.

I am going to be a Stay-At-Home-Mom, but you still won't likely find me using cloth diapers, making baby food in the blender, or following whatever this week's trend is in the world of mommies.  I am not Martha Stewart, Rachel Ray, or some super Mom who will make all of my child's clothes, make sure she eats only organic food, and never watches any television.  That said, I don't intend to be Roseanne Barr, or a mother who just parks her child in front of the TV all day, either.  I just want to be a good mom.period.

You see, I'm old fashioned enough to believe that if I were to peruse a career while trying to raise my child, either the child or the career would suffer.  Worse yet, both would suffer because there's no way in reality that I would be able to give 100% to both, because there is only 100% of me to give.  The husband and I both agree with something our pastor once said in a Mother's Day sermon that goes somewhere along the lines of - someone, either mom or dad, should be at home with the kids if at all possible.  It's one thing if both parents must work to put food on the table and provide for the family.  It's an entirely different thing if both parents are working just to keep a boat in the garage or to buy some other things that in the end, are nowhere near as important as raising your child yourself.

I want to be the person who teaches my daughter her first words, her ABC's, how to use the potty, the difference from right and wrong, and everything else.  I don't want some team of people at a daycare (it's still daycare, even if parents prefer to call it the more politically correct term of "school" these days) to be the ones to impart this knowledge to my daughter and write it down on a report for me at the end of the day.

So, this has been a little introduction to me.  I'll share more later over time.  I'm sure I'll probably offend many of you, but I imagine that I'll find more than a few people who at least secretly agree with me on one thing or another.  Whatever may happen, this year promises to be the start of a great adventure.  Let the show begin...