Toothbrush Duty!!

A post on a board I recently joined reminded me about something I used to do with my daughter, Toothbrush Duty. Toothbrush duty is when you get in trouble and mom hands you a toothbrush and a gives you a job to clean.

Kiddo's mouth and attitude really stink lately and I've been pulling my hair out. Duh' toothbrush duty time has been needed for a long time here now. I need to get a little more creative though now that she is older. The toothbrush hung for far too long.

Do your kids respond to chores as their discipline? Really, she has a set of chores that I expect her to do when told and oddly enough she doesn't give me much lip about that. She may moan and groan and say 'but we just did that last week' (or yesterday, or whatever), as if it never needs to be done again. She really used to loathe toothbrush duty and I forget why it went away, maybe she got better and I got lazy after that dunno, but its coming back.

What do you do for the mouthiness? Further, does it work?

Flex Spending

One of the first orders of action of getting my life under control is taking care of myself. Since I now have a horrible health insurance plan I haven't been taking care of myself like I should. So I am investing quite a bit into my flex spending this year. Of course that includes off the top the $500 portion of my share of this years payments towards my kiddo's braces. It also includes a $500 temporary repair to my tooth until I can afford the permanent repair which is $3k and is not an option but can wait a tiny bit longer. So those are two planned expenses as it is, then my deductible is $400 another pretty much planned expense and then there is some unplanned money there too for rx's, co-pays (which are exorbitantly high) and other such things.

Now the money will be there without me having to do much to make sure it is. I just have it directly taken out of my check and put into flex spending. They give me a niffty little card I can use it without even having to worry about being reimbursed, me likey that.

More financial stuff to come but I figured I'd start a little blurb

Procrastination and happy holidays!

So I'm an expert at procrastination. It really is an art form, or a sport... whatev' I'm good at it.

Thus so I've been meaning to post some things that I haven't done so, some are in my dashboard, others (most of them) were in my head... all of which I've promptly forgotten.

One big thing is I think I'm going to finally start my financial portion of this blog. See I had every intention of making this blog my life but also having special spotlights on dating and finances (as mine are a mess and I've slowly been working at it). I figured those were two spots in my life that are always chaos and I could use the reflecting back and the discipline in finances and just the reflecting in the dating portion of my life. Since I found someone to be serious about it will mostly stick to finances I guess *shrugs* who knows what the future brings.

So I don't keep procrastinating on that portion of my blog I posted.

Oh, and yes... Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year. I will be working but I hope you all enjoy yours!

ETA: Oh, and yes... I have not forgotten the meme Jeanie ;)

She likes a boy

she won't tell me much but his name. I won't share though.

Darn kid told me she'd tell me a little each day because she's embarrassed about it.

I wanna know all about this boy.

I think I hate middle school now!

I really do have the best daughter ever!

I have to brag about Sabrina, she is really the best kid ever. Those of us in tween hell will appreciate that this is a rare occurance, because while we love our kids, sometimes it is really, really (no I mean really) hard to like them. I think they do stuff like this to keep from being killed before they turn 18. Whatever it is she is saved from tweenicide for now.

Something must be right about the parenting she receives.

I'm sick, sick as a dog. It was 'just a cold' that moved to what is likely a sinus infection. This will likely move to bronchitis because I will not make time to see a doctor and it will spiral. Also I'm miserable and I don't wanna go. I'm done with the sickness (ha like that spin?) ewwww wha wha haha. Okay I'm done being dorky and being all ADD getting all side tracked (oh... look a kitty).

Okay, in all seriousness. My kid is awsome.

Yesterday was her second time staying home alone while I worked. She did everything asked of her, she cleaned the living room and did the dishes and showered. YAY!! She went above and beyond that though too, she ran the vacuum in the living room, and made the bed. She finished all of her homework while I was at work all before turning on the television or the Wii.

I get home, and I make dinner. I force my sick self to eat. I promptly get sick. Kiddo calls her step-mom to come and get her as I'm supposed to be dropping her off there. Step-mom agrees but asks if 8pm is too late, no, no it isn't. All the while Sabrina is bringing me blankets, and hot cider, cleaning up dinner and the dishes, and taking care of her sick ole' mom. I'm wondering where my kid is but I won't ask for fear that the aliens might take her back, so I enjoy it.

Step-mom picks my daughter up and they go on their merry way. Sabrina must have told her step-mom how sick I was because about 10 mins later in comes Sabrina again with Vernors (ginger-ale for non-Michiganders) for my sick self. This is super cool because I asked my mom to bring me some and she refused, Sabrina had wanted to take her bike in the snowy cold rain and get me some but I said no.

I must be some kind of sick to get this kind of treatment. Normally if I am not feeling well she rolls her eyes at me and huffs and puffs if I so much as ask her to clean up her own plates, or bring the kleenex. This she did mostly all on her own. Either that or meebee its the impending holidays and the fact that she knows mom is Santa now so she wants the good gifts. Nawww she's a good kid, but this isn't normal for her and it was a nice surprise.

So another night out... with a picture of the new man and me.

So yes, now I look like a complete party animal lately. I really don't know why, because I am, but I rarely get to do that.

Also drunkeness... it doesn't become me at all. This particular night (last weekend), little ole me got into a bar fight. Who does that at 30? Me and my 35 year old dear friend do apparently. We whooped arse if you really wanna know, this will be the story to tell for many moons to come because well... we don't get to get out often and we rarely oh so rarely have good stories to tell anymore. Anyway this girl stole my purse, my phone, my money... I confronted her in a polite way I might add, she got lippy and I gave her choices. Her choice was a fight... so it was what it was. It was so funny, I gave her choices like I would my 11 year old (heck for all she looked all of 17 herself and got lippy like a 17 year old anyway).

So in this pic, T thinks I'm being all friendly when in reality I know I look like crap especially because I'm drunk, and I don't want my mug showing all that much in the picture soooo I kissed him for it so my ugly mug doesn't look so ugly. Shhh don't tell him that... we'll let him believe I was being all friendly ;) So anyway this is the new man, I like bald men what can I say?

A night out.

So was it last weekend? No the weekend before definately the weekend before. My friend threw a party for her fiance since he is turning 40. It was a surprise party.

We had a blast and I thought I'd share some pictures.

Last one. My cousin Dawn, Me, my friend (and old roommate) Erica, and my cousin Nicole

2nd one... me and Carol's (one of my closest friends) mom.. doing the hustle, she's old and blind and was on cloud nine when I took her out to dance.

First one, me and my friend Jeff, who is hot (at least I think so). We used to DTD but not anymore (not for his lack of trying though). He told my old room mate (Erica) that night he wants to marry me. Told me that since... WTF ever dude!! He's a good guy, but a whiny man (like overboard) too I can't handle him but in smallerish doses. He's a day late and a dollar short anyway... there was a time I would have entertained the notion of a Jeff and Kari, but alas not anymore. Not just because I am not in the market but the idea of spending the rest of my life with Jeff or someone like him... UGH Jeff helped to pull me out of a funk last year. At the same time, Jeff has his own funks like ALL.The.Time. I try to help him where I can without wearing on my own mental health.

Might I say I really don't like the way blogger does pictures?