Dirty Looks From The Non-Tattooed

We are in week 2 of the new school year, where my daughter is again stuck in aftercare at the school campus for 4 hours in the afternoon. For me, it's kind of a lifesaver. Not very expensive at all, and keeps her safe until I get off of work. Plus, she does all of her homework before we even make it home and all I have to do is check to make sure she's done it right. So things are going pretty well.

My problem is with the other parents who are picking up their children. Well, not the dads, but the mothers. Mostly older mothers, late 30's and early 40's, who look at my tattoos like I have leprosy. Yesterday, I was picking up my daughter, and a girl she has befriended is walking out to the car at the same time we were and her friend says to me "I love your tattoos!" and the girls awful mother says to me "Nice example you are setting" and I replied (very calmly), "Thanks, I like to teach my children to be tolerant and loving to non-tattooed people, too, though". And then, I got the look of death. And I said to my daughter's friend: "Thank you sweetie. Maybe when you turn 18, we can get you a real nice one!"

What would you have said????

Belly Jewelry for Pregnant Moms-To-Be!

My husband and I decided awhile ago that we want to have a baby very soon. Awesome, right? I am still a new employee where I work, so I do have to wait until my health insurance kicks in to really "try" to get pregnant, but it's really only a couple more months to wait until the fun begins.

BUT! That is not what this post is about. This website has belly jewelry for pierced moms-to-be so that you don't have to lose your piercing while your little bun is in the oven. Talk about progressive!

I had been debating on whether or not I would take mine out for good at the point where my belly began to pop out, but now...............maybe not? I told my hubby just to let me know when I am too old to be wearing belly jewerly and I will (reluctantly) remove it.

Just wanted to share this "gem" of a website with all you other mommies!

Food For Thought

As the school year for my oldest daughter comes fast and furious, I am starting to think more and more about what she will be having for lunch during the week. Although the school lunch could be much worse, it doesn't really offer the best in nutrition. Some of the choices are grilled cheese sandwich, corndog, and chicken nuggets. Not good. If given a choice between that and something healthier, my kid would invariably choose the fattiest food on the menu. But, I choose NOT to ignore this about my daughter. And though she is by no means fat, she struggles with her weight much more than your typical 10 year old girl. You see, most of the women in my family have weight issues. Overweight issues. BUT! They were never taught as children about portion control or healthy eating choices. And I do not want to see my daughter grow up overweight, miserable, and with low self-esteem. I can't handle that!

In an effort to keep this issue under control, the first thing I did was enroll her in Taekwondo. We LOVE it! She has so much fun and has even learned to speak a bit of Korean. She attends Master Walter's class 3 days a week at American TKD Martial Arts in Margate, Fl.

Secondly, we have kept a constant watch on what she eats and how much and have explained what portion control means and that it's okay to eat things you like - in MODERATION. You don't have to deprive yourself, you just have to control yourself. Sometimes she listens, and sometimes she doesn't. Like this morning.

I broke down and bought PopTarts for my daughter's breakfast under the strict rule that she can't eat the whole package, she can only have ONE PopTart from the pack and she has to have a glass of orange juice with it. One PopTart is 200 calories! And though 2 PopTarts come in the pack, a serving size is ONE. Yeah, I think it's tricky, too! Anyway, she had her one PopTart and was getting ready to go to the babysitters and I caught her trying to sneak an entirely new pack of PopTarts into her bag. WTF? I was so mad. I gave her a lecture about how that's not healthy, it's sneaky, etc....but I have to say that I was really disappointed by her attempt.

Anways, back to the whole school lunches thing. I found a few great websites with healthy lunch ideas that you can pack for your child for school, so I wanted to share a few of them with you.

This site has 6 different and unique ideas that are great for kids including salad wraps, and something called 'Mexican Mango Madness'. Nice site!

http://www.laptoplunches.com/ideas.html

This site asks you to "think like a kid" when it comes to packing lunches your kids will love and has a few interesting food ideas that you might not have otherwise thought of:

http://www.peelregion.ca/health/nutrition/nm2004/eatwell/lunches.htm

And here, iVillage does a good job of making every day foods more interesting and has links to a few very relevant articles about healthy lunch ideas, too.

http://parenting.ivillage.com/gs/gsnutrition/0,,9tn2hhvz,00.html

I think I will definitely have to try some of these ideas!

I'm Not A Plastic Bag

The "I'm Not A Plastic Bag" bag is pissing me off. My sister recently told me about these, and it's insane. Here's the deal. It's a reuseable bag that can be used for shopping, the beach, school, etc. And the big deal is: it's not a plastic bag. It's "Green", "Environmentally Friendly", etc. Fine. That's fine. I am all for environmentally friendly or vegan friendly products. What pisses me off is that now that celebs have shown an interest in it, the price is over the top. Yeah, well, I saw that for pre-order (if they are ever back in stock) they are listed at $58.00. For what equates to a canvas bag. On ebay, I've seen them go for upwards of $200.00. Seriously.

At Target you can get a reuseable canvas bag for $10 or $15 that is pretty stylish. At the Dollar Tree: $1.00, if it's just that you are environmentally concerned and you don't care about fashion. Because this is not fashion.






Does it matter that people are only buying organic or environmentally friendly or vegan products just because it's "in style"? Should it? Probably not. I should probably think that it's great that people are buying these things regardless of their reasoning. They are helping the planet, after all.

But over-paying for anything is just a waste. Why not buy the $10 bag and spend the other $190 on a charity, or, I don't know...something more meaningful!

Getting a canvas bag that says to everyone "Look at me! Look at me! I'm so green! I'm so popular!" freaks me out. It's like lying, because you know these fake fucks do not care about the planet. They just want the latest and greatest, the biggest and best, and they want to be noticed.

If anything, I'd opt for this version. It says so much more.

Tattooed Moms

Although this article is a bit dated, I was happy to stumble upon it. It talks about the tattooed mommies that chase down their kiddies on the playground and kiss boo-boos just like the rest of the un-tattooed community - and finally gives a bit of credit to parents who are not afraid to express themselves with body art. Woo-hoo!

Dreaded School Shopping

Well, the kids were gone for a week, giving me time to think, sleep, and collect myself into a more presentable package. The start of the school year is right around the corner, which unfortunately for me, means less sleep. This week, I started waking up earlier to get into the routine, and my daughter said I have been "Snappish lately". Me, "Snappish", Really?

So, as I mentioned before I grounded my daughter for using the F word at summer camp. But very literally, 2 days after this incident, she went 250 miles west to stay with my parents for a week. My parents would make sure she had a super fantastic week, pretty much ignoring the fact that she had been naughty. So now that she's home, and the incident (in her little 9 year old head) happened AGES ago, and she's having a very difficult time with being grounded. Not to mention that during the day while she is with the babysitter, she gets to do all kinds of fun stuff AND watch TV. So, in reality, she is only grounded for about 3 hours a night. I would have been so lucky when I was her age to have a punishment like that! So 3 hours a night for 14 nights = 42 hours of punishment. I guess that will have to work.

And last night was fun (and by fun I mean AWFUL). We went to the Super Walmart to go school supply shopping. See, right now in Florida, it's TAX FREE week! And what better week to shop for school supplies? The less of my money that the government gets, the better. But, if you ever go to Super Walmart, you know that on a regular day, it's already packed. Can NEVER find a good parking place, even at like 2am on a Tuesday. Well, last night was a frickin' zoo. At least the school supplies aisle was anyway. This stupid lady damn near grabbed the very LAST composition book out of my hand for her child after I had just picked it up to put it in my cart. Unbelieveable! Every year we are nearly trampled in the store while we struggle to get everything on the list, fighting tooth & nail for the last pretty folder or the last set of washable markers. I know it sounds ridiculous, but these mothers out there are brutal!

Fighting for school supplies, that's just the beginning. Clothes and shoe shopping, that's a whole other story!