Family Funk

Daily Dose of Kids – Lisa Frank

Kid Talk, Money Talks, Pet Peeves /

Some of you may remember the infamous day last month when I celebrated E’s birthday with not one, but two trips to the store for replacement Lisa Frank backpack and lunchbox. (for those who missed it, the dog ate them). Well now you lucky folks get the update on this situation…

Exactly one week after the purchase of those replacement items, E came home with a completely busted zipper on the backpack. Argh. I was done with this situation so I dragged her to Office Depot and forced her to choose a real backpack. She was not happy about this. These backpacks were just plain old backpacks, sure to last more than a week, and there was no bright color beautiful (aka horrendous) backpack in sight. She pouted. She stomped. She whined. She refused to choose. She insisted I take her somewhere else for something pretty. The Denise voice was used and we came home with a plain powder blue backpack that has now lasted quite nicely for just shy of one month. Success. (I also purchased a real backpack for his highness, J, because he’d been walking around with a rip in the brand new backpack his other parents bought him and the zipper broke on it as well. Some folks need a lesson in back to school shopping or they ought to leave it to the professionals… whatever).

Fast forward a few weeks and we see E climb into the car after school with a broken Lisa Frank lunchbox! I’m not kidding. The little plastic ring that you slip the velcro tab to close it came off. Seemed relatively functional to me so I wasn’t all that concerned with it. Two minutes later I see whiteness floating in the air when I glanced in the rearview mirror and I hear RJ shrieking at E to stop throwing that stuff at her. Sigh. The child decided it would be fun to tear the lunchbox completely apart and throw it at her sister. Again the Denise voice was used and I decided to share a little bit of health news with the child…

That stuff she was happily tearing apart and playing with and throwing all over the place might just contain high levels of lead. And E, did you know that lead is really dangerous? The fluff stops flying.

Lisa Frank’s lunchboxes might not be on the list of death boxes but then again, we didn’t test the darn thing. Regardless, no more Lisa Frank products will be purchased by any member of the Flamingo House family. We’re done with Lisa Frank and her beautiful colorful madness. Good riddance is all I can say about it.

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Daily Dose of Work – Toys

Holidays, Kid Talk, Pets, Toys & Games /

September_005

TW use to work from home but she doesn’t anymore. I feel bad about that, even when she isn’t really sick I feel bad about it. Even when she isn’t actively and loudly missing being at home with the little kids. And that. Is why. I buy. Her TOYS! Yes, toys for work. I’ve bought her lots of toys. And pets. The hermit crabs (Ellen, Spikey and Artemis) that the little kids and I got her for her birthday were suppose to go to work. That hasn’t happened and it has made me sort of grouchy.

Anyway, back to the toys.

Apparently work is suppose to be fun. (who knew???) Apparently not many people find work fun and the folks at To-Done have suggestions about how to change that. Number one on their list is TOYS! Ha, see I am smarter than you people give me credit for!

Now the real question is, should I get her another Hazel to take to work? It’s a great toy, her coworkers would love it… or should I just sign her up for an email joke a day thing instead?

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Daily Dose of Diet – Dogs

Pet Peeves, Pets /

Did you know dogs love Capri Sun? Well it’s not just Capri Sun, these dogs are well known coffee, coke and hot chocolate fans, too. Everyone knows not to leave their drink sitting anywhere near the dogs because it will be gone as soon as you turn your back or even turn your head. Many a Starbucks drink has been lost to these dogs.

Monday morning there was a Capri Sun package on the living room floor. I figured a little kid had not thrown away the package and the dogs enjoyed gnawing on it to get the residuals out. Tuesday morning, another Capri Sun grimey and wet and full of dog gnawing marks. Again, I assumed a little kid leftover. Wednesday morning, same thing and I assumed it was Michelle’s Capri Sun package because she had been drinking a Capri Sun during Gilmore Girls. But, as I bent to pick that one up I noticed the straw was intact, still in its packaging a few steps away from the dog mangled pouch. Hmmm… This morning, another dog gone mangled Capri Sun. And again, an intact straw. What the….

I was pondering this question as I headed into the kitchen to toss the evidence in the trash when my leg knocked the Capri Sun box off of the shelf by the kitchen door. Ah ha! They are taking the Capri Suns out of the box in the kitchen and carrying them into the living room without pulling the box all of the way off of the shelf!

These dogs are geniuses when it comes to getting their Capri Sun fix.

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In Search of Geometry….

Bookstores, Favorites, Homeschool, Reading Lists /


We went to Barnes & Nobles this evening in search of some geometry books to help Michelle. She’s struggling a bit and really hates calling her teachers to say “I’m struggling a bit”. Considering she’s a teenage girl, she really doesn’t like talking on the phone very much. Weird kid. Anyway, we walked out of BN with a few geometry books and a bunch of other stuff. But what I like most about our once in awhile visits to BN is grabbing their New Discoveries flyer! My library reserve list is about to grow by leaps and bounds!

Another fun find at BN was their flyer about the Quill Book Awards. We’ve actually read a lot of these! I’m excited about voting for one of my favorite writers in the Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror category. I love, love, LOVE Christopher Moore! The Stupidest Angel is not my favorite but I’m happy to give it a vote in this category – especially since I am probably the only person on earth who really did not enjoy Jonathon Strange & Mr Norell.

I’m troubled by the best fiction category though. The only one I haven’t read is A Long Way Down and it’s probably the one I’d vote for if I had. I was so disappointed in The Mermaid Chair and only barely liked Gilead (TW didn’t even finish it). I hated The Plot Against America (TW really liked it) and I struggled to get through Allende’s Zorro, though once I get past the first 150 pages I didn’t struggle as much. Sigh, who to vote for …

Go over to the Quill Book Awards page and cast your votes… and tell me who you voted for!

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Daily Dose of TV – Gilmore Girls

Kid Talk, Sights & Sounds /

Gg

We love the Gilmore Girls, what’s not to love? Lorelai and Rory are the perfect mom and the perfect daughter living in the perfect little town (Except for the snow, but even that doesn’t seem to be really cold and wet like real snow. If I could have Stars Hollow snow, I’d love snow like Lorelai does.). And then there’s Luke, the perfect man. Of course the perfect man doesn’t really exist and someday Lorelai and Rory, (who keeps finding less than perfect men), will find that out and turn to their best friends, Sukie and Lane, (after they ditch their less than perfect guys), and live happily ever after… With their pink roombas and be just like us… For now, this whole Luke and Lorelai getting married thing is nice. They toasted with Zima, hehehe. I hope the town troubadour sings at the wedding.

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Outlaw Bible – Poetry? Literature?

2005, Books in Bed, Fiction, Homeschool, Poetry, Reading Lists /


I am not sure how it happened but somehow the Outlaw Bible of American Literature ended up on my library reserve list. I picked it up a couple of weeks ago but didn’t look at it until today. Now I’m wondering if some of this and some pieces from the Outlaw Bible of American Poetry wouldn’t be good choices for Michelle this year.

Have any of you read either of these? Know anyone who has? I’m tempted to say we need to own both of these…

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High School Literature

Fiction, Homeschool, Non-Fiction, Reading Lists /

Michelle is home! Besides the phone ringing off the hook, kids going in and out at all times, the interrupting of our weekend naps and the smell of popcorn this means that we’re back in homeschool mode!

Michelle did school all summer via FLVS but she didn’t do a full blown “curriculum”. The problem with her being gone all summer is that we didn’t really get much planning done for the year. TW and I have some ideas – journaling and world religion – but Michelle really needs to give her input into the literature she’s going to read for the next nine months.

We’ve got some books on the list, leftover from last year, and a couple that she did choose during the homeschool fair in May but we’re still short a good six books or so.

Here’s what we know Michelle will be reading:

  • A Clockwork Orange
  • To Kill a Mockingbird
  • Anthem
  • The Scarlet Letter
  • Jane EyreWhat would you want a 10th grader to read if you could choose anything at all? (We need a biography, we need some poetry recommendations – I can’t take another year of Plath – and we haven’t chosen any Shakespeare yet for this year. Keep those in mind as you’re making your suggestions!)

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    Daily Dose of Blogs – Happy Blog Day 2005

    Holidays, Memes and Quizzes /

    Blogday
    I’ve been thinking about Blog Day for almost a full month and everytime I thought I had found a blog that fit the criteria, I changed my mind. It was hard to find blogs by people who were really not like me. Seems odd, doesn’t it? I mean I’m a lesbian, I have six kids, I homeschool one and only one, I work from home in a job that very few people have, I hate sports and watch almost no television and I do not cook. Surely I could find lots of blogs that are not “like me”. Nope, it’s hard to find differences when you are really looking for them (which might be an lesson)

    After a month long search, here’s what I’ve got for you. Visit them, let me know what you think and let them know you stopped by!

    The Happy Catholic I found this blog via my friend Shelly’s blogroll and I peek in there every now and then to see what’s going on. The Happy Catholic is really nothing like me, except she has good taste in movies and TV. Other than that, we probably disagree. Still, I have always enjoyed going to her blog. What do you think?

    PyroManiac I found this one a few weeks ago when surfing for something about comic books. I was surprised, to say the least. Interesting point of view here and interesting use of comic books.

    Leylop’s Blog This one got tossed into a note pad on my desktop a long time ago, when Michelle was studying up on Thailand and Singapore and Malaysia after the Tsunami. I hadn’t visited in a very long time and I’m glad I noticed it in my notepad last week. Great pictures, nice look at her life.

    Babalu Blog Again, thanks to Michelle and her Spanish class we found this one! Michelle was researching Cuba and stumbled into this interesting look at Cuban Americans and Cuban politics. Cool stuff.

    Kathang Pinay I found this one today in my search for one last really PERFECT blog for today’s celebration. I clicked randomly into the archives and found interesting things with every click. Having lived in the Philippines (and giving birth to two American children there who like claiming dual citizenship), this one really touched home for me.

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    Daily Dose of Life – Arghhh!

    Holidays, Kid Talk, Pet Peeves, Pets /

    It all started at 1am when I woke with a blinding sinus headache. I thought I was going to DIE. I don’t do well with OTC meds but I was in serious pain so I searched the bathroom for those little red death pills and came up empty. Settled for little pink benadryl and somehow fell asleep around 2am. Woke again at 5am still feeling the pain but dozed through it til the alarm went off.

    Made it through the initial morning rounds – dogs, cats, coffee, morning posts, email, blogs. All was right with the world, even if my head felt like it was about to burst. Stopped at Starbucks for my fix, took TW to work and spent $30 to fill up the gas tank.

    Came home and went into the bedroom to read my blog feeds on the laptop since I was ahead of schedule. Finished that and headed back to the office to get back to work. Uh oh. My computer screen was black. Power light was on but the pretty blue windows wallpaper and my cluttered desktop were nowhere to be seen. Just blackness.

    I moved the mouse. Still blackness. I clicked the keyboard. Still blackness. I fiddled with the monitor settings. You guessed it, blackness. I turned off the power button, waited a minute and turned it back on. Blackness. Turned it off and fiddled with wires. Black, black, black. (insert profanity)

    It’s an all in one that TW’s mom bought me a couple of years ago and I love it or I did until this happened. I had 3/4 of a report on that thing! I had my metrix for the report on that thing. I had work for next week half way completed so that TW and I can take the weekend off and hit the beach before Michelle comes home next week. All of that work and on a kid crazy, school pick up, little kid birthday day!

    (insert a lot of profanity)

    I went back to the laptop in the bedroom and struggled along. Recreated my report. Scraped up an old metrix spreadsheet and recreated. Struggled along some more. Wrote to Gateway about my poor black screen computer. Worked some more. Took a break to wrap birthday presents for E. Worked some more. Took a red pill of death that TW found this morning before she went to work. Struggle, struggle, struggle.

    1:15, time to drive across town and pick up the girls from their school. Got disgusted with a woman who sought my white face out of a crowd of non-white faces to complain about the way folks triple parked during pick up. I love NYC, triple parking doesn’t faze me a bit but her assumption that another white face would agree with her – well that bugged me. (I hope it is not her son’s birthday party we are suppose to attend next weekend)

    Got home at 2:30 and struggled through work for another 45 minutes while assisting RJ with homework, fixing snack for both girls, talking to E about her birthday presents and just general life with kid stuff.

    Drove to the other side of town to pick up J from school and from there picked up TW at work so she could come home and make E’s birthday cookie with her. Ha. We hadn’t been home long when E discovered the evil dog who ate the cuties earlier in the week had EATEN HER BRAND NEW BACKPACK! sigh

    I shut down the work I had been trying to do and jumped in the car. “I think we got that backpack at Target, or maybe Walmart” says RJ. I figure Target. I figured wrong. Luckily Walmart is in the same vicinity as Target so I head there. Target was empty. Walmart was PACKED. No Lisa Frank backpacks! No cutie backpacks at all! They couldn’t have gone to Kmart, it’s not their style! Where did they get that thing???? I was about to give up and head to Kmart when I saw a huge bin of backpacks near the electronics with some bright pink and bright blue in the middle. Paydirt. Lisa Frank – but no pink ones with some funky looking girl and a poodle. I grabbed a light blue one with a CUTIEEEEEEEEEEEE dog on it and hoped for the best.

    Drove home, showed it to E, apologizing profusely when she said “I like this one better!” Yea! Crisis averted. So I’m repacking the new backpack and say “Where’s your lunchbox.” Silence. He didn’t. Yes, he did. He ate that too.

    Back in the car I go. Back to Walmart. By now it’s 6pm and traffic is umm bad. Walmart is even more crowded than before and again, no Lisa Frank lunchboxes! grrrr! No cutie lunchboxes AT ALL. I’m thinking I’m going to have to drive in the other direction across town and try the other Walmart when I see a wee bit of pink underneath the Spidey lunchboxes. Ha! A Lisa Frank lunchbox just like the backpack Jake ate! It’s not the ugly purple Lisa Frank but surely she will like this since it is the same design as the original backpack, right???

    I pay. I drive home. She giggles. Funny. Oh yea, I’m laughing my rear off here as my head threatens to explode some more.

    We light the candles on the birthday cookie. We eat. I make a wish that she really was still 4 as she blows out her candles. I don’t know what she wished for but it had better not be another Lisa Frank backpack or lunchbox. I don’t think I can handle that.

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