All Blog Posts (411)

I guess it shouldn’t be surprised that Jeremy is up to his old tricks again. I love that boy. However, sometimes I have to remind myself of that. Since he destroyed Angela’s comforter, he has been working off the cost. The comforter itself was pretty affordable all things considered. In fact, I was pretty impressed with the comforter myself.

What I hadn't considered was that Jeremy would also decided that he really liked this whole…

Some days I really struggle with being a mother. It seems as if I’m just not really cut out for it. Particularly when it comes to matters of discipline. My dear sweet Jeremy is a good boy at heart, but there are times when I just feel completely overwhelmed.

One of those times came just a couple weeks ago. I had taken Jeremy over to visit my dear sweet friend Cynthia and her adorable daughter, Angela. Now, let me set the stage for you little bit. Angela is the…

Finally! This is just the sort of site that I've been looking for. It's challenging taking care of kids, particularly when they aren't just yours. 

Not mine. DaddyWho's. His knee has finally, totally, crapped out. The screws in his knee are digging holes in the bone, and his knee is now damaging his femur. It has hairline cracks at the bottom of it, which I imagine feels awesome. So he's having the whole damned thing replaced on April 15. 

My arm/shoulder/elbow  is still all busted, and he has a bum leg. Between the two of us, we could probably assemble one complete, functioning, human with a few spare parts.…

I am *this* close to hanging up my hat and saying fuck it.  Seriously.  I am taking one stupid class per semester with five more required courses still to go (the one I'm taking this semester isn't required, but nothing I need to take is offered this stupid semester, so I'm taking an elective just to stay enrolled) while working a full-time, busy job, mothering a 10 year old and a 5 year old, and occasionally romancing my husband (that last one's waaaay down at the bottom of the list--and…

The mother of my partner's children was recently diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer.  At this point, the treatment is to reduce the growth and spread of the cancer, but the statistics are not hopeful. 

There are so many emotions running through me...fear, anger, anxiety, sadness. As a mother of children the same age as S and T, I cannot begin to fathom how I would react to this diagnosis. As the co-parent of these small people, I'm feeling overwhelmed and unprepared to help them…

I am alive and thriving. I never thought I would get to this point when I found OS all those years ago. But, here I am. My kids are doing great. My partner and I have been living together for a year and things are good. Like, really good. I started a graduate program this year that has been kicking my ass, but I passed all 16 units with A's and B's. That feels great. 

I don't get a chance to come to OS very often, I do try to keep up with many of you on FB. This community has been an…

Sooooo.... I'm 99% moved into the new house, which my fiance will move into on the day of our wedding. I moved the boys and I out of the old apt I lived in for a year because it was too small to live in even for a brief time with all 4 of us. Besides, my fiance is a convicted felon (not the creepy, violent, sex offender kind though!) and he is not allowed to live in apartments and most rental properties in my state (it's a law....). Soooooo, our new landlord makes us move into the new house…

My future hubby and me can NEVER get our schedules to work where we both have time to get down to thw courthouse....soooo, we haven't bought the marriage certificate yet and the wedding is 2 weeks away! YIKES! I THINK we may be able to do it today.....I hope so, because I have a million boxes to unpack (we just moved into our marital home) and I have a sore throat....not feeling like more stress!

My husband had lunch with his mother the other day and when he came home, I could tell he wanted to talk to me about something.  It turns out that his mom wants to pay for all four of her grandkids to go to the Catholic private high school that she, her siblings (all 6 of them), her husband, Earl Grey, and his sister attended.  Now, Girl Grey is the oldest of the grandkids at nine years old (4th grade), so it's still a while before she's in high school, and then there is a five year gap…

I went to a bridal shower this weekend for my husband's cousin.  Earl Grey's (my husband, for those of you who don't know) mother is one of seven kids, so there are lots of cousins--this one is the baby of Earl Grey's generation.  She's a really sweet girl (22), though I don't know her well at all.

After arriving, the bride's mother went around the room introducing everyone and one woman from the groom's family looked familiar.  Once she said her name was Christie, I started…

Random thoughts that are floating through my mind, wanted to be shouted out loud along with stamping of feet, but too shameful to share except  here on OS, where the world is not so judgy.

Boyfriend, I'm glad that you are here taking care of MIL, she's happy to have you here and so am I.  But oh my fucking god sometimes you are captain incabable.  Learn how to make a cup of coffee for yourself!  And empty your goddamn ashtray once in a while. 

Must every couch…

I'm sure Madam Ellie has informed most of you via Facebook, but I had some identity theft issues this week. It's been...weird. A couple of months ago, Google informed me that my email account had been accessed from Malta, of all places. I followed their recommended procedures for changing my password, and will probably start changing them on a regular basis.

Then this last week, (on my birthday no less!) I got an automated call from my bank informing me that they had detected…

My three year old came home from preschool yesterday and said “Mama, Miss Tara twisted my arm today at naptime and it hurt me”.  These are words that scaffold every parent’s nightmares.  My failure to have protected my child from pain/harm does battle with my immediate blinding rage.  What is the due process in this case: should I dialogue with the school or should I ask for a public square and some rocks? What could possibly make the 45-year-old Ms. Tara hurt my child?

As my…

I pledge humanity as my 1 people.

I pledge life as my religion.

I pledge love as my prayer.

I pledge peace and freedom as my birth right

and the birth right of all humanity.

My heart beats 1 with all my relations.

I've always had really terrible, heavy periods.  Their only positive quality is that they have been regular, for the most part, every 26 days.  But they are intense and I get migraines, indigestion, cramps, back pain, and extreme mood swings, not to mention severe acne.  That has definitely been wearing on me.   I haven't taken birth control pills since I was 23 since they made me kind of crazy and made me feel that I wasn't inhabiting my own body; I am also icked out by their environmental…

Most of you know that I've lost a few pregnancies, some that I've posted about here and some that I haven't.  I should be over it by now, and I know it.  Instead, I still find myself freaking out for no reason.  I'll be reading through a craft book, see something with a child's drawing on it, and have a panic attack.  I mean, trouble breathing, shaking, the works.  My mind keeps running in circles and telling me that I'll never have a child--everyone else has children, why can't I, when I'd…

My mom and I are complete opposites in many ways, which tends to cause conflict.  She likes to remain ignorant of any potential unhappiness until it's already engulfed her.  I, on the other hand, prefer to know as far in advance as possible so that I can get all my worrying done ahead of time.  That way, when the bad times come, I'll have gotten the panicking out of the way and have gathered enough information to confront the issues head-on.

This, however, is not about my…

On the health front, I've been fighting several irritating battles. Apparently, getting my liver condition under control was just the first step. I've had a couple other issues pop up in the wake of that diagnosis, that aren't particularly serious, but manage to add to my vitamin-taking count.

To make a long, incredibly boring, and potentially TMI story short, I haven't been hitting the gym quite as often as I should, due to some rather nasty nausea issues. (No, not pregnant.) So when…

Several months ago, Nancy Grace was on my TV telling us ladies to listen to our bodies and tell our GYN when we have something that just doesn't seem right  - she did and it brought her a health scare, but the outcome was good. Now, usually I wouldn't listen to any advice from Nancy Grace, but I was about to go in to my GYN for my annual appointment and I had been feeling not right for quite a long time.

So I told my Gyn that I had been feeling not quite right, sex wasn't…