My apologies.

Dear Artist Lorenzo aka quelfamosoporco,

I found your beautiful artwork & used it, yes. I made no money from it in anyway.

I had it listed somewhere that it was yours, on my blog.

Ironically, even though you Googled it & found it, you decided to run back to Deviant Art & post on your page about it before giving me the chance to remove your artwork. I think you also owe me an apology for asking your friends/fans to basically stalk me by publishing MY blog address. To me that is the same as you saying people stole your artwork. It’s YOUR artwork, not mine, and I NEVER pretended it was mine.

Good luck keeping your stuff on the internet, please be sure to “watermark it”. I really do like it.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

It snowed before, during & after Christmas in Northern Indiana. The kids went wild. They LOVED it…for about 20 minutes or so.

Funny thing is, Little Monkeypants outlasted his older brother & sister. We missed seeing the oldest sister, she was in Florida with her younger brother & his grandparents.

Merry Christmas world!

My kids had a great Christmas…and it stretched out over 3 days.:)

The thrill of Christmas HoliDAZE

I DID IT! I went to Black Friday this year to shop at Toys R Us with my best friend, M. It opened at midnight. It was INSANE. I’m glad to say I did it, but I’ll “never” do it again!

We left that store at 3:30 am to head to McDonald’s for breakfast and then to Wally World when they “opened” at 5 am for their Black Friday deals.

I finished all of my children’s Christmas shopping (on a budget) that weekend on very little sleep. I think I’ll stick with the internet for next year’s deals.

Where did the time go?

Apparently, I have missed out on blogging (not like I’ve got a million followers) in the past 30 days or more.

Life is crazy with three kids, one husband working full-time and going to college, plus my working part-time. I love what I do (teach preschool).

Oldest monkey is taking some martial arts, middle monkey is taking dance lessons and littlest monkey is taking Choi Kwang Do lessons.

I think I kind of blanked out the end of September because it was the 2nd year annivesary of my Dad passing away from Pancreatic Cancer. I just didn’t want to think of the day…I tried to block out the week in my mind. It was a horrible experience for everyone involved. I miss him dearly. I want to hear his voice & hug his neck.

It’s September already?

Holy cow! Who in the world said it could be September already?

Coming up this month in activities:

Choi Kwang Do, Ballet/Tap Lessons, choir group & depending on my oldest monkeypants’ grades, basketball. Mr. Hubby is studying for finals this week and I am in need of some time to myself.

A trip to Starbucks might help.

School Supplies: The variety and the madness

Monday morning, all three of my monkeys will be going to school. I may have to cry a tear of joy…or two. However, this year in the pursuit of school happiness, I have been to two different Wal-Marts (Wally World in our house), 1 Target, 1 Walgreens and 1 Staples. We had 2 different school supply lists that were not obtained until mid to late July and the hunt began. Even after checking off each list, I went back through a 2nd time to make sure we had it all.

Today, Monkey 1 & Monkey 2 spent time with me dividing up once again, the school supply list & bagging it all up. One list had “Please write your child’s name on everything”. The other list had “Please do not label your child’s school supplies.” (Insert rolling eyes here. Go figure.)

I had a friend that used to complain about having to provide so much for her child each year. She would never buy more than what was on that list. Being a preschool teacher myself, I ALWAYS do my best to put in a few extra packs of paper, pencils, tissues or whatever I can afford (I’m a bargain hunter, I find the great deals!). It bothers me that a teacher would have to pay out of pocket for supplies, especially since I know I have to do it myself. I do it out of love for my job and don’t expect a reimbursement (unless bigger purchase approved by director). I don’t like “cheap” people, people that will nickle and dime EVERYTHING to death. There’s got to be a charitible heart when it comes to kids. If another parent can’t afford or is too cheap to buy extra supplies, I feel it’s my duty as a human being and a parent to give a little bit extra to help.

So on Monday morning, if you hear fireworks going off on my street or see a line of parents at the local coffee shop…you’ll know exactly why.

School can’t start yet?

WTH? School is just around the corner for my kids. I’m not ready for it to start for them.

Meh.

RIP Michael Jackson

Where do I start? When I was around 10-11 years old, I heard a song on the radio and learned it was from a child star named Michael Jackson from “The Jackson 5″. It was Rock with You and also Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough. Little did I know that the song would be the beginning of a very long musical relationship with an entertainer that was a man of many different talents. I remember the album (for the youngins’  that means a LP or a record playing at the 33 1/2 speed or a cassette tape- of which I had both).  Pretty Young Thing was another one I loved…and then heck the ENTIRE album.I was a dancing fool growing up. I’d put on shows & make my parents watch. LOL!

I loved his music and his dance moves. He also seemed like a man with a tender heart that had been abused as a child by his father. He sought shelter from his childhood trauma by living in a fantasy like world. Kind of like he was telling his father to kiss his moonwalking feet by living the childhood he wanted, as an adult.

In high school, I joined the flag corp./dance squad. For the basket ball season, we performed Thriller on the court at half time. I loved it. I had his “Bad” album and then the Leave Me Alone album (name escapes me now…sorry!)

My mother, in her older age, is pretty pissy in her opinion of MJ. Asking questions like “Well why are his kids WHITE? He has WHITE kids!” I think the entire song “Black & White” sums it up for him in that regard: “It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white” (or any other color for that matter). Michael wanted to make things right, IMO, by having children. He didn’t want them to go through what he did. I pray that the children are handed over to one of the brothers’ & their family to be raised by the Jacksons. Mrs. Jackson (Mama) is too old to raise those children on her own, IMO.

Thank you Jackson Familiy for sharing such a talent, thank you MJ for everything AND thank you God for sending us a wonderful talent like MJ. May you rest in peace MJ.

Love,

Me

They way I knew & loved him.

A great trip and record time

We made it up to Nana & Papaw’s in 13 hours. It was a bittersweet and relaxing trip. The kids saw their fill of horses, cows, pigs, a few goats and a couple of bunnies. They went to a local park almost several times a day and even went to see Ice Age 3!

Driving back went fantastic! I made it in 11 hours. I was “keeping up with the flow of traffic”. When my husband asked me what speed the flow was…well, let’s just say I was in a few “packs” that kept moving and left the slow pokes behind.

Cute!