My New Home

Find me at my new home:  http://lifeofacraftymommy.com

It Makes Me Feel Dirty

You’re sitting in your car, driving to work, talking to your husband about school picture day.  The radio is on and you’re only half listening.  A commericial for a dating site comes on when you think you hear:

 

Are you in a relationship and need something more?

 

“Did she just say what I *think* she said?” – that was screamed at my husband while the lady on the commercial promised annonimity. 

That’s right.  I have now officially heard it all – and quite frankly, I’m DONE.  I’m out.  No more for me.  What the hell is happening? 

Let me explain, as I seeth from remembering the rest of the commercial.  It is a website similar to other dating websites where you go to meet people to hook up, only it caters to those already in a relationship or marriage that want to have an AFFAIR. 

A website for cheating bastards (*ie. A Married Dating and Affairs Club*).  Nice.

 

Specializes in meeting the distinct needs of attached and married women wishing to meet single or attached men with a mutual desire to share novelty, risk, and …

You really don’t need to hear more, do you?  *sigh*

Unfortunately, I grew up listening to horror stories about my mom’s first husband – who did many horrible things to her including cheating on her (just one of many bad stories:   she was in labor and was driving to the hospital and saw him in the car in front of her while he was on a date).  And then I watched as my sister’s marriage tore apart due to infidelity (two years of cheating on her before she found out).   I’ve seen marriages that can be patched back together – with lots of hard work for both partners – after an affair.   Having an affair is serious stuff, and can permantely damage lives of the person cheating, the person being cheated on, the CHILDREN.  

We’re not talking about an open relationship, we’re talking about encouraging cheating – promising annonimity.  Disgusting.  I know people cheat.  It’s going to happen.  But tell me that this isn’t just plain dirty - making it sound perfectly okay to seek this huge ”risk” outside of your marriage.  This is just pissing me off.  Seriously, they know it’s wrong or they wouldn’t promote the promise of it being annoymous.

 

It’s horrible, and to make a business encouraging something like that is just outright disgusting.

Check Out My Loot

This weekend is the Lunar New Year festival in our city.  Next weekend the next city over will have theirs.  I love it because it’s only two blocks away, and even though Chloe goes to ride the rides – mama goes to shop.

{is it me or do the rides seem scarier than when I was a kid?}

{second time on a ferris wheel.  she has no fear, I tell you.}

{what can I say?  the child loves her some meat on a stick.}

{sheep pendant for my year.}

{I couldn’t resist.  This purple butterfly matched Chloe’s purple butterfly theme in her bedroom perfectly.}

{I saved the best for last.  How freakin’ cool is this?  It’s a lion marionette!!}

Quick story:  this is what happens when you understand the language but can’t speak it for crap.  I was looking at the lion marionette and really loving it.  Everything in red is said in Chinese.

me:  how much is this?

lady:  $15

me:  . . . um, okay, can I have one? *I held up one finger*

lady:  no, it’s $15.

me: yeah, I know.  I want ONE.

lady:  It’s FIFTEEN!

me:  I know!

lady: *turns to the other lady behind the counter*  Tell her it’s $15!

It took another few exchanges to figure it out between us.  Times like those that I hate not knowing how to speak the language, because really what good does it do me when I can understand but the other person doesn’t understand me.  Besides, I am not that good a bargainer!  One dollar.  *snort*  I suppose I should have said, “I want IT,” rather than one – unfortunately it made sense in my head because I was considering buying two so that my nephew could have one too.  Other than that the lion marionette was totally worth it.

Passing the Time

How many countries can you name in 5 minutes?

The Big 0-5

Planning for Chloe’s fifth in a couple of weeks is in full swing – two parties: one with school friends, one with family and she’s asked for roller skates. 

This is just me playing around.  Can’t quite figure out how I want her birthday photocard to look like, and nothing is really turning out quite right.  I think my favorite is this first one. 

 

Just the Facts

Last night we were discussing something at the dinner table, I don’t recall what, when out of the blue my daughter proudly asks, “do you know how Martin Luther King died?”

We love it when she shows off, of course, so we took the bait and asked how he died.  Imagine my surprise when she very boldly and happily announced that he died of old age.  Actually it started with, “my teacher told me . . .”

*huge, heavy sigh*

It took, oh, every ounce of self-restraint I had not to rant about this in front of her and outright call her teacher a liar.  (*Of course, my husband’s answer to this was, “we lie about history all the time.”*)  We calmly explained that that is not what happened.  That didn’t go over well.  She was proud of her facts, you see. 

I’m not okay with it.  I don’t think she needs gory details or anything.  I don’t think she needs very many details.  However, it’s okay for her to know that a bad man shot him with a gun and that is what killed Martin Luther King.  Also, that it was a very sad event and we lost a good person because of the actions of that person.  That is okay for her to know.  And she should know it.  It’s an important event in our history.

I don’t shelter my daughter from very much, huh?  We suspect that’s the reason for saying it was old age is perhaps the teacher was trying to shelter them from something seemingly sinister from our history (and maybe from parents that would be upset at their child’s innocence being lessened – of course, it doesn’t help that I’m the exact opposite kind of parent).   We’ve always taken a very open and honest approach with her, trying to explain things in an age-appropriate way.  It’s important to me that she be presented the truth.  Real life she’ll be sorting out for herself for the next few decades, but she needs just the facts to start out with. 

I don’t have a need to yell at talk to her teacher about it, but I do want her to know the truth.

Looks like this will be the next book I buy for her.

 

Oh Joy

I heart faces theme this week is Joy.  My nephew and also my daughter’s best friend:

 

Holidays Wipe Me Out

I don’t know about you, but holidays always wipe me out.  There’s all this preparation, and then the big day arrives and it’s fun but it’s also non-stop from morning until late at night.  Here’s a little taste:

{“Baby, did you stomp on the bad stuff?“  *checks under both her shoes*  “I don’t know mommy, I don’t see anything.”}

{my favorite new year’s breakfast}

{chloe praying at the alter}

{our prayers}

{my fortune. translated:  you will have everything you want}

All of my other shots are of Chloe playing with her cousins and I’ll probably put those up on face book in the next couple of days.  I hope everyone had a fantastic new year.

**If you’re wondering, my husband’s fortune:  if you open another door, you will find success.  I’m very happy with his considering we hope to have him start his job hunting in our new city by the end of this year.

Tiny Dancer

No time to blog.  I’m cleaning up for Tet, getting money ready for Tet, need to go buy shoes and food for Tet – there’s a theme somewhere in there.  If you’re at all interested, here’s what I wrote last year about what we do for the New Year:

The Days Before New Year

The Days of New Year

Meanwhile, my lovely little girl is very sick today with a nasty stomach bug.  Here’s a shot of her dancing at her cousin’s house last week, and one of her cousin (who is just the cutest) playing with the phone and earpiece.

If I don’t get a chance to blog before Monday – I hope everyone has a fantastic new year and that your year is full of family, friends, and love.

I.Am.Ready.

Is it tomorrow yet?  I’m so excited.  Big party at my house.  My friends and I have work so I’m Tivo’ing everything for that night.  We’ll be munching on Hawaiian food for supper while we watch.  And I have some plans for nifty themed cupcakes that Chloe will help decorate. Okay, so this is the only time I’ve been grateful that my husband just absolutely had to have a big screen tv, but shhh. . .that’ll be our little secret.

Are you doing anything special for tomorrow’s happy day?