“Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it”

Even though I have been working for a year, it’s different now. Now my full attention and time is required, not just a few hours every morning. I am blessed to be able to work from home so that I am physically still here for my children, but I am no longer able to provide the attention that my daughter needs throughout the day, so proper child care has been arranged. Starting tomorrow, she will be spending her mornings at Playschool and one day a week with Grandma. I allowed myself to cry about it last night– I have loved my short few years as a full time stay at home mom. However, I know that I’ve made the best decision for my family and that I am doing what I SHOULD be doing. This new position will not effect my boys much. I’ll be here to send them off to school properly and I will be here when they return from school. I’ll still be able to make breakfast and help them with homework. It is my daughter who will be affected as she will no longer be home all day with me and I will no longer be able to take her places whenever the mood strikes. That said– I know my daughter will thrive in her new environment and that the time I will spend with her will be that much more wonderful. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that jazz.
As sad as this drastic change feels at the moment, the truth of the matter is that I really do have the best of both worlds. And I am grateful.
Lucky Me

Accepting Reality

Yesterday was my Grandfather’s 87th birthday. All of the family gathered at his home to celebrate with him. My Oma said it was the first birthday party he had ever had as an adult.
For years, I’ve been told that my Grandpa “didn’t have much time left” due to various and serious health problems. And every single time that I’ve been told that, I’ve become hysterical because, well, he’s has been the best grandfather that a child could ever ask for. The thought of him not being around to call on the phone and laugh with, or to watch him interact with my children was simply too painful to deal with. Every time, I felt like he still had too much to offer those who love him to leave this world. Despite his heart problems and diabetes, he was still able to live a functional life. And he was still 100% mentally sound.
.sigh.The last few times I’ve visited him, that hasn’t been the case. He’s in obvious and constant pain. And every time, his speech is worse, his breathing is more labored.
Yet, every time, I secretly hold on to a little bit of hope that he’ll pull through this.
Not yesterday. Yesterday, the reality that my grandfather is dying truly sank in. For the first time, I truly understood that he’s suffering beyond measure.
I don’t want him to suffer.
Every night when I pray, I ask God to let my Grandpa live a little longer. After my visit with him yesterday, I don’t think I can pray that way anymore. It’s a completely selfish prayer. I want him around longer because I am not ready to let him go, not because it’s in his best interest to live longer.
Tonight, I will ask God to not allow him to suffer any longer. I will ask him to give my grandfather peace and to take away all of his pain and suffering. He doesn’t deserve to live this way– especially not when he’s lived such a selfless, honorable life.

And finally… some good news.

When my husband was laid off, my initial reaction was panic and fear. Mostly because I feared we’d lose health insurance. With 3 kids and an autoimmune disease, that’s a frightening thought.
After the fear and panic subsided, I made a decision to stop with the tears and figure out a way to make sure that didn’t happen.
I sat down and wrote a letter asking for a full time position with a company that I company that I had already been working with for the past year. I put my insecurities and fears of rejection aside and pointed out all of the reasons why I’d be an excellent addition to the company. That kind of confidence doesn’t come naturally to me, it’s much easier (and cowardly) for me to point out my faults and weakness. But I have to say, highlighting my strengths and abilities was empowering. I felt SO DAMN GOOD about myself when I finished that letter and hit “send.”
I also felt scared.
Scared of being rejected. Scared of hearing “Thanks, but no thanks.”
I waited a few days without hearing back. But then, I got a phone call that changed my life. Our lives.
I got the job. A full time job, work at home job with a real salary that will allow me to help provide for my family and that eliminates the fear of losing my health insurance.
Today is my first official day and I am so happy I could scream.

My First and Only Male Stripper Experience: Part Two

You can read part one here.

The Hostess walked in and told everyone to take their seats as Stripper Santa would be making his appearance shortly. There was a mad rush of women who ran to the back of the room. I was tempted to start knocking bitches to the floor so that I could grab one of the back row seats. After seeing Rico Suave Santa, I was preeeeetty sure he wasn’t going to be stripping down to “boxers!only!” and really didn’t want to be in the front row for the unveiling of that particular package. However, I remained calm and decided to wait until everyone had a seat to find my place. Of course, I ended up on a folding chair in the “front row.”

I was terrified for several reasons. I had never seen a stripper live and in person nor did I have any desire to see a stripper live and in person. What if he started grinding in front of me? What if his “Christmas Package” accidentally brushed up against my leg? HOW WOULD I DEAL WITH THAT? Would I cry? Would I laugh? Would I want to kick it? Would I want to pet it?

Once everyone was seated, the hostess came out and was all “Ladies, are you ready for a little fun?” Most of the women were just as uncomfortable as I was, so everyone was kind of like “um, yes?” Except for one of the older ladies who I will refer to as “Marmen.” Marmen waved her Horny Flag high in the sky in the form of dollar bills and was all “WHOOOOOO! I”m READY!!”

The hostess took her seat and suddenly, a Little Person in an elf suit appeared holding a boom box on his shoulder. I hit the woman next to me and was all “I TOLD you there was an elf!” He ran around in the little space in the middle of the room trying to get the “crowd” pumped up. There aren’t any words to properly convey how mortified I felt in that moment. I put my head down, trying not to lose it because AN ELF RUNNING AROUND ASKING IF WE’RE READY TO WATCH RICO SUAVE SANTA GET TAKE HIS CLOTHES OFF. HA HA HA HA HAAHAA”

He pushed play on the boombox and BOOYAH! Rico Suave Santa appeared in all of his wavy haired, chiseled body glory.
I wish I could remember the song that was playing as he started bumping and grinding, but for the life of me I can’t. I am pretty sure it’s because I went deaf and numb in that moment in anticipation of what was about to happen before my eyes. In fact, I’m getting all red with embarrassment as I type this. It was THAT bad.

Lil Elf was moving and grooving in the background as R.S. Santa began unbuttoning his Santa top. Marmen went nuts.
“WOO, BABY!” She shouted. He threw his shirt to the ground, walked over to her and began doing that move that strippers do where they do that wave with their body that starts with the head and travels down to their legs. Do you know what I’m talking about? If I could find my Flip cam, I’d totally re-enact it for you. That’s how much I love you.

It didn’t take long before the pants came off.
OH!
MY!
GOD!
NOT boxers.
Thong.
Bulge.
Ass.
Smooth.
BULGE.
ASSSSSSSSSSSS.

The older women in the room went ceraaaaazy. There was hootin’ and hollerin’ and woo’s! and hoo’s! and dollar bills! And then… there was me. With my head in my hands, praying to the Lord. “Jesus, please do not let him come near me with all of that hanging out all over the place.”

I lifted my head long enough to watch Rico Suave grinding his way towards me. I began to panic. Dear God, let him turn. Let him TURN. LET HIM TURN.

He didn’t turn.

As he got closer to me, I panicked. I put my hand up in that “Stop in the Name of Love” manner and said “NO!” He looked at me all “WTF, bitch?” And I looked at him all “I don’t want your jirating junk near my leg, asshole!”
It was totally awkward and I felt like an asshole but then Marmen came to rescue. “Get over here, Sexy.” She screamed. He backed up into her lap, laid back and started grinding her leg. Marmen loved it so much that she reached over and began TO RUB! HIS! NIPPLES! Rico Suave liked to have his nipples rubbed and I know this because well, ha ha you know. BONER! The lady next to me screamed “ewww” while I tried to catch my breathe from laughing so hard. The lady sitting next to Marmen didn’t seem to be phased by the boner whatsoever. She began slipping dollar bills into his g-string while Marmen continued playing with Rico’s chest area.

This only went on for a few minutes, but it felt like HOURS AND HOURS.

Eventually, the music stopped (Thanks, little elf man!) and Rico Suave picked up his clothes off the floor and exited the room. We all sat around, laughing and trying to process what had just happened. Out of nowhere, Lil Elf Man appeared and struck up a conversation with me. I was polite, but secretly hoped he’d go away. He didn’t go away. Instead, he asked if I wanted to dance. I was all “ha ha! No thank you!” But Lil Elf Man wasn’t hearing it. He grabbed the boom box, turned it on and started to dance. “Come on!” He said to me. ” ha ha! It’s ok! I’ll pass!” “COME ON! IT’LL BE FUN!” At this point, I stopped being so nice and was all “Really, I’d rather not, but thank you.”
Next thing you know, Lil Elf Man was tearing it up in the middle of the room WITHOUT ANY PANTS ON. Then! And I swear to GOD this is a true story, he came up to me and started dry humping my leg.. I was paralyzed for a second because PANTLESS LIL ELF MAN IS DRYHUMPIN’ MY LEG.

I was all “Dude! Get off of my leg!” And he was all “Come on! WOO!” And I was all “WTF LEAVE ME ALONE!” and he was all “ha ha ha! Merry Christmas!” And so I did what any woman with a half naked elf humping her leg would do. I kicked my leg in an attempt to fling him off. It didn’t work, but he realized that I wasn’t playing around at that point and so he dismounted on his own. I knelt down so that I could make eye contact with him and said something to the effect of “That wasn’t cool, Man.” in a Very Serious Tone.

And then I went home, took a Violation Shower.

The End.

My First and Only Male Stripper Experience

A while back I was talking with Angella about God and faith and prayers. It was an uplifting, inspirational conversation until I managed to turn it into a conversation about male strippers and “pulsating packages.”

I then proceeded to tell her about my first and ONLY experience with a male stripper. I had planned on writing about it here, but of course, I got sidetracked and forgot all about it. Lucky for everyone, my memory was refreshed last week while watching Hot Carpenter parading around in his “elf” costume.

I used to work for an afternoon school program through a local school district. For the most part, all of the women that I worked with were in the 40’s or older. So, when they told me that they had hired a stripper for our annual “in someone’s home” Christmas party, I was a little… surprised? I had never seen a male stripper before and honestly, I had no desire to see one. I don’t know, the idea of watching a mostly naked man grinding his junk all over the place doesn’t turn me. In fact, it kind of scares me. I don’t know, while I loves me some sessual relations, random thrusting dicks aren’t really “my thang.”

I expressed my concerns to the woman who had hired the stripper.

“It’s not going to be anything nasty, Y.” she assured me. “I’ve made arrangements for it to be good, clean fun. He’ll only strip down to his boxers.” She specifically said “Boxers” which led me to believe that it was going to be totally tame and pg-rated. I mean, it HAD to be as I worked with a bunch of prudes. Or at least I THOUGHT I DID. But more on that later.

I wasn’t sure how PigHunter would feel about me going to a party with a male stripper, but he’s such an easy going person I wasn’t too worried.

“Hey baby. There’s going to be a male stripper at our Christmas party this year, are you ok with that?”

“WHAT!!??THE? HELL?@ WHAT?”

“Um, they’re going to have a male stripper at our party this year, BUT! It’s going to be totally innocent, he’s only going to strip down to his BOXERS! Seriously! He’s not even going to wear a thong! They’ll probably just be cute little boxers with Christmas trees on them! And babe, I work with older woman, so nothing crazy will happen. BOXERS!!”

He laughed and was all “I don’t care, have fun.”

For the record, you have to know that I completely believed the whole “he’s just going to strip down to his boxers! It will be good, clean fun!” COMPLETELY BELIEVED IT.

The night of the party finally had arrived. I kissed my husband goodbye and he made some joke about the stripper and I was all “Babe! Seriously! ONLY DOWN TO HIS BOXERS! Do not worry!”

I arrived at the party and the ladies were all riled up about the stripper who was only going to strip down to his precious little boxers. We ate finger sandwiches, sipped on that nasty punch/7up drink as we wondered what he would look like and who would be brave enough to sit in the front row. After about an hour, the door bell rang.
“Oh my God! He’s here!” The ladies squeed.

Linda, the hostess who was in her 50’s, asked me to go with her to answer the door. “Why not?” I thought, and accompanied her to greet The Stripper. “You open it!” She said to me, all nervous like. And so, I opened the door. My mouth dropped and I didn’t say a word because “OH MY GOD IT’S RICO SUAVE IN A SANTA COSTUME.”

And also? “OH MY GOD RICO SUAVE SANTA BROUGHT A LITTLE ELF WITH HIM.”

I can’t really explain why I was so shocked. That’s a lie. Yes I can. I was shocked because I had imagined what this Innocent Stripper was going to look like and the picture I had painted of him did not look anything at all like Gerardo.

I finally was able to compose myself enough to say hello and let him in.
As soon as he made his way in, I ran back to the living room where all the of “Wimmins who work with Children” were nervously waiting for him to inform them that “OH MY GOD HE LOOKS LIKE GERARDO AND HE BROUGHT AN ELF!”

The Hostess walked in and told everyone to take their seats as Stripper Santa would be making his appearance shortly. There was a mad rush of women who ran to the back of the room. I was tempted to start knocking bitches to the floor so that I could grab one of the back row seats. After seeing Rico Suave Santa, I was preeeeetty sure he wasn’t going to be stripping down to “boxers!only!” and really didn’t want to be in the front row for the unveiling of that particular package. However, I remained calm and decided to wait until everyone had a seat to find my place. Of course, I ended up on a folding chair in the “front row.”

I was terrified for several reasons. I had never seen a stripper live and in person nor did I have any desire to see a stripper live and in person. What if he started grinding in front of me? What if his “Christmas Package” accidentally brushed up against my leg? HOW WOULD I DEAL WITH THAT? Would I cry? Would I laugh? Would I want to kick it? Would I want to pet it?

Once everyone was seated, the hostess came out and was all “Ladies, are you ready for a little fun?” Most of the women were just as uncomfortable as I was, so everyone was kind of like “um, yes?” Except for one of the older ladies who I will refer to as “Marmen.” Marmen waved her Horny Flag high in the sky in the form of dollar bills and was all “WHOOOOOO! I”m READY!!”

The hostess took her seat and suddenly, a Little Person in an elf suit appeared holding a boom box on his shoulder. I hit the woman next to me and was all “I TOLD you there was an elf!” He ran around in the little space in the middle of the room trying to get the “crowd” pumped up. There aren’t any words to properly convey how mortified I felt in that moment. I put my head down, trying not to lose it because AN ELF RUNNING AROUND ASKING IF WE’RE READY TO WATCH RICO SUAVE SANTA GET TAKE HIS CLOTHES OFF. HA HA HA HA HAAHAA”

He pushed play on the boombox and BOOYAH! Rico Suave Santa appeared in all of his wavy haired, chiseled body glory.
I wish I could remember the song that was playing as he started bumping and grinding, but for the life of me I can’t. I am pretty sure it’s because I went deaf and numb in that moment in anticipation of what was about to happen before my eyes. In fact, I’m getting all red with embarrassment as I type this. It was THAT bad.

Lil Elf was moving and grooving in the background as R.S. Santa began unbuttoning his Santa top. Marmen went nuts.
“WOO, BABY!” She shouted. He threw his shirt to the ground, walked over to her and began doing that move that strippers do where they do that wave with their body that starts with the head and travels down to their legs. Do you know what I’m talking about? If I could find my Flip cam, I’d totally re-enact it for you. That’s how much I love you.

It didn’t take long before the pants came off.
OH!
MY!
GOD!
NOT boxers.
Thong.
Bulge.
Ass.
Smooth.
BULGE.
ASSSSSSSSSSSS.

The older women in the room went ceraaaaazy. There was hootin’ and hollerin’ and woo’s! and hoo’s! and dollar bills! And then… there was me. With my head in my hands, praying to the Lord. “Jesus, please do not let him come near me with all of that hanging out all over the place.”

I lifted my head long enough to watch Rico Suave grinding his way towards me. I began to panic. Dear God, let him turn. Let him TURN. LET HIM TURN.

He didn’t turn.

As he got closer to me, I panicked. I put my hand up in that “Stop in the Name of Love” manner and said “NO!” He looked at me all “WTF, bitch?” And I looked at him all “I don’t want your jirating junk near my leg, asshole!”
It was totally awkward and I felt like an asshole but then Marmen came to rescue. “Get over here, Sexy.” She screamed. He backed up into her lap, laid back and started grinding her leg. Marmen loved it so much that she reached over and began TO RUB! HIS! NIPPLES! Rico Suave liked to have his nipples rubbed and I know this because well, ha ha you know. BONER! The lady next to me screamed “ewww” while I tried to catch my breathe from laughing so hard. The lady sitting next to Marmen didn’t seem to be phased by the boner whatsoever. She began slipping dollar bills into his g-string while Marmen continued playing with Rico’s chest area.

This only went on for a few minutes, but it felt like HOURS AND HOURS.

Eventually, the music stopped (Thanks, little elf man!) and Rico Suave picked up his clothes off the floor and exited the room. We all sat around, laughing and trying to process what had just happened. Out of nowhere, Lil Elf Man appeared and struck up a conversation with me. I was polite, but secretly hoped he’d go away. He didn’t go away. Instead, he asked if I wanted to dance. I was all “ha ha! No thank you!” But Lil Elf Man wasn’t hearing it. He grabbed the boom box, turned it on and started to dance. “Come on!” He said to me. ” ha ha! It’s ok! I’ll pass!” “COME ON! IT’LL BE FUN!” At this point, I stopped being so nice and was all “Really, I’d rather not, but thank you.”
Next thing you know, Lil Elf Man was tearing it up in the middle of the room WITHOUT ANY PANTS ON. Then! And I swear to GOD this is a true story, he came up to me and started dry humping my leg.. I was paralyzed for a second because PANTLESS LIL ELF MAN IS DRYHUMPIN’ MY LEG.

I was all “Dude! Get off of my leg!” And he was all “Come on! WOO!” And I was all “WTF LEAVE ME ALONE!” and he was all “ha ha ha! Merry Christmas!” And so I did what any woman with a half naked elf humping her leg would do. I kicked my leg in an attempt to fling him off. It didn’t work, but he realized that I wasn’t playing around at that point and so he dismounted on his own. I knelt down so that I could make eye contact with him and said something to the effect of “That wasn’t cool, Man.” in a Very Serious Tone.

And then I went home, took a Violation Shower.

The End.

Disappointing people yet again.

When the Trading Spaces crew arrived, I was excited! Thrilled! Oh! The updates! The photos! The stories I’d have to tell!
But then…
The teenager got sick.
I got slammed with work.
I found out the designer was NOT Doug.
Aaaand I suddenly lost interest. I tried to care. I tried to be excited about it and to take pictures and to report back to The Internet, but I just got bored with it. If you’re not actually involved with the show, it’s totally boring. Also? A little annoying and disruptive to your life.
Example. I was getting ready to pick the boys up from school. I was on my way to the car carrying G’s car seat thinking that G was right behind me. She wasn’t. I turned around and saw the garage door to the house was still open. “Gabs!” I yelled “Hurry up! We have to go!” All of a sudden, I felt like the entire world was watching me. I turned to my right and ha ha ha! About 30 people, including Hot Carpenter, Paige Davis, Some Blonde Chick Designer and a Camera Dude were all staring (glaring) at me. It was like “CUT! Big Mouth woman next door just ruined the scene. Let’s take it from the top AS SOON AS SHE SHUTS HER BIG FAT MOUTH.” Of course, they didn’t actually say that, with their words. But the looks on their faces said it, man.
There were a couple of things worth mentioning.
Thing 1: The carpenter dressed up like an elf. Except, only from the waist up. There weren’t any tights involved. (Total rip off!) Anyway. Gabs wasn’t convinced he was trying to be an elf and every time we’d see him she’d be all “Mom, why does that man thinks he’s Peter Pan?”
Picture or Video 6109
OH SNAPS.
Thing 2: The carpenter has a LOT of help. I am probably the only one who thought he really did all of the projects by himself, but alas… No. He had 3 or 4 guys at any given time doing work for him. I was genuinely shocked by this revelation. PigHunter was not. “Did you really think that one carpenter did all of that work? I knew all along he had help. He just gets all the credit for it while looking pretty for the camera.”
And that’s all I’ve got.
I know. I’m lame.

Because this is as exciting as it gets here in the Upper Class Hood (in which we do not fit in because we are RENTERS!)

Observations from Day One of (Totally Not) My Trading Spaces Experience:
Paige Davis isn’t as friendly as I thought she would be. (She was not happy when I said hello to her. In fact, she refused to make eye contact. But, I give her a pass. I’m sure nosy neighbors are All Up In Her Snatch when she’s filming and she probably has to implement the Asshole Defense System to avoid engaging people and get work done. I totally get that, however, I can’t lie– I was a bit shocked.) That said. She is ADORABLE.
Sadly, I only got one picture of her and it was from far away and also of her back. Once again, my fear of Breaking the Law overwhelmed me and I was too chicken shit to just stand in my yard and take pictures. Instead, I stood in my garage, waited until no one was watching and snapped as fast as I could. Luckily, I’m huge so when people did look it was easy to hide the camera by holding it against my side. I honestly don’t know what I’m afraid of. Oh, wait, yes I do. I’m afraid Some Dude from production will come over and ask me to please stop taking pictures and I’ll be all “Yes, sir. I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t mean any harm sir. I’M JUST A WRITER, SIR. A writer who loves taking pictures for my blog, sir.”
aPicture or Video 6108
The Carpenter is HOT. And think I’ll set up a chair in the front yard and work from there tomorrow just so that I can watch him hit stuff with his hammer.
That’s really all I’ve got so far. I still don’t know who the designer will be. I’ll find that out sometime tomorrow morning when I’m just “watering the flowers” for the 38th time in 2 days.
Picture or Video 6107

Trading Spaces

scan0004
So, it looks like this is finally going to happen.
I wish I could say that I had thought up some Awesome Master Plan to eff up the filming, but, meh. I just stopped being angry with Nasty McNeighbor. I figured I can’t stop her from disliking us because we’re RENTERS! I can, however, control my behavior and hating her just because she wasn’t friendly to me was a waste of energy. I don’t want to be at odds with my neighbors. I want to wave and say hello and offer to water their yard while they go out of town and all of those nice things that neighbors do for each other.
I know the chances of THAT kind of neighborly love between her and I are slim to none, but I figure I can at least wave good morning to her, even if she doesn’t wave back. That’s not to say I won’t still flip her off as she drives away from time to time, because WOULD IT KILL YOU TO WAVE BACK, LADY?
We’ve had a few conversations about the filming– I’ve gone out of my way to ask her about it and she was actually excited to talk about it, so that was nice.
Anyway.
I’m kind of excited about the possibility of meeting Paige Davis and OMG I HOPE DOUG IS HER DESIGNER BECAUSE I EFFING LOVE DOUG.
I plan on taking lots of pictures and you KNOW I’ll be writing about anything exciting that happens. Which, let’s hope that if anything exciting happens it involves me, Doug and a plate of chocolate covered strawberries.

NOT 38!

Her: I’ll be 38 in September!
Me: Me too! What is your actual birthday?
Her: The 21’st.
Me: Mine is the 9th.
Her: So you were born in 70, eh?
Me: Um… actually…I was born in 71. *starts counting with my fingers* OH SHIT! I’M NOT 37! I’M ONLY 36! This entire year I’ve thought I was already 37!
And that is why this is going to be the best birthday since turning 30. Because I am a year younger than I thought I was and that’s kind of awesome when you’re approaching 40.
Since I post pictures of what my children look like on the morning of their birthdays, I thought it was only fair I post one of what I looked like when I woke up this morning. You’re not imagining things. I really am that hot (Puff-ay!) and I really do have dandruff.
What NOT 38! but 37! looks like.