While stopped at a light...

An interesting thing occurred to me while I was out running some errands this morning. As I was stopped at a light I was treated to the charming sounds of the car stereo next to me...it went something like: “Boom, thump, swear, unintelligible garble, angry words, swear, boom, thump.” Like I said, charming. So much so in fact that I could have rolled down my window, leaned over and said; “Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?”. Yeah, it was classy. As I listened to the ridiculous, loud, ignorant noise coming from this vehicle with significant irritation I noticed the vehicles ahead of me in both lanes were sporting Yes On 8 bumper stickers. It was then it occurred to me that what the Yes on 8 campaign is saying is much the same as what was spewing forth from the car stereo next to me...basically it's loud, hateful and ridiculous noise. The Yes on 8 folks might not be swearing, but I can assure you that whatever language they are using, to those of us who just want to see folks treated fairly it evokes much the same feeling as listening to the garbage on that stereo. Nothing says “classy” like trying to take away someone’s rights while loudly proclaiming your own as more valid or deserving.

Grey Poupon, anyone?

Well, it is an Election Year!

So, I’m going to address this topic once again. It’s not only one of most controversial propositions but is also shaping up to be one of the costliest races in the nation (except for the presidential election). Yes folks, I’m talking about Prop 8. I was pleased to hear about the new No on Prop 8 commercials. In a first ever move, two YouTube videos originally produced by supporters completely independent of the campaign will be used. Ironically, I had already included one of them; "Constitution" (the original longer version) on SAHM: Surviving Assorted Home Mayhem in the post What Dooce and I Have in Common. The original version of the other video being used is below...a great little spot simply entitled “Moms”. As a Mom, I want my children to grow up in a world in which the values they learn are based on love, fairness, compassion and understanding. I do not want them to be taught that it’s okay to shun, hate or treat differently anyone just because they don’t think, look or act a certain way or that any one way is “better” than the other.


And as far as this election goes, I think humorist David Sedaris summed it up best when he said:

“I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat.

“Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of crap* with bits of broken glass in it?”

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.”

*edited for language- just keeping it clean—well, you know, as clean as it can be, we are talking about politics here

It’s amazing it wasn’t me this time

Saturday morning as I was sitting in the dining room I heard a loud thud come from the back of the house. A few minutes later the hubby appeared around the corner to announce that I had managed to leave an usual amount of water on the bathroom floor after my shower. Apparently the loud thud was the hubby taking a fall. I felt horrible and immediately asked if he was okay to which he responded “not really”. I apologized for the water all over the floor (not sure how I did that) and spent the rest of the day feeling bad for hubby who was having some aches and pains especially in his tailbone. Of course, even with someone getting hurt we can’t seem to avoid finding the humor in most situations around here. We joked about how it’s generally me who falls or runs into something or otherwise injures myself in some stupid way. The poor hubby was unable to perform his usual Saturday night duties, you know…. taking out the garbage. The next morning I asked him how he was doing after his fall. His response was: “Not that great—I think I need a donut”. As you might expect my reply to that was: “Well Honey, I’d love a donut too, but you know we’re on a diet.”

Thank you and be sure to tip your waitresses… I’ll be here all week.

A "fad" I couldn't resist

Okay, I am not real big on trendy stuff and rarely go along with the latest fad. Most of the time I am pretty traditional, especially when it comes to clothing. (Frankly, it took me longer than I'd like to admit to stop wearing basic jeans; aka "mom jeans" and go with the more modern, lower waist/fuller leg style because I thought they were "too trendy".) In fact, last Easter I wrote about how I dressed baby in a very classic, traditional smocked romper despite the current "trend" for boys to wear ultra-casual clothing. So, when I heard of this item that you're about to see debuted below I was hesitant but the "cuteness" factor won me over (along with a really great online deal). So, here's a short video of the little guy's latest thing.


Blog Improvement

As you might have noticed the ‘ol blog has undergone some changes lately. Hopefully for the better! I love my new surroundings and am pleased with the new banner, incorporating the infamous caricature graphic from the old one. But sadly, technical difficulties abound and I am not anywhere near “techie” enough to solve them. *sigh* Even the new banner was unable to be “centered” correctly. Tell me you didn’t even notice until I said something, okay? You know, kind of like when someone has a giant zit in the center of their forehead and complains about it to their friends who say they didn’t even notice until you pointed it out. Then they follow it up with; “it’s not that bad”. Yeah, just like that. I loaded some photos on Flickr last night but have yet to figure out how to actually get it loaded onto the blog. This is when I could really use a computer geek! Yes, I’ve got a hot geek husband, but he’s geeky in more non-computer ways. I’ve also wanted to install a label cloud, a feature that sadly isn’t available as a standard gadget through Blogger so the only way I’ve found to make that happen is to manually install it by following several pages of computer code. Something that is not going to happen. As some of you might have also noticed I added Twitter to the sidebar. I actually signed up for this thing months ago and then never did anything with it or got it installed, so last night I managed to make it work. Note the sarcasm in my Twitter title—I guess it’s one of things where although I think it’s cute in theory, I am not really imagining it being a huge hit. I mean, do you all really want to know little tidbits of what I’m up to? The neat thing is though I'm able to “update” it from my cell phone which proved to be easier than I would have thought. So, I’m sure you’ll all be thrilled to know that when I accidentally lock my husband in the garage you won’t be left out of the loop. Oh, and I successfully managed to use Blogger’s “Poll” feature, so do me a favor and “vote” so my small techie success will not be in vain, m’kay? Thanks.

I could have gone as a Pirate

This past weekend we had plans to attend a Renaissance Faire. While taking a shower I somehow managed to get shampoo in my eye. It was burning like crazy and after I got out I called down the hall to the hubby asking for help because I had an “eye issue”. (Apparently he wondered if I’d managed to once again accidentally yank my eyelashes out. For those of you who haven’t heard that particular story click here.) So I filled hubby in on my current tale of woe and asked if he could open up a new bottle of contact solution since this task was too difficult while in significant pain from my eye stinging and I needed to get my contact lens out and rinse it. With tears streaming down my face [and feeling really stupid for actually sloshing shampoo into my eye] the hubby barely holds back the laughter as he says “Well, maybe we can get you an eye patch at the Renaissance Faire!” Yeah, the hubby is hilarious—I can always count on him for coming up with something clever like that. Anyway, eventually my eye felt better and off we went to the Faire. Three of the four of us dressed for the occasion.


Baby was darling in his tunic and hat.DSC00609









Teenager wore his “Court Jester” hat which was a hit amongst all his high school friends he ran into.


Jester

And the hubby was dashing in his get-up as well.



He was also eyeing the turkey legs much the same way baby was eyeing the busty women at the last Faire we attended when he was nursing.

DSC00613

A great time was had by all. However, I did not costume-up for this particular event. No, not even an eye patch.


What Dooce and I Have in Common

I knew I shared some common ground with fellow mommy blogger Heather Armstrong aka “Dooce”. Well, okay, not the big advertising dollars or the swearing but we both have “hot geek” husbands! Recently I learned we share even more in common.

I have to give bloggie kudos to Heather for her recent post. Yesterday she shared with her readers some diary entries from her late teens. Reflecting on who we were and looking at who we’ve become is an eye opening experience. Being an avid Diary keeper I often do this myself as it helps me better understand and learn from all I’ve been through and overcome. Her post went on to talk about how her opinions and values changed over the years and how she grew and matured as she started thinking for herself. She closed her post by boldly stating her support for the No on Prop 8 campaign (even though she’s not a CA resident). Of course the flurry of comments were a mixed bag of “Good for you” and “Shame on you” though thankfully the shaming finger waggers were few and far between. In reading some of the negative comments the ignorance of some people came glaringly through. It’s rather shameful that the people who assert their belief in “family values” are the same people who seek to dismantle and vilify others’ families. The folks who claim that religion is part of whatever topic they are debating are the same folks that ignore the other principles of their own faith by judging others, treating them unfairly and a host of other things they seem to ignore. People are using a “pick and choose” plan to suit them when convenient. But that’s a whole other story.

It was nice to see another mommy blogger speaking up to share her view on an issue like this that doesn’t affect her personally but sure affects others in a very negative way. I wish more people would do this. Sadly, we’re seeing quite the opposite lately; folks whose lives are not in any way affected by a proposition seeking to get it passed just to negatively affect others’ lives. Since I’ve already written a post on this issue [California is too Great for Hate] I won’t go into much more other than to say this: people need to understand what this issue is about-- basic civil rights for a group of human beings. And that is something worth blogging about.


Now Back to our Regularly Scheduled Topics

For those of you who are new readers of SAHM: Surviving Assorted Home Mayhem please rest assured that my recent post dealing with a political matter is not the norm around here. In fact, I was initially reluctant to write it in the first place. However, I also feel that when something like this comes along in which some folks are willing to such take drastic measures to affect others in a negative way in addition to lying to scare people into voting for something there ought to be people to willing speak out about it. (Just last night our No on Prop 8 sign was stolen from our yard- less than 48 hours after being put up.) Enough said.

So, normally here at SAHM: Surviving Assorted Home Mayhem I share with you things like this.....

This weekend we enjoyed our trip to the pumpkin patch. The boys had a great time and we got some cute photos. Boys PP

















I discovered Baby’s new little Levi's jeans are apparently made the same way all jeans are being designed these days…low waist-ed. Sheesh! Although I guess if given the choice seeing baby’s Pampers peeking out somehow seems less ridiculous than the top of someone’s boxers or thong.

After the pumpkin festivities the little guy was ready for a nap and the hubby and I took this opportunity to leave teenager at home with him while we ran some errands. Shopping without an annoyed teenager and screaming baby was a treat. Heck, at this point we’re practically considering it a date. While shopping at Kohl’s we got separated and did the inevitable call-each-other-on-our-cell-phones maneuver. This resulted in a dorky “Where are you?” exchange across a few aisles until we finally met up. Then hubby proudly announces he found something for me; a candle that smells like cupcakes! How timely since I recently blogged about the Britney Spears/cupcake thing.

Earlier today while getting the Fall décor out of the shed [the shed I’ve previously mentioned has containers full of crap we need to go through] the hubby unearthed this little gem that I thought I’d share with you:

1979Holy time machine to the 1970’s! Yes, this is the hubs in his Jr. year of high school. And yes, he did give me permission to share this with you all. I know I’ve got plenty of hilarious photos from my youth as well but those will have to wait. Because, let’s face it, it’s way more fun to show embarrassing photos of your spouse than of yourself. Actually, he doesn’t really consider it embarrassing since according to him he had girls lined up around the block to date him. And go for a ride in his AMC Gremlin.

California is too Great for Hate

Yes folks, this post will be known as The One Where She Got Political. I didn’t intend to “go there” - it was not in the plan when I started this blog but...I’m going there.
For those of you who’ve not yet heard about the incredibly controversial proposition on the ballot for California, it’s Prop 8 which seeks to not only overturn the California Supreme Court ruling which made same-gender marriage legal but also to essentially write discrimination into the constitution by preventing it from ever being legal again. Frankly it’s as ridiculous as turning back time and taking away the right to vote for a gender or a race.

Here’s my take on this situation folks; even if you feel that a same-gender relationship and even a same-gender marriage is wrong it does not make it okay to impose your belief system on others by denying those folks rights. There are people who think that pre-marital relations are wrong. Does telling people “not to” or going so far as creating a law against it stop those people from the activity? Do you think that preventing a legal marriage for a same-gender couple is going to cause those couples to break up? To not live together? To go away? NO! What does it “solve” to tell Linda & Diane or Tom & Dave, “Hey, we think your relationship is wrong, you love the wrong person, therefore we're making certain you can’t have a marriage - a “legal” marriage - ever. So there! Take that!” Does it really make your marriage somehow better to do that? Are Carol and Bob going to have a stronger marriage because they’ve stood their ground in asserting that their marriage, their “traditional” marriage is better because they are opposite genders?

The “Protect Marriage” phrase/movement is ludicrous. It “protects” nothing, and certainly not marriage- it simply denies it for one group. I find it very disturbing that the groups promoting this proposition are using scare tactics filled with false information to further their hateful agenda. Yes, I said hateful, there is simply no other word to describe it. When someone decides that their way of life is somehow better than someone else’s and then seeks to deny the other person’s rights, well, that’s just plain mean, there is no getting around it. It is appalling to think of the money spent to promote this thing--money that could have gone to help those in need, to do some real good for folks who need it, but instead it’s being used to prevent a group of people from having what should be a basic human right. If that isn’t a sad commentary on society I don’t know what is. When people care more about harming one group that helping another I think we all need to more carefully examine our values.

Numerous other “fears” for the so-called consequences of not having Proposition 8 pass have been talked about, many of which are based on falsehoods. I won’t go into all of that here as others have already said it far better than I could but I do want to point out one of these: “Well, if Proposition 8 doesn’t pass then the schools will be able to teach our kids that a same gender marriage is “just as good” as a traditional marriage!” A Sacramento Superior Court judge has already ruled that this claim by the proponents of Prop 8 is “false and misleading” and the “case” they cited was from Massachusetts. Since they knew what California law said they used another state to mislead the voters. There is already a law in place that prohibits the California school system from teaching anything regarding Family Life to your child that you do not want them to hear and learn. So, when it comes time for the kids to learn about Family Life you have the choice to opt them out of the classroom if it’s important to you that they not hear this or anything else relating to the Family Life curriculum. But perhaps you could take a look at this from another perspective. For just a moment, imagine with me if you will that your little Brandon or Caitlin learns [with your consent, of course] in school that there is a such a thing as homosexuality (because it does in fact exist whether you agree with it or not) and that while some people wish to share their life with a partner of the opposite gender others wish to share their life with a partner of the same gender. Don’t you think it’s possible that if we started teaching this basic understanding from an early age that it might just prevent folks who are gay and lesbian from being at best ostracized and at worst harmed and possibly even losing their lives? Don’t you think it’s possible that less misunderstanding and less hate might just happen to equal less violence in the world? Isn’t that something that we should all be looking at quite seriously and doing whatever we can to work towards? I certainly think so. I hope enough other Californians do too.

Stupid Purchase No. 127

I’ve been searching for a new fragrance for quite some time now. I’m pretty picky and end up not liking the way most smell once they're on me even though in the bottle I think they smell great. My newest attempt was Fantasy by Britney Spears. I should probably explain what possessed me to buy this one in the first place. Although I enjoy an upbeat dance tune to motivate me to clean house I am hardly a Britney Spears fan. I purchased this particular fragrance because I heard it smelled like cupcakes. Well, the idea of the scent of cupcakes really appeals to someone who’s on Weight Watchers and practically has a religious experience with butter cream frosted cake products. So, my thinking was “Hey, if I can at least smell cupcakes (with no actual cupcakes in sight to devour) then perhaps it will somehow satisfy my cupcake desire!” But here’s what happened: Not only did I not like how it smelled on me, when I would get asked what fragrance I was wearing I’d have to suffer through the embarrassment of admitting it was from Britney Spears. Yeah. I’m forty for heaven's sake. I’m a stay at home mom and writer trying to lose baby weight and frankly, I’ve got no business wearing Britney Spears perfume. I’m still trying to find my signature scent but I’m thinking it doesn’t smell like cupcakes; it probably smells like coffee and a Weight Watcher’s entrée.

*No cupcakes were eaten during the making of this blog post. Really. I swear.





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Fall Festivities and Frivolity

This is my favorite season and I am so glad it's finally here. The hot weather gets old for me about half way through Summer so I look forward with great anticipation to crisp air and crunchy leaves. I also love when it gets dark earlier and frankly I'm irked they've messed with Daylight Savings Time making it even longer. Maybe that's just me though-- I guess it's popular to have longer days but I actually like having dinner when it's darker.

So it's about time to break out the Fall decor including the Scarecrow who you may remember from this post last year. We are all looking forward to our usual Fall activities including a trip to the pumpkin patch and taking photos of the boys. The last two years in a row the baby has had some cute "pumpkin patch outfits". Sadly, DSCN1817I'm discovering it gets harder to find such things now. I did however find a pretty cute orange and white striped sweater with a pumpkin on it. I told teenager if I'd found one in his size I would have bought it. Then the hubby arrived home from work and saw the little guy's sweater and asked me if I got him one, too. And he was serious. I asked if he'd really wear it and he said yes. I am so looking for a big pumpkin sweater. Sometimes I underestimate that guy.