Re-purposed Skirt

Okay, bear with me, I'm posting in a  hurry

The jeans I'd had for about 10years.  About 7 years ago I stepped over a barbed wire fence, caught the leg on it & ripped them well.  BUT  I had some old BDUs so used that to make cool camo patches for it.

Got bored around that time & embroidered some stars onto one of the pant legs & added the BDU camo pocket.

Still wore them as jeans...

I have this thing about barbed wire fences & being able to step over the one at my mom's place...ripped half the leg out.

BUT MAN did I love these jeans.

I bought a yard of matching camp material & turned the jeans into a skirt, just messing around...hand sewed the whole thing, using embroidery thread, because that's what I had & I was going thru this huge patriotic phase then.

Wouldn't you know jeans don't quite fit right when you basically destroy them, especially when they're men's jeans to start with & you have another baby & the hips flare just a bit wider...  Last year I pulled it out to make some hip room into them...and my sewing machine crapped & I didn't have the patience anymore to do it by hand, not with two kids & school & everything else...and the arthritis.

Today I fixed my sewing machine & finished it for my post-apocalypse themed Halloween costume I'll be wearing tonight....

Here are the pictures.  Also just understand the boy didn't to be patient enough to just hold down the button for it to take a picture, so walked off because my camera was broken, in his opinion, so I had to take the pictures myself, while trying to stretch out far enough to actually get the best pictures I could of myself, without having to climb on my bed & take one in the dresser mirror....with giraffe legs....my shoulders would have been touching the ceiling to attempt that picture.

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Please Help!

A dear friend of mine's son was involved in a hit & run accident, as a pedestrian. As a result his left leg was shattered, requiring extensive surgery & a few days in the hospital. Happily he is home now, but sadly he is being held responsible for the medical & therapy expenses until (IF) they find out who hit him & if the perp even had insurance.

A fund has been set up at the Renasant Bank in the name of Wendi Piazza for Brenden Bezden Fund to help them with medical & other related expenses. Please consider & help them out. I know every little bit adds up and helps.

Also, the truck they are looking for is a newer, white, 4-Door Chevy pick-up that would have been in the Beltline/Hwy 20 area of Decatur, Alabama at 2am on Sunday, October 21st. Please share & help this family out. Thank you! 

It was covered by their local news station, but so far they've had no real leads.  

A Facebook Page has been set up for anyone who would like to stay up to date on progress and how to help!  

A Give Forward Page has also been set up and a donation widget is off to the right here! ----->>>> Please help this family as this catastrophe has put an additional hardship on the whole family that was just starting to get back on their feet after many months of unemployment.  They are being held wholly responsible for all medical expenses until the driver is found, which may never happen, unfortunately. 

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Sometimes I'll Blog

First, I have to say there have been some developments in this story.  A continuation of sorts.  I told you that I was sure were were just at the intermission, turns out I was right.  Elvis is returning to the United States & will have a permanent entertainment gig, where he should thrive.  Granted he stays away from the psycho bitches.

So, on with life:




Mikeal is doing awesome at school.  We have an IEP meeting to attend tomorrow, well, today, at noon.  First one for him, but oddly it has made me more nervous than I was for Mikaila's first one.  Mikaila needed special services for speech & behavioral issues caused by not being able to hear for a few years of her life.  Mikeal is requiring special services because he's intellectually gifted.  Now, I don't, yet, know all the results of all the tests they put him through, I'll update that sometime this weekend, but do know that in at least a few areas he's testing at an 'above high school level'.  He's in 5th grade.  He's a young 5th grader at that.  He just turned 10 at the end of August.  He's always been ahead of his classmates & has always been bored with schoolwork because it's easy for him.  Normally these tests are done when the students are in 2nd/3rd grade, but we didn't move here until Mikeal was in the middle of 2nd grade and the differences between education in Oklahoma and the education here in Tennessee is ENORMOUS!  Someone with an average intellectual ability would test high in Oklahoma, but on a national scale they would only just be average.  After three solid years of testings showing that Mikeal would exceed the expectations of what is normal for someone his age.  This past year's state standardized testing showed him scoring well above average, in everything.  So we started this year off with psychological exams, family history reports, yada yada a bunch of stuff.  I did intentionally leave off a lot of stuff about his sperm donor because I did NOT want Mikeal to be judged based upon the fuckery of that piece of scum.  ((I have that right to call him that.  He believes women should be beaten into submission if they fall out of the narrow line he's drawn, he likes to rape children, and thinks he has no responsibilities towards Mikeal because *he* did not ask for the divorce.))

Moving on.

Mikaila is also doing well.  Her teachers believe she'll do just fine academically with her classmates when she goes into Kindergarten next year, but it does seem we've reached a plateau where her speech progress is concerned.  Starting next week she'll be seeing the speech therapist in one on one sessions once a week, instead of two shared sessions.  She'll still have two sessions each week, just one will be solo.  She has taken to just throwing her hands up & shrugging, as if to say: "Well, I tried, I couldn't say it right, oh well, what are you going to do about it?"  The little twerp.  I ADORE her personality though.  Sweet, loving, sharp as a whip, and sassy sweet.  Not the mouthy punk teenager type of sass, but adorable, you can't help but laugh, she's almost 5, type of sass.  Sparkly blue eyes that make you know she's up to something, you just haven't figured it out yet...and that's too bad for you.  She also has FOUR very wiggly front teeth.  ZOMG  HOW does that happen so quickly!  My baby is getting so big.

Brian's doing alright selling cars.  It's been a slow month, but I'm sure it'll pick back up here shortly.  ((I actually have a lot to say about it, but will refrain.))

I'm doing well enough.  My heart is broken for friends that I'm unable to do more for, but do have to continuously remember that I am only one person & cannot yet save the world.  Man do I try though!  I still suck at it.  My health seems to be doing alright.  My knee is still wonky from time to time, but it starts acting right just before I go get the MRI done on it , so I put it off again.  This week it's cooperated with me walking on the treadmill & getting a ton of stuff almost done, so I suppose I can't complain much.  Our next cold front is moving in this morning, so I'm sure I'll be back to hobbling for a little while.  Right now I feel it in my head & back & feet, but it's creeping into the rest of my joints.  It sucks, but what else am I going to do?  School is going well and if I can refrain from major illness or surgery during my terms I'm sure it'd go much better!  Pneumonia is nothing to mess around with!

Next week Brian & I celebrate 5 years of marriage.  It's been a lovely mix of ups & down & consistent growth.  I really wouldn't change it for anything in the world.  My heart swells each time I think about him and how our life has morphed together.  It's simply amazing. ♥

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Cinnamon Roll Cake

Cinnamon Roll Cake

Cake Ingredients:
3 cups Flour  (I used equal parts all purpose flour & whole wheat flour)
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups milk
2 eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup melted butter (I used actual butter, not margarine)

Combine all ingredients, except for the butter.  Slowly stir in the melted butter.  Pour into a 9x13 greased baking pan.  Make the topping.

Topping Ingredients:
1 cup softened butter (again, actual butter)
1 cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons flour
1 - 2 Tablespoons Cinnamon

Cream ingredients together & whip well (should kinda seem bubbly, kinda like a chocolate mousse.  Drop evenly onto the cake batter in the pan, swirl well with a knife.  Bake at 350° for 28-32 minutes.  If you use the toothpick or knife method to check the cake the topping portion will be slightly wet rendering the 'test' useless.  You want the topping to be a bit wet/gooey.

Glaze Ingredients:
2 cups powered sugar
5 Tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla

Combine well, pour over cake after it comes out of the oven.  ((Or just use the store bought glaze that's been in the pantry forever because you know you suck at making glazes))Enjoy.  This is a very sinful cake.  It is EVIL.  It will beg you to start eating as soon as it comes of the oven.  Wait for it to cool at least slightly - Cakes fresh out of the oven are HOT (or at least should be).  It's a 9x13 cake.  Unless you are prepared to eat the whole thing yourself it is advised you take it to a large gathering of friends/family so others will eat it before you devour all of it.  Make sure you grab the first piece as soon as you set it on the table.  Enjoy.  ☺

This recipe courtesy of Dani at My Corner of the Pond.

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Just wondering...

I watched the Presidental hopeful debate the other night and it left me with some questions.  Yes, I do understand that my questions seem to be directed to one side of the debate, I already have a favorable opinion of Obama.  I'm wanting someone to convince me to have a favorable opinion of Romney.   

So my questions are (and I'm dead serious, so if you an provide answers & links, with facts, I'd love to see them & feel free to pick & choose which questions you answer, I'm not expecting one person to have all the answers, unless you do...):

1 - What is the difference between a tax credit or break & tax reduction?
2 - How much will an oil pipe line, that runs from Alaska, thru Canada, into the US, cost, in USD?
3 - Have Canadians already given the green light to run this pipeline, all the way threw their country?

4 - Are the Canadians going to allow this pipe to run, free of charge?
5 - How is this oil pipe line going to save any money, at all?
6 - Is the funding cut to Sesame Street going to fund this pipeline?
7 - If Sesame Street's funding is going to fund the pipeline, how is that going to pay off our debt?
8 - How does taking low-cost birth control options away help with getting people out of poverty?
9 - How does not covering a pre-existing condition save the health care industry any money?
10 - How is "universal health care" a death panel philosophy but denying coverage to the poor, sick, elderly, and children not a death panel philosophy?
11 - Are these millionaires going to agree to pay their employees higher wages...without raising the cost of everything?
12 - Why should we bother with looking for a cure for things, like cancer, if all possibilities are not allowed to be tested?
13 - If things, like cancer, become curable, how will the pharmaceutical companies make their money?
14 - If the pharmaceutical companies are not making money, what is their initiative to find a cure?
15 - If the Federal Government stops giving funds for education, how will states that are already struggling, with the funds, going to manage?

That should be enough for the time being....

And please take my questions with a grain of salt.  I'm *just* a public high school graduated stay-at-home-mom working her way through getting a college education, with only my Freshman year behind me, raising a family below the poverty level.  It's reasonable to assume I know nothing about what I'm talking about based on that.

*insert eye roll*

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Making This Simple

In light of this being election season I have, once again, found myself to be OVERWHELMED with the amount of hatred there is in this country towards people who aren't   *whatever*.

I once again feel I need to clarify where I stand on many issues, then just forward the link onto those who are curious.

1 - I believe health care should be affordable for EVERYONE.  Thanks to policies only recently set into motion my family has that option.  Prior to these policies it meant that my family had to pay $1200 a MONTH JUST for the PREMIUM.  That did NOT include any copays, deductibles, yada yada extra crap.  So we went without, because it's cheaper to pay that one or two $5000 bills we MIGHT incur, than to pay a guaranteed $20,000 a year, on a less than $18,000 a year income.

2 - I believe that minimum wage is a joke.  Yes, it was raised $2.10/hr since the last election, but that still translates to only $15,080 a year for someone never missing a single day of work & putting in 40 hours a week.  Sure, it's easy to tell them to get a better education/better paying job...but then who will serve you your fancy $8 a cup coffee?  Or who will change the oil in your car?  Who is going to make sure your brand of wine is stocked on the shelf?  Who's going to make sure there's a cashier for you to purchase the gas from for your Mercedes?

3 - I believe that MY family plan is MY business.  Not yours or anyone else's.  I do believe that anyone who wishes to prevent the conception of a child should have access to effective & safe contraceptives.

4 - I do not believe someone who is ill equipped mentally or emotionally to care for a child should be blatantly forced to do so.  After all I've seen in my life I sincerely believe some children would have been better off if they had been aborted.  Absolutely no child deserves to be abused or tortured.  And don't try to feed me the bullshit about the child being put up for adoption or there being agencies in place to look after the welfare of children.  The adoption laws in this country are bullshit to work through and a person cannot go a single day without hearing about how shocked the community is that this perfect family had a child locked in a closet for years, in their own shit, or beat their infant to death, or FUCKING FORGOT that they had children in their vehicle when it's 100° outside.

5 - I do believe in the death penalty.  If you purposely take the life of another human being I believe death is your reward.  And by purposely that includes acts of negligence - see above - LEAVING YOUR CHILD IN A SWELTERING VEHICLE counts; being a drunk driver counts; being irresponsible with a firearm counts.  End of story.  In the cases where the shooter of the firearm is under the age of 14, then hold the parents responsible.

6 - I believe people should be allowed private access to firearms.  I should be allowed to be able to protect myself from anyone wishing to cause me/my family harm.  I should also be allowed to hunt game if I so desire to provide for my family.  But, also see #5.

7 - I believe everyone should pay the same, exact, tax rate.  If I'm only making $15,000 a year, then chances are SUPREMELY great that I'm not using the roads or convention centers or any number of other tax paid things even half as much as someone who makes $150,000 a year, so if they're paying in 30% & I'm paying in 30%, it's roughly equal to how much I use the public works services.

8 - Hell, I even believe that it'd be totally fair for me to pay an additional 10% of my income to cover health insurance.  It'd be a HELL of a LOT CHEAPER than paying the 150% expected of me now.  And if we're all paying, then it's covered.  You wouldn't believe the awesome interest rate the government gets on your dollar just sitting in their account!

9 - I believe it is ABSOLUTELY NONE of MY business whom someone else marries, unless they're wanting to marry me.  Unfortunately, for you, I'm already married, so you'll have to look somewhere else.  But seriously, what difference does it make if a person married a dude or a chick?  It's what's going to make them miserable.  No one said anything to me when my ex-husband was acting like a douchebag, but I was too young and naive to know any better.  Where were they to tell me HE IS ABUSING YOU!  RUN AWAY! Or "he's using these drugs when you're not around"?  Hell, the fucking cops wouldn't even tell me what he was charged with when he admitted, on tape, to intentionally trying to have sex with a FIVE (5) year old child!  I was LIED to for six goddamned MONTHS during the pre-trial bullshit.  When I left his sorry ass I was shunned for being a divorcee.  Yea, way to go me - at least I married a man & not a woman, because that's all that matters...but then I'm just as bad off because I got a divorcee, so I'm still going to Hell.

10 - I believe we're all entitled to our own religious opinions and affiliations.  This is NOT a Christian nation.  This is a FREE nation.  Spelled out, right there, black and white that the government cannot make a law "respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Oddly freedom of religion seems to be thing in this country often revoked...
~~1649 - Freedom of religion was established in Maryland.
~~1653 - Catholics were outlawed from practicing their religion, in the same township that established religious freedom!
~~1657 - Freedom of religion restored.
~~1692 - Catholics outlawed from practicing their religion
~~~~~~~~Each of those Acts were in the same township.  Seriously, WTF?!
~~1776 - Religious freedom restored for EVERYONE...
~~Present day - it seems that's only true if you practice Christianity, but only secular Christianity, the kind that makes a huge profit for their leader each year.  By leader I'm not referring to the god Jehovah of their Holy Bible; I'm referring to Benny Hill or the Pope or whomever else is popular this week to look to instead of the god of their Holy Book.

11 - I believe everyone is entitled to the right to be an ignorant ass.  Just as I have the right to call them out on it.

12 - I believe I should just go ahead & publish this post instead of sitting on it any longer.  It's been in my draft folder for a while now.

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Long time no see

...first an update about my previous post.  Yes, I know, it's been a while, whatever, life has been busy.  I had my mammogram, honestly it was no where near as frightening or painful or anything else of that nature as people would like for you to believe.  They put your boobs between two plastic plates, just tight enough that you don't have to hold them, snap a few pictures, & you're done.  I think wearing a bra is WAY more intrusive & annoying than getting a mammogram.  Due to the fact I'm only 30 the tech only took one x-ray, to limit the amount of radiation I'd be exposed to, then we moved onto the ultrasound.  If you've ever been pregnant the boob ultrasound is WAY less uncomfortable than an abdominal one....and 10,000x less than a trans-vaginal one!  Test results though showed beautifully healthy boobs!  The lumpiness is just fibrocystic tissue & I was told to not worry about that ugly "c" word, just come back in 10yrs for my next scan, unless of course a lump or lumps feel like they're on my pectoral muscles themselves or near my armpits.

The kids are doing well.  Mikeal is on the list to be tested for the intellectually gifted program.  At some point in time the school will get with it & get that finished so we can move onto an IEP for him.  He turned 10 last month.  Kinda unbelievable how far we've come in the last 10 years and how quickly it really does seem to go now, looking back.  Very cliché, I know, but whatever.

Mikaila seems to have reached a plateau of sorts with her speech.  It's also quite annoying to see her give up on trying, anything, so quickly.  If she doesn't 'get it' immediately she just moves on.  She reminds me of something....

Brian is doing awesome with his new job!!  He's selling cars at the Ford dealership here in town.  It's an AWESOME fit for him & he's totally rocking it!

I'm still in school, still painting glass, and still rocking the mom thing, also started cleaning houses once in a while with a friend.  I think I've reached a new level with my personal demons & depression - they don't seem to bog me down as much as they used to.  I'm not yet totally in the clear, but some of the fog is lifting & that's been great.

My next post (I hope it's my next post) I hope will help me get past more of my fog & bring things into perspective, at least to myself, since I mainly just write this for me & a few others, once in a while.

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