Incredible People

And I do not mean this in a positive way. In the wonderful state I live in I think it is amazing just how closed minded people are. Yesterday as I was watching the news (see dad...I do watch it!!) there was a story of a man named David Parker who was arrested for protesting a book that had same sex parents in it. Here are a few of the quotes that really made me upset:

"This is propaganda. This is meant to form things in a child's mind at an early age," said same-sex marriage opponent Brian Camenker, of Article 8 Alliance.

"What I am saying is, because of the same-sex marriage law, people are treating it as a mandate to teach the youngest of children. It is not a mandate to teach the youngest of children, particularly if parents say, 'Hold on, I want to be the gatekeeper of the information. It is not that I don't want my child to ever learn it, it is I want to control the timing and manner,'" Parker said.

I guess the reason this is bothering me so much is because my children seen this their whole lives, and because it is handled so naturally within my family, then they don't see anything strange or different about it.
Maybe they have been lucky to have been exposed to all different kinds of families, but I think all children should see it. I mean come on...we are living in 2005, not 1945. But most importantly, lets remember what is most important...the kids.

Old Lady on Campus

Well, you can probably tell by the title just what this blog is about. The fact that I am surrounded by 18 year-olds at my wonderful School. I never thought it would bother me this much, but over the past few months it has really gotten to me.
Now, I did all my other schooling at a community college, where the average age of students was 25-30...just my age range. But now that I am at a bigger school, I am realizing just how many young kids are there and how many older students aren't. There are just some things that really get me about the whole thing, and what a fantastic forum to get it all out!
I guess one of the things is that the other students treat me regular, until they find out my age, and then it is different (I am just waiting for someone to call me ma'am!!!!). My lab partner last semester, after finding out how old I was, actually said to me "Wow, I can't believe your that old. If I didn't know how old you were, and I saw you on campus, I would probably talk to you!. I won't say what I wanted to do or say, so I just laughed it off.
The other thing is that it kills me to hear kids bitch and moan about their "bills". In one of my classes I constantly had to listen to a girl talk about her mean and awful mother who would not give her money to go grocery shopping. Now, if this was the kind of mother who didn't make her daughter get a job I could (kinda) cope with her, but not only did this girl have a job, but she also had a meal allowance! Once again I bit my tongue and didn't say what I wanted to, which was "Look, honey, you want to talk about bills, walk in my shoes!!!"
On a positive note, I will say that the one thing that has been my saving grace is the CALL center (center for adult learning). It is a room that has a big table, a computer, copy machine, couches, resources for parenting, managing your money, etc., and most importantly FREE COFFEE. Of course the first time I walked in I thought they were going to ask for I.D. because they were probably thinking that I was just there for the free coffee, but as the semester progressed, I made a few friends, and they knew that it was ok that I was there. (haha) But most importantly, I was O.K. with being there because I realized that it wasn't so bad (and I wasn't the only) Old Lady on Campus,

My computer

Well, here I am at work, writting my blog at 1:43 a.m. Now, I really wanted to write yesterday, but my computer, with the split personality, decided that I was not going to do that, and it has been frozen since. I can't get it to turn off, even when I press the button, which only proves my theory right that my computer has a mind of its own, and does what it wants!
Now, to fix it is not a big deal. I can just bring it to Circut City to have it fixed and they will just wipe it out, and anything that I really want, has already been saved to a disk (my dad and sis taught me well!!) They will clean it, then I can take it home, hook it back up, and all will be well.
But, that is not the thing that gets me...its the people at Circut City. Here is what happens, I start by telling the person that there is something wrong with my computer, and they say "are you sure?" "No, I was bored so I decided to take a ride here and waste your time and mine!!" When I then tell them what is wrong, then they ask me numerous questions as if this is my first time ever seeing a computer! These questions consitst of "Did you press control-alt-delete" "Did you shut it down Properly" and my favorite "What kind of websites do you visit?" which is a nice way of saying, "Have you visited any porn sites lately?". I mean, c'mon, lets be real!
Now, here comes the good part, they hook it up to a computer and let it try to detect any problems. They then say, just loud enough so other customers can hear, "You have 57 vires. Do you know how you could have gotten these virus'" What I want to say is "Look, sh**head, if I knew how I got them, don't you think I would have told you!!", but being the polite person I am, I will sweetly say "No". Then the bomb gets dropped, I am told that it will not be ready for 48 hours. Now, that does not mean 48 hours from drop off, in circut city time that means at least 3 days, and that is only if I am lucky. Sometimes, I will go back in the three days, and I am told that it is not ready yet, but to call (not come back) the next day to see what is going on.
So, like I said, I know that the computer will get done, and I will be happy with it, but the process leading up to it, is what will hinder me from actually going to have it done!!

**I just want to say, that I used Circut City because it is where I frequent, but feel free to fill in any other computer store when reading this if it helps you identify better!

Laundry

O.K. so it is a pretty general title, but lets think about this. I am a pretty busy person, as any other mother is, but why is that no matter how much laundry I do, it is never done.
The reason I am writing about this is because I have a day off today, and when I say a day off, I mean no kids, no school, no work last night, etc, and I should be relaxing and taking advantage of it, but I can't. As I look in my kitchen, I see the pile of dirty clothes that is making my stomach turn.
Now, the only people in my house is me and the babies, and I just can't understand how so much damn laundry can pile up in a matter of one or two days. I do understand that Colin will take off his clothes when we get home and puts on boxer shorts, and Maddie will put on a dress as soon as she gets home, but even still, that is not enough clothes for so much laundry!
As I hear the dryer buzzer go off, I have come to the conclusion that this is just another big mystery of life and I may never figure out the answer. The only thing I can positively conclude is that I may never have a day when there is not at least one load of laundry to do.

The First Game of the Season

Saturday April 9th was an exciting day in the Jones house....it was our (well Maddie and Colin) first soccer game of the season. I was just as excited as the kids were, but little did I know what was going to happen on this day!
Let me just begin by saying we have swimming lessons on saturdays from 8-9, so our day was starting out crazy, but my kids are just like me and they work best under pressure! So after swimming lessons we run home, to get ready. Now I am filling water bottles, grabbing sandwiches for the ride home, while the kids were getting into their soccer attire. As they walked into the kitchen I almost fell down, they looked so damn cute with their little shorts and chin pads....ooohhhh I could have eaten them up!!!
So we go to the field, (which due to the wonderful N.E. weather we had this winter, was inside because none of the outdoor fields were ready!) and we head in. I think there was every six year old in Woburn there, along with one or both parents (little intimidating). Maddie and Colin found their coach, and started to practice. Now they were practicing on the other side of the field, so I really couldn't see what was going on and I began to get bored, so being the social butterfly that I am, I made some new friends and we began to exchange stories about our children and so on.
Now the game is about to begin. The kids get on the field in their respective positions (2 fowards, one defence, one goalie and one other kid that I can't figure out his/her position), and the game begins. Now Maddie and Colin weren't in the first heat, so I wasn't too anxious, but I knew it was coming....my kids on the field. Maddie was put in forward position, and Colin was in the position I don't understand. So the coach takes a minute to talk to each kid and let them know what to do, the kids get ready, the ref drops the ball, and...the kids do nothing except talk to eachother, play with their hair, stare at the ball, etc. When the ref tells them to go after the ball, the forwards go after it, that is all of them except Maddie, she runs right off the field!!!!! Now, as an avid soccer player for many years, as well as a mother who was just very proudly pointing out her daughter...my jaw hit the floor! So the coach walked her back on the field, talked to her for a minute, and gave me a nod as if to say "not to worry". Well, when the ref dropped the ball again, the kids remembered to do just what they did before, and that includes Maddie running off the field again!!
She never did get back into the game, but her and I had a little talk. She will go to every practice, and get dressed for every game, but if she doesn't want to play in the game, I won't force her to, but she will go and stay for the whole game, but the most important thing to her is that she doesn't have to play in the game.
Well, who knows if I will ever be writing here saying that she is the top scorer in the league, who knows....but for right now, we are just trying to convince her to get into the game.