Ryker, A Three Dollar Shirt and Strokes of Goodwill

Have you been watching Two Broke Girls on CBS? On Monday, they reaired Strokes of Goodwill. In this episode, Max introduces Caroline to the art of thrift store shopping. Max finds a Strokes t-shirt she adores and gets into an argument with a crazy Puerto Rican woman. This almost happened to me yesterday.

I was looking through the children's racks at Goodwill and came across a long sleeved Lightning McQueen t-shirt. Before I could take it down, I hear a woman say excuse me. Can I get pass? Apparently my cart was blocking the aisle. As she is coming toward me, I push my cart forward, she passes and stops right at the t-shirt I was just looking at. I wanted to scream hey I was going to get that but like Max says in the show "You know the rule: Turn your back on the rack, you’re under attack." She takes it down and I am secretly shouting, put it back. Put it back. It's mine. She looks at it and returns it to the rack. I snatch it and put it in my cart. Best three dollars I've spent at Goodwill.

Happy Birthday Robbie

14 years ago, my third terror son was born. Happy birthday Robbie.

C Is For Counting Your Blessings

When you have a child with special needs, it's easy to fall into the why me pity train. Why was my child born with this? Why me? Why us? Sometimes you get so swept up in the why mes that you forget to count your blessings.

C Is For Counting Your Blessings

Robbie may be different but he is happy. I have a husband who loves me. I have children who love me. I even have a dog who loves me. I am able to stay home with my last child. Although we may not be rich, the bills are paid (sometimes late) we have food on the table and a nice warm house to live in. I thank God everyday for the blessings he has bestowed on us. And on days when the why mes over consume me, I read this essay by Emily Kingsley and remember that Robbie is happy.

WELCOME TO HOLLAND
By Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

linking to Jenny Matlock

New Shoes

My new shoes... If I can get Ryker to stop wearing them

B Is For Beginnings

Bill and Me 1995

I like to hear about how people met their spouse. I thought I would share our story for Alphabe-Thursday.

B Is For Beginnings.

I met Bill in the summer of 1994. I had recently divorced Ben's dad and was living with my sister in a duplex off of 6th street. My sister was at work when her friend, Yvonne, dropped by. Bill was with her and she introduced us. I had seen Bill before. He worked at a factory I had quit a few months earlier. He seemed like a nice guy but I wasn't in the mood for a relationship. Later that day, Yvonne called and asked if I wanted to go to the bar with her, her boyfriend and Bill. Sure, I thought, one drink couldn't hurt. One drink turned into several and we ended up staying at the bar until closing time.

The next day, Bill stopped by and he had one of those cheesy, plastic roses you can buy from the gas station. I thought that was sweet. and the rest, as they say, is history.

Linking up to Jenny Matlock

A Is For Annoyed

For the past few days, I have been annoyed by everything and anything. It started on Monday when I went to Goodwill and could not find anything for resale. Nothing, nada. Not in the whole store. I did find an Elvis Teddy Bear that sings "Won't you be my teddy bear" in Elvis's voice that I thought would be a good seller. If only I had a phone with Internet, I could have looked it up and seen these do not sell.

Tuesday, I was annoyed because my favorite thrift store opened in a new location and instead of the cheap prices I had grown accustomed to, it was overpriced. Sure the store was nice, clean and organized but I would rather dig through boxes of dusty stuff to get a bargain than pay $45 for a used set of plates. I didn't even bother checking out the other items.

Last night I was beyond annoyed and into the pissed area. First it started with a message from a buyer who had bought 4 glass goblets. She asked that I pack them securely in bubble wrap so they arrive safely and not broken. Oh Really??? I was just going to throw them in a poly mailer and hope for the best.

Then the stupid cable company was having problems with their audio, so I could not watch Survivor. They did manage to fix it the last 10 minutes of the show. The music they played during the show was so annoying, I could have thrown my soda at the tv.

Last, but not least, was this morning. Robbie had a follow up doctor's visit and was diagnosed with over active bladder syndrome. She prescribed some medicine and, of course, Walgreens did not have it available. Then I realized that Ryker must have thrown out Robbies insurance card when he was playing in my purse on Monday at the store. So I had to call and got the automated voice asking for the member's id number. Ummm, Yeah, about that. I LOST the dang card so how the heck am I suppose to know the number? I finally got a real person who then took all my information and then proceeded to tell me that I could not request a card because I was not Robbie's payee. (He is on SSI) I had to hand the phone over to my husband and he had to repeat all the information.

I also got a package this afternoon, a clock I won from Ebay. Instead of wrapping it, they just threw it in a box along with some crumpled newspaper. Talk about not caring. And then the clock mechanism was not tight so I had to put that back on. So far it is working but I'm still annoyed.

and to top it all off, my hubby just pocket called me. How annoying is that????

linking to Jenny Matlock

The Straw That Broke The Camel's Back

We went out to breakfast this morning and Bill ran into someone he knew. The man asked Bill "Is that your daughter?" refering to my SON, Ryker. "He's a boy" I politely responded. After we ate we went to Walmart and I bought hair clippers. It was time to cut Ryker's hair. I feel sad about cutting off all his curls but it had to be done.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Robbie got his hair cut too.