What Happened to Miley?

I had commented on my Facebook when Miley's VMA performance was anything anyone could talk about.  Way back in August.  ;-}  Need-less-to-say, pretty much everyone had an opinion and everyone pretty much burned the poor girl at the stake.  Seriously, my Facebook friends and family were ready to flog her.

Personally, I wasn't surprised by the VMA performance.  It was the VMAs for crying out loud!  We're not talking about a posh, sophisticated gathering of intellectuals.  We're talking about a crazy, amped up, fun-filled, musical experience.  And, at the age of nearly 36, I look forward to it each and every year.  Second only to the MTV Movie Awards, but that's not the point.

The point is that Miley Cyrus and her really strange performance started a barrage of disgust among the public.  And, I just don't get it.  I did a little comparison of Miley, Britney, and Christina, all products of Disney, and I really can't see how Miley is more back lash than other young stars.

Britney and Christina had their Disney beginning on a little show called The Mickey Mouse Club, along side the likes of Justin Timberlake and Ryan Gosling.  Britney, a cast member from ages 12 to 16; Christina, a cast member from 13-17.

Miley starred in a little Disney series called Hannah Montana from the age of 14 to 19.  So, arguably she was a Disney star for a year longer than Britney and Christina.  But, the major difference is how Disney had re branded itself between the end of the Mickey Mouse Club and the birth of Hannah Montana.  Know what I'm talking about?  In the nineties, Disney was a premium cable channel, and that meant you had to pay extra for it.  By the time Hannah Montana arrived on the Disney scene, Disney was part of basic cable, which meant it was readily piped into every home with a cable connection.  And it had gone majorly commercial.  Majorly.  No, they didn't show typical commercials, but they were busily pimping their own products.  So then came the shameless merchandising of all things Hannah Montana.  Disney took full advantage of Miley's marketability during her five years as their queen of all things preteen.

In fact, Disney did such a fantastic job marketing Miley as Hannah Montana, that no one can seem to remember that Hannah Montana is a fictional character and Miley Cyrus is the real person.  It's like people just can't let her move on from Hannah Montana.  And I don't understand that.  Yes, I am glad that she declared Miley is dead.  Maybe people can begin the grieving process.  Anyway, moving on.

I'm guessing the hardcore Hannah fans are now in their mid-teens to early twenties.  So, ages 15-21, let's say.  Now let's think about what this age group is up to.  Parents who are in denial, you probably want to shield your eyes from this revelation.  Teens today are doing exactly the same things teens were doing when you were a teenage.  Experimenting with alcohol and drugs, being sexually active, all the while exposed to Lil Wayne and Lady Gaga and Ke$ha during their formative years.  Lil Wayne raps about all kinds of stuff kids this age shouldn't be doing.  Lady Gaga, well, she is a unique character in her own right, and I really like most of her music, she just comes off a bit odd, doesn't she?  And, well, there's Ke$ha who sings about brushing her teeth with a bottle of Jack.  Come on folks, if I had a kid in this age group, and believe me I am super thankful that I do not, I'd be happy if the message they were hearing involved standing up for yourself and learning to love everyone.

Maybe this all boils down to a wake up call for us parents, who sat week after week watching Hannah Montana with our little darlings hearing them proclaim how they wanted to be just like her when they grew up.  Yeah, the reality of what a difference a few years makes is startling.  But, stop blaming Miley for growing up and finding what she thinks is her own voice and shaking her skinny ass all over the place.  The only change I would make is her tendency to stick out her tongue.  That's just gross.  I mean, I have to draw a line somewhere. 

Damn Buggies and a Little Shit

Way before we had kids, we had Madison.  Our niece.  I used to joke that we shared custody of her because she was at our house most weekends!  It was great, I loved it.  I got to play "mommy" for a couple days, spoil her rotten, and send her back home.  I once let her wear her little plastic dress up shoes to Walmart.  Honestly, I think I learned a lot from my time spent with Madison.  Like, some kids get so upset they vomit, and then you have to clean it up.  And I learned about children's medicine and going to the Minit Mart in your pajamas to get a bottle of Tylenol.  Oh, and once a kid is big enough to know about babies, you can not call them baby anymore.  I heard "I'm not a baby!" many times.

Madison was the very first grandbaby for my husbands side of the family and she was surely the apple of Grandma Gail's eye.  In fact, I think she never lost at Candy Land and owned absolutely every toy there was to own from the local dollar store.  Fast forward and now Madison is a high school freshman!  Where does the time go?

Ok, wait.  I had a point to this post and then I got lost on my stroll down memory lane!

Last night, as we tried to get the day finished and everyone ready for bed, Patty and JT spotted that little creepy crawly bug making its way across the dinning room floor.  I'm impressed with that iPhone photo, aren't you?  I bet it was JT's idea to trap it inside that little gum ball machine ball. 

Anyhoo, the kids spent the better part of an hour rolling that bug around the house in his gum ball.  If you consider that the gum ball cost a quarter, and the bug was free, it may very well have been the cheapest toy ever invented.  And it was certainly more entertaining for them than all of the other toys in the house.  Even if the fascination did wear off after about an hour.  Really, I need to find that gum ball and dispose of it!

OK, so back to memory lane.  When Madison was in about Kindergarten, she went through a cursing phase.  I can't recall exactly how it went, but there was something to do with bugs at school, maybe ants on the playground, and Madison would call them "damn buggies" which Grandma Gail and I thought was just too adorable for words.  But, her favorite curse word was shit.  It was really funny to hear the s word come out of her cute, little five-year-old mouth.  Well, one day Grandma Gail said the s word and Madison pointed out that you're not supposed to say that word.  I'm guessing this wasn't the only time Grandma Gail had been reminded because she said, "Shit shit shit shit," several times in a row.  The look on Madison's face was priceless!  It was a mixture of admiration and shock.  And you know, I think it might have broken her from saying that s word!

So, to make a long story just a little longer....  When ever I think of "damn buggies" I also think of "shit shit shit".  And it makes me smile just a little.

It's Official, We're Separating

I'm sure a lot of folks were making bets that day 15 years ago when we said I do.  I'd really like to know what the numbers were.  If anyone guessed we'd last over 15 years, I'd really like to send that person a card.

The truth is, I will  miss this life we've created during the last 15 years.  This transition won't be simple, but at least we'll be making it together as a family.  Yes, indeed, I will miss being a military family...in some ways.  Well, I guess there's not really much about military life that I'll miss.

What?  Did you think we were getting divorced?  Not a chance.  We've been a couple for the better part of 19 years, there's no way I'm throwing that away.  Shame on you if you thought we'd end up divorced!  That just goes to show how well you know us, or don't know us, I guess.

But, today does indeed mark the closing of our story as a military family.  Most of these last 15 years have flown by; happy, exciting, difficult, sad, you name it, they've run the gamut.  It is a bittersweet day, to be sure.  I'd be a fool not to say that these past 15 years have shaped me into the person I am today.  Diligent, sometimes hateful, proud, and stronger than I ever imagined possible.  Maybe, deep down, I'll always be an Army wife.  But, as of today, we are civilians, once again!

Hooah!

FTSF: I deserve a medal for the time I....

It's that time again!  Finish This Sentence Friday.  Today's sentence:  I deserve a medal for the time I...

Hmmm.  That's a really tough sentence to finish.  I've never committed an act of heroism or saved a life or anything like it.  But, for the sake of writing this blog post, here are a few things that popped off the top of my head.

1.  I deserve a medal every time I get off the phone with Tricare and I resist the urge to either beat my head against the desk and/or break the telephone.  Seriously, who else wants to hulk-out after they've had a conversation with their health insurance?

2.  I deserve a medal every time my kids throw up on me, and I don't reciprocate the action.  It hasn't happened a lot, but it has happened, and I have never thrown up on them in return.

3.  I deserve a medal every time someone asks me to do something for them and I don't say no.  I just have no ability to say no to people.  Really, though, it's more of a strict sense of responsibility.  I don't know why, but I just feel like I have to help when someone asks me to do something.  I wasn't voted most dependable for nothing.  Now, that's not to say that I will do the things people ask of me without grumbling and complaining.

Ok, so those three things are meant to be kind of funny and light-hearted.  I honestly can't think of a specific medal worthy situation.  But, I would say that I have a personality trait that is medal worthy.  For me, can't is not an option.  You might say I have a "can do" attitude.  You really don't want to be the person telling me something can't be done.  Just ask Casey. 

Nothing annoys me like a laundry list of reasons why something can't be accomplished.  I just don't want to hear it.  Do not tell me why something can't be done, tell me how it can be done, because there is always a way.  Always.  This country was built on loopholes, remember?  But, seriously, where would this world be if everyone threw up their hands in defeat each time they are faced with a challenge? 

FTSF: If I Had A Magic Wand

I commented on fellow mom-blogger Kristy's FTSF post this morning and I thought I had it all figured out.  If I had a magic wand, I would fix all of the things that make Patty different than other kids her age.  There wouldn't be a lot of things to fix, but there would be a few.  Just wave that wand and take away all those little things that make life a little bit more difficult for her to navigate.  Then, as we waited for the elevator at therapy this afternoon, I had a wake up call.

You see, Patty, as loving and caring as you'll ever want, never meets a stranger and talks to just about everyone when she has a chance.  Today, she started a conversation with a little lady waiting for the elevator, too.  Come to find out this lady was accompanying her caregiver to the doctor.  They got separated and the lady didn't know where to find her friend.  When we climbed onto the elevator she asked me to phone her friend.  Well, the friend didn't answer and I couldn't just leave her on the elevator.  So, Patty and I took her floor by floor in search of her friend.  Of course, we found her in the last place we looked.  ;-}

But, after our little adventure, I wondered if my imaginary "fixed" version of Patty would have struck up a conversation with this little lady in need of someones help?  Actually, we wouldn't even have been there if Patty were just a regular kid.  Remember, we were on our way to therapy when we met this lady.  So, I kind of gave myself a mental slap for ever considering waving my magic wand at Patty.  Why would I ever want to change who my perfect little darling is?

Scholastic Mini Mission September Pt One

Have you heard of Scholastic Mini Missions?  JT brought home a paper in his backpack this week inviting us to participate and earn free Scholastic books and the chance for bigger prizes for teachers and schools.  Did you know I love free books?  The flyer was very vague on exactly what a "mini mission" consisted of, though, so I was skeptical about it.  But, after reading around on the website for a bit, I thought this was something we might be able to pull off...at least for one month.  I see this as a win-win: free books and fuel for the blog.

So, the September mission is to head outdoors on four occasions.  We are not fans of the outdoors.  Well, I am not a fan of the outdoors.  The kids actually really like to be outside, but lately they return covered in mosquito bites and that's not a good thing. 

I registered for the website and found a nature inspired scavenger hunt online (The Taylor House).  Then we headed outside.  Normally, my kids love being outside, but yesterday there was a little grumbling and complaining.  But, I was persistent and once we got busy finding items on the list the kids were full speed ahead.  Maybe it was just a new concept for them, this was our first scavenger hunt.  We skipped half of the list, I really wanted to avoid mosquito bites, but for kids my age, eight items seemed like a good stopping point. 

Here's my mission submission:

For our first mission, since we chose to accept it, we had a nature inspired scavenger hunt!  A quick Internet search and we had a list of items to search for and were headed out the door!  We did have to cut our search a little short and skipped several items on our list.  I opted to take a photo of the items rather than have the kids actually collect them and bring them inside.  My favorite item on their search list?  Something you think is beautiful!

 

I had just a little trouble getting everything uploaded to the website.  I'm pretty sure my photo collage was too big and once I chose a smaller photo, it seemed to upload okay.  It was slow, but that's probably my computer.  Next time I'll try saving a version of the photo at a lower resolution and see how it goes.  We're only three outdoor activities away from our first free book!

Ahhhhh...A Clean Stove Top

We traded out our old stove for a new ceramic cook top several years ago.  My mom has had a ceramic top for years and years and it's always shiny and clean.  My ceramic cook top has never been shiny and clean.  Well, it was the first day we had it.

That burner in the picture gets the most use and that yucky brown burned on gunk is the result of many boiled over pots of water and many nights of fried hamburgers. Yes, it's gross. Very, very gross.  I've had luke warm results using cook top cleaners.  Not even baking soda and vinegar really put a dent in the grime.  Obviously I had gotten to a point where I no longer tried to clean that nasty thing! 

The other day my cousin gave me a little tip. 
Use a razor to scrape off the gunk and then clean the cook top.  I thought scrapping would definitely work, but worried that it would scratch the cook top or scrape off the burner circles.  She explained that her directions said to do it.  Hmmmmmm.  I probably couldn't find the directions if my life depended on it!

This morning I thought, Ok, let's do it.  I found my trusty scrapper thingy and got to work.  And I really think her advise will change my relationship with my ceramic cook top forever.

The scrapper thingy I used came from Lowe's and I originally used it to scrape the paint from my back door window when I repainted it last year.  It's a razor blade in a nifty handle and it made scrapping the stove top very manageable.  I simply scrapped up as much gunk as I could manage and then used a Lysol wipe to wipe it away.  I'm sure a damp paper towel would have worked, too.

Once the scrapings were gone, I squirted on a nice amount of cook top cleaner and spread it around with a plastic scrub sponge.  Because the gunk on my stove was so over whelming, I used the scrub sponge to scrub up the remaining gunk on the stove top.  Seriously, I needed the extra scrubbing power!  You could use a paper towel and elbow grease, but why bother?  Then I used a paper towel to buff away the remaining cleaner.

I am utterly and completely amazed at how well the stove top looks.  There's still an area that I couldn't get totally clean.  It's an imprint of what appears to be the left, bottom edge of a box.  Maybe a pizza box?  Who knows.  But whatever it is, it isn't going anywhere.  And I am completely OK with that!