Congratulations to Carolie who is the winner for the Flight of the Conchords contest!

Carolie, email me your mailing address so I can have your prize pack sent out!

Thanks to everyone who checked out the show.

Bug’s team: 0 wins, 2 losses

BUT! Bug did good! She got a hit! She scored! Right now their team is machine pitch, but they will be switching over to live pitch soon. We all think Bug has potential to be a good pitcher, so she played the position of “pitcher” last night, where the machine pitches but she fields the ball. And she did good. My Dad talked to her once about talking back to him, and I said something to her once about doing attention-seeking behavior with the other coach, but other than that she did good. I’m proud of the little muchkin.

Thanks for your house rules too! I’m still trying to figure out what to do in regards to the Callie situation. There is more too it, as well, because she tends to not eat in order to lose weight. So I think part of the “I don’t like this” issue has to do with her trying to get out of eating meals. Which obviously is not good. Callie had a major breakdown last night, just sobbing her eyes out. In some ways I’m glad, because she felt comfortable enough to express how she felt, and although she didn’t want to talk at first, she did open up and talk about why she was sad. Which is progress.

Oh! I get to give something away to you folks! There is a new show on HBO called Flight of the Conchords.

About the show:

Flight of the Conchords follows the trials and tribulations of a two man, digi-folk band from New Zealand as they try to make a name for themselves in their adopted home of New York City. The band is made up of Bret McKenzie on guitar and vocals, and Jemaine Clement on guitar and vocals.

Bret and Jemaine have moved to New York in the hope of forging a successful music career. So far they’ve managed to find a manager (whose “other” job is at the New Zealand Consulate), one fan (a married obsessive) and one friend (who owns the local pawn shop) — but not much else.

You can watch the full first episode on the website.

If you are the lucky winner you get:

1 Robot Stress Reliever

1 DVD of the 1st episode

1 Poster

1 Tshirt

1 Postcard

And the overwhelming joy that comes from knowing you won. To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. About anything. Bug will pick the winner next Friday, June 1st.

Good Luck!

*** Read up on various brands of softball equipment before you spend lots of money.

1. Please read the post from Krissy Poopyhands and my post about my friend Ann. Please help. If you can give anything, please do.

2.

Bubba: Hey Mom! I like your face!!

3.

Me: No no baby, my head hurts.

Snowbaby: Ow? Hea?

Me: Yes, my head is ow.

Snowbaby: Ow? (Points at her head)

Me: Yes. Ow.

She then leaned over and started kissing me over and over on the head.

Snowbaby: BYE!!

4.

Bubba: Bug. I got roll.

Bug: MOMMM! I want a Tootsie Roll.

Bubba: NO BUG. MY ROLL. I go pee!

Me: He got it because he went pee in the potty.

Bug: If I go pee in the potty, can I get a Tootsie Roll?

5. For the past few days, we’ve been throwing around the idea of a new placement. She is a 15 year old biracial girl. Not at all who I thought I would have when I first started this whole thing, but she might be a very good addition to our family. More on this later.

Happy Friday!

I’m sure most of you read my dear friend’s blog, Roc Rebel Granny. Ann is an absolutely amazing woman. She is raising her great-grandkids in a sort of relative foster care placement.

She’s witty, she’s smart, she’s got a big heart, and hey…she’s a great grandma who has a blog and participates in the online world. I hope I’m half the woman she is when I’m a great-grandma.

And she needs our help.

Ann’s daughter, Carol, passed away on May 3rd. Ann and her family had never thought about having money to pay for Carol’s final arrangements until she was already sick and then it was too late.

Not only is Ann having to deal with the loss of her daughter, while caring for her three great grandchildren, but she is having to worry about the fact that she doesn’t have enough money to pay for Carol’s funeral expenses.

No mother should have to plan a funeral for their child, and they certainly shouldn’t have to go through the additional stress of worrying about how they will pay for the service.

Ann is a proud woman, and doesn’t want to ask for help. I’ve asked her for permission to post about this here. I reminded her how people helped me when I needed help and I wanted to return the favor.

Because Ann doesn’t have paypal and she is too overwhelmed to figure it out, I will be collecting donations for her and then sending the money to her via a check.

Will you please consider helping my friend? You can click on the button that says “Make a Donation” over on the right. to donate via paypal. Thank you so much.

I adore you, Ann, and I hope this helps. Best wishes to you and your family.

Snowbaby’s surgery for ear tubes went as well as could be expected. It was not fun at all and was difficult for me, probably more than her.

They had these Little Tykes wagons with blankets and pillows and Geo and I walked her around the loop over and over again. She had been given some medicine to calm her down and she kept throwing her hands over her head and saying “WOOOOO!!” It was so funny.

I’m exhausted.

Oh! Can you please do me a favor? Over on my sidebar, I have blogads. I really like working with them as I can control what is put on my blog and make a little money to cover the hosting of the site and to pay Bug for her promotional appearances. (Ha.)

They are doing a survey which readers of this blog can take. (HINT HINT)

I would love it if you clicked over and took the survey. It will help advertisers know what type of people read this blog. I tried to tell them that you were all fabulous, intelligent, looked good in both sweatpants and evening gowns, and were hot, but they wanted more. So I told them that you could whip up a mean apple pie, and you spent all your free time hand knitting bags to store your recycling.

But they still aren’t satisfied.

So please go take the survey. You can give up after you’ve finished the first page, or you can keep pushing on finish the whole thing, in which case I will drive to your house and watch Grey’s Anatomy with you.**

Here’s the link:

Please take my blog reader survey!

Please help Bug feel even more famous. I’m thinking that she might become famous for being famous, and then she can get her own reality show and I might be SET.

Thanks!!

Edited to add: Poor_statue made a very good point. This survey will not ask you any personal identifying information. You don’t even have to give your email address if you do not want to. Thanks to everyone who is filling it out!

**I probably will not come to your house and watch Grey’s Anatomy. But I’d like to. Because YOU ROCK.

One of my favorite bloggers lost her adult daughter, Carol Kathleen Breeze, last night. Please send her some love. Ann is a woman I am honored to “know” and feel blessed each time she comments on my blog. She has a huge heart and I am sorry that she is hurting.

Much love to your family, Ann.

Kim.Kim said

I don’t understand why you are taking care of a baby while Bug needs
you.

It was obvious she wasn’t coping with you having more children in the
house.

I think all the comments about shopping and you being a good mother are
not helpful.

You fucked up, so fix it.

Bug needs you, she needs one on one attention. I really don’t care if I
get flamed for saying this. I am really upset about Bug.

Personally, Kim, I’m not sure how you thought your comment was at all helpful.

I am still amazed that people read blogs and think that they understand the entire situation.

I know I do not need to defend myself but I will say this:

Not ONE person on Bug’s treatment team…and that is at the hospital and people she sees at home every week think that it would be AT ALL beneficial to remove the children. In fact, EVERY ONE of them think that removing the children from the home would be a mistake. They think that Bug is benefitting from her role as a big sister. That her problems started way before these children came (remember the forged check? the IPOD?) and that her problems were exasperated by her going through puberty and her medication no longer working. (And yes, I know Kim.Kim is against medicating a child. It is not like I think it is a great thing, but then again, I wasn’t the one who exposed Bug to drugs while she was in utero.)

The first thing Bug wanted to know on the phone yesterday? How her brother and sisters were doing and how much she missed them.

I didn’t fuck up. You know who fucked up? Bug’s biological mother. You know what Bug is upset about? The fact that she is finally old enough to understand what the hell happened to her and how much it sucks.

And you know what? She’s right. There is no reason a child should EVER be treated the way Bug was treated, both by her biological family and the system that bounced her around to 12 different homes and 22 different moves.

Bug and I spend 24 hours a day together. She is homeschooled so she can get one on one attention. Bug and I go places without the other children. Bug gets a lot of one on one time.

And let me reiterate:

Every member of Bug’s treatment team think that it would be detrimental to Bug to have the children removed from the home.

Maybe that is hard for some people to understand, even though all they know of me and my family is a 500 word post every day or so. And somehow they think that means that they know me, know my children, and know what is best for them. Somehow they think that this blog details everything that is going on in my life. They think that reading this blog makes them more knowledgeable than anyone else who actually lives with, works with, or loves my daughter.

Ok, love you guys! You know how to pull a girl out of her funk.

My day has gone a little better. I get to watch my boyfriend Patrick in a few minutes, I haven’t been called a bitch in almost 24 hours, I mixed a can of peas in with some Tuna Helper and my children raved like I was a freaking chef. I even found an old friend of mine on MySpace. And this was like a friend who I adored in high school.

If you haven’t delurked or said hi, please still do so! I’m adding all your blogs to my reader.

Also, please go give some love to my friend Gina. She is one my real life best friends. She is an amazing woman who suffered from secondary infertility. She **just** became a foster parent like five minutes ago and tonight she has her first placement, two little boys. AND there is a chance she is getting an adoptive placement of a newborn this weekend. (Am I jealous? HELL YES.)

Please go give her some support as she jumps into this crazy foster care world with both feet.

I’m having a shitty day. I’ve managed to get a strange cut on my little toe, except it is in a very strange spot where it is making it very painful to walk.

I’ve found out some bad news about the next hearing date, which is making me grumpy.

My fantasy baseball team is in last place.

For the past week, everything out of Bug’s mouth (and I do mean everything) is rude and hateful and if she calls me a bitch or slams her head into the wall one more time, I might just have to climb back into bed and call it a day.

So I’m asking you to distract me. If you read this blog, let me know. Who are you? What do we have in common? Do you have a blog I could read instead of doing work? Do you think I have a shot with Patrick Dempsey? Are there any men who read this blog? Is it you, Patrick?

Even you lurkers. Say hello. My sanity thanks you.

Please go extend your congratulations to Maggie from The Open Window who was matched with her son Slugger today. Congratulations Mom!!!