"Chinese Food", Anyone? (=^･ｪ･^=) V●ᴥ●V

Oh, dear...LOL!

I got a hankering for some Chinese food for supper a while ago (even though we're poor and shouldn't really be getting expensive restaurant food, I figured we could just place a to-go order for one quart of S & S Chicken, pile it out onto a plate, and all 3 of us pick from it for supper tonight, and that would be economical enough).  Hey, it's not good to completely deprive yourself even if you are poor...you gotta treat yourself just a little once in a while so you don't feel like you're incarcerated in solitary confinement inside the basement of a penitentiary.  :/

But anyway, when the craving struck me, I just so happened to be surfing the internet, so I decided to google to see if any of the Chinese restaurants in our area had their menus posted online.

This is what I found, and I couldn't help but LOL!!!

Notice anything amusing?

How 'bout now?

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, dear...!  X'D

I'm a Barbie!

I made Lilly some boiled eggs for breakfast a while ago & gave them to her to eat.  Several minutes later, I looked up to see Lilly standing in front of me saying "I'm a Barbie"!

OMG, she totally is!  Look!

Who's smile is whose?

And this kid has yet to win a beauty pageant?

Hmm.  Maybe next time Lilly's in a pageant, I just need to tuck a boiled egg into my purse to whip out at the last minute as a SECRET WEAPON!!!

Step 1 on the Road to Recovery

Well, I woke up this morning to discover that Jamie's unemployment pay had FINALLY been deposited into our checking account.  WHEW.  It was like Unemployment Claus had visited us during the night.

And according to the Department of Labor, Unemployment Claus will make a return visit tonight to gift us with $277 more glorious, belated unemployment dollars!  :D

Then, starting next week, we'll just get regular weekly installments of $277 per week until January 25th (or until Jamie is finally lucky enough to land a job, whichever comes first).  :/

Yay!  Now we're one notch above being completely destitute!  :D

Anyway, so since I saw that the unemployment money was finally really starting to come in today, then I called about enrolling Lilly in PeachCare insurance, and thankfully (?) since Jamie is unemployed (and I don't have a job), Lilly can be enrolled without having to go through the usual 6-month uninsured waiting period.  All we would need to do would be to cancel Lilly's current Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance policy, and the moment that Lilly becomes "uninsured", just call PeachCare back, and Lilly can then be covered, and it will only cost us probably somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 to $20 per month (as opposed to $142 per month for the Blue Cross Blue Shield policy that Lilly did have).  Whew.

So after I got off the phone with PeachCare, I called Blue Cross Blue Shield to cancel Lilly's policy.  Since we had already paid Lilly's premium for this month, we just decided to let it continue on for the rest of this month until it naturally lapses, so that means that Lilly will become uninsured as of November 1st.  So on November 1st, I will rush my ass to the phone to call PeachCare back and get Lilly insured pronto.

Upon talking to a friend, I learned that upon being approved for PeachCare, you actually must then choose between 3 different plans.  I was under the impression that PeachCare WAS 'The Plan', but no, of course that would be too easy.

The first of the three choices I looked at (Peach State Health Plan), Lilly's pediatric dentist accepted, and the pharmacy that we use accepted it, but Lilly's pediatrician, and the hospital in our town did NOT.

I began to get concerned.

The second of the three choices (WellCare), Lilly's pediatrician accepted, and the pharmacy that we use accepted it, but Lilly's pediatric dentist did NOT.  At that point, I was so freaked out, that I didn't even check to see if our hospital accepted it or not.

I began to feel pretty damn distraught.

I guess I was under the impression that this "PeachCare" insurance (once you managed to get your kid on it) was accepted everywhere by everybody, and everything would be smooth sailing from there on out, but GUESS AGAIN.

So shaking with anger and fear, I took a deep breath and began looking at the last choice (Amerigroup).  And thank God, this particular plan turned out to be accepted by Lilly's pediatrician, the pharmacy we use, Lilly's pediatric dentist, the hospital in our town, and the eye doctor where Jamie got his eye exam and glasses earlier this year (my eye doctor, 'Dr. Badbreath', does NOT accept it, but what the heck, Lilly has never even had an eye exam yet, and doesn't appear to need glasses --at least not yet--, so I was just kind of trying to think toward the future 'what if' she ever did).  The only thing that was NOT covered by this Amerigroup plan was any of the walk-in clinics in our town.  Well, big deal.  I'd really rather take Lilly to her pediatrician if she's sick anyway, and now that Lilly has been put on ADHD medication, I really probably should only take her to her pediatrician anyway so that they can make sure that she isn't prescribed something that would interact adversely with her medication, and also just so they can keep a more accurate record of her total health in the first place.

So I don't really know how it works, but now I've just got to keep my fingers crossed that we will be given the option to choose this Amerigroup thing that falls under PeachCare, since it was the only one of the three choices that encompassed the providers that we currently use (aside from the stupid walk-in-clinic thing, but who cares about that).

I don't know if any of the three plans cost more than the other.  I just wanted to make sure that we didn't have to change Lilly's doctor or dentist, because I REALLY didn't want to have to do that!!!

My friend assures me that we will definitely be able to choose the Amerigroup plan, and that the cost of all three of the plans is just based off of your income; so it's not like any of the plans is cheaper or higher or better or worse than the other.  Basically, you should just choose whichever one of the three plans has most of the providers that you use.  (Why they have three different plans to choose from is beyond me.  Probably just to make it confusing, is my guess).  And I think the highest amount that you would be expected to pay on any of the plans would probably be somewhere around $33 per month (which is what my friend has to pay for her son for the WellCare).  So even that still beats $142 for Blue Cross Blue Shield!

So I'm glad there is finally a pinpoint of light at the end of a very dark, very bleak tunnel.  It's about time!  :/

Status Update / Pity Party

Well, I haven't posted anything in a while because I've been too upset to, and didn't have anything good to say anyway, so I figured why bother.  My life is a continual roller coaster that I can't get off of, and I'm strapped down on it against my will.  Sometimes the ride is just moderately bumpy, but the vast majority of the time, it's stuck in a section of non-stop loop-dee-loops and hairpin turns that make you want to constantly vomit, scream, and cry simultaneously for weeks/months/years on end.

I know that everybody's life is like that too, but this is my pity party, so zip it.  Plus, I swear to god that I really think that my life is cursed or something, because every single thing, no matter how big or small, always, always goes terribly wrong for me.  Seriously. You can count on it every single time.  It really is true.  It's freakish.  If anything at all can possibly go wrong, it will.  Every. Freaking. Time.  And it's probably amplified to me by the fact that I just recently stopped taking my "crazy" pills that I've been on for probably the past 6 years because 1) they made me too sleepy, and I figured if I'm going to have to attempt to get off my ass and get a job to try to help support this stupid family, the last thing I need is to be too sleepy to function properly, and 2) I lost my medical insurance when Jamie got fired and can't afford the "crazy pills" anymore anyway, so what the hell.

Welcome to The Unmedicated Deana.  Be forewarned.  It's not pretty.  And if you even try to tell me to "lighten up"/"it's not that bad"/"you just need to think positively"/or anything, then you better have a deathwish, because I WILL windmill-kick your skull directly off of your neck.  And just in time for Halloween, too!  :D  >:|

Anyway.  As you recall, Jamie got fired from his job back on September 14, which has been almost exactly one month ago.  But it's felt like an absolute eternity because of the sheer hell we've been through since then.  To recap the reason he got fired, Jamie had been driving his regular garbage truck on a Friday, when it broke down.  Since it was so close to being the end of the day anyway, Jamie decided to just go ahead and call it a day, and go back into work the following day (which was a Saturday), and borrow another guy's garbage truck to use to finish up his route that he wasn't able to get to after his regular truck broke down.  Well, the borrowed truck turned out to be faulty, but Jamie wasn't aware of it until well after he had the accident.  So as Jamie was turning a curve on his way to get a dumpster in a gas station's parking lot, the faulty borrowed garbage truck that Jamie was driving turned over on its side onto the pavement.  There were probably about 15 people around the gas station who saw it happen, and they all said that they can't figure out how that truck managed to just go and simply tip over the way it did.  When the State Patrol officer came on the scene to write up the accident report, he quickly determined that Jamie was not at fault (that Jamie didn't do anything to contribute to the accident), and the officer simply wrote the accident up as a "load shift" that caused the truck to turn over.  After the turned-over garbage truck was loaded up onto a wrecker and hauled back to the shop where Jamie worked, that's when it came to light that the truck was actually faulty.  The guy that usually drives that particular truck came forward and told Jamie that the truck wasn't bolted down to the frame at all.  The truck was supposed to have a total of 8 giant bolts bolting it down (4 on each side), but the truck had no bolts under it bolting it down whatsoever.  The only thing attaching the truck bed to the frame was one flimsy little plate of metal.  The guy that normally drives the faulty truck explained that the truck had come from the factory that way, that he knew about it, and had been begging the mechanics at the place they worked to fix it for the past 3 years.  Nobody would ever fix it, and the problem was never detected during any inspections.  The guys that drive these trucks are NOT responsible for getting under these trucks to make sure everything is OK; that is strictly the job of the mechanics.  All the drivers are supposed to do is simply make sure their tires are OK and that all their lights work, which Jamie always did.

However, the company Jamie works for (and really every trucking company that even exists) has a shitty, unfair policy that states that if a driver flips a truck over, regardless of the cause, then the driver must automatically be fired no matter what.  Even if the driver was unknowingly driving a shitty, faulty truck.  So they fired Jamie.  The company did their one-sided "investigation", during which they said that they had retrieved the security camera tapes from the gas station parking lot where Jamie had turned the garbage truck over,and the footage showed that Jamie was "going too fast".  (They obviously had the "FF" button pressed on the VCR whenever they were watching it).  >:{  Jamie said that he was going 5 MPH or less when the truck tipped.  He was merely turning a curve when it happened.  And no witnesses at the scene said that he was going too fast.  The truck seriously basically just did this:

But whatever.

Jamie got to the Department of Labor as fast as he could to try to sign up for unemployment, since as you know, I don't have a job, so if Jamie doesn't have a job, then we wouldn't have any income whatsoever.  We were relieved when they immediately told Jamie that YES, Jamie did qualify for unemployment benefits of $330 per week for 18 weeks.  Whew.

But guess what -- the money never came.  Weeks passed, and we never saw a dime of it.  Finally, I got worried, and told Jamie to ask the Department of Labor about it.  He did, and they told him that they had to have a "hearing" first to determine whether or not Jamie qualified to receive unemployment benefits.  Wait, what?

OK.  They already told us that he did qualify, told us how much for, and for how long.  And they even mailed us a letter stating that fact.  But now they were saying that Jamie might NOT qualify for unemployment after all?  What the hell?!?!

So even more days went by, and we still didn't know what was going on.  Jamie called the Department of Labor again, and the man explained that the reason for the holdup was because the company that Jamie got fired from (Advanced Disposal) was refusing to return the Department of Labor's phone calls.

So we were being held hostage.  And we didn't know if Jamie would be able to receive unemployment or not.  The man at the Department of Labor told Jamie that they had given Advanced Disposal an ultimatum that they HAD to respond to them by that Friday at 3:10 PM (which was this past Friday).

Days later, the deadline came and went, and that very Friday afternoon, Jamie called the Department of Labor to find out what was going on, and they told him that he would receive a letter in the mail on Tuesday of the following week about it.  They wouldn't/couldn't tell him the outcome of the "hearing" over the phone because of privacy reasons.  >:{  Great. 2 more days of nail-biting.

I didn't expect the letter to come in the mail today, since yesterday was a holiday so the mail didn't run, and I also didn't expect the letter to have any kind of good news whatsoever in it.  But lo and behold, the letter did come today, and it states that Jamie IS entitled to receive unemployment benefits after all.  The letter also goes on to read:

     "Your employer fired you for reckless driving.  The available facts show that you were performing the duties for which you were hired.  The facts show that you did not fail to follow employer's rules, orders or instructions.  Therefore, you can be paid benefits."

THANK GOD.  Now if the money would just come in, it would make me feel better.  We've been living on our savings, and what little money we've been able to scrounge up selling scrap metal, and a little tad of jury duty pay, for a month now.  Not to mention the fact that now me and Jamie no longer have medical insurance since he got fired, and I just had to pay a $300 dental bill since the dental insurance that we did have through Jamie's work was shitty, and to top it all off (like an even shittier cherry on top), we really need to buy a new hot water heater, since ours has been leaking all year and has caused our entire house to completely mold-over inside, top to bottom.  Especially since our heat-pump had been broken all year, so we didn't have any air conditioning running during the spring and summer to help pump out any of the humidity in the house.  So our whole house has reeked of moldy mustiness for months.  And it's going to take forever and be a whole lot of work on our part to get it all cleaned up.

So I don't really feel like a "ton of bricks" has been lifted off of me, but more like just maybe one or two bricks has been lifted (just to finally know that Jamie will be getting money from unemployment after all).

But Jamie reminded me today that even though he is entitled to receive $330 per week in unemployment, they still have to take taxes and crap out of it, so the amount of unemployment pay he would actually receive would probably be more like around $260 per week.  :/  Well, I guess at least we can buy groceries and maybe afford a few bills without having to deplete our savings any further.  >:{

I eagerly applied for a housekeeping/cabin cleaning job several weeks ago, but never heard anything back from them at all.  And of course Jamie has applied for trillions of jobs since he got fired, but he never has heard anything back from any of them either.

So I still don't know what the hell we're going to do.

I don't want to work in an office/administrative assistant situation ever again, because I hate people, I hate office politics, I hate the cattiness, gossipiness, and tattle-telling asswipes that inevitably go along with it.  I hate being practically chained down inside of a depressing-ass 6x6 cubicle every day for 8 hours a day for years and years and years (it actually makes your body physically hurt when you're not allowed to get up from your desk chair and walk around very much at all -- and "if you're not at your desk, then you're not working"), and you must be available at all times just in case the telephone rings (never mind the fact that the department finally joined the 21st century and allowed everyone's phones to have voice mail capability).  And you have to be at the beck and call of a shitty, stupid-ass boss who literally doesn't even know the difference between a letter opener and a staple remover, and treats you literally like a slave, forcing you to constantly use your own money, vehicle, time, and energy to go out and get food for everyone to eat and serve it to them like a waitress, do completely shitty tasks such as retrieve her stupid printouts from the main, common printer (even though she had her very own private printer located at the end of her desk in her office), and force you to do bullshit work from other departments just because everybody else was "too busy" to do it.  (That's where my crippling anxiety got the better of me, and that was the actual reason that pushed me over the edge and made me feel as if I was forced to quit) -- regardless of being on medication for anxiety, if I was ever asked to do anything new in my job (which started happening constantly because "management is watching; look busy" and "just be glad you have a job"), it set off my panic attacks to the point that I was barely able to function. My boss knew this, but didn't believe it, and didn't care.  The job I fled from was basically like a prison.  I never want to be put in that situation ever again.

But anyway.  *deep breath*

I'm going to try once again to get Lilly on PeachCare medical insurance soon, since the Blue Cross Blue Shield policy we have on her now costs us $142 per month.  They denied us before (since Lilly was currently insured back when I tried to apply, and she would have to go uninsured for 6 months before she could qualify, but I was scared to do that because as sure as I cancelled Lilly's insurance, she'd have an accident -- especially with her taking dance and gymnastics classes).  But I think now that Jamie's unemployed, they might allow her to be enrolled in PeachCare with no waiting period.

And I'm thinking about applying for another housekeeping job soon, but I'm not getting my hopes up about it.

I'm sure lots of people probably wonder if I'm regretting quitting my job at the bank a little over a year ago.  I've given that some thought, and I've decided NO, I don't regret it.  What I do regret is the fact that I had such a shitty boss, and that, coupled with the fact that I suffer from crippling anxiety and depression, caused me to want to flee from my job at the bank in the first place.  Not to mention the fact that I don't believe that I was ever really meant to work at the bank anyway.  I am seriously completely learning-disabled when it comes to anything to do with math, money, or numbers.  I never actually even belonged at the bank.

I don't know WHERE the hell I belong.  I'm just completely lost in the world.  I don't have a purpose, and don't have a clue.  I know I could be really damn good at something, but I have no freaking idea what the hell that 'thing' is.  And now it's too late for me to even try to find out.  My life's just a total waste.

Everything in my life has always been a mistake or something shitty, and it just won't stop happening. I can't get a break.  I wish that life had an "undo" button like computers do.  I would put one of those bricks that has recently been lifted off of me on top of my life's "undo" button until I got back to when I was just born.  And every single path that I had gotten on originally, I would do the complete opposite this time around.  But that can't happen.  :/  Dammit.

I'm not happy with the way my life has turned out at all, and I'm stuck with it. It's like a shitty gift that you absolutely freakin' hate, but it's impossible to return, and you are required to use it around the person who gave it to you every freakin' day, so it won't hurt their feelings.  I feel like I'm just hanging out 'til the end, and then at the end, I'll look like this:

My life sucks.  I want a do-over.  >:{

Lilly's Cute Halloween Pumpkin Craft for School!

Lilly brought home a paper from school the other day saying that the kids in her class could bring in a small decorated pumpkin (NOT carved) just for fun if they wanted to, and that small prizes would be given.

So me, secretly being an artsy-craftsy-type person, jumped all over that.  I asked Lilly if she'd like to do a pumpkin for school, and she said yes. So Saturday night, me and Lilly perused Google Images for "no-carve pumpkin decorating ideas for kids" to get some inspiration.  Lilly had a hard time deciding what to do, but ultimately, she wanted to make her pumpkin look like a kitty cat (of course).

There were a few kitty-cat pumpkin designs to choose from, but there was one that Lilly liked the best.  So today, we went to Wally World, procured a small pumpkin and some pipe cleaners (oh, excuse me, I mean "fuzzy sticks" -- apparently it's not politically correct to call them "pipe cleaners" anymore, since that name is evidently affiliated with the unhealthy act of smoking pipes).  >:P

Anyway, we already had the rest of the crap stuff laying around the house that we would need to glue onto the pumpkin.

Well, as you know, Lilly has ADHD, and even though she is on medication for it, she still doesn't have the patience that it takes to do a craft from start to finish.  So basically (I know it's kind of crappy), but I did all the work on the kitty-cat pumpkin while getting input from Lilly, as she would run back-and-forth past me like a maniac from time to time.

I have a feeling that Lilly is going to grow up to be some sort of supervisor/manager/boss, because she does a lot better just telling people what to do, than doing the actual work herself.  :P

So anyway, without further ado, here is the finished product, with my handiwork, and Lilly's bossing:

I KNOW, RIGHT?!?  IT'S SO FREAKIN' CUTE!!!

(Lilly wanted it to have white whiskers, so that's what we did).

All it took was this:

• half a sheet of black construction paper for the ears, eye-backgrounds, eye-slits, and mouth
• one pink felt pom-pom about the size of a nickel (trimmed into a triangle-shape to make the nose, and the trimmings picked apart to make the pink fuzz for the ears)
• two old green plastic buttons we had in the button jar (I cut the loop-thingies off the backs of them with the scissors so they would lay flat)
• white pipe cleaners "fuzzy sticks" or "chenille stems" --take your politically correct pick--  >:/
• a tail from one of Lilly's old Halloween costumes (we rammed a cut-off piece of wire clothes-hanger down inside of it so that we could bend it into the shape that Lilly wanted it to curl)
• and to affix everything to the pumpkin --depending on the level of "stickiness" needed--, I used a variety of white glue, hot glue, and glue dots (the "permanent"-strength kind --those things are fan-freakin'-tastic if you haven't discovered them yet!)

The tail was the trickiest part.  The pumpkin had about a 2-inch stem on it, which I slid the tail onto like a sleeve, and then just hammered about 6 straight-pins through the tail into the base of the stem to hold it in place.  I shoved about a half-inch of the trimmed-off clothes hanger up into the center of the top of the pumpkin stem to help keep it in place.  Then since Jamie was the strongest, he man-handled the tail until it curved into the position that Lilly wanted.

Here I am, secretly pleased with my achievement, while Lilly acts 'Like A Boss' (and not in the good way)!

...leave me alone...can't you see I'm busy with my paperwork...what is it that you need?...do you need me to sign something?...*sigh*...fine, I'll pose for a picture, but only for a second; I'm very busy here...all right, off with you, already, peon!...

LOL!

P.S.  Lilly refused to smile for this picture (as she sometimes does), but then right after Jamie snapped it, the little terd grinned from ear to ear.  Terd.  >:{

Anyway, even though the optional pumpkin craft isn't due at school until the 14th, Lilly will go ahead and truck it on to school tomorrow.  I hope it survives to see the classroom!  (And I hope none of the glue fails, or the bits get picked off by curious little grubby fingers)!  :/

On another crafty note, Lilly's teacher sent another note home with all the kids saying that if we wanted to, we could send in treats for the kids' Halloween Treat Bags (nope; it can't be for "Halloween", lest we offend some anti-"evil"/"devil"/"pagan"/"witchcraft"/whatever/ nonsense people)! -- COME ON, WHO CARES ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF THE HOLIDAY; IT'S ALL ABOUT THE CANDY AND HAVING FUN DRESSING UP NOWADAYS!!!  Don't piss on our parade & make it out to be something it's not!  >:{  After all, the Christmas holiday itself has pagan origins and traditions, but the school still celebrates the heck out of that!  >:{

Anyway, while we were at Wally World earlier today procuring the little pumpkin for the kitty-cat craft, we also picked up some candy for the Treat Bags for Lilly's class.  We couldn't get anything with peanuts because Lilly's teacher's sons are deathly allergic to peanuts  >:{  so Lilly decided on Hershey's snack-size bars.  Perfect choice.  It sure beats the hell out of these sh*tty thingies that you always hated to see laying there when you finally got home from trick-or-treating and dumped out your bucket!:

(actually, the only things I would throw out now that I'm a grown-up --ha ha-- would be the Necco wafers, the Twizzlers, and maybe the Dots, but everything else, I would probably happily gobble up)... :/

Anyway, after I got through crafting-up the kitty-cat pumpkin, I was still in Craft Mode, so instead of just flinging the bag of Hershey's bars into Lilly's backpack for her to turn around and fling at her teacher for the Treat Bags, I opted to do something just a little bit cuter.

After perusing the good ol' Google Images again for "Halloween candy packaging" for just a few minutes, I ran across some printable templates.  I asked Lilly if she thought my idea was cool and wanted me to do it, and of course she said yes.  And Lilly also endorsed the template that I picked out to use.

I had recently broken down and bought myself a printer, because it's apparent that we really need one, and with me no longer working in an office (thank God, but therefore no longer having any easy access to printers, copiers, scanners, and other various *sweet* free office supplies), we just had to have one; there was no way around it.  So a few weeks ago, I got the cheapest printer/copier/scanner that they had at Wally World (which turned out to only be something like $30 -- WHAT, THAT'S CHEAP)!  ...only to discover upon unpackaging it, setting it up, and trying to use it at home, that the #$%^#$% thing didn't come with a #$%^#$% printer cable (I don't know what else I expected).  In my defense, Jamie was with me when I was purchasing the printer, and as we were placing it into our buggy, I told him to read the box and MAKE SURE that there wasn't some kind of double-secret cable that we needed that was SOLD SEPARATELY, and he looked briefly at the box and told me "it has a cable".  DING-DONG, HE WAS WRONG.  Again, I don't know what else I expected.  The "cable" he was talking about it "having" turned out to be the #$%^#$% power cord.

So upon my discovery of this, my expert (and very loud) enunciation of every cussword known to man, and one furious flying trip back to Wally World on my part to procure the necessary additional $20 printer cable later, then I could finally print things.  Whew.  When am I ever going to learn my lesson?  Never. Trust. Jamie.  >:{  NEVER.  NOT EVER!!!  UHH!!!!!!

Anyway, for Lilly's cute li'l treats for her class, I stacked up 3 snack-size Hershey's bars, and taped these little cut-out printed paper bands of spiderweb-&-spiders around them to hold them in place.  I added the "Happy Halloween!  From, Lilly", with fingers crossed that they won't be sent back home for being "offensive" and/or "inappropriate" by having the word "Halloween" on them!  (And if they DO get sent back home, then you will find me fat and bloated in the corner, with a ring of chocolate around my mouth, and 48 little snack-sized Hershey's wrappers littering the floor)!!!  >:/

Here's the template:

And it was awesome that it just so happened to fit perfectly taped around 3 of the stacked-up snack-size Hershey's bars!:

Pretty cute, huh?!?  :D

Now we just need to figure out what Lilly's going to be for "Book Character Day" at school, since they don't allow kids to "dress up for Halloween" at school anymore.  Nowadays, kids HAVE to dress up as a character from a book, and MUST also bring the book to school to PROVE that they are dressed up as a book character!

So for the past several years with Lilly, it's been like this:

"...Uhhh...hello there, Teacher.  I'm Tinkerbell.  Or maybe Barbie.  Errr, ummm...would you believe I'm actually Rapunzel?..."

I mean, seriously.  This is just about all the crap you can get in the stores, and HELLOOO, it's not 1940, and nobody's mom is an expert seamstress who has 10,000 bundles of every kind of spare cloth laying around and can whip up some kind of decent costume in a matter of hours!  Not to mention the fact that no kid these days would want to dress up as these boring, lame, old-@$$ things:

So I don't know what Lilly will end up dressing up as for stupid "Book Character Day" at school this year.

A year or two ago, I actually had in my possession an actual Madeline costume from the Disney store that I had acquired for free from some yard-sale trappings somewhere:

And I even had a book to go along with it, that was mine when I was a little girl!:

But would Lilly wear the Madeline costume?  Hell, no!  She wouldn't even consider it, and she wouldn't ever even try the #$%^&#$ thing on!!!  So I had to donate it to the thrift store!  >:{  Freakin' kid.  She absolutely refuses to do anything we want her to do, just out of spite!  GRR!!!

So we'll just have to be thinking about what we can get Lilly to dress up as and wear to school for Halloween Book Character Day (and also be something that we already have the stupid book for).  >:{  Thankfully we've got a few more weeks to go...

Why can't it still be like it used to be whenever I was in school?  It was called HALLOWEEN, and you could wear whatever costume you wanted to, and nobody ever even dreamed of wearing a costume that wasn't at least a little spooky!  And once we got into high school, and lots of students came up with really awesome and fun scary costumes, the only rule that they started implementing was that the costumes couldn't be "gory".  Ok, I can see that; you wouldn't want to scare the crap out of primary or elementary-school students that are riding the same bus as you: 

But changing Halloween to Book Character Day?  Stupid party-poopin' adults!  They've ruined everything, trying to be all politically correct and educational (a/k/a afraid of getting sued...which is what it all seems to boil down to these days)!

Meh!  >:{

Dad's On YouTube! :D

Well, Dad called me up a while ago to ask me if I happened to notice what was included in the picture of the Starbucks that I put in my last post.  YES I DID NOTICE, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.  I was just too mad about it to mention it!

Notice anything?

Getting closer...

HOW 'BOUT NOW?

DAMMIT!!!  WHERE WERE YOU, CHEEZ BALLZ, WHEN I NEEDED YOU A MONTH AGO SO LILLY COULD MAKE A FREAKING TERRARIUM OUT OF YOU FOR A SCHOOL PROJECT?!?!?

CURSE YE, ELUSIVE ORANGE BALLS OF DELICIOUSNESS ENCLOSED INSIDE OF HANDY-DANDY REUSABLE CONTAINERS!!!  >:{

Anyway, after Dad jokingly rubbed it in my face about the cheez-balls, then he told me that he was on YouTube playin' his fiddle with a little band he's been playing with for fun recently.

Check Dad out!!!  He didn't know they were filming them.  There are several different tunes that they did that evening, but these two are my favorites that you are the most able hear Dad play on.  Enjoy!  :D

*FAMOUS DAD* *FAMOUS DAD* *FAMOUS DAD* *FAMOUS DAD* *FAMOUS DAD* *FAMOUS DAD*

And now you can plainly see where I get my awesomeness from!

LOL!  ;)