For Cora

Besides working at my new job, which I love, I’ve been very busy…busy crafting. Crafting for Cora.

This story came to my attention last month and I was immediately drawn in by this sweet baby girl and her family. You can read about Cora here.

Sadly, baby Cora went to heaven on February 8^th. Please keep all those who knew and loved Cora in your thoughts and prayers. I couldn’t stop thinking about this precious baby girl and her parents and I knew I had to help in some small way. So, I joined other etsy craftspeople who have banded together to craft for Cora.

A playground is being built to honor her life. You can make a donation by directly visiting http://corapaige.blogspot.com. You can also click HERE and purchase one of the many beautiful hand-crafted items from etsy shop owners who have banded together and are donating  the profits from these special Cora Paige items towards helping build Cora’s playground.

This is such a wonderful way to honor an amazing little life. Please do what you can.

To learn more about Cora’s Playground visit:

http://corapaige.blogspot.com

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So, for the past week and a half I’ve been crocheting, sewing, and even collage-ing like a mad woman. Here’s just a sampling of what I’m selling on etsy for Cora – 100% of the proceeds will go towards the Cora Playground Fund:

ps: I promise I’ll be around to visit all of you very soon.  I miss you and will catch up as soon as I can!

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And here we go…

Every year the fifth grade class at my daughter’s school has a week-long unit on sex education.  My daughter is in fifth grade this year. Oh, joy!

It’s a pretty basic, straight-forward unit. The kids spend a week learning about self-confidence, grooming, puberty, reproduction, etc. At the end of the week there is an evening presentation that is to be attended by both parents and students. So, one evening we all cram into one of the little fifth grade rooms, sit in the chairs that are far too small for our adult asses and listen to the presentation. Most of the kids sit next to their parents. My daughter and several of her friends know what is coming and are too embarrassed to sit next to their parents so they pull up seats close to the front of the room.

The presentation consists of summarizing what our children have learned throughout the week, followed my a short video explaining puberty, sexual intercourse and child birth…in graphic detail. The pictures and information were shot at them so fast it left most gape-mouthed and blushing. But the boys in the back of the room…they were bursting out in fits of giggles. One of the boys was giggling so hard it was difficult to ignore. I attempted to hold in my laughter but as the boys rolled in the aisles when the words “penis”, “vagina” and “erection” were mentioned, I shook uncontrollably and a few chuckles escaped my lips. So much for being a good roll model.

By far, the best part was after the video when I happened to hear the boy sitting next to me say to his father, in a very matter-of-fact manner, “I knew all of this stuff already”. I just about choked. Turns out, the boy is on my daughter’s “Boys I Like List”. As we left the room, I tugged at her arm and whispered in her ear, “Stay away from Dxxxxx”. God, that’s ALL I need!

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Mary Jane, Cigarettes and Why I’m Generally a Bad Influence

The girl child and I went to dinner the other night at one of our favorite haunts. It’s an old-style general store (pizza/sub shop), complete with penny candy. After devouring our pizza and milling about the store looking for goodies we settled on purchasing Mary Jane’s and candy cigarettes.

My teeth hurt just thinking about all the sugar. What fun. E actually insisted that we purchase the candy cigarettes…we really do LIKE the fine, chalky taste of them. After sampling the Mary Jane’s she said, “Um, I’m not sure I like those. They taste old.”  Probably because they’ve been sitting on the shelf for YEARS and we’re the first people to even consider buying them. Yum.

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Calculator Antics

Girl child was fooling around with the calculator… writing things upside down like ‘hello’ and ‘shelloil’; just one of the many ridiculous, useless things you learn when you’re younger. I stepped away for two seconds and heard her giggling. As I returned to see what was so amusing she looked at me with an evil grin and said, “This is where we live”…and proceeded to show me this:

Gah! She’s getting more and more like her momma every day.

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“T” is for Tranquilizer

I woke up this morning with cramps (ugh) so I went straight for the medicine cabinet to grab some ibuprofen. As I walked in the bathroom, opened the cabinet and grabbed the drugs, I heard this from the hallway (in a snide, 9 year old’s voice):

“Taking your tranquilizers today?”

Oy, she sure knows how to yank my chain. I was quite cranky when I woke up but her remark was so damn hysterical that I cannot stop laughing every time I think about it.

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