Monday, November 7, 2011

Adventures in Permissive Parenting

When my son asked if he could cut his own hair, I said, "Sure!" I mean, more time for me, right? I tend to be a permissive parent, letting my sons eat peanut butter and baloney sandwiches and wash their own laundry, even if it meant they wore wrinkled Sunday shirts. When they got old enough to care, they handled their laundry differently. Experience is usually the best teacher.
When I heard my independent barber son use a water spray bottle in between bouts of the buzzing hair clippers, I called through the door, "Clippers like dry hair better."
"But they aren't working," he answered.
"Maybe we need new ones," I said.
But it was too late. Several minutes later, he said, "I'm bald." Well, some spots were bald, but other spots weren't. So I used my Magic Mom Moves to even out his haircut. Yes, he still has hair. Being blond, it's hard to see.
Once his 18-year-old brother caught his breath from laughing, he told him he looked just like Aang from "The Last Airbender." Then he made a blue arrow like Aang wears on his cartoon head. Michael took the arrow to school with him. Who knows? He may wear it until his hair grows back.
What kind of fashion/design/social faux pas have you experienced?

Friday, November 4, 2011

My Loverly Blog!

Aw, Marsha Ward is so nice to say my blog is lovely! CLICK RIGHT HERE to see how lovely Marsha's blog is!
SEVEN RANDOM SHIRLEY BAHLMANN FACTS:
1. I come from a family of six super sisters, yet I have six studly sons. (I also have two brawny brothers, bless their boyhood bond, and two darling daughters-in-law. And 7 goodly, goofy grandchildren.)
2. I love Halloween, although I've been accused of wearing costumes even when it's not Halloween.
3. It took me until my mid-30's to get comfortable with my height. (5', 11 1/2")
4. When I was 12 I wanted to be a truck driver so I could travel the country and see cool things! (I tend to wreck trucks, though, so that dream fell by the wayside.)
5. I can say the alphabet backwards. I can say it fast. I can do it in one breath! I can annoy anyone you want me to annoy with this skill!
6. I've liked blue cheese salad dressing ever since my first taste of it when I was a pre-schooler.
7. I forget people's names unless I hang around with them a lot, see them often, or they remind me of one of my family members. Because of this, I often have the delight of re-meeting fabulous and interesting people. (Which may very well be you!) Be patient with me. It's nothing personal.

Here are some other Lovely Blogs for you to visit:
CHICKENS DON'T HAVE ARMPITS (Marion Jensen)
Throwing Up Words (Carol Lynch Williams and Ann Dee Ellis)
Write Up My Alley (Cindy Beck)
Pink Ink (Jewel Punzalan Allen)
Janet's Blog - Fiction for the thinking woman (Janet Kay Jensen)

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

My Haunted Car

THANKS to my 12 year old who made sure my car was dressed up for Halloween.

Monday, October 31, 2011

RETURN TO SENDER

I was surprised to get my package returned in the mail. Did I say package? I meant the LID of the package. Not even the whole lid. Just a sawn-off part of it.
What does the Post Office DO with boxes of books? Practice their shot-put throws? Use them for driving range cones? Open them to read during slow times?
It made me laugh to read stamped on the lid: "RECEIVED WITHOUT CONTENTS." Did they only get the top? Or did they receive a whole empty box? They sent papers to fill out for a search of the lost articles, especially if I included titles and soft or hard covers if they were books, but I don't know how they'd round up two dozen books destined for donation to a neighborhood library effort in Missouri.
I'm just glad this didn't happen to the prize necklace I sent to Tonya Dean, although she did say it looked like the package had been opened and resealed. (But the bow on the gift wrap was intact!)
I must say, I personally love my local Post Office workers. They even came in after hours to retrieve a galley I needed to edit over a weekend. But accidents happen. So if you'd like to help the grass roots Missouri library, please send any books you're finished with to STEVE WESTOVER/re. library, 5124 NW Holly Dr., KIDDER, MO 64649. Encase your box in concrete and ask the nice Post Office people for the media mail discount.
How do you feel about having access to a library? How would it change your life if you didn't have one?

Monday, October 24, 2011

Burnin' up the Road!

Have you seen this person? Last known whereabouts: weaving around a driver's course in Nephi, Utah, flattening only one cone. Once she heard she passed the road test for her motorcycle license (YES it says "MOTORCYCLE," not "SCOOTER!") she screamed in delight and took off into the sunset, throttle fully open, roaring down the road at the trike's maximum speed of 35 m.p.h. (It's supposed to go 55 m.p.h. plus...)
Hey, if I can get a motorcycle license in my Grandma years, tell me what you've done lately that's "outside the box?" If you haven't done anything that makes you jump up and down for joy... okay, maybe that's just me... but something that makes your heart beat faster, whether it's cooking dutch oven or learning to stand on your head or whatever, make a plan right now to do it. Age is out of the picture! Come on, be brave, dare to post right here and tell us what you'd love to do. We all want to know!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Winna, Winna, Winna!

Tonya Dean had the luck of the draw! Congratulations, and may the necklace not be haunted and choke you in your sleep. ;oP

Paint it Pretty!

I had so many great comments on my BLOG HOP prize that I wish I had twenty-four necklaces to give away! The winner was chosen at "random dot org" this morning by my 12-year-old before he hopped off to school, leaving me without the list of candidates or a clear indication of the winner! (What a master of suspense.) The winner will be contacted by midnight tonight (which also gives me plenty of time to find the GREAT hiding place where I safely put the mysterious disappearing prize...it must be haunted, because it's certainly not me!)
For those who don't get the ghostly necklace, you can always do as my son did for my beautiful new granddaughter...paint it on! Just think of it... with a little glitter you could wear a sparkly tiara whenever you wanted. (Or you could paint on "man jewelry," Chas!) With green and white paint you could dot on a necklace and matching earrings, and with glow-in-the-dark paint you could do an entire Safety Sam Halloween costume!
What was your favorite Halloween costume ever? What are you going to dress up as this year?

Carolyn Rocks the Chicken Dance!