Mean People

We've all been mean at some point in our lives. But, for most of us, there comes a time when we get off our high horse and stop saying unnecessary and hurtful things. The internet is viewed a place where it's "ok" to be a jerk. Newsflash: It's never OK to be a jerk. If no one is a jerk, no one else needs to be a jerk.

Nice guys finish last because jerks push them out of the way and call them names.

I admit I haven't done any sort of research into cyberbullying (nor did I watch the ABC Family movie *gag*), but who is raising these people to think this is right? It sounds dumb when people talk about it. Kids commenting on their peers' facebook and myspace stuff telling them to go kill themselves. If someone told me to kill myself I would laugh. But these kids are serious!

I'm not a saint by any means, but I would never be so hurtful to someone. (Ok Kate, I know I was a pretty mean big sister, but you were *and still can be* a jerk too!) I just don't understand the need for snarky comments on things people post. Keep it to yourself, dude! Haven't you people seen Bambi? If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all.

People correcting grammar and spelling on Twitter is absurd. This isn't high brow literature. It's not literature at all! Leave Simon Pegg alone for using the wrong "your/you're!" He has more important things to do than proofread his tweets. You don't have to tweet Rainn Wilson that you're not following him any more because he's not funny or he says something offensive. He's an actor. He's not Dwight Schrute. And he is funny, just don't take everything he says seriously. It's obvious when he's kidding.

I read HelloGiggles (you should too) and people are usually very positive and supportive! But sometimes the jerks comment. I hate jerks. I think negative things about the posts sometimes, but I would never EVER comment something hurtful or rude.

All that "mean people suck" stuff aside, we as a culture or also super sensitive to things. People are so easily offended nowadays it's ridiculous. "Don't hate on my president!" "Don't say morbidly obese kids have bad parents!"

I don't know what else to write on this topic. Why can't everybody just knock of the dumb stuff and be happy? It's not hard...

I remembered what else I was going to say! Why are people so judgmental of how people became famous? Like the Kardashians and Paris Hilton. They are making money. Leave them alone! They are famous because we watch them. We watch them go on vacations, we watch them get married and get jobs and buy houses and get divorced and have babies. It's not their fault they don't have some amazing talents. They are pretty people and we like to look at pretty things.

While I do agree that there are some pretty ridiculous "famous" people *see the entire "cast" of Jersey Shore*, people watch it. So, leave it be. You're not going to change anything by being a jerk. You're just jealous.

The sound of...

Baby!

Every little noise warms my heart. (Or breaks it if it's relentless crying because she's teething in the middle of the night)



One of my favorites is the papery swish of her diaper as she toddles around the apartment. Her little diapered bum is the cutest thing ever! She runs around the apartment all day just finding things to do. I love to watch her when she's on a mission. She remembers where she left the book she wants and takes off, head tilted down and leading with her chin.



I also love hearing her little foot steps coming down the hall. The slap slap slap of tiny baby feet could melt a stone cold heart. When I hear her coming I can't wait to see how many articles of clothing she's carrying. She loves to walk around with her clothes. That or two big stuffed animals.

Right now most things are "buh!" When she's eating and wants to feed the dog she says, "Buh! Buh!" and looks around for Maddie. When she wants another bite she says, "Baaaa! Mmmm!" When we get up in the morning, as soon as I open the door she says, "Da!" because she knows Daddy is up. When she watches Baby Einsteins and recognizes the hippo she says, "guh!" because I called it her guy. And when I'm trying to make something to eat and she's hungry or wants to be held it's "Maaammmmmmmmaaaa" into my legs.



She has a great sense of humor and laughs a lot. She has a nasally cackle and I absolutely love it. It makes me laugh every time! The other day she thought my crunching into an apple was hilarious. I could hardly chew I was laughing so much.




So... Basically I love my child. A whole whole whole lot.

ANTS

I hate 'em.

For serious.

I'd post a picture or something for a visual impact, but I don't want to google "ants." I'd vomit.

We are in a ground floor apartment by the pool so apparently we're prime housing for the nasty little buggers. Luckily it's only the tiny sugar ants. They don't bite or strike the fear chord like big fatty or fire ants do. They're still driving me bonkers. I had seen a few here and there a few weeks ago and then one day I went to do the laundry and they had COMPLETELY infested the dirty clothes pile. Laundry, who knew? So I shook out all the clothes and vacuumed all the ones I saw into my dust buster, after following the trail of course. I sprayed any stragglers with Fantastik and sprayed the wall where they were coming in as well.

I saw another trail of them coming out of our coat closet. No exterior walls, but it backs up to the bathroom so we assumed they were coming in for the water. I went to the apartment office and told them and they brought me some spray for inside. We sprayed those areas and around the living room and thought. Hoorah!

No hoorah. I kept finding them in the bathroom and then by the fireplace. Bleh.. I sprinkled baby powder in several locations because they don't like the smell. But it doesn't kill them so they just scatter and find a new entrance. The exterminator guy comes like, every second Tuesday or Thursday or something ridiculous like that so they haven't sprayed outside.

Tuesday is taco night and I was gearing up to make some tortillas. I opened the baking cabinet to grab the flour, baking powder and shortening and low and behold: ANTS IN MY FRIGGIN' CABINET!!! They wanted mah sugah. So I cleaned out the cabinet and put my marshmallows and brown sugar in a ziploc baggie. I was putting things back into the cabinet when I kept finding the bastards on the counter around the honey. Ya, in the cap. That went in the trash...

They were in the stove too. I have to thoroughly clean the stove every time I use it. How fun is that? YAY? No Yay. I mean, don't get me wrong, having a clean house isn't a bad thing! But I don't have a messy house! They are going looking for things. I don't leave my sugar out all over the place, they went into the cabinet to the closed bag. Jerks.

Steven thought I was crazy for freaking out about it until last night. I went to change into my pajamas when I noticed a mound of moving black on my panties in the dirty clothes. Seriously? I don't know whether to be flattered or disgusted that the ants were attracted to my dirty underwear. (I don't have disgusting dirty underwear, just normal every day underwear)

It was so gross.... And it was late so I couldn't vacuum them up! We sprayed them with Fantastik, Steven squished them and I followed the trail and dumped some vinegar into the entrance... I hate ants.

I was also randomly finding them on the couch. (On an interior wall) So this morning I moved the couch to see where they were coming from behind the couch. The interior wall corners with an exterior wall so they were coming in at the corner. This time they had a lookout, though. A spider. (These ants are finding my weaknesses and using them against me) I squealed repeatedly as the spider began to run around hibbety jibbety when I sprayed him with Fantastik. I had to make my squeals of fear sound like fun so that I wouldn't scare Peyton who was staring at me with that, "Mama? You've got issues" look. Spider finally stopped running so I sprayed the line of ants and then went for the baby powder. Spider was playing possum! He started running like a spider with Fantastik on his eyes so I soaked him in it. And he died. But to be sure I squished him with a mound of Kleenex.

For now I've found a few stragglers here and there. It usually takes a day for them to form a line again which leads me to the following question:

Why are ants so stupid? I mean, if I sent out some scout ants to find food and/or water and they didn't return I wouldn't think, "Hey! ANTdrew didn't come back! Wait... Neither did SamANTtha, BrANTdon, ANTthony or Fred. They must have found something great and want us to come too!" I would think, "Uh, ya. They died. We shouldn't go back in there. Ever."

Exterminator comes Thursday. It better work, or I'm raising hell. I don't want ants. I pay $865 a month for an apartment for me, Steven, Peyton and Maddie. If they wanna live here, I better see some compensation for sharing my quarters.

Finding Nemo

I've been watching at least the first 40 minutes of this movie three times a day for the past 4 months. It's Pey's sleepy time movie. You would think I'd be so sick of it by now, but sometimes I finish watching it when she falls asleep. I still adore it. I don't believe it will ever get old.

I've had some time to think about the goings on in the film and have come to the conclusion that it's all Marlin's fault.

Each major thing that goes wrong can be attributed to Marlin. From the beginning, Marlin chose the anemone at the drop off. He then chased Coral around causing her swim outside and be eaten by the barracuda. Nemo gets stuck in the reef thing because Marlin wouldn't wake up on the first day of school. If Marlin hadn't come chasing after Nemo at school and make a big deal of him being at the drop off he wouldn't have felt the need to swim out to touch the boat.

Moving on to when he meets Dori. Nothing unfortunate there until he wont let the sharks read the mask. Had he done that Dori wouldn't have had a nosebleed and Bruce wouldn't have gone all Jack Nicholson on them. They probably would have told them how to get to the EAC real quick. Had that happened there would be no freaky electric fish chase and no jelly fish jungle. Had that still happened if he had trusted Dori and gone through the trench no jelly fish. Had that still happened if he hadn't distracted Dori by asking if she was hungry they would have made it safely out of the jellies. Marlin would probably still have met Crush and the other sea turtles seeing as they needed to get to the current anyhow. Without all the previous stuff he wouldn't have his heroic story, of course, but he would still be on his way to save Nemo.

On to Nemo in the tank. He gets stuck in the tube. How is that Marlin's fault? Getting stuck is not his fault, but had he allowed Nemo to get out of the reef thing on the first day of school, Nemo would have the courage and knowledge to get out of the fish tank tube easily. Now, Nemo almost getting pureed was Gill's fault, he should have given him a bigger pebble.

Marlin's big problem is trust. If he had trusted Dori and let her guide him with her crazy ways things would have been a lot smoother for the two of them. Once they do finally make it to Sydney and get spit out by the first pelican Marlin only needed to trust Nigel and he would have taken him straight to Nemo. But alas, he flipped out and the seagulls went wild.

All of this would have happened much faster without the Shining Bruce, the freaky electric fish, and the jelly fish jungle. That being said, Darla probably would not have arrived yet and Nigel could have shown up with Marlin and Dori without seeing Nemo "belly up." It would then just be a matter of getting Nemo out of the tank. Those fishies are smart and could have figured it out. Marlin is the one who goes to the fishing grounds out of depression, so it's his fault that Dori gets trapped in the fishing net.

I think that pretty much sums it up!

That being said, I still adore the movie in all its convoluted Disney goodness. I enjoy watching it over and over and finding new things. I notice the little details in the background and what the other characters are doing when the action is focused on one or two characters. And what else is amazing is that nothing every stops moving. The fish are constantly in motion and so is the water. It's beautiful.

I'm hungry. It's time for some breakfast!

And how does that make you feel?

Do you ever hear a phrase or think about one and it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy? I don't mean the first time he/she says "I love you," or your baby saying, "mama" for the first time. I mean, normal every day phrases.

One that gets my imagery gears turnin' is "Crack open a bottle."

I love the word "crack." Not like, cocaine or butt or in the ground. But the onomatopoeia. If feels heavy on the back of my tongue and makes my heart warm. I picture a roaring fire in a log cabin somewhere on a snowy mountain. Two glasses pleading to be filled with a plum red wine twinkling by the glow of the fire.

Person one says to person two, "Let's crack open a bottle of wine."

Warm, inviting, cozy. Crack.

That's Wassup!

People often ask me, "Mandy, what's your latest obsession?" And to those people I made up simply for the sake of having a creative blog opening I respond, "Food blogs!"

I am subscribed to one that is by a woman I used to babysit for in Nacogdoches. La Dolce Vita
She owns her own catering and cake company and makes such delicious food. I have made several things off of her site and they usually turn out. I used regular salt in the stroganoff and it was uber salty, but that was my bad.

I think my favorite thing about food blogs is when your finished product turns out just like the picture! I make Andrea's Shrimp Carbonara all the time and it always looks like hers. A couple days ago I went searching for food blogs and found this one. She has some super yummy looking stuff!

I decided to start simple and do her No Bake Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies this morning. They look like hers! Hooray! And they haven't completely cooled yet, but I had to snack on one before nap time. They're delicious! The oatmeal doesn't cook long so it stays a little crunchy/chewy and makes the cookies yumtastic.

Speaking of nap time, it's now. I'll post more when I find more and do more.

I'll also maybe eventually finish the 30 day blog challenge that has turned into a million day challenge.

Day 10- What You Wore Today

I'd been putting this one off for a day that I actually changed out of my pajamas! Well then I went to Idaho and didn't bring my computer.

It's still kind of early today and I'm still in jammies so I'll say what I wore yesterday!

I wore jeans and a white tank top under a wide neck grey t-shirt. Pretty swanky, I know. Haha!

Now I shall rant.

I love Peyton to death, but yesterday I reached my breaking point. She has been so whiny and clingy that I can't get anything done. I'll give her credit for playing in her playpen for an hour watching Baby Mozart while I made tortillas for dinner. But after that I took her out to feed her lunch and she fussed through half of it. Once she finished I went to make myself lunch and she would not leave me alone. She stood up holding onto my jeans and screamed into them until I picked her up. I hadn't eaten since 8 am and was so hungry, so I had to let her cry while I cooked. I felt bad, but she was driving me nuts. Once I came back into the living room she was fine. She didn't want to sit or play with me, just wanted me in the room with her.

When Steven got home he played with her so I could finish getting dinner ready. While he was eating I made her dinner. He offered to feed her while I ate but she screamed. So I put my food down (not even a bite taken yet) and fed her. She started screaming halfway through and hitting the spoon and I had had enough. I took her out of her chair, put everything away, wiped her face and gave her to Steven. I said, "I'm going to take a shower. She's going to scream and I don't care." And with that I took a much needed LONG hot shower. I shaved my legs! Woohoo! And after that I blow dried my hair. It was lovely. I didn't hear her cry at all while I was in there. She started to fuss a little when I was almost done drying my hair.

So, she can be without me if Steven distracts her. But it was a grand total of about 20 minutes. I wish he could be here more to spend time with her so that she would be fine with him anytime and for longer periods.

Oh well! Time for diaper change and nap! I may take one with her. She woke up several times crying last night. Normally she wakes up twice quietly and I can nurse her back so sleep right away, but not last night... I'm exhausted!