School Uniforms Suck

Growing up I always wished we had school uniforms at my school. I did not have the money for the latest fashions, and I thought wearing uniforms meant it wouldn't matter if I had less money than everybody else. But I was totally wrong. My kids have uniforms at their school, and the uniforms are tagged and branded. Kids still want uniforms from certain stores...those stores with the highest price tags are, of course, the ones they want the most.

Schools down in Tampa argue that uniforms are a good policy because they are cost effective, help kids focus on school work, and give unity/school spirit to the students. I disagree on all of these arguments.

Uniforms are costly! I am a bargain hunter, and I know I can get a very nice shirt at TJ Maxx or Old Navy for my kids for less than I can any polo. The schools sell the polo's from $12-15, and most stores have them for $9-25. I, however, can get new kid's shirts for $4-7. When you have 3 kids needing at least 4 shirts each, that extra $2 or more adds up.

Khaki pants are always more expensive than jeans or non-khaki shorts. Plus, jeans and casual shorts can be worn on weekends and evenings more easily than uniform khakis. So I would save money by not needing 2 wardrobes for the kids.

School uniforms do not help take attention away from wardrobes and put it on school work. The students still compare shoes, hair, jewelry, manicures, and even socks. My kids complain they don't have nice enough pencils! Not to mention, the students pay attention to the labels, style, and cut of uniforms. Who looks best in their uniforms. Dress codes are all that is needed, not uniforms. Go ahead and put length requirements on shorts, don't allow sleeveless or midsection baring tops.

Maybe there is some unity given by every kid wearing the same color everyday. My daughter thinks it's boring, and I don't blame her. Plus, the unity does not necessarily give the kids school spirit. I think having sports teams, clubs, and community groups help to build spirit and school pride. I don't think the kids care about wearing school colors to go learn. They would probably enjoy cheering on their teams, and working together. Pride works better than uniforms for uniting students.

I think I hate school uniforms more than my kids hate them! Faith would rather wear glittery pink clothes. She's got a style of her own, and I think it's fun to see her express it. Christian and Cross like t-shirts that show their favorite teams or express their personalities. Imagine if you had to wear the same color and styles of clothes everyday! Some people are great at it, like military personnel, but not all of us are military material!

World's Best Mom

I am not the type of mom you will see volunteering as "Homeroom Mom" or "Team Mom." I will not stalk my children at school as the PTA president, nor will I follow them at every single field trip. I'm just not that type of mom. Honestly, I need my space and I think my kids need their's as well.



I always felt like a bad mom because I'm not that "involved in every aspect of my kid's life" kind of mom. You will, however, find me in the bleachers cheering them on. I am their biggest fan whether it is at sports, school, or just hanging out being silly. I am not overly protective, but if somebody makes my kids cry, the claws will come out. I'm not a physically affectionate person, but I love a good cuddle with my kids (as long as they are sitting still, which is rare).




So this past week has been really rough on me. Being in the hospital and out of commission has caused me to miss a lot of the things that I AM there for. I missed my kids' first wresting match, I didn't get to meet their teachers at the open house, and I didn't get to take them to school on their first day. These are the things I am usually there for. It has made me realize that the best mom's are not necessarily the one's that are there for everything, sometimes they are the ones that are there for what is important.

If my kids cry, I tell them to suck it up and get up. But when they are having a bad day, overly tired, or really hurt I am there to kiss boo boos. I am there to tell them it's okay. I may be too tough on them sometimes, but I think that's what they expect from me. Heck, my kids would eat me alive if I gave into every single tear.

One of the worse parents are those that tell their kids they are the best, even if they are not. Like those parents that tell their kids to try out for American Idol, even thought their kid can not sing at all. I'm not going to puff up my kids' egos, I am going to cheer for them and help them to be the best they can be. I don't care if they are the best, but I am going to teach them to try.

All moms are different. This week I learned which ones are the best. I learned I am the world's best mom...at least for my kids.

Chiropractors

Since I injured my back more than 4 years ago, I have seen so many types of doctors. None of them seem to know how to fix the problem. Surgery worked for about 4 months, and now I am right back to where I was before the surgery.

One of the types of treatment I have tried was chiropractic. The biggest problem I have with chiropractors is that they don't seem to want to fix the problem. They are like salesman! I don't trust that they really want me to feel better. They want me on long term plans where I am in the office several times a week. That is freaking expensive! Even if I have insurance to cover it, $15-$20 co-pay several times a week adds up. Plus, finding time to go is a pain in the butt when you have 3 kids and a ton of errands.

Besides the fact that they want you for life, I am scared for my health when I go to chiropractors. I know it's silly, but when they are adjusting my neck and my knees, it scares me to death. And it's gross, ick! Can't you kill somebody by snapping their neck? I just don't like it.

Still, even if I wasn't a weak stomached wimp, I have issues! The first chiropractor I saw for my back problem gave me a bone spur in the middle of my spine, and did not help my lower back at all. After I had been seeing the chiropractor for about 2 months twice a week, during one adjustment it hurt really bad. He told me that sometimes it does hurt, but I had never felt it hurt that bad before. I could barely move for days after that adjustment. I never returned to that chiropractor. A couple years later I found out I had a bone spur from that adjustment.

After a year of searching for other types of relief for the pain I saw different chiropractor. Yes I got the same sales pitch as all the other chiropractors, but I thought maybe he could help. He never hurt me during an adjustment, but I got migraines after every time I went. I told him about it, but he said that it must be something else causing the headaches, not his treatment. The headaches continued and so did my low back pain. When I stopped going for adjustments the headaches stopped.

Two years later I am considering trying a third chiropractor. I don't know if I should or not. I don't trust them, but I really want to be out of pain. Has anybody ever had successful results?

Book and Cardio

Today I got to workout a little bit longer than I have in the past couple of days. I did 25 minutes on the Stairmill and 25 minutes on the Eliptical.

The only way I am able to do this much cardio is to bring a book. I get so bored doing cardio, especially on cardio machines. I'm not into tv shows, so watching tv on the machines never worked for me.  I usually have a book or my nook when I head to the gym for cardio.

I also did some light arms on the cables. Just enough to wake up the muscles, but not enough to hurt my back. I ended with about 5 minutes of crunches.

Getting in a Quicky

Between getting ready for school, surgery, and Christian's birthday, the last couple of days have been crazy as I expect the next couple of days to be as well. These days I do the best I can to get in a quick workout. A workout that will de-stress me, wake up my body, and keep me in some sort of shape.

Yesterday I squeezed in a 25 minute stairmill workout and about 5 minutes of abs in between dentist and orthodontist appointments.

Today I got to do a 30 minute swim and about 10 minutes of legs in between pre-op appointments and shopping for school uniforms for Faith. I can no longer to much with weights, and the weights I use for legs are light weight machine exercises. I also throw in lunges and squats without weights as well.

These are not ideal workouts for me, but I am proud that I did the best I could to at least workout some.

End of an Era

I've been done having children for about 7 years now. I've got three kids, love them, but they are more than enough for me. The past 11 years for me has been being a mom. The moment I held Faith there was nothing else I wanted to do. But now there is going to be a change that officially ends this having baby chapter of my life.

This Friday I am going to have a hysterectomy. I'm officially going to be done having babies, there is no changing my mind on this. It's not like I wanted babies, but knowing I can't changes my mindset.
I can't describe it, but I feel like I being forced to finish having babies. However, I know that there is only two ways to go. I can be sad knowing that I am no longer fertile, that I am missing a piece of me. Or I can except it and focus on the next chapter of my life.

I don't know what that chapter has in store. I am sad, but I have to keep my mind off of that. I am determined to move forward. This is a new era for me. Yes, I am still a mother to those three great kids of mine, but I can't think I am less because I am less a body part. I gotta think I am more because I have checked that box, crossed it off the bucket list, and, best of all, I survived three babies, toddlers, and preschoolers.

I will focus more on developing me as me. The problem I face now is figuring who the heck I want to be. I have great support from the four most amazing people I know (Jim and the kids), I have great friends who don't care if I have a uterus or not, and I got time...heck I'm going to be sore and recovering, right.

So, am I nervous about starting a new era? Nah, not anymore. I'm anxious to find out what the new era has in store.

But I am extremely nervous about the needles, surgery, and pain...I'm a wimp, I won't lie. Doctors tell me I have a high pain tolerance, but it doesn't mean I like it...especially there.

Positive Campaigning

I am so completely tired of negative campaigning. It reminds me so much of an elementary school playground: "oh don't be friends with Timmy, he has cooties," "did you here what Jenny said? She was making fun of you,"... Sounds just like the current political race.

Plus, I don't know about you, but I do not trust politicians. So why would I trust what they are saying about their political opponent. I get nothing out of all the campaign commericials. It's all he said she said bull crap.

Instead,  I would rather the politicians have commercials that says what their platforms are. I would rather know what Romney believes he is going to do as President. What are his particular thoughts on the nation. I don't care what Romney doesn't like about Obama. Why can't Obama spend his campaign money explaining is next steps as President? I don't care what he thinks he inherited from Bush, I want to know what he is going to do about it.

How does Romney feel about the war? How does he plan to fix the budget? What is his platform? We've seen Obama in action as president and we know his platform, but I would like to know his plans for the future beyond Obamacare. I don't care if Obama is black, white, pink, purple, or green, I am not voting for class president, y'all, so lets grow up.

I think the negative campaigning goes back to the stupid two party system! If there were more than two nominees, negative compaigning would be more difficult. Also with the 2 party system it is hard to find a candidate that suits all I am looking for in a president. Having more than 2 parties allows there to be a bigger variety of platforms and beliefs. The spectrum of Conservative and Liberal would be much broader with more choices in the middle.

Honestly I can't tell where the candidates this year are in the spectrum. They are too busy finger pointing and not telling us who they are. My kids keep asking who I am voting for, at this point I can't answer them. Nobody looks good to me. I guess I'll vote for the one who has less cooties on the playground...

School Supplies

I don't know about you, but I am wondering what the heck happened to summer. It seems like it only lasted a couple of weeks. It went by so fast, and now it's time to get ready for school. And we all know what that means: school supplies.

Buying school supplies sucks!!!!

I love office supplies and new notebooks. I really love shopping except for groceries. And I even like the smell of new school supplies. Weird, I know. But when you have 3 kids in school, buying supplies sucks.

Notice I said buying. Shopping for them is kinda fun, as long as I don't have to bring the kids along. That gets kinda insane. Buying the supplies, as in paying for them, is really hard on the bank account. It's freaking expensive!

I'm talking about notebook and pencils. I'm not including backpacks, lunch boxes, shoes, or uniforms. That's another couple hundred per kid. The sad part is, the kids don't even use half the stuff we buy them for school. I ripped out all the paper in Faith's notebooks from last year and I filled up 3 1-inch notebooks. That is a BIG waste!

I think it would be cheaper if the schools bought the supplies that the teachers asked for in bulk. I'm sure the discount would be huge! The schools buy the supplies, bundle them up for each student, and sell them to the students during registration/open house. This would be great for the teachers because all of the students would have exactly what the teacher needs them to have.

But until then, I am off to spend a fortune on crayons and binders...blah!

Bracelet Holder by Recycling

I have a lot of bracelets (well for me) and I needed to find a way to organize them and a place to put them. I had the bracelets hanging everywhere on shelves and drawer pulls. Half the time I forgot what bracelets I had because they were in so many different places. I am anal about organization and everything having a place, so this was driving me crazy...bat poop crazy!

One day I got really frustrated with the lack of organization, and fervently started seeking a home, one single home, for all my wayward bracelets. I looked around and found a paper towel holder and a hair dryer diffuser. And magically they fit together and produced a home for my bracelets!

I have extremely straight hair, so I never use the diffuser that came with my hair dryer. The paper towel holder was trash, of course. 

First I put on 2 coats of white acrylic paint as a primer. Then I glued the paper towel holder into the hole that is supposed to connect to the hair dryer. Last, I added a couple coats of glitter acrylic paint I found at Walmart. And Voila:

It does it's job, all my bracelets are in one place! No more panic attacks when I see bracelets every which way.

Crossisms, Tales of the Funniest Kid I Know

Cross James Van Wicklin

AKA "Cross the Boss", "Crossy the Snow Man"

My 6 year old, Cross, is the funniest kid I know. He has the best way of looking at the world around him, and the majority of the stuff that comes out of his mouth is just hilarious. He is all boy, and he drives me insane, but the stuff he does and the things he does keeps me laughing. He is definitely my comic relief in life.



So for my enjoyment and for your's, here are some of the things I can remember:

When cross first learned to walk, whenever he would walk past a "Slippery When Wet" floor sigh, he would always kick it down. People at our regular places began to expect it when they saw him coming.

Cross used to call chihuahuas "chick-a-wa-wa" 

He called Western Kentucky's Hilltoppers "Mountain climbers"

Favorite ride at Busch Gardens

Cross put a quarter in the puppy's ear the other day and said, "wanna see a magic trick?"

One time at Busch Gardens he reached through the fence and put a kangaroo in a headlock. When I saw him I said "cross! let go of that poor kangaroo!" He replied, "Mom, I just wanted to give it a hug."

Walking with mall santa

He has always talked or sang when he uses the bathroom. One time I walked by and heard him calling his penis "Agent P", and he talked to Agent P the whole time he pooped.

Cross told me he had to break apart my chopsticks since he's the man.

He calls the gym L.A. Fitness "Elephantness"

He used to tell us that we were "furry" if we needed to shave. 

One time Cross lifted up his shirt and shows me his belly and says "look how many packs I have now! I think I have 5 packs now"

He used to always tell us that he loved daddy "all the way up to God" and he loved mommy "all the way up to Jesus."

His term for diarrhea: "hiney pee"

Christian said," I hate playing with cross! He cheats!!" And Cross replied "Well I'm sorry, but I just really like winning."


One time while watching soccer he said, "It's called sock-er cuz you wear long socks"


Faith said something was cross-eyed. Cross got really mad and yelled, "My eyes do not look like that! It's not my eyes!"

He told me once that the plural of toothbrush is "teethbrushes."

Cross has always called French Fries "french-A-fries"

One time while I was eating a hamburger with him, he started to pick the sesame seeds off of my burger bun. When I asked him why he was doing that, he said, "I want to put them in the dirt to grow a cheeseburger tree so we can have all the cheeseburgers we want."

Cross said, "Mom I wish I was all grown up so I could marry you" I of course said,
"You can't marry your mom." Cross replied, "Why? I'm handsomer, funnier, and nicer than dad."


Today he told me if there was an alligator that he would beat it up for me because he is a real man.


He got really upset one day when I was driving. When I asked him what was wrong, he replied, "Why does the sun always have to follow ME around...Why doesn't it follow Christian!"

I wish I remembered them all, but I guess I can add more later. If you have ever met him, you know he can be both a pain and a riot. If you don't know him, I hope you enjoyed this as much as I do.

He said he didn't pull the "tricker" bc I'm too pretty

He can be sweet too

Daddy's boy

he climbed in...I promise

Cutest martial-artist

My little fighter

Wearing my glasses

Free Pineapples and Gardening

Back in April I decided that I wanted to see if I could actually grow pineapple plants from just the tops of pineapples. It worked! Look at them now, they have grown so much:

All I did was cut the green tops off of the pineapple, put it in a bowl with water for a day or two, and then plant it in the ground. The only reason I put them in a bowl of water for a day or two was that gave me time to actually find a place to plant them and then find the time to dig them into the ground. I only soaked the bottom of the top (where the green meets the yellow).

When I found a nice sunny spot for them, I just put the bottom part of the green top straight into the ground. I didn't even bother with special soil, just good ole Tampa sand dirt clay whatever. I didn't fertilize and only watered if it didn't rain in a week or so.    SO COOL!

I love to garden! I love digging in the dirt, planning out where to dig, and growing stuff. It's both relaxing and rewarding for me. I've tried several times to grow fruits and vegetables, but I do not have any luck with that, but I do really well with plants and trees. I did a ton of gardening in the spring. I planted several fruit trees, tropical plants, and flowers.

My garden before I planted

Also, this year I dug a vegetable garden on the side of my house, the only thing I could grow were weeds. The strawberries, cucumbers, and melons grew but never fruited. The carrots and radishes started to grow, but never matured. The rest of the plants just died. 

Cross with his plant

Cross, however, picked out a banana pepper plant to grow in my garden. The only edible vegetable we got this year was banana peppers. Not that we got to eat those, as soon as Cross picked them he washed them and ate them immediately. Banana peppers are his favorite.

Anyway, I miss gardening. I was able to do a bunch this past spring, but now my back is hurting too much. I can't bend, lift, dig, or carry bags of mulch or dirt. It's yet another hobby of mine that I need to replace because of this stupid injury.

Speaking of injury, today I woke up in a little less pain and was able to swim laps comfortably. YEAH!

Today's Workout:

5 minutes freestyle (have to do by time because I lose count)
50 meters free pull
50 meters free kick
5 minutes breaststroke
50 meters breast pull
50 meters breast kick
50 meters backstroke (I really hate backstroke, that's why I only do 50s)
50 meters dolphin kick
and repeat until I got kicked out of my lane for campers.

Stairs and Baking

Okay, so being to drugged up to drive seems to be a problem when you need to get to the store for supplies for crafts. However, I finally got to the store today, and I have my first repurposing project planned!

In the meantime I was up for trying a different new hobby. One of the few suggestions I got for a new hobby was cooking. So I decided to try baking something new today. I got a recipe for S'mores chocolate chip cookies. S'mores are one of my very favorite foods, so I was actually excited about making these.

Unfortunately, I was not thinking straight when I thought baking/cooking would be an activity that keeps my mind off of my back injury. Turns out baking hurts more than the Elliptical machine! All the standing for mixing and getting ingredients and cleaning up afterwards really hurts. 

Then the bending! Oh, the bending was the worse. I had to bend to get bowls and mixer, I had to bend to get baking sheets out, and I had to bend to put cookies in the oven and take them out. By the time I was done I could not stand up straight! But I got some really yummy cookies:

I guess it's a good thing I got in a workout this morning because this could be bad!

Today's workout:

When I got out of bed this morning I felt better than I have since I had my injections two weeks ago. So when I went to the gym this morning I decided to try something different. I am not new to the stairmill, but I have been scared to do it since I've been hurting so bad. Plus, it's hard to actually get on the stairmill because my gym only has one that works.

Anyway, I did the stairmill and it actually didn't bother me anymore than the elliptical. My back seemed more irritated, thought, because I had to stand for more than 10 minutes. I only lasted 20 minutes because of the pain from standing. 

I also did some really low impact leg strengthening moves, and I did about 40 crunches. I skipped push-ups today because...well, I hate push-ups

By the time I workout, went to the store for food and craft supplies, and baked those cookies my back no longer feels better. I'm probably at a 9.5 on that nifty 1-10 scale they ask at the doctor's.

Floating

Today's workout:

20 minutes on the recumbent bike, which hurt really bad. Every time I pushed with my left leg I felt like screaming.

After my workout I came home and stayed in my pool for 2 hours. Floating with my chest on float and legs dangling in the water seems to be the only comfortable position for me. Water is awesome! In my dreams my house has a mote, which is really just a lazy river. I could float around forever.

When I finally got out of the pool I started to take inventory for my new hobby. I've made a list for the supplies I want to by for my first couple attempts to repurpose some containers. I hope to make it to the store tomorrow. I have some really awesome ideas pinned on my Pinterest board. I swear I'm addicted to that site.

I also think I may have found another way to keep my mind busy as well. I want to try to learn how to do more on my computer such as WordPress and Photoshop. Any ideas of things to learn to do on the computer?

Repurposing

Today I took the kids to McDonald's (I know, but Faith got 3 shots so I felt like she deserved it), and as they were throwing away their milk containers I had an epiphany.

Okay, so maybe epiphany is a little dramatic, but I realized that my household wastes A LOT of containers, boxes, cups...

I got to thinking I should be more purposeful in the reuse of these things. Yes, I know, I could recycle, but come on! Have you been on Pinterest? Have you seen all the cool things you can do with "trash". And what's great about it is that it is trash. So if my lack of artistic ability messes it up, it is no big deal!

I think recycling is great for Earth. I think our culture is very wasteful and we are careless about the environment. I want to take it a step further, though. I want to find ways to turn these objects in useful items around the house. That way I am not only saving the environment, but I am saving money and reducing my carbon footprint. Plus, it can be a hobby, which keeps me busy and not laying around feeling sorry for myself.

Pretty cool! Now on to find a place to store all these containers I want to reuse :-P

Oh, by the way....Today's Workout (had to do something, I had McD's for lunch):

20 very painful and boring minutes on the Elliptical.
400 Crunches
50 Push-ups
Followed by ingesting 6 different pain pills

Swim and Aquakwondo

I woke up this morning in pain, but the pain was tolerable enough to not take the drugs that make me loopy. Therefore, I was able to drive to the YMCA to workout. Yes, I know, but working out is my drug of choice. If I don't workout I am cranky and my life seems miserable. But because walking is still difficult because of my back, I decided on a pool workout. Swimming, so far, is the lesser of all the exercise induced pain.

I love being outside, I love water, and I love sunshine, so you would think that swimming would be perfect for me. The problem I have with swimming is that I get bored really easy. Looking at the bottom of the pool for an hour drives me crazy, so I have to mix up my swimming workouts every time I go to the pool.

Today's pool workout:

20 roundhouses, 20 sidekicks in the pool
Freestyle pull with buoy 100meters
Freestyle kick with board 50 meters
Dolphin kick with board 50 meters
Breaststroke 5 minutes (I lose count after 100meters)
Backstroke 50 meters
And repeat for one hour

By the end of the hour I had all I could take, so I made my way home and popped some pain pills. Even though I am in pain, I am better off now that I have had some exercise for the day.

Now What?

So my back is back to where it was prior to my surgery in September of 2010. I just had more injections, which did nothing but make me feel worse. I'm constantly in pain and I am depressed because I can't do the things I love...like Taekwondo and weightlifting.

my spine post surgery

I've been playing volleyball for the past 6 months. I am not very good, but at least it keeps me busy and is physical. Volleyball was never easy on my back, but the pain was tolerable, until last night. Last night the left side of my lower back locked up. I had a hard time walking off the court and out of the gym. I'm feeling better today, but now I'm contemplating my life.

As I mentioned, I love to be active and prefer to be physically active. But that doesn't seem to be an option anymore. Because of the pain medicine that makes me loopy, and my inability to stand or sit for long periods of time, I am unable to work.  Instead of being active and/or working, I am laying around bored, depressed, and in pain.

So now I am on a mission. I need to change this! I am looking for new hobbies. Hobbies that do not irritate my back. I want to find something that keeps my mind busy and off the pain and the loss of my beloved Taekwondo and gym.

My plan is to try all sorts of new activities...I'm searching the web for ideas, looking on Pinterest, and asking friends for ideas to try. I am going to keep trying new things until I find something I love.

If you have any ideas, please comment here. I know I've not been on my Blog in awhile, but I will be Blogging now.